Knights of the Chosen (Spirit of Empire, Book Two)

by Lawrence P White

  Josh credited him with becoming their quarterback. Mike and Jessie had not only given them knowledge, they had given direction, something the men could sink their teeth into. And with a more complete understanding of the big picture, they understood that their success would mean success for Earth, as well.

  >Didn’t Josh demand that you hold nothing back?< Jake asked him a few days later.

  >He did, and I agreed that there would be no secrets withheld from these men.<

  >Don’t you think you left out one teensy, weensy piece of information?<

  >Jake, I have to work with these guys. I need to be one of them.<

  >You’ll never be one of them. You’re a Protector, but not the way they are.<

  >Maybe not, but I’m going to learn as much as I can from them. I can’t do that if I’m treated with kid gloves.<

  >Nor can you lie to them. What will happen to all that trust when they find out you’re King? They’re going to be around Ellie a lot. Don’t you think they’ll find out?<

  Mike blew out a long breath. >They will, but not until our training is over. I’ll tell them then.<

  >Good idea. They can learn it from Otis or Jessie. That’s probably better.<

  >Look, I just want to be treated as one of them. As nervous as I am about the training on Brodor, I don’t want to be treated as someone special.<

  >The Great Cats will be in charge, and they’re accustomed to training royalty. They won’t let up on you regardless of your position. After all, it’s your life they’re training you to save. And you can never forget that Ellie’s rule is based on truth. Can you base your relationship with these men on anything less?<

  >Of course not. It’s just the timing, Jake. It can wait.<

  >No it can’t, and it doesn’t have to. You’re King, Mike. The best kings lead their men into battle. What better example of Empire rule can you set? As a leader of the Empire, you lead the battle against the Chessori.<

  So he had Josh call his men to the training room once again.

  “Jake has reminded me that there can be no secrets withheld from you,” he began. “Did you get the feeling from my tale that there was something special between myself and Ellie? Well, there is. I proposed to her, and she accepted. We’re married now, so that means you’re protecting my wife, not just the Queen. I hesitate to tell you this, but it must be said. As her husband, I’m now King.”

  Josh straightened from where he’d been leaning against the wall. “You’re King? King of what?”

  “King of a sizeable chunk of the galaxy, Josh. King of the Empire. And in the Empire, that doesn’t mean consort. I rule by her side. Sorry guys, but that’s the way it is. Know that in the Empire, knights and kings don’t just sit around being royalty. We’re on the front lines, right there with you.

  “Know this as well: I may be the Queen’s final layer of defense, and the day may come that I’m your only back-up.” He gave them a while to let that sink in, but he could tell there was some confusion. Galaxies were too big and their role in it was not clear, so he brought their focus down a little.

  “Remember the tales of King Arthur and his knights of the round table?” he asked. “In those days, kings were the best riders and the strongest swordsmen. The knights were his generals, and they were the best and strongest of his men. Gentlemen, I’m King, and you are, each and every one of you, my generals. We go into battle together, and it will be a hard fight. Teach me well.”

  Before reaching Brodor, it was not unusual at all for teams to be battling it out in cargo areas and corridors. They kept clear of the bridge, but the rest of the ship was fair game as they constantly practiced the basics they’d lived with for years. And Mike was part of it. He learned the proper way to hold his weapon at the ready, how to snap it into position for firing, he learned team tactics for moving through a corridor, and he learned how to clear a room, then he learned how to clear a series of rooms. He did not lead, but he learned the mechanics of the ballet these men danced as they leapfrogged through corridors, always providing covering fire and always moving at high speed. Josh grumbled when Mike erred, which he did often, but the team pressed on in spite of his errors, and he got better.

  As on Resolve and Beta IV, the one thing he never got to practice was being bored.

  Each man fully understood that regardless of what they learned during this voyage, their knowledge and skills would improve under the cats’ tutelage. On reaching Brodor, they would most likely find themselves in the same position Mike had found himself during the first PT workout, and that was okay with them.

  * * * * *

  Their arrival on the outskirts of Brodor’s system was everything but what they had expected. Mike was called to the bridge. He arrived on the run, hot and sweaty from hand-to-hand training. Josh, Sergeant Jacobs, and Major Washburn, Josh’s executive officer and one of the largest men Mike had ever met, were right behind him. Jessie, as always, had remained at his side. The bridge quickly became a very crowded place. Captain Voorhees was in the process of setting up a tightbeam transmission with the surface.

  Voorhees gave a quick briefing. Ahead of them by about two weeks of normal in-system travel speeds was a group of seven warships, a standard Empire light squadron. When hailed, they had not responded. He had no idea who they were or where they had come from.

  Otis appeared on the tightbeam and grinned his feral grin when he saw Mike. “Sire, auspicious timing, wouldn’t you agree?”

  “What’s up, Otis?”

  “The Rebels are what’s up. They’re about a week out. Our ground defenses are ready, but they are probably not sufficient to deter the ships. We might get one or two before they take out the weapons, but that’s about it. My guess is they’re here looking for the Queen, though they might be here simply to wipe out as many of us as they can. Or both.”

  “How secure is this transmission?”

  “Not very. They’re between you and Brodor. That places them in the reception window. It’s probably safe to assume they have the same equipment, though it will take them a while to latch onto our code, and then only if they’re good.”

  “Why so few ships, Otis?”

  “It’s more than they need for a blockade. Brodor has relied on Empire protection for many, many years, protection that was suddenly withdrawn when the Rebels took over. Of course, if they land, they don’t stand a chance.”

  “We’re pretty limited here, Otis. Let me think for a minute.” Mike thought hard, his mind discarding some options, retaining others. He would have to flesh his plan out with Josh, but he knew the direction they would take, the only direction they could take if Brodor was to survive.

  “Switch to general transmission, Otis.”

  Otis’ visage disappeared instantly, to be replaced with a normal video link. “Hail, Stardust,” Otis called.

  “Stardust here,” Mike replied coolly.

  “I think you’d better break it off, Stardust. Looks like we may have a little fight on our hands here in a week or so.”

  “I’m here to recruit Guardians. Can you deal?”

  “No deals now,” Otis replied. “We’ve plenty of them here, in fact we’re overloaded for a change. We’ve had a general recall with this rebellion, but this time we need them for ourselves. A lucky break if I ever saw one.”

  “My purchase agreement states that I don’t get paid if I don’t bring back at least three of them. I’d offer to help, but I’m just a lightly armed trader. Maybe we’ll stick around to see how things go.”

  “Your nickel, Stardust. Brodor out,” Otis replied, signing off.

  Stardust continued inbound while Mike held a conference right there on the bridge. As he spoke, he noticed that Sergeant Jacobs in particular, the man who had led the unmerciful hounding Mike received during daily physical training, seemed different for some reason. When Mike looked into his eyes, he instantly saw the reason why: training was over. They were operational now and all part of the same team. Mike explained the situation as
he saw it, then turned to Voorhees.

  Voorhees wasted no time. “We’re a fast ship. We can micro jump into them without warning. They’ll never know what hit them.”

  “How’s your armament?”

  “You know the answer to that, Sire,” Voorhees answered. “Serge has outfitted us very well.”

  “Yes, but a squadron?”

  “No, Sire, it’s not a squadron. It’s a standard light squadron. There’s no frigate, thankfully, and only half the fighters of a full squadron. I don’t want to sound overconfident, but we’re good. The odds are very much in our favor against the fighters. It would be a sure thing if we took them on one at time, but we can handle several without too much risk, and we can micro jump out when the going gets too tough, then come back at them, maybe even singling them out. It will take a while, but we can do it.

  “The cruiser worries me, though. We’ll be like flees on a dog against it. We’ll worry it and we’ll bother it, but we won’t be able to take it out. We can, however, micro jump away when the going gets too tough, then come back to bother it again if we so choose. And I have some confidence that we can limit the number of shuttles reaching the ground. We can make it hard for them.”

  “How likely is it that these Rebels can take out all, or most, of the cats without ground fighting?”

  Jessie answered. “Not likely at all. Compared to most worlds, Brodor is primitive. Otis is prepared, Sire. I’m certain everyone is going native. They’ll be spread out, some holed up in small defensive positions and the rest just roaming free. The cities can be reduced to rubble without any loss of life at all. It will have to be a ground fight. You’ll understand better after you’ve been on the planet.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of,” Mike replied. “No one in their right mind would attack Brodor on the ground. They wouldn’t stand a chance. Those are Rebel ships, and they’re carrying Chessori to reduce the cats’ effectiveness.”

  Voorhees paled. Jessie’s expression did not change, but she made a simple comment. “They might be carrying gleasons, Sire.”

  Mike thought about that, but it didn’t add up. “Your people stood against the gleasons two thousand years ago. Do you think it makes sense to send only one group, knowing the others failed all those years ago?”

  “No, Sire, I do not. I state it only as a possibility. It would take many more gleasons than one squadron could carry. In fact, there would be massive numbers of troop transports if gleasons were to be landed. I withdraw my comment.”

  “Could they have Chessori and gleasons?” Mike wondered aloud.

  “Not likely, Sire,” Jessie answered. “The gleasons would suffer from the scree just as much as my people, and I do not see the gleasons fighting beside anyone, least of all a Chessori who is causing them pain.”

  “So we rule gleasons out. Not that it matters: this will be a space fight, not a ground fight. If the Chessori are involved, the Rebels in front of us are not concerned with us in the slightest,” Mike summarized. “I’m a little surprised they haven’t come after us, though. They know we’ll see whatever they do. Does it make sense they’d let us get away to tell the rest of the galaxy?”

  Jake answered. >I could argue that one either way. You know there will be survivors to tell the story, there are always survivors. But maybe they’d prefer we got away to tell the story. Politically, their cause would be strengthened by taking out the Empire’s Protectors. The Great Cats have made no secret of whose side they’re on. It’s probably a good move politically. And Mike, it’s just a small attack group. They can’t have the resources to defeat the Great Cats. They’re here to isolate the planet, to keep the Great Cats from helping Ellie.<

  Mike informed the group of Jake’s judgment. To Voorhees, he said, “Captain, I’d like you to keep a close lookout for other ships that might be here to reinforce them. Agreed?”

  “Aye, Sire.”

  “You know that all of your passengers are immune to the Chessori’s scree and that your crewmembers, including yourself, are not?”

  “I do.”

  “Okay, men,” he said slapping his hands together and rubbing them together briskly, “we’re going to attack. Captain, you and I will develop the attack plan. Josh, your men will man the weapons. You have a week to learn. Reba did it in an hour. Think you can manage?”

  Josh grinned in reply. “How many weapons stations, Captain?” he asked.

  “Twelve stations, each with dual weapons,” Voorhees answered.

  “Twelve!” Mike exclaimed. “We only had two aboard Resolve, and we managed quite well.”

  “Surely not against six fighters and a cruiser,” Voorhees prompted.

  “Well . . . no. What do we do about the cruiser? Can we even take it on? Does it have a tractor beam?”

  “The cruiser will not consider us a problem, just a nuisance. Have you ever seen one of these ships up close?”

  “I spent some time aboard one. I’ve never fought one.”

  “They’re impregnable. It’s why they were built. No one goes up against a cruiser, Sire. They’re close to half a mile long, and they carry ships like this in their belly.”

  “You mean there might be more ships showing up to fight?” Mike asked, stealing a quick glance at the screens.

  “No, those fighters were probably carried here by the cruiser. I doubt if there are more, though I can’t be certain.”

  “And the tractor beam?”

  “It most likely carries a tractor beam, though I would not expect it to be used during a battle, only afterwards. The beams don’t serve any purpose other than to move things around or to bring them aboard, and they’re a weak point during battle. Once the shooting starts, we’re the enemy; they won’t want to bring us aboard, they’ll want to destroy us.”

  “How is the tractor beam a weakness?” Josh asked, immediately latching on to the one positive thing he’d heard, even though he knew next to nothing about tractor beams.

  “A direct hit on a charged tractor beam capacitor would destroy the ship, Colonel. The capacitors are heavily shielded, but no captain would take a chance. You just don’t go into battle with a charged tractor beam. Period.”

  Mike asked, “What if it’s already charged up? Or partially charged?”

  “Highly unlikely, Sire.”

  “Hmm,” Mike wondered aloud. “When we left Earth, a cruiser attempted to take Resolve aboard before the fighting even started.”

  “I would say those were special circumstances, Sire,” Voorhees responded. “Resolve had someone aboard they really wanted, and I doubt if your small weapons would have been of serious concern.”

  “But the tractor beam could be a weakness,” Josh replied, pursuing his train of thought relentlessly. “Can we make them power it up? Can we make them want to capture us instead of destroy us?”

  “What do we have that they could possibly want?” Voorhees asked. He considered his own words and blinked several times, then answered his own question. “The technology of the micro jump.”

  Mike agreed. “They’re going to see us use it. It’ll probably scare the heck out of them, but once they get their act together, they’ll want it.”

  “They will,” Voorhees replied thoughtfully, giving the idea serious consideration, then brightening with eagerness. “It might work. The tractor beam is located in the cruiser’s hangar deck. It has to be there to bring a ship aboard. It will be heavily shielded, though the hangar entrance itself is not heavily armored. It can’t be and move swiftly to allow the passage of ships. I’d like to model this before we go any further. If we can get through the shields, and that’s a big ‘if,’ there will be nothing stopping us from reaching the capacitor itself.”

  “Any other surprises we should be ready for?”

  Voorhees thought for a time. “Nothing comes to mind. I’ll discuss it with my crew to see if they have any suggestions.” He raised his eyebrows, peering hard at Mike. “Keep in mind that I don’t know anything about Chessori capabilitie
s, Sire. If they use this mind weapon I’ve heard about, a lot will depend on how many there are and how completely they can man the ship.”

  Mike turned to Josh and his men. “They’re very good. And I mean very good. In at least one case, they were so quick they escaped a perfect ambush by taking the only course of action they could. The decision was made in a split second, it was an unusual solution, and it worked. So be on your toes. Do not underestimate them. And one more thing,” he added to Voorhees. “No one gets away. The Rebels will not learn about our fast ships from me. We will show no mercy. Any problems with that?”

  Grim expressions met his last statement. His meaning was clear; they would have to destroy the cruiser, not just wound it.

  Training began in earnest. They had one week. During that time Mike had to familiarize himself with captaining the trader, two gunners had to be trained for each gun, just in case, and others had to be trained to repair battle damage. Fortunately, every special operations soldier was a specialist in at least one area, and frequently in two or three areas. Everyone was a weapons expert, and as for the repair side of things, there were plenty of demolitions experts in the group. Trained primarily to blow things up, they were engineers and readily took to the repair side of things, as well.

  Gunners, engineers, several officers, and as many others as time permitted had to enter and learn to function within the net. Kirsten, Stardust’s equivalent of George, stayed busy day and night familiarizing the newcomers with the net. Mike and his backup needed the full treatment. The rest only needed to know enough to perform their jobs. The gunners had to see the big picture and coordinate their activities, but they did not have to know how to fly or manage the ship. The engineers only had to learn to follow instructions. Reba had caught on quickly, and so did Josh’s men, but Mike insisted they have a bigger piece of the picture than Reba had when he left Earth. Her usefulness had been severely limited by her rushed training, and he did not want a repeat of that.