Galactic Empire Wars: Insurrection (The Galactic Empire Wars Book 5) (30 page)

“Prepare a
shuttle and my personal guards. I’m going down to the surface to reclaim my
empire.”

-

Two hours
later, Supreme Overlord Xatul and Overlord Bixutl strolled through the new
massive building that was home to the Kleese Council of Overlords. As they made
their way through the corridors escorted by twenty Kleese in Type Three
battlesuits, they found signs of heavy fighting. Occasionally they would come
upon a Zaltule in a battlesuit who had died or a number of unarmored Kleese,
who had been ruthlessly eliminated. Several times they found Kleese in Type
Three battlesuits who were not Zaltule, lying dead in pools of blood.

At last they
reached the long and ornate hallway that led to the actual council chambers. It
was here they found the first signs of living Kleese. Ten guards in Type Three
battlesuits barred their way.

“Allow us
through!” demanded Xatul as he glared at the Kleese in the battlesuits. “I am
your Supreme Overlord and you must obey my commands.”

The guards
hesitated for a moment and then stepped aside.

Pushing open
the massive doors, Xatul entered the council chambers seeing ten Council
Overlords standing around the large ceremonial stone table in the center of the
room. Some he recognized and a few he did not.

“We are
pleased to see your safe return,” spoke Raluth in a loud and commanding voice.
“Your empire awaits.”

Xatul went to
the front of the stone table as Raluth stepped aside. He paused as his guards
took up protective positions around the perimeter of the room with their
armored backs against the walls. Bixutl took his customary position at the
table waiting for Xatul to speak.

“I have
returned with a fleet of Kleese and Strell warships,” he began in a cold and
steady voice. “With the aid of the Strell, we will drive the Zaltule from our
empire and return it to how it was before the warrior race was awakened.”

“The Strell,”
said Overlord Martule, shifting uneasily on his six legs. “Can we trust the
serpent race?”

“We still
control most of their Queens,” Xatul replied. “We have an advantage over the
Zaltule at the moment as their fleet is scattered and will not be able to
respond to our attacks upon them for quite some time. I intend to eradicate all
the Zaltule in the empire.”

“Eliminate the
warrior clan,” spoke one of the new council members. “Is that wise; wouldn’t it
be better to put them to sleep again?”

“The icy moon
which contained their sleeping chambers was attacked by the Humans and that
facility was destroyed,” Raluth informed the other councilor. “There isn’t time
to build a new facility to contain millions of Zaltule. I don’t believe they
would submit willingly to going into deep sleep again.”

“Council Overlord
Raluth is correct,” Xatul said, his eyes sweeping across the councilors. “It
was a mistake to awaken them in the beginning though we had no way of knowing
they would attempt to supersede this council. As we did with clans in our far
distant past, we must eliminate the Zaltule as they represent a clear danger to
the future of our empire.”

Raluth rose up
to his full height and then spoke. “I have tactical information you may find
useful.”

Raluth paused,
wondering if he should require some type of compensation for his information
and then decided in this instance it was best not to request anything of the
Supreme Overlord. Too many Kleese had already died.

Xatul turned
his eyes upon Raluth. “What is this information?”

“I have the
location of all twenty-six nests of the Zaltule,” Raluth responded. “If we move
quickly, we can eliminate their Queens and that alone will ensure the end of
the warrior clan.”

“Send the
coordinates up to my flagship, the
Warrior’s Fire
,” Xatul ordered. “I
will see to the destruction of these Zaltule nests myself.”

-

The next day
in the system of Sherlund, one thousand Strell battlecruisers along with two
thousand Kleese assault ships dropped out of Fold Space around the Zaltule
installations in the system. They found most of them already destroyed or under
heavy attack from a number of Kleese exploration ships and assault vessels from
other clans. A group of two hundred Zaltule battlecruisers had formed up around
the massive shipyard that built the huge trading stations of the Kleese.

“There is no
trading station inside the construction yard,” Minor Den Leader Riesa reported.

“Strange,”
spoke Den Leader Bith. “Our reports indicate there should be.”

“Supreme
Overlord Xatul will not be pleased with this information,” Riesa hissed, his
tongue flicking forth.

“It is what it
is,” replied Bith dismissively. “We will destroy these Zaltule battlecruisers
and then continue to our next target.”

The Strell
fleet and Kleese assault ships closed with the Zaltule battlecruisers. Just as
they prepared to fire, the Zaltule ships accelerated and entered Fold Space.
Within minutes, all the fighting in the system ceased as the reports began to
come in of the sudden departure of the Zaltule.

-

Six light
years away, Supreme Overlord Xatul watched the viewscreen in his flagship as
the last Zaltule battlecruiser blocking his way to the planet that was his
target was blown apart by heavy energy beam fire. He had divided his fleet up
into four task groups of sixty each and assigned each task group a list of six
planets to attack where there were populations of Zaltule as well as Queens. The task group with the
Empire’s Dawn
had eight targets to destroy.

“There are two
million Zaltule living on this planet,” Minor Overlord Labatt said.

“Put us into
orbit above the planet and locate all the Zaltule population centers and then I
want them eliminated with antimatter warheads. Once we have located the Zaltule
Queen that resides on this planet ensure her nest is annihilated.” Xatul
strongly suspected this must be one of the worlds where an original Queen
resided. That would explain the large population of Zaltule.

After a few
minutes, Minor Overlord Labatt stepped over to the Command Pedestal. “We have
detected large encampments of young hatchlings near one of the mountains on the
planet. Computer estimates place more than eighty thousand Zaltule young near
the mountain.”

Xatul wasn’t
surprised. Queens preferred to keep the newly hatched close to them until they
were capable of fending for themselves. A Queen could produce special hormones
that would increase the growth rate of a hatchling so they could read maturity
in less than two years. An older Queen such as the one that was probably
beneath the mountain could produce over one hundred thousand new hatchlings per
year as well as new Queens.

“It’s obvious
the Zaltule are rushing the hatchlings into adulthood so they can rapidly
increase their numbers,” Xatul said. “It is even more evidence that they
intended at some point in the future to take complete control of our empire and
possibly eliminate some or all of the major Kleese clans.”

“It is well we
struck when we did,” Labatt responded.

-

For twenty
more minutes, the Kleese battle fleet orbited the planet. At the end of that
time, the hatches over the missile tubes slid open and two hundred antimatter
missiles flashed down to explode one thousand meters above the surface. Zaltule
by the tens of thousands were vaporized wherever they were upon the planet.
There was no attempt to flee, as escape was impossible. At one mountainous
area, twenty antimatter warheads detonated in series as a deep and glowing pit
was blasted out of the ground. When the explosions finally stopped, the
mountain that had once stood there was gone, and so was the nest of the
planet’s Zaltule Queen.

Xatul gazed at
the smoking ruins and nodded his triangular shaped head in satisfaction. “Take
the fleet back into Fold Space and set a course for the next target. We have
more Zaltule and more of their Queens to slay.”

Xatul was once
more in control of the Kleese Empire. It would be weeks yet before Military
Overlord Harmock learned of his return. By then it would be too late for him to
save the Zaltule clan. The Queens would all be dead and their forces at the
heart of the empire eliminated as well as the majority of their population.
Xatul would show Harmock there was more than one Supreme Military Overlord and
that Overlord would destroy the Zaltule once and for all.

Ryan and Casey
were at his parents’ home taking some time off from the war. They had both gone
through some grueling debriefing sessions at Centerpoint. There was no blame
being placed for what had happened, just a determination by the officers in
command to make sure such a mistake never happened again.

“It must have
been dreadful,” Ryan’s mother said as she handed Casey a cup of tea. “How is
Lauren doing now?”

“Much better,”
Casey said as she took a cautious sip of her tea and then smiled. It was
perfect! “We didn’t leave Centerpoint until Lauren was awake and we could talk
to her.”

“Alexander and
Autumn are still there and will be looking after her until they can all come
out to Vesta,” Ryan added. “The doctors at Centerpoint injected her with some
special medical nanites after they did surgery, and she should be able to leave
the hospital in three or four more days.”

Ryan’s mother
shook her head and frowned. “I just get the heebie-jeebies every time I think
about having some tiny robot floating around inside my body. I don’t know if I
could ever allow myself to undergo such a treatment.”

Ryan laughed.
“You get used to the idea after awhile, particularly after you see what the
nanites can do.”

“They save a
lot of lives, don’t they, Ryan?” Jonathan said from where he was sitting next
to his wife.

“Yes, they
do.” Ryan looked over at his father. “I understand the two of you are getting
in a lot of practice being grandparents.” Ryan knew that Beth brought little
Eric over nearly every other day.

“I love it!”
his mother said with a pleased smile spreading across her face. Then she looked
pointedly at Casey. “Of course, I’m ready for another one.”

Casey’s face
flushed as she wondered if Ryan’s mother was talking about her and Ryan. Before
she could say anything, there was a knock at the front door and then it opened
as Wade and Beth came in. Little Erick was cradled protectively in Beth’s arms.

“Hello, big
brother,” Ryan said standing up.

“It’s been
awhile,” replied Wade, coming over and giving Ryan and Casey a friendly hug.

Beth came over
and sat down next to Casey. “Do you want to hold Erick?”

Casey nodded
and reaching out took the small child and then cradled him in the nook of her
arm. She began gently rocking Erick, feeling pleased when the baby seemed to
fall back to sleep. “I must be doing something right.”

“You’re a natural,”
Ryan’s mother said staring lovingly at Erick.

“Let’s go into
the kitchen,” Ryan’s dad suggested. “I’m sure the women want to talk about
babies with Erick in the room.”

“At least for
awhile,” Beth answered.

The three men
went into the kitchen and Wade walked over to a cabinet and opened it, taking
down a colorful jar his mom always kept chocolate chip cookies in.

Jonathan
laughed. “That jar has been in our family for years. It was one of the few
items we brought up from Earth. Your mother always keeps it full of cookies
just in case either one of you come home.”

The three
spent some time talking about Vesta, what was going on in politics in the
system, and to a lesser extent the war. They were sitting around the kitchen
table when Wade’s comm unit went off. He frowned and removed the small device
from his shirt pocket. It was very similar to an old Earth cell phone but had
capabilities far in excess of anything one of the old cell phones ever had.

He saw he had
been sent a message by none other than General Mitchell. Putting it to his ear,
he listened to the message and as he did so, his face turned pale and his eyes
grew wide. When the message was finished, he turned the comm device off and put
it back in his pocket.

“Bad news?”
asked Ryan, seeing the look on Wade’s face.

“We just
received a message from the
Sparrow
.”

“What’s the
Sparrow
?”
Ryan asked confused.

Wade sighed
and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest. “While you
were gone we managed to attach a number of tracking devices on a dozen Zaltule
battlecruisers so we could trace their fleet movement. A week ago, they
attacked the Alliance world of Callenda and fought a brief fleet battle with
Alliance Fleet Admiral Rivers. All I know about the battle is that Admiral
Rivers was forced to withdraw and the Zaltule took control of the planet. The
Sparrow
is a light cruiser and has been tracking the Zaltule fleet.”

“Callenda,”
Ryan said thoughtfully. “Wasn’t that the last nonaligned world to join the Alliance?”

Wade nodded.
“It was also the weakest since it waited so long to join. Fleet Admiral Kelly
and General Mitchell have been waiting on the next report from the
Sparrow
.
Some in the military assumed the Zaltule, after attacking Callenda, would
attack the next nearest Alliance world. Marken and some others felt that they
would come here.”

Ryan let out a
deep breath. He knew without asking what his brother was about to say.
“Marken’s right isn’t he, they’re coming here?”

“Yes, that’s
what the message said. The
Sparrow
just confirmed the main Zaltule fleet
is its way here and will arrive in eight to ten days.”

“We’re safe
here in Vesta, aren’t we Wade?” asked Jonathan with concern in his eyes.

“We should
be,” Wade answered, his eyes shifting over to his father. “Vesta has the
strongest defenses in the Solar System and all four habitats are buried deep
inside.”

Ryan shook his
head knowing the time off he had been planning for him and Casey had just come
crashing to an end. “I guess I better check in and see where they want Casey
and I to report.”

“No,” Wade
said, his eyes meeting his brother’s. “I’m going to pull some strings and have
all of your Marines assigned to Vesta for this emergency. Major Jeffries could
use some good experienced people to help in the defense of the spacedock, particularly
if they’ve been trained in the Type Four battlesuits.”

Jonathan
looked surprised. “You think they’ll make it inside?”

“They did last
time,” answered Wade, recalling the intense battle. “However, we have much
stronger defenses, but it never hurts to take some added precautions. Besides,
after what Ryan and his people have been through they’ll be better off here
inside Vesta.”

It was at that
moment that Beth and Casey came walking in. “Your mother is putting Erick down
in his crib for a nap and then she has a big meal planned.” Beth paused seeing
the strange looks on the faces of the three men. “Did something just happen
that I don’t know about?”

Wade nodded
and took a deep breath. “The Zaltule fleet is coming and it will be here in
about a week. I just received word from General Mitchell.”

“Oh no!” Casey
said, becoming angry. “Haven’t we been through enough already?”

“Wade’s going
to have us assigned to Major Jeffries here at Vesta,” Ryan said. “All of our
Marines will be coming to join us.”

Beth looked
warningly at Wade and Ryan. “I don’t want either of you to mention this to your
mother until well after we’ve eaten. You all know how she worries. At least
give her this family time with all of us here together.”

Wade and Ryan
nodded. There would be a time to talk about the war later, but not now.

Casey walked
over and took Ryan’s hand letting out a deep sigh. “It’s always going to be the
Kleese or the Zaltule. They won’t ever leave us in peace.”

“We’re in a
war,” said Ryan, putting his arm around Casey. “We just have to have faith in
the future and that things will work out.”

Wade was
listening and remained quiet. He hadn’t told them everything that was in the
message. General Mitchell had informed Wade the Zaltule fleet consisted of
close to ten thousand battlecruisers. Wade knew there wasn’t a system in the Alliance, including the Solar System, which could repel such a massive fleet. There was a
very good chance this might be the last night the family would ever spend
together. He would keep his secret for now so the others would at least feel
they still had hope for a future.

-

General
Mitchell was in his office with Fleet Admiral Kelly, General Pittman, General
Wainright, Hyram Blake, Delton Fleet Commander Achlyn, Belen Admiral Trest,
Bashan Admiral Hiath, Gerald Lawson, Marken, and President Steward.

General
Mitchell stood up and walked over to a viewscreen displaying a Zaltule
battlecruiser. “Well, they’re coming and there’s nothing we can do to stop
them.”

“Where in the
hell did they get ten thousand warships?” demanded President Steward. “I’ve
been told all along that at the most the Kleese had six thousand vessels they
could use against us.”

“The shipyards
we saw in their home system,” Fleet Commander Achlyn said. “They must have
rebuilt and repaired them.”

“I still don’t
understand,” General Mitchell responded with a frown. “From Admiral Rivers’
report, there were not that many warships in the Kleese home system when we
attacked it.”

“They may have
been somewhere else,” explained Fleet Admiral Kelly. “There are three other
systems the Kleese consider their core worlds and many of the vessels could
have been there or even out attacking the nonaligned worlds Military Overlord
Harmock was intent on bringing under control of the empire.”

President Steward
looked around at the people in the room. “So, what do we do? Can our fleet stop
them?”

General
Mitchell looked over at Fleet Admiral Kelly for an answer.

“No,” answered
Kelly, shaking his head. “We’re talking about ten thousand Zaltule
battlecruisers each three kilometers across and one thousand meters thick.
Every ship is heavily armed and protected by very powerful energy shields. I’ve
received the after action report from Alliance Fleet Admiral Rivers. He fought
a very brief battle against this fleet in the Callenda System. He succeeded in
destroying two hundred and twelve Zaltule battlecruisers at the loss of four
hundred and seventeen vessels in his own fleet. Many of those losses were
assault ships, but keep in mind he went into the battle with twelve hundred
warships.”

“Four hundred
ships lost,” said President Steward, his eyes growing wide. “Was it smart for
Admiral Rivers to attempt to take on this Zaltule fleet? It seems to me he made
a serious tactical error.”

“It was
necessary,” said Hyram Blake, raising an eyebrow. “By fighting at Callenda, he
showed the Alliance we Humans were willing to fight for each and every Alliance world. He solidified the Alliance and reinforced their will to fight. While it’s
regrettable he lost so many ships, it was a necessary sacrifice to keep the Alliance united.”

“I see,”
President Steward replied noncommittally. He then turned back to General
Mitchell. “So, what is your plan of battle? I assume you have one.”

“We do,”
General Mitchell replied. “We only have a slim chance against a fleet this
large and we’re going to take some very substantial losses no matter what we
do.”

“How
substantial?” asked President Steward, fearing he wasn’t going to like the
answer.

“We may lose
most of the Solar System, very likely Mars, and possibly Vesta. There’s a
reasonable chance we could also lose the colonies on the Moon.”

President
Steward’s face turned pale and then he looked over at General Wainright.
General Wainright was in command of the Jornada space complex on Earth along
with Lawrence Henderson. “Is that why General Wainright is here?”

General
Mitchell slowly nodded. “Yes, in the worst case scenario there’s a possibility
the only survivors in the Solar System will be in the underground facilities at
Jornada.”

“How many people
can we put in those facilities long term?” Steward asked.

“Forty
thousand,” General Wainright answered. “Anymore than that and long term
survival becomes questionable, particularly if we have to stay hidden on Earth
for years.”

“We’ll be
sending down additional assault ships,” Admiral Kelly added. “We can hide ten
of them in the blastcrete ship hangars at Jornada.”

“How soon can
we start sending people down?”

“Tomorrow,”
answered General Mitchell, looking at the president. “We can have everyone down
plus the necessary equipment and supplies in less than five days.”

President
Steward nodded his acceptance. “Do it.” Then he looked over at Fleet Admiral
Achlyn and their other allies. “What about your people?”

“We will stay
hidden in our asteroids,” Achlyn answered. “We’re hoping the Zaltule will not
discover them. We’re already in the process of camouflaging our offensive and
defensive weapon sites so they won’t be detectable to Zaltule scans.”

“How do we
win?” asked President Steward, looking intently at General Mitchell.

General
Mitchell sighed. “You won’t like this.” He then proceeded to explain to
President Mitchell the new weapon Marken and his team had come up with. Both
Marken and Gerald Lawson had to spend time explaining to the president how the
weapon would work.

When they were
done, President Steward’s face was nearly ashen. “What you’re talking about
could be as dangerous as the Zaltule fleet!”

“It may be our
only hope,” General Mitchell answered with a grim look of determination. “We’ll
only use it as a last resort.”

President
Steward didn’t reply. He knew after listening to General Mitchell’s battle plan
that he might be the last person in the Solar System to hold the office of
president. Because if General Mitchell used the weapon Marken and Gerald Lawson
had described, there might not be a Solar System left and every living being in
the system would be dead.