Warpath (Rise of the Empire Book 4) (20 page)

The two dreadnoughts were Mark Two’s, a 1400 meters long ships, and the backbone of the Empire’s fleet. The dreadnought were in appearance the same as their predecessors only bigger, with more powerful weapons. But what surprised her was that alongside them was also one of the new ships, a Kraken class dreadnought. The smooth shark like shape of the new ship made it somehow more impressive than the bigger dreadnoughts that were beside it.

“Send a welcoming message to the taskforce, Adjunct.” Johanna told the Sensor Handler. “And tell their commanding officer that I will be expecting him on the Monarch as soon as he is able.”

“Right away Fleet Commander.”

Johanna nodded, then passed the command to Andros and left the CC. A few hours later she was sitting in her ready room when Force Leader Irani arrived. He entered saluted and Johanna guided him to the couch, taking a seat across from him.

“I’m glad your task force finally arrived Force Leader. There had been a lot of work on the ground, repairing the damage that the Furvor did, and I can use more people.” Johanna said.

“Fleets Master decided to hold the reinforcements back after you handled the situation until one of the new Kraken class ships was ready.”

“Yes, I noticed the ship. Is there any reason as to why she sent it here? I was under the impression that all of the Kraken class ships would be going with the offensive fleets.” Johanna asked.

Irani smiled, “All except this one will. I have been charged with bringing the ship here, to you. Congratulations Fleet Commander, the new Kraken class dreadnought Korvus is you new flagship.”

“Mine?” Johanna asked stunned.

“Yes, the Monarch’s commanding officer as well as a few other upper tier officers will make the transfer with you. The ship is now officially added to your Exploration Fleet. But it does come with new orders. You are to take your fleet to the Furvor colony systems, destroy all of their presence in space – preferably with them surrendering and transferring onto the planets of their own will, and keep them contained on the planet. Destroy all their means for shipbuilding on the planets as well. Then you are to do the same to their home planet. The ships that will enforce the blockade will be coming within few days.”

Johann nodded, she already knew what the Emperor decided for the Furvor, she just thought that it would be someone else who enacts it. “You have my orders?”

Irani nodded, and sent her the orders directly to her imp. Johann read through them and saw that she was supposed to leave within three days. Irani’s task force would provide aid and protection to Trivax from here on out.

“Thank you Force Leader. That will be all.” She said dismissing him. She had a fleet to prepare.

***

Jun; Hyperspace

Johanna walked through her new ship, the dreadnought Korvus. Even after more than a month, the ship still felt strange to her. It was so different than the Monarch, which always seemed cold. Korvus was somehow refined, warm. You could feel the ship’s power in its walls, in the soft humming of its drives. She was falling in love with it.

And she couldn’t help but be giddy about taking it into combat soon. Even though the twinge of unease still threatened to grow. The battle against the Furvor ships had gone a long way to making her come to terms with what happened on Earth. She had defended a world, saved billions. It didn’t make up for the deaths on Earth, but it helped.

Now her fleet was in hyperspace as they didn’t know any trans-lanes to the Furvor colony, and were forced to travel via hyperspace. The travel time was one month out of which only two days remained. Soon her ships will enter the Furvor system, broadcast the records of the battle and the Empire’s demands. If the Furvor surrender, they will be transported to the planet and left there, any shipbuilding facilities on the ground will be destroyed from orbit, and two of her ships will be watching over the world to make sure they don’t try and leave.

Later they will be replaced with the ships that will be arriving from the Empire, while Johanna and her fleet continued towards their home system. The colony system had relatively little presence in space, two space stations and a mining operation on one of the moons. But they did have a defense task force of thirty ships. Which was nothing that her fleet couldn’t handle.

The home system on the other hand was more difficult, they had fifteen stations, seven shipyards, and a force of one hundred and fifty ships. They didn’t colonize any of the other planets in their system, their belief was that they can only have homes on worlds that can support their kind of life. Which was also why they attacked Trivax.

But in the end no number of ships will save them, the Furvor were technologically far behind the Emprie. They will have no hope but to surrender. The Empire’s plan was to keep them isolated on their two worlds, until such a time as when they become worthy of being allowed back into space. The Empire will provide them the means to redeem themselves. Them changing their ways won’t immediately absolve them of their sins, but it will be a start.

***

Two days later - Furvor colony

Johanna’s fleet came out of hyperspace in a flash of blue light, her ships sensors going active immediately painting the picture of the system on her holo. She ordered her fleet forward, towards the Furvor colony, sending out the records and their demands in front. It took an hour for the transmissions to reach the Furvor, and immediately with her fleet’s FTL scans she saw the change. Their ships moved to intercept hers. They were going to fight. That was fine by Johanna, she would crush their fleet then destroy their stations.

***

Using her c-board Johanna commanded her fleet. She split her fleet and using her ships superior speed she surrounded the far slower Furvor ships. Then she ordered her ships to fire their kinetic weapons, catching the slow Furvor ships in a cross fire. The Furvor were firing missiles but most got destroyed by the hail heading their way, and anything that passed was easily taken by the point defenses.

The metal shells started impacting the Furvor ships, smashing their hulls and destroying their ships. In a single attack the Furvor fleet was gone.

***

Three days later her fleet was parked in the planets high orbit. The Furvor resistance was futile, their ships, mining facilities, and stations were destroyed. After their fleet was destroyed the people they had on the mining facilities and the stations surrendered, and Johanna transported them to the planet, and then destroyed their mining facilities and stations in orbit. Then her ships bombed every shipbuilding facility on the ground. The Furvor colonists were now stuck on the planet. She left two of her frigates in the orbit to wait for the Empire’s reinforcements, and pointed her fleet towards the hyperspace barrier. Next stop was Furvor’s home system.

***

Jun; Furvor home system

Just like in their colony system, the Furvor home system refused to surrender at. Sending their fleet of ships against Johanna’s fleet. A part of Johanna was sad, because she knew that crew of those ships would die in order for their leaders to get a point.

The Furvor fleet sped towards Johanna’s fleet at laughable speeds. Johanna waited until she knew that their ships were in range to fire on her ships, her ships had been in the firing range of their own weapons for a while.

“Engage the field defenses.” Andros said. The Korvus was at the head of the formation and the Furvor ships opened fire with their lasers on it first. Their fire hit the Korvus, and had no effect. Warpath’s defensive technology proved to be far ahead of anything that Furvor could throw at them. Johanna ordered for her ships to open fire at the Furvor biggest ships with their particle and laser weapons. The Empire’s weapons blew through enemy ships, destroying them in a single hit. Johanna let her fleet stand down and wait, hoping that the surviving Furvor ships will take up the surrender offer that her ships were transmitting constantly.

After a few minutes of no response from the enemy, Johanna was about to order her fleet continue their attack, when they received a communication from the remaining fleet.

The Furvor surrendered. Johanna ordered their ships to move towards the stations in their orbit. Then her soldiers took control of the station and organized the prisoner transport to the planet. The Furvor had a big population on their home world, around nine billion. And Johanna had no hope of keeping them prisoners with the small numbers she had unless she did the same thing that the Ra’a’zani did to Earth. Cut down their numbers to a more manageable size. But the Empire was not like the Ra’a’zani. The Furvor would be left to their own devices but wouldn’t be allowed to leave their worlds as punishment for what they had done in Trivax system.

In time they might be allowed back into space, but they will need to show that they had changed their ways.

Johanna sighed, with this last battle her job was done. The Empire would send warships and the army to take control and manage the situation. Her ships will return to exploring. In a way it was a relief that she would no longer need to engage in battles. But on the other hand, she already felt like she would miss it. She had always been a military woman, at least until the Ra’a’zani. But now she felt like she could get back to the commanding a war fleet. The nightmares that had plagued her had subsided, and her tremors and fear disappeared as she went from battle to battle. Perhaps she might send a request to change posts. But not yet, she had grown fond of exploring, even though her heart was in battle.

***

July; Sanctuary

“The situation with the Furvor is contained. The ships we dispatched from the Empire had arrived and taken control of the systems. The Exploration Fleet is continuing their exploration of the neighboring systems.” Laura said.

“What are we going to do with them?” Seo-yun asked.

Tomas sighed and looked around the small private meeting room. He was sitting there with Laura and Seo-yun. “We will keep them isolated to their planets until we can find a way to… rehabilitate them. They can’t be allowed to run around going from star system to star system and attacking other races.”

“I can agree with that in principle, but in practice… How are we going to rehabilitate them?” Seo-yun asked.

“I don’t know yet, but we will have time to figure it out. Our people have opened communication with their leaders, we need to learn about them, and teach them about us.”

“You do realize that we will need to do something similar to the Sowir?” Laura asked.

Tomas grimaced, “Yes. The thought had crossed my mind. But their crime is much greater. Sowir had wiped out three races, and almost wiped out a fourth. They are schemers and backstabbers, their crimes cannot be forgiven easily. But we know so little about the real Sowir… We can’t possibly contain the agents at every single world they own, nor can we move them to other worlds. But it wouldn’t even matter, without guidance from the real Sowir, the agents just revert to animals. Animals that can’t function, they’ll just die on their own.”

“Can we alter them enough to let them survive?” Laura asked.

“No, we have been looking into it, but what the Sowir had done is permanent. They are probably as advanced in genetics and biological manipulation as we are. The change was designed in a way that prohibited any further alterations.” Seo-yun answered.

“It doesn’t matter, our goal is to take away their industry, force the true Sowir to show themselves, and then we will see what to do about them.” Tomas said.

“Are we considering wiping them all out?” Laura asked hesitantly.

“Only as a last resort.” Tomas responded.

“But we already know that they are not trustworthy. The only two options we have are to either kill them all or do the same thing we did to the Furvor.” Seo-yun said.

“Yes. Our main objective is for us to imprison them on a world all by themselves. ” Tomas said.

“I understand why we are doing this, but should we, who are we to imprison other intelligent races?” Seo-yun asked.

“We have the power to stop them now before they grow too big to be contained. With that power comes responsibility. Yes, we can turn our backs. We can let Sowir take Nelus and let them keep expanding threatening every race they come in contact with. But do you really want that? We are not perfect, I know that, but as long as I rule, we will protect those who need protection.” Tomas said.

“Alright Tomas, I will not bring this up again, I promise.” Seo-yun said.

Tomas started to respond, when his implant pinged with an incoming message. He focused and brought it up to his HUD. After reading it, he looked to Seo-yun and Laura, noticing by their expressions that they too had received the same message.

Laura was the first to speak. “The time just ran out. Two thousand warships and two hundred support ships has just left the Sowir staging system.” The Empire was now on a warpath.

***

Clan Dai Ven

Jusan watched the latest response from his contacts on Nelus. His subterfuge has worked, the fleet would be ready for the Sowir. He knew that their fleet wasn’t enough to fight off the Sowir but at least they will not be caught completely unaware. His messages also told them that the Empire would send help once the Sowir arrive, that they only need to stall the attacking fleet and then work in concert with the Empire’s ships to destroy the Sowir. Hopefully the Council will let the people in the fleet lead the battle, and not meddle with them.

***

August; Sanctuary system

Fleet Commander Bethany Jones-Wright of the Second Fleet stood in the Command Center of her flagship the Audacious. She gazed at the holo in front of her, her fleet was moving slowly towards the trans-station that led to Waypoint system. Two hundred Mark Two dreadnoughts and another one hundred of the Kraken class, supported by seventy auxiliaries – forty ammo factory ships, ten medical ships, ten army transports, and ten repair ships.