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

The governor let out a deep breath and slowly nodded his head. “Yes, the least we can do is try to save some lives.”

-

Morag Admiral Voxx listened to the message from the surface. His gaze drifted to the viewscreen, showing the massive PDC. He had already lost over four hundred ships. Ships he had not planned on losing.

What about the Human fleet? he demanded.

The fleet is not under control of this planet but of the Empire. They will depart shortly, answered First Officer Bale.

Voxx hated leaving the PDC and the space stations intact, but he had already lost four hundred ships, with many more damaged. To take out the PDC, the two space stations, and the Human fleet would probably cost him at a minimum two hundred more. I agree. Hostilities will end as soon as all Human forces stop firing.

A minute later the weapons fire from the PDC, the space stations, and the Human fleet ceased. Voxx then ordered his own fleet to stop its weapons fire. Moments after that, all the Human ships entered hyperspace and were gone from the system.

We will leave ten battlecruisers and a battleship in high orbit, sent Voxx. If any of our ships are fired upon, we will return and destroy this planet.

The message was sent, and soon a verbal peace agreement was agreed upon. The war for the planet Astor was over, and the Morag were once more triumphant.

-

Rear Admiral Anderson’s fleet dropped from hyperspace in a blue giant system. “What do we have left?”

“All three dreadnoughts, thirty-nine battlecruisers, six Resistance battlecruisers, and eleven Resistance support ships,” replied Lieutenant Proston.

Anderson leaned back in his command chair. He knew that many of his ships were damaged, including his flagship. “What’s the nearest heavily defended Imperial world that has a decent shipyard?” He needed to get his ships repaired before they went into combat again.

“Xnea Two has everything we need.”

Anderson nodded. “Set a course immediately. For the time being, our part in this war is over.”

A minute later all the ships vanished once more into hyperspace.

Chapter Eighteen

“That’s another system we’ve lost,” said Fleet Admiral Marloo, as he finished listening to Rear Admiral Anderson’s report. “I fear, if this continues, we’ll lose the entire periphery of the Empire.”

“At least they didn’t bomb the planet,” commented General Gantts. “The people survived.”

“Astor also took out nearly four hundred Morag warships,” added Colonel Hillstrum. “If all of our planets could do that, we could win this war.”

Admiral Marloo nodded. “But it would cost us a lot of resources, as well as people. Just because the Morag didn’t bomb Astor doesn’t mean they wouldn’t bomb the next planet.”

“What do you think their strategy is?” asked Chancellor Stein. He had been in the busy Command Center for the last several hours.

Marloo leaned back in his command chair, rubbing his forehead. “I wish I knew. The best our analysts have come up with is that these attacks on the periphery are, indeed, a diversion. The Morag have divided their reserve fleet up into two sections of four thousand ships each. These two fleets are rampaging across the periphery, attacking worlds, perhaps in the hope we will commit a major portion of our core worlds fleet to stop them.”

“We did commit quite a few ships at Astor,” pointed out Colonel Hillstrum.

Admiral Marloo replied, “Nearly everything we had in that section of the Empire. Rear Admiral Anderson is taking what’s left of his fleet to Xnea Two for repairs. I’ll order him to stay there for the time being, until we know more about what the Morag are actually doing.”

Chancellor Stein looked up at the huge viewscreens that showed views from across all the core worlds. “You still think their main targets are the Hagen Star Cluster and the core world?”

“My gut feeling says so,” answered Marloo. “We should know in a few days, if the Hagen Star Cluster is struck.”

“Is Admiral Cleemorl ready?”

Marloo turned toward Chancellor Stein. “If any of our admirals is ready, it’s Admiral Cleemorl.” Marloo was well aware how heavily the Hagen Star Cluster was fortified. Admiral Cleemorl wanted the cluster to become a killing field for the Morag.

-

Above Tantula Five, Admiral Cleemorl was in his personal quarters, reviewing his battle plan. He had received a few more ships, plus the ones that had been constructed in the shipyards of the seven main star systems in the cluster. Currently he had his fleet divided into three sections. Rear Admiral Manson had four hundred battlecruisers and forty dreadnoughts. Rear Admiral Fulmar had the exact same size fleet, while Dylan had 550 battlecruisers and forty-nine dreadnoughts.

Only the seven primary star systems would be defended by the fleets. All had massive defensive grids and powerful ground-based weapons systems. Dylan was certain the enemy would recognize Tantula Five and Gideon as the primary dangers to the Confederation in the cluster and would most likely attack here first. If they did, Rear Admirals Manson and Fulmar would bring their fleets to the Tantula Five System immediately. Not only that, Rear Admiral Carrie would be called in as well. Dylan had his trap set, but he had no idea what he would be up against. No matter what, Dylan suspected this would be the biggest battle fought so far in the war.

Later in the day he had meetings scheduled with both Governor Dyson of Tantula Five and Governor Anna Bloom of Gideon. He wanted to make sure that both were ready for what was ahead. With a deep sigh, he leaned back in his chair. He needed to send a recorded message to Cheryl. Not a goodbye message but he wanted to tell her how important she was to him and how, someday, they would be free of this war and would be together permanently.

-

The High Council of the