The Star Cross (33 page)

Other Books by Raymond L. Weil

Available on Amazon

Moon Wreck (The
Slaver Wars Book 1)

The Slaver Wars:
Alien Contact (The Slaver Wars Book 2)

Moon Wreck: Fleet Academy (The Slaver Wars Book 3)

The Slaver Wars:
First Strike (The Slaver Wars Book 4)

The Slaver Wars:
Retaliation (The Slaver Wars Book 5)

The Slaver Wars:
Galactic Conflict (The Slaver Wars Book 6)

The Slaver Wars: Endgame (The Slaver Wars
Book 7)

-

Dragon Dreams

Dragon Dreams: Dragon Wars

Dragon Dreams: Gilmreth the Awakening

Dragon Dreams: Snowden the White Dragon

-

Star One: Tycho City: Survival

Star One: Neutron Star

Star One: Dark Star

-

Galactic Empire Wars: Destruction (Book
1)

Galactic Empire Wars: Emergence (Book 2)

Galactic Empire Wars: Rebellion (Book 3)

Galactic Empire Wars: The Alliance (Book 4)

-

The Lost Fleet:
Galactic Search (Book 1)

The Lost Fleet: Into
the Darkness (Book 2)

-

The Star Cross (Book
One)

-

(All dates are
tentative)

The Lost Fleet: Oblivion’s Light (Book 3)
December 2015

Galactic Empire Wars: Insurrection (Book
5) February 2015

Turn the page
for an introduction to
The Lost Fleet: Galactic Search
.

The Lost Fleet: Galactic Search

A Slaver Wars Novel

Admiral Race
Tolsen grimaced as the
WarHawk
shook violently. They were at Condition
One with everyone at their battlestations. On the tactical display, forty
glaring red threat icons represented the warships which continued to harass his
fleet.

“Light damage
to outer hull, section D-12,” reported the Damage Control officer. “Hull integrity is holding.” The ship shuddered as missiles and energy beams continued to
impact the defense shield.

“Damn Borzon,”
Commander Madelyn Arnett uttered as she held on to the armrests of her command
chair. “They should have stayed in their own territory!”

“We’re having
this problem all along the entire border of the former Hocklyn Slave Empire,”
commented Admiral Tolsen as the
WarHawk
fired off a series of sublight
antimatter missiles at the nearby Borzon cruiser attacking them. “The Borzon
are trying to add these worlds to their own empire. This is the deepest any of
their fleets have penetrated into Federation-controlled space.”

“Well, that’s
not happening today,” said Madelyn, as she ordered the 1,600-meter
WarHawk
to close the range with the nearest enemy cruiser. “We’ll show them what the
penalty is for trespassing in our territory.”

On the main
viewscreen, the energy screen of the targeted Borzon ship was lit up from
massive antimatter explosions and showed signs of imminent collapse. Other
Borzon ships were also under heavy attack from the various ships of the Third
Fleet. The Borzon cruisers were slim vessels, heavily armed, and 1,200 meters
in length.

“Fire particle
beam!” commanded Madelyn, sensing a weakness in this particular Borzon ship’s
protective shield. It was flickering and, in some areas, seemed to have faded
away completely. While the Borzon ships were quite powerful, the Federation
ships had superior weapons and energy shields.

Instantly a
bright blue beam flashed from the
WarHawk
and easily pierced the Borzon
ship’s energy screen, impacting the ship’s hull and causing a tremendous
explosion of released energy. A massive section of the hull broke loose and
floated away from the ship. Internal explosions could be seen blowing out other
sections of hull material. The Borzon ship seemed to falter, and then its
energy screen flickered and collapsed. A fifty-megaton Devastator Three missile
finished off the ship in a fiery burst of consuming nuclear fire. A few moments
later, all that was left of the enemy cruiser was a scattering debris field and
some glowing gases.

“Borzon
cruiser is down,” confirmed Lieutenant Brent Davis from his Main Sensor
console.

“Battleships
Ajax
and
Constitution
are heavily engaged with three Borzon cruisers,”
reported Commander Arnett as she studied one of the holographic tactical displays.
“They’re taking some damage.”

Tolsen nodded
as he thumbed his minicomm to Fleet-wide setting. “Strikecruisers
Vendetta
and
Longhorn
move to coordinates 17° down by 22° starboard of central
axis and assist the
Ajax
and the
Constitution
.” Race wasn’t that
concerned about the two battleships; he just wanted to hold their damage to a
minimum.

-

The pair of
strikecruisers quickly accelerated and headed toward the two battleships’
positions. Upon arriving, they found the
Ajax
and
Constitution
involved in a missile duel with three Borzon cruisers. Antimatter missiles and
powerful nuclear missiles were exploding against energy shields. Suddenly the
screen on one of the Borzon ships failed, and twin antimatter suns formed where
the ship had been. The two remaining Borzon cruisers shifted their attack,
focusing on the
Ajax
. The battleship’s energy screen lit up in a cascade
of raw defensive power as over a dozen twenty-megaton nuclear missiles
detonated against it.

From the two
strikecruisers, multiple sublight antimatter missiles flashed away from their
missile tubes impacting the Borzon energy shields. For a brief moment, it
seemed as if two new stars had been born. When the glare died away, the two
Borzon cruisers were gone. Several fiery filaments were all that was left to
mark their passing.

-

Admiral Tolsen
nodded his head in satisfaction at the destruction of three more Borzon
cruisers. So far the battle was going just as he had expected. There was no
doubt in his mind that the Borzon Empire was testing the Federation’s will to
defend former Hocklyn space.

“Light cruiser
Baltic
is under heavy attack,” reported Lieutenant Denise Travers from
Communications. “They report their shields are down to 20 percent and still
dropping.”

“How the hell
did a Borzon cruiser slip past us and get to our rear echelon?” demanded
Tolsen, his face showing concern. Third Fleet’s ten light cruisers were
protecting the fleet’s four large battlecarriers, and they weren’t built to
take on an enemy cruiser.

“They
microjumped,” reported Lieutenant Davis in explanation.

“
Saratoga
is launching two squadrons of Anlon bombers toward the enemy cruiser,”
reported Commander Arnett, the tactical screen showing twenty small green icons
flash away from the carrier and accelerate toward the Borzon ship.

“Will they get
there in time?” asked Race, his eyes focusing intently on the indicated
tactical display. He knew the light cruiser wouldn’t last long against the more
powerful Borzon ship.

“No,” replied
Lieutenant Davis, as a viewscreen lit up with a brilliant light. “Light cruiser
Baltic
is down. Anlon bombers are making their attack runs.”

Race watched
the tactical display grimly as six of the small green bomber icons vanished,
then the icon representing the enemy cruiser seemed to swell up, and afterward
it also disappeared.

“The Borzon
cruiser is down,” spoke Lieutenant Davis, satisfied that the
Baltic
had
been avenged.

Race let out a
deep sigh of regret at the loss of the light cruiser, and the six Anlon bombers
and their crews; this was war, and people died, sometimes very suddenly. He
turned his attention back to the battle, ordering his ships to press the attack
and drive back the remaining Borzon ships.

-

In space the
Federation ships’ bright blue particle beams, violet-colored power beams, and
the orange-red flash of pulse lasers lit up the darkness. In response the
Borzon returned fire with powerful white energy beams and their own orange-red
pulse lasers. Both sides were using their deadly sublight missiles in an effort
to knock down energy screens and destroy the ships they were fighting. The only
difference being, while the Borzon’s sublight missiles were armed with
twenty-megaton nuclear warheads, the Federation’s were armed with
one-hundred-megaton antimatter warheads.

When multiple
Federation antimatter missiles struck a Borzon cruiser’s shield, invariably the
shield either weakened substantially or collapsed. In most cases, bright blue
particle beams would then finish the destruction, blasting massive holes inside
the enemy ship, until it exploded. A Borzon cruiser could only stand a few hits
from the deadly missiles. The cruisers, while dangerous to smaller ships, were
finding it difficult to even damage the more powerful Federation ships,
particularly the battleships and battlecruisers.

-

“The Humans
grow more powerful in every engagement,” rasped Fleet Commander Tilett—a male
Borzon standing well over two meters tall with wide multifaceted eyes upon a
strangely shaped head. A pair of long, narrow wings was on his back, and his
body was covered with fine, stiff short hair. Tilett stood on two legs that
were bent strangely and had four slender double-jointed arms capable of
grasping and operating the ship’s control consoles.

“Perhaps we
have tried to extend the empire too far into former Hocklyn space,” suggested
High Nest Leader Trill. “It seems the Humans have laid claim to a large portion
of the Hocklyns’ former territory.”

“The Humans
have restricted the surviving Hocklyns to their home worlds and a small area of
space surrounding them,” Fleet Commander Tilett responded, as he watched
several more of his battlecruisers being torn apart by Human antimatter
missiles. The empire’s losses were inconsequential as the Borzon had many more
cruisers. This raid had been to test the Humans’ determination to retain the
space previously held by the Hocklyns.

“Don’t forget
about High Leader Nartel,” High Nest Leader Trill spoke, his multifaceted eyes
focusing on the fleet commander. “The Hocklyns with him still possess a
powerful fleet and control twenty other worlds near the border of our empire.”

“The Hocklyns,
along with High Leader Nartel, will not have the numbers to be a threat to
anyone for centuries,” answered Fleet Commander Tilett dismissively. “Our high
queen has signed a treaty with the Hocklyn’s High Leader Nartel, guaranteeing
the Borzon Empire will not attack them, as long as they don’t venture into our
space. In addition, the Humans have not been active in that region of space,
and we have expanded our empire to completely surround the new Hocklyn system
and the twenty worlds they control. Any hope they have of future expansion has
been removed.”

“Then they are
neutralized from ever becoming a threat,” replied High Nest Leader Trill, as
the flagship shook from multiple energy weapons striking its defensive screen.

“Yes,”
answered Fleet Commander Tilett, watching one of his cruisers destroy another
of the Human’s lighter units. “It is time for us to withdraw. We’ve learned
what we needed to. We’ll take over the outer regions of the former Hocklyn
Empire, but the central regions are now under Human control.”

“I will pass
on the order to enter hyperspace,” responded the High Nest Leader.

“We will make
our report to the high queen,” stated Fleet Commander Tilett, partially
spreading his wings. “She will be satisfied with what we’ve learned today.”
Tilett was anxious to return home; it was time for him to mate with his own
queen and add his genes to the Borzon race. His many offspring would continue
to grow the Borzon Empire.

-

“Light cruiser
Dante
is down,” reported Lieutenant Davis in a neutral voice. That was
the second light cruiser and its crew they’d lost, though several of the
heavier ships were reporting some damage. There would be casualties on those
vessels as well.

“The Borzon
are withdrawing,” spoke Commander Arnett, pointing toward one of the tactical
displays, as the enemy ships vanished into hyperspace.

“Let them go,”
responded Admiral Tolsen, nodding his head. “We’ve shown them that certain
areas of the former Hocklyn Empire are off-limits to them.”

A few moments
later, the last Borzon cruiser vanished into a swirling white spatial vortex,
leaving the Federation fleet alone in the small star system.

“Remaining
ships report able to enter hyperspace,” spoke Lieutenant Travers from Communications.
“Several have mentioned that they’ll need some yard time to repair damages.”

“Very well,”
answered Admiral Tolsen. “Commander Arnett, have the fleet set course for
Careth. The Bears’ shipyards can easily repair our battle damage.”

“Do you think
the Borzon will come back?” asked Colonel Brice Cowel, the executive officer.
He had been at the Tactical console, helping to coordinate the firing of the
ship’s weapons.

“Not for a
while,” Tolsen answered, his face covered in a frown. “They know we won’t allow
them to enter the central regions of the former Hocklyn Empire, but we don’t
have enough ships to adequately guard the periphery.”

“Then we allow
the Borzon to take over all the inhabited worlds near their empire?” asked
Colonel Cowel, knowing they were talking about hundreds of inhabited planets.
Many were just beginning to recover from their years or even centuries of
Hocklyn rule.

“No,”
responded Tolsen, shaking his head. “Several fleets will be assigned to patrol
the regions next to Borzon space. We’re hoping we can slow down or even
discourage Borzon encroachment, but, for some areas, that may already be too
late.”

Race turned
his attention to the primary viewscreen as a blue-white spatial vortex opened
up in front of the
WarHawk
. Moments later the Helm officer flew the
powerful battleship into the vortex, and the ship made the transition into
hyperspace.

Still looking
at the viewscreen, Race could see the swirling deep purple colors, which
designated this strange realm that allowed spacecraft to travel many multiples
of the speed of light. With a sigh he turned the Command Center over to
Commander Arnett, then Race headed toward his quarters. He wanted to get some
rest and think about what was still ahead of them. Taking a turbolift, he
reached his quarters in a few minutes, and, after going inside, he sat down on
the comfortable couch.

On the far
wall of his room was a picture of a blazing white light surrounding a
Federation warship. It was the
Avenger
, which had been missing for over
four years. The entire Fourth Fleet and the Carethian Fleet had been swallowed
up by the raging nightmare at the galactic center. What had happened there had
shaken to their core the New Human Federation of Worlds and their allies.

To this day,
there was much supposition about what had happened to Admiral Strong and his
ships. Many people believed Strong and his fleets had been destroyed outright
in the violent energy surges at the heart of that blazing sphere of light.
Others firmly believed Admiral Strong and his ships had been transported to
another galaxy, and the blazing sphere of light was a distorted spatial
vortex—a vortex created when Admiral Strong had used the
Avenger
in a
daring suicidal attempt to destroy the Hypertranslation Station of the dreaded
AIs.