The Forgotten Empire: War for the Empire by Raymond Weil (ereader ebook .txt) 📕

Rear Admiral Barnes’s fleet, once all our ships have been repaired. We may still go to the Confederation and see if we can sew a little discontent.”

“I wish we had the ships to send with you,” replied Derrick. “But it’ll take some time to replace all our losses.”

“I understand. We’ll probably avoid any major battles, but I would like to destroy as many Morag shipyards as possible to limit their shipbuilding capability.”

Derrick liked the sound of that. “Sounds like you have a battle plan. I only wish I were going with you.”

Rear Admiral Collison laughed. “Like the High Princess would let you lead a battlefleet into the Confederation again after this. She would hang you out to dry.”

Derrick smiled. Collison was right. There was no way Layla would allow him to take such a risk, at least not now. But someday, when the time was right, he planned on returning to the Confederation and finishing this war.

-

Fleet Admiral Marloo was extremely busy. He had tugs all over Golan Four’s orbital space, trying to prevent the massive amount of wreckage in orbit from falling to the planet. Ground-based energy beam turrets were still busy busting up descending wreckage into smaller pieces. The sky was lit up with streaks of fire from the descending debris. Because of that, the energy shields were still up over all the major cities and military bases.

“We’ll have a lot of heavy rain and severe storms along the coasts,” commented Colonel Hillstrum. “Those antimatter strikes that hit the oceans will have our weather screwed up for years to come.”

“A small price to pay for survival,” replied Marloo.

The skies had darkened some from the ground strikes, and special chemicals were already being sprayed in the atmosphere to cause the ash and other debris to fall to the ground. The same for any radiation detected. Chemical agents were used to eliminate that as well.

“What will we do about the destroyed shipyard?”

“Rebuild it and make it bigger and better,” answered Admiral Marloo. “We still have a war to fight, though I suspect it will now shift to the Confederation, but we’ll need ships regardless. Lots of ships.”

General Gantts walked over. “I have the latest reports on the defense grid. “We lost 12 ODPs, 210 missile platforms, and 1,600 energy beam satellites. In addition two of the space stations report substantial damage. All the ground PDCs and bases survived.”

Fleet Admiral Marloo let out a deep sigh. “We need to get our defense grid back up and fully operational. We’ll contact the other core worlds and see what they can do to help.” Marloo leaned back in his command chair. It would take some time, but eventually everything would be repaired, and Golan Four would be back to normal.

-

On Tantula Five, Krista was in her quarters, having just spoken to her cousin. Golan Four had survived! It had been a huge relief to hear her cousin’s voice.

“When do we go home?” asked Brenda, sitting across from Krista.

“Not for a few more weeks. I guess Golan Four took some hits, and the orbital space is a mess. Layla wants me to take the High Kingdom and visit a few of the main Human worlds out in this sector. It’s time we put the Empire back to how it once was, with every Human world and inhabited moon a part of it.”

“Sounds interesting,” said Brenda, nodding her head. “You could take Mathew along as a military advisor.”

Krista’s eyes widened. She hadn’t thought of that. “I’ll speak to Admiral Cleemorl and see if I can get him to agree.” She knew there was a chance he might not, but, with Brenda along as a chaperone, he just might.

“What will Cheryl do?”

“I think she’ll stay here with Dylan. Tantula Five is a very advanced world, and she’s already out looking for an appropriate house. She also mentioned something about bringing her yacht out here and expanding her businesses.”

Brenda laughed. Only Cheryl would be thinking of something like that at this time. “I’m glad we packed the appropriate clothes for you, if you’ll be visiting some planetary governors.”

Krista nodded. “Emira never misses anything.”

Brenda had to agree. She just hoped she got that good at helping the Princesses as Emira was.

-

Layla was back in the Imperial Palace. She was so relieved that it had survived. She had spoken to Derrick earlier, and it would be a few days at least before he could leave the Destiny. Layla felt great sadness at all the lives that had been lost and was already planning on having a planetary memorial service to honor those who had given their lives for the Empire.

Layla stood on one of the higher balconies in one of the sky towers, with Colonel Emerson and two Imperial guards standing protectively behind her. Looking out, she saw the capital city in all its glory. As hard as the Morag had tried, Golan Four still existed. It was still a symbol against tyranny and oppression. Squaring her shoulders, Layla turned to go in. She knew that soon it would be time to plan the next phase of the war. Soon it would be time to take the war to the Confederation, and, though she didn’t want it, soon she knew that Derrick would play an important role in that.

-

On board the Destiny, Derrick was thinking about the sacrifice Audrey had made in saving his flagship. He felt great sadness knowing he would never see her again or hear her friendly voice. Looking at the main viewscreens, which showed Golan Four, he swore he would make the Morag pay. Even though Layla would not approve, he planned to lead the eventual invasion of the Confederation. He would not rest until every Confederation world had either surrendered or had been conquered or willingly joined the Human Empire. If the battles at