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

“It will be good for us to go on the offensive. It will be a huge morale booster for the Empire.” Of course he still needed to go home and to tell Cheryl.

-

Morag Councilor Damora gazed at the latest reports. The violence was slowly subsiding, but several thousand worlds were still in open revolt. However, he grew more concerned every day about Lormallian Councilor Reull. So far all the searches had turned up negative. He did know that Reull had journeyed to see his brother at Bator Prime. What he was doing there was a mystery. After leaving Bator Prime, the councilor had switched ships multiple times and then had vanished completely.

After some consideration, Damora decided to send a couple warships to Bator Prime and to speak to Councilor Reull’s brother. It was essential to find out what the councilor had been doing there and, even more important, what he may have found.

-

Admiral Cleemorl had returned to his fleet. He had a list of twenty-two targets to hit, and he also had a large number of Imperial freighters loaded with defensive grid elements. In addition he had the construction crews to rapidly put a defensive grid into orbit.

The first thing he did was call Captain Manson and Captain Fulmar to his office. It didn’t take long for both of them to arrive.

“Have a seat, gentlemen,” he said, indicating two comfortable chairs in front of his desk. “As you know, First Fleet now comprises 720 battlecruisers and 43 dreadnoughts. I’ve been speaking to Fleet Admiral Marloo, and I need a rear admiral to handle the fleet while I’m gone. One thing to keep in mind, we plan on increasing the size of First Fleet until we have one thousand battlecruisers and one hundred dreadnoughts. We feel we need the increased fleet size to take on major Confederation forces.”

Dylan paused, looking at the two officers. “We have decided to make both of you rear admirals, with each of you in charge of an equal section of First Fleet, when I’m not around.”

Dylan opened up a desk drawer and took out two small boxes, which he handed to the two stunned officers. “Those are your rear admiral insignias. The promotions are effective immediately.” Dylan stood, as did the two officers. He saluted them, and they in return saluted back.

“Thank you, Admiral,” said Rear Admiral Fulmar, as he opened the small box with shaking hands. This was something he had not been expecting. He was determined not to let Admiral Cleemorl down.

Captain Manson opened his box with a wide smile. This was something he had long hoped for. “Thank you, Admiral. I’ll do my best.”

“I know both of you will. Now we have new orders. Effective tomorrow we are going on the offensive. The Confederation has pulled back most of their fleets to deal with the unrest currently sweeping the Confederation. We’ll take advantage of their pullback to retake some of our worlds. I have a list of twenty-two targets we’ll hit. The cargo ships that returned with me are loaded with defensive grid parts. As we take back a world, we’ll leave a squadron of ships and enough supply ships to put up a moderate defensive grid. We’ll do that for all of the twenty-two star systems.”

The two newly promoted rear admirals looked uncertainly at one another. “Won’t that encourage the Confederation to counterattack?”

Dylan shook his head. “We don’t believe so. The Confederation has several thousand worlds supposedly revolting. It’ll take them weeks, perhaps months, to bring that under control. We’ll use that time to retake and to refortify more of our worlds and to grow the Empire.”

Rear Admiral Fulmar nodded. “So we’re finally going on the offensive. It’s about time.”

Dylan took a deep breath. “For the first part of our attack, we will divide the fleet into two sections of 250 battlecruisers and 15 dreadnoughts each. The remainder of First Fleet will remain here to protect this star cluster. Each section will be assigned eleven different star systems to retake. Rear Admiral Manson, you will command one section, and Rear Admiral Fulmar will command the second. Even though I will be on the Themis, I will not be active in giving out orders.”

Both men nodded.

“Admirals, I suggest you return to your quarters. You will find a list there of the ships under your command. Get those ships organized and ready to depart at 0800 in the morning. You are dismissed.”

After the admirals left, Dylan leaned back in his chair. It was difficult giving up command but necessary. The Empire needed some well-trained admirals, and this was the only way he knew to accomplish that. What he didn’t tell either rear admiral was, at some time in the future, they would be assigned fleets of their own, separate from First Fleet.

-

Above Golan Four, Rear Admiral Banora prepared to go into hyperspace with Fifth Fleet. She had been told by Vice Admiral Masters that she could not use the particle beam cannons under no condition. Those had to remain a secret, until they were ready to take on larger Confederation fleet units. At the moment Fifth Fleet comprised 512 battlecruisers and 47 dreadnoughts. Every day new ships arrived and were added to the fleet.

“Take us into hyperspace,” ordered Audrey. It felt strange not to have the admiral on board. She had a list of eight priority targets to retake. She also had a massive number of supply ships with her to build new defensive grids. Time to push the Confederation out of the Human Empire.

-

Audrey drew in a deep breath as Fifth Fleet dropped out of hyperspace above the Human inhabited world of Macron Three, a densely populated world with considerable heavy industry. It also had two large shipyards in orbit, as well as three space stations used for trade and to handle the system’s large asteroid mining operation.

“Detecting