Exodus: Empires at War: Book 11: Day of Infamy (Exodus: Empires at War.) (17 page)

“We will try our best to
hold down the damage, your Majesty.”

“I know you will,
Admiral.  Save the
Donut,
eject the Cacas from our home system, and
rescue my family.”

The link died, leaving
McCullom to stare into space and think about the task before her.  Not much,
really.  Just defeat a force of unknown size and capabilities, while trying to
save the capital planet, a good portion of the shipbuilding capacity of the
Empire, and the supreme weapon without which they would be the losers of this
war. 
Yeah, simple.

*     *     *

“If you take those ships
away from me, your Majesty,” said Vice Admiral Naomi Okafor, her brown eyes
staring in disbelief out of her ebony face, “I’m not sure my force can
accomplish our part of the mission.”

“And if they destroy too
much of the home system, it probably won’t matter if you do,” said Sean,
closing his eyes and running his hand across his forehead, stopping to rub his
temples.  “Those are the only ships that could make a difference in small
numbers.  We don’t have time to get an entire battle fleet back to them, but
those carriers might be able to do the job.”

“I’ve ordered the ships
back to the wormhole gate to the Supersystem,” the Admiral said, nodding her
head.  She still wasn’t sure about the order, but her Monarch had spoken, and
it was her job to obey. 
I’ve got the other ships
, she thought, looking
at the plot that showed her five hundred vessels sitting in front of another
wormhole gate, while the three vital units that had been her ace in the hole
were in transit back to the gate that led back to the Supersystem that was the
heart of the Empire.  “It will take them almost an hour to get into position to
transit.  What orders would you like me to give, your Majesty?  Which target
should they move to aid?”

“And what order would you
give, Admiral?  The
Donut
, or the capital and Central Docks?”

It was a shocking
decision, and she could see why the Emperor was so stressed at the moment.  The
Capital System was the center of everything, not just the seat of government,
but the heart and soul of the Empire.  And Central Docks was still the largest
shipbuilding and repair facility in human space.  With it gone, the Empire
would find it much more difficult to keep up with the Caca in numbers.  But the
Donut?
  If it were gone, the war was lost.

“I would order them to
launch their fighters as soon as they entered the proximity of the
Donut.”

“And, God help me, that
is the order I am going to give.  My heart is telling me to come to the aid of
the Capital system, but the cost of losing the
Donut
is just too great.”

“We are sending the
orders now, your Majesty.  Is the primary operation still on?”

“Of course, Admiral. 
Make sure your people know what the Cacas are doing in our home.  Then hit them
as hard as you can.”

The holo went dead, and
the Klassekian Com Tech looked back at the Admiral, the strain of transmitting
complete video from his sibling showing on his alien features.

Admiral Okafor looked at
the timer over the plot.  Less than fifteen minutes till they jumped. 
Hopefully into the trapping position the staff had planned.  And she thought
once again of the Emperor, who was on the verge of fighting two battles within
his mind.  The one against the Cacas, as dangerous as it was still cut and
dried.  And the battle within his own soul, as he chose what was best for his
Empire, even at the cost of his own family.

*     *     *

The ground shook
underfoot moments after the soft crumps of some explosion sounded in the far
distance.  Here and there one of the weaker trees toppled, while rocks fell
from the mountain range into the multiple valleys, smashing through the forest,
crushing the villas the rich and the houses of the common people with no regard
for wealth or worth.  Whole mountain villages disappeared under megatons of
rock, rivers were damned up to flood their upper reaches, animals fled for
their lives, often running to their own doom.

“What the hell is
happening?” shouted Devera as the ground threw her off her feet, then tried to
bounce her.  “Is this an earthquake?”

Rebecca looked at her
adoptive mother with an expression of panic on her face.  From what she had
learned in school geography, this part of the planet was not tectonically
active.  If the ground was shaking there was something other than the movement
of tectonic plates to blame.

The shaking stopped as
soon as it started, then another shock hit, and another, with no rhythm that
she could discern.

“Those are kinetics
dropping,” yelled out Cornelius, his own reflexes keeping him on his feet. 
“Someone is hitting the capital.”

“Who?” asked Rebecca,
reaching out and grabbing Junior where he had toppled to the ground, crying in
panic.  She wrapped her arms around the child and hugged him close, comforting
the toddler.

“I don’t think we need
many guesses,” said Cornelius, kneeling at the side of his children.  “I…”

A crack of wood and a
scream behind them cut the Ranger short, and he jumped to his feet, turning in
the air to orient himself on the source of the cry.  Rebecca looked over, to
see her adoptive mother lying on the ground, a large branch lying on top of
her.  Cornelius grabbed the branch, which would have required the strength of
several men to lift, and pulled it off her with his adrenaline fueled augmented
musculature.  Throwing the thick branch aside, he knelt down at the side of his
wife.

“She’s still alive,” said
Cornelius, placing gentle hands on her chest. 

Rebecca got to her feet,
picking Junior up and moving toward her parents.  She could see that Devera’s
chest was rising, and that her breathing wasn’t regular.   Blood was bubbling
at her lips.  Even Rebecca knew that these were signs of internal injuries, and
not something they could treat out here in the woods.

“Hang in there, honey,”
said Cornelius in a quiet voice.  He looked up a Rebecca, his face a shifting
mask of emotion.  “I’m going to have to get her to the car.  I can put her into
cryostasis with the bag I have in the trunk.”

“Should you move her?”
asked the concerned child.  “What if she has a spine injury?”

“That can be repaired, as
long as I can keep her brain intact.”  Cornelius bent down and picked up his
wife in his arms, then straightened up and shifted her into a more comfortable
carry.  “I’m going to run back to the car with her.  You follow with Junior as
fast as you can.”

Rebecca nodded, a chill
running down her spine. 
I shouldn’t have any trouble getting me and Junior
back to the car,
she thought as she watched Cornelius turn away and start
off down the path at a dead run, faster than any normal person could move. 
Devera groaned as he ran, and the child said a quick prayer that her adoptive
mother would make it.  Even as fast as the Ranger could run, it was at least
ten minutes back to the car.  If she stopped breathing she had five minutes
before brain deterioration started.  They could still save her, but with some
of her memories gone.  There would be no telling which of those memories would
be missing.  It might be enough for the military to get a functional soldier
back, who could be retrained to make up for what they had lost.  It might not
be enough for a family member.

“Let’s go, stinker,” she
told Junior, picking him up into a side carry and walking down the path.  At
his size, and her still being a child with the strength of a pre-improvement
sixteen year old, there was no way she would be able to run with the child.  In
fact, she was pretty sure she wouldn’t be carrying him the whole way.  Part
would be him walking beside her while she held his hand.  It would be slow
going, but it would be the only way to go.

The ground continued to
shake with the arhythmical beat of bombardment.  They weren’t as strong as
before, which probably meant they were further away.  She had no idea what was
going on in the city right now, but she was more than happy that she wasn’t
there at this time.

*     *     *

“Captain von Rittersdorf
would like to speak with you ma’am,” said the Com Tech.

“Put him on,” said Mei
Lei.  “You have a plan, Maurice?”

“Yes, ma’am,” said the
dashing young Duke on the other side of the com holo.  “It seems that the capital
planet is also catching hell.  I suggest that I and my squadron head for the
planet, to help them out.”

“And how do you intend to
do that?” asked the Admiral, leaning forward in her seat.

As the young Captain
explained his plan, something unorthodox but not unheard of, she found herself
nodding.  “You have my permission.  Just make sure you don’t drop any of your
ships onto the surface.”  Since each vessel carried enough antimatter to
explode like a hundred gigaton bomb, a breach close to the planet would be
catastrophic.  But the Admiral was willing to take that risk at this point.  
Still…

“Jettison all of the
antimatter you have aboard except for enough for a couple of working hours at
full energy usage,” she ordered the Captain.  “Set them for a course outside of
the Jewel/New Terra system.  Program their tracking devices to come on in
twelve hours.”

“You think that will be
enough, ma’am.”

“If it isn’t, I think
retrieving that antimatter will be the least of our problems.”

*     *     *

The Empress looked out
the side of the car toward the palace, and the mountainside to the west of it. 
There was already one crater on the palace grounds, with the partial collapse
of one of the large wings of the building.  There were mushroom clouds rising
from the foothills of the mountains, where the villas of the Lords and the rich
commoners who lobbied the government lay.  It looked like over a score of
penetrators had come down, taking out maybe thirty of the villas, not a very
good return for the investment.   As far as she knew, most of the villas were
unoccupied by all but the service staffs, and all the elites were elsewhere,
enjoying the break that Imperial Day Weekend brought.

What puzzled her were the
heavy strikes on the eastern side of the mountains, the ridges overlooking the
city.  The mushroom clouds rising there were thicker than those on the
foothills. 
What in the hell are they aiming at?
she thought.  As far as
she knew there was nothing there, unless the Cacas had received some faulty
intelligence, or unless there was some significance to mountains overlooking
cities in their culture.

“Keep your suit locked
up, your Majesty,” said her Chief of Detail.  “We just got word that some Caca
fighters might be coming in on us from the east.”

“Can we outrun them?”
asked a frightened Jennifer, more afraid for her twins than herself.

“Not a chance, ma’am,”
said the frowning agent, reaching over and activating the interlocks on the
baby carrier, making sure it was sealed up.

Jennifer looked nervously
at the carrier, knowing that the precious cargo inside was as protected as
could be.  The armor of the sphere was actually thicker than that on her suit,
and its rounded shape gave it more intrinsic strength as well.  It also had the
state of the art electronic systems that would protect the occupant from
concussion, inertia, and falls.  Still, she would have felt better with the
baby in her arms.  With both of her children with her actually.

“Here they come,” yelled
out the pilot from the forward compartment.

The aircar suddenly juked
in space, down and to the side, while the others in the convoy followed suit. 
The top cover of Marine fighters turned around in the air, flying backwards and
putting every weapon they had onto the enemy craft.  The rearmost aircar exploded
in the air, hit with a missile, while the rest continued to scatter and their
fighter cover started weaving through the sky in dogfights with the enemy.

“We should have gone on
as singletons’,” said the Chief of Detail under his breath, just loud enough
for the Empress to hear.  “We’re attracting too much attention.”

A missile sped in at
another car, which fired its countermeasure at just the right moment to lure it
away.

“We’re losing our top
cover,” shouted the pilot.

“Where the hell are they
going?” shouted the Chief of Detail.

“They’re pursuing enemy
fighters, getting drawn off,” replied the pilot.

“Well, get on the damned
com and get them back here.  They have one mission, and they’re not performing
it.”

“Why are they coming
after us?” asked Jennifer, resting a hand on Glen’s carrier, as if she could
give him more protection.

“We have the look of
something important,” said the Chief of Detail.

“That’s why you think we
should have separated?”

“Yes, your Majesty.  And
I’m sorry I made the wrong call.  But we still have a chance.”

“They got the rearmost
bird,” called out the pilot over the intercom.  “Splashed her.”

The rear car was one of
the Marine chase vehicles, heavily armored and armed, with six Marines in heavy
combat armor aboard.