Galactic Empire Wars: Insurrection (The Galactic Empire Wars Book 5) (19 page)

Matol rose up
to his full height and gazed angrily at the Zaltule at Tactical. “Do as I have
ordered!”

-

On the
spaceport, Colonel Winfrey watched as Marines in battlesuits carried the
wounded out of the ship. He was saddened to learn that Commander Greer had died
only a few minutes earlier. Captain Taylor had reported the assault ship had
been captured with no losses. Looking around, Dylan knew they needed to hurry.
There was no way to tell what the Zaltule would do after the losses they had
just suffered from the railguns.

-

The sky
suddenly lit up as a beam of light flashed down from the Zaltule battlecruiser,
striking the
Defender
. Marines stared in shock knowing what it
signified. Colonel Winfrey’s shoulders drooped realizing he had failed to save
his Marines and the injured. In a massive explosion the ship blew up, killing
everyone within a six-hundred-meter radius. Conscripts, Zaltule, and Humans alike
died in the powerful blast.

-

Sergeant
Dawson had nearly reached the assault ship when a massive explosion shook the
spaceport. Looking back, he saw a rising pillar of fire and smoke where the
Defender
had been. “Nicole,” he mumbled, knowing no one could have survived that blast.
He stopped staring in shock at the carnage. He couldn’t believe that Captain
Foster was gone.

“Sergeant
Dawson,” Captain Taylor’s voice came over the command channel. “Get your people
inside the ship, we need to leave.”

“But the colonel
and the others!” objected Dawson. Surely some would have survived.

“They’re
gone,” Taylor said in a shaken voice. “We will be too if we don’t get off this
godforsaken planet.”

Dawson shook himself and then turned back toward the assault ship. “Let’s go, people,” he
said feeling numb. “We’re leaving.”

-

The
Constellation
,
Callisto
, and the battlecruisers
Cygnus
and
Carina
dropped
out of Fold Space within two hundred thousand kilometers of Lymeth Three.

“See if you
can contact anyone on the planet,” ordered Admiral Adamson.

All the ships
he had brought were at Condition One and ready for combat. He had left the
battlecruiser
Falcon
with the rest of the fleet to act as a command ship
if this rescue attempt failed and his ships were lost.

“I have a weak
signal from Captain Stern,” Lieutenant Travers said. Then her face turned pale.
“She reports the
Defender
and most of the surviving crew and Marines
have been killed by what she believes was a Zaltule pulse fusion beam. They’ve
captured an assault ship and are attempting to escape in it.”

“How many are
left?” asked Adamson, feeling ill at the deaths.

“She reports
less than sixty.”

Admiral
Adamson face took on a look of grave determination. “Tell Captain Stern to take
off, we’ll give them covering fire until they can enter Fold Space. Do they
know the present fleet coordinates?”

After a
moment, Lieutenant Travers nodded her head. “Yes, they have one of the
Defender’s
assistant navigation officers on board. He knows where to go.”

Adamson took a
deep breath looking across the Command Center. “All right people, let’s do
this. Helm, take us in. Tactical, prepare to fire all weapons.”

-

Minor Overlord
Matol gazed at the four Human warships that had just appeared on the
viewscreens. If he could destroy these four ships, then his victory over the
Humans would be complete.

“Move out and
engage the Humans,” he ordered. “I want them hit with every antimatter missile
we have.”

“Overlord, an
assault ship has left the spaceport,” the Zaltule at the ship’s sensors
reported.

“I imagine all
of them will be leaving soon,” Matol answered, not concerned about the ship. He
was focused on destroying the four Human warships coming toward him. “Order all
ships to close the range.”

-

In space, the
two forces rapidly closed. Energy weapons began lighting up the void and then
powerful antimatter missiles started slamming into the shields of both sides.

From the
planet, a single assault ship rose through the atmosphere and began
accelerating away from the battle.

A Zaltule
battlecruiser was struck by two multi-warhead antimatter missiles, tearing a
large hole in its overloaded energy screen. A particle beam and two pulse
fusion beams struck the armored hull, carving a deep, glowing crater into the
side of the ship.

Then the
plasma cannon on the heavy battlecruiser
Callisto
fired and struck the
already damaged Zaltule cruiser. The plasma beam tore a hole completely through
the ship, setting off numerous secondary explosions. Almost instantly the
energy screen went down, leaving the ship vulnerable. Another multi-warhead antimatter
missile vaporized the vessel and in its place, six blazing suns appeared.

Even as this
was happening, the assault ship activated its Fold Space Drive and accelerated
away from the battle at a speed many times that of light.

-

“They’re
gone,” Commander Shepherd said with relief in her voice.

Admiral
Adamson nodded his head. “Then we’re leaving too. Helm, get us out of here.
That’s way too many battlecruisers to be tangling with.” Even as he spoke, he
felt the
Constellation
take a hard blow. A number of red lights appeared
on the damage control console.

“An energy
beam penetrated the shield. We have half a dozen compartments open to space,”
reported Commander Shepherd. “I’m dispatching damage control teams.”

The ship suddenly
began shaking violently. Consoles exploded in showers of sparks and Adamson
could hear someone screaming.

“We’ve taken a
hit to Engineering,” called out Commander Shepherd in a panicked voice. “Fold Space Drive is down and the sublight drive is damaged.”

“They’re
hitting us with multiple antimatter missiles,” reported Lieutenant Kali Summers
from Tactical. “Energy shield is down to 19 percent.”

“Can we repair
the Fold Space Drive?”

Commander
Sandra Shepherd straightened her shoulders and looked over at the admiral. “No,
sir. It’s too heavily damaged.”

“
Cygnus
and
Carina
have made the transition to Fold Space,” Lieutenant Percy
Nash replied in a quivering voice.

“I have
Commander Symington on the comm,” reported Lieutenant Travers.

Adamson drew a
deep breath. He knew the
Constellation
was finished. “Bree,” he said
over the command channel to the
Callisto
. “Get out of here and get our
people home; that’s an order. You’re in charge of the fleet now.”

“I’m sorry,
sir,” Bree said. “Is there anything we can do?”

“No, we’ve
lost our Fold Space Drive and the shield is about to fail. Get back to the
fleet.”

“It’s been an
honor, sir,” Bree’s voice came over the command channel and then it went
silent.

“
Callisto
has made the transition into Fold Space.”

Before Admiral
Adamson could say another word, a brilliant light lit up the Command Center, sending them all to oblivion.

-

Minor Overlord
Matol nodded in satisfaction as the large Human warship was annihilated. In its
place, a fiery ball of expanding gas was all that remained of the enemy vessel.
He had been surprised at how quickly the other Human ships had fled. He was
also curious as to why that single assault vessel had left the planet with out
orders and transited into Fold Space.

“Inbound fleet
detected,” reported the Zaltule at the sensors. “It’s one of ours.”

Matol was
pleased. He had handed the Humans a resounding defeat. When the fleets
gathered, he was sure War Overlord Tetus would send them out to find what was
left of the Human fleet. Raising his triangular shaped head, he focused his
multifaceted eyes on the tactical screen, which showed the first of what would
be many Zaltule fleets coming to the Lymeth System. Stamping his six feet
against the metal deck of the Command Pedestal, Matol was certain he would be
promoted for his actions. Today had been a great day in his expected rise in
power. The Humans had been defeated and were no longer a threat to the core
worlds. Military Overlord Harmock was now free to carry out his attack against
the Alliance and the Humans.

Captain Ryan
Nelson was standing in the Command Center of the Marine assault ship
Deliverance
staring at the viewscreens in dismay. The heavy battlecruiser
Callisto
had just returned and confirmed that Admiral Adamson had been lost along with
his flagship, the heavy battlecruiser
Constellation
. All the ships that
had gone on the rescue mission were showing some signs of damage. The
Callisto
had several large burn marks on her hull and even a few spots where the hull
had possibly been compromised.

“I can’t
believe he’s gone,” Captain Durham said as he gazed at the viewscreen showing
the recently returned
Callisto
. “Admiral Adamson has always found a way
to survive. He’s been on dangerous missions before.”

Ryan felt a
gut-wrenching torment. Not only had they lost Admiral Adamson, but Colonel
Winfrey had perished as well. From the few reports he had seen so far from the
survivors from Lymeth Three, most of the Marines and crew of the
Defender
had died in the blast when the troop ship had been destroyed. Even Captain
Foster had met her end on the planet. Ryan knew his brother and Beth would take
Captain Foster’s death very hard since she was one of the Marines who had been
with them from day one. This situation was eerily similar to when Colonel
Stratford and Major Stevens had died on the Kleese exploration ship.

“What are we
going to do now?” asked Ryan, looking over at the captain. Ryan knew the
situation had changed radically. The Zaltule would shortly be sending out ships
to search for the rest of the Human fleet. There was no way they could dare go
deeper into the empire, or they might never be able to return to the Alliance or the Solar System.

Durham let out a deep breath. “Well, the mission’s over, that’s for sure. As soon as we
get the fleet organized I suspect we’ll start back toward Alliance space.”

Ryan wondered
what all of this meant. They had obviously failed in their attempt to draw the
Zaltule fleet away from the Alliance. Not only that they had suffered major
losses both in ships and in personnel. Losses that would affect everyone for
quite some time.

“I need to go
speak with my Marines,” Ryan said after a moment. “They need to be told what’s
happened.” It was a speech he wasn’t looking forward to.

Captain Durham
nodded his understanding. “I’ll give you a few minutes and then I’ll make an
announcement over the ship’s comm system so the crew will know what’s happened
and how it will affect our mission.”

-

A few minutes
later Ryan was gathered with his Marines in the largest training facility on
the ship. He took a deep breath as he gazed at the concerned looks on most of
their faces. They had all known about the planned rescue mission, and they must
know by now something had gone horribly wrong.

Straightening
his shoulders, Ryan began speaking. “A few minutes ago the heavy battlecruiser
Callisto,
along with the battlecruisers
Cygnus
and
Carina,
returned from
Lymeth Three. All were damaged in the fighting above the planet but were able
to safely disengage and return to the fleet.”

“Where’s the
Constellation
?”
asked Alexander, cocking his eyebrow. “Shouldn’t they have returned with the
Callisto
?”

Ryan took a
deep breath. “I am sad to report the
Constellation
was destroyed in the
battle with the Zaltule. From the reports we’ve received, her Fold Space Drive was seriously damaged and Admiral Adamson couldn’t escape the Kleese. They
gave their lives in the finest tradition of the fleet.”

The Marines
grew silent as they stared at Ryan in disbelief. None had expected Admiral
Adamson to die in the rescue attempt.

“What about
Colonel Winfrey and the others; are they still trapped on the planet?” asked
Lieutenant Guthrie, forcing herself to ask the question.

“No,” answered
Ryan, shaking his head. “The Zaltule hit the
Defender
with a pulse
fusion beam, destroying the ship and nearly everyone on board and around her.
Captain Taylor and Captain Stern managed to seize a Kleese assault ship and
escape with a small complement of Marines and crew. They’re currently
undergoing debriefing on the
Callisto
.”

The training
facility grew silent once more as everyone tried to grasp what Ryan had just
said. How could they have lost both of the fleet’s commanders?

“They’re all
dead?” asked Lauren, her face turning pale. She had known many of the Marines
on the
Defender
, some for years.

“Yes, they
died fighting and from I’ve been told they took a hell of a lot of Kleese
conscripts and Zaltule with them.”

“What about
Captain Foster?” asked Casey with concern in her voice. Surely Nicole had
escaped.

Ryan slowly
shook his head. “She was killed along with many other Marines we all knew.”

“What’s going
to happen to us now?” asked Casey, her eyes wide in shock. She had met Captain
Foster a number of times and knew what she meant to Wade and Beth. She was
anxious to find out which Marines had made it out on the Kleese assault ship.
Like Lauren, she had known a lot of the Marines on the Defender. About
one-third of the Marines had been clones. “Are we going to continue our
mission?”

“Commander
Symington on the
Callisto
will decide that,” Ryan answered. “Captain
Durham and I both believe that we will shortly be starting back toward the Alliance.”

“Then our
mission has failed?” said Lauren, shaking her head in concern.

“We may have
seriously underestimated the number of ships the Zaltule have available to
them. We have no idea how they managed to discover what our target systems were
going to be.”

“Will we hit
any targets on the way home?” asked Sergeant McElroy.

“I don’t
know,” Ryan replied. “We have a long list of secondary targets, but it may not
be worth the effort. We may be better off returning to the Alliance and then
back home.”

“What does
this mean for the Zaltule fleets outside Alliance space?” asked Sergeant
Reinhardt.

“We don’t
know. The purpose of this mission was to create enough unrest in Kleese space
to force the Zaltule to fall back into their empire and search for us. That
part of the mission has obviously failed. Captain Durham will be making an
announcement shortly, and perhaps then we’ll know what Commander Symington has
planned for the fleet. For the time being all combat training is canceled. We
need to think about our fellow Marines and the fleet personnel who fell in
combat, for today they gave the greatest sacrifice to the Alliance and the Solar
System they could; their lives.”

-

Later, Ryan
was in his quarters with Casey, Autumn, Lauren, and Alexander. It was a very
quiet and solemn group of Marines.

“Well, this
was a big screw-up,” mumbled Alexander after a few moments as he plopped down
on the small couch against the wall.

“I wonder why
the Zaltule used a pulse fusion beam on the
Defender
? They must have
killed a lot of their own warriors in the blast,” said Autumn. She was leaning
against the wall with her arms folded across her chest.

Casey let out
a deep sigh. “It’s war, things like this happen.” She looked over at Ryan
wanting to hear what he had to say.

“It could have
been any of us,” Ryan said as he looked at Casey and the others. “All of us are
aware of the risks we take every time we go into combat.”

“Yeah,” Lauren
said with a weak grin. “I can’t believe Alexander is still alive with all the
risks he takes.”

“They’re too
busy shooting at you to pay me any mind,” retorted Alexander.

Casey walked
over and took Ryan’s hand. She wasn’t worried about showing some affection
toward him with this group. “At least we’re all still alive and together,
that’s what counts.”

“It just goes
to show how fleeting life can be,” Autumn said with a deep sigh. “We’re
Marines, and at any time we could face the same situation Colonel Winfrey did.
Hell, we’ve been damn lucky so far.”

“This war with
the Zaltule is coming to a head,” Lauren commented, coming over and sitting
down next to Alexander, making sure she wasn’t touching him. No point in giving
him any ideas; he had enough of those already without her giving him any
additional encouragement.

“It would be
nice not to have to worry about fighting for a while,” spoke Casey, squeezing
Ryan’s hand.

-

The five
continue to talk for several more hours. Eventually, it was time to leave as
they all needed to get some rest. As Casey stepped outside of the hatch to
Ryan’s quarters, she glanced up and down the corridor only to see Lauren
patiently waiting for her. She turned around and allowed Ryan to take her in
his arms. He kissed her deeply and held her in a long protective embrace.

“I won’t ever
let anything happen to you,” he promised in a soft voice. “When this is over,
we’re going to get married.”

Casey felt her
heart start to race. “I’ll make sure you keep that promise.” With that, she
felt Ryan release her and she turned and hurried down the corridor to Lauren.

“That looked
interesting,” Lauren said with a knowing grin. “Anything you want to tell me
about?”

Casey blushed
and shook her head. “Someday, perhaps. Right now I’m tired and want to get some
shuteye.” She knew she would have a hard time falling to sleep after what Ryan
had just said. All of her dreams were coming true; she and Ryan just needed to
survive this damn war!

-

Ryan watched
the two head down the corridor and vanish from sight as they entered another.
With a long sigh, he went back inside his quarters. Early in the morning, he
planned to pay Captain Durham a visit to see what Commander Symington planned
for the remainder of the fleet. After what had happened, he just couldn’t see
the commander rushing back to the Alliance and the Solar System without making
the Kleese pay for what they had done. They’d lost too many people not to
extract a little revenge out of the Kleese, particularly the Zaltule. He also
wasn’t looking forward to telling his brother about Colonel Winfrey and Captain
Foster.

-

Supreme
Overlord Xatul watched as his fleet gathered at the edge of Strell space;
twenty-two hundred Strell battlecruisers, four hundred and eighty-two Kleese exploration
ships, and two hundred and forty new Kleese battlecruisers. There were also two
massive Kleese trading stations, which had been heavily armed and provided with
stronger energy shields as well as thicker armor. In orbit around the two
trading stations were six thousand assault ships, all modified with additional
weapons and with Kleese in command of them. This coming battle was too
important to allow any conscripts, even the most trusted, to command the ships.

“All is
ready,” Overlord Syndat spoke. Syndat was on the Command Pedestal of the
Empire’s
Dawn
at Xatul’s side. “The Strell fleet is ready for combat. Den Leader
Bith has confirmed that his fleet is ready to enter Fold Space at your
command.”

Shortly Syndat
would be going over to one of the trading stations as they were owned by his
family. He also felt safer since they were now heavily armed and protected by
thousands of conscripts trained in the use of the Type Two battlesuits. He had
also taken the precaution of having a number of the most trusted conscripts
trained in the use of the Type Threes. These conscripts were all assigned to
the command level to protect the large Command Center in the trading station
from attack. He also had twenty members of his clan who would serve as guards
inside the Command Center. Each one of these would be wearing a Type Three
battlesuit as well.

Overlord
Bixutl was on board another one of the new powerful Kleese battlecruisers. His
vessel would act as the reserve flagship in case the
Empire’s Dawn
became disabled.

“Then it’s
time,” Supreme Overlord Xatul said in exultation. It was time to return to the
empire and for him to reclaim his rightful place as the Supreme Overlord of all
the Kleese, including the Zaltule though if he had his way, the warrior clan would
soon be a thing of the past.

Xatul gazed at
the viewscreens showing numerous ships of the massive fleet. It was so large
the farthest ships only showed as dim points of light. “All ships will make the
jump into Fold Space upon the signal from the
Empire’s Dawn
.” Unlike
past trips into Fold Space, new and powerful sensors on board the trading
stations would be able to track the fleet. Special FTL transmitters would even
allow for communication.

Xatul gazed
toward the Kleese standing upon his six legs at the Fold Space control console.
“Take us to the home world,” he ordered. “It is time for the Zaltule to learn
they’re not the only warriors in our empire.”

-

A few moments later,
the entire fleet jumped into Fold Space. They had a long way to go and when they
arrived, the battle for control of the Kleese Empire would begin.

-

In the Kleese
home system, Minor Overlord Kaluse studied the latest reports in the search for
former Supreme Overlord Xatul. Once more there had been no sign of the elusive
former leader of the Kleese.

“He has gone
outside of the empire,” Kaluse said emphatically. “If he were still in the
empire, we would have found him.”

“Supreme
Overlord Xatul is no fool,” answered Genedt. “He took two trading stations with
him. With those it would be very easy for him to set up a new empire amongst
the distant stars. I also believe he has fled the empire and we’ll never see
him again.”

Minor Overlord
Drusiid shook his triangular shaped head in denial. “No, I believe Xatul and
his ships are hiding in the empire, perhaps inside a nebula or in some remote
sector. It may take time, but he will be found.”