The Slaver Wars: First Strike (The Slaver Wars Book Four)

by Weil, Raymond L.

  Two long hours had passed and still there was no sign of the expected Hocklyn attack fleet. Admiral Tolsen had allowed his fleet to go back to Condition Two.

  “Why don’t they attack?” asked Peter, feeling frustrated at having to wait for a battle he knew was coming. “Surely they have had time to analyze the data by now. You don’t think they detected the ships out around the comet ring, do you?”

  “I doubt it,” Tolsen replied, taking a deep breath. He too was feeling impatient. “It will take awhile for them to analyze the data and decide on the best way to eliminate our fleet and the defenses around Caden’s World. Once they have formed a plan, they will be here.”

  “I just hope they don’t come up with too good of a plan,” responded Colonel Beck, trying his best not to sound irritated at the wait.

  -

  Captain Krandle was standing outside of the operations center looking around the large mining settlement. Normally the streets would be full of people going about their business, but now everything was quiet. It was late morning, and there wasn’t even a breeze. The leaves on the trees were still, and not a single bird was in the air. All the shops were closed with their doors and windows tightly shuttered. The mining settlement had become a ghost town.

  Only occasionally did she see movement where a marine was standing guard or on patrol. She had been posted on Caden’s World for six months when the two Hocklyn scout cruisers had appeared. Now she was beginning to realize how much she missed those times before the Hocklyns showed up. She wondered idly if Caden’s World would ever be the same again.

  “You should probably go back inside, Captain,” Lieutenant Simmins suggested as he walked up with four other heavily armed marines. General Abercrombie had placed him in command of the marines guarding the operations center.

  “Shortly,” replied Lucy, knowing Simmins was right. Her place was in the operations center, and she needed to get back.

  “Captain,” a voice spoke from the open doorway.

  Turning around, Lucy saw Corporal Richard, who was in charge of the marine guards inside.

  “General Abercrombie sent me to get you, the Hocklyn fleet is here!”

  Lucy looked quickly at Lieutenant Simmins, their eyes meeting. “Be careful, Lieutenant,” she spoke, softly. Then turning, she hurried back inside.

  -

  War Leader Sangeth felt the transition from hyperspace to normal space knowing that honor would be his shortly. If he could subjugate the human planet before Bisth arrived, then the majority of that honor would fall upon his shoulders. Ever since his flagship, the Crimson Oblivion, had escaped from this system, he had felt as if he had left his soul behind. Honor meant everything to a Hocklyn and running from an enemy had placed a dark cloud over Sangeth as well as his flagship. Now he would change that.

  “All ships report successful jumps,” First Leader Rahn reported. “Systems are coming online.”

  Sangeth gazed expectantly at the main sensor screen as it cleared up and he saw that the human fleet was already beginning to maneuver. They were starting to turn, obviously hoping to pin his two fleets between the planet and them. Well, that was not going to happen. He had the numbers and the firepower to do as he wanted. He would command this battle not these upstart humans.

  Sangeth quickly activated the com channel, which placed him in instant communication with War Leader Tantil on the dreadnought DeadlyDawn. “War Leader Tantil, there is an enemy fleet closing on our position. You are to move forward and engage that fleet while my fleet moves into the planet’s gravity well. I will destroy the planet’s orbital defenses and the small fleet that protects it while you eliminate this other fleet.”

  “May honor be yours,” War Leader Tantil replied over the com.

  With satisfaction, Sangeth saw that War Leader Tantil was already beginning to follow his command as his twenty-four ships began to separate from the mass of green dots that represented the two Hocklyn fleets.

  Turning toward First Leader Rahn, he passed on his next orders. “Take us into the gravity well; we will engage and destroy the human’s defensive satellites and annihilate their fleet units. Honor will be ours!”

  -

  “Damn! They’ve split their fleet,” Colonel Beck voiced in alarm as he studied the tactical image. “It looks as if half of their fleet is heading into the gravity well to attack Caden’s World and the other half is headed toward us.” This was exactly what Admiral Strong had warned against.

  “Total Hocklyn ship count is forty-eight vessels,” Lieutenant Anders informed them. “Make up of the fleet is as follows; four dreadnoughts, twelve war cruisers, and thirty-two escort cruisers.”

  “How soon before they are in combat range?” Tolsen demanded as he gazed intently at the tactical display above the plotting table.

  That was a powerful force to deal with and he was badly outnumbered in capital ships. Not only that, but the Hocklyns had surprised him by jumping almost into Caden’s Worlds gravity well. His plan to lure them in would now have to be changed.

  “Twelve minutes,” Anders replied as he ran the calculations.

  “Lieutenant Davis, contact the rest of our fleet and inform them to return in exactly fourteen minutes, also tell Admiral Strong his fleet is to stay at the comet ring until summoned.”

  The communications operator hurriedly complied, knowing how important those orders were.

  “Fourteen minutes?” commented Beck, raising his eyebrow quizzically. “That’s cutting it pretty close.”

  “That will trap the other fleet inside Caden’s World’s gravity well,” Tolsen explained.

  He knew he was taking a risk, but he needed that other Hocklyn fleet to be deep inside the gravity well before the rest of his fleet put in an appearance. That reduced the chance of the fleet he was about to engage jumping away. But being Hocklyns with their weird code of honor, he didn’t see them jumping away from this battle no matter what the odds.

  -

  Admiral Strong was looking intently at the tactical display above the Avenger’s plotting table. It currently showed the forty-eight red threat icons in the Gliese 667C system. He felt a nervousness in the pit of his stomach at knowing what was ahead. In the back of his mind, he could hear his father’s steady voice telling him to stay calm and do as he had been trained.

  “What are your orders, Sir?” Colonel Malen asked. She was standing next to him as they assessed the situation.

  “They jumped in almost exactly where you suspected,” Ariel commented as she examined the tactical data. It pleased her immensely that Jeremy had been so accurate in his assessment of what the Hocklyns would do.

  The dark eyed, black haired AI was plainly visible on the main viewscreen. She had been following the recent developments with keen interest. The viewscreen showed Ariel from the waist up and to the casual observer she looked quite stunning.

  She and Kelsey were already running micro-jump simulations to see where the most effective place would be to jump the fleet. Ariel was excited to try the new micro-jump maneuver that Jeremy had come up with. She also hoped that, at some point in the battle, Jeremy would allow her control of the Avenger to engage the Hocklyns. She knew that he would be very impressed by what she could do; she had an affinity for space combat.

  “They are doing just what I thought they would,” commented Jeremy, watching as one of the Hocklyn fleets began to enter the gravity well of Caden’s World. “I tried to warn Admiral Tolsen they might do this.”

  Now would be the opportune time to jump in behind the second fleet and launch their attack, he could then turn and engage the Hocklyn fleet going into the gravity well while Admiral Tolsen finished off the other Hocklyn fleet. But he had been ordered to wait. He was feeling impatient, but he had to follow orders. His father had always stressed that one thing.

  “Ariel, I want you and Lieutenant Grainger to plot a micro-jump to these coordinates,” he ordered, using a laser pointer to indicate exactly where he wanted the fleet to go.
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  “You don’t think these are all of the Hocklyn ships, do you?” Colonel Malen spoke in surprise, her eyes growing wide as she looked over at Admiral Stone. “You think there are more.”

  “Yes,” Jeremy answered with a nod of his head. His eyes turned back to the tactical display as he thought about the Hocklyn tactics. “They are risking unnecessary losses by splitting their fleet this way. I actually thought the first attack would be with a larger fleet. I don’t believe even the Hocklyns would accept these losses unless they had another fleet nearby.”

  -

  War Leader Tantil swore in anger as his ship shook from the massive amounts of ordnance that were striking its energy shield. The two opposing fleets had just entered weapons range and already the first powerful salvos were landing. He knew from studying the data from Sangeth’s battle with the humans that the human’s weapons were more powerful.

  “War Cruisers are to focus on those two Monarchs,” he ordered as he studied the tactical data. “Don’t worry about the destroyers for now. I want the DeadlyDawn and our other dreadnought to concentrate on the two human battle cruisers. Once they are eliminated, then we can concentrate on their lighter units.” Even as he spoke, he felt his ship shake again, and several warning alarms began sounding as red lights began flashing on the damage control board.

  “Fire our energy beams,” he ordered heatedly, his eyes flashing anger, realizing his ship was taking damage. “Honor will be ours today!”

  -

  Admiral Tolsen felt the WarHawk shudder violently as a nuke went off against her energy screen. On the viewscreens, bright explosions seemed to be occurring everywhere. All the ships in both fleets were now heavily engaged except for the Independence, which was hanging slightly back.

  “Light Cruiser Sundowner is reporting heavy damage,” Lieutenant Anders reported. A sudden bright flash lit up the main viewscreen. “Sundowner is down,” Anders continued his face turning ashen as he realized that close to five hundred men and women had just died.

  Tolsen activated his mini-com, which placed him in immediate communication with Commander Arie. “Launch your Anlon strike.”

  From the Independence, sixty Anlon bombers erupted carrying shrike missiles tipped with tactical nukes. Their targets were the Hocklyn war cruisers. Forty Talon fighters formed up around them for protection. Other Talons were launching from the battle carrier as well as the other human ships to engage the numerous Hocklyn fighters that were present.

  In less than a minute, a massive dogfight opened up as space became littered with tracer fire and the fighter duel began.

  The space around and in between the two fleets was full of exploding ordnance and missile trails. Energy screens lit up briefly as weapons fire smashed into them. Missiles crashed into the screens trying to knock them down, detonating in brilliant flashes of light. Occasionally a screen would fail, and the unlucky ship would quickly die. Defensive lasers flashed destroying inbound missiles.

  “Hammer and Justice are down,” Lieutenant Anders reported, as the two human destroyers were annihilated when heavy nukes struck their hulls, blowing the ships apart.

  Tolsen flinched as he listened to the damage that was being done to his fleet. Looking at the tactical display, he saw the other Hocklyn fleet was now far into the gravity well. He felt his heart pounding, knowing good people under his command were dying. He grabbed the edge of his command console as the WarHawk took a hit from a powerful missile. A console in the Command Center blew out, sending a shower of sparks across the room. Several damage control personnel rushed over and began putting the small fire out. Glancing over at the damage control board, he saw several red lights glowing ominously.

  In space, the dogfight was raging furiously. Hocklyn and human fighters were locked in an intricate but deadly dance of death that ended occasionally in a bright explosion as a fighter was destroyed. For every two Hocklyn fighters that were blown out of space, a human one died also.

  Nuclear fire blossomed across the wavering shields of ships of both fleets. Heavy missiles and railgun rounds struck the energy shields and occasionally, when a nuke went off, managed to penetrate causing major damage. Deep holes were blasted in ship’s hulls, hammering at the delicate insides of the warships.

  Orange-red laser beams and dark violet power beams flicked out at the Hocklyn ships, only to be answered back by the Hocklyns own heavy blue energy beams. The deadly carnage grew worse as the fighting intensified and the two fleets continued to close with one another.

  Admiral Tolsen watched worriedly as the final seconds ticked by and the ship damage mounted up. Suddenly space was full of more friendly green icons behind his fleet. The other twenty-eight warships of his fleet had arrived!

  -

  “A trap!” roared War Leader Tantil in anger as he saw his numerical advantage suddenly vanish. He had been within mere minutes of wiping the human fleet in front of him off his sensor screen.

  “The new human warships are eight minutes from extreme weapons range,” First Leader Klessen reported as he studied the data. “We can still destroy these first human ships before their reinforcements can get here.”

  “Honor will be ours,” Tantil hissed loudly in agreement. “Press the attack.”

  -

  Jeremy saw with deep concern that the rest of Admiral Tolsen’s ships had miscalculated their jump and jumped in too far away from the battle. By the time they reached combat range, Admiral Tolsen’s ships might be wiped out. The second part of Tolsen’s fleet had been too cautious in their jump.

  “Prepare to jump,” ordered Jeremy, reaching a quick decision. “Ariel, Lieutenant Grainger, prepare to activate our new program.”

  “We haven’t been ordered in yet, Admiral,” Colonel Malen reminded Jeremy, her eyes focusing on him.

  “We don’t have time to wait, Colonel,” he replied, firmly. “Ariel, you have control of the fleet take us to Caden’s World.”

  Colonel Malen nodded. She knew it was the right decision.

  Instantly, swirling blue-white spatial vortexes formed in front of the seventeen ships of Jeremy’s fleet. Ariel quickly guided the fleet ships into the individual vortexes with the Avenger being last, but only by a microsecond.

  Above Caden’s World and just outside of the gravity well, seventeen blue-white vortexes formed directly behind the attacking Hocklyn fleet. Out of the vortexes stormed Jeremy’s fleet. In less than four seconds, the sensors, screens, and weapons were online.

  “We’re in combat range,” Lieutenant Preston from Tactical reported. “Weapons are locking on.”

  “Fire!” Jeremy ordered, his gaze focusing on the main viewscreen, which was now focused on a massive Hocklyn dreadnought. “All ships continuous fire, don’t let those Hocklyns escape. We need to make these first shots count!”

  From the seventeen ships of Jeremy’s fleet, massive weapons fire erupted. Orange-red laser beams snapped out to strike the shields of the Hocklyn ships. Dark violet power beams clawed at Hocklyn energy shields, knocking them down and cutting deep into the hulls. Missiles and railgun rounds filled space as an onslaught of heavy fire rained down from behind on the now trapped Hocklyn fleet. Two Hocklyn war cruisers exploded as they were ravaged by this sudden and unexpected attack.

  -

  Admiral Tolsen breathed a deep sigh of relief as he saw Admiral Strong’s fleet jump in nearly on top of the Hocklyns. He wasn’t sure how Strong had managed it, but it had saved his fleet. Even as he watched, another Hocklyn war cruiser exploded followed rapidly by two of the escort cruisers. Commander Strong had taken the Hocklyns by complete surprise and was making mincemeat out of their fleet.

  “Move us in,” he ordered calmly, glancing at Colonel Beck. “We don’t need to let Admiral Strong to do all of the work for us.”

  -

  War Leader Tantil blanched as he saw the new human fleet appear impossibly close to his ships. It was impossible to plot that type of micro-jump, but the humans had done it! He was trapped between
two fleets with a third closing. A bright white light flashed across one of the viewscreens as another escort cruiser exploded from the withering fire of the humans. Death and destruction marched across the energy screens of his fleet, knocking many of them down. His fleet was doomed unless War Leader Bisth arrived soon.

  -

  War Leader Sangeth gazed at the sensor screens in frustration as he saw his plan starting to come apart. If this continued, War Leader Tantil’s fleet would be destroyed. Once again, it seemed as if they had underestimated the humans.

  “We’re at extreme weapons range of the human defense satellites,” First Leader Rahn reported.

  Sangeth turned his gaze back to the First Leader. They could still accomplish the mission if he could knock out the planet’s defenses and send the Protectors down to search for the information on the human home world. Yes, victory could still be his! When Bisth arrived he could deal with these new human ships, but Sangeth would have the necessary information that would lead to the human home world. Honor was still within easy reach.

  “Fire missiles!” Sangeth ordered determinedly in a cold and deadly voice. He had learned his lesson the last time. He would destroy the human’s defensive satellites from long-range.

  From his twenty-four ships, two hundred missiles belched forth on pillars of fire from his missile tubes. Twenty seconds later another two hundred missiles followed. The humans might be able to stop some of them, but they couldn’t stop them all. Behind the two missile barrages, his fleet followed.

  -

  “They launched from extreme range,” Lucy cried as she saw a rain of destruction headed for the orbital defensive satellites.

  “Launch our missiles,” General Abercrombie ordered with determination in his voice. He turned to face Lucy. “It’s either use them or lose them. At least this way we may be able to take a few of them out.”

  “We’re not going to be able to stop them from going into orbit, are we?” asked Lucy nervously, knowing that soon Hocklyn Protectors would be coming down to the two mining settlements. There was going to be a battle for control of the surface; she hoped Lieutenant Simmins was ready.