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

Layla shook her head. “Nineteen thousand Confederation warships and their new superweapon the Morag claim to have may be more than Admiral Cleemorl can resist.”

“Don’t forget,” said Derrick. “All of Cleemorl’s dreadnoughts have the new particle beam weapons. The Confederation will not be expecting that.”

Layla shook her head. “It’s still not enough. They’ll just overwhelm his fleet. Is there anything else we can do to help?”

Fleet Admiral Marloo let out a deep sigh. “One more thing we haven’t mentioned. We have a final card to play, if we see the cluster is about to fall. It could make a major difference in the battle.”

“What is that card?” asked Layla, folding her arms across her chest.

Marloo shook his head. “I would rather not say, until we know for sure it’ll be available in time.”

“And another thing,” said Derrick, a deep frown on his face. “Evidently the Druins have developed a drone carrier for their attack drones. We may be facing hundreds, even thousands of them, in the coming battles.”

Layla shook her head. She wondered if the news could get any worse.

-

Later Layla was with Krista, discussing the coming attack.

“Eight to ten days?” said Krista, feeling a cold chill sweep over her. “Will we be safe here on Golan Four?” She also wondered if Mathew would be involved in the fighting.

“I don’t know. The Morag claim to have a new superweapon that can reach us here.”+

Krista looked at Layla, new concern in her eyes. “Where will Derrick be?”

Layla squared her shoulders. “He will be with his fleet. He’s a member of the Royal House and a fleet admiral. Derrick will do his duty, just as our brother did so long ago.”

-

Rear Admiral Lira Carrie had just received new orders. Not only that but her fleet had been heavily reinforced. She now had the Exeter, which was her flagship, twenty dreadnoughts, and eighty battlecruisers, along with twenty battlecarriers. Each battlecarrier carried a maximum load of 160 attack interceptors.

“Admiral, we have reports that the Druins have developed a carrier for their AI attack drones,” Fleet Admiral Marloo had explained to her. “As a result we want to position your fleet near the Hagen Star Cluster, just in case it’s needed. We want you within one hour’s hyperspace jump of the cluster.”

Carrie frowned. She didn’t know of anyone who had fought against these drones. “How dangerous are these drones?”

“It’s been years since anyone had to fight them,” explained Marloo. “In the Solar System years ago, when the Druin surveillance system was still under their control, there was a battle. They’re a little bit larger than one of your interceptors and are armed with both fusion energy beams and missiles.”

“I’ll have to look up the information on the drones  in the Solar System,” replied Carrie. She was curious if there were any videos of the battles.

-

She had found some videos and didn’t like what she had seen. The damn things had actually taken out a few battlecruisers. The AIs that commanded them were efficient and very deadly.

Carrie recalled all her crews currently on leave. They would jump out in two days.

-

On the surface of Golan Four, in the Royal Palace, High Princess Layla, Derrick, Krista, Mathew, Kala, and Andrew shared a quiet family meal. Ensign Brenda Allert discreetly watched everything closely, as Emira wanted Brenda to learn everything about being an attendant. Brenda suspected that Emira was grooming her to take Emira’s place someday. Every night, Emira brought Brenda books on Royal history or videos of specific events that she wanted Brenda to watch. Sometimes all the studying was tiring, but Brenda really enjoyed it. She now felt like a trusted member of the Royal entourage, and she loved it.

-

“Will you be with your fleet?” asked Andrew, though he already suspected what the answer would be.

Derrick nodded. “Yes. Rear Admiral Banora and I will be splitting the fleet to give us better coverage of the core worlds. Every core world will be protected by its defensive gird, as well as a task group of warships. Our entire Imperial fleet numbers are a little over 4,300 ships. We’re pushing for every ship near completion to be finished and out of the shipyards in the next seven days.”

“Where will our main fleet units be?” asked Mathew.

“We’ll have major fleet units at the Vortex Worlds, the Lamina Stars, and the Hagen Star Cluster. The Resistance fleet will have major units at the Haven Nebula, Vidon Seven, Helgoth, Cleetus Three, Lydol Four, Bratol Three, and Malor Two. We’ll also have a heavy squadron at the inhabited moon of Hastings, out on the edge of the Empire. The moon is heavily fortified and will probably be the first Human world to be attacked.”

“Hastings?” said Krista, trying to remember where she had heard that name before.

“It’s where my fleet ended up after attacking the Druin homeworld,” explained Derrick. “We’ve added a lot of defensive elements to the moon, including ODPs. Not only that but enough underground bunkers to house the moon’s entire Human population, so, even if the Confederation bombards the surface, most of them should survive.”

Andrew laid down his fork and asked a question. “How many ships do we have there?”

Derrick sighed. “I wish we had more. We have a heavy task group consisting of ten dreadnoughts and seventy battlecruisers.”

Andrew’s eyes narrowed. “Will the dreadnoughts be allowed to use their particle beam cannons?”

Derrick shook his head. “The only dreadnoughts that have the particle beam cannons are those in the Hagen Star Cluster and here in the core worlds. We don’t want the Confederation to learn about our new weapon, until we engage them with a major fleet.”

“How many is that?” asked Krista. She sat very close to Mathew, their legs touching. “How many of your ships