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

by Weil, Raymond L.

  “What was that?” First Leader Ganth oathed as he saw the shipyard destroyed. “What type of weapon did they use?”

  “I don’t know,” Resmunt responded as he played the image over and over in his mind. “It some type of new weapon we’ve never seen before.”

  Ganth gazed at the commodore, knowing that the battle had now turned. “Honor is before us,” he intoned respectfully.

  “Honor is before us,” Commodore Resmunt replied as he saw hundreds of small new threat icons leaving the human carrier ships. He watched the new threat with worry. What were the humans up to now?

  -

  “Jacob, hit the Hocklyn ships that were closest to the shipyard. Some of them may not have had time to restore their systems after the EMP blast,” ordered Amanda, breathing a sigh of relief now that the shipyard was gone. The entire Hocklyn fleet seemed to be in disarray from the sudden destruction, now was the time to strike them. “Send me your light cruisers; I want them going in with Second Fleet.”

  “On their way,” Jacob replied. “Go get them, Amanda!”

  -

  Commodore Resmunt felt his flagship shake violently as another human nuclear missile struck the energy shield. Looking over at the damage display console, he saw more lights turn a glaring red. Already, the War Room was full of smoke and the ventilation system was struggling to keep it clear.

  “Fleet status,” he demanded in a hard voice, knowing he was now losing the battle.

  The small ships had been armed with numerous nuclear tipped missiles, which had ravaged his fleet, causing damage beyond belief. Ships that had been too close to the shipyard had been easy targets and had died before their shields could be restored. Other ships that had been damaged previously had been the target of multiple missile strikes, which had created holes in their energy shields, allowing missiles to strike the hulls of the ships. In just a few minutes, over forty Hocklyn ships had been destroyed.

  “Only four dreadnoughts remain, as well as seven war cruisers and sixteen escort cruisers,” Ganth snarled in anger as he saw victory slipping away.

  “Pull us back to War Leader Osbith’s fleets, perhaps by adding his ships to ours and using the defensive satellites we can still hold the humans at bay,” ordered Resmunt, feeling desperate.

  He also knew it would buy some valuable time to repair his damaged ships. He doubted if the humans would follow his ships into the satellites, at least not at first. He also knew he had his heavily armed fleet base to fall back to if necessary. If he had to fight these humans hand to hand down on the surface then that’s what he would do.

  -

  “They’re falling back,” breathed Commander Evans in relief as the bomber strike swept past them on its way back to the carriers. “We hurt them badly with the Devastator Three strike and the bombers.”

  “Follow them in, but stay just out of range of those defensive satellites,” Amanda ordered. “We need to initiate some ship repairs across the fleet before we tackle that defensive satellite grid.”

  Amanda leaned back in her chair and allowed a moment of calm to overtake her. The adrenaline from the battle was still pumping through her veins. She closed her eyes briefly and waited for her breathing to return to normal. Opening them, she saw the main viewscreen was focused on the planet below. It was a beautiful Tellus type planet with massive oceans and small landmasses.

  Amanda stood up and walked over to the communications console where Lieutenant Trask was sitting. “Contact Admiral Streth and inform him that phase one of the battle is complete. The Hocklyn shipyard has been destroyed and their fleet driven beneath their defensive grid.”

  Angela nodded and sent the transmission. She had been frightened the entire battle, particularly when she had felt the WarStorm shudder violently from nuclear missiles detonating against her powerful shields.

  “We survived that,” a friendly voice spoke over her mini-com.

  Looking over, she saw Benjamin smiling at her from his sensor console.

  “But what comes next?”

  “We take the planet,” Lieutenant Ashton commented from Navigation. “It’s going to be our main base for this sector.”

  All eyes turned toward the viewscreen as they wondered what was still ahead of them. Operation First Strike was well on its way to success, and only the planet below and the remaining Hocklyn forces in orbit stood in its way.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Resmunt gazed uneasily at the main viewscreen from the War Room in his flagship, the Liberator. For the past five days, he had watched with growing trepidation as the humans used their small bomber and fighter craft to degrade his satellites defenses. Looking at the main sensor screen, he saw that the latest attack was even now withdrawing. His dwindling fighter forces had met each human attack wave until now none remained.

  “They have eliminated seventy-two percent of the satellites,” First Leader Ganth reported in frustration. They had only managed to destroy twelve of the small enemy craft out of the sixty that had just finished making their attack run on the remaining satellites. The larger human war craft were staying outside the satellites weapons range as well as the defending warships floating beneath.

  “They will be coming for us soon,” Resmunt spoke as he looked at the numerous red threat icons hovering just out of reach of his ship’s weapons. He had accepted that he would soon be finding honor above this distant and lonely planet so far away from their home worlds.

  “How are the repairs coming on our remaining ships?”

  “Repairs have been completed,” replied Ganth, looking over a data screen. “The ships are not at 100 percent. Some of the damage can only be repaired at a shipyard, but they are all combat ready and capable of bringing honor to their crews.”

  Resmunt let out a deep breath as his eyes returned to another viewscreen showing the blue white world beneath them. He had sent most of his Protectors down to the surface to defend the fleet base. With the defenses he had put around it, he knew the humans would suffer heavily when they tried to take it.

  It was also frustrating that the AI FTL transmitter was still offline. His technicians were not sure what was wrong with the device, other than it had failed when the new human weapons had destroyed the orbiting shipyard. The humans were still jamming normal FTL communication so there was no way he could get a message out to the High Council to report on his current situation.

  He looked back at the sensor screen and the green icons that represented what remained of his fleet. War Leader Osbith’s fleets were still intact with four dreadnoughts, eight war cruisers, and twenty-four escort cruisers.

  Resmunt’s own survivors from his battle at the shipyard were four dreadnoughts, seven war cruisers and sixteen escort cruisers. He had sixty-three ships to oppose a fleet of over one hundred. In normal times, he would have been quite pleased with a fleet of this size. But this situation was anything but normal for the Hocklyns. He also knew that the humans had other fleets that were probably in the process of still attacking the empire. Without FTL communication, he could not be sure what was occurring in his sector, but he had a suspicion that other worlds were still falling, particularly the slave worlds.

  -

  Jeremy watched from the Command Center of the Avenger as they jumped into their next target system. From the information his stealth scouts had brought back, this star system contained a heavily industrialized planet that the Hocklyns had conquered.

  “Jump complete,” Colonel Malen reported from where she was standing in front of the holographic plotting table.

  “Sensors coming online,” Kevin added as his screens gradually began clearing of static.

  “All systems online and functioning normally,” Ariel reported from his side where she normally was after a jump.

  The main sensor screen quickly cleared, and the other twenty-seven ships of his command appeared as friendly green icons.

  “All ships are in their projected positions,” Ariel responded with a pleased tone.


  Jeremy had been letting her direct all of the fleet’s hyperjumps so as to better coordinate their emergence into a fleet formation ready for combat. She was immensely satisfied that all the ships were within just a few kilometers of where they were supposed to be. She would get with Kelsey later and refine the jump equations slightly. Perhaps if they carried them out to twelve decimal places the jumps would be dead on.

  Ariel placed her hands on her shapely hips and looked around the busy Command Center. She had modified her body only slightly after Clarissa had commented about the extra attention she had gotten from just enlarging her breasts by one cup size. Ariel had stayed away from that, knowing that it might aggravate Katie, but she had made her hips look a little more feminine with more curves in the right places.

  “Battle carrier Cygnus is launching a CAP,” Malen reported as half a dozen small green icons left the massive carrier. “All ships reporting normal status.”

  “What do we have?” Jeremy asked as his gaze turned toward the holographic tactical display. This would be the first system his fleet had jumped into that possessed an inhabited planet.

  On the display, a solar system appeared. There were ten planets, with two in the liquid water zone. The outer three were large, Jupiter-sized gas giants. There were also several small asteroid fields as well as numerous moons.

  “The fourth planet is the inhabited one,” Colonel Malen informed Jeremy as she studied the data now coming in over the long-range sensors. “It has high power emissions and all the evidence of a highly advanced industrial civilization.”

  “Hocklyn forces?” asked Jeremy, raising his eyebrows. He knew that there should be at least one or two escort cruisers in the system.

  “There is a large space station in orbit,” Malen continued. “A number of ships are docked to it, but from this range our sensors can’t make them out.”

  “Ariel?” asked Jeremy, glancing over at the AI.

  “Two escort cruisers and six freighters are docked to the station,” Ariel reported as she ran the scans from the station through her computer systems. “There are also another ten freighters moving in the system. I am detecting several mining operations in the small asteroid fields as well as upon several of the smaller moons.”

  “This race still has their full tech base,” commented Malen, narrowing her eyes. “I thought the Hocklyns normally eliminate a big part of that?”

  “They do,” Ariel replied as she continued to study the data. “This bears some investigation into the aliens that inhabit this system.”

  “What are your orders, Admiral?” Colonel Malen asked, turning to face Jeremy. “It’s obvious from the two Hocklyn escort cruisers docked to the space station that this is a Hocklyn controlled system.”

  “Then we take this planet from the Hocklyns and make it ours,” Jeremy spoke, his eyes narrowing. “Perhaps the inhabitants of this world will become allies. Helm, take us in system at sixty percent sublight.”

  Katie watched Ariel with a slight smile tugging at the edge of her lips. Both Clarissa and Ariel had taken advantage of their new holographic figures to enhance them, Ariel’s not near as drastic as Clarissa’s, but both were now definitely more feminine. Both AIs seemed to be interacting with the crew better, and everyone had easily accepted their holographic images. It was exciting seeing the two AIs continue to grow.

  “Still watching, Ariel,” Angela spoke over their private mini-com. “I think these holograms you made for Clarissa and Ariel are working out great.”

  “They both seem to like them,” Katie agreed as her green eyes played over the screens on her large console, making sure all of the ship’s computer systems were running at peak efficiency. “I’m just glad I was able to do it.”

  “It makes speaking to Ariel a lot easier and more personal,” Angela added as she listened to a message coming in over her com system. It was just a status report from the Monarch cruiser Reprisal.

  “Ariel has been my friend from the time I was fifteen,” responded Katie, recalling that first frightening meeting in Admiral Strong’s office where Ariel had revealed herself. “She always will be.”

  Ariel smiled to herself. She had been listening discreetly as always. It made her feel good inside hearing what Katie had just said. Sometimes, she was glad she could feel human emotions, and this was one of them.

  -

  It took nearly four hours for Jeremy’s fleet to maneuver into an attack position. He could have micro-jumped his fleet in closer, but he preferred this slower approach which gave his fleet more time to scan the system.

  “I’m impressed,” Colonel Malen finally said as she finished studying the latest scans. “They have a highly developed mining operation in two of the small asteroid fields as well as on six of the system’s smaller moons. There is also some type of construction being done on one of the larger moons of the eighth planet, which is a gas giant.”

  “I’m also not detecting any signs of recent nuclear detonations on the planet’s surface,” Ariel reported with a hint of surprise in her voice. “I would estimate this planet was conquered no more than twenty to thirty years ago, and their population has not been reduced. Population density on the planet indicates a thriving population of over one point two billion.”

  “Strange,” commented Jeremy, quizzically. “The Hocklyns normally reduce their slave populations to a more controllable size. Why didn’t they do that here?”

  “Only one way to find out,” responded Colonel Malen, gazing at the tactical screen. “We go down and ask.”

  Jeremy nodded, that was exactly what he intended to do. But first, the two Hocklyn escort cruisers needed to be eliminated. The two cruisers had already undocked from the station and were making their way out toward the edge of the planet’s gravity well. Jeremy did not intend to allow them to escape if that was their intention. He pressed a button, which changed his mini-com in his right ear to ship-to-ship. “Commander Adams, Commander Kendrick, I want you to take out those two escort cruisers. Do it from long-range as they may attempt to ram.”

  “Yes, Admiral,” Commander Adams of the Monarch cruiser Reprisal replied. “Consider them dead!”

  Jeremy watched as the two Monarch cruisers accelerated away from the fleet and entered the edge of the planet’s gravity well. As soon as they were within weapons range, they opened up on the two Hocklyn escort cruisers. It was clearly one sided as the two powerful Monarch cruisers pounded the two Hocklyn ships with heavy weapons fire. It ended suddenly with both Hocklyn ships being destroyed as their self-destructs finally finished what the cruisers had started.

  “I have a communications from the space station,” Angela suddenly spoke with stunned surprise in her voice. “I have an individual calling himself Grayseth that represents the race that inhabits this planet. He is requesting a meeting with whoever is in command of our fleet.”

  “It could be a trap, Admiral,” Colonel Malen cautioned, her eyes narrowing in concern. “They may be trying to lure us in. There are probably still some live Hocklyn Protectors on board that station.”

  Jeremy leaned back in his command chair, arching his eyebrows and thought for a long moment. The entire situation with this planet was unusual. If he could form some type of alliance with these people, a highly advanced and industrialized planet in this sector could be a godsend.

  “We will take part of the fleet in,” decided Jeremy, folding his arms across his chest. “The Cygnus, Nemesis, Reprisal, and Vendetta will go with us. The rest of the fleet will stay just outside of the planet’s gravity well. Flipping his mini-com back to ship-to-ship, he contacted Commander Susan Marks on the battle carrier Retribution. “Susan, I’m taking part of the fleet in to the space station, and you will be in charge until I get back.”

  “Yes, Admiral,” Commander Marks replied and then she added, “Just be careful, we know nothing about these people.”

  “I will,” Jeremy promised. He turned his gaze to the main viewscreen, which showed the orbiting space station.
The large station was nearly two kilometers across. He wondered what type of people were on the station and inhabited the planet below.

  Jeremy took his time moving his ships in closer to the space station. The Cygnus had two full squadrons of Talon fighters flying CAP as well as an additional squadron of Anlon bombers fully armed with nuclear tipped Shrike missiles. Jeremy felt that with the two heavy strike cruisers and the two Monarch cruisers he had very little to fear from the space station. Close scans had already indicated that it was unarmed.

  “Atmosphere on the planet reads near Tellus normal,” commented Ariel, walking over to Jeremy from where she had been standing next to Katie. “You should be able to breathe their atmosphere without any problems.”

  “They are asking us to come to a stop and send a party over in a shuttle,” Angela reported as another message came over her com system. “They are guaranteeing the safety of anyone on the shuttle. They also say you can come armed if it will make you feel safer. They just want to talk about this current situation.”

  “Tell them I will be coming and bringing an armed escort,” replied Jeremy, thoughtfully. “Also, inform them if there are any problems or signs of aggression we will destroy the space station.”

  Jeremy turned back to Ariel. “Are we picking up any transmissions from the surface that might indicate what type of species we are dealing with?” Jeremy knew better than to expect these aliens to be human. They might be similar, but they would not be Tellus or Earth norm humans.

  “Actually, we do,” Ariel said with a mischievous smile. “I will put a view of what our hosts look like up on the main viewscreen.

  Instantly, on the screen a large figure appeared. Jeremy heard Kelsey and Angela gasp with surprise as their eyes widened at what they were seeing.