The Shattered Empire (The Shadow Space Chronicles Book 2) (62 page)

“We'll go with course bravo,” Lucius said and highlighted the circuitous route on the screen.  Really, it was a somewhat odd decision to have to make.  Few nations had enough resources to squander the sheer number of mines required to even somewhat restrict the approaches to their worlds.  At best, they could mine blind spots in their sensors or sections directly above their planets in order to prevent surprise attacks.  It was only the stupendous stockpiles they'd captured here at Danar that allowed them to do even what they had.  This, of course, meant that it wasn't something most officers were used to planning around.  Even the thinnest of the fields contained over a thousand mines in order to be able to cover the vast swath of space to have any effects on an invading force.

As his Fleet moved out, Lucius monitored the sensor feeds and running estimates.  Now and again there would be an addition to the tactical overlay as they identified a defensive emplacement or sensor station.  “It looks like the moons are even more heavily fortified than I expected,” Lucius said softly.  “And that bothers me.”

“Sir?” Ensign Perkins asked.

Lucius glanced at Ensign Jiang, who gave him a nod, “I projected a certain expansion of the existing fortifications there, based on their excess industry in the system and their policy of conscripted labor in regards to local populations.”  She phrased it nicely, but what she meant was that the Chxor would use slave labor to build fortifications as a means to eliminate some of the human population.  “That they have put more resources into it, especially considering the strain that has been projected into their logistics suggests that they felt fortifications on those two moons has value.”

“Which doesn't make sense, considering that, even with missiles, they can't cover all of the approaches to the planet,” Lucius said.  “Some of these,” he highlighted five of the new installations still under construction, “Look to be for energy weapons, like the ones on Faraday.  Those would only be useful if any enemy had to come in close.  That only makes sense if something else prevents use of the other approaches.”

Lucius didn't like that thought.  He especially didn't like anything which didn't make sense, because whatever their other flaws, the Chxor were extremely logical.  They still had several hours before the probes would be close enough for a real look at those approaches.  Lucius looked around, “Alright, everyone make sure you keep to your rotation.  I'm going to be in the briefing room.” 
Where I'll be reading through reports and monitoring the situation while pretending to rest,
he thought dryly.

The pilots and crews of the frigates both were on rotations as well, to prevent exhaustion in the lead-up to the coming battle.  As Lucius unstrapped from his chair, he made another mental note to monitor their rotations and to ensure their commanders took their required rest time.

***

Squadron Commander Thxan updated his logbook as the human attackers continued their approach.  They had already defeated the first wave of their probes, with his squadron chosen to form the outer perimeter and conduct the sensor sweeps.  After that, in the hours as the enemy force drew closer, he had conducted a full inspection of his flagship.  While he had noted very few deficiencies, he made note of those.  High Commander Chxarals had emphasized the importance of accurate reporting.  His investigation report, sent out to all his ship and squadron commanders, had detailed extensive examples of inefficiency, false reporting, and even outright corruption that he had discovered throughout the Chxor Empire... a report which rumor had it, the Benevolence Council had initially ordered suppressed.

We will not fail our race,
Thxan thought,
we will report accurately and we will perform selflessly.
  In the privacy of his mind, Thxan could admit to a bit of what might be considered frustration.  He had worked his way up to Squadron Commander through merit, in victory after victory, never with even a single flaw on his record... yet he had seen many of his fellow Chxor with less capable performance yet the 'right' caste being promoted beyond him.

Two of the names that he recognized from the report, System Commander Kleigh and System Commander Grxun were officers he had served with.  The details of Kleigh's final failure were still incomplete, but the report went into exhaustive detail about his fabricated reports and falsified logbook entries.  The report only justified expectations he already had in his mind and only confirmed a concern he had in regards to many of his fellow officers... a concern, it seemed, that High Commander Chxarals shared.

His logbook updates complete, Thxan turned his attention to the sensor display once again.  He noted that the humans, as expected, had plotted a course that swung wide of both the planet's moons and their heavy fortifications as well as the interdiction minefields.  Thxan had little doubt that the humans could eventually batter the lunar bases into submission, but that would take them some time.  The lack of even a minor atmosphere meant that the deep-buried bunkers could survive multiple hits from even the heaviest of weapons.  While many of the human fortifications had been repurposed, the human laborers acted as hostages there, as well. 
As do the humans on the planet,
Thxan thought.  While he understood some inherent value in protection of noncombatants, he thought the human squeamishness about their own people was another sign of their inherent weakness.

On that thought, High Commander Chxarals transmission went out.  The High Commander's face filled the screen, broadcast in the open, to the human fleet.  High Commander Chxarals was slightly taller than most Chxor, though just as heavily muscled.  His flat face and squarish head were the Chxor standard, though his oddly dark yellow eyes caught attention, so different they were from the standard pale yellow.  Like Thxan himself, the High Commander had a deep voice and he managed to speak the human tongue with almost no hint of an accent.  “Attention United Colonies Fleet,” he said.  “You have entered territory claimed by the Chxor Empire by right of conquest.  The system and planet are ours.  Any hostile action will be seen as a full declaration of war.”  If Thxan had a sense of humor, he might have laughed at that.  All Chxor knew that humanity's time had ended.  The process of replacing them was not a war... it was an extermination.

“Furthermore, my orders in the system are that should it look that you even have a chance at victory, we will gas the major population centers on the planet with Pacifix Seven, a new nerve agent which our scientists assure me will render the planet unsuitable for human life for well over a century, killing, in the process, some six hundred million human inhabitants,” High Commander Chxarals said.  “The same squadron that will apply this nerve agent will also destroy the shipyards, munitions facilities, and stockpiles rather than let them fall into your hands.”

“The choice is yours,” he finished, “High Commander Chxarals out.”

***

“Well, that's about as bad as we expected,” Lucius said as the transmission finished.  He looked over at Ensign Camilla Jiang, “Pacifix Seven?  Last I heard they were on four or five.”

“Evidently nerve gas is a priority of theirs, Baron,” She responded with a dry tone.  She shook her head, “I don't have any data on it, but they have no reason to lie about its capabilities.”

Lucius nodded.  He had no doubts about the determination of the Chxor commanders to follow through with their threat, either.  Lucius's eyes went to the clock on the wall and then back to their display.  “Okay, what do we know about 'High Commander Chxarals' over there?”

Ensign Jiang frowned and Lucius saw her bite her lip uncertainly.  “Sir, data on him is extremely limited.  Honestly, this is as far as I know, the first image of him that we've got.  There is a note that he might have commanded the attack on Chi Yung at the start of the war with Nova Roma.”  She took a deep breath, “Sir, this isn't based off any data we have, but based off his eye color I would guess he's of the Tigurd genetic line.”

Lucius's eyebrows went up, “Tigurd, that's supposedly a very tiny population.”  It made some sense though.  They were a rare breed, not because of population limiting, but because they were just incredibly infertile.  Lucius did remember reading that they had an unusual eye color, but the report he'd read on that was from the original xenothropology team sent to make initial contact with the Chxor and it hadn't had any more details than that.  “What would that mean?” Lucius asked, himself uncertain.

“Well, as far as I can tell,” Ensign Jiang said slowly, “there can't be more than a few hundred, at most, of the Tigurd.  The handful that exist are almost invariably at the very senior ranks of the Chxor Empire, but almost never in what we'd consider a bureaucratic position.”  She licked her lips, “The one that we can confirm is from a report of a Tier Eight Investigator, who acted something as a troubleshooter for the Benevolence Council.”

“So when they need a man of action who is absolutely loyal, they bring in one of them?” Captain Beeson asked.

“Maybe,” she responded.  “Even Nova Roma wasn't entirely certain how the upper levels of the Chxor Empire are laid out, but the records we got from Emperor Romulus suggest that they fill a role somewhat like a Praetorian Guard.”

Lucius grimaced, “Okay, so they're probably very capable, very dedicated, and very loyal, but we don't really know for certain.”  He really could have done without the capable part.  He almost missed Kleigh; the self-centered, tactically inept Chxor officer who had pursued him across the Nova Roma Empire and beyond.

“They knocked out most of our first wave of probes,” Lucius said.  “Which tells us two things, they don't want us to see what they're doing and that they know the advantage it gives us to have them in place.”  The screening force was blasting with active radar across a vast swath of space.  It made them excellent targets, but the screening cruisers also had their firefly systems engaged, which meant that a huge section of the planet had basically disappeared behind a wall of electromagnetic noise.  To make matters worse, they had apparently installed installations with the same system on the moons.  While there were only three on one and five on the other, those installations were far more massive than the Ten-class cruisers and mounted far heavier jamming systems.  The blanket there had made it almost impossible to get detailed observation of the other installations.  That was an issue because there was likely tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of human prisoners on those moons, being used as both slave labor and hostages as well.

The handful of probes that had survived were those they had sent above and below the elliptic plane.  Those, ironically, had discovered extremely dense minefields set to interdict any attempt to attack from those positions.  Since those weren't a stable orbit, Lucius had to assume that the High Commander had put those in place more recently.  While they didn't completely block movement, they would have required several course alterations and would have severely slowed the progress of the attack.  Navigating those minefields had dropped the speed of those probes, which meant they had halted them outside and above and below radar range of the screen.  If they brought them up higher, they had the option to drop those probes down and try to peer behind the wall of jamming, but they would lose telemetry on them in the process.  That, in turn, meant the probes would have to move on their own, limited, programming.  Their only other option was to send them well above and below, but the ranges would be such that the probes limited sensor suites wouldn't be able to get much, if any data without going to active sensors and making targets of themselves.

“Right,” Lucius said.  “We need to see what they're doing.”  The enemy screen was over seventy thousand kilometers out from Delvar.  That was still inside missile range and it also gave the enemy commander far too much room to both accelerate and maneuver without Lucius having any ability to see it.  “Order both a second wave of probes and our surviving ones to go in together.”  With both they would lose telemetry while the probes were behind the jamming, but at least when they cleared it Lucius could get
some
idea of what was going on back there.

He glanced again at the clock.  Ideally, the Chxor commander would come out to engage them, but if they stayed within their current perimeter, the plan could, in theory, still work.  It would just be a lot harder to pull off without massive civilian casualties.

Lucius's gaze went to the display.  The second wave of probes went out, a mix of stealth and standard probes to maximize the chances that a few would get through.  He felt like he was missing
something.
  The enemy's jamming was a danger, one that kept him focused on it.  It felt a little too convenient though.  Yet at the same time, he didn't know what he could be missing.  The enemy dreadnoughts had already been identified at long range as they powered up.

His gaze, again, went to the lunar bases.  They were powerful enough that they would dissuade any commander away, especially given their tidal-locked orbits which left such a wide expanse open, with nothing beyond a few minefields designed to channel an enemy force...

His gaze locked on the salvage field, which occupied the point diametrically opposite the two moons.  Logically they would have to pass around or through the salvage field, where the hulks of thousands of ships and debris from countless battles had been corralled to feed Delvar's industry.  That field held the wrecks of ships from the multiple battles for the Danar system, going all the way back to when humanity had first occupied the system as a buffer.