“The Jakan have agreed to help. We’ll give them a planet that they can expand to, one of the Jukal home planets. Mage overseers will make sure that they don’t go overboard and give the Jukal a way out,” Dave said. “If we get to that stage.”
Deia looked to him, seeing the worry that he tried to hide. She nudged him with her shoulder, only having to look at him to transmit her thoughts.
Dave deflated and sighed, looking older as wrinkles appeared around the corners of his eyes.
“We’ve got a good plan, but there’s a lot of variables. Sure, we’re hoping that the Jukal will try to deal with the fleets we have hitting their key systems. But realistically, they might just take all their fleets, and then hit us here at Emerilia. If they do that, we’re going to need to pull out every trick and show all of our trump cards before they even get to Emerilia,” Dave said, laying out his worries. “If that happens, I don’t know if we will be able to keep Emerilia.”
“So that’s why you’ve been pushing for more people to come to Ice City and asteroid base,” Deia said.
“Yeah,” Dave said, not needing to hide anything from her.
“This won’t end unless the emperor of the Jukal Empire is dead, or we are, will it?” Deia asked.
“No, I don’t think it will. The empire needs to be broken for humanity to be given a chance to do our own thing. If even a single part of the Jukal Empire remains, we’ll be hunted down and destroyed. If we can get the empire to destroy itself, then we can be safe,” Dave said.
“Well, that’s one hell of a wedding present.” Deia smiled.
“What is?” Dave asked, a perplexed look on his face as he looked at her.
“Destroying an entire empire,” Deia said wistfully.
Dave chuckled slightly, remembering a promise he had made to her so long ago.
When this is all over, then we can get married.
A light shone in his eyes as a smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. He pulled Deia tighter to him and kissed the top of her head.
***
Malsour looked out over the asteroid base from his office. He could see the slips that went off into the distance. Portals along the sides of the main thoroughfare showed scenes within different bases; through them, materials were coming from the refineries and munitions were coming from factories that were located throughout all the bases.
He looked up as a knock came from his door. “Come in.” He sensed the familiar aura. He sipped from his cup of Xer. It was a few hours in the past since it had any effect on him. He’d spent hours working with the diverse building crews to build and alter the multiple projects that they were working on.
“You should be getting some sleep.” Denur, Malsour’s mother, the mother of dragons walked into his office.
“I will eventually. There’s a lot more to be done,” Malsour said.
“You still haven’t fully integrated all the changes to your body. You need rest, at least a few hours of it before your body can get used to everything that has happened to you,” Denur said, not willing to let this go by.
“We’ve got the new warships to build and the flying citadels to update. We’ll have three more fleets ready to move in just a week at our current production levels. That means we can hit six more key systems to try to divide the Jukal’s main fleet.”
“Yes, but right now you’re not going to be much good to anyone if you’re not running in your best condition.” Denur cut him off.
Malsour felt a flash of annoyance, but then sighed as it drained away, seeing the clear concern and love that Denur held in her eyes. “You have a good point.”
“I know I do. I am your mother, after all.” Denur indicated for him to get up out of his chair.
He smiled and let his mother worry over him as she guided him out of the office, talking about things to take his mind off the war.
For the first time in days, he was able to calm his mind.
In his office, on one of the interface screens he had locked to his desk, alerts started to appear.
The Jukal fleets had finally started to move.
Chapter 4: The Jukal’s Response
“In a number of the empire’s systems, we have Jukal fleets moving toward the system portals, which seem to be building up power.” Commander Sato looked to the others in the Mirror of Communication conference room: Admiral Adams, Admiral Forsyth of the Pandora fleets, as well as Suzy, Lucy, and the leadership from the Terra Alliance. Sato didn’t look to where the four anonymous people were sitting; these were the council members of the Deq’ual system. The others in the conference room couldn’t even see them.
Sato had been the one to call the meeting as it was the Deq’ual sensor net that they had been laying down for months that had picked up the Jukal fleet’s movements.
“Now, the big question is to see where they go,” Adams said.
The others in the room had grim looks on their faces as they watched the screens that were linked to the sensor buoys that were relaying in real-time. Based off the distances they were seeing, the information coming to them was a few minutes old.
“We’ve got a portal activating in one of the Jukal systems we hit,” Suzy said. With a wave of her hand, another system appeared and they could see the portal through the sensors of the Pandora fleet that was in-system.
Everyone held their breath as more and more portals in the occupied systems started to activate.
It looked as if the Jukal were going to deal with the issues within their controlled systems before they attacked Emerilia. It was just as they had hoped and planned for. However, no one wanted to say anything, for fear of jinxing it and the Jukal ruining their plans.
The first portal activated, linking one system to another as a Jukal fleet of ten ships—two carriers, five destroyers, and three troop transports—appeared on the other side.
The ships were much larger than the Pandora or Deq’ual ships. They passed through the event horizon, entering the system that the Pandora fleet controlled.
Sato’s heart thumped in his chest as he looked at those behemoths. These same ships might have fought against humanity five hundred years ago. Now, once again, they moved in anger, ready to defeat humanity’s combined fleets.
Hangar bays could be seen, hundreds of crafts hidden behind thick armored doors, waiting to pounce on the human ships. Cannons shone with a dark light, ready to destroy all that stood in their path.
This was the unstoppable Jukal fleet, a fleet that had assured the Jukal’s rise to power and their continued dominance over uncountable people, dozens of races, and hundreds of systems. Only one word could truly encompass the feeling that those ships inspired: domination.
Adams and Forsyth talked to each other in low tones before they started to pass orders to their respective fleets. More and more of the sensor buoys showed Jukal fleets moving through portals, hundreds of ships that made up the entire Jukal fleet hunting down humanity’s ships.
Large Jukal fleets transitioned through portals, sometimes meeting up with other fleets on the other side, and some continuing on their own. Fleet after fleet continued to exit through the same portal. A remote system now saw the growing fleet combining together.
Sato and the rest of the people in the room were passing on information, listening to the orders and reports passed back and forth as the second part of their offensive began.
It took a number of hours but the fleet of five that had started off in the remote system had now ballooned to sixty, with more fleets coming through.
This remote system was the closest to the Emerilian system that contained a portal.
It was this remote star system that the Jukal had picked to have their rally point for their fleet that would strike out at Emerilia in an attempt to destroy it and all those who called it home.
Once the portion of the Jukal fleet assigned to destroy the Emerilian system reached one hundred and fifty ships strong, their propulsion drives fired. The ships started to gain momentum as t
hey headed to a jump point that would take them closer to Emerilia.
With no portals this far out, they could only use their jump drive and their regular propulsion drives. If there were no stops, then they’d reach the Emerilian system in three months.
Some two hundred ships that had formed into fleets had now completed their transition into the key Jukal star systems that the Pandora and Deq’ual fleets had attacked.
Another hundred or so ships continued to hold position over the home world of the Jukal and the heart of their empire.
Sato looked at it all, not letting any of his emotions show.
Even if we defeat all of these ships, we won’t have the numbers to contend with the Jukal ships that are protecting the Jukal home world.
He opened his interface and looked at the new numbers that had come from Malsour and Edwards. A cold smile spread across his lips; slowly, a new hard edge appeared in his eyes.
“If we’re to lead them on a chase of the system for a week, then we will be able to bring up another forty ships to the battlefield.” Sato’s voice cut through the discussions around the table.
The others around the table had pensive looks on their faces as they heard his words.
“Well then, let’s try for two weeks, but as long as we have a week, we’ll be ready,” Suzy said.
“When we developed our ships, we did it with a good idea of the Jukal’s capabilities. We should be able to easily get away from them and lead them on a chase. However, we will probably need to lose a few ships here and there to keep up the ruse,” Adams said.
Suzy tapped on the table in thought. She opened her interface and talked to someone. The others in the room noticed this action and waited to see what she was doing.
“This is possible,” Suzy said after ending the call. “All of our ships have portals as well as teleportation arrays, like the one in the original Pandora’s Box workshops that can create a portal from one point to another that doesn’t have a drop pad, ono, or portal on the other end. They’ve also got onos and teleport pads. With this, we can connect to the rest of the fleet. We’ll gut ships from the inside, take everything useful from them, run them on automatic with all of the crew evacuated to the asteroid base, where they can get on a new ship and the materials from the old ships can be used to speed up the building process of the later ships.”
Sato and Adams couldn’t help but look to each other with shock.
It took them weeks to build the hull of a ship, months before they were even able to launch. That wasn’t including all the checks they had to perform and extras that they needed to include. However, Suzy made it seem as if making ships was no big thing. Sato sighed and then thought back to the production numbers that he had checked.
Maybe to them, building ships is that much easier.
Sato nodded his head. Being able to move all of their people from their ships, and gut them for the harder-to-make components, would definitely make it easier for them to build replacement craft. The thought of it was just audacious, efficient, and plain brilliant. It wasn’t a tactic that he would have thought of before because of how he was trained.
Adams suggested it but she hadn’t thought they would be able to save the systems from within the ships, only thinking of getting the crew off with the portals and teleportation magic that the Emerilians had created.
“Very well, then. We’ll strip down a number of ships to give the Jukal a good show while we use the time to build up our forces even more. Then, when they’re confident in their victory, we’ll turn the tables on them,” Sato said.
“Very well,” Suzy said.
***
Frank clenched and unclenched his hands as he stared at the screen that showed the portal in the same system as him. As he monitored the power fluctuation, the portal flashed with power as a new set of stars and system were shown on the other side of the portal.
Jukal ships forced their way into the system. As soon as they were clear of the portal, they turned and charged toward the Pandora fleet.
“Looks like they’ve come out to play,” Captain Xiao said. “How are our ground forces looking?”
“We’ve got a few thousand people who are under the overseers’ watch. They’ve been portaled back to the asteroid base. Our forces have cleared out any of the Jukal and the different Jukal Empire offices. The last of the ground units are returning to the destroyers, which will be lifting in a few hours,” the ground operations officer said.
“What is it like on the facilities front?” The captain looked to the engineering section of the command center.
“This planet deals mostly in small components for electronics. There is a lack of fuel for their various power systems, as well as no food. We’ve put in a number of greenhouse towers. A number of them are in use, but so far people are just sneaking in, stealing stuff and running off. People are hesitant to take food out in the open.
“Our energy systems are hooked up and are charging but no one has connected their power to their power grid. This is understandable as they don’t know if our systems will mess with theirs. We believe they’re smart people and they’ve been studying the power systems to come to understand them.
“The biggest thing has been the Mirror of Communication schools. These people know Mirrors of Communication and a number of them have used them before. They’re in anonymous mode so we don’t know how many of them there are. So far, we can see that they’re learning about Mana, how to create different Jukal technologies, and how to apply it to their situation. It’s opening up a new line of thinking and giving them tools and knowledge to do so many things.”
“Good. I hope that it helps them out.” Xiao sounded relieved.
Frank could understand his emotions. These people had been used for unknown years by the Jukal Empire. They were nothing more than slaves to the Jukal. When they had become a part of the empire, they had to submit, or be wiped out.
Here, they were able to see new opportunities. They hadn’t made the leap to join with humanity against the Jukal just yet. At the same time, they seemed to be slowly coming to understand humanity and getting to know them.
“Nav, set a rally point for the fleet to meet up. Once we’re all together, we’ll lead the Jukal fleet on a nice little trip of the system.”
“Yes, Captain,” Nav said. Waypoints started to appear on the map of the system.
Frank looked at the Jukal fleet, a predatory look in his eyes as he rested his hands on his console, itching to activate the powerful weaponry of the BloodHawk.
***
From the Jukal emperor’s chambers, laughter could be heard shaking the very walls.
“Look, my beauties—see the might of the Jukal Empire!” the emperor cried out, clapping his hands together as he watched the Jukal fleets entering the different systems that the Emerilians had attacked. Now that they had come out of the portals, they seemed as if nothing could possibly stop them.
He laughed while joking and pointing to the different Emerilian ships and their mysterious ally as they started to move away from the planets that they had been fighting on for the last two weeks.
“Look at them, scared in the face of such mighty ships! No other race could do what we, the Jukal, have done!” The emperor didn’t care that none of the concubines in the room with him were Jukal, or the way in which they gritted their teeth in their minds while they continued to flatter him, pressing up against him and smiling as he looked down on their entire race, and all others that were not Jukal.
When they looked to the screens that showed the Jukal fleet and the human fleets, they didn’t feel the joy the emperor did. Instead, they felt the hopelessness of what the humans had done. They’d been backed in a corner and there was nothing that they could do, other than fight back with everything they had.
Now it looked like their run had come to an end.
Some hoped that they would be able to escape, while others wished that they would have a clean death instead of being the slaves o
f the Jukal once again.
They shuddered at the thoughts of what might happen to those who were captured by the Jukal.
The emperor made it a point of honor to watch the killings of those who were supposedly plotting against the Jukal Empire. As he watched them, so did all of them.
They knew the cruelty of the Jukal Empire, but they were powerless to do anything about it.
Chapter 5: Beware the Engineer
Dave opened his eyes as he pulled his hand away from the soul gem construct that had, over the space of just a few hours, filled the destroyer he was in.
“This one is good for service. Get her crew moved in,” Dave said.
“Understood,” Jeeves said from overhead.
Dave teleported out of the new destroyer and into his and Malsour’s office that lay within the walls of the shipyard. Through their windows, they could see the main thoroughfare that was filled with slips that had ships in various states of completion.
Four fleets had already been pushed out of the asteroid base and were now patrolling Emerilia. They watched over the system. All of the ships that were part of the Pandora Initiative were now leading the Jukal fleet ships on a merry chase throughout the Jukal systems. With every day, new ships were being completed, amassing a powerful force within the Emerilian system.
Dave felt an intense sense of satisfaction as he looked upon the slips and ships in them. The asteroid base was now massive and nearing completion. It wouldn’t be very long until it was finished and a second shipyard was under construction already.
Still, he knew that it wouldn’t be completed in time to help out with the ongoing battle. It wouldn’t be long until they needed to show some of their trump cards and start to not only lead the Jukal around their systems, but start to break their fleets.
An alert appeared in his vision. He looked to it, mentally opening the alert. A screen appeared in front of him. He watched as the Jukal fleet chased a Pandora fleet through a system. They were heading out toward the area that they could use their jump drives.
Empire Burning (Emerilia Book 11) Page 5