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

Liam had several ideas, but he wanted to wait another few hours, until he knew for sure how many warships he would have to oppose the Morag. Imperial warships were still straggling in.

-

Morag Admiral Voxx grew impatient. During their last stop to finish a few needed repairs, several Human cargo ships had been in the system. Both had jumped out before he could destroy them.

It does not matter, sent First Officer Bale. We have nearly four thousand warships. They cannot stop us from conquering Astor.

No, agreed Voxx. But now Astor will have time to prepare and to possibly call in reinforcements. We must be prepared to fight a fleet battle.

Even so, they won’t have near as many warships as we do.

Admiral Voxx knew First Officer Bale was correct. Nevertheless we will take some precautions in attacking this system. We will divide the fleet once again into two sections of two thousand warships each and attack from two different directions. Even if the Humans have put together a fleet, they will have to split it to take on our forces, and, with our firepower, we will decimate it.

We’re two hours from reaching the Astor System, reported First Officer Bale.

Admiral Voxx nodded. Time to notch up another victory for the Morag and their future.

-

Rear Admiral Anderson felt more optimistic. Captain Novak had arrived with his heavy squadron, and, in addition, several other Imperial units and Resistance ships had arrived. “What do we have now?”

Lieutenant Proston took a minute to study the tactical display, before she answered. “I’m including all our ships as well. At the moment we have three dreadnoughts, sixty-three Imperial battlecruisers, fourteen Resistance battlecruisers, and twenty-nine Resistance support ships.”

Rear Admiral Anderson nodded. More than he expected. “Have all the Resistance ships take up defensive positions near the six ODPs. All the Imperial ships will be in one fleet, and we’ll use hit-and-run raids against the Morag. We’ll jump in, fire off a couple waves of missiles, and then jump back out before they can unload on us. That way we can keep our losses to a minimum and sew some confusion in the enemy ranks.”

-

Fleet Admiral Marloo explained to Prince Andrew exactly what was going on. For the last few days Andrew had been busy installing particle beam cannons on all the orbiting shipyards and space stations. “Rear Admiral Anderson has a small fleet,” Marloo said. “He plans on using it for hit-and-run attacks against the Morag.”

Andrew frowned. “That Morag fleet is around four thousand ships. How many attacks can he make before his fleet is whittled away?”

Admiral Marloo shook his head. “Unknown. He will have to go in fast, launch his attack, and then get back out. It’ll all be a matter of timing and precise execution.”

“Is there anything else we can do to help them?” Andrew was afraid a large number of Humans would die on Astor. He had met Governor Stewart and knew that he hated the Confederation and would risk the safety of his planet to stay free.

“No, we’ve pulled all our forces in the periphery of Astor. We have no more assets available.”

“What will happen to our worlds on the periphery?” Andrew was deeply concerned. The loss of life could be incalculable.

“Many of the worlds on the periphery have defense grids. They will offer those worlds some protection.”

Andrew drew in a deep breath. “Are these two Morag fleets their primary forces?”

Marloo hesitated for a moment. “We’re not sure. There’s some thought that these attacks on the periphery of the Empire are nothing more than a diversion and that the main attack is still aimed at the Hagen Star Cluster and the core worlds. We’ve been adjusting our fleet deployments assuming that is correct.”

Andrew’s face turned pale. “Just how many ships are we facing?”

“Possibly as many as 27,000.”

Andrew felt a cold chill run down his back. With the Empire and Resistance fleets combined, they had, at a maximum, six thousand warships. “Can we defeat that number of ships?”

Fleet Admiral Marloo let out a deep sigh. “Truthfully I don’t know. We had based our original strategy on inflicting casualties on the Confederation fleets as they fought their way across the Empire to reach the core worlds. Now it looks as if the main part of their fleet may be bypassing all those worlds and coming directly here.”

“So, instead of facing a greatly reduced fleet, we may be facing the full brunt of their main attack force.”

Admiral Marloo nodded. “It’s possible.”

“Does Layla and Krista know about this?”

Admiral Marloo shook his head. “No, we weren’t going to say anything to the two Princesses until we knew more.”

Andrew understood the reasoning behind this decision, though he disagreed with it. “I’ll go speak to them. Perhaps we should get one of them off of Golan Four, as a precaution.”

“It might be wise,” admitted Admiral Marloo. “We’re not sure what we might be facing, and, if we wait too much longer, we may not get one of them to safety.”

Andrew was not looking forward to this coming conversation, but he knew how upset Layla would be if she were kept in the dark.

-

“No, absolutely not!” exclaimed Krista, stomping her feet in frustration. “If Layla is staying, so am I!”

Andrew shook his head. “We’re facing an overwhelming Morag force. If Golan Four is their target, they’re on their way here right now and could be here in just a few days.”

Layla squared her shoulders defiantly. “I’m certain, between Derrick and Fleet Admiral Marloo, they will keep Golan Four and the other core worlds safe.”

Andrew knew there was no point in arguing with the two Princesses. Once they had their minds made up, they weren’t going to change. “Just promise me one thing. When the Morag show up, the two of you will go to the