Empires gambit, p.54
Empire's Gambit, page 54
He never got to make it. Out of nowhere, contact alarms began to blare all around him. James’ heart went cold as his head whipped around to the gravimetric plot. Thousands of new contacts had just been detected!
Chapter 41
No Karacknid Admiral has killed more of our people than Tanaka-lan.
-Excerpt from Empire Rising 3002 AD.
There was no doubting who the new contacts were. As they charged into the system, Drake’s sensors immediately identified them as Karacknid warships. Deepening James’ shock, his flagship’s computer started recognizing some of them and giving them designations. Several contact reports appeared beside many of them. Drake had met many of them before. “Tanaka-lan,” James whispered, though in the silence that had engulfed Drake’s bridge, it made several officers jump. James struggled to get his mind around it. How on earth had the Karacknid High Admiral come to be where he was? Do they have a wormhole as well? James asked himself. Yet that didn’t make sense. The Kalassai would likely have discovered it long ago. And they would have been able to bring up reinforcements to the frontline far faster. There was only one other explanation. Somehow, Tanaka-lan had figured out what James was doing. He had raced his ships all the way from the frontline back to Gayla. It must have taken months, James was sure. Yet the High Admiral wouldn’t have encountered any resistance. Whereas James’ ships had fought all the way to Gayla, Tanaka-lan was no doubt helped on his way from system to system.
James shook his head in dismay. Tanaka-lan’s five thousand ships were just three hours away from his position. There was no way he could continue with his battle plan now. Tanaka-lan had wrecked everything! If he pulled his forces out to engage the High Admiral, James had no doubt the three thousand ships defending Gayla would break orbit and attack from the rear. There was a fair chance he could defeat both fleets, but he wouldn’t have much of a force left after that. And it’s Tanaka-lan, James said to himself. The Karacknid Admiral was bound to have some surprises up his sleeve. Even as James watched the sensor data coming in on the new Karacknid fleet, he spotted six carriers. With the losses Hawthorn’s fighters had already taken, Tanaka-lan now had the fighter number advantage. Desperately, James looked back at the Karacknid homeworld. Victory had been so close, almost within his grasp.
“Admiral, we’re getting an open communication from those new Karacknid ships,” Petrov announced, surprise filling her voice.
James was sure he knew who it was from. Though he didn’t want to hear it, he nodded to Petrov. A moment later, Tanaka-lan’s face appeared on the main holo display. “Admiral Somerville,” he said savagely. “I know your flagship leads this heathen fleet. You may have fooled me once, but now you will pay the price. You once offered me a deal. Well, I am here to offer you one now. Surrender your ships, cause no more damage to Gayla, and I will give you and your fleet a quick death. Do this and there will be no more repercussions for your atrocities. But listen to me very closely. Fire one more missile at my homeworld, launch one nuke at its surface, and I promise you I will wipe your species off the face of the galaxy. I will not rest until every single one of your people has been hunted down and killed. On that, I swear on the Imperator’s life. I will never rest until I have had my revenge.”
Despite the vast distances that were still between them, James swallowed hard at the tone of Tanaka-lan’s voice. He knew his adversary meant every word he said. Once again, James found himself confronted with the very real possibility that his entire species could be made extinct. What choice do I have? He asked himself as fear and dismay washed over him.
*
Imperator’s Glory
Tanaka-lan was furious. Sensing his homeworld was in danger, he had taken a fast frigate forward ahead of his fleet to see just what was happening at Gayla. He had arrived just in time to see each of his homeworld’s moons be attacked and overrun. Then the damned Human Emperor had used his own siege tactic against his homeworld! His claws were dug so deeply into his command chair that they felt like they were about to snap off. Tanaka-lan didn’t care. He wanted to rip Somerville’s throat out. Not only that, he wanted to rip the throat out of every incompetent commander that had allowed the Allied fleet to penetrate so deeply into his species’ territory. He longed to drive his claws into the heart of Gayla’s fleet commander for not breaking orbit to engage Somerville’s fleet sooner. The fool had allowed Somerville to approach the homeworld and ravage it. Countless trillions upon trillions of credits worth of damage had already been done. The industrial might of his species had been set back a century. And this is only from the damage they have done here, Tanaka-lan thought to himself. He knew Somerville well enough by now to know that the Human would have left a trail of destruction behind him on his journey to Gayla.
Most of all, Tanaka-lan was furious with himself. He had failed to grasp the Humans’ strategy quickly enough. Despite racing his ships across the Karacknid empire at a speed never accomplished before, he had still arrived too late. His homeworld and Taranaki were at the Humans’ mercy. Just a handful of nukes fired at the Imperial Palace and everything Tanaka-lan and his fleet had fought and died for would be over. Letting out a growl that filled Imperator’s Glory’s bridge, he drove his claws deeper into his command chair. The Humans would have received his message by now. Do not dare, he thought towards Somerville. I will gut your wife and child. Do not dare.
*
IS Drake
James was still staring at the new Karacknid fleet. His hands were in fists. His palms stung; his cuts had reopened. He had no choice. He knew that, and yet he still hesitated. He couldn’t help but be brought back to the Battle of New Shanghai. Tanaka-lan had beaten him there and at the second battle of Earth. Only the Kulreans’ intervention had saved the day. A thought made him spin around to Fralin-yang. “You still do not believe revealing your presence now will accomplish anything?”
Fralin-yang shook his head and gestured towards the new ships on the holo display. “Especially not now. Not when the Imperator will believe he has been saved. Why? What are you thinking?” Fralin-yang sat forward in his chair, almost a threatening tone entering his voice.
James was already turning away. “Get me Admiral Ya’sia,” he demanded. Fralin-yang needn’t worry. No matter what Tanaka-lan did, he wasn’t about to nuke Gayla. He would not become like those he despised the most. His friend appeared on his holo display moments later.
“You have no choice,” she said at once. “I will buy you the time you need. None of our lives will mean anything if we cannot get to him.”
James closed his eyes. She was saving him from having to give the order. His mind flashed back to when he had first met Ya’sia. Almost, they had come to blows with their two fleets. Instead, they had become firm friends. When he opened them, he saw the same emotion he felt on her face. “Thank you. I’ll give you Hawthorn and her fighters. Do whatever you can to stay alive.”
“We will do our best,” was all Ya’sia was prepared to promise. “There’s no time to spare. We will depart immediately.” Without waiting for James to respond, she ended the COM channel. Seconds later, Triumphant and all the Alliance warships in James’ fleet moved away from Drake, bringing a thousand Conclave and Kalassai ships with them.
“I’ll speak to the rest of my senior commanders now,” James requested. “Ya’sia has gone to buy us time,” he informed Becket, Shraw, Scott, Fug-sal, and Johnston. “We have three, maybe four hours, that is all. There’s no more time for any of our planned attacks. We must drive on Gayla and take the orbitals. General Johnston, your forces must assault the Palace and capture Taranaki. Fralin-yang assures me that is where he will be. We have no other choice now. We must get our hands on him. Killing him will not do, it will only enrage them further. Only Taranaki can stop this bloodshed. We must get to him!”
“We are with you,” Becket said. “All of us are,” she added as she looked around at the other commanders.
All of them nodded or gestured in the affirmative. Only Fug-sal hesitated. “This attack will mean certain death for so many of our ships.”
“It will,” was all James could find to say in reply. “That is what is required of us now.”
“We will all be destroyed if we cannot do this,” Becket said. “We are committed now, there’s no turning back.”
“Very well,” Fug-sal replied. “We will join you in this. There is no separating now, anyway.”
“Then let’s bring this fight to them,” James said as he gritted his teeth. “Let’s show them what happens when they attack our worlds and our peoples! Death to the Karacknids!” He shouted as he slammed his fist onto his command chair. All of his commanders repeated the phrase. Even Drake’s bridge officers began to shout it. James didn’t need to give any more orders, his ships surged forward. Everyone in the fleet knew what was at stake. They all knew what they had to do.
*
Imperator’s Glory
Tanaka-lan growled just as loudly as James when he saw the Alliance warships turn towards his fleet. He knew exactly what that meant. So be it, he thought towards Somerville. If I capture you, I will keep you alive long enough so that you can see what I will do to your family and your homeworld. “All ships are to prepare for battle,” he barked. He needed to crush the Allied ships as quickly as possible and get to Gayla.
*
IS Drake
Just before Drake charged into normal missile range, she and the rest of James’ Imperial warships fired their final salvo of mark VI’s. The Kalassai opened fire with their munitions to support the missiles. Before they reached their targets, all of the Allied ships were able to then fire a normal salvo. The Karacknids did so as well. From the remaining nineteen hundred battlestations and three thousand warships, one hundred and sixty thousand missiles rose up from Gayla. Despite the massive threat, Drake kept forging forward. They had to bring the Kalassai city ships into energy weapon range. It was James’ ships’ only hope.
Three Karacknid missile salvos collided with them before they got that far. The Allied fleet threw everything they had at them. It wasn’t nearly enough. Each salvo knocked hundreds of contacts from Drake’s sensors as anti-mater engulfed ships, wiping them from existence within a couple of seconds. Even more suffered proximity hits or had serious damage inflicted upon them. Their momentum kept them moving towards Gayla where subsequent missile salvos could finish them off. Despite the death and destruction around him, James kept his focus on the point in the Karacknid defenses he had selected. His ships were heading right towards it. His missile salvos had already begun to blast a hole in the Karacknid ships and battlestations. The Kalassai fire was widening that hole every ten seconds. As each salvo rushed in, he willed them on. He needed to clear away as many enemy units as possible.
Just after the third Karacknid salvo struck home, the Kalassai city ships made it into range. Within seconds, battlestations started to be blown apart. James punched his fists. Even as the Karacknids fired another massive salvo, a hole was opening in their formation. Just seconds after the city ships fired their first salvo, James looked over to Salamanca. “Begin breaking maneuver,” he ordered.
As Salamanca took control of the dreadnought, her nose twisted up and away from Gayla. The other ships in James’s fleet did the same. Then they all fired their main thrusters, working to arrest their momentum towards the planet. The maneuver turned most of the ship’s point defenses away from the Karacknids. Unless James wanted his ships to crash into the planet, he had to do it. As the Kalassai city ships kept firing away, he held up a hand towards Salamanca. The fourth Karacknid missile salvo was just two minutes from his ships. He waited until the very last moment and then dropped his hand. As soon as the ships began to turn back to face the incoming threat, they opened up with all their weapons. Moments later, more antimatter explosions bloomed amidst James’ fleet. As soon as they died out, James nodded to Salamanca. Once again, the Allied fleet turned and began to decelerate once more.
This time, James braced himself. All of his ships would enter energy weapon range of the Karacknids before the next salvo reached them. Just twenty seconds before they did, he gave the order for his ships to flip end over end one final time. Then all hell broke loose. The Kalassai warships were able to fire first. Equipped with smaller phasers than their city ships, they raked the Karacknid warships still in orbit. Thousands of explosions appeared on Drake’s sensors. Then the rest of the Allied fleet and the Karacknids fired at almost the same instant. Grazer beams, heavy plasma bolts, and particle cannons filled the space between the combatants with terajoules of energy. Combatants on both sides were blasted apart. Thousands of ships and stations died.
Beneath his feet, James felt Drake shudder twice in quick succession. His flagship had been hit! The power flickered on most of the bridge’s consoles and the lights went out. Emergency lighting flicked on instantly. Most of the consoles came back to life as well. They were screeching as they protested all the damage being done to the ship. Alvarez and Drake’s senior Lieutenants bellowed commands to one another and the rest of the bridge officers.
As if the carnage wasn’t enough, the final missile salvos each side had fired came crashing in. Several hundred antimatter missiles made it through the weakened point defensive fire of the Allied fleet. They brought death and destruction with them. What emerged from the slaughter was a shadow of the fleet that had entered. James tried and failed not to look too closely at the losses. His eyes fell on the area of his fleet Rising Star had been in. His hands clenched into fists. Jil’lal’s flagship was gone. There was no sign of it. Antimatter had wiped it from existence. James wanted to scream. He had lost another friend! He couldn’t though. There was too much at stake.
Despite the grievous losses, there were three thousand ships still keeping pace with Drake. All of them were firing their maneuvering thrusters. James forced himself to focus his eyes on the coordinates his ships were heading towards. That was all that mattered. They had now destroyed over five hundred Karacknid battlestations. All of the ones that had been above the Imperial Palace were gone. So too were the Karacknid warships stationed there. As his ships slipped lower and lower into Gayla’s orbit, they didn’t stop until they were touching the planet’s atmosphere. They got so low that the curve of the Karacknids’ homeworld protected them from energy weapon fire from the remaining Karacknid ships and stations. That didn’t stop them from hurling a steady stream of missiles over the horizon towards James’ ships. With the Allied fleet planting itself in the midst of the Karacknids, they came from every direction. Yet the Karacknids had suffered just as grievous losses as James’ fleet had. The evidence of the fact was seen in their depleted missile numbers. The point defensive fire that reached out to strike at them proved effective. Only twenty-three missiles managed to hit their targets. As soon as they had detonated, James swung round to Petrov. “Give General Johnston the go order now!” Then he joined Ivanov in reorganizing their formation to provide as tight a defensive front as possible. He had to hold long enough for Johnston to acquire their target.
*
Johnston was in one of the first shuttles to launch. It took just a minute for his first assault wave to form up and race down through Gayla’s atmosphere. Hundreds of tungsten spears left fiery streaks behind them as they raced ahead. Explosions erupted all around the area in front of the Imperator’s Palace. They then marched their way several kilometers out into an open desert area he had selected as his forces’ LZ. Others crashed down on the far side of the mountain range the Palace was in. They caused a wall of destruction between the Palace and a nearby city. When the orbital strikes clearing his LZ ceased, the others did not, however. For as long as the Allied ships were in orbit, Johnston wanted a constant wave of strikes landing between the Palace and the nearest Karacknid city. He wanted to do everything he could to discourage the city’s population from rushing to help their Imperator. There was no way his two hundred thousand strong force could hope to accomplish their mission otherwise.
From his command shuttle’s holo display, Johnston orchestrated the landing. The Imperator’s Palace was a formidable target. Built into the side of a huge mountain, it jutted out forming a semi-circle. Like the other shrines he had assaulted, it’s exterior walls were all smooth rock. It had a dome on top that was just as smooth as well. Though the Palace itself appeared to have no defenses, there were several rings of fortifications surrounding it. First, he sent in all of his atmospheric fighters. They flew over the Imperator’s Palace, launching hyper velocity missiles at the ground fortifications. Hundreds of missiles reached up to reply in kind. Evasive maneuvers and ECM saved some of the fighters. Less than half escaped. While the Karacknids were distracted, Johnston pushed his first landing wave forward. More missiles reached out to swat at the shuttles. Counter fire homed in on every launch site. Even so, nearly a third of the shuttles were struck by missiles or laser beams. Johnson had no time to spare though. Already, his second wave was zooming in after the first.
