Warrior Chronicles 3: Warrior's Realm (12 page)

“How quickly can they cycle weapons and transition?”

“Both?” Book asked.

“Yes. Think jump, fire, jump, fire, etc. How quickly can they cycle?”

“The Remington can do so every eighteen seconds. The two newer ships can do so every fifteen seconds.”

“Okay, that doesn’t leave much room for error, but it will work. Their home system is the one that seemed to divert the crystal. We are going there. Captain Platt will use the
Taurus
to plant anchor particles at predetermined firing locations, then he will jump the ship back and transmit the particle fingerprints to the heavy ships. The big guns will then jump through the system as rapidly as possible firing both cannons every cycle. We are going to completely destroy their homeworld. Any questions?”

Everyone was dumbstruck. Only Kimberly spoke. “How much time do we have to fire each cycle? Speral indicated that they destroyed her people’s ships immediately.”

“When first contact was attempted, the response time decreased with each deeper penetration of the system. Based on that data and the distance we will be firing from, our ships will have twenty-one seconds to transition, fire, and jump to the next point.”

Admiral Book said, “If you give me three weeks to refit the
Remington
, I can get her down to a fifteen second cycle as well.”

Cort leaned back and closed his eyes for moment before saying, “If I give you a month, what can you give me, Admiral Book? And please consider mission prep and training time in your reply.”

“The first week I do not even need the
Remington
in dock. It will take that long to fabricate the new capacitors. Another week to install them, and one to test them, then I can give her back to Admiral Jones. There will also be two peacekeepers available for trials in that window.”

“Peacekeepers?” Cort asked.

Jones said, “For all intents and purposes, it is a larger version of the
Taurus
-class ships, General. More heavily armed and capable of carrying more cargo. I had intended to give the first in the class to you, sir, but you needed something sooner.”

“Okay. I want them on standby for search-and-rescue during the mission, but they will not participate in the attack.” Cort turned to Rhodes and said, “Chief, you’ve been quiet. What’s on your mind?”

“We are calmly discussing the destruction of an entire planet and the species living there.”

“No. We are talking about justice. They have been doing this to thousands of species for thousands of years. Not just noble species, but plants and animals and species that have now lost their opportunity to evolve and grow to the stars, so I have absolutely no qualms about giving them a taste of what they have done to the galaxy.”

“Yes, I know that, Cort. And I agree with you, but it is still difficult to swallow.”

Lex asked, “Chief, would it be so difficult to swallow if they had crystallized Earth?”

“Touché.”

“What are you going to do after you destroy the first one?” Kim asked.

“I’m going to keep destroying their planets until they surrender. After they surrender, I am going to give them one heavily guarded system that they will not be allowed to leave. If they leave that system, I will make them extinct. I may only let them have one planet.”

JJ said, “That seems reasonable, sir. I support the plan.”

“Is anyone against my plan?” When no one responded, Cort said, “Good. Then begin training around Mercury. It’s the closest thing we have to a comparable target. Obviously, I don’t want you to blow it up, but you can fire dummy rounds into it.”

“Sir, if this works, what will we do with the vacated planets?” Lex Sike asked.

“As I said, a lot of the affected systems have been returned to their original states. That means many of the planets can probably be repopulated with their original species. Only one planet in each system was permanently altered. In cases where those can be returned to native species, they will as well. The remaining planets, mostly ones where the native species are now extinct, will become military bases for our federation.”

“Will the Collaborative Government go along with that?” Kim asked.

“It’s not up to them. I run the military, and I want forward bases. I’m not willing to take planets away from friendly species, but I am committed to securing this galactic arm against future threats.”

“Can I have a few for more planetary refuges?”

“Hopefully, you won’t need any more, Kimberly, but yes. According to information gathered from the prisoners, there are going to be almost one hundred planets available. Half of those will be set aside for military use, including about ten in which the entire systems will be reserved for us. That means there will be another fifty or so that will be available for other uses and future colonization.”

“We are going to need more people, General.”

“Yes, we are, Chief. But that’s up to Dar and the civvies.” Looking around, Cort said, “We are getting way ahead of ourselves though. This meeting is about fighting the war. I want the CG and our civilian leaders in on planning the exit strategy. In fact, I’m leaving for Earth after we finish up so I can update Dar and the other alliances.”

Earth

Dar Sike put down his single malt and took a long pull on a cigar before saying, “You are building a military empire, Cort.”

“I’m glad you didn’t say
dictatorship
, Dar, but it would have been just as accurate, if not more so. It’s a dangerous road I’m leading us down, but I don’t see any alternatives that are safe for humanity. We’re stuck on a galactic stage now, and we need more than our pack. We need more people and I’m going to need you and Kimberly to keep me grounded. Lex is too much like me to be of any use when it comes to moderation. And while Bazal has become a great friend to me, war just isn’t his way.”

“I agree with much of what you said, Cort, but you are wrong about needing more than our pack. The pack is what binds us. It actually creates a sense of unity. My suggestion is that you increase the size of the pack, not look for outside help.”

“That means trusting other people. I’m not good at that.”

“Then you shouldn’t have founded an empire.” Dar sipped from the whiskey again. “In fact, if you feel that way,  you should not have left your cave.”

“Those were simpler days, Dar. You might be right.”

“Yep. And I would still have Clare and Kay, and Rand would still be in prison on Mars, and Atlantica would still exist, and you would still have Sköll, and humanity would be still be blissfully at peace and ignorant of you, or the good aliens, or crystal-making cockroaches. You really screwed it up for all of us, Cort.”

“Fuck you, Dar.” Cort stood up and started for the door.

Dar jumped up and moved with surprising speed block Cort’s exit. “No. Fuck
you
, Cort. Fuck you for thinking this mess is somehow your fault. I have news for you, buddy, Those fucking cousins of Lap’s were crystallizing planets before we started rubbing sticks together to make fire. You want to know the truth, Cort? If all this shit had happened just twenty years ago, before you got here, you might have woken up in a block of crystal.”

“Get outta my way, Dar. Right now.”

“No.”

Cort considered moving Dar and walking away, but thought better of it. As he relented and turned to slam himself down in the seat he had occupied, the wooden chair broke under the force of his temper and the savior of the galaxy ended up on the ground. Cort could feel Dar’s gloating smile as he raised himself up and kicked the broken wood out of the way so he could pull another chair out and sit down.

Dar said, “Dumbass.”

“I should have shot you the first time I saw you.”

After pouring more whiskey, Dar said, “You probably should have, that’s true. I would certainly have less to do.”

“Anyway. What do you mean about increasing the size of the pack?”

“The Keen Protocol. Except for the original Ares Federation members, all humans still have metallic synthetics. We test them before converting them to Kay’s bio-synthetics, and then recruit the humans who pass.”

“We might need a billion people for the military, Dar. Can you get me that many?”

“Yeah. Even volunteers only, I can probably get you three times that.”

“Once we accept them, we have to be loyal to them too. There cannot be tiers of membership.”

“Agreed.”

“Work with JJ and Book on it,” Cort said.

“Okay, so who will be in charge of training ground troops?”

“I’ll talk to Mike Rage. He’s the best choice right now.”

“No. Kimberly is the best choice.”

“I would like to keep her out of it. She’s got Solitude to develop.”

“Oh,” Dar raised his eyebrows. “Then why is she on your war council?”

“Because she is the only person who isn’t too afraid of me to be honest.”

“No. She is just the only person you will listen to.”

“Fuck you, Dar.”

“Cort, we keep talking about being a pack. From what I understand, most packs had two alphas, a male and a female. She is our other alpha. Stop fighting that and use it to our advantage. The reality is, if you were to put these service academies on Solitude, it would give our people a better idea what we are fighting for. At least talk to her about it.”

“I’ll think about talking to her about it. That’s the best I can do.”

“I have two more things to talk about. First up, names,” Dar said.

“Names?”

“Yeah. It seems Bazal started a trend when he called Kim by her historic name. Pretty much everyone in the pack is researching their names now, and submitting changes.”

Cort chuckled. “Well, Bazal is right. Kimberly is much prettier than Kim. I’ve never understood why you went to single syllables anyway. I researched it once. The other alliances didn’t even get it. All I can find out about it is that it had something to do with a religion. I can’t even figure out which one.”

“You missed three hundred years of history and in your free time, you researched names. You are an enigma, old man.”

“I researched a lot of things. So what else do you want to talk about?” Cort asked.

“Okay. Next up is the Asians. They have asked if you will visit Ake Kule the next time you visit.”

“Why?”

“It seems they want to honor you.”

“Fuck.”

Ake Kule, Asianic Alliance

After the Cull and the formation of the Asianic Alliance, the capital of the alliance was built at Ake Kule in extreme north central China, near the traditional borders of Russia, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan. Considered one of the most beautiful places on Earth, the snow-covered mountains that surround the glacial lake made the perfect backdrop for the ceremony held in Cort’s honor.

The ceremony itself was a long, boring affair with several speeches about how great Cort was for uniting humanity and his journey across time. One speaker expounded on the great stage Cort had led the Ares Federation onto and how mankind was set to take its rightful place among the stars. To Cort, it was one long-winded speaker after another, until it was time to present him with a gift.

A young wolf that was clearly going to be the largest one Cort had ever seen was led onto the stage by two men. It was already nearly as large as Zandra, and would certainly be larger than Sköll, himself big for the breed, and this uncut male appeared to be less than a year old. Cort guessed it would top out at over two hundred pounds in another year.
There’s something different about him. Please let him be a gift to me.