Len was known as an audacious officer. He would take risks with the best of them, and normally his gambles paid off. The admiral could also be cautious when there was a need. Sean preferred him to be cautious at this point, but he wanted the admiral to act with audacity when the chance arose. After a moment’s thought, Sean made his decision.
“I’ve been having dreams, Len. You know the kind I’m talking about. I keep seeing the Cacas threatening something vital to us, and forcing me to commit major forces. I keep fearing that they will use their device to catch a large force and destroy it. So, be careful.”
“I will, your Majesty. One other thing. The systems we have scoured were empty of any strategic resources. Every orbital factory, ore processing station, and anti-matter sat was gone. In the systems where they had set their traps there were still the empty husks of stations, and a few antimatter sats void of machinery, the bait. And we found two systems where they were still in the process of removing their machinery on those merchant ships I was talking about.”
“And no escorts?”
“Not a one. And that worries me as much as anything. I think they are concentrating a large force, maybe several. And we’re going to be seeing them in the near future. But all we could find so far were merchies.”
“Did you capture them?” asked Sean, hoping that the answer was yes. If not, he would have to have words with his people about the proper conduct of war.
“When we could, your Majesty. The ones that were deep enough insystem when we spotted them surrendered, some with a bit of a threat. But no one was crazy enough to try and resist warships with those slow moving hulks.”
“And the ones that kept running for hyper?”
“We boarded when we could. We killed them when we couldn’t make a capture. And we didn’t find one Caca aboard any vessel we captured. Only some of the more trustworthy aliens of their Empire.”
“Interesting. And that reinforces the theory that the Cacas are building up a force for offensive actions. Keep your scout force on the move. I don’t want them getting a large fleet on top of us before we see it.”
“Will do, your Majesty. Duchess Mei is on the job.”
“And I’ve been meaning to ask you, Len. How do you feel having counts and duchesses under you. Sure you don’t want that patent of nobility I offered?”
“Hell, no, your Majesty. No offense, and many of the nobles I have served with were good people. But I am the son of a commoner, and reached my rank on merit. I don’t want the social rank, please.”
Sean shook his head. The man was amazing. There weren’t many people in the Empire who would turn down an elevation to nobility. And Len had accepted a reduction in rank, leaving the position of CNO to take a fleet command. A wartime command, all he had ever wanted.
“Very well, Admiral. I won’t force it on you. And I must say, avoiding any entanglements with Parliament is always a good idea.”
The admiral smiled, and the Emperor terminated the connection, sitting back in his chair and letting his mind work on the problem of the Cacas. They had come up with the perfect strategy to slow down his offensive, allowing themselves to build up their forces. It was a truism that nobody won a war through defense. They could win battles, and set the pace of the war. But eventually you had to take the war to the enemy, and that meant an offense.
I need to get with Ekaterina and see what her feelers are picking up in Caca space. The Emperor was getting used to having all of the initiative on his side. That wasn’t a given, and if the Cacas could wrest it away from him, they might just be able to push him completely out of their space.
* * *
MAY 3RD, 1004. CA’CADASAN SPACE.
“We’re closing on the enemy, ma’am,” came the call from one of the scout squadron commands.
“What have you got?” asked Vice Admiral the Duchess Mei Lei, looking at the face of the commodore on the holo.
“Twelve Caca superbattleships, in a tight formation. There’s something funny about their hyperdrive signatures.”
A thrill ran up the scout force commander as she listened. A dozen ships, with funny hyperdrive signatures. That struck a cord
“Hold on, Micheal,” she ordered her subordinate. “Stick with them, but don’t move into engagement range until I get back with you.”
Moments later the admiral was passed on by Admiral Lenkowski, and found herself looking at the face of Ekaterina Sergiov.
“That’s very interesting, Admiral,” said the intelligence chief. “I’m thinking that you might have stumbled on a set of their sub-supernova projector vessels on their way to a target.”
“How heavily armed are these things, Kat?” Mei had had regular contact with the intelligence maven, often necessary for her position as the scout force commander for Lenkowski. The two had hit it off immediately, both recognizing the earnest intelligence of the other, and Mei was one of the few who could use that nickname.
“Well, Duchess, we’re not really sure. But I would suspect they have at least the defensive firepower of a standard Caca superbattleship. As far as offensive capabilities, your guess is as good as anyone’s. I wouldn’t take anything for granted if you are approaching them.”
“What about their oversized hyperdrive projectors. Could those be used as graviton projectors to drop ships out of hyper?”
“Wow. Good insight, Duchess. I hadn’t thought of that, and I’m not the expert on this kind of thing. Admiral Chan would be the one to ask, and I’ll kick it up to her. But I wouldn’t be surprised. Not at all.”
“Thanks, Kat. We’ll be careful. I’m thinking we’ll track them to their destination and take them under fire in normal space.”
“If you can, capture one. We’d be interested in looking over their equipment. But don’t take too many chances.”
The holo com terminated, letting the admiral turn her attention back to the tactical plot. The admiral looked over the local stars, trying to gauge where this enemy was going. There were scores of stars within a day’s range near the current course of the enemy force. With a thought through her implant she ordered up all the information they had on those stars.
Thank God for our allies in Caca space, she thought as the information filled in under each of the stellar bodies. The Maurids had given the Empire a complete database on Caca space, something they wouldn’t have had without the aid of the aliens. Most of the systems had planets. That was a given, since most stars had at least some bodies in orbit. Four of them had indications of life on one or more bodies, only two of them had the kind of planets that would support human or Caca life. She looked over each of those carefully. One was a barren world with life in the sea, plants just starting to colonize the continents. And no intelligent inhabitants. The other had a beautiful world, sitting in the perfect place. A planet with moderate ice caps at the poles, large oceans filled with islands, and four continents, all showing the colors of vibrant vegetation.
The almanac the Maurids had given them indicated that the planet, Jresska by name, was inhabited by several billion slaves of a dozen different species. No indigenes, they were all transplanted through the actions of their Caca masters. There was space based industry in the system, ore mines on the asteroids, factories in planetary orbit, antimatter sats near the star. She was willing to bet that most of the current facilities were mere husks, bait.
A thought struck her as she looked over that system. The Cacas could still use these systems after setting off their devices. Maybe after they had recaptured the space, if they ever did. The asteroids could still be mined, while factories and habitats could again be inserted into orbits around the planets. And the humans wouldn’t be able to make use of those systems, without transferring major resources in. Resources that could be better spent in their own Empire. In a way it was a scorched Earth tactic, one that would have been more effective if the humans didn’t have wormholes. That thought did nothing for her now, but it was something to tell command about. Maybe they could find a
way to use it against them in a propaganda campaign.
She changed the view with a thought, zooming out to see what she had within reach. She looked over her dispositions, decided who could be vectored toward the system that seemed the most likely target for the enemy. And who needed to stay on their patrols to keep the enemy from sneaking up on Len’s battle fleet. The decision made, she turned to her com officer to send out the orders. Soon a half dozen scout squadrons were changing their vectors in hyperspace, set to rendezvous at what appeared to be the target system of the Caca projector ships.
Chapter Five
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. John F. Kennedy
MAY 5TH, 1004. CA’CADASAN HOME SYSTEM.
The Emperor Jresstratta V stared in disbelief from the balcony of his private palace quarters. He was high above the city, on the fifteenth floor of the enormous structure. There was a kilometer of gardens and open lawn between the front of the building and the main gate, distance that gave enough separation that the young Ca’cadasan couldn’t hear exactly what was being shouted. That he could hear it at all gave emphasis to the fact the the thousands of protestors were shouting at the top of their lungs.
Banners were waving, most displaying the constellation of the gods of the people. The others had writing on them, shrank by distance. The Emperor engaged his implant and zoomed in, drawing in a quick breath as he read. How dare they? he thought, reading the calls for his removal. It was unheard of for the people to call for the deposing of an Emperor. It was treason, pure and simple.
“The leaders of the church organized this,” he said, looking over at the head of the secret police. “Why were they not arrested before this happened?”
“The church had organized its own protective force,” said the male, one who was looked on with fear by most of the other males. Even the Emperor felt a chill of fear in dealing with this male, one who had ordered and carried out thousands of executions. “We could not get to the prelates, and before we could organize a large enough force to bust into the temple, they had gathered tens of thousands of males.”
“This cannot be happening,” growled the Emperor. Never in the history of the Empire had the sanctity of the Emperor been called into question.
“They are protesting the orders you have given to wipe out living worlds,” said another aide, standing far enough back that the Emperor couldn’t strike him without taking several steps. “That is against the religion of the species.”
“An archaic religion that should have been destroyed ages ago,” said the Chief of the Secret Police.
Jresstratta agreed. He had been raised an unbeliever by his father, himself a disbeliever. They had estimated that almost thirty percent of the males of the empire were atheists. Another twenty percent were slight believers, giving lip service to the priests so they could gain their support in secular matters. That left fifty percent that were still true believers, seemingly impossible in a species that had reached the stars and grasped them close into an expanding empire.
“What do you suggest we do about this?” asked the Emperor of his head policeman.
“I suggest that we leave it alone, for now. We are recording the protest, and will have the identities of all involved. Some judicious disappearances will make our point, without providing a rallying point for the rebels.”
Jresstratta didn’t like it, but he had to admit that the policeman had a better grasp of these things than he did. “Make it so.”
* * *
“The Emperor, the murderer of his own father, is throwing a challenge in the face of the gods themselves,” yelled the under priest who had been chosen to be the spokesman of the budding rebellion. Many people knew that the Emperor Jresstratta IV, beloved by the people despite involving them in a losing war, had been killed on the orders of his son. None dared to say it, since such pronouncements could lead to a disappearance, not just of the speaker, but of beloved sons as well. The priest dared, and in saying it expanding the net of people who were willing to repeat it.
“The gods have punished us for his crime. This city was all but destroyed by our enemies. Something unheard of since the days we threw the insectoid invaders off of our world. What else could it have been but the judgement of the gods. And now he has overstepped the bounds set upon us by the gods once again. Destroying entire life giving worlds, the greatest gift of the gods to the Ca’cadasan race. To all living species. The abomination weapon developed to stop the humans. And has it even done that? No, it hasn’t. They are still on the path of conquest, heading toward us once again. And what will we do when they are once again in our sky, raining death down upon us. They are the instrument of the gods, sent to punish us, and we are heretics and fools to think we can stop them without the aid of our deities.”
“Death to the Emperor,” yelled out a voice from the crowd.
The priest wasn’t sure how to react to that. On the one hand, it was the final objective of the revolt they were staging. On the other hand, it was too soon to add that to the cries for change. However, on the other two hands, it was something that would have to happen if they were to be successful in saving their people from the wrath of the gods. Jresstratta V must die, so that the Ca’cadasan people would live. It might be too late to save the Empire, but Ca’cadasans were the majority species. They would survive the Empire’s breakup. And maybe, if the gods were satisfied, they would deliver the Empire.
“Death to the Emperor,” echoed the shouts of the crowd. “Death to the son who murdered the father.”
The priest raised his hands in the air, waving for attention. The cries had grown into a roar, quieting as the people saw that their leader was calling for their attention.
“Now is not the time to call for murder in response for murder. We must wait until the justices of our courts get involved. The leaders of our military. Otherwise, there will be more death than the Church can countenance.”
“While we wait, our sons are dying in battle, killed as the Empire loses more and more stars,” yelled out a voice from the crowd. The male strode forward, moving people out of the way with his strong arms. “I say we cannot afford to wait. The young bastard killed the male I had pledged my life to.”
“General Hrallastat,” said the priest, recognizing the former head of the capital city garrison, one who had been removed from his position, retired, as soon as the younger Jresstratta had assumed the throne.
“His father was not perfect,” growled the general. “In fact, he made many mistakes. Mistakes that led to our current military situation. But the son is an abomination. The father was at least trying reforms that would allow us to compete with the humans. The son took us back to the beginning, when we were barely prevailing over the humans, who were just starting their own rise to military supremacy.”
The priest scanned the crowd, wondering what effect the general’s words would have. Ca’cadasans liked to think of themselves as superior to all other species. Their long life span, thousands of years, was what many concentrated on. Unfortunately, that life span was the result of a metabolism that brought its own limitations along. Most species were deeper thinkers, many processed thought on a much faster level. But telling the people that was something that would anger them, and the priesthood, who had reluctantly accepted the facts, tried to avoid making their constituents feel less about the species.
“Death to the son,” screamed a voice from the crowd, soon echoed by a score of mouths. The chant grew, until hundreds were shouting the words, then thousands. The people had heard what they wanted to hear, and nothing else. They didn’t care that the general had said the humans were now militarily supreme. What they had heard was that the Emperor they hated had been responsible for that rise.
The roar of the crowd rose, and then someone did something that hadn’t happened in the history of the species. Someone had thrown a rock at a vehicle, bouncing it from the ultra-hard plexi-steel of the cockpit. No harm there, but
it was a start, and people began to pick up and throw other objects. Until they were throwing rocks at the police who had surrounded the protest, hemming them in so that it wouldn’t spread.
The first male to fire was thought to be one of the police, triggering his particle beam carbine and burning into a couple of protestors. That was followed by more fire as more of the police panicked, thinking that they were under attack by the crowd. Scores of civilians went down. And hundreds of armed males, members of the military establishment that most Ca’cadasans belonged too, pulled and fired their own weapons. The police were in body armor that protected them from hurled objects. But not from powerful particle beams that pumped megajoules of energy into their bodies.
The event went from protest to riot to armed revolt in an instant. The last the priest saw of it was hundreds of males on each side involved in a firefight. Just before a particle beam struck him in the head and ended his part in the rebellion, forever.
* * *
“We’re estimating that over three thousand of the protestors lost their lives in last night’s event,” said the councilor who was reporting to Jresstratta the next morning.
The Emperor had watched much of the event, up to the point where dull red beams were exchanged for many minutes. Several errant shots had hit the palace, at which point the guards hustled him away to cover. Before he had left the protest had taken on the aspect of a full pitched battle in the streets. More police were called in, more on both sides went down, and the riot spread as more rebels joined the cause.
“How many police?”
“One thousand and fifteen of our officers were killed, with another five hundred odd wounded. It was the worst loss suffered by our security services since the humans attacked.”
Exodus: Empires at War: Book 14: Rebellion. Page 8