The Slaver Wars: First Strike (The Slaver Wars Book Four) (13 page)

The Hocklyns
own energy beams were not idle. Blue beam after blue beam shot out to strike
the human ships. Missiles and heavy railgun fire raked the screens with fierce explosions.
Occasionally a nuke would go off causing a screen to waver, allowing missiles
or railgun rounds to penetrate.

“Light cruiser
Crucible is down,” Lieutenant Jarvis Anders reported from his sensor console.
“She took a number of heavy nukes to her shields, causing them to collapse.”

“Monarch
cruiser Minotaur is reporting heavy damage,” Colonel Beck added worriedly. “She
is engaging one of the war cruisers.”

Admiral Tolsen
noticed that the Hocklyns ships were now becoming intermixed with his own
fleet. Even the battle carriers would soon be involved. It might be wise in
future battles to keep the battle carriers farther back with their destroyer escorts.
That would give them enough time to land their bombers and rearm them for a
second strike.

-

War Leader
Sangeth felt growing anger as the War Cruiser Veldin vanished from the screens.
The ship had been heavily damaged and rammed a human light cruiser. Both ships
had vanished in a massive series of explosions. The Veldin’s self-destructs
going off had finished the job.

“Helm, turn us
80 degrees starboard, flank speed,” grated out Sangeth, seeing his path was
blocked by the human’s two battle carriers. He knew both were heavily armed.
“Get me a status report. All batteries,
continuous fire!”

More human
rounds and missiles were penetrating the shields, rattling the ship with each
hit. More lights on the damage control console turned a glaring red. The ship
seemed to roll as a human energy beam struck the Oblivion. Glancing at the
sensor screen, he saw that only the War Cruiser Delphin and two escort cruisers
were still with his flagship. Looking up at the viewscreen, he could see
several ships burning in the human formation. His turn had not been soon
enough. The two battle carriers were now pounding his remaining ships with
missile fire and their energy beams.

“We can jump
in two more minutes,” First Leader Rahn grated out in pain from being thrown to
the deck. His left arm now hung limply at his side. A jagged gash with blood
running from it ran across his forehead.

“All ships are
to jump as soon as we reach the threshold,” Sangeth ordered as another of his
escort cruisers blew up from being struck by the human’s new energy weapon.
Whatever it was, the beam was much more powerful than the energy beams on the
Oblivion. This was vital information that needed to get back to Hocklyn space.

“The Delphin
and the escort cruiser are too heavily damaged to jump,” Rahn reported.

Sangeth only
nodded. The two First Leaders on those ships knew their duty.

-

“Their flagship
is nearly out of the gravity well,” warned Colonel Beck. “We are focusing our
weapons fire on it and the war cruiser.”

“Sir, the war
cruiser and the remaining escort cruiser are turning toward the battle
carriers!” the sensor operator suddenly reported in consternation.

“They are what?”
demanded Colonel Beck, looking sharply at the holographic display. Sure enough,
the two indicated Hocklyn ships were changing course. “What are they doing?
That’s suicide! The carriers and the destroyers will destroy them!”

“Damn!” cried Tolsen
in frustration, realizing the Hocklyn’s intent. He quickly activated his
mini-com, giving him instant contact with the two battle carriers and their
destroyer escorts. He ordered the two battle carriers and the six destroyers to
focus their fire on the two Hocklyn warships and forget the enemy flagship.
“They’re going to ram!”

He passed on
more orders instructing all of his remaining ships to target the two Hocklyn
ships. His gaze switched to the main viewscreen, which showed the Hocklyn war
cruiser now glowing with intense weapons fire; its shields covered in massive
explosions. The ship literally seemed to be on fire. Its own weapons were now
firing only in self-defense.

“They’ve
switched nearly all of their power to their shields,” Colonel Beck spoke, his
eyes growing wide. “We’re not going to stop that war cruiser in time.”

On the
holographic image, the icon representing the Hocklyn escort cruiser suddenly
expanded and then vanished as it was destroyed by the intense fire from the
human fleet.

Admiral Tolsen
could only watch the main viewscreen helplessly as the Hocklyn War Cruiser
rammed the battle carrier Liberty. Moments later, the Hocklyn’s self-destructs
went off, destroying both ships in a series of massive nuclear explosions.

On the sensor
screen, the red icon representing the Hocklyn flagship vanished as it escaped
the gravity well and jumped safely into hyperspace. The battle was over.

Admiral Tolsen
leaned back in his command chair, still gazing at the viewscreen, which showed
the glowing wreckage of the battle carrier Liberty and the Hocklyn war cruiser.
The entire command crew was in shock at the unexpected loss of the carrier.
There had been 2,700 men and women on board that ship.

“Get me a fleet
status report,” Admiral Tolsen finally spoke into the silence, feeling an
emptiness inside of him. He had screwed up, and he knew it. “How badly did they
hurt us?”

Colonel Beck
nodded and turned toward communications. He spent some time talking to the
different ship commanders getting damage reports. He finally turned back to the
admiral. “We destroyed seven Hocklyn escort cruisers and their two war cruisers,
only their flagship managed to escape. In return, we lost the Battle Carrier
Liberty, the Monarch cruiser Minotaur, and three light cruisers. Most of our other
ships are damaged to some extent, but they can all jump if needed.”

“Take us in and
put us into orbit around Caden’s World,” ordered Tolsen, knowing his entire
fleet was going to need some yard time. They may have won the battle, but this
was one report he was not going to enjoy sending back to Fleet Command.

With the two
light cruisers and the four destroyers that were still in orbit around Caden’s
World, they would help to augment his fleet strength until reinforcements
arrived. In addition, most of the defensive satellites were still intact. He
didn’t know if more Hocklyn ships were around; the fact that sensors on Caden’s
World had indicated that the Hocklyn flagship had attempted to send out an FTL
message indicated there might be.

Federation reinforcements
should be arriving shortly. Once they were in the system, he would take his
damaged fleet back to New Tellus for repairs and to report in. He knew there
would be a lot of discussions about this battle and how it had been fought. He
just hoped he was still an admiral when the debriefing was over. In his own
mind, he wasn’t sure he should be. The Hocklyn flagship had escaped to spread
work back to the Hocklyn Empire that humans had survived.

-

Commander
Bisth gazed in anger at the dreadnought Oblivion. He found it hard to believe
that War Leader Sangeth had managed to escape this obvious human trap with only
his flagship. Repair crews were currently working to repair the Oblivion so
they could make the trip back to Resmunt’s base. Every square inch of the ship’s
hull looked to be damaged. Massive burn marks, jagged holes, and destroyed
weapon systems were hideously evident. Sangeth had been lucky to even escape.
Bisth knew that the inside of the Oblivion was also heavily damaged.

His own fleet
and Sangeth’s flagship were in orbit around a small nebula where he didn’t
think the human ships would search for them. He had tried to stay away from
star systems, knowing they might contain pickets watching for Hocklyn ships. He
had been shocked, to say the least, when the escort cruiser had returned to
inform him as to who their enemies were. More worrisome were the strength of
their weapons. Even with the new energy shielding, Sangeth’s fleet had been
ravaged.

They would
return and make their report to Commodore Resmunt, who in return would pass it
on to the Hocklyn High Council. From there it would obviously go to the AIs.
There was no way as of yet to know the size of human controlled space, but the
fact they had placed a fleet of this strength in a system that contained only a
mining colony did not bode well for the empire.

Bisth stood
upon the command pedestal in the War Room of the dreadnought WarCry, deep in
thought. He suspected that much honor was in store for the Hocklyn race in the
coming years. The humans had escaped centuries ago from destruction. Now they
were back, and Bisth strongly suspected they were ready for war!

Admiral Tolsen
was at New Tellus for a debriefing with Fleet Admirals Streth and Johnson. As
he walked down the wide, immaculate corridors of New Tellus Station under a
marine escort, he wondered briefly if he was going to be court martialed. He’d
lost more ships than he should have against the Hocklyns. He still felt a
numbing pain at the loss of so many good men and women. There had been several
tactical errors he’d made, the worst of which had resulted in the loss of the
battle carrier Liberty. Not only that, the enemy flagship had escaped! As
commanding officer, it had been his responsibility to defeat the Hocklyns with minimal
casualties and in that he had failed.

His marine
escort stopped in front of a heavily armored hatch where two more armed marines
were standing guard.

“You are
expected, Admiral,” one of the marines spoke as he stepped over and opened the
hatch.

Tolsen nodded curtly
and stepped inside. He felt some relief when his marine escort didn’t follow.

Admiral Streth
gazed thoughtfully at the young admiral who had just entered the room. He knew
that Rear Admiral Tolsen was only thirty-eight-years-old and from Ceres. He was
not married, and both of his parents were still alive. The rear admiral also
had a sister that was in the Fleet and was currently serving as the executive
officer on the battle carrier Scorpion.

“Have a seat,”
spoke Admiral Johnson, indicating a chair across from them.

Tolsen took
his place at the highly polished conference table and waited expectantly.
Whatever punishment he was about to receive he was willing to accept.

“You are not
here to be disciplined,” Admiral Karla Johnson began, her hazel eyes gazing
thoughtfully at Tolsen. “Your fleet is the first one to actively engage the Hocklyns
in over four hundred years and, all things considered, we feel you did surprising
well in the battle.”

“But the enemy
flagship escaped,” pointed out Tolsen, knowing this could spell trouble for the
Federation. “They will shortly return in even greater numbers.”

“And we will
be ready for them,” Admiral Streth assured him, his eyes looking deadly serious.
“What you are not aware of Admiral Tolsen is that we believe the Hocklyns had a
second fleet also deployed close to Gliese 667C. From the readings we detected
from our hyper sensor buoys, a Hocklyn escort cruiser jumped out of Gliese 667C
as soon as they detected the mining colony and the ships around it. There was
no way you could have prevented them from taking word back to their base about
their discovery.”

“This was
obviously a survey in force to find out what happened to their two escort cruisers
destroyed by Commander Thomas,” Admiral Johnson continued. She leaned back and
gazed thoughtfully at Rear Admiral Tolsen. “We are in the process of studying
and analyzing your engagement with the Hocklyn fleet. Once we are finished, we
will be sending out engagement recommendations to all of our fleet and ship
commanders.”

“How soon do
you think it will be before they return?” Tolsen asked. He knew with a sinking
feeling in his heart that the Federation was just a few months away from all
out war with the Hocklyn Slave Empire.

Admiral Johnson
looked over at Admiral Streth. He had fought the Hocklyns in the old Federation
and knew more about them and their tactics than anyone else. It was the reason
he had gone into cryosleep so that experience could be brought to the future.

“Less than two
months,” he replied with a frown spreading across his face. “They have six
fleet bases within seven hundred light years of us that we have found so far.
If I had to make a guess, they will assemble all of their available forces at
those bases and throw them at us to see what they are up against. They have
this crazy honor system where their warriors raise up in stature and authority
based on the amount of honor they can accrue. From what our intelligence has
gathered, they receive honor from discovering inhabited worlds to be added to
their empire, but their greatest honor is achieved in combat.”

“A warrior
system based on honor,” said Tolsen, shaking his head sadly. “It’s a shame that
so many good and valiant people have to die to appease this honor of theirs.”

“It’s what they
have used to grow their empire,” explained Hedon. He didn’t like it, but this
method seemed to work well for the Hocklyns.

“They will
attack us immediately while they call in other forces from across their empire
to reinforce their bases,” continued Admiral Johnson, pursing her lips as she
thought about what could be done. “The good thing is we have detected no
presence of any AI ships in our recent survey of their space.”

“But the AIs
will come eventually,” Admiral Tolsen responded with a hint of worry on his
face. “Then what? Can we destroy one of their ships without suffering
catastrophic losses ourselves?”

“We are
already working on tactics for that, Admiral,” Hedon replied. It was a question
he had pondered on himself. If they couldn’t destroy an AI ship, then they
wouldn’t be able to win the war. He recalled briefly the traumatic videos he
had watched of the two AIs ships that had attacked his home planets. They had
nearly wiped out the entire Human Federation of World’s fleet in just a few
brief hours. “When they come this time, we will be ready for them.”