Exodus: Empires at War: Book 10: Search & Destroy by Doug Dandridge

Author:Doug Dandridge [Dandridge, Doug]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-03-25T16:00:00+00:00

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CAPITAL WORLD, CA’CADASAN EMPIRE.

Supreme Emperor of the Ca’cadasan Empire, Jresstratta IV, looked at the faces of the Cacada sitting around the conference table, noting many expressions of concern, if not outright fear. The gift of my predecessors, he thought with a scowl that heightened the fear. For generations untold Emperors had held the power of life and death over any subject of the Empire, no matter how low, or high, their station. That had made males afraid to speak the truth, afraid to fail. That had been fine when the Empire was expanding against weaker species. Now that they were fighting a power that could give as good as it got, he couldn’t afford to have leaders who were afraid to make decisions and take risks.

Jresstratta had tried to change that culture, a little bit at a time. He had been forced to pronounce doom on the Great Admiral Miierrowanasa M’tinisasitow, and punish his family since he couldn’t get his hands on the Admiral. But he had also let some transgressions pass that would have resulted in punishment in the past, under his father.

“We should be prepared to resume offensive operations against the human Empire and its allies on schedule,” said Supreme Admiral Hassartaj L’sinantrana. “The first wormhole gates will arrive at the forward base in forty-seven days.”

“And the infiltration ships?”

“They will arrive at about the same time, my Supreme Lord. They are being carried by a pair of battleships each, so they can travel through hyper VII. As soon as they arrive, we will work on getting them through the frontier.”

“So you believe the plan is working?” asked the Emperor, wondering if the proposed probes would really accomplish anything, other than letting the enemy know something was up.

“We believe so, Supreme Lord. While we have no means of tracking their picket ships, our analysts believe there is no way they can cover the entire area. We have been moving larger and larger groups through with no response. We believe there is a high probability we can drop off the infiltrators past the frontier, but before we get to their original borders, without the humans realizing what we are doing.”

“And if they do intercept the infiltrator ships before they make it into the human Empire?” asked the Emperor.

“The crews have been instructed to destroy themselves before the humans discover there are Cacada aboard, and before they have any suspicion that we have actual working wormholes.”

The Emperor gave a head nod of acceptance. While he wouldn’t trust any of the human slaves who were aboard to act as the faces of the crew to destroy themselves, Ca’cadasan warriors would do so without hesitation. The humans that might intercept any of the infiltrators could become very suspicious, thinking they had found smugglers, but would have no idea what was actually going on.

“And you still think these daggers will strike the target?” asked the Emperor, still nervous about committing two of his scarce and precious wormholes to this project.

“There are no guarantees, Supreme Lord.

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