The Slaver Wars: First Strike (The Slaver Wars Book Four) (20 page)

Second Fleet
was on the far side of the comet ring with Third Fleet, under Admiral Adler, a
few million kilometers away. Admiral Strong was just inside the comet ring with
his ships powered down to reduce the possibility of detection. The rest of
Admiral Tolsen’s ships were only a short distance away from Strong’s and were
also powered down. The trap was set, and now it just needed to be sprung.

“Admiral
Strong and Admiral Tolsen’s other ships are powering back up,” Lieutenant
Stalls reported from his sensor station as the green icons representing their
ships began flaring up.

Admiral Streth
nodded his head in acknowledgement. He gazed pensively at the tactical display,
confirming the positioning of the fleets. Everything was as ready as it could
be. “Now we wait for the Hocklyns and see what kind of playing cards they have
brought to the table.”

“You still
believe this will be a large fleet they attack with?” inquired Amanda, looking
over at the older admiral. Over the years, she had come to trust the admiral’s
intuition. He had a knack for strategy and sometimes doing the unexpected.

“Yes, I do” Hedon
replied, his eyes focusing on Amanda. “I think this War Leader or Commodore is
playing it cautious.”

“I wonder
why?” she asked, her blue eyes watching the admiral.

“Because they
have found humans again,” he replied in a calm and steady voice. “I suspect
some heads will be lost in the Hocklyn Empire when word of this gets back to
their ruling council. We were supposed to have been exterminated. Their AI
masters will not be pleased.”

Amanda nodded
as she turned her attention back to the tactical display and the eighty-six
ships that represented her command. She had never dreamed she would command
such a powerful fleet. The humans from Earth and the Federation survivors had
certainly outdone themselves preparing for this war, but they had also had four
hundred years to do so.

-

War Leader
Bisth looked carefully over the sensor data from the four scouts with interest
and growing concern. The human mining world had certainly been reinforced. The
space above it was flush with red threat icons, which indicated dangerous
defensive satellites. There were over two hundred of the deadly little symbols.
What also worried Bisth was that there were now four human light cruisers and
ten of their destroyers just below the defensive satellites. There was also a
fleet of seventeen more warships hovering just outside of the planet’s gravity
well.

To him, it
indicated a much larger human population than Fleet Commodore Resmunt had suggested.
He wondered if it were possible that they had missed a sizable human colony in
the Human Federation of Worlds all those long years ago. Perhaps that colony
had been evacuated out to this distant section of space. That was the only
answer Bisth could come up with to explain the obvious size of their fleet as
well as their technology.

“They have
certainly been reinforced,” Gresth hissed as he gazed at the sensor data. “They
have more ships in the system than they did when War Leader Sangeth attacked
last time. There will be much honor in this battle.”

Bisth nodded
and his cold, dark eyes turned toward his second in command. “We will send War
Leader Sangeth in as well as War Leader Tantil. That will give us a decisive
fleet advantage in numbers as well as in firepower.”

“Forty-eight
ships to the human’s thirty-one,” Gresth nodded in agreement.

“They only
have five first line ships in their fleet,” Bisth pointed out. “Sangeth will
have sixteen.”

“It will be a
short battle,” replied Gresth, wishing the WarCry could be there. However, he
dared not make that suggestion; it would not go well with War Leader Bisth.

“Have the two Protector
ships go in with Sangeth,” Bisth commanded as he thought about what needed to
be done. “They can begin their landings as soon as the orbital defenses and
human ships have been annihilated.”

Gresth quickly
passed on the orders. He wished he were aboard one of the Protector ships. There
would be much honor for the Protectors if the humans had military forces on the
ground. His hand went tentatively to the knife at his waist. He would love to
sink the blade into the flesh of a human warrior. Honor came swiftly in
personal combat.

War Leader
Bisth returned to his command pedestal and gazed around the War Room. It was a
beehive of intense activity as everything was made ready for the attack. He
would send War Leader Sangeth in first with War Leader Tantil’s fleet to assist,
then he would bring in his fleet as well as War Leader Canneth’s. He would not
allow Sangeth to claim all of the honor in this conquest.

-

Two long hours
had passed and still there was no sign of the expected Hocklyn attack fleet.
Admiral Tolsen had allowed his fleet to go back to Condition Two.

“Why don’t
they attack?” asked Peter, feeling frustrated at having to wait for a battle he
knew was coming. “Surely they have had time to analyze the data by now. You
don’t think they detected the ships out around the comet ring, do you?”

“I doubt it,”
Tolsen replied, taking a deep breath. He too was feeling impatient. “It will
take awhile for them to analyze the data and decide on the best way to
eliminate our fleet and the defenses around Caden’s World. Once they have
formed a plan, they will be here.”

“I just hope
they don’t come up with too good of a plan,” responded Colonel Beck, trying his
best not to sound irritated at the wait.

-

Captain
Krandle was standing outside of the operations center looking around the large
mining settlement. Normally the streets would be full of people going about
their business, but now everything was quiet. It was late morning, and there
wasn’t even a breeze. The leaves on the trees were still, and not a single bird
was in the air. All the shops were closed with their doors and windows tightly shuttered.
The mining settlement had become a ghost town.

Only
occasionally did she see movement where a marine was standing guard or on patrol.
She had been posted on Caden’s World for six months when the two Hocklyn scout
cruisers had appeared. Now she was beginning to realize how much she missed those
times before the Hocklyns showed up. She wondered idly if Caden’s World would
ever be the same again.

“You should
probably go back inside, Captain,” Lieutenant Simmins suggested as he walked up
with four other heavily armed marines. General Abercrombie had placed him in
command of the marines guarding the operations center.

“Shortly,” replied
Lucy, knowing Simmins was right. Her place was in the operations center, and
she needed to get back.

“Captain,” a
voice spoke from the open doorway.

Turning
around, Lucy saw Corporal Richard, who was in charge of the marine guards
inside.

“General
Abercrombie sent me to get you, the Hocklyn fleet is here!”

Lucy looked
quickly at Lieutenant Simmins, their eyes meeting. “Be careful, Lieutenant,”
she spoke, softly. Then turning, she hurried back inside.

-

War Leader
Sangeth felt the transition from hyperspace to normal space knowing that honor
would be his shortly. If he could subjugate the human planet before Bisth
arrived, then the majority of that honor would fall upon his shoulders. Ever
since his flagship, the Crimson Oblivion, had escaped from this system, he had
felt as if he had left his soul behind. Honor meant everything to a Hocklyn and
running from an enemy had placed a dark cloud over Sangeth as well as his
flagship. Now he would change that.

“All ships
report successful jumps,” First Leader Rahn reported. “Systems are coming online.”

Sangeth gazed
expectantly at the main sensor screen as it cleared up and he saw that the human
fleet was already beginning to maneuver. They were starting to turn, obviously hoping
to pin his two fleets between the planet and them. Well, that was not going to
happen. He had the numbers and the firepower to do as he wanted. He would
command this battle not these upstart humans.

Sangeth
quickly activated the com channel, which placed him in instant communication
with War Leader Tantil on the dreadnought DeadlyDawn. “War Leader Tantil, there
is an enemy fleet closing on our position. You are to move forward and engage
that fleet while my fleet moves into the planet’s gravity well. I will destroy
the planet’s orbital defenses and the small fleet that protects it while you
eliminate this other fleet.”

“May honor be
yours,” War Leader Tantil replied over the com.

With
satisfaction, Sangeth saw that War Leader Tantil was already beginning to
follow his command as his twenty-four ships began to separate from the mass of
green dots that represented the two Hocklyn fleets.

Turning toward
First Leader Rahn, he passed on his next orders. “Take us into the gravity well;
we will engage and destroy the human’s defensive satellites and annihilate
their fleet units. Honor will be ours!”

-

“Damn! They’ve
split their fleet,” Colonel Beck voiced in alarm as he studied the tactical
image. “It looks as if half of their fleet is heading into the gravity well to
attack Caden’s World and the other half is headed toward us.” This was exactly
what Admiral Strong had warned against.

“Total Hocklyn
ship count is forty-eight vessels,” Lieutenant Anders informed them. “Make up
of the fleet is as follows; four dreadnoughts, twelve war cruisers, and thirty-two
escort cruisers.”

“How soon
before they are in combat range?” Tolsen demanded as he gazed intently at the
tactical display above the plotting table.

That was a
powerful force to deal with and he was badly outnumbered in capital ships. Not
only that, but the Hocklyns had surprised him by jumping almost into Caden’s
Worlds gravity well. His plan to lure them in would now have to be changed.

“Twelve
minutes,” Anders replied as he ran the calculations.

“Lieutenant
Davis, contact the rest of our fleet and inform them to return in exactly
fourteen minutes, also tell Admiral Strong his fleet is to stay at the comet
ring until summoned.”

The
communications operator hurriedly complied, knowing how important those orders
were.

“Fourteen
minutes?” commented Beck, raising his eyebrow quizzically. “That’s cutting it
pretty close.”

“That will
trap the other fleet inside Caden’s World’s gravity well,” Tolsen explained.

He knew he was
taking a risk, but he needed that other Hocklyn fleet to be deep inside the
gravity well before the rest of his fleet put in an appearance. That reduced
the chance of the fleet he was about to engage jumping away. But being Hocklyns
with their weird code of honor, he didn’t see them jumping away from this
battle no matter what the odds.

-

Admiral Strong
was looking intently at the tactical display above the Avenger’s plotting
table. It currently showed the forty-eight red threat icons in the Gliese 667C
system. He felt a nervousness in the pit of his stomach at knowing what was
ahead. In the back of his mind, he could hear his father’s steady voice telling
him to stay calm and do as he had been trained.

“What are your
orders, Sir?” Colonel Malen asked. She was standing next to him as they
assessed the situation.

“They jumped in
almost exactly where you suspected,” Ariel commented as she examined the
tactical data. It pleased her immensely that Jeremy had been so accurate in his
assessment of what the Hocklyns would do.

The dark eyed,
black haired AI was plainly visible on the main viewscreen. She had been
following the recent developments with keen interest. The viewscreen showed
Ariel from the waist up and to the casual observer she looked quite stunning.

She and Kelsey
were already running micro-jump simulations to see where the most effective place
would be to jump the fleet. Ariel was excited to try the new micro-jump
maneuver that Jeremy had come up with. She also hoped that, at some point in
the battle, Jeremy would allow her control of the Avenger to engage the
Hocklyns. She knew that he would be very impressed by what she could do; she
had an affinity for space combat.

“They are
doing just what I thought they would,” commented Jeremy, watching as one of the
Hocklyn fleets began to enter the gravity well of Caden’s World. “I tried to
warn Admiral Tolsen they might do this.”

Now would be
the opportune time to jump in behind the second fleet and launch their attack,
he could then turn and engage the Hocklyn fleet going into the gravity well
while Admiral Tolsen finished off the other Hocklyn fleet. But he had been
ordered to wait. He was feeling impatient, but he had to follow orders. His
father had always stressed that one thing.

“Ariel, I want
you and Lieutenant Grainger to plot a micro-jump to these coordinates,” he
ordered, using a laser pointer to indicate exactly where he wanted the fleet to
go.

“You don’t
think these are all of the Hocklyn ships, do you?” Colonel Malen spoke in
surprise, her eyes growing wide as she looked over at Admiral Stone. “You think
there are more.”

“Yes,” Jeremy answered
with a nod of his head. His eyes turned back to the tactical display as he
thought about the Hocklyn tactics. “They are risking unnecessary losses by
splitting their fleet this way. I actually thought the first attack would be
with a larger fleet. I don’t believe even the Hocklyns would accept these
losses unless they had another fleet nearby.”

-

War Leader
Tantil swore in anger as his ship shook from the massive amounts of ordnance
that were striking its energy shield. The two opposing fleets had just entered
weapons range and already the first powerful salvos were landing. He knew from
studying the data from Sangeth’s battle with the humans that the human’s
weapons were more powerful.