The Forgotten Empire: War for the Empire by Raymond Weil (children's ebooks online TXT) 📗

of the debris is so large, it will have a good chance of impacting the surface. You may want to warn Fleet Admiral Marloo of what’s coming toward them.”

“Thanks for the information,” replied Carrie. “I’ll send a warning immediately. Now get what’s left of your attack force back to the battlecarriers.”

Major Conroy looked around and checked her sensors. Less than six hundred of the interceptors she had gone into battle with were still with her. Over 3,400 had been destroyed in the attack on the Morag fleet.

-

Morag Fleet Admiral Torrant nodded in satisfaction. The planet’s biggest shipyard had been destroyed, and Admiral Norlan had paid an appropriate price for his past failures. Nearly all of the two thousand Morag reserve warships had been destroyed but so had over five hundred Human ships and thousands more of their interceptors. It was a good trade off. All ships, concentrate more heavily on the Human defense grid, particularly the energy beam satellites. I want to hit the planet with missiles. He was almost ready to call his Conqueror battleships up for the attack on the Human’s homeworld.

-

Derrick was not pleased with what had just happened. He had not planned on losing Golan Four’s biggest shipyard or Rear Admiral Krest.

“An increased amount of the Morag weapons fire is being directed against the defense grid,” reported Colonel Bryant.

“They want to get missiles through,” replied Derrick. On the viewscreens, he saw the Morag concentrating on the energy beam satellites, as they were used to intercept and to destroy Morag missiles. “Rear Admiral Carrie,” he said, as he had her on the comm. “Send five hundred more of your interceptors into the atmosphere to help with missile interdiction. If the Morag continue to degrade the defensive grid, it’s only a matter of time before more missiles get through. With your remaining interceptors, use them for medium-range missile attacks.”

-

In the underground Command Center, General Gantts was redirecting some of her ground weapons fire toward large chunks of debris falling through the atmosphere. Some of the pieces were large enough to cause considerable damage. So far, the ground-based energy beam turrets had taken out everything before it struck the ground.

“It’ll only get worse,” commented Fleet Admiral Marloo.

Marloo was still greatly upset that they had not managed to save the planet’s primary shipyard. Colonel Long had been a fine officer. Fortunately most of the shipyard’s personnel had been evacuated, but still over one thousand people had died when the shipyard was destroyed. Turning his gaze back to the tactical displays, he wasn’t sure what could be done to save the planet. The Morag still possessed a greatly superior fleet, and their fifty giant ships had, as of yet, not engaged. They still hung back, as if waiting for the opportune moment to attack.

Fleet Admiral Marloo grew more concerned with every passing minute that they were fighting a battle they could not win.

-

Derrick pulled all his fleets in closer. If they stayed too far apart, they would all be picked apart, until nothing was left. It did increase the chance of some missiles getting through to Golan Four, but Derrick was hoping to force the Morag to focus more on his fleets rather than the defensive grid and the planet.

-

Morag Admiral Torrant was becoming aggravated. He still had the advantage, but the ODPs and PDCs were taking a heavy toll on his fleet. I want all ships to fire a full wave of missiles at the planet. I want to see if we can get any of them through the Human defenses.

Moments later thousands of fusion and antimatter missiles were launched toward Golan Four.

-

The Human ships and the defensive grid instantly tried to shoot down all the missiles, but there were simply too many of them. The ground PDCs changed their targeting to take out even more, but several thousand still slipped through.

Attack interceptors rose up to engage, and hundreds more of the deadly missiles were destroyed. Missile interceptors rose from the surface, killing even more. The sky above Golan Four was full of small fiery explosions, marking the destruction of incoming missiles. The energy beam turrets protecting the cities began firing, and even more of the deadly Morag missiles died. Even so, twelve of them struck the surface. Two hit in the oceans, vaporizing millions of tons of water, four hit in the countryside, and six more hit cities—two small cities that had no energy shield, and four that did. All four of the cities with protective energy shields survived; the two smaller cities did not. Every building in the two smaller cities was either vaporized or leveled by the heat and the explosive blast. A massive crater appeared in the center of both cities. In less than a minute, all the people who had refused to evacuate were dead.

-

Layla looked on in shock, her hand over her mouth, as she saw the explosions and then the mushroom clouds rising high into the air. “Oh no,” she cried out. She had hoped Golan Four would be spared being struck by Morag missiles. Now it was evident it would not be.

“We’re still okay,” assured Andrew. “All four of the major cities survived. We can clean up what just happened.”

“But what if we get hit again?” asked Layla worriedly. She felt her pulse beating wildly, and she was breathing rapidly. “It could get a whole lot worse.”

Andrew didn’t reply. He knew the High Princess was right.

-

Derrick was doing everything he could to stop the Morag from firing on the planet. “Rear Admiral Carrie, assign another five hundred of your interceptors to missile interdiction. Too many got through in that last attack.”

“I will,” replied Carrie. “However, after I deploy those five hundred, I’ll be down to fewer than two thousand interceptors still combat capable.”

Derrick knew the interceptors had taken some massive losses. But