Empire Reborn by Jay Allan

Author:Jay Allan [Allan, Jay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-03-19T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Eight

CWS Omicron

Near Planet Dannith, Ventica III

Year 330 AC (After the Cataclysm)

Barron looked at the screen, startled by what he saw. The battle was bad enough, and he knew his forces had no real hope, none save for Stockton’s desperate assault. But now the enemy had brought four new ships across, and they looked a lot like Colossus.

Colossus was an unbelievable weapon, a ship of war vastly superior to anything else in his fleet, a relic from the far off imperial days. It was immensely powerful, or at least it was before it came within a hair of outright destruction fighting its copy. That version, the creation of the Highborn, represented a major leap forward in their own capabilities, more reason why time wasn’t on the human’s side. If they somehow survived the battle intact, won time to add more ships to their own side, the enemy would just do the same. Barron had known that sooner or later the Highborn would produce another ship of the class, but he hadn’t expected it so soon…much less four of them. He just sat for a moment and stared, dumbstruck at the forces the enemy had deployed against his dying fleet.

Colossus had prevailed—barely—against the first of the enemy craft, and it had destroyed the identical ship. But that effort had cost it almost everything it had, and it had barely gotten away itself. It was battered almost beyond conception, and despite a virtually constant effort ever since, it was far from fully effective. And now, the enemy had four more of the craft, all apparently new…and coming toward his forces. Colossus didn’t have the strength to fight one of its kind, not anymore. Against four, it would be quickly battered into submission and destroyed.

And yet, he knew he didn’t have any choice. His entire fleet was outnumbered, and every other ship he had was fully engaged. He had to send Colossus out, against all four of the enemy vessels…for as long as she could hold. That wouldn’t be that long, he realized, but he couldn’t come up with another plan. He just didn’t have any other ships to spare, and certainly not enough to put up a fight against those monsters. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, and then he forced them open.

“Get me Commodore Eaton…now.” Sonya Eaton commanded Colossus. She was the fleet’s greatest expert on the capabilities of the imperial vessel…and she would be the one to lead it to its destruction.

“Commodore Eaton, Sir…” Jack Trafalgar’s voice was calm, controlled…much better than Barron knew he could be. All his people on the bridge were acting very well, paying attention to their duty, but he knew they could all see the screens too, that they knew the enemy’s strength was just too great to overcome.

Whether he lost the battle, or found some miraculous method to achieve a victory, a lot of his people were going to die in the next few hours, and he was well aware that they all knew that, that they were all aware, especially his crew.

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