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

Dylan leaned back in his command chair. His ship was back over Tantula Five, where work crews from the shipyards were already busy doing repairs. “What were our final losses?”

Colonel Bidwell shook his head. “They hurt us pretty badly. We still have about a dozen ships that might have to be scrapped. In the battles, we lost 512 battlecruisers and 42 dreadnoughts. That leaves us with an effective force of 838 battlecruisers and 88 dreadnoughts.

“What about Rear Admiral Barnes?”

“She lost 374 battlecruisers and 62 dreadnoughts.”

It was not as bad as it could have been. If the Druins and the Zynth had not retreated, the losses could easily have been double what they were or even worse. The Morag admiral had made a tactical error, and it had cost them the battle.

Dylan wondered if this would delay Earth’s planned attack on the Confederation. He hoped not. When he had the chance, he would speak to Rear Admiral Barnes about that.

-

Morag Fleet Admiral Torrant was fuming. He had already torn his command chair from its mount and tossed it across the Command Center, destroying another console. Everyone stayed out of his way. That fool Norlan may have just cost them this war. He should have known better than to take over the minds of the crews of undamaged ships. If he had chosen heavily damaged ships that would have been destroyed anyway, he might have gotten away with it. Now both the Druin and the Zynth fleets had vanished. There was no doubt in Torrant’s mind that they were on their way back to the Confederation to report on what had happened at Gideon. How soon before Admiral Norlan gets here?

Another thirty hours, answered the navigation officer.

Fleet Admiral Torrent knew that Admiral Norlan still had nearly four thousand warships, though many of them were from the reserve. We will wait until Norlan arrives with his fleet and then attack Golan Four. We will attack in forty hours, and all ships should be ready to enter hyperspace at that time.

Torrant looked at his demolished command chair. Have some techs come in here and repair that, he sent, pointing to the twisted pedestal his command chair once sat on. I’ll be in my quarters. When they attacked, he would put Admiral Norlan in the most dangerous position in the fleet. A fool like that did not deserve to be in command.

-

Everyone watched as the angry fleet admiral left the Command Center. Once he was gone, First Officer Markel summoned some techs to repair the damage.

-

The next day Vice Fleet Admiral Derrick Masters had his fleet in a distant orbit of Golan Four. Derrick had 1,072 battlecruisers and 212 dreadnoughts in his fleet. A few more warships had arrived over the last few days. In addition, Rear Admiral Banora had 1,242 battlecruisers and 210 dreadnoughts. Derrick had combined both fleets into one massive wedge-shaped formation.

In lower orbit, just above the defense grid, hovered Rear Admiral Collison’s fleet. Collison had 1,253 battlecruisers and 242 dreadnoughts.

Derrick gazed at the tactical display, thinking about how this battle would go. Over the last month Prince Andrew had been working himself to death, getting particle beam cannons installed on all the shipyards and space stations. Each shipyard had twenty of the dual cannons and the power systems to handle them. The space stations had ten. Derrick didn’t see how Prince Andrew had managed to get all the cannons installed in time, but he had.

“Rear Admiral Carrie should be here in another few hours,” reported Colonel Bryant. “What will you do with her fleet?”

“Get full complements of attack interceptors on board her battlecarriers and put them and Rear Admiral Krest’s fleet directly behind us. We can stage ground-based interceptors through her bays. We also have the fifteen battlecarriers that came with Rear Admiral Collison. They’ll stay just beneath the defense grid. For the time being, they will be responsible for intercepting any missiles aimed at the surface that gets through the grid.”

On the tactical display, Derrick looked at Golan Four’s massive defense grid, the most powerful one in the Empire. Even more powerful than the ones above Tantula Five and Gideon. Currently Golan Four had 30 ODPs, 3,000 energy platforms, 520 missile platforms, and 20 PDCs. All four space stations were heavily armed and possessed powerful energy shields. The four shipyards have been expanded and were protected by energy shields. In addition large numbers of missile interceptors were based on the planet, and every major city sat inside a ring of energy beam turrets, which were designed to track and to take out incoming missiles. Also 12,000 ground-based attack interceptors were at sixteen bases.

With a deep sigh, Derrick knew they were as ready as they would ever be. If he could not hold back the Morag with the ships and defenses he had available, then the war was lost. One thing did concern him: the rumors that the Morag had a secret weapon that would assure them victory. This rumor had kept him up for several nights over the last week. Whatever that secret weapon was, it had not been used in the Tantula Five System.

“I’ll have Rear Admiral Collison form his fleet into a 10-high line formation and 120 ships long. Once Rear Admiral Krest gets here, I’ll add her ships to Collison’s as a reserve.”

Colonel Bryant nodded. She saw Derrick’s reasoning.

“I’ll let Collison attack independently from different directions. Maybe it will help disrupt the Morag’s fleet formation.”

“Let’s hope so.”

Derrick sat forward in his command chair. Admiral Cleemorl had won his battle and had driven away the Zynth, the Druins, and the Morag. Soon it would be Derrick’s turn, and he hoped he was just as successful. Derrick’s greatest worry was the sheer amount of Morag ships he might be facing.

-

Several hours passed, and Rear Admiral