Galactic Empire Wars: Rebellion (The Galactic Empire Wars Book 3) (15 page)

“The Fold Space Drive will be ready,” Captain Rios promised as he went over to talk to Dash
Stahls at the Helm.

“The
Lanolthians did mention that Kleese assault ships come into their system on
occasion to ensure they’re not violating the terms of the neutrality
agreement,” commented Hyram from where he was standing slightly behind Wade.
“Council President Raytol mentioned the Kleese make inspections about twice a
year.”

“Hopefully,
that’s what this is,” Wade said as he watched the tactical screen, which showed
even more ship icons across the system.

“Picking up
quite a few cargo ships as well as a number of other nonaligned world ships in
the system,” Sutton spoke as his sensors worked to categorize the numerous
icons appearing on the sensor screens. As soon as they were identified, he
switched them over to the ship’s tactical screen. The Lanolthians had provided
a ship database on many of the nonaligned worlds in this sector as well as
several of the surrounding ones.

Wade nodded.
He knew that the nonaligned worlds traded with each other on a regular basis,
though what they could trade was strictly limited by the Kleese. Any new items
had to be approved by the Kleese on the nonaligned worlds’ trading station.

“What type of
warships do the Naltons have?” asked Hyram, glancing over at Wade. The
Lanolthians hadn’t said too much about the warships the other nonaligned worlds
possessed.

“I don’t
know,” answered Wade, looking over at Mace Sutton. “How large are those Nalton
ships that are rendezvousing with the two Kleese assault ships?”

“Eight hundred
meters in length and two hundred meters in diameter,” replied Sutton. “The
ships are nearly perfect cylinders. I can’t tell from here what type of weapons
they’re equipped with.”

“Those are big
ships,” Hyram said, impressed. The fleet’s own battlecruisers were only five
hundred meters in length.

“You mentioned
that the Lanolthian President felt pretty confident we could bring the Naltons
into the Alliance,” spoke Wade, turning and shifting his gaze to Hyram. “What
do we have to offer the Naltons?”

Hyram sighed
deeply and looked down at the deck before raising his eyes to gaze at Wade.
“Probably a demonstration of what our Type Three battlesuits are capable of,”
he said uneasily. “The ships of the Naltons are highly computerized and almost
capable of fighting a battle without the crew raising a hand, but they’re very
weak in combat troops. Crime on Nalton is virtually nonexistent and they have a
very small police force, considering the size of their population. From what
President Raytol told me, their actual ground troops total less than one
hundred thousand and none of them has ever seen actual combat. They’re mostly
used for ceremonial purposes.”

“I fear that’s
going to be the case with many of the nonaligned worlds,” sighed Wade. “They’re
all highly advanced and peace has existed on their worlds for centuries. It’s
surprising they've resisted the Kleese for so long.”

“It’s the
technology on their warships,” Hyram responded. “Their weapons are equal to
those of the Kleese and in some cases surpass what the Kleese have on their
assault and exploration ships. The Kleese were hesitant to take the losses they
would've suffered in bringing the nonaligned worlds into their Empire.”

“That
assumption no longer exists due to the Zaltule,” Wade murmured with a slight
nod. “The Zaltule’s ships are designed for war and they seem intent on bringing
the nonaligned worlds, as well as everyone else, into the Empire.”

Hyram nodded
his head in agreement and then spoke. “The nonaligned worlds are capable of
fighting; they’ve just forgotten how.”

“Then we’ll
have to teach them,” Wade said, decisively. He felt apprehensive as he realized
the mammoth task ahead of them. Twenty thousand Space Marines in battlesuits
might not be enough.

As the Distant
Star continued toward the planet, Wade kept a watchful eye on the tactical
screen. Most passenger liners didn’t have an advanced tactical screen in the Command Center; normally they just depended on their sensor screens. However, due to the
missions the Distant Star had been sent out on over the years, an up to date
military tactical screen had been added.

The Nalton
ships rendezvoused with the two Kleese assault ships. There were eight Nalton
battlecruisers in the squadron as it decelerated and then came to a stop in
relation to the Kleese ships. After a few minutes, the squadron took up
positions around the assault ships and began escorting them toward Nalton.

“Looks as if
we’re going to have company in orbit,” said Captain Rios, unhappily. “I was
hoping they would take a few sensor scans and then leave.”

“Not our
luck,” responded Wade, folding his arms across his chest. “Try to stay as far
away from them as possible while we’re in orbit. Once they’re satisfied the
neutrality agreement is still being honored they should leave.”

“If the
Naltons don’t turn us in,” muttered Dash Stahls at the Helm.

“Just be ready
to activate our energy screen,” Wade replied. “It'll hold up long enough
against two assault ships to allow us to activate the Fold Space Drive and
escape.”

“They won’t
turn us in,” predicted Hyram, confidently. “They assured the Lanolthians they
would guarantee our safety while we’re in the system conducting negotiations.”

“Only thing is
they didn’t expect to have two Kleese assault ships here at the same time,”
Captain Rios interjected with deep concern etched on his face. “Don’t forget
that a sublight missile could be launched and strike us before we could raise
our energy shield.”

“They have to
open a missile hatch first,” Wade said, understanding the captain’s concern.
“If we see one open, activate the shield and get us the hell out of here.”

“I’ll monitor
their missile hatches closely,” Sutton promised as he turned and adjusted the
ship’s sensors. “If they open a hatch, I’ll know about it.”

As the Distant
Star neared the planet, they were contacted by the Nalton’s equivalent of space
control and assigned an orbit. The Naltons had been expecting them and no one
on board was surprised when they were placed in an orbit far away from the two
Kleese assault ships. They also noticed several squadrons of Nalton
battlecruisers take up positions almost nonchalantly between the Human ship and
the Kleese.

“I have a
message on a tight beam instructing us to stay in the assigned orbit and not to
launch any shuttles at this time,” Anne Norman reported from Communications.
“They expect the Kleese to be departing in a few hours and then we can send a
shuttle down.”

“Very well,”
answered Captain Rios, sitting down in his command chair. He wouldn’t be
leaving the Command Center until the two Kleese ships were safely out of the
system.

Wade looked at
several viewscreens, showing views of the planet. He recalled what he knew
about the Nalton home planet and star system from the briefing he'd received
earlier from Marken and Admiral Adamson. Nalton was a heavily forested planet
covered with small, deep lakes and snaking aquamarine rivers. The population of
the planet was slightly over four billion and there was no orbiting moon.

Nalton was the
third planet out from the system’s primary and slightly smaller than Earth.
There were eight planets in the system with planets four and five having a
large number of orbiting moons as well as a massive asteroid field between
them. The Naltons had a number of large domed habitats and mining operations on
the moons with nearly three hundred million Naltons living upon them. There was
also a robust mining operation in the asteroids where much of the system’s
refined metals came from.

As Wade
settled down to wait, he wondered how Ryan’s combat training was going. By now,
Ryan was well into it and would be nearing the final, grueling tests. Wade was
deeply concerned that before this current mission was over his brother would be
joining them. He hoped not, but if the nonaligned worlds wanted a demonstration
as to whether the Humans could stand up to the Zaltule in armed combat on the
ground there was a high likelihood that Ryan and his company would soon be on
their way.

Wade let out a
heavy sigh of worry. Ryan was old enough to look out for himself, but Wade
still felt responsible since he was the oldest. However, he didn’t know what he
could do to help protect his younger brother in what was to come. He wished he
could talk to Beth about his concerns, but she was far away with the rest of
Seventh Fleet. Looking at the viewscreens and the blue-green world they
displayed, Wade couldn’t help but notice how peaceful everything looked. Wade
had a haunted feeling that very soon all that was going to change and not for
the better.

Wade was
standing on a firing range just outside one of the Naltons' small military
bases. A viewing stand had been set up and over two hundred Naltons were
seated, waiting for the demonstration to begin. The majority of them were in
the Nalton military with a few important government officials there to observe
as well.

For nearly
four days, Hyram Blake and his team of negotiators had been holding high-level
talks with the Nalton government and military as well as several other
nonaligned worlds, which had sent representatives. Hyram hadn’t been aware that
three other nonaligned worlds would be represented and had been burning the
midnight oil to get everything set up for this demonstration.

“Well, this
should be interesting,” commented Sergeant Russell in his South Chicago accent,
looking at the packed viewing stand.

“Just don’t
blow them up instead of the target,” drawled Sergeant Dawson, who was standing
next to him. Dawson was from the Midwest and had a slight southern drawl when
he spoke.

Wade and the
two sergeants were all wearing their Type Three battlesuits waiting for the
signal from Hyram for the demonstration to begin. Hyram was currently
addressing the spectators as to what they were about to see. Once they'd
learned that the Naltons and the other three races wanted to see a
demonstration of Humans in battlesuits, Wade had requested that the Fire Fox be
sent to the Nalton system. The large troop transport was currently waiting just
outside the system with two light cruisers as escorts. Sergeants Russell and
Dawson had been sent ahead in a shuttle for the demonstration.

Even as Wade
watched, Hyram seemed to finish his presentation and turned to face him. He
waved his arms, indicating that the demonstration could begin.

“Alright,
Sergeants,” Wade said over his suit com. “We have twenty remote controlled
vehicles that will be coming over that rise a thousand meters away. There are
also forty popup weapon emplacements, which will appear between the vehicles
and us. They’re not armed, but the drill is to see how rapidly we can
annihilate the attacking force and the popups. Sergeant Russell, you’re
carrying an energy cannon so your first priority is the popups. Sergeant Dawson,
you’ll assist with annihilating the popups with explosive rounds from your RG
rifle. I’ll focus on the vehicles with my suit explosive rounds. This shouldn’t
take long.”

“Yes, Sir,”
Sergeant Dawson answered. “Let’s make this look impressive!”

“Piece of cake,”
added Sergeant Russell as he removed his energy cannon from his shoulder to
cradle it in his arms. “Just say when.”

Wade turned to
face the small rise and waited expectantly. He didn’t have long to wait as
twenty small remote controlled tanks suddenly rolled over the hill. They were
slightly larger than a mid-sized car but they appeared to be heavily armored.
They had one turret with a medium-sized cannon affixed.

At the same
time as the tanks rolled over the rise, forty embedded popup weapons rose up from
the ground with their guns swiveling to lock on the three battlesuits. It was
an excellent job of synchronization.

“Fire!”
commanded Wade. His suit sensors immediately locked upon the tanks and began
assigning targets. Before he could fire a round, one of the tanks fired and an
explosion threw him violently to the ground.

“What the
hell?” yelled Dawson as flying rock and dirt fell on him. He was already firing
his RG rifle at the popups as quickly as he could. Several vanished as the
grenade-like explosives tore them apart. “I thought they were supposed to be
unarmed!”

Wade staggered
back to his feet and began firing off suit explosive rounds as rapidly as he
could. “Change of plans,” Wade called out, feeling pissed off. The tanks
weren’t supposed to have been armed with live rounds. “Sergeant Russell, switch
to suit explosives and help me clear out those tanks.”

Immediately,
massive explosions began to roll across the advancing line of tanks. Even as
several exploded and were destroyed from the explosives fire, two more fired at
the three Humans. Sergeant Dawson screamed as an explosion hurled him violently
up into the air, causing him to come crashing down to the ground. On Wade’s
HUD, Sergeant Dawson’s green icon switched to amber.

“Report!”
yelled Wade as he frantically fired explosive rounds as rapidly as possible.
Already, in the line of tanks, six of them were burning and five others were
lying on their sides. Even as he watched two more were hit by Sergeant Russell.

“Leg’s
busted,” Dawson groaned as he staggered back upright. He immediately began
blowing the popups apart as he fired round after explosive round from his RG
rifle.

Wade nodded;
he knew Dawson’s suit would be injecting him with meds including painkillers.
Several more explosions went off close to them, showering them with debris, but
the three kept up an unrelenting fire of explosive rounds. In another few
seconds, the target range became quiet as the last target was blown apart.
Smoke drifted everywhere and a number of the small tanks were on fire. Where
the popups had been, small craters indicated their destruction.

Wade turned
around to see where Hyram was. The negotiator was about to get a piece of
Wade’s mind over this demonstration. The tanks were supposed to have been
unarmed and Hyram hadn’t briefed Wade that the demonstration had been changed.
As his eyes focused on Hyram, he could see the man was standing in front of
several nonaligned world members gesturing with his hands and pointing at the
burning tanks. Even from here, Wade could tell that Hyram was deeply upset.
Wade decided it was best not to say anything at the moment. They would discuss
it when they returned to the Distant Star.

“How are you
feeling, Dawson?” asked Wade, turning toward the sergeant.

“Fine,” Dawson replied. “The pain meds have kicked in and I’m pretty sure the suit’s already
injected me with medical nanites to fix my leg.”

“Medical
Nanites?” asked Wade, sounding confused. “I didn’t know Harnett was ready to
try those out yet in the suits.”

Russell
laughed. “We’re the guinea pigs,” he said, walking over to stand next to Dawson. He could see that Dawson’s right suit leg had a good-sized dent in it. “Or I should
say Sergeant Dawson here is the first guinea pig.”

Before Wade
could say anything else, Hyram came striding over to where the three were
standing. He stopped and looked up at the towering battlesuits with an
aggravated look in his eyes.

“Colonel
Nelson, I’m extremely sorry about this demonstration. The Naltons have
expressed their deep regret over the use of explosives. They assured me that
the tanks were set to fire their rounds to go off in close proximity to you and
not to strike you directly. They felt this would be more impressive to the
other three races that were observing the exercise. I didn’t know this change
had been made until the drill began. I hope none of you were hurt.”

“We got
through it,” replied Wade, evenly.

Hyram glanced
over at Sergeant Dawson’s suit and his eyes widened when he saw the huge dent
in the suit’s leg armor. “Are you alright?”

“Fine,”
replied Dawson, feeling a little giddy from the meds.

“Sergeants
Dawson and Russell need to get back up to the Fire Fox,” Wade said. He wanted Dawson in the ship’s infirmary as quickly as possible so his leg could be checked out.

“Fine,” Hyram
answered with a nod. “Colonel Nelson, if you’ll come with me, several of the
military people as well as a few of the government officials would like to see
your battlesuit up close.”

“Are they
going to join the Alliance?” asked Wade, hoping the drill hadn’t been a waste
of time. He was still feeling aggravated at one of his men being injured.

“I think so,”
replied Hyram, nodding his head. “They seemed quite impressed with the
demonstration and I think after you answer a few questions, they’ll feel well satisfied
in our ability to defend their planets from a ground attack by the Zaltule.”

Wade nodded.
He quickly ordered the two sergeants to return to the shuttle and head back to
the Fire Fox. However, in the back of his mind he wondered if the tanks had actually
been programmed to miss. Several of those rounds, particularly the one that had
injured Sergeant Dawson, had come uncomfortably close.

-

Harmock
watched as the Warrior’s Fire’s weapons lit up the energy shield of the
nonaligned world’s battlecruiser, causing cascades of glowing energy to erupt.
This was the fourth nonaligned system he'd attacked in the past three weeks and
its defenders were putting up a stiff resistance.

“Send a
message to the reserve fleet to strike the enemy force from the rear,” Harmock
ordered as the flagship shook slightly from inbound weapons fire impacting upon
the ship’s energy screen.

Recently, he
had ordered that all Zaltule attacking fleets would have a reserve force of two
hundred vessels accompanying them to be used if the nonaligned system they were
attacking was heavily defended. He'd reduced his attacking fleets to four to
ensure he had enough reserve ships for support. After each attack, any ship
losses suffered by the main fleet would be replaced by ships from the reserve.
A message was then sent back to the main Zaltule fleet stationed at the Zaltule
shipyards to send replacements to the reserve force to bring it back up to
strength.

“Message
sent,” replied Dalock from Communications.

“Reserve force
should be in position in twenty minutes,” added Minor Overlord Gareth.

On the main
viewscreen, a Delton battlecruiser exploded in a fiery release of energy as
several Kleese antimatter missiles penetrated its weakened energy screen,
annihilating the vessel. The Delton battlecruisers were slim vessels nearly
seven hundred meters in length and were equipped with some type of primary
energy beam, which could be fired from the nose of the ships. It was far more
powerful than the energy beams the Zaltule had at their disposal.

“These
nonaligned worlds are truly a threat to the Empire,” Gareth commented as the
Delton ship the Warrior’s Fire was attacking finally succumbed as several
energy beams flashed through its battered shield.  Several large sections of
hull material were blasted loose, then two twenty-megaton antimatter missiles
struck the hull and the Delton ship ceased to be.

The battle was
raging along a front nearly two million kilometers long. Two hundred and twelve
Delton ships were fighting stubbornly against five hundred of the Zaltule disk
ships, attempting to keep them away from their home world. Occasionally,
several of the Deltons’ ravishing beams of energy would penetrate a Kleese
shield, blasting massive holes into the stricken ship and setting off secondary
explosions. Already, twelve Zaltule warships had been destroyed and a number of
others heavily damaged from the energy beams. In return, the Deltons had lost
forty of their vessels.

“They will
only be a threat to the Empire if they become united, and that is not going to
happen,” Harmock spoke in a harsh voice. “The Kleese are the superior race in
the galaxy and the Zaltule are the warriors. It will be through us that the
Kleese Empire will someday stretch across the galaxy.”

“As it should
be,” Gareth replied as the Warrior’s Fire moved on to its next target. Looking
around the Command Center, he saw that the twenty Kleese at the ship’s control
consoles were focused on their duties. The Zaltule lived for combat, and the
air in the Command Center was intense as the command crew fought the ship to
bring glory and victory to the Kleese Empire.

-

The battle in
space raged on, with neither side pulling back. For every Zaltule warship the
Deltons managed to destroy, they lost two of their own. The Deltons’ energy screens
were better and their energy beams more deadly, but the Zaltule battlecruisers
were just too large. It was taking six or more strikes by energy beams to
disable or destroy one. The sheer number of weapons the Kleese were able to
target upon the defending Delton ships were just too much for their powerful
energy shields to bear. Shield after shield was being blasted down, exposing
the vulnerable armored hulls to the Kleese weapons.

The Deltons
were a small race, standing slightly more than a meter in height. Their bodies
were humanoid with large round eyes that could see in the dark. They were of
slim stature and highly dependent upon their computers to operate their
warships. In the early years of their civilization, the Deltons had been a
savage and warlike people, but those years were far behind them.

“Ship 247-886
has been destroyed,” reported the Delton in front of the flagship’s sensors.

“We will not
be able to hold our line much longer,” commented Baylith, who was second in
command. He turned his large eyes to the Fleet Commander. “We are losing too
many ships.”

“Long-range
detectors have located a second Kleese fleet inbound via Fold Space,” reported
the sensor operator. “They will be within attack range shortly.”

“We’re too
heavily outnumbered for any hope of victory,” Baylith spoke with great sadness
in his voice. He knew that soon the Kleese would be landing on their world and
placing their obedience collars around his people’s necks.

Fleet
Commander Achlyn thought about his options. If his fleet were destroyed then
any hope of a free Delton race would be gone. He must preserve his fleet and
hope that someday he could perhaps return and drive the Kleese from his world.
“Is the evacuation fleet prepared?”

“Yes,” the communications
officer reported. “They’re awaiting your orders.”

“Tell them to
initiate the plan; we’ll meet them at the rendezvous with what ships we can,”
ordered Achlyn, letting out a deep breath. By activating the plan, he was
telling the leaders of his world that there was no hope for victory.