Last stand empire rising.., p.1
Last Stand (Empire Rising Book 12), page 1
Last Stand
Empire Rising Book 12
D. J. Holmes
https://www.facebook.com/Author.D.J.Holmes
d.j.holmess@hotmail.com
Comments welcome!
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any persons living or dead, business establishments, events or locales are entirely coincidental.
Copyright © D. J. Holmes 2021
Prologue
Imperial Palace, Earth, 1st June 2484 AD (2 weeks before the battle of New Shanghai).
Empress Christine paced back and forth in her private office. Orbital Command had contacted her half an hour ago to say a packet ship had entered the Sol system. It was one of the ships assigned to her husband’s fleet. She knew it would have a message for her. She was desperate for news from the front. All she could think about was the massive Karacknid battlefleet bearing down on New Shanghai and James and his fleet.
Finally, a beep from her datapad told her the files transmitted by the packet ship had reached the Imperial Palace and been transferred to her office. Slowly, almost against her will, she tapped on the datapad and brought it up. Taking a deep breath, she began to read.
Christine, I believe the Karacknids are making final preparations to attack New Shanghai’s defenses. We cannot delay them any longer. No significant reinforcements will arrive in time to relieve us. We must fight this out with what forces we have. There is no other choice. This is the best chance we have.
Yet, you know the odds we face as well as I. Please, if things go against us, heed the advice Ya’sia gave me. I know you have had time to read the evacuation plans she shared with me. If we lose this battle, Alliance High Command will put their plans into motion. You must do so as well. Flee Earth. Get as far away from the Karacknids as you can. Join the Alliance in starting again somewhere else. I know you will want to stay. You will see it as your duty. But that is a mistake. If the Karacknids win here, then none of our colonies will be able to stand. Nothing will stop the Karacknids conquering the Alliance and this sector of space.
The only hope for our species is for some of us to run with what technologies and ships we have. With enough space and time our species can start again, we can better prepare to face the Karacknids. If such an endeavor is to have any chance of success, it needs good leadership. Our species has just been united for the first time in our history. It’s the duty of our Empress to keep this unity and lead our people. You must think of Jonathan. He is so young, so helpless. He deserves a chance to have a life. To grow up. If I cannot be there for him. You must. Please do this for our Empire and for our son. Know that I will do all that I can for you both here. You are always in my thoughts.
I love you, now and always, James.
Tears streamed down Christine’s cheeks. The message from her husband was three weeks old. If it hadn’t already, she knew what was soon to happen. The Karacknid battlefleet would move in, besiege the planet and destroy all of New Shanghai’s defenses. Her tears were for her husband and her people. She knew James wouldn’t retreat, not when he was Earth’s last line of defense.
If New Shanghai had already fallen, he was probably dead, along with tens of thousands of the colony’s civilians. Worse than either loss, though it hurt Christine to admit it, her tears were also for what she knew would come next. It would likely only be weeks before the enemy battlefleet reached the Sol system. Then everything she and James had sought to build for their people and their son would be destroyed.
Guiltily she glanced at the section of James’ letter that mentioned the Varanni Alliance sending evacuation ships far away from Karacknid space if it looked like the war was going to be lost. Since hearing about the plan her Chief of Staff had insisted they make similar preparations. As much as she hated the idea, she knew the time had come
Wiping her cheeks, she glanced at Jonathan, he was napping in his crib in her office. Everything within her wanted to take him and run from the Karacknids. Even if he grew up never remembering his homeworld, if she ran, he would be safe. It would be up to his offspring to rebuild somewhere else and prepare to fight the Karacknids on more equal terms.
Yet how could she just abandon Earth? How could she run with her son when billions of others could not? Billions who had put their trust in her. A fresh sense of guilt washed over her. She was caught. Two powerful forces were pulling at her. She had a duty to lead her Empire and its defense of Humanity’s homeworld to the last. But she also had a son. A son who meant the world to her.
A fresh tear ran down her cheek when she considered the only compromise that came to her. She could send Jonathan away with the evacuation ship. His maids could look after him. The thought of doing anything like that broke Christine’s heart. She couldn’t even bring herself to look at Jonathan again. She would be abandoning him, making him an orphan. But how could she live with herself if she ran? What would he think when he grew up and found out she abandoned her duty for him?
Angrily, she shook her head as she clenched her hands into fists. If Jonathan hadn’t been asleep, she would have smashed her office desk. She was in an impossible position! A beep from her office’s COM unit drew her hands up to her face. She wiped away her tears and tapped the unit to stop its beeping. She didn’t want Jonathan woken up. Thankfully, the officer who was on the other end of the channel knew to speak quietly.
“I’m sorry to disturb you Empress, but Commodore Mandow asked me to contact you immediately. A new group of ships has just jumped into the system. They are not friendlies.”
Christine’s heart leapt into her mouth. Surely the Karacknid battlefleet hadn’t made it to the Sol system so quickly! “How many?” she asked tentatively, afraid of the answer.
“One hundred and forty,” the officer replied. “Mandow is asking that you join him in the C&C room as soon as you can. He is liaising with Rear Admiral Sanders.”
Christine let out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding. It wasn’t the Karacknid battlefleet, at least, it was nothing more than its lead elements. Now that she had a few more moments to think about it, her initial fear was illogical. There was no way the Karacknid battlefleet could have reached Earth so quickly.
But a raiding force! Christine thought. That made sense. With all but a handful of Earth’s warships at New Shanghai, it would have been easy for the Karacknid commander to dispatch raiding squadrons to operate behind the frontlines. James would have sent a warning, was Christine’s next thought. Which means they never made it back to us.
As another thought entered her mind, she turned to Jonathan again. Her tears threatened to return. As long as the Karacknid squadron was operating in the system, there was no way she could launch the evacuation ships. She wouldn’t have to make the impossible decision yet. If it even matters now, she feared.
One hundred ships was a small force. But with the vast majority of Earth’s defenses towed off to the New Shanghai system, Humanity’s homeworld was vulnerable. Which is why Mandow and Sanders need me right away. With a tap on her COM unit, she called for Jonathan’s maids. Then she stood and prepared to head to the C&C room. Even without implementing the evacuation plans Fairfax had drawn up, she was going to have to make a handful of impossible decisions. There weren’t enough forces in the Sol system to protect everything. She was about to be asked to decide who lived and who died.
Chapter 1
In the span of the Empire’s existence, many Human colonies have been devastated by the ravages of war. Thankfully in the War of Doom only a handful suffered such a fate. Yet those that did still bear the scars today.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.
Bozhou, New Shanghai, 13th June 2484 AD
Several thousand warships from the Karacknid battlefleet settled into orbit around New Shanghai. They joined the troop ships already there and spread out to surround the planet. Together they activated their sensor jammers. In his command bunker, Acting General Johnston’s view of the retreating Allied fleet winked out.
Now we are truly on our own, he thought. The Allied fleet had been beaten and driven away from the orbitals, but now he had no way of communicating with them or even seeing when they jumped out of the system. The battle for the New Shanghai system was over. The battle for the planet itself was about to begin.
Turning from the secondary holo display, Johnston gazed at the 3D map that dominated his command bunker. It showed Bozhou and the surrounding towns and villages. The first wave of Karacknid ground troops had already secured all but two of the towns. Intense fighting was still going on in the other two, but they would fall within minutes.
The bulk of his marines and colonial militia were holding positions within Bozhou itself to prevent the Karacknids from landing on the outskirts of the city and taking it in the opening stage of their invasion. Now, Johnston had his mobile elements moving towards the captured towns. He was certain that once the Karacknids had Bozhou surrounded, they would move on New Shanghai’s capital and attempt to seize it.
With the city hugging one of New Shanghai’s oceans, only two thirds of its outer edges faced the captured towns. There was only a single cone of countryside the Karacknids could push in from. Johnston intended to make them pay a heavy price for every inch of ground they took.
“Our scouts are reporting Karacknid forces moving out from the towns they have secured,” an intelligence o fficer informed Johnston. “The formation sizes don’t look to be any larger than platoons.”
“Show me their projected directions,” Johnston requested. Moments later small arrows appeared, moving away from four of the nearby towns on the large 3D map. Each was headed roughly in the direction of one of the adaptive dampeners his forces had set up.
“They’re going for the dampeners,” he informed his staff. “Now that the battlefleet is in orbit, they want a clear view of the surface.” The Marines’ adaptive dampeners prevented ships in orbit from detecting what was happening on a planet’s surface. With them in place, Johnston’s forces could move around in the open without fearing orbital bombardment. At least, an accurate one in any case.
As soon as the Karacknids located the dampeners and took them out, the area the dampener had covered would be a no-go zone for Johnston’s forces. Each of the dampeners on the far side of the towns that faced away from Bozhou were only defended by a squad or two of marines. He had been unable to spare any more forces. Without any way to warn the marines, Johnston took a second to consider their fate and then moved on. Their commanders would already be able to guess what was coming their way.
Johnston focused on another group of arrows that appeared on the 3D map less than a minute later. These were headed towards Bozhou. This time they were coming from all six of the nearby towns. The final two towns had fallen to the Karacknids. “This is it,” Johnston said to his command staff. “Move fourteenth platoon forward to Hill forty-three,” he ordered after watching the Karacknids for a few moments.
He had six dampeners covering the countryside between the towns the Karacknids controlled and Bozhou. The Karacknids had small forces moving in the general direction of each one. Certain that they would have been the Karacknids’ first targets, Johnston already had significant forces in place to defend them. Yet the Karacknids would be determined to capture the positions.
Johnston watched the audio and visual reports that came in as fighting broke out. The platoon protecting the nearest dampeners to his command bunker was able to send back their progress in real time. As the skirmish unfolded, Johnston felt his fingers twitch as he imagined himself in the marines’ position. Thirty Karacknids appeared as they passed through a thin grove of alien trees. As they approached a single farmhouse at the bottom of a valley, a squad of marines opened up on them.
Two Karacknids fell before the rest ran for cover. Return fire then began to rip the farmhouse apart. It had never been built to withstand laser rifle beams. The fire from the marines quickly withered and disappeared altogether. That was the Karacknids’ cue, rising to their feet, they charged the building. Just at that moment the platoon of marines that Johnston had moved up to Hill forty-three pounced.
Two hypervelocity missiles streaked in from the hill that overlooked the farmhouse. Two concussive blasts and then a wave of fire and soil struck the Karacknids. Even before the missiles had hit home, the forty marines of the platoon charged. Hundreds of plasma bolts peppered the Karacknids as those that hadn’t already been blown off their feet dove for cover.
At that moment, the marines in the farmhouse opened up. Caught in a crossfire, the Karacknids were forced to keep their heads down. It allowed the marines of fourteenth platoon to get close enough to lob plasma and concussion grenades towards the Karacknids. As the grenades exploded, the marines closed in for the kill. Methodically they worked through the Karacknids’ positions, taking out every enemy they came across.
Counter fire from the Karacknids cut down six marines but then the brief skirmish was over. Johnston watched for another few seconds as the injured marines were helped up by their comrades and then the whole platoon fell back up Hill forty-three and down the other side.
Turning his attention to the wider battlefield, Johnston saw that each of the Karacknid probing forces had been turned back. Some of the platoons had suffered heavier losses, but they had all held their ground. Now they know we’ve moved forces out from the city, Johnston thought.
The enemy commander couldn’t know just how many mobile forces Johnston had, but he’d have to assume Johnston was prepared to put up a fight. It wasn’t hard to predict what would come next. The Karacknids would take some time and prepare their ground troops. Then they’d move out in much larger formations. “Send word to all our ground commanders, they can engage at will as the enemy enters their zone of operation,” Johnston ordered.
After the Karacknids had made their initial landing, he had moved all of his tanks and heavy weaponry into the countryside surrounding Bozhou. They would be no use to him within the city and he could bleed the Karacknids as they approached. Instinctively, Johnston glanced at the ceiling of his command bunker. Sooner or later the Karacknids would bombard the area around Bozhou for a second time. Even if they couldn’t detect exactly where his forces were, they’d likely have no reservations about carrying out a blanket bombardment. He had his forces spread out as thinly as he could, but there was no way to fully protect them.
Quicker than he expected, Johnston saw new formation markers pop up on the holo map. Karacknid division sized formations were moving out of the towns they had secured. Reports came in of a third wave of ground troops being landed behind the towns as well. The real fighting was about to begin.
*
Lieutenant General Pershing jumped out of his command APC with his command staff. They moved a couple of hundred meters away from it and took up positions just below the brow of a hill. The APC was too big a target to stay near. He knew he should be back in Bozhou commanding his division from the relative safety of the city. Yet he needed to get a feel for the battleground.
Falling to his knees, he slowly moved up to the top of the hill. His combat armor had already adapted to blend in with the tall grass that reached up over his shoulders. As he peeked over the hill, he looked down across several valleys towards the town of Hongshu. It was one of two within his sector that the Karacknids had taken. Approximately forty thousand Karacknid troops had been landed in and around both.
Facing off against them he had one division of marines. Yet half of his force of eight thousand were still in Bozhou or defending the line of retreat back to the city. That left him with a force outnumbered ten to one to oppose the Karacknids’ advance.
A steady stream of shuttles took off and landed. The Karacknids were receiving continuous reinforcements. With only a small number of SAMs left to his division, he needed them to protect his forces. To his rear, hidden within several thick forests or behind deep ridges, Pershing had a number of artillery pieces and Centurion tanks.
He was sorely tempted to order them to bombard the Karacknid positions. No doubt their counter fire would take out his units in less than a minute, but in that time his forces could get off a lot of shells and missiles. He couldn’t, however. Even though both towns looked like they had been battered beyond recognition, there would still be a great many civilians left within them. The Karacknids were using them as shields for their landing operations.
Letting his eyes pass over the two towns, Pershing studied the terrain. He had already memorized all of the features on the 3D map within his APC, but he needed to see it in person. At several points small plumes of smoke were rising into the air where his forward squads had ambushed the Karacknids’ probing forces. Taking in each valley, river, hill and forest, Pershing tried to imagine how the Karacknid forces would advance.
