The star-faring and onetime inquisitive and friendly Kazad, a people of diminutive dwarflike humanoids, had not only created the bender drives to help curve space, but they also solved the gravitational force ratio. Instead of meeting force with equal to or greater force they took a different approach.
What if, like a tree in a hurricane, instead of resisting the force of the winds you bend with them? In many martial arts, this method is called turning, using the minimal amount of force to turn a greater amount without being crushed in the process. Leave it to the small and under-strengthened Kazad to realize that you didn’t need overwhelming force to win.
Electromagnetically polarizing the gravitational hull plating coupled with finding a fluctuation or the weakest spot in the well to enter would allow a ship to skip through the opening. Just like a stone on the surface of a pond or a mosquito through a net, they could pass through unharmed.
In the process of electrostatic repulsion like charges repel each other, thus a like charged gravitationally polarized hull wouldn’t be crushed but would shoot through.
In an instant, and with no time dilatation, no extensive wormhole, or faster-than-light travel, the ISS Star Wolf and its small squadron simply slipped through the bend and were sent across the universe.
The first few bends were just to get way from the Wolf’s Den, Austro Prime and the other systems along the bend cylinder. This was the area you never hunt or at least only when you had to. Hope was careful, sending them to several uninhabited systems first before continuing with his plan.
As luck would have it they found on their third bend a Karduan Vanguard sloop. It was of the same design as the IPS Cody that was leading their squadron.
Their order of entering a system was currently the Cody followed by Randori and then the Wolf which would bring up the rear. Captain Hope had made it clear that this would later change and the Cody would bend and return once they got behind enemy lines. Right now the order still allowed their Karduan sloop to enter first and be identified as a friendly ship in case there were enemy vessels were within the system. The Randori would follow as a captured merchant ship. That was very believable especially considering its few visible defensive weapons turrets. The attack cruiser would come in last relying on its advanced stealth plating and ECM capabilities to mask its signature. To the enemy’s sensors or even to Confederation sensors it appeared as if it wasn’t even there.
The Karduan Vanguard identified itself as Vanguard 345.
Commander Hutton, in command of the Cody, called to the Star Wolf that he had a plan and requested that they let him handle it. Hope didn’t even ask his plan and gave the former commando permission to proceed.
“Vanguard 345, this is Vanguard 2112 we are escorting a captured human transport ship with supplies. We have need of an engine relay flow value for our bender drives. We barely made it to this system, do you have an extra part?”
The speaker was a Karduan female that had joined their cause. In fact, all of their ships had Karduans from the lower caste as part of their crews. For them this war could lead to freedom for their people, release from their matriarchal rulers and their caste system as well as religious freedom.
“Standby, we have an extra flow value and will move to match airlocks,” the female captain of Vanguard 345 announced.
From the bridge of the Randori, Mike and his crew watched as the Cody and its Karduan sister ship drew close and matched airlock. The part they asked for was a common spare carried by most ships. Matching airlocks was also expected, as Karduan sloops didn’t usually carry shuttles like human sloops did. Instead they used the space for more fuel and cargo.
Everyone held their breaths for the next few minutes and no one spoke as they waited for word from Hutton and his crew. A moment later the silence was broken by Commander Hutton’s voice.
“Sir, we have seized the Vanguard and captured her crew,” he reported to the cheers from not only the Star Wolf’s crew but also from the Randori’s.
After the cheering calmed down they could hear Hope ask a question.
“Any casualties?”
“No sir, though I had to shoot the Vanguard’s captain in the thigh when she tried to draw her sidearm. We are treating her wound and she should pull through,” the commando turned ship captain reported.
“Very good,” Hope said and then added “Lt. Collins send a shuttle with a prize crew from your ship and take charge of those prisoners.”
“Aye sir,” Mike said and then closed the open channel.
“I’m on it!” Gunny Masters said from somewhere behind his captain’s chair. The old marine was sneaky like that and even when they were on the Wolf he would be near at hand when Captain Hope needed him.
His bridge crew was all smiles and some of the men who hadn’t really seen battle were joking around a little.
“That was easy, I hope they all go that well,” Jansen commended from the comm. station.
“I hope they do to but I wouldn’t count on it,” Lt. Cappillo commented before Mike could say anything.
He had a good XO - the young captain thought. An easy victory was great but staying sharp was what kept you alive. He had found from his own experience that fear was a great motivator.
An hour later the Vanguard ship had a prize crew and the Karduan crew was safely locked away in a small hold on D deck that had been converted for prisoners. The Vanguard was being renamed the IPS Masterson. If Mike had to hazard a guess he bet that it was named after a famous western lawman named Bat Masterson.
Captain Hope was a great historian and most captured ships received a name from naval history. Yet when it came to sloops the old officer tended to stick to the names of gunfighters and lawmen from the American old West. Mike always thought this was because the first two sloops they salvaged were old Gunfighter class sloops and that the senior officer was just continuing that theme.
The Masterson was brought over along side the Star Wolf. Mike watched the viewer as a shuttle left the cruiser and then went to the Vanguard. He knew what was going on having seen this a dozen times over. Lt. Martin Daily and a squad of computer technicians were going over to crack the Vanguards computers. From Commander Hutton’s report he took the small ship fast, and gave the Karduan captain little time to purge her computers and erase their data.
Later, Mike found himself in his little ready room office looking at his desk’s holo viewer as the screen split into four images. In each quadrant of the image was a commander of one of their ships. Commander Hutton was on the upper left, Lt. Peters on the Spider was just below him. Captain Hope was in the upper right with the Masterson’s new captain Lt. Mann below him. Lt. Mann and his prize crew had been given the Vanguard. They were checked out on the enemy ship and had trained on the captured ones that their squadron already possessed.
Lt. Douglass Mann wasn’t a gray wolf or a wolf pup but had been one of the prisoners that Mike and the Star Wolf had rescued at the Battle of Austro Prime. He and his crew had all been captured servicemen and were now itching for some payback.
“Gentlemen, thanks to Commander Hutton’s very quick action and Lt. Daily’s computer skills we now have new intelligence on enemy positions and recognition codes.”
Looking at the screen, Mike could see that the other officers were all fighting hard not to smile. Knowing where your enemy was and having their codes would let you walk right up to them or avoid them entirely.
“It seems that there is now two enemy squadron in this quadrant,” the senior captain announced watching as the smiles on his ship captains’ faces quickly washed away.
“Two full squadrons?” Hutton asked keeping his composure. He was a twenty-year career navy officer and commando. He had been trained to keep his head and look for options no matter how bad things seemed.
Hope’s gray head nodded slowly.
“Yes, but they have made a mistake and have spread their forces out thinly,” he commented as their view screens changed to a map of the star quadr
ant. “Lt. Collins what do you see?”
Mike studied the map his blue eyes dashing back and forth.
“Sir, it looks as if the enemy has sent several larger ships to some of the trade worlds in the nearby system. They have sent their lighter ships into uninhibited systems and have kept only one squadron intact as a sort of a hammer.”
“Very good! Why do you think they did that?” he old headmaster inquired letting a slight smile escape from his normally serious expression.
Now it was Mike’s turn to smile.
“They are using their smaller ships - destroyer escorts and Vanguard sloops to check the remote systems for us. They are probably hoping they can detect us and escape back to the main squadron before we could get to the bend point. The heavy ships – older escort destroyers, standard destroyers, and a battle destroyer are stationed in systems with human populations. They are there hoping we will go to those planets to get supplies and hence walk right into their trap.”
The Hawk’s smile had gone from a slight grin to a full on ear-to-ear smile.
“And what do you think we should do?” he asked as his eyes squinted making him look like his namesake.
Now Mike was also smiling.
“Well, I think we should pay them a visit one system at a time.”
Lt. Peters cut in at this point sounding a little concerned.
“Sir, what about the second squadron? They have to have two full Star Destroyers besides their normal escort ships?”
“Good question Bill,” Hope replied and switch their view screens back to a split screen. “So what do you think about the second squadron?”
Lt. Mann cleared his throat before he spoke.
“Sir, I think that squadron is waiting for a signal to move. If we can keep their ships that are in-system from escaping to a bend point, then we can stop them from warning the others and we can cut them apart piece by piece.”
“And draw them away from the Wolf’s Den,” Mike added.
“These are my thoughts as well,” Hope said nodding his head and still smiling. “I want all ships ready to bend in two hours.”
“Aye, aye, sir” the four captains replied almost together.
Before the transmission cut out they could hear Hope say one last thing almost in a whisper.
“It is time to hunt.”
Picket duty is the worst! Thought the ship mistress of the KD 1244 as she sat at her command seat watching her bridge crew scurry about. They all looked to be busy but she knew it was all for show as there was nothing to do. Her destroyer had the firepower of a human heavy cruiser though she lacked their anti-ship missiles which they called torpedoes. Some of the newer human cruisers even had spinal cannons but she still felt she had a formidable ship. One thing she knew was that it was a waste for her warship and its sister ship KD 986 to be stationed here as mere guards at a bender point.
Her ship waited by a planet with a mining colony called Sterling Six. This world mined and processed metal ores that could be used for ship construction and was populated with smelly humans. It was now a member of the breakaway Delian League, which had quickly signed a non-aggression pact with Kardua and had all but surrender to them. They only had two small patrol crafts and no real warships. What she would give for a real challenge and chance for glory and honor.
“Mistress, KD 986 reports activity at the gravity well,” her communications station reported.
“On screen, enhanced mode,” she commanded.
The viewer blurred for moment and then showed the area of the bender point. Her ships sensor couldn’t give a visual at that range but the KD 986 was relaying their signal. The destroyer KD 986 was hiding at the magnetic pole of one of Sterling Nine’s rich dense metal moons. Their hope was that the magnetic field would help mask their ship signature. It was a trick that they had learned the hard way from the humans.
The viewer again blurred for a several seconds and then went blank.
“Clear up the signal!” she ordered letting some of her frustration and anger slip into her voice.
“Yes Mistress, at once,” the communication operator hurried replied as she fumbled with the controls.
The ship’s first officer, whom the Karduans simply called “Second,” moved to supervise the panicked operator.
Before the Second could do or say anything the picture was restored.
It looked like a one of their Vanguard ships had emerged from the well and was followed by a human express freighter. The Vanguard was a fast ship used for reconnaissance missions, rapid attacks and convoy duty. The ship mistress’s first command had been in a Vanguard ship.
“Second, have the Vanguard identify itself and state its purpose here,” she ordered having already received supplies for their two ships early in the week.
“It is the KV 345 and they are escorting a human freighter back to Kardua. They need to refuel at the gas giant before proceeding to their next bend.”
“Codes?”
“Security codes are correct,” the Second said leaning over the communications station and holding a hand to her pale blue ear as she listened through her earpiece to the ship’s communications.
“Very well,” she said disappointed at the routine nature of her mission. She slumped back into her chair and toyed with the hilt of her patar that was in a special sheath along the side of her chair.
The patar was a symbol of her power and of her station. It was also the tool that the upper class used to advance their social status. The weapon was a straight sword that’s hilt slipped over the hand and wrist. It was made of composite clays that were harder than steel. It wasn’t a weapon indigenous to Kardua or to its Great Houses. It was a weapon that was from the Voorshin culture.
The Voroosh were a reptilian race that had captured the passive and diminutive Kazad explorers’ technology. This included the ability to bend and create wormhole conduits to other star systems. The Voroosh also called Reds due to their reddish scale, had conquered Kardua and had made them their slaves and later their junior partners in conquest and system expansion. This had continued their growth unchecked until they had invaded and taken over Earth.
The humans, though having inferior technology had put up stiff resistance to the occupation. Many of Earth’s former soldiers had been taken as slave to die in the borax mines and agro fields as forced labors or to fight to death in the arena. It was there in the Grand Arena that the humans fought back to break their chains of slavery. The King of America was just a figurehead since the reforming of the American Democracy after the Apocalypse Wars. After the surrender of the world’s governments to the Voroosh, he and his family once more stepped up and led the resistance becoming a symbol for the entire world not just America. Later, they would reward him or perhaps curse him by declaring him Emperor of the world. Under his leadership he helped reform the United Nations under a new charter replacing it with the United Earth Confederation. This included an elected Senate later called the Imperial Senate.
This new world government would have much more power than the old UN and had several underling principals - world peace, space exploration and to never let the Earth be slaves to no man or alien force ever again. To insure a level of control over these nations the American King was officially made Emperor with almost no real power and more as a figurehead symbol to ease the worries of the common man. He was given a veto power over Senate laws and the power to issue imperial edicts in times of emergency and war. A veto that he had since never used, instead he and his decedents used their considerable influence and wealth to guide the Earth and its colonial expansion into the stars.
As for the humans who were taken as slaves they fought for their lives while the King helped the world to unite. Those that were considered the deadly were thrown into the Great Game pitting them against each other in primitive combat. Those that proved even more skilled than their fellow humans were taken to Grand Arena also called the Circle of Death. There they were faced with single combat against other human s
oldiers. If they survived they would face Karduan patar masters and even the Voroosh themselves.
By the time of the Reds War and Invasion of Earth, the onetime Karduan people who had been artists, craftsmen and peace loving farmers had endured over a century of Vorooshin slavery and were no longer the passive people that they had once had been. After a hundred years they had not only spread out among the stars under their scaly masters’ guidance but they had also embraced their ways including a love of the deadly patar.
With the help of the dwarf like Kazad, the human soldiers had rose up to rebellion on one of these slave worlds. The Kazad had also been the reptile men’s slave but as extreme pacifists they were unable to free themselves until the human’s world had been taken. Now they had found not only a race that would fight but also one that they could genetically enhance to make them superior to the Voroosh and immune the power of their telepathic Karduan ladies.
Slowly, secretively, the Kazad altered the captured human gladiators on a genetic level. They made them faster, stronger and gave them the ability to resist Karduan telepathy. The leader of one group of altered warriors was none other than the King of America’s son, often called the Black Prince for his habit of wearing black. He had been taken by the Voroosh while leading guerrilla raids and had been sent to Great Game to die. Along with him was another officer - Major Robert Bannon, who had fought his way to be one of the top competitors of Circle of Death.
These officers found a way to not only free themselves and the other human slaves but to steal a starship. Instead of trying to come back to Earth they led a sneak attack on a Vorooshin ship facility stealing the most advanced starship of its time - a Kazad cruiser the only true warship that the Kazad had ever built. With this ship under human command they destroyed or captured the Vorooshin forces ultimately freeing Earth and Kardua.
Wolf's Run: The Chase of War (Star Wolf Sqaudron Book 2) Page 8