The Pike Chronicles - Books 1 - 10

by Hudson, G. P.

  Even then, what could they accomplish? The moment they tried to jump into the system, the jumpspace technology would annihilate them. The reality was that this system now belonged to the Alliance, and Tallos had no interest in letting it go.

  “Send a comm drown through the gate, into the Widow’s Triangle, with an update on all that we’ve found here. Inform the Alliance that we control the system, and that we require permanent defensive systems.”

  “Dispatching comm drone.”

  A holographic image took shape in front of Tallos, displaying three vicious looking Juttari faces. The planetary leadership.

  “Diakan barbarism,” said one of the Juttari, pointing a razor sharp claw at Tallos.

  “A ridiculous comment, coming from a Juttari,” countered Tallos.

  “You bombard our planets with nuclear weapons.”

  “I destroyed your military infrastructure. I have not targeted your cities.”

  “Your weapons have killed millions.”

  “Collateral damage.” Tallos leaned in toward the Juttari leaders. “Do not lecture me about barbarism, Juttari. How many planets have you decimated? Did you not try to exterminate the humans last year? Billions died on that planet.”

  “That planet belonged to the Juttari Empire. A planet the Diakans stole from us.”

  “A planet we rightfully liberated during the previous war. Regardless, I did not contact you to discuss the fate of Earth. I am contacting you to discuss the fate of your planets. I demand your unconditional surrender.”

  “Surrender? We are the chosen. We do not surrender to unclean creatures such as you.”

  Tallos felt the anger returning. Tension began to build in his neck, and he subtly turned his head in an effort to loosen the tightening muscles there. “Either you surrender, or you will be subjected through the use of force.”

  “We do not fear your heathen threats. You believe you have power? You are nothing. You have made a grave mistake, Diakan. You have bombed holy ground. The Gods now come for you. You will all be cleansed.”

  “Captain Rotos, target one of cities on the closest planet. On my order, you will launch three conventional jump bombs, striking the city’s center.”

  “Yes, Sir. Target has been acquired.”

  Tallos focused on the Juttari doing the talking. “So you will not surrender?”

  “We will not.”

  Tallos’s jaw tightened, and he clenched his fists. How foolish were these Juttari? Did they really think he wouldn’t? “Captain Rotos. Launch jump bombs.”

  “Bombs away,” said Rotos.

  “As you see, I can strike your planets at will, and you have no way to stop me. Now, will you surrender your planets?”

  “You are a coward, like all Diakans,” said the Juttari. “Do as you wish. The gods are coming for you. You and your kind will be cleansed soon enough.”

  The anger turned to fury. The emotion overwhelmed Tallos. It was all encompassing. Complete. I will lay waste to your planets, thought Tallos, envisioning the nuclear desolation he was about to inflict. You will all burn. Every last one of you.

  “Captain Rotos!” shouted Tallos.

  A Diakan raising his voice, let alone a Diakan General, was so foreign that most of the bridge crew stopped dead. Tallos glared back at them. This is insubordination, he thought. My own crew is turning against me. They are all traitors.

  “General?” said Rotos, clearly confused by the outburst.

  Just when Tallos felt like he himself would explode, the symbiont finally acted and quelled the violent emotions. The tension left, his muscles relaxed, and the familiar Diakan calm returned.

  Tallos straightened his uniform, turning back to the Juttari. “Luckily for you, Juttari, we have some time. I will give you an opportunity to discuss this amongst yourselves. You have ten Diakan standard hours. If, after that time, you do not surrender, I will bomb the next city with nuclear weapons. General Tallos out.” With that, Tallos killed the transmission.

  Standing from his command chair, Tallos stepped down from his perch. “You have the bridge, Captain Rotos. Continue targeting the jump gate, so long as ships keep coming through.”

  “Yes, Sir,” said Rotos.

  Tallos walked off the bridge, and headed toward the ship’s sick bay. He didn’t know what was wrong, but it had to be dealt with before his final showdown with the Juttari planetary leaders.

  Chapter 50

  The Kemmar had installed defenses on the other side of the Telepylos jump gate. They had sent most of their ships through to Telepylos to bolster their fleet there. With those ships destroyed, Jon decided to use old fashioned tactics, sending a siege ship to force its way through the gate. AI hacked into the gate defenses, and took control.

  With the Telepylos jump gate secured, the fleet began crossing through. The gates were wide enough to accommodate several warships simultaneously. With almost a thousand ships, that simply took time. Still, it was much faster than the days it would take to reach their destination with the jump system. The gates still had great value, even in this age of jump systems and jump bombs.

  When the last of the fleet sailed through, the time had come to begin the advance through Kemmar space. The primary target was Kem, the Kemmar home planet, but along the way, Jon would seek out and destroy every military asset he came across. Jon’s plan was to hit every Kemmar system between the gate, and Kem. The plan leveraged the jumpspace technology, and speed.

  “What is our jump system status, Mr. Richards?” said Jon.

  “Jump system is at seventy-five percent, Sir. We are jump ready,” said Richards, the helmsman.

  “Commander Henderson, jump a surveillance drone into the first Kemmar star system.”

  “Yes, Sir. Plotting coordinates. Launching drone,” said Henderson.

  When the drone returned, Jon pulled up the feed on his console, studying it with interest. The system defenses consisted mostly of planetary defense systems, and a handful of warships.

  “These Kemmar don’t go overboard with system defenses, do they?” said Henderson, analyzing the same feed. “If this was a Juttari system, there’d be battle stations, and autonomous defense systems in place everywhere.”

  “You’re right,” said Jon. “They’ve only really thought about defending the planets themselves, not the system.”

  “Not very smart,” said Henderson.

  Jon shrugged. “They’ve never had to worry about it. They’re conquerors. Every race they’ve encountered has been weaker.”

  Henderson nodded. “These bastards have never been invaded.”

  “No, they haven’t. They’ve been at the top of the food chain throughout their history. They see the rest of the universe as prey.”

  “I know that alright. I’ll never forget what they did to Private Denney on the prison planet,” said Henderson, referring to how the Kemmar had eaten Private Denney alive, while the Hermes Marines were captive on the prison planet.

  The reference filled Jon with guilt. It was his fault his men had been captured. Denney’s blood was on his hands. “Don’t worry, Commander. We’re going to make the Kemmar pay for that, and every other crime they’ve committed.”

  “Yes, Sir!” said Henderson resolutely.

  Jon couldn’t help but notice the tension in Henderson’s jaw, and the muscles flexed in his powerful arms. This man wanted nothing more than to destroy the enemy.

  “Commander, inform the fleet we’ll be jumping into the first target system shortly.”

  “Transmitting.”

  Jon opened a comm with Colonel Bast of the Chaanisar. Bast’s stern, angular features soon appeared on the display.

  “Are the ground teams ready, Colonel?” said Jon.

  “Yes, Admiral. They await your orders.”

  “Good, Pike out.”

  “Fleet is responding that they are jump ready, Sir,” said Henderson.

  “Let’s get started. Initiate jump.”

  “Jump complete.”

>   The fleet had landed in a star system dominated by a yellow star similar to Earth’s, with twelve planets in orbit around it. Only one of the planets was habitable, and that was the one that interested Jon.

  “Confirm the number of warships in this system, Commander.”

  “Our scans count twenty-five warships, Sir,” said Henderson.

  “This system now belongs to the UHSF. Kindly remove those ships from my sky.”

  Henderson smiled. “With pleasure, Sir. Initiating jump bomb strike.”

  Jon watched with satisfaction as the Kemmar vessels were destroyed. “Well done, Commander. I’ll also need you to do something about those annoying planetary defenses.”

  “Right away, Sir.”

  The sophisticated orbital defense network protecting the planet was struck with a jump bomb strike. Explosions ripped apart the installation in what looked like a chain reaction. The light from the flashes created a temporary halo effect around the planet.

  “Planetary defense network has been destroyed, Sir.”

  “Order the fleet to take positions in high orbit around the planet.”

  Jon tried to imagine what was happening on the planet’s surface. Was this race of predators panicking at the ease with which their defenses had been dispatched? Were they looking up at the ships taking orbit around their planet, and trembling with fear, as their ships had done to so many other races? He hoped so.

  “Military installations have been identified, Sir,” said Henderson. The ships had taken position around the planet.

  “No point wasting anymore jump bombs. Take out those defenses with our conventional weapons. Fire at will.”

  “Transmitting orders.”

  The Kemmar planet underwent the most horrific electrical storm it had ever experienced, as blue energy bolts rained down on the surface in a relentless barrage. The combined force of Jon’s thousand ships came to bear on the planet, decimating all military assets.

  The ground forces tried to retaliate with surface missiles. But the attempt proved futile against the invading force. In most cases the ship countermeasures dealt with the missiles, and in others the missiles failed to make it past the ships’ point defense shields.

  The whole time, Jon sat back and savored every minute of the attack, ensuring the process was as thorough as possible. The fleet continued to pound the surface for hours, until every last bit of military infrastructure was completely destroyed.

  “All identifiable military assets have been destroyed, Sir,” said Henderson.

  “Send fighters into the atmosphere, and have them establish air superiority. They are to enforce no fly restrictions immediately. They will provide support for the ground troops that are to follow.”

  “Yes, Sir. Launching fighters.”

  “Hail the planet. I want to speak to whoever the leader is down there,” said Jon.

  A Kemmar eventually appeared on Jon’s display, baring its rows of sharp teeth at Jon.

  “I am Lord Raath, master of this world. Who am I speaking to?”

  “I’m Admiral Jon Pike, the new master of this world. This entire system, and this world, now belongs to the UHSF.”

  “This is a sovereign world of the Kemmar Empire!”

  “Not anymore. We will soon be sending down troops. You will comply with their demands. If there are any humans on this planet, kept as slaves or otherwise, they will be immediately released, and handed over to our soldiers. Any acts of resistance, defiance, or disobedience will be dealt with quickly and harshly. My soldiers are authorized to use deadly force at their discretion. Do you have any questions, Raath?”

  The Kemmar looked back at Jon with hate filled eyes, and growled “We await the arrival of your troops,” said Raath, regaining some semblance of control.

  Chapter 51

  The Intrepid raced through the void, maintaining FTL speeds, while several Kemmar warships nipped at its heels. The Kemmar matched the Intrepid’s speed, flanking it on three sides. Captain Konos monitored the nail biting situation on his tactical screen. They had been running at FTL speeds for several hours, and would need to continue for much longer before they reached Calledonius and his armada.

  His engines couldn’t go much faster than twenty times the speed of light, and it would take months before he reached the armada. His only hope was to repair the jump system, or the Kemmar tired of the chase.

  He hadn’t seen any sign of the missing Kemmar jump ships. He was pretty sure they had jumped ahead somewhere, waiting in ambush.

  “Sir, our velocity is dropping,” said Commander Mani. “We are now at 19.8C and falling.”

  Konos opened a comm with Chief Mendyk, his engineer. “Mendyk, what the hell is happening down there?”

  “It’s the reactor, Sir. It’s losing integrity. We need to drop out of FTL speeds or we’ll lose containment,” said Mendyk.

  “Chief, do you know what is happening out there? If we drop out of FTL we are dead.”

  “If we stay at FTL, we will be dead.”

  “That is unacceptable, Chief.”

  “I’m sorry, Sir. There’s nothing more I can do.”

  “Damn it,” said Konos. “Commander Mani, we are about to drop out of FTL. I want all fighters and bombers in the sky the second we do.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Tactical, ready weapons. Bring point defense system online the moment we’re out of FTL. You are free to fire at will.” Konos looked back to his tactical display. Four ships were chasing him. The others had stayed back, or had jumped ahead. For now, he only had these four to deal with. He hoped for all their sakes that the Intrepid could hold its own, at least until help arrived.

  “Dropping out of FTL,” said Mani. “Launching fighters and bombers. Kemmar ships are also coming out of FTL.”

  “Weapons hot,” said the tactical officer, hunching over his console, ready to blast away at the enemy.

  The Intrepid lit up like the fourth of July, as the point defense system came online, and its explosive rounds established a protective perimeter around the ship. Its numerous gun batteries fired powerful blue energy bolts at the four Kemmar warships, while missiles launched from their tubes, racing toward their targets.

  The fighters and bombers still had usable jump systems, and they took full advantage, jumping in close with their enemy targets, conducting strafing attacks, and launching their armor piercing torpedoes.

  Taking the initiative, the Intrepid hit first, and it hit hard, catching the Kemmar flat footed. It seemed they were so focused on chasing down the Intrepid, they didn’t expect the lightning attack underway against them.

  The bombers proved to be the decisive weapons, as their torpedoes pushed through the Kemmar defenses, burrowing into the enemy hulls. At detonation, they left large, jagged gashes in the sides of the enemy ships.

  “Tactical, target those breaches,” ordered Konos. “Commander, have our birds do the same. I want to see what’s inside those tin cans.”

  Concussions rocked the Intrepid, as the four Kemmar warships returned fire. Energy bolts and plasma cannons targeted the Intrepid’s point defense batteries, while missiles came at it from all sides. Countermeasure drones raced out of the Intrepid in all directions, mimicking the Intrepid’s signature, attempting to draw the missiles away from its own hull. Some were fooled by the drones, others flew into the point defense shield.

  “Point defense batteries four and six have just been destroyed,” said Mani, as a gap in the Intrepid’s point defense shield formed, leaving it vulnerable.

  A new wave of Kemmar missiles were launched at the Intrepid. Countermeasure drones took to the sky again, leading several missiles away from the ship. There were simply too many, however. New explosions detonated against its hull, as the weapons found their way through the gap in the point defense system.

  “Hull breach deck nine,” said Mani. “Emergency containment fields are in place.”

  On the viewscreen, a satisfying, yet blinding light blazed as one of th
e Kemmar warships succumbed to its injuries.

  One down, three to go, thought Konos.

  “Jumpspace disturbances detected,” said the computer. “Jump bombs depleted. Unable to launch at targets.”

  “Shit,” said Konos, as five more Kemmar warships appeared all around the Intrepid. Within moments, the new contacts opened fire, releasing a torrent of energy bolts and missiles.

  Fresh concussions jostled the hulking carrier, as more missiles raced toward it.

  “Hull breaches decks four, six, and twelve,” said Mani. “Emergency containment fields are not responding.”

  Konos looked on in disbelief, as crewmembers were flushed into space, arms and legs splayed, their bodies spinning in the merciless void.

  “Point defense shield has failed. All point defense gun batteries are down,” continued Mani.

  Konos hung his head in defeat, as hundreds of missiles raced toward them. His eyes remained glued to his tactical screen, as the tiny red threat icons closed in.

  “It’s been an honor serving with you, Sir,” said Commander Mani.

  Konos looked up and found his XO, long time friend, and wingman, standing at attention, and saluting his Captain.

  Konos returned the salute. “The honor’s been all mine, Commander.”

  Chapter 52

  The fleet pushed through Kemmar space with ease. None of the Kemmar defenses could stand up to its numbers, or its jump bombs. Jon hadn’t encountered another force as large as the one fielded against him at Telepylos.

  He’d fought several battles since against Kemmar fleets of varying sizes. In most cases the enemy fleets contained several hundred ships. But nothing could yet match his thousand strong UHSF fleet. They’d been lucky enough to avoid the Juttari so far. He had to believe Calledonius was finding much of the same, as he moved through Otan space into the Kemmar Empire.

  They’d had enough ships to defeat the Kemmar, even without the jump bombs. But it would have been a costly victory, if they had even made it as far as the home system. Equipped with jumpspace technology, a campaign that should have resulted in horrendous casualties, ended up with only a handful of deaths.