Exodus: Empires at War: Book 06 - The Day of Battle Read online

  Sean Ogden Lee Romanov, the third son of the Emperor, is a serving naval officer on a battleship in a relatively quiet sector, with no thoughts of ever assuming the throne. He is a mediocre officer, despite his superior intelligence. With two brothers ahead of him in the succession, and a still young father, the throne seems like the least his worries. By this time the Ca’cadasans have made contact with some of the enemies of the Empire, and sent the information back to their leaders. The ancient enemy has been found, and can now be eliminated. Ships begin to disappear in Sector IV, and sightings are made of vessels that fit no known description. Many people refuse to believe these are the Ca’cadasans, and some think that Empire must have fallen in the near past. The Emperor continues to try to rally support for increasing the size of the human military, while Parliament fights him on the economic effects of such a move, and alien powers protest that the humans are planning territorial expansion.

  There is an attempted assassination attempt on Sean, and a successful attempt on the Emperor and his two older sons during a tour of the Donut. The assassin is an officer of the Imperial Protection Detail, causing distrust to grow among the agencies charged with the security of the Empire. The same day as the assassination, the Leader of the House of Lords is killed in his home. Sean is now the heir to the Empire, and the man who must be seated as soon as possible on the throne, but he is almost a week’s one way com range from the capital.

  The Ca’cadasans now attack, sending large fleets into several industrial or base systems, and smaller forces to many other stars. The Massadara system, a major Imperial base, is one of the systems attacked. Sean is serving on one of the battleships that happens to be in that system, and is aboard the vessel as it heads into combat with the enemy. Word comes to the system that Sean is the uncrowned Emperor, and his ship, against his protests, is ordered out of combat. His ship, the Sergiov, heads out of the system before the main battle is joined, a small Ca’cadasan force on its heels. The main battle is joined, and, though it inflicts casualties on the Ca’cadasan fleet that is only about a decade ahead in technology, it is defeated, and the system falls.

  The Sergiov is battered by the enemy, and Sean is rescued from the ship by Captain Mei Lei and her hyper VII battle cruiser. The battle cruiser fights its way out of the system with the help of Commander Bryce Suttler’s stealth/attack ship, and, along with Commander Maurice von Rittersdorf and his destroyer, starts on the voyage to get Sean back to the capital and the throne. The Ca’cadasans track the two vessels, and Sean escapes on the destroyer while Mei sacrifices her ship in a battle with the Ca’cadasan supercruisers. The battle cruiser Jean de Arc falls out of hyperspace in a catastrophic translation, a low survivability event, but nonetheless manages to survive and starts the long journey home.

  Rear Admiral Mara Montgomery is dispatched with her scout force to locate Sean and get him back to the capital, while von Rittersdorf plays hide and seek against the Ca’cadasans, trying to get the unseated Emperor to safety. Von Rittersdorf catches one of the much larger Ca’cadasan ships in a brilliant ambush which destroys the enemy ship, while causing severe damage to his own. Montgomery’s task force enters the system, and she dispatches the other two supercruisers, then takes the Emperor aboard her flagship. Von Rittersdorf begins the long journey home in his crippled ship with escorts. Sean learns that one of the nearby systems is under siege and, against the protests of the Admiral, orders her to take her ships to break that siege and evacuate the colonists on the frontier world. Meanwhile, the Leader of the House of Lords advances plans to put an Imperial Cousin on the throne while the true heir’s whereabouts are unknown. The Ca’cadasans invade and take the kingdom of New Moscow, and make serious inroads into the New Terran Republic, the sister governments to the Empire.

  On Sestius IV Brevet Brigadier General Samuel Baggett fights the landing of the Ca’cadasans with his mixed command. Farmer and ex-hunter Cornelius Walborski deserts the militia to get his pregnant wife to safety. Though bleeding the enemy, Baggett is forced to fall back into the wilderness before the enemy ground warriors. Walborski’s son is born, but his wife is killed while they are running from the aliens. The farmer goes mad, and stalks the jungle with the skills he had learned as an assistant hunt master, killing many aliens in the jungle. He meets the legendary Preacher of special ops fame, now a retired Ranger and current minister on the planet.

  Montgomery’s task force takes the system and the planet, and evacuates all those that want to leave, just before a larger enemy force enters the system and forces it to flee. Sean meets Dr. Jennifer Conway, who has lost her own fiancé’ in the invasion, and falls in love with her. The scout force fights a running battle back to Conundrum base, rescued at the last moment by the fleet of Duke Taelis Mgonda. Von Rittersdorf makes it to safety, while Mei Lei and her crew are rescued from hyper by another battle cruiser. The XO of the Jean de Arc, Xavier Jackson, falls out of hyper while trying to rescue some crew who could not get off the ship. Surviving the translation, he is rescued by beings from legend, the Ancients that everyone assumes are extinct.

  On the Donut it is discovered that an ancient race known as the Yugalyth, another creature from legend, capable of changing its very body form over a period of days and duplicating any creature, is at large. A Yugalyth agent imitates Dr. Lucille Yu, the station Director, and attempts to destroy the huge construct. Dr. Yu uses quantum teleportation, an experimental technique that only succeeds in moving about half the material being teleported to its target, to teleport negative matter to destroy the bomb the creature put on the station attitude control board. The new enemy is discovered, one which originates in the realm of the Empire’s close ally, Elysium.

  The Knockermen, a reptilian race in the Elysium Empire, revolt against the dominant Brakakak. The Brakakak eventually curb the revolt, but are forced to commit their entire fleet to searching out the rebels and breaking the rebellion. The leader of Elysium and his family are forced to take refuge with the Terrans during the battle of the capital.

  Sean comes back to the Supersystem by the wormhole gates that are now being deployed though Imperial space. Chief of Naval Operations Gabriel Lenkowski gathers a fleet that transports Sean to the capital planet, where, with a large force of Marines, he lands during the coronation ceremony and stops the Lords from crowning his cousin. Sean is now Emperor, Commander and Chief of the Imperial Military, and, given his wartime powers, the most powerful Monarch in a century. His companions go off to other commands; Mei Lei to a battle cruiser squadron, one equipped with new wormhole launch weapons; von Rittersdorf to lead a new destroyer squadron; and Baggett to command of a heavy infantry brigade. Cornelius Walborski, on the recommendation of Preacher, joins the Imperial Army with hopes of being augmented and becoming a Ranger.

  The Ca’cadasans hit Conundrum, the HQ of Sector IV, hours after Sean jumps through the wormhole from there. They take the system, and land troops to complete the conquest of the planet. Sean is forced to engage in a hit and run war against an enemy that is still more advanced, and more powerful, than his own fleet. He orders his units to refuse combat when possible, and only to fight when they can inflict maximum damage on the enemy. Q-ships, militarized merchant vessels with quantum teleporters capable of sending antimatter into the interior of an enemy ship, bait and destroy Ca’cadasan raiders. The Lords go on the warpath against Sean, demanding that he commit his fleet to a major battle. His prophetic dreams indicate that one of the core worlds, the heavily populated industrial planets at the heart of the Empire, is a target. But the dream does not tell him when.

  Wormhole gates are dropped in occupied systems, then maneuvered to planetfall, allowing ground forces to insert. This is done on most of the occupied worlds, allowing the units to engage the aliens in Guerilla warfare. Preacher leads a Ranger brigade against the Ca’cadasans on the surface of Conundrum, and the campaign forces the enemy off the planet. The Lasharans, religious fanatics, are again attacking the frontiers of the Empire, and Bagget
t’s unit, as part of a heavy infantry corps, is sent to take their home planet and occupy their primary temple, breaking their will.

  The Ca’cadasans strike at the Cimmeria system, utterly obliterating the two inhabited industrial worlds located there. Sean retaliates by sending forces through wormholes to strike behind the main enemy fleet and destroy their bases. The Fenri Empire, old enemies of the humans, sign an alliance with the Ca’cadasans, and the New Terran Empire launches a spoiling attack on those aliens. The logical beings of the Crakista Empire, seeing the Ca’cadasans as the greater threat, join the human cause, ordering their military to offer all possible aid to the humans. Things are beginning to look up until the Ca’cadasans launch yet another assault, almost overrunning all of Sector IV.

  Sean and Jennifer become lovers, a fact taken advantage of by the Yugalyth agents, who kidnap her and threaten to kill her if Sean does not place himself in their hands. Sean agrees, and has himself equipped with a pair of small wormholes that allow him to kill the kidnappers when they think they have him in their power.

  Cornelius completes Ranger school, finds a new love himself, and is assigned to the planet Azure, one of the deadliest in the Empire. He and his men stalk the enemy through a jungle that is enemy to both, and encounter a new client race of the Ca’cadasans, the supremely competent hunters called Maurids. Cornelius saves and is saved by a young girl, Rebecca, and completes the mission his company couldn’t, destroying a Ca’cadasan headquarters. He returns to the capital system again a hero, one of the few to win the Imperial Medal of Heroism twice. He marries, and gains a new mom for his baby son, and his adopted daughter, Rebecca.

  Prologue

  The High Admiral watched the main viewer in anticipation, literally sitting on the edge of his command chair. Around him the bridge of his flagship bustled with activity, males manning the boards that ran the twenty-five million ton warship, and connected him to the rest of his command. The other eleven battleships of his command were nestled in close, within light minutes by com. A half dozen of his supercruisers were ranging deeper into the system, while the other ten and his escorts surrounded the star system in a bubble, ready to snap up any human ships that might try and escape.

  “You’re sure this is what you want to do?” asked another male, the captain of the ship. “The Great Admiral left explicit orders that non-human aliens were to be allowed to live.”

  The High Admiral looked at his subordinate and growled. I should be in command of this conquest, thought Kellissaran Jarkastarin, who was a third cousin of the Emperor. Not that lower born lout. All knew that Miierrowanasa M’tinisasitow was the son of a common officer, raised to nobility. To the High Admiral’s way of thinking, birth should always take precedence.

  “What would you have me do, Captain?” asked the haughty male, gesturing to the main viewer. “Even if I sent an abort signal, it wouldn’t get there in time.”

  The other male gave a head nod of grudging acceptance, then turned to look at the Tactical Officer. “How long till impact?”

  “Another five minutes, my Lord,” said the lower ranking officer.

  And we’re forty-eight light minutes away, you dolt, thought the High Admiral, glaring at his Flag Captain. And you knew it Or are you trying to cover your ass with the priests, knowing this interaction is recorded.

  The High Admiral continued to sit in his chair as the timer clicked down. When it hit zero he knew the job had been done. There would be no life offered to the aliens who had thrown in with the humans, if there had been any on that planet.

  “Orders, my Lord?” asked the Captain, walking back to the High Admiral’s chair.

  “We sit here and enjoy the show,” said the High Admiral, again glaring at his subordinate until that male dropped his eyes. The High Admiral pointed at the screen with both right index fingers. “I have waited all my life to pay these humans back for their treachery.”

  “There is nothing else of interest in the system, my Lord,” said the Captain, raising all four hands palms up. “Wouldn’t it make sense to order the force to start decelerating so we can leave this system.”

  “I want to see it up close,” said the High Admiral, a feral grin on his face. “I want to revel in their destruction.”

  The Captain gave another head shake and moved away. The High Admiral stared at the screen which showed the blue and white globe of a living world. But not a natural world, thought the High Admiral, a low growl in his throat. They had learned from the human prisoners, just before they killed them, that the world ahead had been terraformed from a dead body. Nothing was more revered in the religion of the Ca’cadasan Empire than a life bearing world. And nothing was more reviled than a world that had been artificially imbued with life. That is only for the Gods, thought the High Admiral.

  At forty minutes the viewer showed the first flash of what the High Admiral had been waiting for. It was a bright flash, an eye hurting impact on one of the blue sections of the world, an ocean strike. He didn’t see the object that had come in, which wasn’t surprising, considering that the missiles were moving at over point nine c on impact. The first flash was followed by others, until over twenty had appeared on the screen.

  The High Admiral watched as each pinpoint turned into a tiny red circle, the magma coming through the penetrations of the crust and rising high into the air. The cloud patterns changed radically as the blast waves radiated out from each hit. In the oceans the clouds were pushed back from the circle at supersonic speeds, while the ocean floor became visible as massive tsunamis moved at almost a thousand kilometers an hour away from the strike. Any islands and coastlines those waves hit would be inundated, probably to the high mountains. On land the ring was not made up of water, but of fire, as forests and grasslands were consumed to ash by the fast moving flame.

  The High Admiral sat there for hours, watching the death of a planet. He sat there for half a day, until the other hemisphere was visible, and further missile strikes killed the few small areas that had not been destroyed by the death of the opposite side of the world.

  * * *

  “So,” said the Emperor Sean Ogden Lee Romanov, taking his seat at the head of the table so the others could take their own seats, as dictated by protocol. “Give me some good news.”

  “I’m afraid there isn’t any, your Majesty,” said the small woman sitting across from him. “At least not militarily.”

  “And that is not the news I wanted to hear,” said the Emperor with a grim smile, looking at the Chief of Naval Operations, Grand High Admiral Sondra McCullom.

  “I know it isn’t, your Majesty,” said the woman who had replaced Grand High Admiral Gabriel Len Lenkowski, who had been demoted to command of the battle fleet, which had taken a beating under his command.

  Not that it’s his fault, thought the Emperor, picturing the face of the man who had been CNO under his father. I gave him a no win situation, and he has made the best of it.

  “Battle Fleet, which includes the remnants of the Sector Four Fleet, has been reduced to fifty percent of its original strength,” continued the woman who was only one rank below the Emperor himself in the military chain of command.

  “Any way we can bring it up to strength?” asked Sean, pretty sure of the answer.

  “Not really, your Majesty,” said the CNO. “Oh, we can keep stripping other fleets for units, and the new production is starting to come off the yards, though not yet at the level they will by this time next year. The Crakista fleet will help, but they won’t be fully deployed in our space for some months, and we have yet to see any units from Elysium. The bottom line is that battle fleet is being bled to death from a thousand cuts.”

  “And it’s that, or let it be annihilated in a decisive battle,” said the Emperor, looking down at the table top, not really wanting the others in the room to see the doubt in his eyes. And that decision is mine alone. We can’t beat them in a stand up battle. We can only snipe at the edges, and pick our battles carefully, which brings u
p the other problem.

  “We have lost over six hundred worlds in Sector Four,” continued the CNO, as if reading his mind. “Add to that three core worlds. Estimated civilian losses are now on the order of over forty billion.”

  “And that brings up another problem, your Majesty,” said Grand Marshal Mishori Yamakuri, the Army Chief of Staff, through the silence left by McCullom’s last statement. “I have reports of desertions on many of the worlds the Cacas have taken. The people are losing heart, especially now that the Cacas are not landing forces for them to take on. The soldiers would rather run into the wilderness, and survive, than hold their positions.”

  “That shouldn’t be too much of a problem then,” said Sean. “If they aren’t landing, then we really don’t have much need of ground troops.”

  “Except that it will become a problem when the Cacas get enough infantry into the Empire to start ground operations again,” said the Army Chief of Staff. “And many of the desertions have been among the troops who man our planetary defense artillery. They see their units taking a pounding for seemingly no return, and they take off.”

  “Any more bad news?” asked the Emperor, looking at his Prime Minister, Countess Haruko Kawasaki.

  “There is brewing trouble in the Lords, your Majesty,” said the tiny woman, bowing her head. “I am ashamed to say that some of my political rivals are discussing a vote of no confidence in your running of the war.”

  “What kind of numbers do they have?”

  “The entirety of their own block,” said the Prime Minister. “That, in and of itself, is not enough, but they are starting to gain traction with some others. And there is also talk in the Commons. The Scholars are firmly in your corner, but if two houses vote no confidence.”