“A month at the outside,” Wade said his eyes narrowing as he thought about how long it would take the Kleese to organize a major fleet and send it toward the nonaligned worlds. “I need to speak to Hyram and see if some of the nonaligned worlds would be willing to place pickets in some of the systems between us and the direction the Kleese will come from.”
“They could use some of their cargo ships,” suggested Adamson with a thoughtful look. “If we could have a few days' warning before the Kleese arrive at their destination, we could have the fleet ready to meet them.”
“Assume the Kleese are traveling at seventy to one hundred light years per day, it won’t be very easy for a cargo ship to detect them,” Marken was quick to point out. “The cargo ship would have to be in a system the Kleese stop in to do systems’ checks.”
“But they might,” responded Adamson, knowing the odds of detecting the Kleese fleet wasn’t very great. “I think it’s worth the attempt.”
Wade stood up and looked at the other two. “I’ll notify the Defender and our other two troop ships to stand by,” he said evenly, not betraying the worry he felt at sending his brother’s ship into combat. “If the Kleese beat us to the system they plan to attack, we might have to drive them off the surface of the planet.”
“Wade,” interrupted Adamson before the colonel could leave. “I think we should make an attempt to capture several Zaltule. Live prisoners could give us a wealth of tactical information.”
Wade froze when he heard Adamson’s suggestion. To Wade the only good Kleese was a dead one. He let out a deep breath before replying. “I’ll make the suggestion to Major Stevens, but with the stipulation that it must be done without risking significant harm to his marines.”
“I can accept that,” responded Adamson, evenly.
As Wade left the room, he felt a cold chill at what Ryan and his platoon might have to do. To fight the Kleese in armed combat was one thing, but to capture one might be asking the impossible. He needed to talk to Beth about this. While he wouldn’t be down on the planet, Beth would and she could help keep Ryan out of trouble. She'd fought the Kleese in combat and Ryan hadn't.
-
Ryan and Casey were standing at one of the large viewports gazing out, mesmerized at the peaceful blue-green planet that seemed to be floating in space. The planet was surrounded by a myriad of stars, which seemed to beckon to them with their steady, unblinking light. A large space station orbited the planet where numerous cargo ships and trading vessels were continually coming and going. Farther out the planet’s two small moons orbited.
“It’s a beautiful world,” Casey said as she gazed at the planet. She could see several large oceans and wide swaths of green around the equator where tropical jungles existed.
“It’s much like Earth used to be,” Ryan said, longingly. It seemed like ages since he and his family had fled Phoenix and gone to Vesta. He could well remember the rafting trips they'd taken on the Colorado River and camping out in the mountains. Those were things of the past, as nothing like that existed in any of the new habitats. So much had been lost when the Kleese attacked Earth.
“What’s that?” asked Casey, pointing to a large star that seemed to be moving. Then, looking more intently, she saw it was a full formation. She quickly counted and saw that there were ten objects that were moving.
“Lanolthian battlecruisers,” Ryan answered as he gazed at the points of light. “I heard two battle groups are being assigned as an escort for the Defender when we move out and then they’ll join Seventh Fleet once we reach our destination.”
From what Major Stevens had said, he knew the Lanolthian battlecruisers were eight hundred meters in length and one hundred and fifty meters wide, being almost cigar shaped. They had very powerful energy shields and were equipped with heavy ion cannons on the bow for offense as well as energy weapon batteries. The ships were also capable of launching antimatter sublight missiles.
“Are the Lanolthians the ones who gave us the secret to the ion cannons we’re installing all over the solar system?” asked Casey her hazel eyes widening.
“I don’t know, but I’m guessing so,” Ryan answered as he continued to watch the distant ships.
“Lieutenant,” a voice called from behind them. Turning, Ryan saw Privates Parker, Adams, Rios, Hatterson, and Swen come into the room.
“Major Stevens is looking for you,” Alexander said, coming to a stop next to one of the viewports and looking out. “He said if we found you you’re to report for a briefing at 1600.”
“Did he mention what it was about?” asked Ryan, looking down at his watch and seeing he had about an hour before the meeting was scheduled to begin.
“No,” replied Alexander, shaking his head. “He just asked us to find you.”
“Gosh, that’s a beautiful world,” Mary said as her eyes focused on the jewel of a planet. “Was that what Earth used to be like?” she asked, glancing over at Ryan her eyes growing wide. Since Mary was a clone, she'd never seen Earth before the Kleese attack devastated the planet.
“Yes,” Juan answered with sadness in his eyes. “My home was in Austin, Texas where I lived with my uncle. My parents ran a small business just across the border in Mexico. My mother was a dress maker and made the most beautiful dresses, but my parents wanted me to attend school in America so I could receive a good education.”
“Did your parents manage to escape?” asked Mary in a quiet voice. She couldn’t recall Juan ever mentioning his family before.
“No,” Juan replied, shaking his head slowly at the memories. “When the attack came, things became so bad so fast that I couldn’t make the long trip from Austin to my parents' home village. When I last spoke to my dad, he begged me to get to a place of safety. My uncle put me on board a bus going to the evacuation center in Texas, saying he would join me there, but I never saw him again either.”
Ryan was silent. Juan’s story was one that had been told repeatedly by hundreds of thousands of refugees. The Kleese attack upon Earth had left tens of thousands of orphaned children and even more families whose loved ones didn’t survive the horrors of that first year after the attack.
“From the stories I read, the survival camps were not pleasant places to be,” spoke up Casey, recalling some of what she had read at the Academy.
“No, they weren’t,” Rios answered with a haunted look in his eyes. “We were always cold and never knew if we would have food for the next day. It’s something I don’t want to ever experience again.”
“That’s why we’re out here,” Ryan interjected. His eyes looked over the small group of marines. Most of them he could call friends, though he knew it wasn’t wise to get too close to individuals in your command. “We’re going to show the Kleese they never should have come to our solar system or this part of the galaxy.”
“I’m ready to kill some spiders,” Alexander spoke in a boisterous voice. “I understand the best way to kill a Kleese is to cut its head off with an Energy Lance.” Alexander made a swinging motion like he was holding a lance, sweeping it through the air.
“Just so you don’t cut yourself,” cautioned Lauren with an enigmatic grin. “Don’t forget that Kleese battle armor will probably be impervious to an Energy Lance anyway. You might want to use an energy cannon to burn their heads off.”
“Either way, I’m going to kill them,” boasted Alexander in a confident voice.
“They need to die,” agreed Rios. “They are a cruel and evil race.”
“We’ll probably be going into battle shortly, isn’t that right, Lieutenant?” asked Mary with concern in her eyes. Her face was so innocent and lacking any blemishes or birthmarks.
“Probably,” Ryan responded. “I'd better go get changed and head to my meeting. I’ll let you know if anything has come up.”
-
Ryan put on a fresh uniform and made his way through the large ship until he reached one of the briefing rooms. Stepping inside, he paused and his eyes grew wide when he saw
who was standing there. “Beth!” spoke Ryan, feeling stunned and then, recovering his composure, he quickly spoke again. “Major Williams.”
“Sit down, Lieutenant,” Major Stevens said, trying his best not to laugh at the young lieutenant's reaction to seeing his brother’s wife. “Major Williams has come to brief us on an important matter, one that may be exceptionally difficult to accomplish.”
“We’ll do whatever is necessary, Sir,” Ryan responded as he took the indicated seat at the small conference table. “My platoon is ready for combat.”
Beth looked over at Ryan, very pleased with what she saw. He was in excellent shape and seemed to be carrying himself with an air of authority. “Admiral Adamson has suggested a slight change of tactics,” she began. “After Colonel Nelson, myself, and a few others reviewed the admiral’s request we decided it might be an excellent idea for the war effort.”
Ryan looked confused. He wondered if Beth was talking about some type of guerilla action on the Kleese controlled planets. He knew it was an option the High Command had been considering. The Type Four suits would be ideal for such a commitment.
“We want you to capture a Zaltule,” Beth said evenly her eyes focusing intently on Ryan. “More than one would be even better.”
“What?” Ryan blurted out his eyes growing wide in shock. “How do we capture a Zaltule?” Ryan felt numb at the suggestion. The Zaltule were the warrior caste of the Kleese and would not be easy to take into custody.
“We expect the Kleese to attack one of the nearby nonaligned worlds sometime in the next month,” Major Stevens announced as he leaned back and rubbed his forehead with his right hand. He knew this mission wasn’t going to be easy. Hell, it sounded downright impossible.
“When they do, they will undoubtedly land ground forces upon the planet,” continued Beth, knowing she was asking a lot of Ryan. “We’ll make a heavy duty stun rifle available to several of your marines that should, when at its highest setting, knock out a Zaltule even if they’re wearing a battlesuit.”
“How close will we have to get?” asked Ryan, suspecting he wasn’t going to like the answer. He strongly suspected the Zaltule wouldn’t exactly be standing still waiting to be stunned.
“Within knife throwing range,” replied Beth in a lower voice. Looking at Ryan, he reminded her so much of Wade when she'd first met him.
She wasn’t happy about sending Ryan and his platoon into this type of danger.
“What kind of support will we have?”
“I’ll be going down with the four platoons in the Type Four suits,” replied Major Stevens. “We’ll deploy all of our hover tanks if the fighting looks intense as well as the four hundred marines in Type Three suits who are aboard the Defender.”
“This will be a difficult mission to accomplish,” stated Beth evenly, taking a deep breath. “From the reports of their war with the Strell, the Zaltule caste are fierce warriors. I'll be coming down also with all of my marines from the Fire Fox. Many of them have experience fighting the Kleese.”
“But not warriors of the Zaltule caste,” responded Ryan, gravely.
“No, not the Zaltule,” Beth admitted her eyes focused on Ryan.
“Colonel Nelson will command the operation from orbit aboard the Defender, while Major Williams will be in overall charge on the ground,” Stevens said. “Colonel Nelson will be transferring over sometime in the next week. He’s still trying to finish up some negotiations.”
They spent a few more minutes discussing the upcoming operation and what was expected of Ryan’s marines. Once satisfied they had gone over what was necessary, Major Stevens excused himself and left Beth and Ryan alone.
“So, you conquered Charring on your second attempt,” commented Beth with a relaxing smile.
“Yes,” stammered Ryan. He hadn’t expected Beth to know that. “How?”
“How did we know?” Beth responded with a pleased look that she had surprised the young lieutenant. “Your brother was keeping a close watch on you. He’s extremely proud of how well you did in your training. He was even there in the dome Command Center watching your first attempt at Charring.”
“Thanks, I guess,” answered Ryan, feeling embarrassed. He hadn’t suspected Wade had been at the training dome watching.
“Ryan,” spoke Beth in a more serious tone. Leaning forward in her chair, she placed her hands on the hard surface of the conference table. “This mission is going to be extremely dangerous; there’s a good chance that some of the marines in your platoon might not make it back.”
“I understand that,” answered Ryan, taking a deep breath. “It’s what we were trained for.”
“This won’t be like training,” Beth quickly pointed out. “A mistake out here and someone dies; I’ve seen it too often.”
Ryan was silent for a long moment and then focused his eyes on Beth. “What advice can you give me?”
Beth nodded. She was pleased Ryan had asked that question. It showed he wasn’t so caught up in his new position and the power of the Type Four suits to understand he didn’t know everything.
“Be cautious but don’t hesitate once you’ve made a decision,” she spoke in a firm voice. “Make sure your marines know you’re in charge and looking out for them.”
“I have a good group of marines,” Ryan responded. It made him uneasy thinking he might lose some of them on this mission. “I trust them to do whatever is necessary.”
“One more thing, Ryan,” Beth said her tone a little softer. “If you get into trouble or find you’re in a situation you can’t handle, don’t hesitate to call for help. Major Stevens, myself, and others will be close by. In this operation, we’re there to support you.”
“It’s not going to be easy to capture a Zaltule, is it?”
“No,” Beth answered with a sigh. “It’s not. We’re not even sure if it’s possible.”
Ryan was silent as he thought over what his sister-in-law had just told him. For their first mission, his platoon had drawn a bad hand, but he was determined to make it a winning one. “We’ll do it,” Ryan finally said. “We’ll capture a Zaltule.”
Beth allowed herself to smile. Ryan even sounded like his older brother. She just hoped they all made it back safely from this mission.
-
The first three-kilometer Zaltule battlecruiser dropped out of Fold Space followed almost instantly by seven hundred more. In just a matter of a few seconds, space was full of the massive and deadly black warships.
“Status,” barked Harmock as he stepped on top of the Command Pedestal, which gave him an unrestricted view of the Command Center.
“All ships have dropped out of Fold Space,” reported Gareth from where he was standing next to the large sensor console. “All ship commanders are reporting normal flight operations.”
Harmock stood silently as his gaze focused on the large tactical screen, full of the myriad of green icons, which represented his fleet. Since learning of the theft of the trading station, his fleet had stopped in several other inhabited systems controlled by the Kleese Empire. The more he learned about these Humans, the angrier he'd gotten at the Kleese Council of Overlords. For six years, the council had done nothing. They'd allowed an inferior race control of a Kleese possession without making additional efforts to recover it. To Harmock such actions were irresponsible and even treasonous.
What was even worse were the capabilities of the station itself. There was no doubt the Humans had learned how to operate the station, particularly since they had such a large number of Kiveans under their control. Harmock wondered what type of threat the Humans were using to control the Kiveans. He doubted if the Kiveans would work for them voluntarily.
“All ships have seventy hours to perform system’s checks and prepare for battle,” Harmock spoke in a cold and nearly emotionless voice. “Once all systems have been checked we will enter Fold Space and attack our target system.”
“The system of Pradel is only two hundred light years distant,” commente
d Jalridd from the sensor console. “It has six planets, two of which are inhabited. The second planet out from the system’s star is the home world.”
“Reports from some of the traders we spoke to in the last two systems we stopped in seem to confirm an Alliance is being formed against us and the Humans are behind it,” added Gareth. “This Human threat has been allowed to simmer far too long.”
“Yes,” replied Harmock as his multifaceted eyes focused on his second in command. “The council in many ways has failed its duty with the handling of this upstart race. We’ll take care of annihilating that problem, but when we return to the council world, there will be some major changes. The Council Overlords must learn not to keep secrets from the Zaltule.”
Harmock left the Command Center to make a tour of his flagship. He knew that back home on several specially selected worlds, the Zaltule Queens would be laying their first clutches of eggs. Soon new Zaltule warriors would begin to emerge to take their rightful places in the Empire. Within a few years, the Zaltule numbers would swell to their ancient levels and they would sweep across the galaxy, crushing everyone who stood in their way. Harmock also knew that at that glorious moment, he would take over as the Supreme Overlord of the Kleese race.
On the other side of the system, a small Nalton cargo ship rose up out of the atmosphere of the planet it had been hiding in. In just moments, the ship accelerated and jumped into Fold Space. The communications gear on board could reach nearly one hundred light years. It would take the small ship six valuable hours to reach the necessary range to be able to contact one of the nonaligned worlds, which was considering joining the Alliance. From there, word would be sent back to Lanolth and the waiting Human fleet.
Galactic Empire Wars: Rebellion (The Galactic Empire Wars Book 3) Page 19