Exodus: Empires at War: Book 11: Day of Infamy (Exodus: Empires at War.) (6 page)

What the hell now?
thought Sean, composing
himself to deal with the next crisis.

Chapter Four

Battle is the most magnificent competition in
which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best; it removes all
that is base. All men are afraid in battle. The coward is the one who lets his
fear overcome his sense of duty. Duty is the essence of manhood. George S.
Patton

NEW MOSCOW SPACE.  DECEMBER 10
^TH
,
1002.  D-21.

Great Admiral
Ljarritta’ran watched as the second ship gate took shape on the viewer.  His
ship had come through the first one, brought in by a blockade running scout
ship.  His superbattleship was one of the first through, and was now surrounded
by a hundred of her sisters.  The
Emperor’s Grip
was of the first group
of the newest class, sporting laser rings instead of domes among other
improvements.

“The other gate will be
ready in another half an hour,” stating his Chief of Staff, walking up behind
him.

“We need to learn how the
humans put their gates together so fast,” growled the Great Admiral, who in
less than twenty days would be leading his fleet against the humans in this
sector.

“We will, my Lord.  But
for the moment, this is good enough.”

The Great Admiral gave a
head motion of agreement.  They didn’t need to get their entire fleet into this
space in a day.  Not even a week.  And to be honest, he hadn’t really expected
to have this many wormholes at his disposal.

With all of the activity
at the frontier, moving ships back and forth through the hidden picket line
that the Ca’cadasans knew had to be there, they had slipped fifty scouts
through to the other side of the pickets.  Three of the scouts had carried
wormholes, a trio of the only four he had at his disposal.  In the future there
would be more, but four wormholes were needed elsewhere, and two were on the
Second Front.  So four was all he had, and one had to stay at his base on the
other side of the frontier.  There were more being made, but they had to be
shipped through hyper to their destinations.  Sending one through a wormhole
was a recipe for disaster, unless one wanted the resultant megablast.

And all three made it
, he thought, rubbing
both pairs of hands together.  Two were in this system, one in another, and all
were bringing his fleet into this space behind the pickets. Unless the enemy
stumbled upon him by accident, unlikely since they had taken a page from the
Klavarta book and chosen red dwarf systems that were unremarkable in their
frequency.

“Make sure that no ships
leave these systems in hyper until we are ready,” he told his Chief of Staff
for not the first time.  “I don’t want some fool giving us away before we are
ready.”

The Chief of Staff gave a
head motion of acknowledgement.  The male was one of the few in the fleet that
knew the entire plan.  The Great Admiral thought it too complicated, but he had
to admit that it would lead to a spectacular victory if it succeeded.

The humans were coming to
depend on their wormhole weapons, which were giving them an advantage in almost
every engagement.  Missiles that left the launchers already at near optimal
attack speed.  Particle beams an order of magnitude more powerful than anything
a warship could carry.  Without them they would be a much less formidable
opponent.  Denied their use in the middle of a battle, it was thought that they
would panic.

They won’t panic
, thought the Great Admiral
with a snarl.  The humans might be many things, but they weren’t prone to
losing their heads in combat.

“The decoy force will
attack in sixteen days,” reminded the Chief of Staff.

And that will start the
offensive
,
thought the Great Admiral.  Five thousand ships hitting the frontier, moving
through like a sledgehammer and attracting all the attention.  Then his force
would move out on three axis, making for the New Moscow system and two others,
making a couple of stops along the way to force the enemy to battle.  That
would attract more of the enemy’s attention, and then the real blow would fall
on the enemy home worlds, and the battle would swing his way.  Or so it was
hoped.

“I will eat,” the Great
Admiral told his subordinate.  “Let me know if any news comes from command. 
Otherwise, I am not to be disturbed.”

*     *     *

CA’CADASAN SPACE BORDERING KLAVARTA SPACE. 
DECEMBER 15
^TH
, 1002.

“There appears to be no
organized resistance ahead of us,” said Chief of Staff Ngerita Olsaf to his
commander.

Admiral Regis Larista
nodded to her chief of organization and looked at the large holo that hung in
the center of the bridge.  The tactical plot showed her force moving into
Ca’cadasan space on several axes of advance.  Her flagship was with the main
force, about a half day’s travel in hyper VII behind the leading force.  There
were plentiful scouts around both forces, making sure that nothing that saw
them could report back.  If they were lying doggo in space, they would be
tracked and swarmed as soon as they tried to jump into hyper.  And so far,
there had been very few Ca’cadasan ships that had attempted that, and none that
tried to send grav pulses to vessels down the line.

And that’s what worries
me
,
thought the Klavarta Admiral.  This current Monster admiral seemed to be
smarter than the average Ca’cadasan.  It was unclear how smart, but he did
things differently than the rest of his people.  She was not sure if the lack
of covering forces was a sign of great intelligence or great stupidity.  And
not knowing which was what was causing her great anxiety.

“How far are we from
their base system?” she asked the Chief Navigator.

“Fifteen days, ma’am.  We
will begin deceleration in thirteen days.”

That was putting them
quite a distance into the space of the enemy.  Over five hundred light years
in, which would make any attempt to escape that space a fifteen day chase, if
not more.  The Klavarta fleet had already experienced a long chase from the
Monsters in their own space, which had almost turned into a complete disaster
for her people.  Running through an enemy space that they did not know that
well could be even more disastrous.  She couldn’t afford to lose this fleet,
and now she was having second thoughts about having proposed this offensive.

But if it’s successful,
we can take this entire border region away from them
, she thought, trying to
still the anxiety. 
A very big if.

“I will be in my day
cabin,” the Admiral told her bridge crew as she stood up from her seat.  “Be
sure to alert me if anything comes up.”  Not that she expected anything to
happen this soon.  The two most likely outcomes would be that they had taken
the Monsters by complete surprise.   Or that the Monsters were waiting for
them, ready to spring a trap.  Either way, nothing was likely to happen until
they reached the enemy base, which would leave her with over two weeks to worry
about which it was to be.

*     *     *

“We have received the
signal, my Lord,” said the duty officer, his face appearing on the com holo. 
“They have crossed the frontier.”

Great Admiral Mgananawan
K’lantariana grinned as he heard the news.  The enemy was on the way, and he
was as well prepared as he could be for them.  Prepared enough?  He thought
so.  He hoped so.  Only battle would prove if he was correct.

“And they are unaware
that we know they are coming?”

“As far as we can tell,
my Lord.  We received no notification that any of their ships were waiting in
normal space.  As far as we know, they all came over the frontier in hyper, and
nothing dropped down to normal space within the sensor range of any of our
ships.”

The Great Admiral gave a
head motion of agreement.  The plan had been his, and he was very pleased with
the result.  Scout ships arrayed along the frontier had counted the enemy
ships, waiting a day until all had passed, then sending grav pulse signals down
the vertical line until they reached the end, some ten light years to the far
side of the human formation.  From there the signals were transmitted up the
line, out of detection range of the enemy, until they reach a point where they
were again transmitted laterally to the base and his headquarters.  It had
taken some seven hundred scouts to string the com line, and almost four hours
to send the signal all the way up.  Those ships would form another layer of
force to help prevent an enemy retreat in good order.

“Send word to the Emperor
that the enemy is on the way.  We should find ourselves engaged at about the
same time as his offensive goes forward against the other humans.”

He knew the Emperor would
be pleased.  There was always the concern that the humans would reinforce the
front under attack with units from the other front, if they were available,
sending them across the thousands of light years by wormhole.  Now it looked as
if both fronts would be engaged in a fight for their lives, and neither would
be able to give aid to the other.

*     *     *

THE HEXAGON, CAPITULUM.  DECEMBER 20
^TH
,
1002.  D-11.

“Ma’am.”

Grand High Admiral Sondra
McCullom looked up from the document she was reading on her flat comp, a frown
on her face.  Sometimes she wished she had never accepted the position of Chief
of Naval Operations.  Sure, it was the ultimate position in the fleet.  No one
else in her service was allowed to wear the seven stars of her rank.  It also
meant that the buck stopped with her, as far as military planning was
concerned.

Only that’s not really
true
,
she thought.  The Emperor always seemed to stick his nose into everything.  He
had the right, but most Emperors before him had simply made their wishes known
and let the professional officers deal with the how and wherewith.  She hadn’t
had that much oversight when she had been the commander of Home Fleet, and many
times she had found herself wishing that she was still there.

“What is it, Xiun?” she
asked the young Captain who was her aide.

“The Commander of the New
Moscow system is on the com.  Says she had a problem.”

“Of course she does.  And
she couldn’t kick it up to Mgonda or Lenkowski?”

“The Admiral says she
tried to get orders from Admiral Mgonda, but he told her to talk to you.”

“Great,” said McCullom,
turning off the flat comp.  “Send her to me.”

A moment later the holo
sprung to life over the desk, showing the worried face of the Vice Admiral in
charge of the system and all of its space based defenses.  Three stars glinted
on each collar, and she should have had enough authority to handle any
situation in the system that didn’t involve a full invasion. 
Unless that
damned new Czar is making new demands.

“What can I do for you,
Admiral Schwartz?”

“It’s the Elysium fleet,
ma’am.  They are demanding transit clearance for the ship gate back to Sector
IV HQ.”

“How many ships are they
requesting transit authority for?”

“All of them, ma’am.  Their
entire fleet.”

“And what the hell is
their entire fleet doing in your system?” asked McCullom, sitting up straight
in her chair and grabbing a stylus to twirl in her fingers, anxiety about the
overcome her.  The Emperor had warned her that the Elysium fleet might be
withdrawn, but she had thought it an idle threat.  Or at least something that
wouldn’t happen for some time.

“They have been coming in
over the last couple of days, ma’am.  When I asked them what they were doing
here, all they would tell me is they were a sovereign power, and to ask their
commander when he arrived.  I kicked it up the chain, and was told that they
were within their rights.  Admiral Mgonda thought they were just trying to
reorganize before the next action, and ordered me to cooperate with them as far
as possible.”

“So, what is your
question, Admiral?”

“What the hell should I
do, ma’am?  We need their ships on this front.  Can we let them leave?”

“What do you suggest,
Admiral.  Shutting down the gate?  Opening fire on them if they attempt to
transit their ships?”

“No, ma’am.  But they’re
leaving the front.”

So they are.  And all we
can do is hope the Emperor can talk some sense into their leaders at the
summit. 
“Listen
to me, Admiral.  You will allow them transit of the gate, and allow them to
send any coms through ahead of time that they wish.  And you will be polite and
cooperative in all ways.  We will still need their help in the future, and it
will do nobody any good to let tempers flare and feelings be hurt.”

“Yes, ma’am,” said the
other Admiral, looking off the holo for a moment.  “We have transmitted
authorization.”  She was silent for a moment longer.  “They are reporting that
they will begin transit in five minutes, and will complete it in twelve hours,
fifteen minutes.  They are requesting that we clear all traffic from the other
side for that time period.  They are also requesting that the gate back to the
central black hole be cleared as well.  It seems like they are going home.”