Exodus: Empires at War: Book 2 (46 page)

“A stealth attack
ship,” yelled out Jackson over the circuit.  “There were supposed to be some in
this area.”

“All weapons target the
port bow of that ship,” yelled the Captain, slamming a gauntleted hand on the
arm of her couch.  “Fire at maximum rate.”

Laser rings A and B of
the battle cruiser fired massive beams at the indicated area of the ship, while
the ship shifted slightly to allow the Y ring to come to bear.  The tubes
continued to fire missiles at maximum cyclic rate, while the close in defensive
weapons brought the incoming missiles under assault.

For the second
unexpected time in days the forward plasma torpedo spoke as well, sending ten
tons of superheated gas toward the enemy ship.  The first torpedo exploded four
hundred thousand kilometers out, taking a trio of enemy missiles with it.  The
second missed the incoming missiles that were still targeting the battle
cruiser, the enemy having switched most of their fire the ship that was most
galling them.  It struck the forward section of the battleship, behind the
ravaging lasers and particle beams from the battle cruiser.  The battleship
rocked with the fury of the attack.  It redirected some of its lasers back at
the battle cruiser, striking its bow and wrecking the plasma torpedo tube.

*     *     *

“We're taking fire
sir,” said the tactical officer as the ship bucked from the laser strike
vaporizing some of the outer hull.

“Do tell,” said
Suttler, looking at the display. 
Seastag
was continuing to hit the
enemy ship with beam weapons, though doctrine called for them to break off the
attack and slink off to obscurity.  But the ship with the Emperor was still
under attack by an enemy they could not avoid.  And
Seastag
was the only
help that ship and the Emperor had.

“Continue firing,” he
ordered, his hands tight on the arms of his chair.  “Maximum rate.”

“Aye, sir,” said the sweating
tactical officer as the ship shook again from a hit.  “Superconducting cables
are sucking up some of that heat and pushing it through the heat sink.”

“Hope it's enough,”
mumbled the Captain as he leaned forward in his seat.  The ship bucked once again. 
Suttler smiled as he looked at the damage displays on the enemy ship.  She was
being savaged, though she still possessed fangs.  For the moment.

*     *     *

“Incoming missiles,”
yelled the tactical officer.  “They have breached our defenses.”

“From which foe,”
called out the Ca’cadasan Captain, seeing red arrows on the holo approaching
from both sides.

“Both sides, sir,”
screamed the tactical officer, his eyes wide.

Four missiles detonated
within kilometers of the battleship's port side, sending a hail of radiation
and material particles into the ship.  The battleship shuddered like a tortured
beast as atmosphere and vapor jetted into space.  Another missile bore in
behind them, being hit at the last second by a close in weapon.  The gigaton
antimatter warhead blew a hundred meters off the port bow, pushing the bow
around as the heat and radiation killed most of those manning that section of
the ship.

Three missiles came in
from the front, some of their velocity borrowed from the battle cruiser that was
pushing point six c.  They came in at an even greater velocity.  The first two
were detonated by close in system less than five hundred meters off the bow of
the ship, adding to the destruction caused by the other missiles.  The third
plowed straight into the battleship, striking full on as an intact missile.  In
nanoseconds it and the bow were converted to plasma as an energy release to
dwarf the warhead took place.  Shock waves traveled up the body of the ship,
overloading the inertial compensators and killing all aboard.  The ship
shattered, superhard materials liquefying and breaking apart.  The gigaton
warhead went off half a nanosecond after the impact, adding its energy to the
destruction of the ship.

*     *     *

The
Jean de Arc
,
damaged but still intact, passed through the debris field that was the remains
of the enemy ship, heading outward into interstellar space.  Lasers and counter
missiles cleared the larger pieces from the path of the ship as she moved
outward.

“Thank you, Commander,”
said Captain Mei Lei over the com circuit to the stealth attack ship.  “We owe
our lives to you.”

“A pleasure, Captain,”
said Suttler a couple of seconds later.  The ships were separating at a
terrific rate due to the velocity of the battle cruiser.

“Will you make it?”
asked the Captain, concern in her voice.  “I know you took damage.”

“We're translating to
Hyper VI as soon as we get up to speed,” said Suttler. “We're too damaged to
continue to hide here.  But we'll make it back to base.”

“Good luck,” said Captain
Mei.  “We need to get rid of about point four light speed velocity before we
can do the same, in about nine hours.”

“Even with your
damage?” asked Suttler, fifteen seconds after he received Captain Mei's
response.  The time lag was increasing second by second.

“We were lucky,” said
Mei Lei, looking over her ship's damage.  “We have only light damage to our
hyperdrive, thank God.  We should be able to repair that in less than eight
hours.  A couple of grabber units gone, but all of our inertial compensators
are working.  Most of the damage was to weapons and defensive systems.”

“We'll translate out
now,” said Suttler, nodding his head.  “I don't think they have anything near
enough to catch you before you get to the translation point.”

“We can hope,” said Mei,
grimacing.  “If another of their capital ships gets to us I don't think we can
fight it off.  Even one of their cruisers would probably be more than we can
handle.”

“Bye then,” said
Suttler.  “And may God save the Emperor.”  The sensors flooded with his signal
as his ship opened a hole in space and pulled it in after itself.

“God speed, Commander,”
whispered the Captain, as she looked once again to her holo of the system. 
“And may God save the Emperor.”

*     *     *

Captain Dame Mei Lei
sat in her cabin chair, stroking her cat.  Satin purred in her lap as he took
what he felt was his due.  The Captain reached for her glass of wine as she
looked up at her guest.

“We should be at
Conundrum III in four days, your Majesty,” she said to the Emperor.  “Then they
can get you back to Jewel, and you can be officially installed.”

“I'm not going back to
the capital,” said Sean Ogden Lee Romanov, putting his own glass of the ship's
best wine on the table to his front.  He leaned back in his chair, relaxing in
the comfortable robes he had been provided by the ship's nano-manufacturers.

“But your Majesty,”
said Mei Lei, “you need to be crowned before Parliament and the people.”

“We have a war coming
to our front door, Captain,” said Sean, leaning forward.  “I refuse to retreat
to the safety of the capital while the fleet fights for our racial survival.”

“But your Majesty...”

“No,” said the Emperor,
waving a dismissive hand.  “My mind is made up.  Not even the Grand Fleet Admiral
at the sector HQ will tell me what to do.  He is under my command now, not I
under his.  I will stay here and organize our war effort, while I send my
commands back to the capital through the relay.”

“Yours to command, your
Majesty,” said Captain Lei, bowing her head.

“The ship is
functioning well?” asked Sean, feeling the comforting thrum of machinery
through the seat.

“Hyper VII all the
way,” said the Captain.  “We're a little beat up in other respects, though.”

“I'll make sure that
the ship of our newest Imperial Knight is given priority repairs,” said Sean
with a smile.

“About that, your Majesty,”
said Mei Lei, opening her hands out to Sean.

“No arguments about
being in the right place at the right time,” said Sean, smiling.  “That is part
of heroism.  And I claim the right to reward you.  I think Countess would be a
fitting rank to go with Imperial Knight.”

Mei Lei shrugged her
shoulders, giving up on the fight.

Satin meowed, then
jumped onto the table and took a running leap into the lap of the Emperor.  Mei
Lei's eyes widened as her mouth dropped open at the social disaster.

Sean put his hand on
the head of the cat and rubbed the soft fur.  Satin purred deep in his chest,
pushing his own head against the hand of the man.

“See,” said Sean,
looking down at the animal.  “Even your kitty agrees.  Don't you boo boo.  And
you can't argue with such a sensitive animal.”

“I guess not, your Majesty,”
agreed the Captain, wondering what she would do as a Countess and Knight of the
Imperium.  And she felt sorry for those who opposed this Emperor.  He was truly
the son of his father, and a scion of his line.

The End

Excerpt from Exodus:
Empires at War: The Rising Storm.

“What is the status of the followers,” said Captain
Dame
Mei
Lei
,
sitting in her command chair on the bridge.  She cast a worried glance at her
precious cargo, the once High Prince Sean Romanov, who was in the
guest
chair to the side of hers.  Once High Prince in that the murder of his father,
mother and oldest brother had left him the heir to the empty thrown of the
Empire, and the defacto Emperor.  Until yesterday he was just another
Lieutenant JG in the fleet, though a very well know one with powerful
connections.  Now he was her commander in chief as well as someone that she
would give every life in her small command to protect.  It was what they were
all sworn to do, and the infuriating jackass wouldn’t allow them to do it.  He
wanted to participate in every danger with them, like he was still a junior
officer and a spare heir.

“We still have four contacts on our tail,” said
the sensory tech over the com link.  “Definitions have firmed.  All are four
million ton vessels.”

Four of their damned heavy cruisers
, she thought with a
scowl.  Two of them were about the same mass as her vessel, and more than a
match for her in firepower.  Four of them would handle the hyper VII battle cruiser with ease.  And the only help she had was the Hyper VII destroyer
Dot
McArthur
, cruising alongside in hyper. 
I could send the destroyer at
them and hope he delayed them somewhat
, she thought, dismissing it as she
had it.  The destroyer and its young Captain had stuck around the system and
rendezvoused with
Jean de Arc
, and she had been glad to see him.  And
all sending him back would accomplish was his death, for probably no purpose. 
They
would just blow past him and continue after us, and he wouldn’t even slow them
down.

“What is their closure?” she asked, still
staring intently at the screen.

“They will come into known weapons range in
thirty one hours, fourteen minutes,” called out the navigation officer.

“So I need to come up with a solution before
then,” she said out loud, then glanced at the Emperor with an embarrassed
reaction as she realized he had overheard her.

“What are you going to do, Captain?” said the
young man she had outranked a week ago, who now outranked her astronomically.

“I’m not sure,” she said, thinking over the
possibilities.  Her ship had been built to be a heavily armed scout, to go
searching for information, to fight for it if need be.  But not to go slugging
it out like a battleship.  And there were battleships out here as well,
somewhere.

“What was the enemy’s velocity when they came
after us into hyper?” she asked her navigator.

“About point one nine nine light speed, ma’am,”
answered the young man.

So they probably have similar limits for
entering and exiting hyper
, she thought.  Imperial ships could only enter and leave
hyper at twenty percent of light or less.  That was about the limit that the
hyperdrive could project an opening ahead of them.  Any faster and they would
be past the opening before it was ready for their transit.  At best they would
just miss it and have to try again further on down the line.  At worst they
would hit the turbulence field of the nascent opening, which could cause damage
to the ship.  So the enemy couldn’t do any better it seemed.  Now she just had
to do the math and see what they could pull out of their asses.

After a couple of minutes of thought Mei huffed
in frustration.  She couldn’t find a way out that rescued both ships under her
command.  No matter what they did to slow down the enemy, they would still be
on their heels.  They would either continue on and catch the Imperial ships
before they could transition, pounding them with weapons in passing.  Or they
would slow to transition near to the pair and pound them in normal space.  Only
two solutions presented themselves, and neither were what she would call
attractive.

“Your Majesty,” said the Captain, looking over
at the Emperor.