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

Carrie’s fleet dropped out of hyperspace. As soon as her fleet was all safely in the system, she received orders from Admiral Masters to take up a position directly behind his wedge-shaped fleet. He would provide her with twenty battlecruisers for protection. Rear Admiral Krest was to take her fleet and join Rear Admiral Collison’s fleet.

“Put us behind Admiral Masters’ fleet,” ordered Rear Admiral Carrie. She saw the fifteen Earth battlecarriers, sitting just behind an ODP and behind the defensive grid that surrounded Golan Four. “Rear Admiral Krest will be taking her fleet to reinforce Rear Admiral Collison. Have our escorts that Fleet Admiral Masters is furnishing us form up into a lose globe around our battlecarriers.”

It didn’t take long for her fleet to be in position. “We will have some attack interceptors coming up from the surface.” She looked over at Major Sullivan. “See that the crews get settled in. I would also like to run a few practice drills, to remind them what landing and taking off from a battlecarrier is like.”

As soon as she contacted the surface and informed the commanding officer of the interceptors that the fleet was ready to receive, numerous squadrons of attack interceptors launched from the surface to fill the bays of her battlecarriers. She still had nearly half of her original squadrons and two-thirds of her pilots and crews.

“Get those interceptors in as soon as possible,” she ordered, as she watched them land on her battlecarriers. “Get them familiar with the ship and assign them to quarters. We probably still have twelve to sixteen hours before the Morag attack. I would like to do several practice drills in that time period.”

“Yes, Admiral,” replied Major Sullivan. “I’ll get it taken care of immediately. I want them to get some food and rest as well. Once this battle starts, rest and time to eat will be a thing of the past.”

Carrie needed to speak to Admiral Masters, and then she would go do the same. A good eight hours of sleep and then a good meal and she would be ready for what was ahead. At least she hoped she would be.

-

Layla paced in her quarters. She had just finished talking to Krista, and it looked as if Krista and the others were safe. It had been the right decision to send them to Tantula Five, where Admiral Cleemorl was. Layla was ready to go to bed and knew there was a chance she might be awoken in the middle of the night and rushed to the protective bunker deep beneath the Palace. Colonel Emerson stood ready with an escort of Imperial Guards to get her into the underground bunker as soon as confirmed reports of the Morag’s arrival reached him.

Sitting on a sofa, Layla couldn’t help but think about Derrick. He was about to put himself in the greatest danger of his career. She felt a cold chill run down her back, knowing there was a good chance she might not ever see him again. With a deep sigh, she knew this would be a long and sleepless night.

-

Hours later in the underground Command Center, Fleet Admiral Marloo had just returned from getting some sleep. Sitting down in his command chair, he looked up at all the viewscreens and tactical displays, showing views from all the core worlds. Everything was still quiet, but he knew that would probably change in the next few hours.

Looking at the main tactical display, he took note of the fleet dispositions that Derrick had made. It didn’t look to him as if Derrick planned on fighting a defensive battle. His fleets were set up to attack.

“It won’t be too much longer,” commented Colonel Marst, who was in charge of Golan Four’s 12,000 attack interceptors. “Do you think they’ll attack both us and Meta at the same time?”

Admiral Marloo shook his head. “No, I think they learned their lesson in the Tantula Five System. They’ll come straight for Golan Four. They know, if they can destroy our home planet, it will make a huge difference in the war.”

Colonel Marst nodded, as he turned and sat down in front of his command console, where four other officers were.

On one viewscreen was a view of the Imperial Palace. It looked grand in the early morning light. Marloo hoped it was still there when all this was over.

Suddenly an alarm sounded on the main sensor console. Looking up at the tactical display that showed the entire star system, half a dozen red threat icons appeared.

“They’re scanning us,” reported Colonel Adams from the sensor console. “Detecting two Morag battleships and four battlecruisers.”

Ten Human ships from Fifth Fleet suddenly vanished to appear in combat range of the Morag ships. There was a brief exchange of weapons fire, and then the Morag vessels made the transition back into hyperspace.

“Take all commands to Condition Two,” ordered Fleet Admiral Marloo. It would probably be a few minutes or longer before the main Morag force jumped in. They would want to go over the scans made by their warships before committing themselves to battle. “Send a message to Colonel Emerson that we’ve gone to Condition Two, and he’s to get the High Princess and Prince Andrew to the deep underground bunker beneath the Palace. Make sure you get a confirmation that the message was received.”

Leaning back in his command chair, Admiral Marloo had most of the viewscreens changed to show views of Golan Four’s magnificent cities. Nearly 28 percent of the population were in underground bunkers. Another 20 percent had been evacuated to mountainous regions. Nearly 22 percent had their own personal shelters beneath or near their homes. Another 17 percent of the planet’s population lived in rural areas. That left about 13 percent still in the cities and unprotected. Those people would be directed to building basements and large underground storage facilities.

Marloo knew that alarms