Galactic Empire Wars: Insurrection (The Galactic Empire Wars Book 5) (35 page)

-

Supreme
Overlord Harmock gazed in uncertainty as the Human fleet suddenly turned and
fled, leaving the two former Kleese trading stations undefended as well as
their colonies on the large moon. Was it possible the Humans were setting
another trap, expecting the Zaltule fleet to follow them?

“Overlord,”
called out Jalridd in sudden fear. “I’m picking up a massive surge of energy
headed toward our location from the system’s sun. I’m not certain but the star
may be undergoing a nova transformation.”

With a feeling
of dread, Harmock suspected the Humans had just played their last trick. Could
the Humans have found some way to cause their star to go nova in order to
destroy the Zaltule fleet? Fold Space Drives were not functional in such a
highly stressed area of space. He knew if the star had indeed gone nova, his
fleet would be destroyed. Was this the Humans’ final trap? Harmock gazed at the
viewscreens waiting for an answer.

-

The massive
beam of solar energy arrived, feeding power to the hungry installation on the
surface of the Moon. Five massive energy projectors turned toward the Zaltule
fleet and greatly enhanced plasma beams lanced out. The beams were so powerful
and wide that they cut through Zaltule energy shields as if they were butter,
taking out two or three warships at a time. The Zaltule battlecruisers died
like moths caught in a flame. Ship after ship exploded in massive fireballs as
the five beams played across the Zaltule fleet formation.

Another blast
of energy was generated from the base, making it impossible for the Zaltule
fleet to activate their Fold Space Drives. The space around the Zaltule ships
became too stressed to establish a warp bubble to allow for Fold Space travel.
The Zaltule fleet was trapped.

-

Supreme
Overlord Harmock gazed without comment as his fleet was being systematically
destroyed. The five beams of plasma energy were unstoppable as Zaltule
battlecruisers vanished into oblivion. The Zaltule at Navigation had already
informed him that Fold Space was closed off.

Harmock knew
his plans for a Zaltule controlled Kleese Empire was about to come to an abrupt
end. He now realized the Humans were not only equal to the Zaltule in battle,
but were their superiors! Those were his last thoughts as one of the deadly
plasma beams struck the
Warrior’s Fire
, ending the life of the Supreme
Military Overlord of the Zaltule and the Kleese Empire.

-

At Vesta,
Minor Overlord Barral witnessed the death of Supreme Military Overlord Harmock
and his fleet on the long-range sensors. He stood frozen upon his six legs,
finding it nearly impossible to believe Harmock was dead.

“Inbound
contacts on the Fold Space sensors,” called out the sensor operator.

“How many?”

“Over a
thousand,” the sensor operator replied. “It’s an Alliance fleet.”

“Withdraw,”
Barral ordered. “We will return to the trading station in Sector Thirteen to
repair our battle damage and assess the situation. This battle is lost, and we
must send word to the other Zaltule that our Supreme Military Overlord is
dead.”

A few minutes
later, the last Zaltule ship made the transition into Fold Space and fled. The
battle for control of the Solar System was over.

-

On Centerpoint
Station, General Mitchell had his eyes focused on a viewscreen. It showed the
sun and what appeared to be a number of massive solar flares erupting from its
surface. He looked over at Marken, who was speaking rapidly over a comm channel
with a number of Kivean scientists as well as others from the Deltons, Bashans,
Talts, and Belens. Mitchell knew these were the brightest minds in the Solar
System, and all eyes were focused on the growing activity on the surface of the
star.

Finally, Marken
seemed to be satisfied and he turned toward General Mitchell. “The news isn’t
good but it’s not as bad as it could have been. Mars will be hit by one of the
solar flares directly and may suffer some serious damage to any surviving
surface installations. If there are survivors in the deep bunkers, they must
remain there until the flare has passed. Any Humans out on the surface will die
immediately when the flare reaches the planet.”

“What about
here?”

“We also will
be struck,” Marken said, sounding grim. “All personnel in the outer regions of
the two stations will need to move to the central areas. The habitats will
become death traps if any people remain in them. On the Moon, there will be
some damage to the surface installations, but the people should be safe as long
as they stay in the shelters. The solar flare headed toward us isn’t as large
as the one that will impact Mars. We also need to move all ships out of the
paths of the flares, even in the outer regions of the system. We came very
close to causing the sun to go nova.” Marken didn’t want to tell the general
just how close they had come. As it was, Marken would have a hard time sleeping
for the next few nights.

General
Mitchell nodded his understanding. There would be more damage but they would survive.
On one of the large tactical screens, the Alliance fleet was dropping out of
Fold Space near Vesta. Alliance Fleet Admiral Rivers had arrived.

It was just
now dawning on General Mitchell that they might have just won the war against
the Kleese. The majority of the Zaltule fleet was wiped out. Fleet Admiral
Kelly still had a major portion of his fleet surviving, and Fleet Commander
Achlyn had his fleet as well. With Alliance Fleet Admiral Rivers’ fleet, it was
possible they could go on the offensive and drive the Kleese back from many of
the inhabited worlds they controlled.

Looking over
at Marken, he asked the question. “Did we just win the war?”

“We’ll see,”
answered Marken, ready to board a ship and return to the Kivean asteroid where
Harnett awaited. “We did today what no one believed possible. We defeated the
Zaltule and their Supreme Military Overlord. The Kleese Empire will never be
the same, and we may be in a position to finally bring peace to our section of
the galaxy.”

Mitchell
nodded. There was still a lot that needed to be done. The cities on Mars had to
be rebuilt and Smithfield had to be searched for survivors. A lot of people had
died today, both Humans and their alien allies, but for the first time in a
long while, the future of the Human race looked to be secure. In the coming
years, they could rebuild the Solar System, terraform Mars, and someday return
Earth to its former glory. Mitchell just hoped he would see the day when the
home planet was once more green and he could walk out onto its surface and
breathe the air once more.

Far out past
the Kleese Empire in uncharted space, a massive object dropped out of Fold
Space. It was one hundred and twenty kilometers across and twenty-four
kilometers thick with its surface covered by a number of habitation domes
ranging in size from five to twenty kilometers. The domes were the homes for
the station’s crew of eighty thousand Zaltule. It was also heavily armed, far
heavier than any previous trading station.

War Overlord
Tetus stood upon the Command Pedestal in the main Command Center of the massive
station. He was watching the viewscreens as fourteen hundred Zaltule
battlecruisers began exiting Fold Space. A few moments later, seventeen hundred
of the older Zaltule battlecruisers began appearing.

“It was
fortunate our brethren near the core worlds were able to rescue three of our
young Queens,” commented Overlord Barral. Barral had been advanced in rank and
now served as the War Overlord’s second in command.

“Yes,” Tetus
answered, his multifaceted eyes watching as the large battlecruisers formed up
into squadrons. They were six thousand light years from the empire; far enough
away that the Humans and their Alliance would never find them, at least not
until it was too late.

“The exploration
squadrons are ready,” reported Haralt, the station’s commander.

“Send them
out,” ordered War Overlord Tetus. “We need three new worlds for our young Queens. From them will spring the next generation of Zaltule warriors.”

Tetus knew it
would take many long years to build the Zaltule clan back up to its former
numbers. Years where they would have to remain hidden from their enemies.
However, someday the Zaltule would return to the empire to claim what was
rightfully theirs. The Kleese Empire and the Humans would someday tremble with
fear when the Zaltule made their presence known once more.

-

Ryan and Casey
were sitting in their new home in the New Eden habitat inside Vesta. It had
been three months since their rescue from the ruins of Smithfield. Unfortunately,
many of their Marine friends had met their deaths when the antimatter warhead
had detonated.

“So, how does
it feel to be married?” Alexander asked from where he was sitting next to
Lauren.

“Yes,” Lauren
said with her eyes twinkling. “What’s it like to be able to have sex whenever
you want?” She squeezed Alexander’s hand. Casey had finally come forward and
told Lauren about how Alexander had stayed at her side when she had been
injured and held her hand for hours in the med bay of the
Deliverance
.

Casey blushed
and smiled. “I love being married. It’s everything I always dreamed of.”

“Any children
planned?” asked Lauren. She knew Ryan and Casey had been discussing it,
particularly now that the war was over.

“Ryan’s mom
and dad are wanting us to start a family soon,” Casey admitted. “I think Ryan
and I want to enjoy married life for awhile before we have any kids, but when
we do I want at least three!”

“Three!”
gasped Ryan, his eyes widening.

“Yes, three,”
Casey said firmly.

“What about
the two of you?” asked Ryan, looking over at their two friends.

“We’re still
exploring out relationship,” Lauren answered with a grin. “If Alexander
continues to behave, who knows what may be in our future.”

Ryan nodded.
It was good to have friends like Lauren and Alexander. With the war over, they
could now all live normal lives. Lives that a few months before they all
thought they never could have.

-

Colonel Wade
Nelson was standing in the middle of Smithfield with Mason Randle looking at
the piles of ruins. Construction equipment was already working hard at clearing
the rubble. There were even a few work robots that had been reprogrammed for
civilian construction work.

“It’s hard to
believe it’s gone,” Mason said as he looked sadly around at the devastation.
“My grandfather and father spent years building Smithfield.”

“You did a lot
of it too,” Wade said. “If not for what you did, the Human race wouldn’t have
survived. Everything here that was destroyed can be rebuilt.”

“Two hundred
thousand people died in the shelters here in Smithfield,” Mason said. “We
should have built the shelters deeper and stronger.”

“No one could
have predicted the Zaltule setting off an antimatter bomb like they did,” Wade replied.
“Most of our people survived, and in a few years Smithfield will be newer and
better than it was before.” In the distance, Wade could see Captain Stern and
Lieutenant Guthrie. They had a number of Marines in Type Three battlesuits with
them helping to sift through the rubble.

“You’re
right,” sighed Mason. “I’d better get back to Adrienne. She gets aggravated if
I’m late for supper.”

Wade nodded
his understanding. Back home in the Viridian habitat, Beth and Erick were
waiting for him. It was strange not to be running from one crisis to the next
anymore. He was even considering retiring from the military and working at the
cloning facility with Mason. It would allow him to spend more time with his
family and that was more important than anything else. Only the day before,
Beth had told him she was pregnant again. Tonight they were going to tell his
parents. He knew they would be extremely excited and thrilled at the thought of
a new Nelson coming into the world.

-

General
Mitchell, Fleet Admiral Kelly, and General Pittman were sitting in Mitchell’s
office discussing the current state of affairs.

“Eight hundred
and seventy thousand people were lost on Mars,” General Pittman said, shaking
his head. “Plus two hundred thousand at Vesta.”

“General
Sanchez has reconstruction well under way,” General Mitchell commented. “We
even moved Freedom Station to Mars to help.”

“What’s the
latest reports from the Alliance and the Kleese Empire?” asked Pittman. He knew
much had changed in the last few months.

“The Kleese
have agreed to allow the Alliance complete control of all worlds in Sectors
Eleven and Twelve,” Fleet Admiral Kelly answered. “They have a lot of problems
of their own cleaning up what the Zaltule did to their empire, and with our
surviving fleets they don’t want a war. They’ve agreed to return all the former
nonaligned worlds back to their former status as set up by the original
neutrality agreements. Trade will be allowed between all nonaligned worlds and
the Alliance under the condition that no Alliance or Human warship can venture
out of Sector Eleven or Twelve into other parts of the empire.”

“They killed
all the Zaltule and their Queens,” commented Fleet Admiral Kelly. “They
practiced genocide against their own race.”

“The Kleese
don’t consider it genocide,” General Mitchell said. “When their former Supreme
Overlord returned with the Strell, they annihilated the Zaltule, who they
deemed a threat to the other Kleese clans. They did the same thing in their
remote past during the clan wars on their home planet.”

“So the
Zaltule are gone,” Pittman said in a pleased voice. Then he noticed the strange
look that passed between General Mitchell and Fleet Admiral Kelly. “What is it
you’re not telling me?”

General
Mitchell took a deep breath. “Between the Kleese and us, we may not have gotten
them all. From the intelligence we’ve been able to gather, a large, specially
built trading station was taken from the construction facility in the Kleese
core system of Sherlund. It along with an estimated three thousand Zaltule
battlecruisers are missing.”

“Crap!”
muttered Pittman, his face turning pale. “Where are they?”

“No one
knows,” Fleet Admiral Kelly said. “They seem to have vanished. The Kleese feel
a Zaltule by the name of War Overlord Tetus has fled the empire to parts
unknown with them.”

“Who is this
Overlord Tetus?”

“He was
Supreme Military Overlord Harmock’s second in command,” Kelly replied.

Pittman shook
his head. “So we may have to do this all over again someday.”

“That’s
unknown also,” answered Kelly. “The Kleese believe they killed all the Zaltule
Queens. If that is so, then the Zaltule will soon be a thing of the past.
However, just to be on the safe side, President Raytol is insisting the Alliance keep a large military fleet for its own protection as well as ours.”

“So, what do
we do now?” asked Pittman.

“We rebuild,”
General Mitchell said. “We rebuild our population, start the terraforming of
Mars, and someday restore Earth to what it was before the arrival of the
Kleese. Before I die, I want to walk the wheat fields of Kansas one more time.”

General
Pittman stood up and went and got three glasses from a cabinet, which he filled
from a special bottle he had brought. Still standing, he looked at the others
and held out his glass. “To Earth,” he said.

“To Earth,”
repeated the others as they stood and touched glasses. They were all excited
about the future in front of them. It was bright and full of hope without the
shadow of war.

-

Marken was at
home in the Kivean asteroid. He was standing out on the balcony looking at the
colorful lights of the buildings. It was the night cycle and the buildings were
beautiful to look at. His Human friends said the Kivean city looked like
something from a fantasy story with its tall, slender towers and brightly
painted colors. A gentle breeze was blowing and he smiled as Harnett came out
and took his arm.

“It’s done,”
he said, feeling complacent. For the first time in his life, there was no fear
or worry in the back of his mind. His gambit with the Humans had paid off. Even
though the Kleese Empire hadn’t been destroyed, it was but a shadow of what it
once was.

“Supper’s
ready,” Harnett said. “I cooked your favorite.”

Marken turned
and gently kissed Harnett on the lips. In the background, he could hear a baby
crying. Harnett and Malton had finally managed to combine the DNA and a new
Kivean child had come into being. Marken had a son and he had so much to tell
him someday.

“Let’s go
inside,” Marken said as they went to check on the baby. For the first time in
his memory, the galaxy was at peace and the Kivean race could grow without
fear. Marken was looking forward to a long and beneficial relationship with his
Human friends. There was still so much ahead in their future and the Humans
still had a lot to learn.

The End

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Insurrection
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