Time Strike by Doug Dandridge

Author:Doug Dandridge [Dandridge, Doug]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Catbrother Publishing
Published: 2017-04-20T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of. Bruce Lee

“There seems to be nothing here but a small system defense force, my Lord,” said the tactical officer.

The force commander, a male who would be looking at admiral’s rank sometime in the future, if he survived, gave a head motion of acknowledgement. He hadn’t been looking forward to ranging ahead of the rest of the fleet with such a small force. True, he had forty battleships, fifty-one cruisers and a hundred and seven scouts, a total of one hundred and ninety-eight warships, but this campaign was seeing thousands of ships meeting in single star systems to battle it out to the death. His force was much too small to survive against a major force. But the great admiral had decided that something needed to be done to confuse the enemy, and possibly take out a major system before they could reinforce it. And it looked like the great admiral had made a wise decision.

“Force near the planet seems to consist of a single of their large cruisers, three of the smaller class, and nine escorts. We are also picking up a trio of forts in orbit around the world.”

The forts were not a concern. They had limited mobility, and a volley of missiles would take them out. They were an idea whose time had come and gone, and it seemed stupid that both sides still used them. The defense force was pathetic in its weakness, and would be brushed aside without a concern. But the whole setup set off alarms in the commander. There might be more ships in this system, lying doggo, powered down and waiting. The safest thing to do would be to fire missiles from out here and just blast the planet. But the commander was a true believer in the ecological religion that had arose when alien invaders almost rendered the homeworld lifeless, and it was against that religion to kill living worlds. The Emperor had issued a special dispensation against worlds with mostly human ecosystems, so called terraformed planets, which were already seen as blasphemy by most Ca’cadasans. He wasn’t sure if this was one of those.

“Set us onto a least time course to the planet. We will see what they have there, then pound their cities and installations into dust from space. Leave a scout group out here to observe and report back.” He didn’t have to add that the group would jump out if the rest of his force was destroyed, to report that he had failed in his mission.

Eight scouts remained behind, decelerating so they could get back beyond the barrier, while the remaining one hundred and ninety ships of the force accelerated inward. It would take them about thirty-seven hours to come to a rest near the planet orbiting the K class star.

* * *

“You will defend us,” shouted Governor Johannes Paulus into the com.

Captain Searcy McTavish wasn’t sure if the man was shouting a question or an order.

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