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

to change his formation to a stronger one. His idea to attack with two fleet sections of two thousand ships each had now changed.

Advance the fleet. Form up into a ten-line formation, one hundred ships in each line, and four deep. Stagger the formation so all ships have a clear line of fire.

-

The Morag fleet quickly adjusted its formation and soon advanced on the Human world and the waiting warships. Admiral Voxx was surprised when the main Human force of three dreadnoughts and sixty-three Imperial battlecruisers vanished as they made the transition into hyperspace. Were they fleeing?

Suddenly, on the right flank of his formation, the Human ships reappeared and launched missiles.

Target those ships! ordered Voxx. Already massive explosions lit up the energy screens on the right flank of his fleet, threatening to bring shields down.

-

Rear Admiral Anderson nodded in satisfaction, as his fleet jumped back into hyperspace to appear one hundred thousand kilometers from the Morag. In their brief encounter, he had managed to get off three waves of antimatter missiles before the Morag returned fire.

“What damage did we do?”

“We took out seventeen of their battlecruisers and two battleships,” replied Lieutenant Proston. “We also damaged a number of others.”

This was better than Anderson had hoped. Of course they had taken the Morag by surprise, and that wouldn’t happen again. From now on, the Morag would be ready, and the hyperspace jumps to attack would be much more difficult and dangerous.

“We’ll hit them in the rear this next time. Prepare all ships for the next hyperspace jump.” Anderson wanted to hit the enemy as often and as hard as possible, before they reached the planet’s defenses.

-

Where are they now! demanded Morag Admiral Voxx.

Sitting one hundred thousand kilometers away, replied First Officer Bale.

Waiting to attack again. Next time we will be ready. He quickly sent out a telepathic message, warning all the ship captains in his fleet. He also sent out a telepathic feeler, to see if he could influence any of the Human minds in that small fleet. Nothing! It was like a blank wall.

They’re jumping! warned the sensor officer.

Alarms sounded as the Human fleet appeared behind the Morag forces, and instantly began pounding the rear of the fleet with antimatter missiles.

The rear line of ships in the Morag fleet responded by turning and launching their own missiles in return. However, by the time the maneuver was complete, the Humans were gone once more.

On the viewscreens, Admiral Voxx saw the glowing debris where a number of Morag warships had been destroyed. Have the rear line of our fleet form up into five fleets of two hundred, ordered Voxx. Their orders are to protect the rear of our fleet. We must put a stop to the attacks of these Human ships.

-

Rear Admiral Anderson was quite pleased. Two attacks and not a single ship in his fleet had been damaged.

“They’re readjusting their formation,” warned the sensor officer.

Anderson studied the tactical display, the Morag were taking the rear ships in their formation and forming them up into five small fleets. These were facing different directions to give better protection to the rest of the Morag ships. “This will be more difficult now. We should get off the next first wave of missiles, but we’ll have incoming before we can launch the second.”

“Is it necessary to launch the second?” asked Lieutenant Proston. “We could just launch one and the jump back out before they can retaliate.”

Anderson shook his head. “If you study our last two attacks, the first wave is causing damage, and the second and third waves are actually destroying the damaged ships.”

-

Governor Stewart stood next to General Marley, watching the events in space. “Can he stop them?”

General Marley shook his head. “I doubt it. All he can do are these quick attacks, but they won’t stop the Morag. Rear Admiral Anderson is doing what he has to in order to preserve his fleet and to inflict as much damage as possible on the enemy.”

“How’s the evacuation going?” Stewart knew that millions of people were on the move. Many went into underground bunkers, and others fled the major cities to go into the country.

“We’ll seal the bunkers in about an hour,” General Marley informed the governor. “At the same time I’ll pull the military out of the cities.”

The governor looked at the numerous viewscreens that revealed the evacuation going on in all the major cities. He knew he had no way to safely evacuate everyone in the time they had left. No matter what, millions would die. However, if they could stay free of the Confederation, it would be worth it. Stewart just hoped enough of his people survived to rebuild everything they were about to lose.

-

The Morag fleet was now closer to Astor. They were nearly in range. On the command ODP, Colonel James Phillips watched intently, as the enemy neared combat range. He had pulled in a lot of the energy beam satellites and missile launching platforms closer to the ODPs. He knew, if the ODPs could survive long enough, they could do considerable harm to the Morag fleet.

“They’re nearly in combat range,” reported the ODP’s sensor officer. “Three more minutes at their current speed.”

James nodded. He keyed his comm set to broadcast to all the ships, ODPs, and missile platforms. “Attention, all commands. The enemy will be in range shortly. We’ll use the energy beam satellites to take out as many missiles as possible. All missile platforms are to go to continuous-launch mode and empty your missile storage bunkers as quickly as possible. All ODPs will concentrate on the enemy fleet. Let’s make them pay for daring to attack Astor.”

“Do you think we can stop them?” asked Captain Dru Turner, who was second in command.

“I don’t know,” replied Colonel Phillips. “But we’ll sure make