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

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“Jump!” ordered Rear Admiral Liam Anderson, as his small fleet once more vanished to appear on one side of the Morag fleet formation.

“Missiles launching,” reported the tactical officer.

“Incoming fire!” called out the sensor officer.

Anderson braced himself as the Lodestone shook violently from multiple missile impacts. On the viewscreen, the ship’s energy shield glowed brightly. Suddenly a massive explosion off to one side shook the ship. “What was that?”

“The battlecruiser Thunderbolt just blew up,” replied Lieutenant Proston. “It’s shield suffered a catastrophic failure.”

“Second wave of missiles is off!”

“Get us out of here,” ordered Anderson, as he saw another Imperial battlecruiser vanish from the tactical display. These hit-and-run attacks now would take a cost in Human lives.

Anderson felt the ship make the transition into hyperspace, and once more they exited one hundred thousand kilometers from the Morag fleet. “What did we lose?”

“Four battlecruisers with three more moderately damaged,” reported Lieutenant Proston. “The damaged ones report they are still combat capable.”

Suddenly the alarms on the sensor console blared. Looking up at the tactical display, Liam saw several hundred red threat icons appearing around his fleet.

“One of their smaller fleets has followed us,” reported the sensor officer.

“Open fire!” ordered Liam. He had not been expecting this.

On the viewscreen, a rain of missile fire headed toward his fleet.

-

In space, the weapons fire grew very intense. Both sides were losing ships. In the Morag fleet of two hundred vessels, a battlecruiser was blown in two, with each half drifting apart. Inside the ship, emergency bulkheads slammed shut, sealing in some of the air. Red lights flashed, and the crew tried to find a safe place to stay, until the battle was over and they could be rescued. Dozens of crewmembers had already been lost to the unforgiving vacuum of space. Even more were injured and being treated. Suddenly in the largest half, the artificial gravity failed, and the lights went out. At that moment an Imperial antimatter missile arrived, vaporizing the ship section. Moments later the same occurred to the second half. In space war there is no mercy.

Weapons fire penetrated energy shields, slamming into ship hulls. Large rents were torn open, throwing debris into space. Some of the debris slammed into other ships’ energy screens but didn’t bring them down. Fusion energy beams, antimatter missiles, and even a few fusion missiles lit up space as they struck energy screens, causing them to glow brightly.

In the Human fleet, several battlecruisers exploded, as their energy shields were overloaded. Other ships were damaged from the intense fire.

“Jump us out of here,” ordered Rear Admiral Anderson, his face pale. He was losing too many ships. “Put us near one of the space stations, until I can decide what we need to do next.”

The Human ships hurriedly withdrew from the battle, making the short hyperspace jump to the nearest space station.

-

“What did we lose?” asked Anderson. At least it appeared, from looking at the tactical display, that most of his ships were still with him.

“Six battlecruisers with another seven suffering moderate to heavy damage. All are still combat capable,” answered Lieutenant Proston.

Rear Admiral Anderson knew there was no point in doing anymore hit-and-run raids. “We’ll divide the fleet into two sections to protect the space stations. Both are heavily armed, and, between us and them, we should be able to hurt the Morag when they come within firing range.”

“They’re almost there now,” reported the sensor officer.

“Contact Captain Novak. He’s to take half the fleet to the other space station. I’ll leave his actions up to him, as to the defense of that station.”

-

In just a few moments the fleet split in two. Captain Novak took his original ships and headed to the other heavily armed space station. Rear Admiral Anderson took the rest and deployed them around the space station they were currently at.

“Combat range in thirty seconds,” warned the sensor officer, as the Lodestone took up its position, flanked by two undamaged battlecruisers.

“Stand by to fire,” ordered Rear Admiral Anderson. The Morag ships now filled the viewscreens, and the tactical display showed them as a red swarm.

The tension in the Command Center quickly increased as everyone focused on the viewscreens, showing the nearing Morag warships. They looked massive and dangerous.

“Extreme combat range!” called out the sensor officer.

“Fire!” ordered Anderson, leaning forward in his command chair.

All of his ships fired at once and were soon followed by the heavy weapons on the space station.

-

Colonel Phillips saw the Imperial ships firing and ordered the ODPs and the missile platforms to do the same.

“Incoming fire,” warned the sensor officer. “Missiles and energy beams.”

On the main viewscreens, the entire front of the Morag fleet lit up from numerous antimatter explosions. Several Morag ships lost their energy screens and were blown apart in massive explosions of released energy.

Missiles and energy beams were now striking the defending Humans. However, many of the incoming missiles were picked off by the 1,400 energy beam satellites.

Phillips winced as a number of the defensive satellites were blown apart. There was just too much incoming fire. It would only be a matter of time before the missiles reached the planet.

“It’ll only get worse, the closer they come,” warned Captain Turner.

Phillips saw another Morag battlecruiser die. “At least it’s costing them. Warn General Marley to expect missiles to penetrate the defensive grid shortly.”

-

Morag Admiral Voxx was taken aback by the sheer amount of firepower coming from the planet’s defenses. Even the two shipyards, which were now protected by the remaining Imperial ships, were causing substantial damage to his fleet.

Should we withdraw? asked First Officer Bale.

No! replied Voxx. The planet is heavily defended, but we have the ships to take it. Continue to move the fleet forward.

Admiral Voxx was determined