The Lost Fleet: Genesis: A Slaver Wars Novel (3 page)

“Move us out,
formation Alpha-three.” Race leaned back in his command chair. He needed the ships
of that relief fleet intact, and he knew the Shari were going to do everything
in their power to try to deny him that.

-

High Lord
Aktill watched as his flagship prepared to make the jump into hyperspace. In
front of the
Judgment of Dawn
, a swirling vortex appeared. He planned on
jumping the fleet into an englobement formation around the new Federation force.
He would destroy it and then hold that position, which was much nearer the
Dyson Sphere than he currently was.

“Federation
fleet is entering hyperspace,” reported Lower Lord Samarth.

Aktill took
notice, seeing that his quarry was escaping. “As soon as the fleet exits the spatial
vortexes, plot their hyperspace exit point and we’ll jump immediately to its
location. We have the ships to destroy them, and I fully intend to do so.”

He was tired
of allowing the Humans and their allies to demonstrate their superiority. Every
battle he had fought against them had ended in disaster. He had one hundred and
sixty battlecruisers and two hundred and fourteen support cruisers at his
disposal. That should be sufficient to extract the destruction he planned on
delivering to the enemy fleet.

-

Two hundred
million kilometers from the Dyson Sphere, Admiral Stoddard quickly took his
relief and supply fleet into hyperspace. Blue-white swirling vortexes formed in
front of his ships and they quickly fled into them, heading closer to the Dyson
Sphere. Even as the last ship entered the safety of its vortex, more vortexes
began forming and Shari battlecruisers and support cruisers flew out seeking to
destroy any stragglers from the Human fleet.

Near the Dyson
Sphere, Admiral Tolsen led his fleet out past the defense grid and quickly
accelerated, hoping to reach the support and supply ships ahead of the Shari. In his fleet he had the heavy dreadnought
WarHawk
, eighteen other smaller
dreadnoughts, one hundred and twenty Alton battleships, forty-four Human
battleships, ten battlecarriers, one hundred and nine battlecruisers, and two
hundred and twenty-two strikecruisers. It was a truly powerful fleet, but due
to the situation they were in Tolsen couldn’t afford to take heavy losses.
Every ship he lost was irreplaceable.

-

Race shifted
his gaze to the nearby tactical display, noting Admiral Stoddard’s fleet was
beginning to exit hyperspace. At his fleet’s current speed, it would take
nearly twenty minutes to reach the relief fleet. Race knew a lot could happen
in that amount of time. In twenty minutes the entire relief fleet could be
destroyed.

“Vice Admiral
Tolsen reports all of her fighters and bombers are prepped and ready to be
deployed,” Commander Arnett reported. “She’s armed the bombers for a shipping
strike.”

“Shari fleet has exited hyperspace,” reported Captain Davis, and then a minute later he
turned toward the admiral. “I’m detecting energy spikes.”

Race knew the
supply fleet couldn’t withstand an attack from so many Shari vessels. Admiral
Stoddard’s fleet would be wiped out before his ships could reach them. Even as
he watched, he saw the relief fleet form up into a defensive formation and
begin accelerating toward the Dyson Sphere and safety.

“They’re not
going to make it,” Colonel Cowel pointed out as he checked some data on a
computer screen. “The Shari will catch them and Admiral Stoddard doesn’t have
the warships to hold them off.”

“They’re going
to make it,” Race replied in a determined voice. “We can take the
WarHawk
and the other dreadnoughts and jump to Admiral Stoddard’s position. Our
hyperdrives should survive the strain of jumping inside the gravity well of the
Dyson Sphere.”

Commander
Arnett looked in surprise at Admiral Tolsen. “Maybe,” she said with a trace of
doubt in her voice. “We’ve never tried a jump like that before in such a highly
stressed region of space as the gravity well created by the Dyson Sphere. We
don’t know what effect it could have on the hyperdrives.”

Race shifted
his eyes over toward Madelyn. She was a trusted officer and friend and he took
her words seriously. “If we don’t, the relief fleet will be destroyed. We’re
their only chance.”

Madelyn nodded,
accepting they had to do this. “The defense globes are ready to deploy as well
as our fighters and bombers.” The
WarHawk
had eighty fighters and forty
bombers on board. The other smaller dreadnoughts contained similar numbers of
the small attack craft.

“Then let’s do
this; I’ll send word to Massie and Admiral Lankell they have command of the
fleet.”

-

Admiral
Stoddard was working quickly to get his fleet into a defensive formation while
at the same time increasing their speed toward the Dyson Sphere. At any moment,
he expected to see Shari spatial vortexes forming around his fleeing fleet. He
had two battleships, four battlecarriers, ten battlecruisers, and twenty-six
strike cruisers to defend the four fleet repair ships as well as the forty
valuable supply ships at the heart of his formation. He knew from the size of
the Shari fleet the sensors had detected it wasn’t going to be enough.

“Vortexes
detected,” reported Lieutenant Brier as alarms sounded on his sensor console.
“We have Shari battlecruisers exiting hyperspace around and behind our fleet formation.”

Stoddard
nodded his acceptance of the report. Pressing his ship-to-ship minicomm, he contacted
Commander Shayla Bream on the battlecarrier
Concordia
. “Shayla, I’m going
to need all of your fighters and bombers if we hope to get out of this.”

“I understand,
Admiral,” Shayla answered. “You do realize at the speed we’re traveling it will
make recovering any of them highly unlikely.”

“I know,”
answered Stoddard, feeling a knot form in the pit of his stomach. This would be
the first time he had sent people on a mission knowing there was no chance of
their returning. “We’re about to be heavily outnumbered, and those fighters and
bombers may be the only hope we have of getting at least some of the fleet safely
to the Dyson Sphere and Admiral Tolsen.”

Shayla was
quiet for a long moment before replying. “They’re good pilots; they’ll buy the
time those supply ships need.”

-

High Lord
Aktill felt elated as his ship’s systems stabilized and the tactical and viewscreens
came on. He had the enemy fleet right where he wanted them.

“They’re
launching their small attack craft,” warned Lower Lord Samarth.

“Our point
defense will take care of them,” Aktill replied dismissively. “Concentrate our
fire on the ships protecting those supply vessels. If we can deny the fleet at
the Dyson Sphere supplies, they’ll eventually have to leave.”

“That fleet’s
coming out toward us,” Samarth said as he quickly pointed to a tactical screen
showing the enemy fleet at the Dyson Sphere breaking orbit and accelerating
outward. They’ll be here shortly.”

“It will not
matter,” answered Aktill as he gazed at the red threat icons his ships had
englobed. “By the time they arrive, we’ll have destroyed this fleet. This
battle is ours.”

“High Lord,
I’m detecting an energy surge from some of the ships leaving the sphere,”
reported the Shari officer in front of the sensor console. “They’re opening up
a number of spatial vortexes.”

“How?” asked
Samarth in disbelief. “They’re too near the Dyson Sphere’s gravity well,
they’ll be destroyed!”

“I don’t know
how!” Aktill said loudly as his eyes focused on the indicated sensor screen. “I
want all ships to concentrate their weapons fire on those ships nearest us. We
must destroy them!” Once again, the enemy were showing their superiority. A Shari ship would be destroyed or at the minimum severely damaged if it tried to enter
hyperspace so near the Dyson Sphere.

-

In space,
weapons fire suddenly erupted from the Shari warships. Missile hatches slid open
on the Shari battlecruisers and escort cruisers. Blue energy beams flashed out
toward the Federation ships, striking their energy screens. Then twenty-megaton
sublight nuclear missiles were launched. Across the Federation fleet, bright
flashes of light swept across the formation as nuclear fire was released.

The battlecruiser
Kasen
was bracketed by a large number of nuclear missiles as well as
hundreds of energy beams. Her energy shield radiated higher and higher until
small holes began to appear. Several energy beams penetrated and the aft
section of the ship exploded, sending debris flying away from the vessel. The
Kasen
was firing every weapon at its disposal but couldn’t leave its position lest
the supply ships be targeted. Damage control teams rushed to the damaged area
only to find the hull had been compromised so badly that everyone inside the
aft section were already dead. Numerous compartments were open to the hard
vacuum of space. The ship was shuddering violently and the lights were
flickering. Alarms and klaxons were sounding warning of violent decompression
in multiple areas of the vessel.

Then a twenty-megaton
nuclear missile slammed into the damaged section, penetrating to the engine
compartment. In a massive blast, the
Kasen
vanished as nuclear fire
consumed the metal and crew of the ship.

-

“Battlecruiser
Kasen
is down,” reported Lieutenant Brier.

“Other ships
are reporting damage,” added the communications officer.

Admiral
Stoddard took a deep breath. On one of the viewscreens, he could see a number
of the ships of his fleet under heavy attack. Powerful nuclear explosions were
striking the energy screens as well as hundreds of Shari energy beams. In a one
on one matchup, he could destroy any ship of the attacking Shari fleet, but his
ships were outnumbered nearly ten to one.

“Battlecarriers
are launching their fighters and bombers.” On Brier’s sensor screens, hundreds
of small icons began to appear.

A brilliant
flash of light suddenly caused one of the viewscreens to dim. When it returned
to normal, a small glowing debris field was visible.

“Strikecruiser
Jaden
is down,” reported Lieutenant Brier in a strained voice.

“Battlecruiser
Ajax
is reporting a loss of power,” added the communications officer.
“Their engine compartment suffered a direct hit from a pair of Shari energy beams. Commander Siler is reporting the damage is too severe to repair.”

“Have them
move to the center of our formation,” ordered Stoddard, seeing his fleet die
around him. He felt powerless to prevent the carnage the Shari were inflicting.

On one of the viewscreens,
a battlecruiser was visible. A bright explosion suddenly struck the ship’s bow,
and when the light died away, a good three hundred meters of the ship was
missing. Shari energy beams began striking the ship, carving deep glowing holes
in the hull of the vessel. Admiral Stoddard didn’t have to ask to know this was
the
Ajax
. Two massive explosions suddenly shook the battlecruiser as
nuclear fire swept through the vessel. In moments, a glowing fireball was all
that remained of the battlecruiser.

“The
Ajax
is down,” reported Brier.

Admiral
Stoddard shook his head. He had known Commander Siler since their days together
at the Fleet Academy. He had a wife and teenaged daughter back at New Tellus.

-

High Lord
Aktill felt gratified as the Human ships died. Even as he watched one of the
viewscreens in his Command Center, he saw two of the Human supply ships vanish
from the tactical screen as they were blown apart. The ships had been struck by
several sublight nuclear missiles and a multitude of Shari energy beams. As the
screening warships were slowly being eliminated, it was allowing the Shari fleet to target the supply ships at the center of the steadily weakening formation.

“Spatial
vortexes forming,” warned the Shari officer at the sensor console. “It’s the
ships from the Dyson Sphere.”

Shifting his
gaze to another viewscreen, Aktill saw a swirling blue-white vortex form and
one of the enemy’s monster ships emerge. Within seconds of emerging, the ship’s
weapons fired and its missile tubes began launching.

Aktill
flinched as he saw several of his battlecruisers vanish under the powerful
attack of the massive vessel. The ships were obliterated in enormous releases
of uncontrolled energy.

“Those warheads
are fifty to one hundred megatons,” reported Lower Lord Samarth, his face
turning pale. “A hit from just several of those warheads will take our shields
down. Our sensors are indicating the larger explosions are from antimatter.”

Aktill
frowned. He had known the Humans and the Altons had antimatter warheads in some
of their missiles. The Shari were conducting research on antimatter, but the
scientists involved were still years from producing a viable warhead.

More vortexes
opened and eighteen more ships emerged. While these were not quite as large as
the first one, they were quite deadly as well. Aktill knew the battle had just
changed significantly. “All weapons, continuous fire; we must destroy as many
of those support vessels as possible!” He knew that his time was now severely
limited before he would be forced to withdraw.

-

“Deploy
defense globes,” Race ordered as he saw his other ships had arrived. “Launch
fighters and bombers.” He watched as the Command Center came alive with intense
activity as the crew prepared for battle.

“All batteries,
continue to fire. Target that lead Shari ship,” ordered Commander Arnett.

“Firing power
beams,” reported Major Johnathan Daniels as his fingers touched several icons
on a screen in front of him.

On one of the
viewscreens, the four violet colored beams of energy smashed into the energy
shield of a Shari battlecruiser.