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

I will return to the council tomorrow, sent Damora. We must keep a watchful eye on the rest of the council members. None of the others must be allowed to turn against us.

-

Morag Admiral Torrant was above the capital world of the Screel with his fleet. The Screel resembled flying bats but had a set of arms with fingers that allowed them to manipulate equipment. Rioting currently took place in over forty of their largest cities. Even a few Morag had been killed, when their vehicles had been overrun by massive crowds of Screel.

A few missiles had been fired at Torrant’s fleet, when it first went into orbit, although Admiral Torrant had no idea where the Screel had come up with such offensive weapons.

All ships are in position, reported First Officer Markel. We have picked out the ten largest cities for our fusion weapons.

Admiral Torrant nodded. He had developed a system for dealing with these rebellious worlds—a system that worked—and he had ended the revolts on Confederation world after world. Launch missiles, he ordered.

-

From ten Morag battleships, deadly fusion missiles darted toward the surface. Numerous Screel civilians looked up to see streaks of light coming down through the atmosphere toward them. Many became frightened and took to the air, using the powerful beats of their wings. They turned to flee the city but were already too late.

In a massive blast of light and heat, the missile detonated three thousand meters above the city. Most of the Screel who had taken to the air were thrown violently to the ground, breaking wings, legs, and, in many cases, dying. The powerful heat and blast wave moved outward from the city’s center, toppling buildings and communication towers. Roads filled with the falling rubble and quickly became impassible.

Then a second and third explosion occurred, adding to the destruction. In moments a massive firestorm engulfed the city’s center, killing most of the remaining inhabitants. Those in underground shelters or transportation tunnels became trapped, as thousands of tons of rubble covered up and buried the entrances.

The heat became oppressive, and the air was full of ash, debris, and deadly toxins. The radiation count rose, as some of the ash settled on the ground. Across the city could be heard the screams of anguish from those who had survived the blast but were too badly injured to flee. As time passed, the screams faded and then died away completely. In slightly less than twenty minutes, nearly eleven million Screel died.

Across the planet in nine other heavily populated cities, more mushroom clouds rose into the air. Millions more of the Screel died, killed without mercy. Then came the ultimatum from the orbiting Morag fleet. End the revolts immediately, or twenty more cities would be destroyed.

The Screel hastily called a meeting of the remaining rulers of their planet. No doubt the Morag threat was not a bluff. Too many other worlds had seen their cities destroyed.

“We have no choice,” spoke one of the Screel in an extremely high-pitched voice. “We must do as they say or face destruction.”

The Screel leader nodded. He had hoped to see his people set free. “Send the message. We will stop the revolts.”

-

An hour later they had their answer, as Morag troop assault shuttles landed. “They will establish a military base upon our planet,” spoke the Screel leader. “Five thousand Morag troops will ensure that we keep the peace and that we remain loyal to the Morag and the Confederation.” The Screel leader felt as if he had let his people down. He wondered what other repercussions would appear for revolting against the Morag and the Confederation.

-

In orbit, Morag Admiral Torrant nodded to himself. Another world was now no longer a problem. In a few hours his fleet would travel to a nearby world in open revolt. This was great training for his fleet for when they went to war against the Humans.

-

Derrick was in his office in the Imperial Palace, going over the latest fleet deployments, as well as reviewing the construction being done across the Empire in shipyards and manufacturing space stations. The Empire was turning out a tremendous number of ships now and even a more impressive number of defensive components.

The comm unit on his desk flashed, and he pressed the blinking button to answer it. “This is Admiral Masters. Go ahead.”

“Admiral, this is Colonel Young in the Command Center. We have detected a large number of ships exiting hyperspace two million kilometers from Golan Four. We have identified one of the ships as belonging to the Visth, and the others belong to various alien races. They have come to a stop and request permission to go into high orbit above Golan Four.”

Derrick wondered what they could want. The Visth had been here months earlier. “Give them permission, but inform them they will be escorted in by units of Fifth Fleet. Contact Rear Admiral Banora and inform her of the situation and that she’s to provide the escort.”

-

Two hours later the Visth and representatives of fourteen other alien races walked into one of the secure conference rooms in the House of Worlds. Fleet Admiral Marloo was currently on an inspection tour of the core worlds and would not be back for two more days. Derrick was present, representing the fleet, and Chief Chancellor Stein and five other Imperial Councilors were present as well. Prince Andrew was present, acting as an observer for the Royals.

It took a few moments to make the proper introductions, as the automatic translators had to be adjusted to translate all the different languages.

“What may we do for you?” asked Chancellor Stein. “We were not expecting to be visited by so many races from such diverse cultures.”

The Visth representative stood. The Visth were a humanoid species, with a greenish tint to their skin and very large eyes. The hair on