Galactic Empire Wars 2: Emergence (29 page)

“I’m sure he
will,” Greerman replied.

“Helm, take us
out,” ordered Rivers as he settled back in his command chair.

A few minutes
later, the fleet entered Fold Space. They were traveling much slower as Rivers
was in no hurry to get to their next target. They'd be safe in Fold Space with
no planets or star systems close to them. The marines would have six days to prepare
and then they would hit their next target. This one would also be a Strell
controlled planet. Looking around the Command Center, Rivers sensed the tension
and anxiety prevalent earlier was gone. The first mission was completed and
Operation Insurrection had commenced.

Major Wade
Nelson stood in the Command Center of the troop transport Crimson Star. The
ship was eight hundred meters long and was by far the largest ship Humans had
ever built. Only her sister ship, the Fire Fox, could compare. He drew in a
sharp breath as the ship dropped out of Fold Space in the designated system.
His eyes were focused sharply on the static covered sensor screen, waiting for
it to begin displaying information. So far, they'd managed to remain undetected,
and it was essential that continue.

“Drop out
complete,” reported Ensign Camilla Baker from the Helm as she checked her
control console, seeing with relief that everything was still showing in the
green.

“Sensors
coming online,” added Ensign Lewis Perez as he leaned forward, eyeing his data
screens.

“All ship
systems seem to be normal,” Captain Sheldon said, pleased with how well the
Crimson Star was functioning. This was their third stop on their way to Kivea.
The next drop out would put them in the Kivea system for their planned attack.

Wade nodded as
he saw the numerous green icons begin to appear on the large sensor screen.
They had thirty-four warships, all eighteen of the large Human passenger
liners, including the Distant Star, six cargo ships carrying extra supplies and
munitions, as well as the ships that Marken had used to escape with originally.
Those consisted of twelve more passenger liners and sixteen cargo ships they
had converted to hold Kivean survivors.

“This is the
closest I’ve ever been to Kivea,” Marken spoke his eyes looking over at Wade
wistfully. “In all the years I was a conscript for the Kleese, I never came
this close to home.”

“But you spoke
to other Kiveans who had, didn’t you?” asked Wade, trying to recall what Marken
had said about those rare instances.

“A few times,”
replied Marken, somberly. “We even had a few new conscripts from the home
system. Not many, just enough to help keep our population on the trading
station stable. They told us wondrous things about the home world, a world none
of us ever expected to return to or see.”

“Will there be
any animosity toward us when we arrive at Kivea? After all, it was our escape
that caused the Kleese to nearly destroy your world.”

“I don’t think
so,” Marken replied his brow wrinkling in thought. “Our people have long
resented the Kleese presence and their interference in our society. If we can
take enough to freedom to reestablish our civilization, our people will support
it. The Kleese have stifled our way of life on Kivea for hundreds of years; now
it’s our turn to return to our roots and build the civilization my people have
always wanted.”

“Even if it
means fighting an interstellar war?”

“Yes,” Marken
replied with renewed determination in his voice. “While our people are not great
fighters, our scientists are better than the Kleese. Given time, we can develop
weapons that will make your warships far superior to anything the Kleese have.”

“That may be
in part why they destroyed your world,” Wade suggested. “They may have feared what
a free Kivean race could be capable of.”

“Perhaps,”
Marken responded. “We may never know, but I firmly believe that when we reach
Kivea and I can explain the current situation to our surviving leaders, we'll
have their full corporation.”

“Even though it
will probably mean the end of all life on Kivea?”

“Yes,” Marken
answered with a sad look. “Even if it means the end of our world. While we may
not be great fighters, my people are not cowards, either.”

-

Colonel
Adamson gazed around the Command Center of the Constellation, noting the
increased buzz of activity as the fleet dropped out of Fold Space. Ships were
checking in and reporting on their systems' status so a decision could be made
on whether to move on quickly to the target or spend some time in this small
white dwarf system doing needed repairs.

Looking at one
of the viewscreens on the front wall, he was pleased to see another warship. It
was the battlecruiser Agamemnon under the command of Colonel Oberon. Oberon was
a big man and originally from Germany. Adamson also had eight light cruisers
and twenty-four assault ships as part of his fleet. It was an auspicious
command and he was surprised Admiral Sanders had not been put in charge of it.
However, Fleet Admiral Kirby had informed him Admiral Sanders would be taking
over Fifth Fleet until the Constellation returned. It made sense. With Admiral
Rivers gone on Operation Insurrection and the death of Admiral Stehr, the fleet
was short of qualified admirals until someone could be promoted.

“All warships
are reporting no system problems,” Major Kelly reported as he watched the data
coming in over the console he was standing next to. Maintenance checks were
performed in Fold Space so it wasn’t surprising the military ships were battle
ready. “All systems are operating within expected norms and only routine
maintenance is needed.”

“What about
the civilian ships?” Adamson asked. Even though all the civilian ships had some
military personnel aboard, most of the cargo ships and particularly the
passenger liners had civilian crews operating them.

“Reports are
coming in now,” Kelly replied as he studied the data screen. After a moment, he
let out a sigh and turned to face the colonel. “Two of the Kivean cargo ships
are having drive problems. Their Fold Space Drive cores are running too hot and
part of the cooling system needs to be further augmented. Estimated work will
take six hours to correct.”

“Very well,”
replied Adamson, resignedly. It was better to fix the problem here than in the
Kivean system. “See if they need assistance with the repairs; we can send them
some additional help if they need it.”

Kelly nodded
and walked over to Communications to pass on the message. Over the months, he
had grown more accustomed to being the executive officer on a space going
battlecruiser. If you didn’t think about being out in space, it was similar in
many ways to the British frigate he once commanded.

Colonel
Adamson watched Kelly approvingly. He was a fine officer and would someday have
his own command, probably sooner than he thought. Adamson leaned back in his
command chair, thinking about what was ahead of them. There would almost
certainly be a fleet battle in the Kivean system. He couldn’t see the Kleese
leaving the planet unprotected with all the valuable scientists in the city of Micene. The Kleese wouldn’t be happy when they learned that Humans had arrived to take
their captive scientists away from them.

-

Wade and
Marken were meeting with Beth, Captain Jeffries, and Lieutenants Stern and
Perry in a small briefing room close to the Command Center. They were
discussing the planned operation to rescue as many of the survivors on Kivea as
possible.

“You can
probably expect a strong presence of armored conscripts on the ground,” Marken
said as he put up an image of the city of Micene and the area surrounding it on
a large viewscreen. “The city itself will have a population of one million,
perhaps more since the Kleese devastated the planet. There are possibly another
one or two million living in the countryside.”

“We can’t
rescue nearly that many,” Beth said, her eyes growing wide at the numbers that
Marken was mentioning. She knew they were going to be leaving a lot of
defenseless Kiveans behind.

“You think
everyone we leave behind will be killed by the Kleese when they return to the
planet?” asked Lieutenant Stern. Jamie shuddered just thinking about the near
genocide the Kleese had conducted on Earth and now perhaps Kivea as well.

“Most likely,”
responded Marken with sadness in his eyes. “The Kleese will show no mercy to my
people, particularly after we attack the planet and remove the scientists and
their families.”

“Is this a
mistake then?” asked Lieutenant Perry, knowing in a way they were contributing
to genocide. “Perhaps we should leave the planet alone.”

“No,” answered
Marken, shaking his head. “After what the Kleese have done to the planet, my
people's will to survive will have been shattered. They have no hope, and to
serve the Kleese in the manner they are now being forced into will eventually
destroy them. I suspect the birth rate will go down dramatically, and in a few
generations there will be no Kiveans left alive on the planet. At least this
way we give my race hope for the future.”

“The mission
will go on as planned,” Wade said in an even voice. “We all know what’s at
stake. We need your Kivean scientists to help us develop new weapons in the war
against the Kleese.”

Wade didn’t
mention that the Kiveans were also needed to help with the cloning program as
well as to help decipher the information on the computer drive the nonaligned
worlds had given them. Some of that information was still on a need-to-know
basis. Only a few Humans, other than the Kiveans, even knew about the cloning
technology.

Standing up,
Wade walked over to the viewscreen and pointed to a large complex of buildings
and what looked like landing pads just north of the city. “This is the main
spaceport and will be the center of our operations and the first objective.
Once the spaceport is secure, we'll move out into the countryside and the city
to eliminate any Kleese conscripts we find.”

“Will there be
any Kleese in the city?” asked Lieutenant Perry.

“Probably,”
Marken replied. “They've always been highly interested in our research and will
undoubtedly have a presence in the city or at least at the main research
centers and the Planetary University.”

“We want to do
this quickly and efficiently,” Wade continued as he looked around the group.
“It is essential that we hold civilian casualties down to a minimum.”

“What about
the space station?” asked Beth, knowing there was a large construct in orbit
around the planet. “How do we handle that?”

“Colonel
Adamson will be responsible for securing the space around the planet with his
warships including taking the station,” Wade answered. “We’re hoping that a lot
of Kivean built spacecraft are docked to it since we'll need them for the
evacuation. There will be four assault ships assigned to dock with the station,
and they'll send their marines aboard to search for any hostile forces. They
will also check the available ships to ensure no enemy forces are on them,
either. Once that’s been done, Colonel Adamson will begin sending crews over to
begin activating the ships. As you know, we have several hundred Kiveans that
have come with us to ensure that we can fly their spacecraft.”

“Sounds like a
plan,” Lieutenant Stern said as she brushed an errant strand of blonde hair out
from her eyes. “Let’s just hope that the space station isn’t damaged in the
fighting if there are Kleese conscripts on board.”

“I doubt if
there will be many at all,” Marken said, glancing over at the lieutenant.
“Their primary concern will be the city of Micene and its spaceport.”

“Marken is
going to spend some time giving us some details about the spaceport and the
city,” Wade added. “Keep in mind that Marken has never been on Kivea and much
of the information we are going to cover is from Centerpoint’s computer
database and what his people know about their home planet. Over the years, he
has spoken to a few people from his home world, but they have been few and far
between.”

Marken stood
to address the group. Everyone’s eyes focused on him, knowing how valuable this
information could be. This wasn’t going to be an easy operation and there was
no doubt there would be casualties. They just needed to work out a plan to hold
them to a minimum.

-

Mason was in
the Control Center within Vesta speaking with Colonel Bailey. It had been over
four weeks since the Constellation and her fleet had left for the Kivean home
world. Looking at the main sensor screen, he nodded at seeing the numerous
warships still on patrol in the system. First Fleet was back up to full
strength and the newly built Fifth Fleet was showing marked improvement as
their crews went through numerous battle drills under the command of Admiral
Sanders. In addition, there were one hundred and sixty assault ships still
based on Centerpoint Station, with another seventy spread out protecting the
various colonies and habitats.

“When will
Colonel Adamson launch his attack?” Mason asked. He was standing next to Bailey
near the military consoles.

“Probably in
the next day or so,” responded Bailey, looking over at the president. “It all
depends on how heavily defended Kivea is. There may be a number of Kleese ships
in orbit and a large defensive ground force deployed around the city of Micene. Once they know what they’re up against, it might take them an additional day or
two to formulate an effective assault.”

“How’s Harnett
taking Marken being gone on this mission?” asked Pamela, stepping over closer
to the two.

She had been
making her rounds of the Control Center speaking to some of the crew who were
busy monitoring various activities going on throughout the system. At the
moment, the prospecting ship Raven was missing again and she had several people
using their instruments and long-range scanners trying to find it. She strongly
suspected Bryan was out around some moon prospecting where he shouldn’t be. It
aggravated her immensely how he continued to flagrantly disobey her orders.

“She’s nervous,”
answered Mason, with a sigh. Adrienne was currently over at the Kiveans’
asteroid visiting with Harnett. She had even taken his niece Karen along,
hoping the presence of the twelve-year-old would take Harnett’s mind off
Marken’s long absence.

“Is the new
habitat finished for the Kivean survivors?”

Wade nodded at
Pamela. “Yes, it’s large enough to hold sixty thousand Kiveans with plenty of
room for future expansion. It’s amazing what Kivean construction technology is
capable of.”