The Forgotten Empire: War for the Empire Raymond Weil (the reading list TXT) 📖

the fleet over to Rear Admiral Fulmar, while he went down and spent a few days with Cheryl, before she headed back to Golan Four. He knew full well it might be the last time he saw her, until after the Confederation attack.

-

Morag Fleet Admiral Torrant was above the Barsoon’s homeworld. The planet was even protected by a primitive defensive grid, and the Barsoons had managed to arm a number of their civilian ships. This was the last major world still in open revolt in this sector of space. Once crushed, it would be time to turn their attention to the Humans.

Defensive grid is firing, warned the sensor officer. Weapons are weak and ineffective; mostly high intensity lasers.

Torrant looked at the main viewscreen. He saw a few weak energy beams striking his ships’ energy screens. They didn’t even make the screens light up.

Missile launch from the surface, warned the sensor officer. Twenty-seven missiles inbound.

Intercept them, ordered Torrant, leaning forward in his command chair and hearing it creak under his massive weight. Being launched from the surface, they would be easier targets to destroy.

Targeting, replied the tactical officer. All battleships are targeting the inbound missiles with their fusion energy beams.

On the tactical display, the twenty-seven missiles were displayed as small red icons rising from the planet. One by one they blinked out of existence, as they were annihilated, until none remained.

Take out their feeble defense grid, ordered Torrant.

Instantly fusion energy beams leaped from the orbiting warships, striking the defense grid. Bright explosions signified the successful destruction of the energy beam satellites. For the next several hours debris would fall on the planet, creating a bright display in the night sky.

We have twenty cargo ships approaching, added the sensor officer. All are lightly to moderately armed. They also have no energy shields.

Torrant shook his head. These primitive races would never learn. Use antimatter missiles and destroy them.

Missiles streaked from the fleet, and, in brilliant nova-like explosions, all twenty cargo ships vanished, being turned into molten wreckage.

Torrant nodded in satisfaction. Destroy their ten largest cities.

-

The Barsoons lived in massive city hives. They had descended from a species of bees and had developed into a species of medium intelligence. Many of their cities contained tens of millions of inhabitants. At the heart of each city lived the queen and her court. All were quite intelligent and directed the activities of the other Barsoons living in the city hive.

Inside the largest of the city hives, the Queen watched on a viewscreen, as the Morag fleet destroyed the planet’s weak defensive grid and fleet. “They are here,” she said in a high-pitched voice. “Evacuate all essential personnel to the lower levels of all city hives. Our workers can easily be replaced.” Unknown to the Morag, far beneath all the cities of the Barsoons were deep underground caverns, where the egg hatcheries were hidden and where the future generations of the Barsoon waited to be hatched. Also where the Queen, her Royal Court, and other essential workers would go to ride out the attack.

-

From ten battleships, numerous missiles belched forth to fall toward the planet. Above the capital city, a bright flash and a sudden overwhelming heat signified the detonation of a fusion weapon. Buildings melted, and others were smashed flat from the blast wave. Two other missiles detonated as well, and soon a massive firestorm erupted in the heart of the city. Millions of worker Barsoons died in a matter of just seconds.

Other cities met the same fate. Those Barsoon workers still there all died horrendous deaths, and, in a matter of a few minutes, nearly three hundred million were dead.

Demand their immediate surrender, ordered Torrant.

A few minutes passed, and the communications officer turned toward the admiral. There has been no response.

Torrant frowned. This had never happened before. Destroy the next twenty largest cities. We’ll see if they stay quiet after that.

-

Across the planet, more fusion explosions occurred above heavily populated cities. Nearly a billion more Barsoons died. The atmosphere was already turning dark from all the ash and pollutants hurled high into the air.

-

Once more, demands were sent to the planet to surrender. Again no reply.

Fleet Admiral Torrant took a deep breath. This was unexpected. He knew of only one thing he could do. No planet could be allowed to resist the Morag. Destroy all their cities, and then I want a general bombardment of the surface. We will destroy this world.

-

From the orbiting Morag warships, hundreds and then thousands of fusion missiles rained down upon the planet. The planet’s atmosphere seemed to light up from the tremendous number of explosions. Earthquakes were triggered, and even some volcanoes erupted. When the last missile detonated, not a single Barsoon still lived upon the surface. Nearly sixty billion Barsoons had died from the orbital bombardment. Rising mushroom clouds were visible everywhere across the planet.

-

Morag Fleet Admiral Torrant nodded. It was over. The other less populated worlds would doubtlessly end their revolts after they heard what had happened here. Set a course for home. It’s time we prepare this fleet for the attack on the Human Empire.

-

Deep beneath the ground, the High Queen of the Barsoons listened as her advisors described to her what the conditions on the surface were now like. It would be years before they dared venture out of their underground warrens. “Inform all the other queens that we will remain in our underground cities for the foreseeable future. We have everything we need to continue our civilization. We also have tens of billions of eggs that can be hatched, if needed to rebuild our population quickly. In the meantime, we have sufficient underground production capacity to build warships. We will do so, and, when we emerge, we will be a force to be reckoned with. In time we will have