Warlord's Invasion (Starfight Book 1) Read online

  Furthermore, not only did he need these skilled servants, he needed them to be willingly loyal to him. Annihilating their core worlds and their capital worlds would make them difficult to subjugate – especially considering how much he knew about the humans and their psychology. “There are several problems to this method,” Gor stated. “One, decimating a conquest’s population – particularly this species — will make their surrender difficult — it would make it harder for this species to become willingly servile to us in the long run. Two, if we destroy their core worlds where vast numbers of their population are, we will be destroying parts of our prize. We need those worlds alive to create warships and weapons and we need those sophonts alive, so that these future warships and weapons will be loyally crewed. Without those core worlds, we will have a vast territory with a depleted center and a species that resents us on a scale far more than if we simply conquered them.”

  Hal-Dorat gazed at his superior in earnest. Hal-Dorat’s ears straightened, and it seemed like he was fighting something inside of himself. Then, he must have found the courage. “I understand your eminence. But what if they surrender if we simply threaten their core worlds with annihilation?”

  “They may,” Gor-Eben replied. “From my understanding of their psychology and from what you have told me, they are a reasonable species. But I already have a plan in motion to achieve that effect. Meanwhile Subjugator, as long as we are on this subject, proceed with the original plan for now. Conquer the neighboring stars with haste now that their fleet has been destroyed. I am glad to have heard what new plans you have thought up.”

  “Yes, I will, your eminence.” Hal-Dorat bowed.

  Finally, Gor-Eben sighed. “I will deliver your concern and your proposal to the Alpha Chiefs. It is not outrageous. These are extreme times we are exposed to, after all. We may in the future be forced to adopt your plan. Meanwhile, transfer to me all data you know about these fighters and missiles. Now, what are your other concerns?”

  Hal-Dorat stood there in the center of his bridge, looking puzzled, although he didn’t voice why he was puzzled. Instead, the fleet commander simply said, “There are several other things we must deal with, your eminence, but they are minor…”

  Remnants of the Betelgeuse Combined Fleet

  Temporary Flagship, Destroyer Demosthenes

  Temporary Admiral’s Flag Center, Deck 4…

  Sleep had come, not in the trickle of a raindrop, but as a waterfall. It came and rinsed Vier’s exhausted body until all that was left was once again, a refreshed but slightly worn woman in her mid-thirties.

  She stood there, in the middle of her new fleet command center, mesmerized by the degree to which her command had fallen to. The little cargo bay had been reshaped using whatever odd instruments and manual interfaces the crew of the ship could find and finally, after hours it became a true flag bridge filled with control interfaces and holographic projections.

  It would do, although it could have been a lot better. She would have preferred her old command center on board the deceased dreadnought’s bridge any day.

  She eyed her fleet, or what was left of it, as it zoomed back to the sector’s capital, Betelgeuse, so it could offload all the redundant crews. Her fleet would also be going to Betelgeuse so that it could be resupplied with fuel, missiles, and other armaments.

  The battle had been fought, and it had been decided.

  Now, she had to work with the leftovers.

  Vier sighed. At least now, she had a clear head after a good night’s sleep. With so little to actually do or prepare for, she thought about her situation, and the situation of the entire war.

  Facts: 90 percent of the combined fleet’s tonnage was lost. Eight hundred dead dreadnoughts. Fourteen hundred battlecruisers and heavy cruisers. Three hundred light cruisers. Four hundred destroyers. All gone. In terms of personnel, she tried to convince herself that it wasn’t so bad, that it could have been a lot worse. Instead of losing 10 million spacemen, she could have lost 14 out of the original 16… had she not thought to transport her crews from her big ships to her little ships. But, damn it! It was still 10 million naval crewmen gone within a day – a near instant within the scopes and timeline of the war.

  It was a rout. It had to be called a rout – one in which Vier partook on the losing side.

  Yet, what could she have done differently?

  There was no way she could have changed the end-result any differently, any better, even if she had known initially that there were eight times as many enemy ships – except in the case where she was able to prevent her fleet – Mu Pei’s fleet – from gathering for the attack in the beginning. Once they had gathered and once they came in contact with the enemy fleet, that end-result was assured.

  In fact, she had been lucky. Lucky…that the events happened in such a way that resulted in her being able to save 4 million men. If her MABs hadn’t worked, if she hadn’t begun winning, if the enemy hadn’t sent everything to attack her MABs and lose the overall battle even more, if the enemy hadn’t decided to run away to recombine with their reinforcements…thereby giving her enough time to transport her men to her faster ships…none of this would have happened.

  In the end, she had saved 4 million lives, and with that, she ought to feel proud. In the war that was to come, these four million men and their expertise and experience could impact the war’s outcome greatly. Of course, their ships would have to be recreated from scratch…

  Now that she was thinking about it…What types of weapons and war vessels ought she tell the admiralty to make now that she had experienced this battle?

  There were two priorities that came to mind. Missiles and fighters. A third one, too. Multi-shielded light attack ships. Anything slow would be a burden to the fleet, so fast ships that can zoom at speeds of 25,000 SL or more was a must. Preferably with as many h-deflectors as possible to counter the Cats’ h-waves. As for countering their wormhole weapons, there was no defense against that except speed, and that’s where the fighters came in. If humanity could create some type of fighter with an h-deflector, that would be even greater, but chances are it would be impossible to fit an h-deflector big enough for the whole fighter and put in a h-beam port as well. As for missiles, as many as missiles as the star nation could produce…

  What was the war’s outlook after this battle? How had the battle changed the odds of winning against the Cats?

  The loss of 10 million men and 30 billion tons of warship no doubt became a serious detriment to humanity’s chances. Now, the sector’s human fleet presence had been seriously exhausted. Without such a presence, the Cats could be more liberal and aggressive in attacking and conquering star systems. But the thing was…they could have already done that in the first place, because their hyperlight weapon tech was that advanced. No, Vier concluded, even if their hyper-tech was that advanced, the threat of a concentrated assault by human warships in hyperlight prior to the battle would have been enough to bring caution to their conquest of the sector – by forcing them to concentrate their forces more to meet such a threat. Because even with a feline hyper-tech advantage, a counterattack by human warships in overwhelming numbers was still a threat. But now that the sector fleet was gone, that threat was gone as well. Thus, the felines no longer had to make their forces as dense. They would be free to attack any nearby planets liberally without fear of serious counterattack in the short term before more human ships arrived from the nearby sectors.

  As for the war’s outlook on the human nation in general, not just how it looked for the sector—well, the sector was history, Vier knew. There was no doubt about it. Betelgeuse would fall. It was just a matter of time. But as for all the nearby sectors, what would determine their fate would be how humanity could pump out new weapons – missiles, hyperlight fighters, extremely defended warships with bigger stabilization shields.

  What did she learn? What did humanity learn about the aliens and themselves?

  She learned that slow ships of the li
ne were useless against an enemy that could fight at a forty to one weight disadvantage. She learned that in terms of average kill to loss ratio by weight, her best bet if she was in charge of humanity’s production was to recommend that the star nation concentrate on fighters. Missiles had lower kill to loss ratio but they weren’t bad either, certainly not on the level of human warships’ kill to loss ratio by weight.

  The most satisfying thing was that she learned that her instincts had not deteriorated after even a decade of peace…

  But the most dangerous thing she learned was that the enemy was devious, willing to set traps, and willing to sacrifice small assets for greater gains – not only were they methodical, but they were creative as well. This unsettled Vier greatly, but it also drew up a hidden passion. Now that she thought about it, she liked the idea of fighting someone – something — with talent and gamble. As much as she hated the thought of losing, and she hated the Cats and their overwhelmingly advantaged weapons, she loved the thought of combat against a serious opponent, which gave her even more of a thrill.

  And the truth was… Vier dug deep into herself… she had enjoyed it, now that she wasn’t crying about the loss of so many good humans. She had enjoyed those minutes where she took command of the fleet.

  What a rush! Vier thought, gazing at the holos in the cargo bay.

  It had been nerve racking, adrenaline pumping… and, the best thing she could remotely think similar to it was… sex! It had been like sex!

  Although exhausting and putting a toll on her body, and even though now she was feeling the effects of that toll, she wouldn’t swap that entire experience for anything else. Again, she was aware that for other members of her race, it was a serious matter of life and death, and by no means was that fact not applicable for her, but that very fact made the experience all the more worthwhile.

  No wonder her contemporaries called her aggressive…she purposely desired getting into dangerous situations as long as it made sense. The very idea of it excited her. Despite her current physical condition, she found herself smiling.

  She was happy.

  CHAPTER TEN

  A day later.

  January 26th 3987 AD

  Light Cruiser Belerophon

  Command Bridge…

  He knew he was going to die when he saw them.

  Sixty feline ships speeding at max SL against one human straggler with a warp suspender malfunction.

  We’re dead…Tomly Bouchard, Captain R.S thought as he gazed at the holomap inside the command bridge of the human light attack cruiser Belerophon. They must be scouting parties, looking for crippled ships just like us.

  During the battle of Rigel, a feline magic burst – that’s what he called them…those mysterious wormhole weapons – had ruptured the primary plasma conduit on deck 5. The ensuing explosion had destroyed the entire deck. For the past three days, his team had tried to seal that plasma circuit even as it burnt its way into the hyperspace suspenders. Eventually, they had diverted power to the plasma flow, but not before it had destroyed a part of the machine that the created warp bubble around the ship. As a result, his ship could only move at 8,000 SL.

  8,000 SL. Against a flotilla of enemy ships moving at 24,000 SL.

  Yes, he and his crew were as good as dead.

  …Which was a sad thing, because he wanted to fight and kill more Cats before he left this universe.

  Tomly sighed. Somehow, somewhere, some all-powerful deity had decided to disappoint him.

  For a few seconds — it only took him that long to make peace with himself and everyone he had ever wanted to come to terms with – he sat like stone in his captain’s chair. Then, he barked, “Open the hyper-beam ports, Sarah! Let’s show the scoundrels what we got!”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Eight minutes later… the leading feline H-Ks entered hypermissile range but… they didn’t fire any missiles.

  This made sense to Captain Bouchard, because it meant that these ships came from the enemy’s main fleet that he had fought during the battle. The bad news was, he didn’t have any missiles either.

  Five minutes after that… the H-Ks entered h-beam range.

  Bouchard ordered, “Fire!” Then his h-beams slashed at the enemy ships, doing no damage as expected, because he had only one ship, and the enemy had enough h-deflectors to block any single direction. As Tomly waited and waited, and as his ship entered the enemy’s own h-wave envelope, still nothing happened.

  What? Are they afraid? Captain Bouchard wondered why they didn’t all fire for the kill.

  As the seconds passed, and as the enemy ships surrounded his isolated vessel – now, Tomly became ever more curious as to what they intended to do with him.

  He noticed around him, everywhere on the bridge, crewmen were puzzled as to why they were still alive. The Cats had never shown mercy, at least not needless mercy before.

  Then, the communication ensign shouted, “Sir! I don’t believe this. The Cats are hailing us on normal t-bands! And… they’re communicating in Standard Galactic English!”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Two days later…

  January 28th 3987 AD

  Remnants of the Betelgeuse Combined Fleet

  Temporary Flagship, Destroyer Demosthenes

  Temporary Admiral’s Flag Center, Deck 4…

  Vier saw the female Cat in her workspace’s holodisplay. She looked—well—feminine. She reminded Vier of a lioness — proud, yet at the same time, a little camera shy and nervous.

  That was Vier’s first impressions.

  “…You will cease all hostilities against the Forces of the Home Sun. You will lower your arms and surrender all wartime assets to the armies of the Great Ka to submit to our judgment. Those are the words I must convey.” The Cat stared back at Vier in what appeared to be a sudden almost human-like attempt at honesty and sincerity. “Here are the words I wish to convey. I have served the Great Ka for many years. In particular, I have served this specific Warlord for as long as I have lived in my adulthood. Our Great Commander – His Eminence Gor of the Mighty Eben Clan – is a capable administrator and a merciful ruler. He is courageous and talented and if you bow to him, you will be allying your future in his protection. There are many, many species in this galaxy who would wish you harm, yet the Great Commander has the capability to defeat them all. I have spent many weeks analyzing your species, and we both know yours is reasonable and virtuous — how can you not see the reason in opening your hearts to such a magnanimous ruler?”

  Vier listened with interest.

  “You have seen how difficult it is to deny the Great Commander what he wants, and what he wants is this…your allegiance to him and him alone. You will be protected by the greatest armadas of warships in the galaxy, guarded by the strongest troops in his arsenal. You will be given technology beyond your dreams – medicine, engineering and construction, weapons and defenses, sociological and psychological wisdom, power to manipulate matter beyond your current wildest expectations — and the total sum of knowledge by our vast and generous race. All he requests is your obedience. The opposite is dreadful. Your race will fight a war it cannot win, one in which your industries and economies will be depleted in a futile exercise to rebel against the inevitable. You will suffer casualties on a scale hardly anyone in your society has so far imagined. And it will all be for nothing except your race’s stubborn pride. It is far wiser and easier…”

  Vier stood motionless as the female Cat paused to allow her words to sink in.

  “…Here are the exact terms and stipulations required of your surrender: One, your society will undergo a reeducation process, one in which you will be taught the ways of the Ka. Two, our regulator Ka will oversee the actions of all your government and military leaders. Three, your nation will undergo a process of governmental and societal modification in which those with necessary skills will be awarded positions in the new meritocracy. Four, no human will be allowed to bear arms except those processed by the regulato
r Ka. Five, educator Ka will be appointed to selected humans for their specialized training. Six…”

  Vier listened on and on about the surrender demands. She understood the gist of what the aliens wanted. They wanted to become humanity’s masters. They wanted humans to serve as their workforce. It was despicable! She felt the instinct of clenching her fist, but she cooled it knowing people around her would see.

  It didn’t take humanity 5000 years to develop technology to exit Mother Earth, then another 2000 years to expand to 20,000 star systems, all so everyone could become another race’s labor force. It was ridiculous, the concept that humanity was subordinate to another master race – it violated basic free will and dignity.

  Yet, the pragmatist in her told her that there was some truth in what the female feline said – humanity really did not stand a chance against a force so large and qualitatively powerful. The odds didn’t look good at all.

  But damn it! – This time Vier really did clench her fist — The Federation couldn’t just wave the white flag when 90 percent of the race’s starships and manpower had not yet entered the battlefield!

  There still had to be some way to defeat that monster.

  And as far as she knew, she was willing to gamble on just such a way. It wasn’t time to surrender yet. There was hope, even if she couldn’t see it…

  Human Federation Logo – Circle and Wings of Protection

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Seven days later…

  February 4thth 3987 AD

  Betelgeuse System

  Betelgeuse V, Northern Continent

  Sector Military Command Headquarters

  Chief Commander’s Office, Suite 1, floor 2408…