The Slaver Wars: First Strike (The Slaver Wars Book Four) (24 page)

He felt utter
shock when numerous red threat icons began appearing on the sensor screen
behind his fleet. More human ships! Now he knew why the humans had waited to
use this final weapon. From the scattered communications he had been able to
receive from his other warships, all of their FTL drives were down from the EMP
blasts. His fleet could not escape. With a heavy sigh, he knew it was over.
Reaching down on the command console, he pressed two bright red buttons embedded
in the panel. He would find honor in death. Moments later, the WarCry exploded
as its self-destructs went off.

-

Admiral Adler
looked grimly at the tactical display in the Command Center of the battle
carrier Wasp. Admiral Strong’s daring attack with Devastator Three missiles had
stunned the Hocklyns. All four of their heavy dreadnoughts were either
destroyed or out of action. Even as he watched, the last went up as its nuclear
self-destruct charges detonated.

“Status,” he
barked as he looked over at his executive officer.

“All four of
their dreadnoughts are gone, and Admiral Strong is pressing the attack,”
Commander Timmins responded. “The war cruisers seem to be recovering from the
loss of their dreadnoughts and are renewing their assault on Admiral Strong’s
forces.”

“Launch our
bomber strike,” Adler ordered with a fierce grin.

He wanted to
take the pressure off Strong’s ships, and right now he had the Hocklyns at a
disadvantage. Following Strong’s example, he had jumped in just behind the Hocklyn
fleet. He planned on a long-range attack campaign using his Anlon bombers, but
the bombers on his ten carriers were different. They had a weak forward shield
and his carriers had many more of them than a normal battle carrier.

In the flight
bay of the Wasp, Colonel Karl Arcles was the fleet’s acting flight leader. He
had gone into cryosleep along with his copilot Captain Lacy Sanders over four
hundred years ago.

“Let’s go get
them,” he spoke over his com to all of his squadrons. “Form up on me and let’s
kick some Hocklyn ass.”

Arcles expertly
guided his Anlon bomber out of the flight bay and quickly set course for the Hocklyn
fleet. From his cockpit window, he could see numerous explosions occurring
around both of the two battling fleets. His other squadrons quickly formed up
around him. Each carrier group had an acting wing commander and Arcles would
facilitate the attack through them.

“Target their remaining
war cruisers first, then the escorts,” he ordered in a calm and steady voice.
“That’s where their advantage is right now. If we can take them out, then
Admiral Strong can handle the rest.”

The other nine
wing leaders confirmed his instructions as they zeroed in on their intended targets.

“Activate forward
shields,” he instructed Captain Sanders.

“Just like old
times,” quipped Lacy, trying not to sound nervous about going back into combat after
so long. “I just hope these shields work.”

“Just like
back home,” replied Arcles, recalling the last battle in the home system back
in the old Federation. “Only this time, we’re going to win!”

Arcles’s
squadron was slightly in the lead. Behind him, another 1,260 Anlon bombers were
lined up each equipped with four Shrike missiles armed with a tactical nuclear
warhead. It would be the most devastating bomber strike ever launched by a
human fleet.

-

Aboard the war
cruisers, the First Leaders looked in anger and fear at what was coming toward
them. War Leader Bisth was dead and the command structure was in tatters; each First
Leader was on his own. Some chose to continue the attack against the human
ships; however, several others turned to face the incoming attack bombers of
the humans.

-

Admiral Streth
had jumped in as close to the gravity well of Caden’s World as he dared. Even so,
it would take nearly thirty minutes for his fleet to reach the planet.

“Admiral
Sheen, I want half of the fleet to micro-jump to the other side of the planet’s
gravity well. Our drive cores are still cool enough to handle a short
micro-jump. I don’t want any of these Hocklyn ships to escape.”

“Yes,
Admiral,” Sheen responded as she quickly passed on the orders to the necessary
ships.

As soon as the
ships had micro-jumped, Hedon ordered the remaining part of the fleet to head
in toward Caden’s World. It was time to extract some revenge for what the
Hocklyns had done to his home worlds.

-

“Looks as if
the cavalry’s arrived,” General Abercrombie commented with obvious relief in
his voice as he watched the arrival of Second and Third Fleet. “The space
battle will be over shortly, that will just leave the Hocklyn Protectors down
here.”

Lucy nodded.
Looking at the viewscreens, she could see that heavy fighting was already
erupting in the settlement above them. The Hocklyns had brought all of their
shuttles down around the settlement with the operations center.

“If you notice,
the Hocklyns have been careful not to target any weapons batteries close to the
operations center,” General Abercrombie pointed out as he studied the
developing situation up above. “I believe they want to capture it intact.”

“They want information,”
Lucy replied with a knowing nod. But the information was gone, destroyed by
self-destruct charges set by the human marines. “They want to know where Earth
is.”

“Well, they
won’t find out from us,” Abercrombie responded as he listened to his embattled marines
over his mini-com.

Looking up at
a screen, Lucy saw a squad of Protectors coming cautiously down a street. This
was her first look at a live Hocklyn. The Protectors were nearly two meters
tall, dark green in color and wore black body armor. Their arms were very
muscular, and they were carrying some type of heavy assault rifle. A lighter
color crest extended from their forehead to the back of their head. There was
no body hair and their eyes were extremely large and set wider on the head than
human eyes. Lucy shuddered involuntarily; she was glad she was down here in the
Command Center and not up there facing those fearsome looking Hocklyn Protectors.
She just hoped that Lieutenant Simmins was ready for what was coming toward
him.

-

Lieutenant
Simmins laid down the view scope he had been using to watch the advancing
Hocklyn Protectors. Already, heavy weapons fire and occasional explosions could
be heard throughout the settlement. The Hocklyns were advancing along three
routes, and all were aimed at the operations center. More marines had already
been pulled back from the outlying areas and were taking up defensive positions
around it. Simmins knew the battle was only going to get more intense.

-

War Leader
Sangeth was venting his growing rage at the deadly information being displayed
on the main sensor screen. More human ships had jumped into the system. He knew
now that they had fallen into a well planned trap. No Hocklyn ship would escape
from this system to spread word of this human danger back to the empire. No
matter which way he went with his fleet, he would face a numerically superior
enemy who would trap him in the planet’s gravity well. There was no doubt that
this was what the humans had intended all along.

Sangeth looked
over at First Leader Rahn, his dark eyes wide. “Honor will be ours today.”

“Honor will be
ours,” agreed Rahn, knowing the only honorable decision to be made and hoping
War Leader Sangeth would make it. “The enemy comes toward us, War Leader. What
are your orders?”

Sangeth was no
coward. He had fled from the enemy in this system once before, but not again. His
cold eyes gazed unafraid at the approaching human ships. “Break orbit and
proceed toward the nearer human fleet. The two Protector ships are to stay here
and, if they recover the necessary information, try to escape.”

Rahn nodded
his head in respectful agreement, his cold, dark eyes gazing at War Leader
Sangeth. He suspected this battle would be very short.

-

Colonel Arcles
flinched as a railgun round impacted the forward screen of his bomber, covering
it in light. Captain Sanders was continuously firing off countermeasures as
Arcles weaved their craft through the intense defensive fire toward the war cruiser
he had chosen as his group’s target. A green light finally blinked on, indicating
that the targeting computer had a positive lock on the Hocklyn ship.

“Missiles
fired,” he stated over the com. Moments later he heard other confirmations from
other squadron leaders.

Arcles pulled
the Anlon bomber up in a sharp turn, accelerating it to top speed to get away
from the defensive weapons fire. Looking down at his sensor screen, it seemed
to be full of missiles targeting the Hocklyn’s eight remaining war cruisers.
They had lost a few bombers going in, but not nearly as many as had been feared.
The forward shields actually seemed to work!

-

“Get us out of
here,” Jeremy ordered Ariel when he saw the massed missile attack from the
Anlon bombers. He had never seen so many missiles fired at once.

The Avenger
and Nemesis instantly turned and accelerated away. Ariel had managed to take
out two war cruisers while receiving only minor damage in return.

Jeremy and
Malen watched the viewscreens as roaring atomic fire played across the Hocklyn’s
screens as the Shrike missiles struck. Their screens seemed to be covered in fiery
nuclear energy.

“My God!”
Malen spoke, aghast at the sheer destruction the Anlon bombers had released.

“If these are
the new bomber tactics, I think I am going to like them,” Jeremy responded as
reports began coming in of Hocklyn energy shield failure.

Each time a
shield failed, multiple Shrike missiles would strike the ship’s unprotected
hull. Hocklyn ship after Hocklyn ship died. Finally, the screens began to clear
as the bombers finished their attack run and headed back to Third Fleet.

“What’s left?”
Jeremy demanded still seeing a few red threat icons on the main sensor screen.

“Not much,”
Kevin replied as he studied his sensors. “There are six Hocklyn escort cruisers
still intact, but they are heavily damaged.”

“Let’s move in
and finish them off,” ordered Jeremy, knowing this part of the battle was
almost over. He quickly activated his fleet com. “All ships, move in and finish
off the remaining six Hocklyn escort cruisers and be wary of suicide runs.”

A few minutes later
it was done, and the Hocklyn fleet was destroyed.

-

War Leader
Sangeth watched in dismay as another of his war cruisers exploded as its self-destructs
went off. The humans had hit him with a large bomber attack from their three
battle carriers and then moved in and blasted his fleet with their new beam
weapon. He had managed to destroy several of their lighter units, but their superior
shields and weapons were having a telling effect.

Sangeth looked
wearily over at First Leader Rahn, knowing the battle was lost. “All ships are
to accelerate and ram the enemy. Honor will be ours.”

“Honor will be
ours,” Rahn replied as he passed on the order.

Instantly, the
Crimson Oblivion and the other surviving Hocklyn ships accelerated toward
Second Fleet. The weapons fire intensified, and most of the Hocklyn ships were
destroyed short of their intended targets, but the Crimson Oblivion and the
other Hocklyn dreadnought reached their targets. A Monarch cruiser and a battle
cruiser died in a massive series of explosions as the nuclear self-destructs in
all four ships went off.

-

Amanda felt
stunned at the sudden turn of events. There had been only two battle cruisers
in her section of Second Fleet, and one had been destroyed. She knew it could
have just as easily have been the WarStorm. What would it have meant to the
Federation if Fleet Admiral Streth had died in this battle? She didn’t even
want to think about the ramifications.

“Take us in to
Caden’s World,” Hedon ordered as he looked at the swirling display of energy
and gases that remained of the battle cruiser Olympia. He knew only the fact
that the Olympia had been closer to the enemy dreadnought had saved the
WarStorm.

-

Lieutenant
Simmins was firing round after round from his heavy assault rifle into the
advancing Hocklyns. Their combat armor was damn tough, but an armor piercing
bullet could still penetrate it. The surviving marines had pulled back to an area
just around the operations center and had already thrown back several heavy Hocklyn
attacks.

“They’re
getting closer each time,” spoke Corporal Blevens, breathing heavily as the
fighting died down for a moment. “We might not be able to stop them next time.”

Simmins looked
over at the young corporal as he slid a new magazine into his rifle. Blevens
looked to be in his early twenties. “The Fleet will be here soon, son, and then
this will be over.”

“Here they
come!” Simmins heard over his mini-com. Looking up over the pile of sandbags
they were behind, Simmins saw the Hocklyns charging forward. “It’s time,
Corporal.” Simmins spoke as he raised his rifle and began firing in short
controlled bursts.

With satisfaction,
he saw a Hocklyn go down. But this attack was different; the Hocklyns acted as
if they were desperate. The Fleet’s won, Simmins thought as the Hocklyns began
to overrun the marine’s positions. He heard a loud scream from his side and,
turning his head, saw Corporal Blevens fall. The young man was dead, shot
through the head!

Simmins turned
his attention back to the Hocklyn Protectors just as one leaped over the sandbags
pointing his rifle. Lieutenant Simmins fired first and the Hocklyn dropped,
then Simmins felt a sharp pain in his back. Looking down, he saw blood coming
from his chest. Damn! He thought as he fell. Falling to the ground Simmins
rolled over, looking up into the sky. Human assault shuttles were coming down. He
felt a wave of dizziness pass over him, and he realized he was dying. As he
closed his eyes, he heard the heavy roar from an assault shuttle’s engines as
it landed near him. He knew the battle was won as darkness overcame him, and
everything became peacefully quiet.