First Admiral 02 The Burning Sun (15 page)

Sitting back on the seat, a wary eye clamped on his rivals, Grattus sighed. But, no sooner had the breath passed his lips than the Conference Room door burst open. Instinctively, Grattus leapt to his feet in the expectation of the Empress herself sweeping majestically into the room. Instead a squad of eight black-clad Imperial Bodyguards marched purposefully through the doorway and took up strategic positions against the Conference Room wall. The other startled Generals also leapt to their feet whilst Grattus reached for the blaster-pistol at his right hip. Feeling the empty holster, Grattus realised that he had been compelled to surrender the weapon when coming aboard the Taurai. Only Imperial Bodyguards were allowed to carry arms on the Empress’ flagship.

The other Generals fearing, as Grattus did, an immediate execution began to remonstrate and complain. It was not unknown for the Empress to gather up those who had displeased her and allow the Imperial Bodyguard a spot of live target practice. But, as the black-clad guards took their stations, Grattus recognised one of the two figures who swept in behind the security squad.

“Good evening, gentlemen,” Captain Sudrus stepped smartly to the lectern at the head of the large Conference Table, “if you would please take your seats,” he instructed.

Still stunned, and slightly relieved not to be in the midst of a fusillade of blaster-bolts, the Generals nervously re-took their seats. Staying silent, Grattus waited for what was about to enfold.

“Gentlemen you have been summoned by the Empress to take part in the most glorious campaign in the history of the Bardomil Empire,” Sudrus began.

‘Glorious campaign’ was usually a euphemism for ‘bloodbath’, Grattus considered as his mind slipped smoothly into the tone of the lecture that was about to follow.

“Her Majesty, the Empress, has decided that the time has come for the so-called Universal Alliance to understand the true might of the Bardomil Empire,” Sudrus continued.

At the mention of the words ‘Universal Alliance’, Grattus suddenly brightened up. Since the defeat of General Sarvin’s Bardomil Ninth Sarmitha Imperial Fleet by Caudwell, a large number of Bardomil Generals wished to try and avenge their comrades. With the commanders of six Imperial Fleets gathered in the Conference Room, one of them was going to have his chance. Leaning forward on his seat Grattus banged the table with the flat of his hand to show his appreciation. Quickly, the other Generals, not wishing to appear out of step in their loyalty to the Empress, followed suit.

“Gentlemen, if you please,” Sudrus raised his hands to placate the table thumpers, “I applaud your eagerness to vanquish our enemy, but there is much preparation to be done,” he shouted over the noise of table banging.

For a few seconds, the table banging continued, and when the Generals felt that they had shown sufficient loyalty, it petered out.

“Gentlemen, your loyalty is duly noted,” Sudrus got down to the business of the briefing, “Junior Fleet Officer Batarrien will now outline the strategic situation,” Sudrus gave way on the lectern to the handsome young Officer who had presented the idea to the Empress.

Another courtier, Grattus thought to himself as he watched the handsome, well dressed young Officer take the lectern. There had been a long and less than distinguished procession of Imperial favourites who had expounded their particular strategies over the years. However, Grattus, eager for the chance to take on Caudwell was prepared to listen to what this particular Imperial ‘pet’ had to say.

“Gentlemen, it is an honour to be here…” Batarrien began.

“Get on with it, boy!” the gruff General Glabbrus interjected.

Glabbrus, a solid, muscular slab of a creature was nobody’s fool and did not suffer fools gladly.

“As I was saying, it is an honour to be here,” Batarrien replied, unshaken by the General’s rude outburst, “having completed a political and demographic study of the Universal Alliance…”

“Sometime today would be nice!” Glabbrus baited once more.

“Very well, General, if you do not wish to be part of this glorious campaign, I shall inform her Majesty of your reticence to participate,” Batarrien smiled icily.

The tension in the room, already intolerably high went up several more notches at the insult.

“Are you calling me a coward, boy!?” a dangerously enraged Glabbrus hissed, raising his considerable frame from the seat that he occupied.

“Well, sir,” Batarrien said confidently, “if your last performance against the Horvath is any indication, then I’m surprised that the Empress would want you on this expedition.”

“What do you mean by that, boy!?” Glabbrus bunched his fists ready to strike.

This was a dangerous situation for young Batarrien. One of Glabbrus’ favourite pastimes was to take sharpened metal spikes and drive them into the skulls of prisoners with his bare hands. Glabbrus was well able to kill with one blow.

“Well, I believe that they call you ‘clean-pair-of-heels’ on Horvan,” Batarrien did some baiting of his own.

“Why you…” the incensed Glabbrus tried to clamber over the table to get to the lectern.

No sooner had Glabbrus moved than an Imperial Bodyguard struck the irate General with a stinging blow on the back of the head with a pistol. The General, stunned by the blow, stumbled and landed on his back on the table top. The barrel of the black-uniformed Bodyguard’s pistol pressed against the General’s nose quelled any further aggressive outbursts.

Well, well, well, you seem to have some guts, Junior Fleet Officer Batarrien, Grattus considered as Glabbrus took his seat once more under the close guidance of a pistol-wielding Imperial Bodyguard. Watching the temporarily defeated General take his seat, Grattus knew that Glabbrus would not let the insult pass, and, no matter how long it took, he would kill Batarrien one day.

“As I was saying,” Batarrien began again, cool as a cucumber, “I have carried out a political and demographic study of the Universal Alliance and have found a weakness.”

Now Grattus was very definitely interested in what the young Officer had to say. Sitting forward, his elbows on the table, Grattus watched as the young Officer activated the Display Screen and studied the image that appeared on the table surface. The illustration seemed to be a two-dimensional schematic of the territory held by the Universal Alliance.

“Here, Gentlemen we have the current extent of the territories of the so-called Universal Alliance,” Batarrien began, “we have the New Thexxia bloc highlighted in red,” he added as one half of the Alliance schematic flashed a pale red, “the Colos bloc in yellow, the Ganthoran frontier in blue and our own frontier in white,” the young Officer activated the various controls to illuminate the appropriate sectors.

“And, here Gentlemen, we have our objective,” Batarrien indicated showing the five vulnerable systems in bright green, “we have the Praxos system; uninhabited,” Batarrien informed, highlighting the system in orange, “the Terran system with one inhabited planet; not part of the Alliance,” the orange highlight moved to the next system, “next, the Sidionas system; two inhabited planets currently at war with each other and not members of the Alliance,” the orange highlight moved forward again, “then Botar; uninhabited and finally, the Sykith system with one inhabited planet; not part of the Alliance.”

For a moment, a stunned silence fell over the room. Batarrien had just described a virtually undefended corridor through the heart of the Universal Alliance.

“Junior Officer,” Grattus piped up, “this is all well and good, but surely their frontiers with us and the Ganthorans are heavily policed?”

“A very good strategic question, General,” the young Officer praised, “and the answer to it is ‘not really’. From our last reconnaissance sweeps, Intelligence indicates that the bulk of the Alliance’s military forces are committed to establishing and protecting colonies in the new Thexxia sector. We believe that Alliance Admiral Chulling has five of their Star-Cruiser craft to defend the Praxos frontier.”

“Turthus Chulling?” Grattus asked, “I’ve fought against him, he’s a slippery one, he’s clever and he has no shortage of courage,” Grattus had to admit his admiration for the Thexxian-born Admiral.

“But what of Caudwell?” one of the unknown Generals asked.

“Caudwell will be distracted by a diversion, General Trathar,” Batarrien replied.

“What kind of diversion?” the new General, Trathar, asked.

“That is confidential General,” Batarrien replied with the famous Bardomil military euphemism for ‘I-don’t-really-know’.

The constant secrecy and back-covering were a source of annoyance for Grattus. The Bardomil military seemed to exist on the basis of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing. It was all part of the Empress’ divide and rule policy. Unfortunately, the lack of shared information had more than once caused a Bardomil defeat. However, the Empress valued control of her Generals far more than she valued the lives of Bardomil soldiers.

“So, we are to attack the Alliance through the Praxos system?” General Methrien asked.

“Yes, General,” Batarrien replied and changed the image on the Conference table surface.

Looking at the thin, cadaverous features of General Methrien, Grattus knew that despite being one of the cruellest and most savage of commanders, Methrien was also very tactically and strategically aware.

“Her Imperial Majesty has drawn up a plan of attack,” Batarrien instructed as the Conference Table image showed a schematic of an invasion route, “gentlemen, the Praxos campaign,” he added with the drama of a professional actor.

Grattus, like all the other Generals, had to stand up to look at the full extent of the plan.

The image showed a map through the five systems. A huge white line tipped by an arrow indicated the path of advance for the invasion force. Branching off from the large white line, narrower arrow-headed lines indicated where garrisons of Bardomil troops were to be established along the invasion route.

Nodding quietly, Grattus had to admit that the plan looked tactically sound. But, like all soldiers, he knew that plans were one thing and what the enemy did was something entirely different. Very rarely did an enemy conform to the planners’ expectations. And, as Grattus Darrien scanned the invasion plan, he began to second guess what Chulling and Caudwell would do to resist the attack.

“It’s very nice, Junior Officer,” General Methrien was first to speak, “but to implement this plan it will require close to two million troops and their supplies.”

“Very astute of you, General,” Batarrien replied, “and this is only phase one. Her Imperial Majesty is committing five million soldiers to the campaign,” he added proudly.

Once more the Generals murmured amongst themselves at the boldness and sheer scale of the plan.

“I don’t see any occupation force for Planet Terra,” a chastened and angry Glabbrus returned to the conversation.

“Terra is of no consequence, General,” young Batarrien replied.

“No consequence? No consequence, Junior Officer? Terra is Caudwell’s home planet. There are over five billion humans on that world. It’s an ideal staging post for a counter-offensive, and we’re just going to bye-pass it?” Glabbrus persisted.

“Her Majesty assures me that Terra will be taken care of by other means,” Captain Sudrus said darkly, which stifled any further discussion on the matter.

“You said five million troops,” Grattus commented, “with say two million to hold this ‘corridor’ and split the Alliance, do we deploy the rest against the Ganthorans?” he asked.

“No General, they will be required for phase two,” Batarrien smiled and changed the Conference Table graphic.

The graphic for phase two showed a line of white squares on the left of the newly conquered ‘corridor’ whilst to the right, three vast white blocks showed large arrow-headed lines plunging deeply into Alliance territory and converging on the planet of New Thexxia.

“So, we’re finally going after the Thexxians!?” General Methrien cheered loudly.

“Yes, General,” Batarrien smiled, “we stabilise the Ganthoran frontier and isolate the Colos bloc before eliminating the Thexxians once and for all.”

“And what do our planners think the Colos planets will be doing as we tear the heart out of the Alliance?” the other unknown General spoke.

“General Mardak, Her Majesty believes that the internal political instability amongst the planets around Colos will make a decisive military response highly unlikely,” Batarrien replied, “our political analysts predict that the Colos bloc will sue for peace before the Thexxians are eliminated.”

“That seems a very optimistic reading of the situation, Junior Officer,” Methrien commented.

“No,” Glabbrus insisted,” there’s no real fight in the Colosians; they’re traders and merchants, not warriors,” he added.

“Comments, Gentlemen?” Batarrien asked.

“It looks very nice on graphics and charts,” Methrien spoke up again, “but supplying this kind of campaign will be a logistical nightmare.”

“Her Majesty has committed two hundred and ten thousand transport vessels to the campaign with a further thirty thousand support transports every day,” Batarrien replied.

Once again the Generals fell silent as they contemplated the sheer scale of the endeavour.

“That’s a big undertaking Junior Officer,” Grattus asked, “Do we really have the capacity to maintain that level of ongoing support?”

“Her Majesty has assured me that every effort will be expended to support this campaign,” Sudrus intervened.

“The conquest of the ‘corridor’ and the elimination of the Thexxians will effectively remove the Universal Alliance as a threat to the Empire,” Batarrien continued, “When the Alliance collapses, we will step in and conquer all of their territory.”

“And, their technology,” Methrien pointed out.

“Yes, General, we can copy and mass produce their technology and that will make us invincible,” Batarrien smiled.

For a moment, the Generals fell silent as each one savoured the thought of invincibility and conquest with a few old scores settled in the bargain as well.

“Yes, Gentlemen, the Ganthorans would be defeated, the Horvath would be exterminated like the Thexxians and the riches of the unclaimed territories would be ours for the taking,” Batarrien offered them a dream of limitless Imperial expansion.