The Slaver Wars: First Strike (The Slaver Wars Book Four) (19 page)

His eyes
returned to the tactical display seeing that everything was the same as it was
the last time he had checked. Commander Arie of the battle carrier Independence was also getting impatient. She had just put in a request to double the size
of the fleet’s CAP. She was finding it difficult to keep her aircrews at a high
state of readiness. Currently, there were six Talon fighters on patrol around
the fleet. She wanted to increase that to twelve as well as add a squadron of
armed Anlon bombers. Giving her aircrews more flight time would help increase
their morale until the Hocklyns showed up.

“Tell
Commander Arie to maintain the current CAP,” Tolsen replied after a moment,
arching his eyebrows.

He was
concerned that by increasing the size of the CAP and adding a squadron of Anlon
bombers it would only add to the rising tension in the fleet. He also didn’t
want the Hocklyns to know that they were expected.

Colonel Beck
nodded and quickly informed Commander Arie that her request was denied.
However, Beck went on to tell Arie that she could keep a squadron of bombers at
Condition Two in case they were needed. This seemed to satisfy the battle
carrier commander for the moment.

“We’re all
getting on edge,” Peter commented as he gazed around the Command Center. It was unusually quiet, with very little talking between crewmembers. Those that were talking
to each other spoke in whispers.

“People seem
to forget that in war, there is more waiting than fighting,” Tolsen spoke with
a long sigh. “Most of the crews in our fleet have never seen actual combat, and
I suspect once they do they won’t be quite so anxious for the next time.”

-

At a small
nebula four light years distant, War Leader Bisth was finally ready to launch
his attack against the humans. He gazed intently at the large sensor screen in
front of him, which was covered in friendly green icons. Overall, he had ninety-six
Hocklyn warships under his command. He felt pride at knowing the honor this
fleet would bring him.

It had been
decades since the Hocklyn Slave Empire had assembled such a powerful fleet.
Commodore Resmunt had made it extremely clear that the Hocklyn High Council
wanted the humans dealt with quickly. If it dragged out, the AIs might become
involved. If that happened, then the human home world would not be brought into
the empire because the AIs would destroy it!

“Send in the
four escort cruisers,” Bisth ordered, looking over at First Leader Gresth. “I
want detailed scans of that entire system! I want to know what defenses are
around the mining planet as well as the human fleet strength. I don’t want any
hidden human ships that might cause us problems later.”

First Leader
Gresth nodded and activated the com system to pass on the necessary orders to
the four chosen escort cruisers. Their First Leaders had already been briefed on
their mission specifics to jump into the human mining system and take detailed
scans of everything. Two of the cruisers would jump to just outside of the
mining planet’s gravity well to take scans of the planet’s defenses; the other
two would jump into the outer system to ensure there were no hidden fleets
using the large gas giants to shield their energy emissions.

War Leader
Bisth watched with satisfaction as his orders were efficiently carried out. He
still felt a little uneasy about the coming engagement. His main concern was
that these were humans they were dealing with, and highly advanced ones based
on the weapons that had been used in the last engagement.

Bisth looked
across the War Room; he could see excitement in the eyes of his crew, honor was
at hand. Each crewmember knew their status and wealth in the empire would be
substantially increased once they engaged the humans and destroyed their fleet.
However, the biggest increase would come when they subjugated the human home
world. If it was as advanced as Bisth believed, the honor and wealth to be had would
be vast!

“Escort
cruisers are away,” Gresth reported as the four ships vanished from the sensor
screen.

Bisth nodded.
If everything went well, they would be launching their attack in a few more
hours. War Leader Sangeth had requested that he be allowed to lead the first
elements of the fleet into the human system. Bisth knew that Sangeth was still
angry from his previous defeat. While no honor had been lost, it had galled
Sangeth to retreat from battle. He felt his honor had been tarnished and only
by leading this attack could he remove that stain from his reputation. Bisth
had agreed, but not for the reasons Sangeth thought.

-

Captain Lucy Krandle
fought to stifle a yawn. It was early morning on Caden’s World and she had just
made it to the operations center. Lieutenant Simmins was already there speaking
to the young sensor operator who was just going off duty. Her replacement
should be arriving shortly.

“Nothing to
report, Sir” she was saying. “There have been no hyperjumps detected overnight.
Admiral Tolsen has also reported that no unauthorized jumps have been recorded
in any of the nearby systems.”

Lieutenant
Simmins turned toward Captain Krandle, seeing that she had made it to the
operations center. “Still no sign of the Hocklyns.”

“It can’t be
much longer,” Lucy stated as she walked over to a small table with breakfast
rolls and a steaming pot of coffee on it. She poured herself a cup and picked
up one of the sweet rolls.

“We have a lot
of fleet units tied down here,” Simmins commented as Captain Krandle came over
to stand in front of the sensor screen. It showed numerous friendly green icons
that represented Federation ships.

“They will
stay as long as necessary,” Lucy replied as she took a sip of the hot coffee.
She loved coffee in the mornings! It seemed to invigorate her. She knew it was
only the caffeine, but it still tasted great and seemed to work miracles.

She had just
taken a bite of her roll when a warning alarm sounded. Her eyes instantly
snapped to the sensor screen, and she watched with apprehension as four red
threat icons popped into being.

“What are
those?” she demanded as the sensor operator sat back down and began looking at
the new data that was coming across her computer screens.

“Information’s
coming through now,” the sensor operator replied as her nimble fingers flew
over the touch screen. Then her face turned pale as she looked at the data.
“The sensors are showing that four Hocklyn escort cruisers have jumped into the
system, two just outside of our gravity well and the other two out near the gas
giants.”

“This is it,”
Simmins spoke, his eyes widening. “The Hocklyns have finally arrived.”

“Summon
General Abercrombie and go to Condition One!” ordered Lucy, sharply. “Send a message
to Fleet Command informing them of the Hocklyns arrival, then get me Admiral
Tolsen on the com system.”

Warning alarms
began sounding in both of the two mining settlements. Instantly, heavily armed
marines began pouring out of their barracks and proceeded hastily to their
weapon emplacements. Missile batteries were activated and swiveled around to
point upward toward the danger. Other marines took up positions in buildings
that had been reinforced, offering them overlapping fields of fire down the main
streets of the settlements. If the Hocklyns managed to land Protectors on the
planet, they would be met with a heavy rain of defensive fire.

-

“Four Hocklyn escort
cruisers detected,” Lieutenant Anders reported from sensors. “Two near the
sixth planet and the other two are just outside of Caden’s World’s gravity
well. Distance to the nearest is two point six million kilometers.”

Tolsen and
Colonel Beck both shifted their gaze to the four blinking red threat icons that
were now showing up on the tactical holographic display.

“Four!” Beck
spoke with a heavy frown. “I don’t like the looks of that. This could indicate
a much larger attack force than we are expecting.”

Tolsen thought
over Beck’s words and hoped the colonel wasn’t right. They had been expecting
an attack force approximately twice the size of the last one. Everyone except
Admiral Streth, Tolsen reminded himself. Admiral Streth had mentioned that
there was a real possibility the Hocklyns might attack in overwhelming force.

“Send a
message to the rest of our fleet to prepare to jump back to our current
location, also let Admiral Strong know what is going on and to place his fleet
on standby.”

“Yes, Sir,”
Beck replied as he turned to carry out the admiral’s orders.

“Lieutenant
Davis, send a message to Fleet Command that four Hocklyn escort cruisers have
jumped into the system and are taking scans. We expect a full scale fleet
battle shortly.”

“The two escort
cruisers around planet six have jumped again,” Lieutenant Anders reported as
they vanished from his sensor screen. A moment later, he spoke once more. “They
have jumped to planet seven, the outer gas giant.”

“What are they
doing?” asked Beck, glancing over at Tolsen. “Why are they jumping to the gas
giants?”

“Looking for
other ships,” Tolsen answered as he watched the tactical display closely. “They
want to make sure no ships are hiding in the atmosphere or behind them where
they couldn’t be picked up by sensors. Whoever this Hocklyn commander is, he’s
being cautious.”

“The attack
should be imminent then,” stated Beck, raising his eyebrows. “They won’t wait
too long after they finish their scans.”

“Bring the
fleet to Condition One and tighten our formation,” ordered Tolsen, leaning
forward and studying his fleet disposition on the tactical display.

Tolsen was
expecting the Hocklyn fleet to jump into the outer system and then proceed
slowly toward Caden’s World. He would then gradually retreat, luring them down
into the gravity well of the planet.

While Colonel
Beck was carrying out his orders, Tolsen contacted Commander Arie and ordered
her to begin arming her bombers with missiles. He also ordered her to bring the
current CAP in and refuel the fighters. He had a sneaking suspicion they would
shortly need every fighter and bomber at their disposal.

After studying
the tactical display for another few moments, he dispatched two light cruisers
and four destroyers toward the two nearer Hocklyn escort cruisers. If he did nothing,
they might suspect something wasn’t right.

“Hocklyn cruisers
have jumped away,” Lieutenant Anders reported as the two nearer red threat
icons vanished from his sensors. A minute later, he passed on the information
that the other two Hocklyn cruisers had also jumped away.

“We will stay
at Condition One for awhile,” instructed Tolsen, leaning back in his command
chair as he allowed himself to relax for a moment. “If nothing happens in the
next hour, we will drop down to Condition Two.”

“Do you think
we will have an hour?” asked Beck, walking over and standing next to the
admiral.”

“I doubt it,
Peter,” Tolsen replied with a slight shake of his head. “I expect the attack to
be almost immediate. The Hocklyn commander won’t want us to adjust our fleet
formation.”

-

Down on
Caden’s World, Lucy felt relieved when she saw all four of the red threat icons
vanish.

“Don’t get
your hopes up,” cautioned General Abercrombie, looking over at the young
captain. “They came in, got their sensor readings, and have now jumped back to
their main fleet. They will be back shortly.”

“I know,” she
replied. Looking over at the reinforced door to the operations center, she
noted that the two heavily armed marines had morphed into four. Marines
surrounded the entire outside of the operations center. Little good it would do
if the Hocklyns decided use a nuke.

Lieutenant
Simmins had gone outside to check on security. For some reason, Lucy felt more
secure when he was in the room.

Adam Severson
walked over and looked at General Abercrombie. There were still a few civilians
about that had been helping the marines keep this facade of an operating mining
operation going. “Do you think the Fleet can prevent them from bombing the
surface?”

“We can only
hope,” General Abercrombie responded. Then he went on. “Mr. Severson go ahead
and order all of your remaining personnel to the deep bunkers. They should be
safe there until this is over.”

Severson
nodded and then went to one of the communication consoles to pass on the order.

General
Abercrombie had been impressed by Severson. The man had never complained about
what was happening to his mining colony. He had done everything asked of him to
keep up the pretense that this operation was still functioning normally so they
could fool the Hocklyns.  

-

Admiral Streth
had been summoned to the Command Center of the WarStorm. He had already heard
the orders to go to Condition Two and for the ship to standby for immediate combat
operations. He knew that could mean only one thing, the Hocklyns had arrived.

Entering the Command Center, he saw Admiral Sheen and Commander Samantha Evans at the tactical display
discussing the situation. He quickly walked over to them.

“What do we
have?” he asked, looking over at Admiral Sheen. He could feel his heart beating
a little faster knowing what was ahead.

“Four Hocklyn escort
cruisers have jumped into Gliese 667C. We believe they took full scans of the system,
particularly the space around Caden’s World, and then jumped back out. They
even searched the outer two gas giants for hidden ships.”

Admiral Streth
was silent for a moment as he mulled this over. From past experience with the Hocklyns,
they normally just bulled their way in blasting everything out of their way.
This sounded as if a more cautious War Leader or Commodore was in charge of
this fleet. He knew the rankings of the Hocklyns from information they had
learned when First Fleet had taken a Hocklyn space station and escort cruiser.
There was also the tons of information the Clarions had sent them.