A Shifting Alliance (Galaxy Ascendant Book 3)

by Yakov Merkin

  “Final Awakening is not ready, and there is no point in discussing it at the present time.”

  More secrets.

  “If we do recall Sai’var,” said Oversector Lord Vaiar Zalen, “what will be done about the rebels infesting my jurisdiction? He has been the only one to make significant progress against them.”

  “We have to prioritize, Lord Zalen,” said Adviser Hiran. “The more immediate threat is the Galactic Alliance. We will, of course, send a replacement for Sai’var, but most of our focus must be on the war.”

  “We are closer than it seems to ending the rebel problem, gentlemen,” said the IRSS officer. “Our interrogations of recently captured rebels has finally borne fruit, thanks in part to the aid of Lord Tavas, and action is being prepared that should see the rebellion utterly crushed, with or without Admiral Sai’var. Additionally, Director Revval had a number of promising leads prior to his taking leave, and by the time he returns, he will be able to process that information, Some he believes will lead us right to the rebels’ main base of operations.”

  “I support the motion to promote Sai’var and have him take charge of the war,” added Bureau Chief Sevaran of the IMIS. “We have a great deal more information coming in regularly on the Alliance, though most of it is not the sort of classified intelligence we would normally hope to obtain. However, Sai’var has a reputation of being able to understand and eliminate enemies based solely on cultural knowledge. He will be far more valuable here.”

  “Very well, then,” said the adviser. “Sai’var will be promoted to grand admiral and recalled to lead the war effort, while other resources will be diverted to at least containing the rebel threat for now. Is there anything else that needs to be addressed?”

  “Yes, there is,” Minister Turon said immediately. “Something that all of the discussions these past few weeks have avoided. Who thought it was a good idea to provoke this war, which we were clearly not prepared for? Was it the Emperor himself, or some overzealous officers? Either way, we have a severe leadership problem in this Empire, at least in part due to a severe lack of good, honest competition. Even if we keep some things from the general public, we here deserve to know just what is happening, and whether this is a war truly worth fighting.”

  To TR-14D’s brief scan of the room, reactions to this ranged from anger to curiosity, with the Emperor’s advisers bristling at the mere possibility of questioning him, while the bureau chief of the IMIS seemed to be enjoying this. “I can certainly say that my bureau was not expecting any sort of conflict with an external threat, hence the information gathering game building slowly. While, of course, we must prioritize the war effort itself, I would be in favor of carrying out an inquiry into the start of the war once the time allows.”

  “I am certain the Emperor, in his wisdom, did not blindly enter us into conflict,” Rievan Birelas, most senior of the emperor’s advisers, stated with his face flushed.

  “Expansionary wars are fine,” added Oversector Lords Vethmar, “but I don’t think it can be denied that the timing and lack of preparation have caused us problems.”

  “There isn’t much we can, or should do regarding that at the moment,” said the IRSS deputy—Lothaer Siras, according to TR-14D’s search—said after a long moment of silence. “Fortunately, I believe the Nihluran plan has succeeded in stopping the information leaks, and now we can recover the lost initiative. This is not the time to start pointing fingers and assigning blame. Personal issues can be settled after the war is won. Now, unity is what we need.” He looked pointedly at Minister Turon.

  “Very well, then,” said Adviser Birelas after no one raised any more issues. “That will be all for now. Remain flexible in the event that another meeting is called soon. Hopefully the spirits will favor us and there will be better news.”

  “There’d better be,” Minister Turon muttered quietly, but loudly enough for TR-14D to pick it up, as he rose and quickly made his way out of the room.

  “You were right, Minister,” TR-14D said as they walked along the hallway, decorated by minimalistic but still impressive leaf-pattern paintings along its length. “There are secrets being kept from even those who deserve to know them, about both the start of this war and the true scale of the rebel threat.”

  “Wherever there is an entrenched, established political class, corruption follows. Their goal is their own elevation, and nothing else; the suppression of the other species sparked this rebellion, I am certain, and some entirely separate failure led to this war. I’m different, I get along with everybody, even the Dullok that are causing us a great deal of trouble. That’s because I know how to deal with them.”

  TR-14D listened in silence for a moment, then, after some rapid consideration, replied. ‘It might be worthwhile, Minister, to look into the activities of your peers, to get a better sense of what is truly happening.” It was clear that Turon was looking to take the reins of the Empire himself, and to do that he would need ways to discredit his rivals, which meant looking into the same questions that so troubled TR-14D. It was a strange concept, to be willingly engaging in official intrigue like this—not to mention potentially legally problematic, given the laws surrounding his kind, but for the good of the Empire, and especially for the good of the Gurshen Collective, which was being pulled along with this against its will. “If this unit had the right sort of access, Minister, this unit could discretely increase my inquiries in a manner that could not connect them to you.”

  “I like the way you think, Triad. Let’s see what we can set up once we get back to the office. The opinion polls are good news, but we need other sorts of angles if we’re to make headway. I sense winning around the corner, don’t you?”

  In such an unusual situation, TR-14D could not say anything for certain, but he knew his employer well enough to know what he wanted to hear. “This unit do not feel things in the same way this unit suspects you do, Minister, but this unit do believe that we are going to meet with success, to one degree or another.”

  The alternative, of course, was that their snooping was discovered, which would lead to a very unpleasant situation for them both. They had to start thinking cleverly, like criminals, TR14-D decided, then pulled up a number of files and began to work even as they walked and the Minister continued to ramble on.

  CHAPTER 17

  Nayasar sat back in her command chair aboard the Felinar. For the last two days the Alliance fleet had been holding position over Re’ivar, a major Imperial world—apparently their most important outside of the core systems—that held both practical and symbolic significance for the Empire.

  They had expected a difficult battle, and thus had assembled the largest Alliance fleet since the Battle of Dorandor, comprised mostly of Legion Navy forces, with many of the Felinaris and Snevan forces redeployed to hold other positions as preparations were made for the final thrust to the Empire’s core, and Tyrannodon and Talvostan forces engaged at other locations. The Revittans had been broken exceedingly easily, however, in what was assuredly their most embarrassing performance so far. From a few major engagements, including the now distant feeling battle over the hollow world, the Revittan Navy had demonstrated that it was not wholly incompetent, which likely meant that there was some command or morale issue that was compounding as their losses kept mounting.

  There had been some initial concern that this most recent confused withdrawal was the prelude to some sort of trap, but after two days there had been no sign of a counter-attack, nor any intelligence suggesting that the Revittans had any sort of plan.

  Regardless, the Alliance fleet would remain in position so long as the battle on the surface went on, and then would still likely use this world as one of the launching points for the next assaults deeper into the Revittan Empire. The whole situation was really bizarre, Nayasar thought to herself as Lieutenant Hidar Tommir, her communications officer, brought her an energy drink. The Empire had clearly provoked this war; how could they have been so poorly prepared for it?
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br />   Nayasar shook her head. “Any new intelligence reports?” She asked.

  “Nothing new from operatives on the ground,” came the reply. “Limited information from our listening posts as well; they seem to have really cracked down and tightened security. The last report said that a shakeup in the military leadership was imminent, but there were no real details.”

  Nayasar nodded, and took a sip of her drink as she drummed the fingers of her free hand on the soft arm of the chair. Another quiet day then, most likely. Several hours passed by quickly, with the only events of note being regular updates from the ground. Had her forces been playing more of a role, Nayasar would have gone down to the planet as well, but that was not the case, both because the Legion Navy was substantially larger and thus able to dedicate this larger force to taking this world, and because, Nayasar believed, they wanted to make a statement regarding their own capabilities. They did need some wins on their own, given how poorly the last war had gone for them.

  Suddenly, an alert began to beep.

  “Grand Admiral, incoming transmission from the task force stationed at Querelas; it’s marked as urgent.”

  “Patch it through.” Querelas was one of several worlds that had recently fallen under Alliance control. It was a fairly minor one, with its main value being its position and usefulness as a staging point. Were the Revittans finally counterattacking?

  “Grand Admiral,” said High Captain Felikhav of the Selban, who was in command of the task force. “We have a very large Revittan force that just arrived near the system and is bearing down on us. There are far too many for us to hold for any length of time. I’m not even sure we’ll have enough time to evacuate our personnel currently on-world. What are your orders?”

  “Stand by for one moment,” Nayasar replied quickly, then muted the feed.

  “How quickly could we get a response force over to Querelas?” she asked.

  “If we push it, we could be there in under an hour,” the Felinar’s navigator replied.

  “Open a channel to Admiral Novvas,” Nayasar ordered. While she outranked the Legion Navy commander here, due to the fact that the Legion Navy made up the significant majority of the Alliance force, he had overall command.

  “Yes, Grand Admiral?” he asked as he appeared on the screen.

  “I’ve just received a distress call from our task force stationed at Querelas. There is a very large Revittan fleet bearing down on them, and they will not be able to hold for long. If we depart immediately, we can get them enough reinforcements to repel the enemy. I would be happy to lead the relief force myself.”

  Admiral Novvas frowned, but nodded. “Very well. Take your fleet as well as our Second and Third Fleets and the Talvostan Broadsword Wing.”

  Just over half of their forces currently at Re’ivar, and enough to ensure a victory against even a determined Revittan assault on Querelas.

  “Acknowledged, and thank you, Admiral,” Nayasar replied. The admiral nodded in return, and Nayasar closed the transmission. “Contact everyone coming with us, and fill them in. We jump out in five minutes; there’s no time to waste.”

  ###

  Just under an hour later, the response force dropped out of hyperspace to a confusing sight. There clearly had been some sort of engagement here, but somehow, the only fleet that Nayasar saw, and that sensors were registering, was their battered, but still largely intact one.

  Nayasar had a channel opened to High Captain Felikhav. “High Captain, what happened here? Where is the enemy fleet?”

  “Shortly after they began to engage us, our long-range communications were cut off—that is why we could not contact you while you were en route. The Revittans closed to engage us, and we moved to defend our position as best we could. But after only a very brief engagement, the enemy fleet backed off and jumped out of the system despite the fact that they were winning. And somehow, even though they left, we still could not make long-range transmissions.”

  A pit began to form in Nayasar’s stomach. Oh no. Feli ezziril, Omnipresent help us.

  She spun toward Lieutenant Tommir. “Can we reach the fleet at Re’ivar?”

  “No, Srei Felitzva, something’s disrupting long-range signals,” came the frustrated reply. “Whatever was jamming the task force’s communications is affecting us as well.”

  Then there was only one thing they could do.

  “Open a channel to the fleet.”

  “Channel open.”

  “This is Grand Admiral Khariah,” Nayasar said quickly. “All ships, prepare for immediate jump to hyperspace, destination Re’ivar, maximum speed.”

  Less than one long, agonizing minute later, the Felinar shuddered as it jumped to hyperspace along with the rest of the fleet.

  “Continuously broadcast a warning message for the fleet at Re’ivar, let them know that Revittan forces are inbound,” Nayasar ordered. “And pray we get there in time.”

  ###

  They didn’t make it.

  Nayasar’s fleet arrived just off of Re’ivar to find the Alliance forces in chaos, struggling to hold against a slightly larger Revittan fleet. The battle couldn’t have been going on for too long, but yet things had seriously deteriorated already. What was more striking was the Imperial fleet itself, which in contrast to recent battles looked incredibly well-disciplined, arrayed in tight, efficient formations. Something was different.

  “Srei Felitzvah, incoming transmission from Admiral Novvas!”

  “Patch him through.”

  “Grand Admiral,” he said over the visual link, through which Nayasar could see his ship shaking violently, “they arrived soon after you left, and began tearing us a new one. Our countermeasures against their energy draining weapons aren’t working, and every move we make seems to play right into the hands of these bastards. We have to withdraw.”

  “No, we can hold. We have the numerical advantage now,” Nayasar replied, but even as she spoke, several battlegroups’ worth of Revittan warships advanced and punched through the weak Alliance defensive line while the bulk of the force began to approach Nayasar’s position.

  “All Alliance vessels, fall back to my position,” she commanded over the open channel. They could still hold this off.

  Before she could relay further orders, however, an alarm blared, and another group of Imperial ships, smaller than the one Nayasar had been facing, but still sufficiently large, appeared from hyperspace behind her fleet which, having just entered the system, had not yet prepared a proper rearward defensive perimeter.

  Surgical, methodical strikes by enemy attack wings and fighters immediately began to disrupt the cohesion of their formations, and as her forces fired back, it was on a ship by ship basis, not as a combined force.

  Damn.

  The battle was already lost; this had been too well planned by the enemy. There was no way for her to take the initiative, not at this point, so much for the Alliance’s success streak.

  “All Alliance forces, retreat,” she sent. “I repeat, all Alliance forces, retreat immediately. Second Fleet, cruiser wings, divide what cover you can for damaged ships, and do what you can to provide openings for any ships trapped by the enemy, but do not allow yourselves to get outmaneuvered.”

  If this had been an entirely Felinaris fleet, she might’ve been able to pull something off, but the Legion Navy ships weren’t maneuverable enough, and she wasn’t as intimately familiar with their capabilities.

  Several more Alliance ships vanished from the tactical display.

  “Get us out of here,” she said, just managing to hold back a snarl.

  As the Felinar and the rest of the battered Alliance fleet pulled away from the planet, fighting the entire way, Nayasar looked out at the enemy fleet, and immediately picked out its flagship. A large, intimidating warship unlike any Revittan craft she had seen thus far, flanked by a group of what appeared to be modified versions of the more familiar Revittan heavy cruisers.

  I’ll see you again, kherakil filth, she s
aid to the nameless enemy commander as the ship jumped into hyperspace, the tail end of the Alliance’s first major defeat in this war.

  CHAPTER 18

  “Did you hear the latest news?” Asked Varin, Corras’s oldest son, as he arrived to the dinner table.

  Corras shook his head as he savored the familiar, warm smells of home cooking. “During my time off, I try to unplug a bit; it needs to truly feel like a vacation in order to be one.”

  “We had a major victory against the Alliance, finally. They promoted an alien named Sai’var to grand admiral, and he promptly routed an Alliance fleet much larger than his own over Re’ivar.”

  Corras nodded instinctively. “That’s good. I’ve never met the man, but from what I’ve heard, Sai’var is a tactical genius. There’s a reason he’s managed to advance so far despite his alien status.”

  “You don’t seem as pleased as I might have expected, Father,” Varin said.

  “I’m sorry, Varin, it’s just that this whole war troubles me. I’m of course happy that we’re not getting further pushed back, but I wish a way could be found to end it without so many Revittan lives being the cost.”

  “Maybe let’s change the topic, then,” said Saveera, Corras’s wife, as she rested a hand on his.’ “There are more pleasant things to talk about when we’re all together like this.”

  Corras smiled at his wife’s warm touch. The past few days had been among the best in recent memory, though it had not been all happy family time with his wife, children, and their own families. Some had also been spent making the sort of detailed, secret preparations that only one with his extensive experience with covert operations could make. But he had not let that be his focus; the focus, as always, was his family, as this might be the last time he had to spend with them.

  “Your mother’s right. I want to hear funny stories about my grandchildren, and how things have gone in your work lately. And, of course, the sooner we finish eating, the sooner we can truly start our evening.” This was to be his last evening at home, at least for the foreseeable future, and thus he had made very elaborate plans to spend it with Saveera, his five children, their spouses, and their children. He deserved that much, at least.