by Ivan Kal
***
Using her c-board Johanna commanded her fleet. She split her fleet and using her ships superior speed she surrounded the far slower Furvor ships. Then she ordered her ships to fire their kinetic weapons, catching the slow Furvor ships in a cross fire. The Furvor were firing missiles but most got destroyed by the hail heading their way, and anything that passed was easily taken by the point defenses.
The metal shells started impacting the Furvor ships, smashing their hulls and destroying their ships. In a single attack the Furvor fleet was gone.
***
Three days later her fleet was parked in the planets high orbit. The Furvor resistance was futile, their ships, mining facilities, and stations were destroyed. After their fleet was destroyed the people they had on the mining facilities and the stations surrendered, and Johanna transported them to the planet, and then destroyed their mining facilities and stations in orbit. Then her ships bombed every shipbuilding facility on the ground. The Furvor colonists were now stuck on the planet. She left two of her frigates in the orbit to wait for the Empire’s reinforcements, and pointed her fleet towards the hyperspace barrier. Next stop was Furvor’s home system.
***
Jun; Furvor home system
Just like in their colony system, the Furvor home system refused to surrender at. Sending their fleet of ships against Johanna’s fleet. A part of Johanna was sad, because she knew that crew of those ships would die in order for their leaders to get a point.
The Furvor fleet sped towards Johanna’s fleet at laughable speeds. Johanna waited until she knew that their ships were in range to fire on her ships, her ships had been in the firing range of their own weapons for a while.
“Engage the field defenses.” Andros said. The Korvus was at the head of the formation and the Furvor ships opened fire with their lasers on it first. Their fire hit the Korvus, and had no effect. Warpath’s defensive technology proved to be far ahead of anything that Furvor could throw at them. Johanna ordered for her ships to open fire at the Furvor biggest ships with their particle and laser weapons. The Empire’s weapons blew through enemy ships, destroying them in a single hit. Johanna let her fleet stand down and wait, hoping that the surviving Furvor ships will take up the surrender offer that her ships were transmitting constantly.
After a few minutes of no response from the enemy, Johanna was about to order her fleet continue their attack, when they received a communication from the remaining fleet.
The Furvor surrendered. Johanna ordered their ships to move towards the stations in their orbit. Then her soldiers took control of the station and organized the prisoner transport to the planet. The Furvor had a big population on their home world, around nine billion. And Johanna had no hope of keeping them prisoners with the small numbers she had unless she did the same thing that the Ra’a’zani did to Earth. Cut down their numbers to a more manageable size. But the Empire was not like the Ra’a’zani. The Furvor would be left to their own devices but wouldn’t be allowed to leave their worlds as punishment for what they had done in Trivax system.
In time they might be allowed back into space, but they will need to show that they had changed their ways.
Johanna sighed, with this last battle her job was done. The Empire would send warships and the army to take control and manage the situation. Her ships will return to exploring. In a way it was a relief that she would no longer need to engage in battles. But on the other hand, she already felt like she would miss it. She had always been a military woman, at least until the Ra’a’zani. But now she felt like she could get back to the commanding a war fleet. The nightmares that had plagued her had subsided, and her tremors and fear disappeared as she went from battle to battle. Perhaps she might send a request to change posts. But not yet, she had grown fond of exploring, even though her heart was in battle.
***
July; Sanctuary
“The situation with the Furvor is contained. The ships we dispatched from the Empire had arrived and taken control of the systems. The Exploration Fleet is continuing their exploration of the neighboring systems.” Laura said.
“What are we going to do with them?” Seo-yun asked.
Tomas sighed and looked around the small private meeting room. He was sitting there with Laura and Seo-yun. “We will keep them isolated to their planets until we can find a way to… rehabilitate them. They can’t be allowed to run around going from star system to star system and attacking other races.”
“I can agree with that in principle, but in practice… How are we going to rehabilitate them?” Seo-yun asked.
“I don’t know yet, but we will have time to figure it out. Our people have opened communication with their leaders, we need to learn about them, and teach them about us.”
“You do realize that we will need to do something similar to the Sowir?” Laura asked.
Tomas grimaced, “Yes. The thought had crossed my mind. But their crime is much greater. Sowir had wiped out three races, and almost wiped out a fourth. They are schemers and backstabbers, their crimes cannot be forgiven easily. But we know so little about the real Sowir… We can’t possibly contain the agents at every single world they own, nor can we move them to other worlds. But it wouldn’t even matter, without guidance from the real Sowir, the agents just revert to animals. Animals that can’t function, they’ll just die on their own.”
“Can we alter them enough to let them survive?” Laura asked.
“No, we have been looking into it, but what the Sowir had done is permanent. They are probably as advanced in genetics and biological manipulation as we are. The change was designed in a way that prohibited any further alterations.” Seo-yun answered.
“It doesn’t matter, our goal is to take away their industry, force the true Sowir to show themselves, and then we will see what to do about them.” Tomas said.
“Are we considering wiping them all out?” Laura asked hesitantly.
“Only as a last resort.” Tomas responded.
“But we already know that they are not trustworthy. The only two options we have are to either kill them all or do the same thing we did to the Furvor.” Seo-yun said.
“Yes. Our main objective is for us to imprison them on a world all by themselves. ” Tomas said.
“I understand why we are doing this, but should we, who are we to imprison other intelligent races?” Seo-yun asked.
“We have the power to stop them now before they grow too big to be contained. With that power comes responsibility. Yes, we can turn our backs. We can let Sowir take Nelus and let them keep expanding threatening every race they come in contact with. But do you really want that? We are not perfect, I know that, but as long as I rule, we will protect those who need protection.” Tomas said.
“Alright Tomas, I will not bring this up again, I promise.” Seo-yun said.
Tomas started to respond, when his implant pinged with an incoming message. He focused and brought it up to his HUD. After reading it, he looked to Seo-yun and Laura, noticing by their expressions that they too had received the same message.
Laura was the first to speak. “The time just ran out. Two thousand warships and two hundred support ships has just left the Sowir staging system.” The Empire was now on a warpath.
***
Clan Dai Ven
Jusan watched the latest response from his contacts on Nelus. His subterfuge has worked, the fleet would be ready for the Sowir. He knew that their fleet wasn’t enough to fight off the Sowir but at least they will not be caught completely unaware. His messages also told them that the Empire would send help once the Sowir arrive, that they only need to stall the attacking fleet and then work in concert with the Empire’s ships to destroy the Sowir. Hopefully the Council will let the people in the fleet lead the battle, and not meddle with them.
***
August; Sanctuary system
Fleet Commander Bethany Jones-Wright of the Second Fleet stood in the Command Center of her flagship the Audacious. She
gazed at the holo in front of her, her fleet was moving slowly towards the trans-station that led to Waypoint system. Two hundred Mark Two dreadnoughts and another one hundred of the Kraken class, supported by seventy auxiliaries – forty ammo factory ships, ten medical ships, ten army transports, and ten repair ships.
She knew that Adrian’s Warpath fleet would start its trip to Nelus in a month, the trip from Warpath to Nelus was much shorter than what her fleet would need to go through. She also knew that Adrian had some kind of new ships, but not much about them.
For a moment she debated contacting him, but so much time had passed between their last talk that she was afraid that she wouldn’t have anything to say. She would be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that there were times during the last thirty years when she regretted not waiting for Adrian. She and Harry had a good marriage, for the first few years. And then after the reality of her life calling hit her husband, they started to fight, constantly. Eventually he found someone else to keep him company during the time she was away.
When she found out about it, she was surprised that when it didn’t hit her as hard as she thought it would be. She cared for Harry, but she knew now that she had made a mistake. But even with that knowledge she had refused to get a divorce. Instead she insisted that they try to mend things. And they did in a fashion, although things were never again the same.
She knew why she stayed and insisted on them fixing things. It was because of her Pride. All her friends had told her that she was making a mistake, and yet she ignored them all. And now she didn’t want to admit to all those who had warned her that she was wrong.
Shaking her head she dismissed those thoughts and turned to her holo. There she saw her fleet of three hundred and seventy ships on its way deep into the Sowir territory. Her fleet was about to use the trans-station, and soon her ships will start the transfer. Bethany watched as her ships stopped in the Sanctuary-Waypoint trans-station, and she opened the comm to her fleet.
“This is Fleet Commander Jones-Wright to the Second Fleet, prepare for transfer.”
***
Fleet Commander Nair Hakeem of the Third Fleet watched as Second Fleet entered the trans-lane vortex in a violet wave of light. It will take them several hours to go through the trans-lane, several hours during which no ship could enter that lane. That was why his ships will be using the trans-lane to Nuva. Their travel time will be two days, and then they will need to take several more lanes to get to Sowir territory. The two fleets would be going to different areas of their territory, the Third Fleet will strike at their border systems, while the Second Fleet attacks the systems deeper in the Sowir controlled space.
The two fleets will still have to use hyperspace travel to their targets, the Empire hadn’t explored all the trans-lanes in the Sowir territory. But it would still be much faster than the Sowir fleet, the two fleets will be in position before the Sowir arrive at Nelus. But since Sowir now had FTL communications they needed to wait until Warpath’s fleet attacks that fleet in order to prevent it turning around to defend their space. Their attack won’t start until the Sowir fleet commits to sieging Nelus. Nair commed his fleet, and announced their transfer.
***
October; Year 31 – Warpath
The ten massive ships moved slowly out from the massive opening of the asteroid. Each of the ships completely different than the other, their hulls painted in different colors. But all shared one thing, the emblem of their fleet, the Vanguard Fleet as it was dubbed by Clan Leader Adrian Farkas. A red shield with two swords crossed on it.
The ships moved in formation with two ships that were larger than the others in the lead, followed by the others arranged in two rows of four. The small force increased its speed as they exited the asteroid and set a course towards the trans-station to Waypoint. About thirteen hours later, the fleet arrived in Waypoint system and was greeted by a fleet of three hundred and fifty sovereign class battleships. At 800 meters long the two hundred battleships were a force to be reckoned with, but they were an old class, their hulls built only with metals that the humanity had used before the forming of the Empire. They were still powerful, the level of their technology on par with Sowir Dominion, but the ten ships that moved to join them were far more advanced.
The two forces met and joined in a fleet. In concert they moved towards one of the Waypoints less used trans-stations that would take them in the direction of the Nelus system. The travel time was about a week, but the fleet would sit in wait for the Sowir fleet to arrive and begin its assault on the system. Then when they were committed, the Warpath Fleet would enter the last trans-lane and catch them from behind, while the Nelus fleet attacks from the front. Together the two smaller fleets would be able to take on the Sowir fleet.
Chapter Nineteen
December; Year 31
Adrian sat and waited for the Sowir forces to arrive at Nelus. The timing was tricky, his fleet needed to arrive early enough to prevent as many Nel casualties as they could, but also late enough for the Sowir fleet to be already engaged with the defenders. Which was why his fleet was waiting for their monitoring drone to report on Sowir’s arrival. It will take the invading fleet about five hours to reach the first of Nelus installations in the orbit of the system’s gas giant, and it would take Adrian’s fleet five and a half hours to arrive by trans-lane.
Giving Sowir an hour and a half to attack the installations. Nelus had about forty ships stationed there as a defense, in spite of Adrian’s suggestion that they move them and evacuate the installations. The Nelus council was still playing games, they refused to believe in anything that the Empire told them. Deluding themselves in some kind of superiority. They believed that they could take the Sowir fleet, if one existed, by themselves. Adrian just hoped that the council doesn’t do anything stupid once they realize the magnitude of the threat.
***
Nelus
The relative peace and calm of Nelus system was shattered as the Nelus defending fleet’s light speed sensors detected a fleet of invading ships exiting hyperspace at the barrier of the system. Immediately after their arrival two thousand and two hundred ships started moving towards their closest target, a fueling station in the orbit of the system’s gas giant.
Short time before that, unnoticed by anyone a small monitoring that was positioned close to the most likely arrival point of the invading fleet, detected the invaders and sent out an FTL feed of their arrival to another system. The hyperspace communication was undetected by the invaders whose own sensors were blinded by the massive hyperspace transfer of their fleet.
***
Upon receiving the feed from the drone, Adrian immediately passed the information back to Sanctuary and then ordered his fleet to open a vortex to the trans-lane. A few seconds later his ships were washed in a violet wave of light and disappeared. It will be five and a half hours until they reappear again.
***
Bethany read the orders coming in from Sanctuary. She ordered her ships to enter the trans-lane, on their way towards one of Sowir key systems. Her ships would travel for a week, but would travel some twenty light years. The system had only a few ships defending it as it was deep in the Sowir territory. But it had a significant industrial capability, which her ships would take for the Empire. Any installation that they could land troops on will be taken, any other will be destroyed.
The Second Fleet opened a vortex to trans-space and entered.
***
Nair Hakeem got the same order from Sanctuary that the Second Fleet did. His Third Fleet was in one of the Empire’s border systems, waiting to enter the trans-lane to the closest Sowir system. His ships would be the first to strike at the Sowir held system in this new war, as the travel time through the lane was just two days. The system that was his target had a moderate military presence, sixty Sowir ships were always stationed there, with dozens moving through the system on and from their patrols of the border.
Nair sent out the order to his ships, and they e
ntered the trans-lane.
***
Nelus – five and a half hours later – warship Harbinger
The Warpath Fleet entered Nelus system between the hyperspace barrier and the system’s gas giant, at the Nelus only incoming trans-station. Immediately their sensors went active, bathing the system in a tachyon burst. The fleets FTL sensors came back painting the exact picture of the system on Clan Leader Adrian Farkas’ small holo on his command board.
The Sowir Fleet was moving further into the system, towards the fifth planet of the system its three moons and twenty four stations orbiting them and the planet. There was nothing in the orbit of the sixth planet – the gas giant, only debris from destroyed ships and installations. That angered Adrian, he had warned the council to abandon those installations and move his ships back to the fifth planet which was much more defensible.
The council had stationed a fleet of four hundred ships at the fifth planet. Again they had refused to listen, and had kept the rest of their ships in orbit of Nelus. The Sowir had started preparing their ship formations for the siege of the planets defenses. Adrian could see it in their movements, a glance at the information provided by Clan Leader Jusan told him that the Sowir ships were just outside the effective range of the station’s weapons. The Sowir had put eight hundred ships forward while the rest were adjusting their course to move around the planet and proceed deeper towards the next planet.
That would have played well for Adrian’s fleet, if he had arrived a bit later. He knew that the Sowir would turn those ships around once they detect his ships. He checked the ranges and calculated that if his fleet starts moving at full speed immediately they would catch the eight hundred Sowir ships before the rest could return. It would take the Sowir awhile to detect his ships, as their sensors were still only light speed.