Alien Empire

by Anthony Gillis

  “Why don’t we get with the tens of millions of Rift Gun fans out on the nets? There are nuts and fanatics out there now who probably know more about those things than Neem.”

  Karden laughed.

  “Why not? I’ll have Abida put together a little call to arms, and offer prizes.”

  Within days, and some finishing touches from Neem, who proved to be one of the fanatic Rift Gun fans on the nets, they had it. They were remotely controlled, mobile, rift travel capable guns, really more like unmanned ships. With no life support, crew space, or inertial dampeners needed, they crammed massive amounts of antimatter in their hulls. For efficiency of size and resources, they kept to weapons that didn’t need ammunition – powerful lasers, and smaller but still lethal versions of the Elder energy cannons.

  They could travel and resupply using the existing network of interstellar operating bases, many of which were now manned. Once they reached a forward location, close enough to the front to fire, they could draw on their huge antimatter reservoirs to establish connections all the way back in the League core, and to their veteran gunners.

  Abida decided the new Gunships, as they had already come to be called, would be prizes going to the absolute most skilled gunners, his top aces. The Gunships went to the front, or rather a safe, but usable distance behind it, and the remaining Protectorate fleets melted before them.

  ///

  Karden received a call, from Imni Ilyar Mneoniri.

  He couldn’t resist “Ah Ilyar, at last you need something from me!”

  “Alas no, friend Karden, I am here to give you news. The frontiers of League-controlled space, that which is covered by the Rift Guns, have passed the last of the Imri worlds.”

  “It may not surprise you that, somewhat ahead of the League’s advance, I reestablished contact with my, ah, extensive network of friends and family.”

  “No Ilyar, it wouldn’t”

  “All Imri have much appreciated the restraint your League gunners have shown toward the us and the other Free Traders, and now that we are safe from Elder retribution, we are ready to help!”

  “That is good news, as we’re far behind on rebuilding trade infrastructure. I assume you’ll get a good price for the rift cargo ships you plan to sell them”

  “You may indeed assume!” said Ilyar as he signed off.

  With the destruction of the Protectorate government transport fleets, and the defection of the Free Traders, conditions began to get grim on the worlds, thousands still, under Protectorate control.

  ///

  As the revolution spread, Karden worked hard to enforce rules on membership in the League of Free Worlds. There would be no carrying on of the old Elder hierarchies under new masters. Free speech, free enterprise, free trade, private property, and a regular simple system of laws would be required. He knew that old habits were going to take a long time to eradicate, given how ingrained they were in the culture of the Production and the Type 3 and 4 Supply worlds, but at least he could give them the right start.

  Within the guidelines he’d given, he let them work out the details. He gathered representatives from every world in the League, and every candidate, to sprawling conferences through the rift network. Dren Wimier, with his vast experience at herding the unruly creatures of politics, became a constant source of advice and guidance.

  Tayyis, with her gift for languages and cultures, and her gentle approach, dedicated herself to reaching out to the Type 1 and 2 Supply worlds. Isolated and fed only carefully selected pieces of Elder technology and propaganda, used as sources of raw materials and simple goods, sometimes for millennia, they’d been converted by the Elders into worldwide plantations.

  She resolved to change that. She built a vast new diplomatic corps, trained them, and sent them forth. Rift ships from the fleet swept in and captured, or when necessary, killed the Elder Ambassadors. Sometimes they used the Elder’s own stealth shuttles, the ones designed for so-called Diplomatic Liquidations. With horrible memories of what that had meant for her, Tayyis didn’t relish it, but it must be done.

  Her diplomats set up video screens so she could talk to leaders of the supply worlds directly. Sometimes she brought in Giuseppe McCoy and his Elder Sector Administrator’s costume. She didn’t let him pretend to be one as he wished, but the clothes themselves made the right impression. He started asking for speaking fees, but it was worth it.

  Varen and Abida’s roles changed, following logic and necessity. As Abida built his flexible parallel military of Rift Guns, volunteers, and Gunships, Varen turned to professionalizing the hodgepodge of fleets and ground forces they had available.

  He began enforcing some regularity in the organization and rank structure of what was becoming a proper League military. He recruited Rhurrg and Shulgar as shock troops, equipped them with power armor built for their massive frames, and began preparing for the assaults on Administrative worlds he knew would come.

  Scientists and engineers, led by Neem and Jat, devised a heavily armored and shielded planetary Dropship to get forces to the ground as fast as possible from the closest possible rift point. Varen trained his troops in how to make use of them.

  Viris and her network, Tayyis and her diplomacy, Neem and Jat and their inventions, Harker and his ideas on organization, all spread under the structure of Karden’s new laws across hundreds of worlds. Where they reached, duty, hierarchy, order, control, secrecy, and fear were being replaced by a bright wave of creative and productive energy.

  ///

  Skrai’kiik was keen to avoid being known as the woman who planted the tracking devices that led directly to the destruction of the Grand Fleet. While she’d be a hero to some, there were others that would no doubt see her as the greatest traitor in galactic history, and she had no desire to die by an assassin’s bullet.

  Karden and the others had kept her secret safe, but they’d seen to it that a great deal of money came her way. She’d found herself unexpectedly rich, in a new society where it opened a great many more possibilities than the old. She decided to visit her homeworld, now part of the League, and came on board one of Ilyar’s new passenger ships. She’d been away several years, but it had only been in the League a few months of that time. The differences were shocking.

  Elder aesthetic harmony was being replaced by a growing and sometimes clashing variety of styles. Advertisements were cropping up everywhere. There were more private cars on the streets. With the end of the Labor Subdirectorate, a healthy if chaotic new private job market had boomed into life.

  Karden’s laws had minimized, though not eliminated, reprisals against the remaining Elder population. However the worst of that was apparently over, and to her surprise she saw Elders, ELDERS, looking for work! Some of them would have a tough time adjusting to life without the machinery of the state to keep them in their positions, but as Solidarity 17 had shown, others would adapt.

  Most amazing of all though was the news that her family, who’d always eked out a living at the bottom of things, had gone into business selling new flavors of snacks based on, of all things, vitamin cake.

  The universe was a strange place.

  As she approached the little workshop they’d set up, she saw her mother, looking better dressed and less careworn than she’d seen her in many years. She ran to her with open arms like a Grounder, then seeing her mother’s happy but startled expression, remembered her Ara’kaa manners, and started the screeches of greeting.

  ///

  Production worlds continued to rebel and join the league. But now, a new phenomenon began to develop. The Planetary Administrator of Malachite, where after years of cutoff from trade or supplies, conditions had become appalling, finally answered one of the frequently repeated calls for surrender.

  She and the other Elder leaders expected, for themselves, the worst from their conquerors. They offered their surrender on condition that the rank and file citizens not be harmed. The leadership, a population of a billion Elders and a hundred million
or so others awaited Karden’s response. The leaders were shocked when Karden thanked them and welcomed them to the League, under the condition of acceptance of a set of very permissive laws he’d prepared. They hesitated at that, but accepted. Malachite became the first administrative world, the first Elder world, to switch sides.

  Viris, McCoy, and their propaganda teams made quick use of the defection. Elders from Malachite were invited to speak on their choice to surrender, the mercy shown them, the help they received in reconstruction, and the freer conditions of life in the League.

  The results were dramatic. Elder and other senior leaders on Production worlds began switching sides and hastily trying to implement the Karden reforms. Many Administrative worlds began to turn as well. A few others held out. They were arming.

  ///

  Something else began to develop. By one means or other, the remaining worlds under Protectorate control were beginning to coordinate with speed too fast for wormholes. The League had spies on the ground now, some of them well placed. It became clear that the Elders had, somehow, managed to duplicate rift communication technology, and had been quietly building a network of their own.

  Then the first raid came. A squadron of five sleek ships of Elder design, with powerful energy beam cannons, came rifting into space near a group of Gunships, disintegrated them, and rifted away. Minutes later they appeared above an entirely different world, and annihilated five thousand orbital Rift Guns. They repeated it a second time at another battery, then a third. Then they vanished.

  Karden watched videos of the attack. They were decorated and beautiful, in the manner of Warden Ships, but whereas the Warden Ships resembled vast, flat-topped galleys, these were more like the hulls of swift ships of sail. And, while the Warden Ships hid their weapons in space-wasting compartments, these displayed theirs with elegant, beautiful menace.

  Karden thought of the three escaped Liberty ships under Vazquez, and he knew they’d borne fruit.

  The newly built League army under Hraragurr and Drakas prepared, and by a series of hard-fought campaigns using dropships, began to capture holdout Sector Capitals. All anticipated, but dreaded, the larger campaign against the thousands of Elder colonies and other worlds still loyal to the Protectorate.

  The raids continued. The new ships were more formidable than anything in the League fleet, but it appeared the Protectorate, with its fast-diminishing resources, had only about fifty of them.

  57

  Karden knew the time had come. He called a vast, interstellar council of war. Connected by rift communications, they didn’t need to meet in person.

  Varen gave an overview of the situation and the defenses of Sol.

  “As all of you know, Earth is the Elder homeworld, but thinly spread as they are across the galaxy, even it is not a large population or economic center. There are roughly three billion inhabitants on the planet itself, nearly all Elders, most of which work in government in one way or another.”

  “Around Earth are five starbases along the Command Starbase design, though even more heavily shielded and armed. They’ve pulled all their surviving Warden Ships there, three hundred and five at last count, as well as at least fifty rift warships and are deploying what look to be rift gun batteries of their own.”

  “Earth has an unusually large moon called Luna, and the Elders have gigantic military factories there, orbital repair yards, and planetary energy beams that dwarf those on starbases. We now know Luna was the sole site of Warden Ship construction for centuries, and are confident it is the location where they’ve been building the new rift warships.”

  “There are about five hundred million Elders on Luna, and a similar number scattered in space stations, colonies, and outposts around the rest of the Sol system. However, we don’t think they will prove to be militarily significant.”

  “We estimate they have about twenty million ground troops in the Sol system. Because of the paramilitary training nearly all Elders undergo in youth, we can assume the regular troops will be augmented by substantial numbers of militia.”

  He paused for questions, answered them, and went on.

  “On our side, we have seven thousand Liberty warships, two hundred Independence star cruisers, and the Vigilant, which is now fully rift capable. It has been retrofitted with heavy energy beams, among many other upgrades, and is now the most powerful warship in the galaxy – we estimate equal in firepower to five Warden Ships. All units are en route to positions at hidden interstellar operating bases within rift distance of Earth.”

  “We have nearly a thousand Beachhead class dropships on their way to the front. We have thirty million troops in power armor, ready to go, and another nine hundred million without it. Supporting the army and fleet are three thousand of the Freedom class military transports, augmented by a large and growing number of civilian cargo ships.”

  Abida joined in.

  “Bringing Rift Gun platforms to bear within range is taking time. We currently have twenty thousand Gunships and two thousand regular Rift Guns at the front. I have all my best aces, from every world, on the job manning those gunships!”

  In her unofficial and unwanted role as head of League intelligence, Viris spoke next.

  “Sol has been a tough place to crack. After the havoc we made with their old communications system, they switched to couriers. Now we know they’re using at least some rift communications, but since rift transmissions go straight to the next device without passing through intervening space, we have no way to hack them without getting hold of one of the devices themselves. So far, no luck.”

  “For their part, they’ve gotten good, too good, at hunting down our spy satellites. My working theory is that they have some really sensitive equipment at work detecting rift energy, but Jat is supposed to come back with more information on that.”

  Hearing his name, at whatever lab he was working at that day, Jat spoke.

  “Viris is right. And they probably have a lot of spy satellites of their own floating around. We know they have a new, better type of stealth casing, though it only seems to work on small objects. Don’t know what we can do about it, short of hurrying up and capturing Earth.”

  With that, Karden knew it was his turn. As he prepared to speak, there were murmurs across the line from some of the newer leaders of the league, the ones that had first known of him via his propaganda videos.

  “The Liberator speaks!” someone cheered, followed by dozens echoes.

  The Liberator?

  Karden thought glumly about what that meant. Somewhere out there, a personality cult was forming around him. Around HIS personality! Him, the aloof, acerbic, sarcastic academic and lifelong bachelor? The only person who could handle him up close and in large doses was Tayyis, and she was a patient woman.

  But then, these people, leaders of worlds who trusted him, had followed his words and ideas, they weren’t up close, and perhaps he looked better at a distance. He avoided visibly shrugging, and resigned himself to his task. Then he spoke.

  “We face the growing problem of raids by the new Elder rift ships, which we now know are the Enlightener class. They can rift like ours, are more powerful even than our new Independence class, and the Protectorate keeps them in heavily armored and shielded bunkers on Luna when they’re not in use.”

  “The raids are causing a great deal of damage, cutting off supplies to worlds near the front, reducing the morale of the population, and calling into question our ability to protect them.”

  “While we now have an immense preponderance of resources, remember that at one time, not long ago at all, that could be said about them. We should consider that since they now have rift communications and the means to spread it quietly, they could be reopening secret communications with leaders elsewhere even now. We may assume there are some who would prefer to switch sides again, if they dared.”

  “Therefore, it is my view that we should strike sooner rather than later, and finish this war.”

  ///
<
br />   Some days later, all the pieces were in position. The League forces were gathered at large operating bases in deep interstellar space, within striking distance of the Sol system. They planned to open rifts and fire safely from the other side.

  Once the defenses in space were destroyed, they were going to rift the manned fleet in, and with it, large orbital rift portals. Through those rings would come thousands of Starfighters. While Liberty and Independence class ships cleared any remaining orbital or suborbital defenses, the Starfighters would establish air supremacy in the lower atmosphere. Then they would rift in the dropships, and launch the invasion.

  But something else happened instead.

  At three of the four main operating bases, rifts opened, and railgun and laser fire started pouring through. Nearly all the rift gun platforms, now in the thousands, immobile and without armor or shields, were ripped apart in seconds. Minimally protected Gunships started shattering next. Then shields started to flicker on Liberty warships.

  The Gunships, whose rifting capability was determined by military officers at safe command centers many light years away, were quickly and calmly pulled to new locations elsewhere in interstellar space.

  Crews scrambled. Lacking the training and uncanny calm of Elders, some of them panicked, tried evasive action rather than rifting. Others rifted to nearby locations, and were destroyed. Finally, most of the fleet rifted to random points, millions of kilometers away. The operating bases, and their supplies, were left behind and quickly destroyed.

  At the fourth base, things were calm. They opened rifts and selected targets. They began firing at the hundreds of Warden Ships, but these opened wormholes and jumped away.

  They turned their fire against the Starbases, wearing down their shields. Through other rifts, they fired a volley of nuclear missiles aimed at the defenses of Luna. The missiles were quickly destroyed by swarms of tiny Caltrop Missiles that had been rendered nearly invisible by the simple expedient of coating them in flat black. Orders came directly from Star Marshal Varen not to send any more missiles until they’d had time to clear the Caltrops.