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

officers at once, as he directed the attack interceptor squadrons. She was very proud of him.

-

Admiral Cleemorl felt the Themis shudder, as it flew through a barrage of antimatter missiles. For a moment the ship’s energy screen had dropped to 62 percent.

“Ground-based attack interceptors are being launched,” reported Colonel Bidwell. “Major Barkley is ordering the interceptors to fly above the Morag fleet, to release all their missiles, and then head to the battlecarriers to rearm.”

Dylan nodded his approval. They needed to hammer the Morag fleet, the juggernaut for this attack. Destroy it and the battle was over.

“How are we doing on destroying the Druin and Zynth battleships?”

“Forty-eight percent have been destroyed. Some are deep in the fleet formations and hard to reach. We may have to clear a path to them.”

“We will continue to press the attack.” At the moment the Human fleets and the Zynth and Druin fleets were pretty evenly matched, with the new particle beam cannons and accelerator cannons giving the Human fleet a slight edge. “Contact Major Barkley and inform him that I want the next two interceptor attack waves to concentrate on the Druins and the Zynth. After that they are to focus on the Morag fleet.”

On one of the viewscreens, a Human battlecruiser was torn apart by Druin fusion energy beam fire. Beam after beam struck the ship, ripping through it. He saw crewmembers sucked out into the vacuum of space. Finally an antimatter missile arrived, putting the ship and its crew out of their misery. Dylan shuddered, thinking about all the lives lost on those warships.

“Get me Rear Admiral Barnes, Rear Admiral Fulmar, and Rear Admiral Manson,” ordered Dylan. In moments he had them on the comm. “Rear Admiral Fulmar, I want you to concentrate on the Druin ships. Rear Admiral Manson, I want you to concentrate on the Zynth. My section of the fleet will concentrate on both. Rear Admiral Barnes will continue to target the enemy battleships in both fleets. I want them destroyed.”

-

Druin Admiral Falorr looked over at his first officer. “How many flight-worthy drones do we have? I don’t care if they’re combat capable. I just want them to carry a load of missiles.”

First Officer Dagor did some checking and then reported. “We have 617 flight capable.”

Falorr nodded satisfied. “Get them loaded with missiles and then have them target the moon. Those that can launch their missiles are to do so and then return. Those that can’t are to crash into any Human city they can find.” Falorr was intent on causing as much damage to the Human moon of Gideon as possible. It was already evident the Morag were intent on destroying the massive Human base on the pole. At the moment they weren’t having a lot of luck.

The Humans had installed a core tap and were using that energy to power tremendously powerful fusion energy beam cannons—if they could even be called fusion. This was just pure energy fired off in a beam form toward targets. Those targets at the moment were the Morag battleships.

On one of the viewscreens, drones began launching from one of the drone carriers; at the same time Falorr’s flagship shook violently, as an energy beam penetrated the ship’s shield.

“Minor damage to one of the aft cargo holds and supply areas,” reported the damage control officer.

Admiral Falorr frowned. “Move us back farther into our formation.” He had no plans on dying here.

-

What’s Admiral Falorr doing with his drones? demanded Morag Admiral Norlan. He reached out with his mind and was stunned when he was blocked. Falorr was wearing a nullifier! Where did he get that?

The drones are targeting the moon with antimatter and fusion missiles, replied First Officer Kenold. They are going up and around our fleets to avoid combat. Cancel that. A number of Human attack interceptors have just changed course to intercept them.

Admiral Norlan was aggravated. Druin Admiral Falorr should not have taken such an action without permission. When this was over, Norlan would speak to Falorr about taking such an initiative without first speaking to him.

-

In space, the Druin drones had been detected, and Major Barkley had redirected a number of squadrons to intercept. He suspected what the drones were up to because Vice Fleet Admiral Masters had once done the same thing to the Druin homeworld.

Four hundred and fifteen attack interceptors were directed to intercept the drones and destroy them. The interceptors had recently been rearmed and were on their way to launch their missiles at the Morag.

“Target those drones,” ordered Lieutenant Mallory, as his interceptor locked on a drone. “We can’t let them get through to Gideon.”

The interceptors dove on the drones, only to find the drones were not firing back. They dodged and wove an intricate pattern in space designed to avoid fire, even as so many of them were still destroyed.

They came within range of the defense grid, and energy beam satellites locked on and took out more of them. Space was full of explosions, but, in the core of the Druin drone formation, twenty-three drones were not capable of launching their missiles. Instead they accelerated to their top speed flying through the defensive grid which could not lock on. From the surface, interceptor missiles and additional energy beam fire took out a few of them. Several exploded as the terrific heat of their passage through the atmosphere brought down their energy shields, and the incredible heat melted the hulls, destroying the drones.

A few more were picked off by ground fire, and then fourteen of them slammed into the surface, detonating the fusion and antimatter missiles in their holds. The entire moon shook slightly from the detonations. Huge debris clouds rose into the air. Massive blast waves radiated outward, leveling buildings, setting forests on fire, and contaminating the surrounding countryside. Huge mushroom clouds rose into the atmosphere to