Galactic Empire Wars: Insurrection (The Galactic Empire Wars Book 5) (21 page)

“Not now,”
Marken answered, his eyes wide in thought. “I don’t know if what I’m thinking
about is even practical. If it is, we need to start working on it immediately.”

“Will it
destroy the Zaltule warfleet?”

“Maybe, if it
works,” Marken answered. “We’ll need to run some tests and then construct a new
base on the Moon. I have a few other ideas that we’ve come up with I need to
run by General Mitchell. They’re a little unorthodox, but your suggestion about
throwing the kitchen sink at the Zaltule might not be too far off.” Marken
became silent lost in thought.

Wade knew he
wasn’t going to get anything else out of his friend. When he was ready, Marken
would explain his ideas. For now all Wade could do was wait.

-

Fleet Admiral
Kelly was on board his flagship, the heavy battlecruiser
Armageddon
. His
ship was currently in orbit over Mars and he was speaking to General Sanchez,
who was responsible for the defense of the planet.

“How are the
new ion cannon installations going?”

“Nearly done,”
General Sanchez answered. “Every city on the planet is sitting inside a ring of
them.”

“The
underground shelters?”

“Finished, and
our people can survive for a minimum of two weeks with the supplies they’ve
been stocked with.”

Kelly gazed at
the viewscreens, which showed the red planet. Plans had been drawn up to
terraform Mars. Many thought it could be made habitable far faster than Earth.
Mars was free of the earthquakes and volcanoes that continued to plague Earth
and make it a nightmarish place to be. Only Jornada, in the former United States, was still occupied by people. General Wainright and Lawrence Henderson were
both at Jornada heavily involved in salvage operations of important documents
and artifacts from across the planet. They had several specially designed
assault ships to use for their operations. A number of deep shelters had been
built beneath Jornada. It was believed that if the Zaltule attacked, there was
a good chance they would never notice the spaceport, not as bad as the Earth’s
atmosphere was now. Jornada was buried under several feet of ice and snow with
a continuously dark and foreboding sky. It had been years since the spaceport
had seen the sun.

“If the
Zaltule attack the Solar System, Mars may be one of their first targets,” Kelly
said, turning his thoughts away from Jornada and Earth. “They’ll crack open
every dome on the planet. How much of a warning do you need to get everyone
into the shelters?” They both knew several direct hits from antimatter missiles
could breach the shelters, even the deepest ones.

“Twelve hours
to get everyone safely inside,” General Sanchez replied. “After all, we’re
talking about evacuating ten large cities. The latest census indicates we have
nearly five million people on the planet. A few live in the outlying areas. It
will take some time for them to reach the shelters.”

“We can’t have
a disaster like what happened at Mar’s Central,” Kelly said with a haunted look
in his eyes. Nearly six hundred thousand people had died when the Kleese
managed to destroy the city.

“The Zaltule
show up over Mars and we’ll blow them to hell!” stated General Sanchez with
confidence in his voice. “We’ve learned a lot since Mars Central was destroyed.
I can promise you one thing, if the Kleese attack us here they’ll never leave
again.”

Kelly looked
over at his Executive Officer, Commander Kevin Makita and smiled. General
Sanchez had always been one ready to go to battle if need be.

“I’ll be
stationing Seventh Fleet at Mars effective immediately. Their job will be to
fight a delaying action until I can get here with First Fleet if the Zaltule
show up.”

“No word yet
from Admiral Adamson?” asked Sanchez.

Kelly breathed
out a long sigh. “No, not yet. Once he returns he’ll take immediate command of
the fleet. Until he does, I’ve placed Commander Johanna
Braun of
the heavy battlecruiser
Dresden
in command for now.”

“How
many ships?” asked Sanchez. He knew that a major portion of the heavy ships of
Seventh Fleet had gone on the mission with Admiral Adamson.

“The
Dresden
, two battlecruisers, eight light cruisers, and sixty assault ships.”

There was
silence over the comm channel as Sanchez thought over the fleet numbers and
then he spoke. “Inform Commander Braun that I want her fleet close enough to
Mars so our ion cannons can support her.”

“I will,”
replied Kelly. Kelly knew even with a full sized Seventh Fleet that if the
Zaltule attacked in force, Mars might very well be lost.

-

A little while
later the
Armageddon
was preparing to enter Fold Space and head for one
of the outer asteroids which held a large Human colony.

“We’re going
to be spread pretty thin,” Commander Makita commented. “What if the Zaltule hit
several targets at once?”

“Can’t be
helped,” Fleet Admiral Kelly responded. “Everything will depend on what the
Zaltule attack us with and where.”

Makita nodded
his acceptance of those words.

Moments later,
the
Armageddon
entered Fold Space and vanished from Mar’s orbit.

-

Colonel Wade
Nelson was once more on Vesta. He was standing in the large spacedock just
outside of the Smithfield habitat alongside General Bailey and Major Jeffries.

Wade walked
over to several hover tanks parked in between two cargo ships that were being
unloaded. He hoped the tanks wouldn’t be necessary, because if they were, then
the Kleese would have broken into the spacedock in large numbers. The tanks
operated with a three-person crew and at the moment, the tanks were unoccupied.

“I’ve never
seen these in action,” General Bailey said as he placed his hand on the armor
of one of the tanks.

“They can
provide a lot of firepower when needed,” Wade said as he climbed up on the tank
and opening the hatch, looked inside. It was cramped but still provided ample
room for the three-man crew to carry out their duties. “The energy cannon on
the front can take out most ground targets and the twin railguns can annihilate
any conscripts or Kleese in battlesuits, including a Type Three. The explosive
tube launchers can clear the ground in front of our Marines of the enemy very
quickly and efficiently. I’m just glad we came up with these. They’ve been
extremely useful.”

Major Jeffries
nodded. “Do you think the Kleese will actually try to invade Vesta?”

“If they can,
they will,” answered Wade, climbing back down from the tank. “They’ll want to
capture any research we have. Once that’s done, they’ll destroy the asteroid by
planting antimatter warheads inside.”

Major Jeffries
shook his head. “If they get inside, I’ll be dead and so will every one of my
Marines. We won’t let them get out of the spacedock, not while any of us are
still alive.”

General Bailey
looked around the large spacedock. “Wade, is there anything else we can do to
keep the Zaltule out? In the worst case scenario, what happens if they take the
spacedock?”

“We need to
fortify Smithfield,” Wade said after a moment. “We can’t let them get to the
larger habitats.”

“Mason Randle
won’t like that,” General Bailey said with a frown. “He’s still very protective
of his old home habitat.”

Wade looked
over at a work robot passing by carrying a large metal beam. So many things had
changed in recent years. “Mason is reasonable. Explain to him what we’re doing
and why; he’ll go along with it.”

General Bailey
sighed. “I’ll go talk to President Steward first and then to Mason. Mason knows
the Smithfield habitat better than anyone and perhaps he’ll have some
constructive ideas on what we can do, if he doesn’t throw me out on my head
first.”

Wade smiled.
“He won’t.”

-

Several hours
later, Wade walked up to stand on the porch of the small house he and Beth
lived in. They lived in the Viridian Habitat, and if one didn’t know better,
you would never know there was a war going on for Humanity’s very existence.
The temperature was in the mid-seventies, there was a light breeze blowing, and
even a few birds could be seen flying above. Recently, several large hawks had
been released into the habitat, and if one was lucky they could be seen
floating on spread wings on the air currents high up in the habitat. Here in
Vesta, the Human survivors had created their own visage of Earth, the type of
Earth humankind had always dreamed of.

The door
opened and Beth stepped out onto the porch. “I was wondering if you were going
to make it home for supper.”

Wade walked
over and sat down in one of the two large comfy chairs on the porch. Beth came
over and took a seat in the other.

“I’ve been
talking to Marken and General Bailey about what’s going on in the war. Beth,
I’m really starting to get worried. We haven’t heard from Admiral Adamson, and
the Zaltule are still at the trading station in Sector Thirteen.”

Beth reached
out and took Wade’s hand. She had known him long enough to realize just how
worried he actually was. Ryan was with Admiral Adamson’s fleet, and she knew
that was part of the reason for his concern. “If Admiral Adamson’s mission was
working, the Zaltule should have left the trading station by now. Why haven’t
they? Perhaps it didn’t work and Seventh Fleet is on its way back.”

“That’s the
six million dollar question,” answered Wade, arching his eyebrow and frowning.
He watched as several compact electric powered cars drove down their street. It
still amazed him how quiet cars were nowadays. “I think the Zaltule are waiting
for something.”

“For what?”
asked Beth with concern crossing into her eyes.

Wade took a
deep breath. “More ships. Perhaps they’re bringing in their exploration ships
and additional assault ships. Hell, Beth, they probably have tens of thousands
of assault ships scattered across their empire.”

“We don’t have
enough ships, do we?” Beth guessed. She knew that space war was all about
numbers.

“No, not by a
long shot, not if they bring in the exploration cruisers and assault ships.”

Beth squeezed
Wade’s hand and turned to face him. “There must be a way to even things up.”

Wade pulled
his hand free and standing up, walked to the edge of the porch. Across the
street was a small park and a number of children were playing on the swings. He
watched them for a moment, listening to their carefree laughter.

“Beth, I keep
feeling I know the answer, but I just can’t figure it out. Some weapon we have
that we’re just not using right.”

Standing up,
Beth walked over to stand next to Wade. “I went to see my mother today; her
memory is starting to fail. I don’t think she even knows where we are anymore.
She keeps talking about taking a trip to the mountains. Maybe that’s what you
need to do.”

“Go to the
mountains?” asked Wade, looking confused. He wasn’t sure what Beth was talking
about.

“No,” Beth
replied. “Take some time off and relax. Give yourself some space and I’m sure
the answer will come to you; it always has. Now, let’s go inside and eat. Erick
should be waking up from his nap and I’m sure he’ll be excited to see you.”

Wade nodded.
He knew Beth was right. Maybe he did need to take a few days off; he had been
running all over the Solar System for the last several weeks. A few days of
downtime might be good for him.

“I’ll call
General Bailey tomorrow and tell him I’m taking the rest of the week off.”

Beth nodded.
She had all the confidence in the world in Wade. He had successfully pulled
them out of sticky situations numerous times. She was certain he would do the
same again. After all, that was the type of man he was and one of the reasons
she had fallen in love with him. Inside the house, she thought she could hear
Erick stirring in his crib. She loved being a mother and staying at home. She
just hoped nothing ever changed that.

Casey rolled
over in her bunk and opened her eyes. It had been two weeks since the
disastrous attack at Lymeth Three. Looking across the small room, she saw that
Lauren was still sound asleep. With a sigh, she sat up and stretched. She
missed waking up in the morning with Ryan at her side; it was something she had
grown used to and enjoyed. She grinned recalling the passionate lovemaking they
had shared on many of those mornings. Swinging her legs out of the bunk, she
sat there for a moment thinking about the day’s activities. Her Marines were
scheduled for a five-kilometer run, and she wanted to have time to grab a light
breakfast before heading over to the training facility. Nearly one entire level
of the
Deliverance
had been designed for Marine training, and it had one
workout area that was perfect for a long run.

“Up already?”
asked Lauren with a yawn as she rolled over and then sat up with her hands
folded in her lap.

Casey nodded.
“Busy day today.”

“Oh yeah, the
five-kilometer run,” Lauren moaned as she collapsed back on her bunk and closed
her eyes.

With a laugh,
Casey grinned. “I’m sure you and Alexander will have no problem with it.”

“It’s not
that, I’m just sure Alexander will find some way to berate Private Richards. Camden can’t seem to do anything to satisfy him.”

Casey walked
over closer to Lauren. “Just what is going on between you and Camden, are you
sleeping with him?”

Lauren opened
her eyes, sat back up, and grinned. “Now that’s a thought. Can you imagine how
Alexander would react if I did?”

“I take that
as a no?”

Lauren shook
her head. “No, I haven’t slept with Camden. He’s a nice guy and I enjoy talking
to him, but he’s just not my type for a sexual relationship. I prefer my men to
be a little bit more aggressive.”

“Like
Alexander?”

Lauren
blushed. “Alexander’s too aggressive! He doesn’t know when to leave well enough
alone.”

“I’m going to
take a quick shower and then head to the mess hall for a quick breakfast. Want
to join me?”

“I’ll pass,”
Lauren replied. “I’ll grab something to eat after the run.”

Casey nodded
and went on to take her shower. The relationship between Lauren and Alexander
confused her. She knew the two liked each other, but Lauren was doing
everything she could to prevent their relationship from going further. Maybe if
she asked Ryan, he could help explain to her what was going on between the two.
There were still a few things about true Humans that confused her.

-

 Ryan was in
the Command Center of the
Deliverance
with Captain Durham. “So we’re
going to hit another target?”

“That’s the
plan,” Durham replied. “Commander Symington wants to hit the former nonaligned
world of Anglesh. It’s far enough from the Alliance that it just might cause
the Zaltule to pull their forces back and come looking for us. She’s still
hoping to succeed in our mission of giving Fleet Admiral Rivers the time he
needs to finish training his crews.”

Ryan looked at
the ship’s main viewscreen. They had dropped out of Fold Space in a white dwarf
star system. A white dwarf was the dying remnant of an imploded star. This
particular star was a spectral type D with a mass just slightly over that of
Earth’s sun. While they weren’t that far away from it, the star was still very
dim.

“No contacts,”
reported Ensign Donna Edwards from her sensor console.

Ryan looked
over at the tactical screen, which showed the twenty-one surviving ships of the
fleet. It was still a sizable force and with the
Callisto
and the three
battlecruisers, they still had a lot of firepower.

“What’s so
important about Anglesh?”

Durham turned his attention away from the viewscreen he had been watching. “It has a large
Kleese base on it. Not Zaltule, but regular Kleese. “There’s not a trading
station in the immediate area and the Kleese have taken over the two large
orbiting space stations. They control this entire quadrant from Anglesh.”

“Won’t there
be an exploration ship or two in the system as well as assault ships?” asked
Ryan with concern. It sounded to him as if they would have to fight a fleet
battle to secure the system before any Marines could be landed on the planet.

“Probably,” Durham responded. “Commander Symington will take the
Callisto
and the three
battlecruisers in first followed by the eight light cruisers a few minutes later.
They’ll try to clear the space around the planet before we come in. There’s a
large Kleese compound next to the planet’s main spaceport. That will be the
target of your Marines. Commander Symington is hoping by taking out such a high
priority target the regular Kleese will demand that the Zaltule respond and
pull their forces back to find our fleet.”

“She’s rolling
the dice,” commented Ryan, folding his arms across his chest. “It’s risky.”

“But if it
works, then Admiral Adamson and the others won’t have died in vain.”

Ryan nodded.
All the surviving Marines wanted some revenge for what had happened to the
Defender
,
Colonel Winfrey, and the others.

-

In the Anglesh
System, Kanab watched the viewscreens in his Command Center inside the largest
space station. Several cargo ships were inbound from the system of Calen, a
Kleese controlled world. While the civilization wasn’t highly advanced, they
did provide several foodstuffs the Kleese required. It had been unfortunate
that over half of the population of Calen had to be eliminated before they
agreed to be part of the empire. However, they were a lower order race just
above vermin, and only the foodstuffs they provided made them important to the
Kleese.

“The Calen
ships will dock at bay two shortly,” reported Antolth, a tall Nabian who was
responsible for all of the conscripts currently on the two stations.

“See to the
distribution of the food items,” Kanab ordered coldly.

He cared
little for the Nabians; however, the race was dedicated to the Kleese and went out
of their way to follow orders without question. They served quite well in their
subservient role and were intelligent enough to operate most of the control
consoles while requiring little supervision from their Kleese overseers.

“A Zaltule
battlecruiser is due to arrive tomorrow,” spoke Caleeb, a Kleese of the same
clan as Kanab. He shuffled his six feet upon the deck of the Command Center. “I do not care for the Zaltule; I greatly fear they are dragging our empire
toward its doom.”

Kanab stared
at Caleeb through his multifaceted eyes. Caleeb had always mistrusted the
Zaltule. He thought it was a huge mistake for the former Supreme Overlord to
have awakened them.

“The Zaltule
are a part of the Kleese race,” replied Kanab. “We will not treat them any differently.”

“What about
the rest of the clans?” demanded Caleeb. “The Zaltule are already passing
edicts they insist we follow in dealing with the subservient races and in
expanding our empire. I have heard rumors of the Zaltule executing other
Kleese, who have failed to follow their demands.”

“The Zaltule
are the warrior race in battle and in the expansion of our empire. It might be
wise to do as they ask.”

“What if they
cannot defeat the Humans and their Alliance, what will that mean for the
empire?”

“Not defeat
the Humans?” Kanab responded, his voice rising in anger. “The Zaltule are the
warrior clan of the empire; they cannot be defeated in battle. The Zaltule will
crush the Humans and their paltry Alliance and then lead our empire to glory as
we conquer this galaxy.”

Caleeb didn’t
reply. He had been following the Zaltules’ conflict with the Humans and their Alliance. All a Kleese needed to do was look at what the Humans and their Alliance had done to the home system to realize just how big a threat they actually were.
He had seen the glowing crater where the Human ship had devastated the capital
city. Kanab was a fool for not recognizing the risk the Zaltule represented.

Leaving the Command Center, Caleeb intended to make a quick tour of both stations. He had been informed
that some of the lesser conscripts were performing at subpar levels. Touching
the small black control box he always carried at his side Caleeb had already
decided to make a few examples. New conscripts could easily be brought up from
the planet below or some of the nearby worlds under Kleese control. He still
found it hard to comprehend how so many worlds could be infested with such
vermin. Someday, far in the future, most of the vermin infested worlds would be
cleared of their infestations and Kleese Queens would be brought in to
repopulate the planets with the supreme race. Only a few former nonaligned
worlds with relative high technical civilizations would be spared, and those
would be dominated by the Kleese.

-

Commander Bree
Symington waited anxiously for the fleet to drop out of Fold Space. She had
staggered the fleet in case she ran into heavier than expected opposition. The
Callisto
and the three battlecruisers would drop out first and engage any major ships
around the two space stations or the planet. Shortly after that, the light
cruisers would drop out and destroy any assault ships that might be in orbit. A
few minutes after that, the Marine assault cruisers would put in an appearance
and begin their assault on the Kleese facility on the planet. Bree was
concerned she was in slightly over her head. She had never commanded a fleet
before let alone been responsible for coordinating multiple ship actions in a
battle.

“Drop out in
five minutes,” reported Lieutenant Karl Adams from the Helm.

Bree leaned
forward in her command chair. The fleet was at Condition One, and she just
hoped the Kleese in the Anglesh System didn’t have the capability to track a
fleet in Fold Space. Her entire plan was based on the element of surprise.

The minutes passed
slowly and then suddenly, the
Callisto
dropped back into normal space.

“Drop out,”
reported Lieutenant Adams.

“Sensors
coming online,” added Ensign Brenda Davis

“Energy shield
is powering up and weapons are charging,” reported Lieutenant Bruce Fields.

Alarms started
sounding and red lights began flashing on the sensor console. On the tactical
screen, numerous red threat icons began to appear. Two of the icons were very
large.

Bree felt the
adrenalin start to surge through her body and her heart began to pound. She
took several long and deep breaths as she waited to see what Kleese vessels
were waiting for them.

One of the
viewscreens suddenly cleared of static and Commander Symington’s face turned
white when she saw the massive form of a Kleese exploration ship.

“I have two
exploration ships on the sensors,” reported Ensign Davis. “I’m also picking up
twelve assault ships in orbit around the planet.”

The
exploration ships were the largest ships the Kleese built. They were twelve
thousand meters across and over two thousand meters thick, heavily armored and
contained additional assault ships. They weren’t as heavily armed as a Zaltule
battlecruiser but were still extremely dangerous. It had been a Kleese
exploration ship that had destroyed Earth.

Bree gazed at
the massive ship on the viewscreen. “Tactical, hit that exploration ship with
our multi-warhead missiles, flush the tubes before it can raise its energy
shield!”

-

Almost
instantly from the
Callisto
, twenty-four sublight antimatter missiles
flashed from the tubes. Two seconds later, all twenty-four missiles slammed
into the massive vessel before its commander could bring the vessel’s energy
shield online. With six twenty-megaton warheads in each missile, one hundred
and forty-four explosions burned through the hull of the ship melting metal,
equipment, and crew. With a tremendous flash of light, the exploration ship
exploded, sending fragments flying in every direction. The multiple explosions
coalesced until they took on the appearance of a small brightly glowing sun.

-

Commander
Symington leaned back in her command chair stunned at how quickly they had
destroyed the larger vessel. She knew they had achieved a brief tactical
victory by appearing unexpectedly so close to the Kleese vessels. Energy screens
were power hogs, and most ships didn’t have them activated unless combat was
expected.

“First
exploration ship is down,” reported Ensign Davis exuberantly. “I’m detecting
the shield going up on the second one.”

Bree hit her
ship-to-ship comm. “All battlecruisers are to engage the second exploration
ship. Knock its shield down and then use multi-warhead missiles to destroy it.”

-

Kanab stared
at the station’s tactical screen in shock. One of the two exploration ships
assigned to him had just been destroyed. Its shattered ruins were visible on
one of the large viewscreens.

“Humans,”
reported Antolth as the Nabian gazed at a ship now showing on one of the other
screens. “The ships are Human.”

Caleeb came
hurrying into the Command Center and came to a halt staring at the viewscreen
showing the Human warship. On another screen, the shattered remains of the
destroyed exploration ship were being displayed.

“What is the
status of the other exploration ship?” demanded Caleeb. The Humans had come,
and he knew if they didn’t destroy them, they would kill every Kleese in the
system. Unlike most other races that went out of their way to avoid harming a
Kleese, the Humans had no such compunction.

“It’s still
operational,” Kanab replied. “It has its energy shield up and will shortly be
engaging the Human ships.”

“Order the
ship to launch all of its assault ships; we’ll need every vessel if we hope to
defeat the Humans.”