Galactic Empire Wars 2: Emergence (7 page)

“How soon will
we be leaving?” Colonel Adamson asked. He was hoping his crew would be able to
get some leave time in before they had to depart again.

“We have a few
weeks before we can launch the mission,” General Mitchell informed them. He
looked over at Fleet Admiral Kirby. “We want to have the right ships and crews
for this. If we can get even a few of these nonaligned worlds to help us, it
could make a huge difference in our war against the Kleese. We also need to
come up with some reasonable trading items.”

“Are there any
fleet actions planned?” Colonel Adamson asked. He was anxious to test out his
ship’s weapons against a Kleese vessel. So far, he had only been allowed to
blow up a few small asteroids.

“Depends on
the situation,” responded Admiral Kirby, folding his arms across his chest.
“Their fleet is much larger than ours. In a standup battle of equal numbers we
might have a chance, but we can’t afford major fleet losses. We’ll have to
choose our battles wisely. We’re hoping the intelligence we've garnered from
the communications facility may point out some targets of opportunity.”

Marken gazed
thoughtfully at the Humans in the room. They spoke as if a war against the
Kleese was a simple thing. The Kleese had controlled a major portion of the
galaxy for thousands of years. No race had successfully resisted them in the
long term. This section of the galaxy contained numerous dead worlds who over
the millennia had tried.

“You have yet
to face an actual Kleese warship,” Marken cautioned them with a warning frown
on his face. “Their warships are kept near their core systems and very seldom
travel out into the outer reaches of their Empire.”

“You have
mentioned this before,” responded Admiral Kirby, showing unease on his face.
“Just how powerful are these warships?”

“You have
fought their large exploration ships,” Marken replied with a heavy sigh. “Their
exploration ships for the most part are powerful enough to handle most threats
to their Empire. I fear that at some point they will send one or more of their dangerous
warships to this system. That is why my people have worked so hard alongside
yours fortifying every habitat and colony. When they do come, we must be
ready.”

“That’s just
another reason for sending this mission,” General Mitchell commented. “The more
we can learn from these other races, the better prepared we'll be when that
time comes.”

“Yes, I agree,”
replied Marken, looking at the four Humans. It was amazing to Marken how easily
they accepted that a war with the Kleese was inevitable. Sometimes their
willingness for aggressive action frightened him. His own race, even in their
early years, had not been so belligerently inclined. Very few races were.

The group
spoke for another hour and then the meeting broke up. Wade made a quick call to
Beth informing her that they could meet in the food court. He was feeling
hunger pangs and was ready for a good meal and some pleasant conversation.
However, in the back of his mind, he was already worrying about this new
mission and the dangers it would bring.

-

Beth strode
into the food court and noticed there was some sort of commotion over to one
side. There was a large crowd gathered in front of one of the smaller
establishments. It took her a few minutes to push through the crowd and when
she did, she saw that the disturbance was in one of the small bars that catered
primarily to military personnel.

“Crap,” she murmured
when she saw it was a bar. She had a haunting feeling that she knew who was at
the heart of the disturbance. Her fears were confirmed when several MPs came
out escorting Sergeants Dawson and Russell, Corporal Foster, Private Lisa Hays
and several other marines she was familiar with.

She stalked
over to the MPs and glared at her marines. “What is this?” she demanded hotly.
“This is how you stay out of trouble? You’ve only been on leave a few hours and
you’re already headed for the brig!”

“It wasn’t us,”
Nicole pleaded her face flushing deeply upon seeing Captain Williams. “We
didn’t start it!”

Private Hays
looked nervously at the floor, not wanting to meet Beth’s angry eyes. She was
afraid that their leave time was about to be significantly reduced.

“Who did?”
Beth demanded.

“It was them,”
responded Private Flores, pointing at some regular military soldiers being
escorted out of the bar. “They insulted us.”

“How?” Beth
asked her gaze turning icy as she stared at Private Flores. She had warned them
to stay out of trouble.

“They said
we’re not real soldiers since we have to have metal suits to protect us; we
just decided to show them we’re as tough as they are.”

“What’s going
on here?” a new and familiar voice demanded.

Beth turned to
see Wade striding through the crowd. He took one glance at Sergeants Dawson and
Russell and started shaking his head. He walked over and spoke briefly with the
MPs. After a few moments, the lieutenant in charge of the MPs nodded and released
the two groups.

“What did you
say?” Beth asked. She had thought that her people would be spending the night
in the brig. It would have served them right if they had.

“I told the lieutenant
that Sergeants Russell and Dawson would be spending several days of their leave
cleaning up the barracks and wouldn’t be allowed to return to the food court
for a full week. That seemed to satisfy the lieutenant.”

“Cleaning the
barracks,” moaned Sergeant Dawson, turning to glare at Nicole. “I told you not
to hit that other corporal.”

“He asked for
it,” the blonde demolitions expert replied unabashed. “No one's going to talk
about us that way and get away with it!”

“You’re all
confined to barracks for twenty-four hours until I decide if this merits
further punishment,” Wade spoke in a loud and commanding voice. “See that you
don’t get into any more trouble on your way there!”

“Yes, Sir,”
they all said in unison, knowing they'd better get back to the barracks before
Wade decided they needed a more severe punishment.

Wade watched
as they marched out of the food court and back toward the section of the
station that contained the small dome that served as their barracks. He smiled
inwardly to himself, wishing he could have seen Corporal Foster and the other
corporal she had supposedly hit. Nicole had a fiery attitude that occasionally
got her into trouble.

Then, turning toward
Beth, he spoke. “Now, let’s go get something to eat. I’m starving.”

Beth smiled
and took Wade’s arm. “I know just the place. Follow me.”

A few minutes later,
they were in a quaint Italian eatery, which didn’t surprise Wade much. Italian
food was one of Beth’s favorites. They sat down and after studying the menu for
a few moments, placed their orders.

“Everything
seems so normal nowadays,” Beth commented as she looked around at the other patrons
enjoying their meals. You could hear the buzz of muted conversations as people
spoke over their meals and occasional laughter.

“People are
adjusting,” Wade replied. He leaned back and allowed himself to relax, putting
the new mission out of his mind. At least for a few days he had nothing to
worry about. “How’s your mother doing?”

“Fine,” responded
Beth, recalling her recent conversation. Beth had called her mother while she
was waiting on Wade to finish his debriefing. “She’s made a few friends, and they
get together several times a week to play cards and go shopping.” Then Beth
paused and leaning forward, asked a question she knew Wade was deeply concerned
about. “What are you going to tell your brother?”

“He graduates
from high school in a few more months. My parents want him to go to college for
a few years before doing anything else. Ryan wants to enlist in the military as
soon as graduation is over. He wants to join the space marines.”

“Follow in his
big brother’s footsteps,” Beth said knowingly as a waiter placed a garden salad
down in front of each of them.

Wade let out a
heavy sigh. “I’m not sure what to do. This war is going to be very dangerous,
and I don’t know how big a part I want him to play in it.” He picked up his
fork and took a bite of the salad. With the Ranch salad dressing, it tasted
delicious. He hoped the rest of the food was the same.

“If I had a
younger sister or brother, I would be telling them to go to college,” Beth said
after a moment of thought. She cut up one of the small cherry tomatoes in her
salad and took a bite. There were few fresh vegetables on spaceships and the
tomato tasted great! “The college in Vesta is the best we have and could really
help prepare him if he later decides to join the military. There are even a few
Kiveans teaching there now.”

“I had heard
that,” Wade responded with a nod. “Marken’s people seem to enjoy teaching and
showing us how to use all the new technology that’s becoming available.”

“When are you
going back to Vesta?”

“In a couple
more days,” Wade answered his eyes meeting Beth’s. “I’ll talk to Ryan about it
then.”

Beth nodded.
She wished she had Wade’s problem. It would've been nice if a few more members
of her family had survived. Sometimes she felt very lonely, particularly since
her fiancée had died in the Kleese attack upon Earth. She greatly appreciated
Wade’s friendship, but for now wanted to make sure that's all it was. She
didn’t know if she would ever be ready for another serious relationship.

Their waiter
returned and placed two plates of steaming food in front of them. Wade took a
cautious bite of his Lasagna and was pleasantly surprised at how good it
tasted. Beth was having Pasta Primavera and from the pleased look upon her
face, Wade knew it had met her approval.

“This is
great!” she said in between bites. “Much better than what we have on the
ships.”

Wade nodded in
agreement. He wasn’t going to tell Beth yet that they might be going out on
another mission shortly. When he had the chance, he also wanted to find Marken
and speak to him about this new mission. He was curious as to what the Kivean
knew about the trade station that served the nonaligned worlds.

-

General Mitchell
looked over at General Pittman and Fleet Admiral Kirby. “We need to throw the
Kleese off guard while we continue to build up our fleet. We can’t afford to
wait for them to attack us here.”

“I agree, but
how?” Kirby asked his eyes narrowing. “We all know that, at some point in time,
the Kleese are going to come for us. They know we have the station, and they’re
going to want it back.”

Mitchell stood
and walked over to a table that had recently been installed in the conference
room. Several Kivean scientists working with a group of Human military technicians
had delivered it a few days before. Pressing a button, a three-dimensional map
of the galaxy appeared above the table.

“That’s new,”
Kirby remarked as he stood up and walked over to examine the hologram. “This
would be nice to have on the Armageddon.”

General
Mitchell made several adjustments until the Kleese Empire and the other two
large Galactic Empires were the only parts of the galaxy showing. “What if we
turn the Kleese’s attention to their galactic neighbors?”

“What do you
mean?” General Pittman asked as he strode over from the conference table. He
peered intently at the image, realizing just how small the Solar System was in
the overall scheme of things.

“We know that
all three of the large Empires are continuously seeking out new worlds to add
to their spheres of influence, and at times they even come into conflict with
one another over these new worlds.”

“You want to
stir up trouble between the Kleese and one of the other two Empires?” Kirby asked
his eyes growing wide at the thought. “That could be extremely dangerous.”

“Yes,”
Mitchell answered. “Dangerous for the Kleese if we’re successful. The Strell
are the largest Empire next to the Kleese. They also share a long border with
numerous contested worlds. Their ships are also very similar to our
battlecruisers, but much larger. If we hit several of these contested worlds
and make it look like the Strell are making a push to add them to their Empire,
it may force the Kleese to focus more on that area of space and continue to
leave us alone.”

Kirby studied
the hologram for a bit longer and then turned toward General Mitchell. “It just
might work. The Kleese will never suspect it’s us because of the distances
involved. Their natural distrust of other races will convince them even more
that the Strell are responsible. We’ll have to be extremely careful with all of
this or it could backfire on us. We could end up with both the Strell and the
Kleese after us.”

“I don’t
think we would have to worry about the Strell,” General Mitchell responded.
“Their Empire is on the other side of the Kleese and far away from us. I
suspect they would leave it up to the Kleese to handle us if it’s ever
discovered that we’re the ones stirring up the trouble.”

“What if we
hit the Strell instead?” asked General Pittman as he studied the hologram. “Our
assault ships are nearly exact duplicates of Kleese ships. I suspect it would
be easier to make the Strell think the Kleese are attacking their worlds than
vice versa.”

“That’s a
possibility,” responded Mitchell, nodding his head thoughtfully. “I propose
that we plan for both scenarios.”

“That’s two operations
we’re talking about launching,” General Pittman said as he thought about the complicated
logistics involved. “It will take several months just for our ships to reach
that area of contested space, and we have the trading station operation also.”

“Admiral
Kirby, I want you to start thinking about the ships we might need for both
operations,” ordered General Mitchell. “In the meantime, I’ll have the
intelligence people find out everything they can that might be useful from the
data that the Constellation brought back.” General Mitchell knew they would be
taking a huge risk launching two operations at nearly the same time, but the
rewards of doing so far outweighed the potential dangers.