Interstellar War (The Pike Chronicles Book 5) (11 page)

General Tallos surveyed his flourishing garden with approval. All the different plants were now thriving.
They just needed a Diakan touch
, he thought. While they couldn’t compare to his prize gardens back on Diakus, he was sure that they would now rival most on New Byzantium.
At least there is this, otherwise I might lose my mind living here. How long will I have to live amongst these wretched humans? Years? Decades?
The thought was almost enough to make him curse his long Diakan lifespan. But not quite.

He was still a Diakan, and Diakans were patient. Patience turned Diakus into one of the most powerful worlds in the galaxy. Patience, not human brashness. That patience would see him through his current predicament. He knew that he would eventually get off this planet. One day Diakan ships would arrive, and he would finally be free of this place. On that day, he would see to it that Jon Pike paid for his crimes.

“I see you can still grow lavish gardens, despite the variance in soil,” said an unmistakably Diakan voice from behind him.

Tallos wheeled around to see a face he hadn’t seen in years. A dangerous face. The face of Diakan Intelligence.

“Major Ilthos?” said Tallos, with genuine surprise. “What are you doing here?”

Ilthos strode up to a tall plant with vibrant purple flowers. He gently touched one of the petals, seemingly admiring it. “I am here with the humans. Much has happened since your disappearance.”

Ilthos’s tone set off alarms in Tallos’s head. “My disappearance? I assure you, Major. None of this was my doing.”

Ilthos let go of the petal and turned to face Tallos. “Wasn’t it, General? Were you not given oversight of the Hermes? Were you not tasked with ensuring its safety?”

“Yes, and I did my best to fulfill my obligations.”

“And yet you failed,” said Ilthos.

“Yes, that is true. I did fail,” said Tallos defiantly. “But Captain Pike is a formidable opponent. He is extremely unpredictable. In fact, his actions clearly indicate that he is insane.”

“You mean Admiral Pike, don’t you?”

“Admiral? I don’t understand. How is that possible?”

“Everything is possible in this new age, General. You should know that. New Byzantium granted him his own independent fleet. The rank of Admiral went with it.”

“Surely Space Force will not accept any of this nonsense,” said Tallos.

“That might have been the case before, but Space Fore is no more.”

“No more? What are you saying, Major?”

“The Juttari have moved to intercept the prophecy. They recently launched a massive offensive that included a direct invasion of the Sol System. During that invasion, the Juttari destroyed all of the Space Force ships in the system, and bombarded the Earth with nuclear weapons. They laid waste to the surface, obliterating every major population center in the process.”

“All because of the prophesy?”

“Yes. We believe they have moved to terminate the humans, and prevent their rise.”

“It sounds like they have succeeded.”

“Do you have such little faith in the Great See’er?”

Tallos cringed. “No, of course not. I would never question the Great See’er. I merely wondered how the humans could rise to power if the Earth has been destroyed.”

“There are humans beyond Earth and the Sol System, General. As you have already stated, Jon Pike is a formidable opponent. The Juttari offensive captured multiple Galactic Accord systems. They in fact drove a wedge right through the center of our alliance, splitting it in half. Admiral Pike singlehandedly reversed all those gains.”

“How is that possible?” said Tallos, trying to grasp everything he was hearing.

“How indeed. The Juttari used legions of Chaanisar in their invasion. Admiral Pike discovered a way to liberate those Chaanisar from Juttari control. Over a thousand Juttari warships. Almost a million Chaanisar. All free. Imagine the scale of this accomplishment. As a show of gratitude, all these Chaanisar have pledged their allegiance to Admiral Pike.”

“By trying to intercept the prophecy, the Juttari have unwittingly triggered it,” said Tallos in amazement.

“Correct. The Great See’er is wise beyond comprehension,” said Ilthos, bowing his head in traditional reverence.

Tallos bowed his head as custom dictated, still trying to come to terms with what he had heard. The Earth had been decimated, and from its ashes Jon Pike had risen to create his own formidable fleet. A fleet full of Chaanisar super soldiers. His mind reeled.

The two Diakans raised their heads. “What happens now?” said Tallos.

“Diakus flows with the prophecy. The Great See’er has seen Jon Pike lead the human ascension. Diakus now pledges its full support to Admiral Pike.”

Tallos couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Diakus cannot support Jon Pike. He is a criminal. He has murdered several Diakans. Members of my team. This is an outrage!”

“You tread perilously close to sedition and blasphemy, General. Are you saying that Diakus is outrageous?”

“No, that is not what I meant.”

“Do you presume to question the wisdom of the Great See’er?”

“No. No, I do not.”

“You have had a long, distinguished career, General. Tread carefully, lest your words destroy your legacy. I am willing to overlook these words, and not relay them to Diakan Intelligence. You know as well as I do what would happen if I did.”

“I do,” said Tallos, terrified at the implication.

“Good, because if I hear words like these again, I will not be as kind.”

“They will not be repeated.”

Ilthos nodded, but Tallos felt the silent threat. “Now, is there anything you need from this dwelling?”

“Just a few personal items,” said Tallos.

“Gather them, and prepare to be transported to one of our ships. They are in orbit undergoing repairs.”

“Repairs?”

“Yes, we had a rather prolonged battle with the Kemmar. We need the ships to be in top shape before we face them again.”

“You fought the Kemmar?”

“Yes. It was necessary. They have invaded the human colonies. We are here to activate the human jump gate, but we will have to fight the Kemmar again to do so.”

“How many Kemmar do you expect to face?”

“We estimate one to two hundred warships.”

“And how big is your fleet?”

“We are six ships all together.”

“Just six Diakan warships?”

“No, only two Diakan ships. The rest are human vessels.”

“But you cannot hope to prevail against those odds, Major.”

“You are correct, General. Which is why we are giving New Byzantium the jump system technology.”

“New Byzantium? But they are not even Galactic Accord members.”

“It does not matter. Captain St. Clair has decided to give them the technology.”

“What about Jon Pike?”

“He is not here. He has remained in the Sol System. He and General Dathos prepare to invade Juttari space. I must admit, Jon Pike is aggressive.”

“Unbelievable. If I did not know better, I would think I had been here fifty years, considering all that has changed. Where in Juttari space are they attacking?”

“Meybaris, then the Widow’s Triangle.”

“Bold,” said Tallos, analyzing the objective in his mind.

“It was General Dathos’s idea.”

“That does not surprise me. Dathos is an able strategist. If they succeed in taking the Widow’s Triangle, the Juttari will be forced to remain on the defensive. But the Widow’s Triangle is too valuable a prize. Will we really let the humans control it?”

“General, we have pledged our support to Jon Pike. That does not mean we will hand over our share of the galaxy to him. The humans will rise. The Juttari will fall. It is our job to ensure Diakus does not fall in the process. The Great See’er is wise. Diakus is patient. One day the humans too will fall, and then the entire galaxy will be ours.”

“So you’re a Captain now?” said Seiben, as he handed an ale to Kevin. The two sat in beach chairs in front of Seiben’s house, staring out at the calm, azure waters of the New Byzantium ocean.

“That’s right. Admiral Pike gave me my own ship,” said Kevin, followed by a long, satisfying drink of beer. He had made a point of visiting the Seibens because he truly liked them. They had been through a lot together. But he also enjoyed being near the ocean. He had grown up on an island back on Earth and hadn’t been back in years. Now, he wasn’t sure if he ever would.

“And these Juttari have destroyed the Earth?”

“Pretty much,” said Kevin. “We’ll get it cleaned up, but it’ll take some time. Of course we’ll need to repopulate the planet.”

“Reverse colonization,” said Seiben. “This region of space was built by colonists from Earth. Now people from the colonies will have to return to the motherland.”

“You’re right about that, old man.”

“Stop calling me old man.”

“Habit.”

Kevin considered the jump gate and his mission. Seiben was right. It wasn’t just a matter of uniting humanity, or defending the colonies. They needed to open that jump gate to recolonize Earth and the Sol System. It suddenly dawned on him how important his mission truly was. Once they defeated the Kemmar, there would be a lot of people in the colonies left to pick up the pieces. Neither Prime Minister Sallas, nor Admiral Pike, would allow those worlds to return to corporate rule. They would become democracies.

While that transition would give hope to a lot of people, there would still be many who would choose to leave and migrate to Earth. After spending a lifetime in perpetual debt and servitude to the corporations, it would certainly be appealing to start fresh, especially if there were incentives, like free land. Imagine becoming a landowner after thinking you would live out your days with no hope of ever owning your own property. How could that not drive a lot of migration back to Earth?

“Well, I won’t be moving,” said Seiben. “I love it here. I should’ve listened to Darla years ago. I was so busy running freighters that it didn’t really make sense to live anywhere but DLC Station. But now that the freighter runs are behind me, there’s no way in hell that I’m leaving.”

“I don’t blame you,” said Kevin, taking another swig of his ale.

“You should think about settling down here too,” said Seiben. “I mean after you get the gate open, and rid us of the Kemmar. You should get yourself a nice woman and settle down.”

Chief Sanchez suddenly popped into Kevin’s mind.
Be careful
, he thought, recognizing his growing attraction. “I can’t think of settling down yet. There’s still too much to do. The Kemmar and the gate are only the beginning.”

“Bullshit. You’re just looking for excuses.”

“I’m not. Seriously. You don’t understand how big all of this is. The Kemmar are nothing compared to the Juttari. We’re talking about a galactic war here. Even if I wanted to settle down, which I don’t, it’s just not an option.”

Seiben’s expression turned wistful. “Maybe you’re right. You know, in a way I envy you, and Jon. It’s not just the adventure. You’re making history, while I’m sitting on a beach drinking ale.”

“Don’t be an idiot. If we’re making history, then you are a big part of it. If you hadn’t picked up Admiral Pike’s lifeboat he would’ve died in space.”

Seiben laughed. “Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing that I rescued his sorry ass after all.”

“Besides, you’ve got yourself a beautiful family. I mean, thank the stars that your kids took after their mother, because shit, have you looked in the mirror recently?”

“Look who’s talking. Quasimodo himself.”

“Who?”

“Are all Earth people as uneducated as you?”

“I don’t know. Are all old men as crotchety as you?”

Seiben opened another two bottles of ale and handed one to Kevin. Taking a long drink, he looked out at the water and sighed. “This truly is the life, isn’t it?”

Gazing out at the mesmerizing sea himself, Kevin took a drink of his own ale and nodded. “It sure is.”

“Bombers have launched and are jump ready,” said Commander Konos, Jon’s new XO, while standing at his console.

The attack on the Juttari stronghold of Meybaris was about to begin. A squadron of bombers from the Freedom would jump into the Meybaris system, and drop nukes on the gate defenses, destroying them. This would allow the rest of the fleet to cross through the gate unchallenged.

Jon had the Freedom, three jump capable Chaanisar warships, including Colonel Steeg’s battleship, and a squadron of giant jump capable Diakan warships. They waited just a few light years away, for the all clear from the bombers.

On the other side of the gate waited General Dathos with the Juttari Fourth and Fifth fleet, and First Colonel Brock, with almost a thousand Chaanisar warships. Jon had decided to leave a contingent behind to defend Sol, just in case.

“Order the bombers to initiate jump,” said Jon, from his command station, monitoring the activity on his tactical screen.

“Bombers are away,” said Konos.

Now they needed to simply to wait for the bombers’ return. Jon glanced at Konos, who busied himself with monitoring the ships activity and readiness, while he tracked the bombers progress on his own screen. “How’s our new CAG working out?”

“Commander Mani is adapting quickly to the role, Sir. He’s been my wingman for some time, and the most senior pilot on board, next to me.”

“Sounds like a good choice.”

“I think so, Sir. He is calm under pressure, and the rest of the pilots like him.”

“He’s going to have lots of opportunity to prove himself today. As are you.”

“Yes, Sir,” said Konos. “I look forward to it.”

“Good,” said Jon. He liked Konos’s confidence. His fledgling fleet needed leaders like Konos. Jon now had over a thousand ships under his command, and while all those ships currently had commanders, he knew that some would not make it through this war. But it wasn’t just that. He didn’t like the idea of a segregated fleet. He had no intention of shaking things up right now, but something would eventually need to be done.

The Chaanisar ships functioned well as they were. In fact, their brain chips made them extremely efficient, and formidable. So much so that it didn’t make sense to change anything, especially not in the middle of a war. But the war would end one day.

The last thing he needed was some kind of class system to develop. If his goal was to unite humanity, then there couldn’t be any divisiveness. The Chaanisar needed to work together with the non-augmented. Space Force personnel needed to work together with colonials. Even the Reivers would have to let go of their isolationism, and build some bridges.

The Earth’s destruction was an unspeakable atrocity. But it happened, and now it was time to move forward. The war with the Juttari would be hard, but in fighting together, Jon hoped that all the different factions would develop deeper bonds that would hold when the war was over.

In truth, he worried less about the Chaanisar than the others. They wanted to regain their humanity, and that made them like formless clay, waiting to take shape. In a bizarre way, the Chaanisar were still like the children who were taken from their families long ago. They may have developed as Juttari soldiers since then, but not as humans. If they were to recapture their humanity, they would need to mix with regular humans. He just hoped it wasn’t already too late for them.

“Contacts,” said Ensign Petrovic, the tactical officer. “It’s our bombers, Sir.”

“Receiving initial report,” said Konos. “Nuclear weapons were successfully deployed, although we lost six of our birds in the process.”

“Six?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Damn. Did they manage to destroy the gate defenses?”

“They successfully launched their payloads, but had to jump away before detonation to avoid being destroyed. So they can’t confirm the kills.”

“Understood. Ensign, have a comm drone jump in, conduct a quick scan, and jump back. If it doesn’t return, we’ll know why.”

“Yes, Sir. Launching drone.”

The small device sprang out of the Freedom and vanished, as it used its small jump system to land in the Meybaris system. No more than a few seconds later the drone reappeared, and transmitted its scans to the Freedom.

“Display visual feed on viewscreen,” said Jon.

The current view of the system around them moved to a corner of the giant display, as the drone’s feed took over the screen.

“It appears the strike was successful,” said Jon, looking at the debris surrounding the jump gate.

“The scans confirm your assessment, Sir,” said Konos. “Reading no weapon system signatures within the gate’s perimeter, although that is not the case further afield.”

“Did the drone scan the entire system?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Let’s see the rest of it.”

The display panned out and focused in on the other threats in the system. It was the first time Jon got a glimpse of the defensive stations First Colonel Brock had warned of. Near the stations were numerous Juttari warships. The nuclear strike would have put them all on high alert. They wouldn’t be caught off guard a second time.

“Broadcast this feed to the rest of the ships,” said Jon tapping his comm to call up his commanders. “Here’s what we’re going up against,” said Jon, as he zoomed in on one of the stations.

“They are well armored and possess powerful weapons,” said Colonel Steeg, commander of the Chaanisar battleship. “You are right not to send in your bombers. They will be destroyed the second they appear.”

“Do you think the assault shuttles will have a better chance? They can jump in a lot closer than the bombers.”

“Yes. If the shuttles land close enough, the station’s guns won’t be able to lock onto them. The stealth capabilities of the assault shuttles should help to keep them hidden.”

“Our analysis shows that we should be outside the range of their heavy guns when we land,” said Jon. “So we’ll only have to deal with their missiles. The cargo ships will help to divert some of the missiles. We hope that along with our arrival, the cargo ships will provide enough distraction to mask the approaching shuttles.” The shuttles’ stealth capabilities would temporarily shield them from the station’s scans. They just had to avoid accidental detection. With those Juttari warships stationed nearby, there was a risk that one of them might get a visual sighting. Jon figured it was a long shot. Those ships should be racing to intercept his warships, and were unlikely to detect the shuttles. If successful, the boarding parties would already be on board, before the stations could detect them.

“Any questions?” said Jon.

The other commanders remained stoic. He wondered why he bothered. He was dealing with Chaanisar and Diakans after all.

“Very well,” said Jon. “Have strike teams on stand by, and get into position to transport freighters. We will be jumping momentarily.” The commanders blinked off screen. “Helm, are we in position for jump?”

“Yes, Sir. We are jump ready.”

“Ensign Yao, are all jump systems synchronized?”

“Our jump system is now the master system, Sir.”

Jon nodded watching on his tactical screen as his warships aligned themselves with their designated freighters. The Diakan battleships were so large that they took two smaller cargo ships with them.
The more the merrier
, Jon thought. Each cargo ship was programmed to emulate their assigned ship signatures in order to deceive Juttari missiles. This and the ships’ own countermeasures should potentially keep the missiles busy for some time.

“All ships reporting jump ready,” said Commander Konos.

“Sound General Quarters,” said Jon.

“General Quarters, General Quarters. All hands man your battle stations,” said Konos, announcing the battle ready status to the rest of the ship.

When the crew reported readiness, Jon gave the order to jump. “Initiate.”

The stars on the viewscreen shifted, and the scene was replaced by the debris of the destroyed weapon systems.

“Stations are launching missiles,” said Ensign Petrovic, the tactical officer.

“AI, do you have control of the cargo ships?”

“Yes, Admiral.”

“Launch cargo vessels. Shoot for those missiles.”

“Understood, Admiral,” said the AI.

“Ensign Petrovic, send a comm drone through the jump gate and let the fleet know that they can come through. Once missiles get past the cargo ships launch countermeasures, and activate the point defense system.”

“Launching comm drone.”

On the viewscreen the giant translucent shimmer of the jump gate took shape as a tiny drone shot out of the Freedom and entered the field.

Jon monitored the cargo ships’ progress on his tactical screen. Due to the distance between them and the stations, it would take the missiles a few minutes to reach them, and a few more before the remaining missiles reached his ships. He found it worrisome that the Juttari warships in this system were not moving to intercept. Instead, they hung back near the stations.
A defensive move. They’re anticipating the arrival of the invasion force. Better for them to stay and use the stations’ firepower. Smart. Otherwise they would be caught with their pants down when the fleet came through the gate.

“Contacts,” said Petrovic. “Reading multiple Juttari warships coming through the jump gate.”

Jon held his breath.

“It’s First Colonel Brock and the rest of the fleet.”

Jon exhaled in relief. He would need to find a way to better differentiate the Juttari and his Chaanisar. As hundreds of Chaanisar ships poured through the gate and took position, the time had come to launch the assault shuttles.