Counterstrike

by D. J. Holmes

  Jennifer’s smile widened. “Adventure is certainly one way to describe stepping out beyond your home system. Like I said, I cannot share our technologies with you at this stage. But I will arrange for my best scientists to take a look at your research program and assist as best they can. As our two species grow closer together, I’m sure my leaders will be happy to do more than give pointers in the future.” Though Jennifer was keen to talk more about some of the technologies she had been given permission to share, she quickly found herself dragged into a discussion of Humanity’s early years with their shift drive. They are hungry for adventure, Jennifer thought as she was bombarded with question after question. It was a very good thing for her purposes. It made them eager. But it may not serve them too well in the long term. If they drew the eye of the Karacknid Empire they would be conquered with ease. Which is all the more reason why we need to do what we are doing, she reassured herself. A part of her wanted to tell Zarnac and the other Ambassadors the full truth. But there was no way of knowing how they would react. They might suspect she was trying to trick them. Or worse, their curiosity might cause them to reach out to the Karacknids. Either way, keeping them in the dark was the safest thing to do. But will they see it that way when they finally find out? Jennifer couldn’t help but ask herself.

  *

  IS Mouse, Batazam orbit (one week later).

  “Status update?” Jennifer asked as she stepped back onto her ship’s bridge. She had spent the last six hours on the planet’s surface saying farewell to her Rillelio hosts.

  “We are ready to break orbit and depart Captain,” Phillips responded. “All systems are fully functional. We should have no problems on the journey back to Earth.”

  “COMs, signal the surface and let them know we are breaking orbit. Navigation, lay in a course for the shift passage home and engage impulse engines,” Jennifer ordered. As her ship began to move, she scanned the projected route her navigation officer had drawn up, nodded in satisfaction, and looked back at Batazam. The planet was indeed beautiful. Both in its natural landscape and in the cities the Rillelio had built. She had very much enjoyed the tours Zarnac and the other Ambassadors had given her. Movement in low orbit caught her eye. Several construction ships were moving towards one of the small Rillelio fuel storage stations. They certainly are industrious, Jennifer thought. They were already expanding their storage capacity. She had no doubt work would soon begin on expanding the gas mining stations in orbit around the planet’s single gas giant as well. Somerville should be happy, she said to herself. We have found him his fuel.

  Chapter 2

  The Imperial War museum is home to many old warship designs, both pre-Imperial and from a number of the Empire’s early allies. To the untrained eye most seem small and quaint, but there is a great deal of history to be experienced there. I encourage all my students who get the opportunity to visit the Sol system to tour the museum. If nothing else, it gives one a sense of just how fragile the warships that defended the Empire were.

  -Excerpt from Empire Rising, 3002 AD.

  IS Drake, Earth Orbit, 10th November 2483 AD

  The battle had been raging for thirty minutes. James had lost nearly a fifth of his force. Still, his warships were giving as good as they got. Though he was doing his best to keep abreast of the wider tactical situation, as a fourth missile salvo crashed in to attack the Karacknid fleet, he watched the devastation pour over Earth’s would-be invaders. His eyes narrowed as he noticed a weak point forming. The right flank of the Karacknid fleet had taken a heavier battering than the rest. Their numbers were thinning out. “Signal Jil’lal, I want her ships to focus her fire here,” James called to Lieutenant Beckford as he pointed to a section of the Karacknid fleet on his command chair’s holo projector.

  “Right away Admiral,” Beckford acknowledged.

  “Admiral, Commodore Jenkins looks like she’s in trouble,” Lieutenant Anderson called from the tactical console. “Her ships are being pushed back to the moon. The ground-based weapons will be in range of Karacknid missiles in five minutes or so.”

  James turned his attention to Jenkins’ position. The moon had been heavily fortified with ground-based missile launchers to boost Earth’s defenses. It was far easier to install them on the moon’s surface than to build entirely new battlestations to house the launchers. However, the flip side of doing so was that they were very exposed. Jenkins’ squadron was tasked with keeping any Karacknid ships that tried to engage the moon’s missile launchers at arm’s length. It seemed the Karacknids had become fed up with being pummeled by the missile launchers. More than a hundred Karacknid ships were pressing Jenkins’ squadron back. “Miyagi?” James asked as he turned to his Chief of Staff.

  “Captain Zhou and his heavy cruiser squadron should be able to disengage and back Jenkins up,” Miyagi suggested.

  “Do it,” James said immediately. “And inform our reserve fighters they need to be ready to go. The Karacknids pressing Jenkins have exposed themselves as well. Zhou and his ships can hold them in place and then our fighters can take them out of the equation.”

  “Understood Admiral, I’ll update you on our fighter numbers as soon as we have them,” Miyagi replied.

  With one problem potentially solved, James widened his focus to take in the rest of the battle. Over a thousand other Karacknid warships were pressing in hard against his ships and Earth’s battlestations. The fighting was almost even. In fact, with the moon’s missile launchers and his battlestations, James was reasonably confident the Karacknids wouldn’t be able to take Earth’s orbitals, not without losing almost all of their force. That was not his primary concern though. The more than one hundred Karacknid troop ships hovering just out of missile range were. The Karacknid fleet kept maneuvering and counter maneuvering to draw his ships out of position enough to allow the troop ships to race for Earth’s surface. If they managed to land near any of Earth’s major cities, the Karacknid ships would cause havoc. It would be impossible to launch missiles from orbit to take them out. Worse, as soon as they landed they’d go to ground and carry out a guerrilla campaign that would take months to root out. Months of wasting time and resources we don’t have, James knew. Several key shipyards had already taken damage in the fighting. The fledging Imperial military industrial complex was extremely fragile. The disruption a Karacknid landing would cause would throw Andréa Clements’ shipbuilding program back by months. And we’ve already lost more ships than we can replace in three or four months just keeping them at bay.

  “New contacts!” Anderson shouted over the din of Drake’s bridge “Eighty new warships have just come out of stealth.”

  As soon as James’ eyes found them, he swore. Half of the new contacts were moving to cut off Captain Zhou’s heavy cruisers. The other half were joining the attack on Jenkins’ squadron and the moon’s defenses. Both of his units were out of supporting range of the rest of his fleet. “Our fighters?” James asked desperately as he glanced at Commander Miyagi.

  He was already shaking his head. “They’re still five minutes out.”

  James cursed again. “Pull them back from their attack run,” he ordered, his voice full of reluctance. He didn’t want to abandon the moon. But Jenkins’ and Zhou’s ships were too valuable. He couldn’t let them be destroyed for nothing. He had to use the fighters to defend them. “Order our fighters to cover the retreat as soon as they are ready. Signal our missile crews on the moon. They are to go into rapid fire mode. They need to fire as many missiles as they can before the Karacknids take them out.” James ground his teeth together as he forced himself to review the rest of the battle. Vice Admiral Nogamoro knew how integral the moon’s missile launchers were to Earth’s defenses. With Jenkins and Zhou’s ships re-joining James’ fleet in orbit above Earth, James would better be able to prevent the Karacknid troop ships from landing. But the ship-to-ship battle had swung in Nogamoro’s favor. And I bet Suarez was the one leading the attack, James thought. Admiral Lightfoot had recommend
ed his old Flag Captain be promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral. Since then, the Latin American Admiral had been impressing everyone with his gung-ho tactics. The battle is not lost, James said to himself, but it just got a whole lot tougher. Before he could start giving orders another voice interrupted him. This time it was one of Drake’s ordinary bridge officers rather than his command staff.

  “I’m sorry to interrupt Admiral,” the Sub Lieutenant said as his voice broke.

  “Don’t worry about it,” James said, “what is it Lieutenant?”

  “We just detected eight hundred new contacts accelerating into the system. They’re Alliance warships. Their signatures match Admiral Ya’sia’s fleet that we’ve been expecting.”

  “Thank you,” James said as a smile spread across his face. He was looking forward to seeing Ya’sia. It had been nearly two years since they had last spoken face to face. He glanced back at the holo display of the battle he had been fighting. Despite the setback, it was far from over. For a few seconds he was tempted to continue the simulation. He didn’t like conceding to Nogamoro. Yet he had preparations to make. “All right, call it,” he said as he turned back to Miyagi. “Nogamoro and Suarez can count this as a victory. Though make sure you remind Nogamoro of our current head-to-head scores. I wouldn’t want him getting too cocky,” James added. He was still beating Nogamoro two to one in simulated battles. Yet as they trained more and more, the difference was edging closer to even. Only Lightfoot and Koroylov had better numbers against him. Thankfully, both of them were still commanding fleets on the frontline, James didn’t know if he’d be able to take so many simulated defeats.

  “You did well,” James called to the officers assembled on Drake’s bridge as they stood down. “Next time we’ll see it through and beat them. Beckford, patch me through to the Empress if you would.”

  Unsurprisingly, it took nearly five minutes to get Christine to answer. She was always in the middle of some meeting or another and she had scolded him more than once for using a priority message to get through to her when there hadn’t really been an emergency. As he waited, James watched Admiral Ya’sia’s Alliance fleet make its way into the system. With over eight hundred warships and nearly as many supply freighters under her command, the fleet was the largest force that had been in the Sol system since the battle of Earth. And for once they’re not invaders intent on our complete destruction, James was happy to acknowledge.

  “Admiral,” Christine said when her face appeared in his command chair’s holo projector. “I hear our friends have arrived.

  “Indeed,” James said, forgetting to use her official title. He remembered as soon as he saw the look on her face. On official COM messages she had insisted they use the proper decorum. “Empress,” he hastily added.

  “I’m sure you’re looking forward to greeting them,” Christine said as her facial features smoothed.

  “That was why I wanted to talk with you,” James replied. “I’m sure you’re planning an official reception and everything. Do you need my help with that, or could I call over to Ya’sia’s flagship? I could then accompany her down to the surface for whatever you have planned.”

  Christine laughed. “I can manage without you dear. Though if you want, I can check in with you and you can pick the official color for the reception or maybe some of the hors d’oeuvres?” Christine asked sarcastically.

  James returned her smile. “I mean, if you want me to make those decisions I certainly can, though we’d only be making more work for Fairfax. He’d have to go over everything and fix it.”

  “No, no we better not have that,” Christine replied, still chuckling. “Go and meet your friend and then you both can come down for an official welcome. That’ll let the two of you get all your military chat out of the way so you don’t bore the rest of us with it.”

  “Sounds like a plan to me,” James said grinning. “I’ll send word to your office as soon as we’re ready to depart. I presume the reception will be in Geneva?”

  “Yes, the Imperial Palace has to get some use after all,” Christine answered. “Now, go have your fun. I have work to do.”

  “Yes Empress,” James said as Christine winked at him and cut the COM channel. “Ready my shuttle,” he said a little louder for his command staff to hear. “Contact Ya’sia’s flagship and request permission to come aboard. I’ll meet her as she approaches Earth and once the fleet has settled into orbit we can proceed to the surface.”

  “Yes Admiral,” Miyagi responded.

  *

  James couldn’t help but be impressed as his shuttle flew close to Ya’sia’s flagship. The design was like nothing James had seen in the Alliance fleet before. Even without Drake’s sensors he could tell it was larger than the battleship that had been Ya’sia’s former flagship. Her sleek angular lines give her an arrowhead like appearance. Several large weapon emplacements housed heavy plasma cannons. James nodded in approval. Ya’sia’s flagship was obviously one of the first Alliance ships to incorporate Humanity’s technologies. As the shuttle swung underneath the large ship, James saw that she was bristling with point defense weapons. They looked to be even denser than those on Drake’s hull.

  “There’s her name Admiral,” the shuttle pilot informed James as a large block of alien writing appeared.

  The shuttle’s translation software quickly projected the name for James to see. Unity, James thought as he read it. A fitting name. Before the Karacknid war, the Varanni had been the dominant species in their Alliance. With the need for every ship and naval crew member possible, the Varanni had been forced to share their best technologies with their neighbors. It was an ongoing process, but bit by bit the other species were being fully integrated into the Varanni fleet by its High Command. Ya’sia was probably the greatest success story. She had led a number of Varanni majority fleets into action and won victory after victory though there had been some defeats along the way. “All right take us in,” James said after allowing the shuttle’s pilot another minute to loop around the large warship. He didn’t want to keep Ya’sia waiting. As the shuttle entered one of Unity’s shuttle bays, James was impressed again. Lined up along one side of the bay were six Alliance Pulsar fighters. If the warship’s second bay held another six, Unity would be able to deploy a full squadron of twelve fighters. She must be even bigger than she looks, James concluded. The possibility of building a hybrid warship carrier had been thrown around by several senior Imperial Fleet officers, but eventually dismissed. The Imperial Fleet simply had too many systems to protect to concentrate so many resources into a handful of large, overpowered ships. Clearly the Alliance had not come to the same conclusion.

  With a clunk, the shuttle touched down on Unity’s deck. James unstrapped himself and moved to the back of the shuttle. As he descended its rear ramp, the Alliance fleet’s welcoming party sprang to life. Several strange musical instruments began to play and a line of officers snapped to attention. James couldn’t help but smile at the array of aliens waiting to greet him. Six species were part of the Varanni Alliance. Each one of them was represented before him. In fact, he saw a couple of other species he didn’t immediately recognize. It wasn’t a hard guess to suppose they were other neighbors of the Varanni. Alliance High Command was actively seeking to incorporate other willing species into their Alliance to bolster their strength against the Karacknids. When one alien quickly moved towards him, James’ smile widened. Though he would never say it out loud, it looked like Ya’sia was trotting up to greet him. Her four legs moved as quickly as a horse’s might as it ran over to greet one of its own. Though James held out his hand, Ya’sia pushed it aside and pulled him into a hug.

  “It’s great to see you again Admiral. Or Emperor, or your Highness,” Ya’sia said loudly enough for all the nearby aliens to hear, though she was still hugging him. “I’m afraid no one could explain the etiquette to me before leaving Varanni Prime.”

  James wiggled out of her hug after a few seconds, despite her clear affection, he stil
l felt a bit conscious being engulfed in the much larger alien’s arms. “Admiral will do,” James replied, “though I’d be just as happy with James.” He took half a step back and looked around him. “You have quite a ship here Admiral,” he said. “I’d very much like a tour if we had more time. For now, let me welcome you to the Sol system. You and your ships are very welcome.”

  “We are pleased to be here,” Ya’sia answered on behalf of her officers. “We are keen to kick some Karacknid ass,” she said as she broke into a smile. “I believe that’s how your species would put it.”

  James returned her smile. “I suppose we might,” he agreed.

  “By my reckoning we have about half an hour before Unity will slot into orbit,” Ya’sia said. “Shall we retire to my ready room until it’s time to depart?”