Galactic Empire Wars: Rebellion (The Galactic Empire Wars Book 3) (7 page)

“The Kleese-Strell
war is probably over,” he announced, looking at the report in his hand and leaning
back in his chair behind his desk.

“What will the
Kleese do now?” Kelly asked with narrowed eyes. He knew if he were in charge of
the Kleese fleet, he would repair the damage suffered in the war with the Strell
and then go immediately back on the offensive.

“We’re not
sure, but we think they’ll attempt to take out the nonaligned worlds.”

“How many nonaligned
worlds are there?” Kelly asked. He knew they were scattered throughout the
Kleese Empire.

“Several
hundred,” Mitchell answered as he leaned forward and laid the report back down
on his desk. “They’ll probably start with the ones closest to their home world and
gradually work their way outward toward us.”

“Is there
anything we can do to turn some of those nonaligned worlds to our side in this
war? I’ve read reports from the Kiveans that some of those systems have some
very advanced warships, particularly the one that gave us the ion cannons.”

“Perhaps,” replied
Mitchell, recalling the plan that he and Colonel Nelson had come up with. It
had been necessary to call in several Kiveans, including Marken, to come up
with a workable option. “There are forty-two nonaligned worlds within two
thousand light years of the solar system; we hope to get at least ten of them
to join a new Alliance we’re trying to form. The Kleese are just too powerful
for us to fight alone.”

“The fleet’s
ready,” Kelly said. “All six fleets are now fully crewed and ready for combat
operations. We have three more battlecruisers coming online this week and they’ll
begin their space trials shortly.”

“That’s one of
the items I wanted to talk to you about,” Mitchell said as his eyes focused on
the Fleet Admiral. “I have other plans for those battlecruisers and the new
light cruisers we just completed. I’m turning them over to Colonel Nelson for a
special mission. Commander Adamson on the Constellation will be in command of
the warships. There will also be a large number of assault ships going as well.”

“So it’s about
to begin,” Kelly said, taking in a deep fortifying breath. He suspected that
General Mitchell wouldn’t be committing that many ships to this mission unless
he thought there was a good chance there would be combat.

“Yes,”
answered Mitchell with a heavy sigh.

“How many
assault ships are you sending on this mission?

“Two hundred.”

“Two hundred!”
exclaimed Kelly his eyes bulging at the number.

“We feel it’s
necessary if the mission is to succeed.”

“Are you
certain you want Commander Adamson to command and not one of our fleet
admirals?”

Mitchell
looked at Kelly with a serious look in his eyes. “That’s something else I
wanted to talk to you about. Commander Adamson has performed admirably in all of
the off world missions we’ve sent him on. I would like to see him promoted to
the rank of admiral.”

Kelly nodded;
he'd been considering that promotion himself after reviewing all of the
candidates in the fleet. Adamson was highly qualified, particularly after his
missions to the trading station and the Kivean home world.

“Very well,” Kelly
replied with a smile spreading across his face. “We’ll assign the Constellation
permanently to Seventh Fleet as its new flagship.” The original plans had been
for all the new warships to be held in reserve to fill in for damaged or destroyed
ships in the six regular fleets. Kelly knew they'd have to construct more ships
to fill that role now.

“I think it’s
a wise move,” Mitchell commented with a satisfied look upon his face. “There’s
a very good chance Seventh Fleet will have to fight a major engagement against
the Kleese, most likely against the Zaltule themselves.”

“Should we add
another battlecruiser or two to his fleet?” asked Kelly, worriedly. All the
other fleets had six battlecruisers assigned to them. Admiral Adamson had only
four even though he would command far more assault ships.

“No,” replied Mitchell,
shaking his head. “We need to keep our six fleets at full strength just in case
the Kleese strike here instead of the nonaligned worlds.”

“You think
that’s likely?”

“It’s a low
probability,” answered Mitchell, recalling what the military strategists and
Kiveans believed. “Marken said his people think the probability is under twenty
percent, particularly since we haven’t launched any type of attack against the
Kleese in recent years to draw their attention to us.”

“Except for
starting the Kleese-Strell war,” replied Kelly with a frown. “If they ever find
out we were responsible, they’ll descend upon us with a vengeance.”

“They won’t
find out,” promised Mitchell, confidently. “There’s no evidence we were ever
involved.”

Kelly nodded.
After discussing a few more details with General Mitchell, he stood up and left
the office. He needed to take care of the promotion of Commander Adamson to
admiral as quickly as possible. He knew it would be pleasing to a number of
people who'd already mentioned to him that Adamson was deserving of such a
promotion, they just hadn’t had a fleet for him. Now it appeared that they did.

-

Ryan grimaced
as one of his soldiers fell and another icon turned a glaring red on his HUD.
Eight down and twelve remaining and they were only halfway to the top of the
damn mountain. “Grab Private Swen’s energy weapon,” he ordered as everyone
waited to begin moving forward again. “Private Parker and Adams move up, but
take your time. We’re going the rest of the way in single file and we’ll be stepping
in each other’s footsteps.”

Lauren sent a
confirming reply over her suit’s com and began moving forward very slowly.
Alexander was about four meters behind her, scanning to their left and right
with his suit’s sensors while Lauren used her energy weapon to burn a narrow
path directly in front of them. She was burning a swath about twenty meters
wide, and whenever her energy weapon’s charge became exhausted, another energy
cannon from one of their fallen comrades was passed forward.

Twice she
narrowly missed being struck by stunners, and once several railgun rounds hit
next to her metal encased feet, showering her with dirt. She took a deep,
steadying breath and continued firing her energy cannon ahead of them. She moved
it in a gentle arc, burning through everything. Trees, brush, and even the ground
burned as the deadly blue beam annihilated everything before her. Occasionally
a small explosion, a bright flash, and a pillar of rising dark smoke would
indicate where the beam had struck a hidden popup weapon.

Behind her,
Alexander had exchanged his energy cannon for an RG rifle and was using its
explosive rounds on any popups that appeared on their flanks. Whenever he
missed, it invariably meant another soldier would be hit by stunners or painful
RG rounds. Alexander was trying his best not to miss!

Corporal
Hunter was following closely behind the two scouts. She found it remarkable
that neither had been hit since they were leading the platoon up the steep
slope of the mountain. Like Private Parker, she was carrying an RG rifle set on
explosive rounds and was watching intently for any hidden weapon emplacements
Alexander might miss. So far, she'd taken out eight of the painful weapons,
though she and Alexander had missed a few, which had resulted in them losing
eight soldiers so far. Each was lying in a Type Three battlesuit behind them,
immobile until the drill was over. Lieutenant Nelson made it a point of taking
the fallen soldier’s weapons each time one was hit.

-

Major Winfrey
looked at the viewscreens, which were showing numerous views of Charring Mountain and the platoon of Type Three battlesuits that was slowly advancing
toward the top. It was beginning to look as if Second Lieutenant Nelson was
once again going to reach the summit. The latest computer estimates predicted
he had just enough power in his energy weapons to get to the top. The question remaining
was how many soldiers would he have left?

“Definitely Colonel
Nelson’s brother,” commented Major Stevens with a grin. “The son-of-a-bitch is
going to make it to the top of Charring on his second try.”

“Looks that
way,” replied Dylan, thoughtfully. No one had ever made it to the top and deactivated
the embedded weapons this quickly. At the moment, he didn’t see how he could
stop the young lieutenant. “He made it to the top on his first ascent, but the
stunners around the pedestal took him out.”

“I would never
have thought of using the energy weapons that way,” Mark went on impressed by
what he was seeing. “They’re clearing out a narrow path directly ahead, which
means they only have to be on the lookout for the weapons on the perimeter. As
soon as they pop up, their sensors detect them and they’re using their RG
rifles to take them out.”

“Most of
them,” Dylan replied as he watched two more of the popups being destroyed. “The
question is, how many soldiers will Nelson have left when he gets to the top?
He’ll also need an energy weapon or some explosive rounds to take out the
stunners protecting the deactivation button.”

“Are you going
to let him win?” asked Mark, feeling curious.

“I don’t think
I can stop him,” Dylan replied with a long sigh. “In all the scenarios we’ve run
on Charring, no one has used energy weapons quite the way Lieutenant Nelson is.
There’s always been a propensity to use explosive rounds when advancing up the
mountain.”

“They provide
the biggest bang for the buck and can clear a wide area,” commented Mark,
recalling his own attempts at Charring. Well did he recall just how painful the
stunners felt; he grimaced and frowned at the recollection.

“What the new
battlesuit recruits don’t realize is that after each attempt we reduce the
number of weapons slightly to gradually allow them to get higher up the mountain
until on the fifth or sixth try they have a reasonable chance to make it,”
spoke Dylan as he watched another of Nelson’s soldiers fall from a stun beam.
The stunner was quickly taken out by an RG explosive round. “Lieutenant Nelson
isn’t quite playing by the rules.”

“They volunteered
for the new program,” Mark said. “They’re supposed to the toughest and the
brightest. Also, in this war there are no rules.”

“Think you can
handle them?” asked Dylan, turning his head to look at Mark. “It’s your
program.”

“The new Type
Four battlesuits are ready to go; we just need the men and women to operate
them.”

Dylan nodded.
The Type Fours were supposed to be far more deadly than the previous models.
Earth’s military scientists along with the Kiveans had spent several long years
perfecting the suits to where they were now ready to be deployed. They would be
needed in the war against the Kleese, particularly now that the Zaltule were a part
of the mix. Dylan shifted his gaze back to the viewscreens. He was curious to
see how this turned out.

-

Ryan groaned
silently to himself as he saw Private Adams go down with an echoing cry of
anguish over the suit’s com. Lauren had been hit by an RG cannon, which had
popped up on the right flank and opened fire on her before Private Parker could
sight in his RG rifle and take it out with explosive rounds. Corporal Hunter
made short work of the offending weapon as she blew it apart with an explosive
round. On his HUD, he saw Lauren’s green icon flash over to red. He gestured
for the others to come to a halt as he checked to see who remained with him. He
still had Private Parker, Corporal Hunter, Private Rios, and himself surviving.
All were uninjured and the summit was less than one hundred meters above them.

“Weapons
check!” Ryan called out.

He had a full
magazine of RG rounds, but they were nearly useless against the popups. It was
necessary to hit them dozens of time to inflict any appreciable damage and by
then they would be returning fire, which was nearly impossible to avoid. He had
six explosive rounds left.

“I’m out,”
Private Rios reported as he checked the readouts on his RG rifle.

“Four rounds
left,” Corporal Hunter responded.

“Ten percent
charge on my energy cannon,” Private Parker added. He had stepped forward and
picked up Lauren’s energy cannon as his RG rifle was empty of explosive rounds.

“Damn, I’m not
sure that’s enough,” Ryan spoke as he considered their options. He looked at
the steep slope ahead wondering just how many more popups there were. The
ground was rocky with a few large boulders scattered about, some short bushes,
and only a few trees. They would be highly visible the rest of the way.

“Let me go
first,” volunteered Rios. “I’ll run up the slope as fast as I can. The rest of
the hidden popups between here and the summit should try to take me out. Once
they pop up you can destroy them, and that should get you to the summit.”

“You’ll get
taken out,” warned Ryan.

“It’ll only
hurt for a few moments,” quipped Rios, trying to sound nonchalant.

He knew if he were
hit by a stunner it would hurt like hell and there were bound to be a few
surviving stunners between here and the summit. When he took off running, every
embedded weapon left would target him and begin firing. He knew he wouldn’t get
far, but it would be worth it if it meant they could win.

Ryan was
silent for a few moments as he considered their options. He knew what Private Rios
had suggested was their best chance. It should cause most if not all of the
remaining weapons to reveal themselves. He took a deep breath and then looked
directly at Rios standing a few feet away in his battlesuit.

“Okay, Rios,”
Ryan finally said. “If you can get all the remaining weapons to fire on you,
there’ll be a steak dinner for you tonight in the mess hall.”

“Medium-rare,”
Rios answered, grinning. He could already taste the steak; it almost made the
pain he was about to go through worth it.