The Phoenix Reckoning (The Phoenix Conspiracy Series Book 6) (44 page)

The queen had ordered all available ships—including those in the merchant marine—to make course for Centuria System, where, with strength in numbers, the Empire’s military hopes would win the day, or collapse into ruin against the might of their dark adversary.

Ravinder herself did not understand this new enemy. She had read the stories about the Dread Fleets of the past, how they were religiously summoned by the Polarian High Prelain to fulfill some kind of crusade—which usually involved purging or conquering the peaceful worlds of other species—but Ravinder had believed such stories to be mythic and not reality. Or, if they had been historical, to have been greatly exaggerated. Now, though, as she stood, overseeing command of half the assembled forces, she had the opportunity to discover for herself what kind of threat this enemy was.

Altogether, the Empire had managed to assemble two massive fleets.

The first fleet was the primary defense force, under Ravinder’s direct command. It consisted of almost two hundred ships-of-the-line, of various ratings: everything from destroyers to dreadnoughts, but the bulk of the force was composed of armored frigates. With them were another hundred and fifty ships that had belonged to the merchant marine. Some of these civilian ships had weapons and armor, and others had needed to be hastily outfitted—as best was possible in the narrow window of time with what few resources remained—and now they stood, in scattered formation, distributed amongst the many squadrons of Imperial military starships, waiting. Watching vigilantly as the hours and days slipped by, knowing their enemy was due to arrive at any time—and while they waited, Ravinder herself was unsure whether she was happy for the delay, because it gave them extra time to prepare for the upcoming battle, or if she would rather the enemy simply arrive and get things over with, for better or worse.

The second fleet was commanded by Sir Arkwright from the lofty position of the Imperial flagship ISS
Victory
—which had been the personal starship of King Hisato Akira, and was the most powerful ship the Empire had ever built. Were there a classification greater than alpha-class, the
Victory
would have it.

Arkwright and the
Victory
, along with his force of two-hundred and fifty warships, each of which belonged to the Imperial military, held position away from Centuria System, using a nearby nebula to hide the force. The plan was for Ravinder and her fleet, including volunteers, to hold a tight defensive perimeter of Centuria System and engage the attackers as soon as they arrived. Then, at the ideal moment, Arkwright—who held the overall command—would jump into the system, bringing with him his hardened battle fleet, and lay waste to the enemy’s unsuspecting flank, hopefully forcing a rout. That was the plan anyway.

The ships belonging the Arkwright’s squadrons were the real thing. Rather than a swarm of destroyers and frigates peppered with the occasional battleship and bolstered by volunteers and civilians, Arkwright’s squadrons were almost completely composed of battleships and dreadnoughts. Their hulls were armored, their weapons were of military grade, and, perhaps most importantly, their crews were disciplined and battle-tested.

The ships were not in perfect condition, many of them having sustained wounds during the civil war, but each had been patched up as best as could be done in time for the anticipated action at Centuria System…a place where the lives of some eight billion people hung in the balance. Ravinder, for one, was determined to achieve a victory here—despite the odds, which intelligence claimed were long—because she felt deep in her heart that she owed it to the people of the Empire, who had suffered enough. That, combined with the tragedy that had been the slaughter of Layheri Alpha—where the enemy had scourged the planet, meeting no Imperial opposition, and the result of which had been the brutal massacre of hundreds of millions of lives. Scouts reported back, after surveying the carnage once the Dread Fleet had moved on, that:

“It is our estimation that any rescue mission to recover survivors and refugees would be a waste of resources. Not only is every living thing on the planet dead or dying, the planet has been so severely scourged that it will not be inhabitable again for millions, if not billions, of years. Assuming re-habitation is ever even a possibility. Terraforming efforts, likewise, would prove arduous, expensive, and unlikely to succeed.”

Such has been the devastation at Layheri Alpha. Reading the report had chilled Ravinder to the bone and had given her a thirst for revenge that she intended to satiate here, once their enemy arrived. Centuria V would not fall so easily, the enemy would quickly discover.
Oh no
, thought Ravinder,
we shall fight for every scrap of land, every life, and every inch of this system!

Although a tremendous amount of the remaining Imperial military forces had been successfully gathered here for this action, many Imperial squadrons had been too far distant to arrive in time. And, although, as their enemy made sluggish progress toward the system that allowed the arrival of more friendly warships by the hour, Ravinder knew that, at best, they would have some fifty-percent of the Empire’s fighting force available for the action once it started. Hopefully, that would prove enough. There hadn’t been any witnesses to the scourging of Layheri Alpha, and so it was unclear how many starships they were going to be up against. Likewise, scans from the Imperial listening posts that monitored the Polarian border could only indicate that there was a significant mass of starships moving in close formation—the number of them was impossible to determine; however, the density seemed to imply a horde.

Let them come in all their numbers
, thought Ravinder, from her seat in the command position where she waited,
let them come, wave after wave, and wave after wave we shall toss them back into the sea
.

Even without the presence of Sir Arkwright, the
Victory
, and his greater force, the ships available to Ravinder, which had taken up defensive positions around the planet Centuria V—at her instructions—must have been a comforting sight to every telescope on the surface of the planet, where some eight billion people awaited the outcome of the battle, knowing their very lives depended on it. Considering her numbers, and those of Sir Arkwright, and the plan that had been made, it was hard for Ravinder to imagine any outcome other than victory.

We humans are nothing if not tenacious
, she thought.
Above all, we are survivors, our ancestors have stayed alive for billions of years and we, coming from that same stubborn stock, are not about to allow ourselves to be wiped out by the hordes of the Polarian fanatics that threaten us
.

The brutality that the enemy had directed at Layheri Alpha had shocked and frightened many—in truth it had shocked Ravinder too, but she refused to allow it to frighten her. Rather, she would use it as motivation to fight harder and resist with greater force. What they were dealing with were brutes, and she had learned long ago that, when dealing with brutes, to expect brutality. Therefore, the enemy deserved nothing less than the swift and merciless sword of justice to lay waste to them; there is to be no quarter offered, nor any prisoners taken, the enemy is to be destroyed or driven off. To show them mercy would be a mistake, for they are coming with one objective alone—to annihilate. And responding to them with any less force would be a grave mistake, and so she had commanded all of her forces to resist the enemy with extreme prejudice. Those were her standing orders—and supported by Sir Arkwright—and, as far as she knew, even the un-battletested civilian commanders understood what they were supposed to do, and what was at stake.

On the fifth day of maintaining defensive formation, during the fourteenth hour, the first sign of the enemy finally appeared. It came in the form of multiple alteredspace signatures, imminently inbound.

“Sir,” reported her chief of operations. “I am detecting a large mass disturbing alteredspace stability just beyond range of the system,” she said.

“Multiple ships are reporting confirmation of the same thing,” added the communications chief.

“Here they come,” said Ravinder, half to herself—to steel her nerves—and half to her crew, to ready them.

“General order to all ships,” she said, “clear for action. Go to condition one alert immediately and sound General Quarters.”

“Relaying order,” said her communications chief.

“Sounding General Quarters,” reported her defense chief. The klaxon could be heard a moment later, just as the emergency lights came on. “Shields up, weapons armed.”

“Fleet reports that they have gone to condition one,” said the communications chief.

“Send a message to Sir Arkwright; warn him that the enemy is fast approaching.”

“Aye, aye, Admiral,” said the communications chief.

Ravinder turned to face one of the junior communications officers. “You there,” she said. “Broadcast me to all ships—I wish to address the fleet.”

“Yes, sir!” the man snapped to attention and then began transmitting the broadcast; he gave her a thumbs up so she knew she was being transmitted.

“To all heroes and defenders of the Empire, whether you be military officers or brave civilian crews who have followed your hearts and kept true to your patriotic duty, why ever you stand here and from wherever you’ve come, you are here now, and that makes you the very soul of what it means to be human. We are survivors! Adversity only makes us stronger! We, each of us, have chosen to stand here, ready to defend this planet, because we are made of stronger stuff than our enemy. Our courage is boundless, our resolve unbreakable. We are the mighty barrier that separates eight billion innocent lives from the hateful murderers that would destroy them. We are the swords and shields that separate life from death and in that, my brothers and sisters, we should take great pride.

I want you all to know that today, we are brothers and sisters in arms. Let no division that has existed between us, whether recent or distant, whether deep or shallow, be a barrier that makes us forget that, above all, we are united together by our common humanity. We are human beings, just like the citizens of this world which we seek to defend, and, as human beings, we will stand together, showing the enemy our courage, our resolve, and the fact that we, as humans, are born survivors. And we will not go gently into the night! We will stand together, against all enemies, against any opposition they would send our way, and, like a barrier against a storm, we shall not break! For it is they who will break against us! Let them come in their numbers and in their hordes and let them taste of our resolve! Where they are iron, we are steel! Let them crack against the might of our resolve. Let us have our righteous vengeance against them for the slaughter they committed against us, each and every one of us, by the atrocity they committed at Layheri Alpha! Fight fiercely my brothers and sisters. Fight nobly. And never surrender!” She signaled for the transmission to end.

“Rousing speech,” said her second in command, applauding her.

“I only hope that it’s true,” said Ravinder. “I fear to know what will happen if we lose the day.”

“If we lose the day, we will probably not be around to experience the consequences,” her second in command said. Ravinder did not find the words reassuring.

“The alteredspace signature is beginning to coalesce into matter, just beyond the reaches of the ninth planet,” said the Ops chief.

“Attempt to contact the enemy, sending them repeating messages warning them to leave the system immediately or face destruction.”

“Aye, sir.”

Ravinder knew such messages would be ignored, but it was a matter of protocol to send them anyway, and in the event they were listened to and obeyed—however unlikely—it would save thousands of lives, if not more.

“Now send a message to all forces, they are to standby and engage—but let the enemy come to
us
. All ships, hold position,” said Ravinder. She intended to use the local defenses to her advantage as much as possible, even though they were meager compared to the sizes of the fleet assembled and the enemy arriving—the defenses consisted of a starbase, three outposts, a minefield, and some orbital platforms with mounted guns, but taken together it would count for
something
, at least.

“Message from Sir Arkwright,” said the communications chief. “He and his forces have jumped into alteredspace, they will be arriving in just a few minutes.”

“Excellent, then it is our job to hold the enemy back until then,” said Ravinder. “Message to all ships, stay in formation and stay strong. We shall win this day.”

“Aye, sir. Relaying message.”

“Status report?” asked Ravinder.

“All systems are operating at 100%, with secondary and tertiary power systems still available,” said the operations chief.

“Shields are at maximum, set to double front, missiles are armed, energy weapons charged, guns loaded and ready,” reported the defense officer.

“The fleet is holding position, as ordered,” said the communications chief.

Ahead of them, on the tactical display, they could see a cloudlike mass suddenly appear just beyond Centuria IX.

“The enemy has arrived in the system,” said the operations officer.

“Count the ships and identify them by class. Tell me what we’re up against,” said Ravinder.