First Strike!

Great read, keep it coming!

 

ChapterTwenty-Seven<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />



“Why me?”



Barbie smiled, a smile that didn't quite touch hereyes. “The Admiral feels that yourreports have been most impressive,” she said. Adrienne suspected that that wasn’t quite truthful. Ever since wars had started being fought withPR as well as guns, the military had had to develop its own PR departments –and a blacklist of journalists who simply couldn't be trusted to respect militarysecurity. “And besides, GNN has acquiredquite a following on Earth – and among the Galactics.”



Adrienne had to smile. The Galactics had their own news networks, most of which operated on similarlines to GNN. Some of them had simplycopied reports sent home by human reporters and rebroadcast them across theAssociation, while others hadn’t hesitated to exaggerate the news from the warfront. Adrienne hadn’t heard that athousand Hegemony superdreadnaughts had been destroyed until she’d seen it in aGalactic news report. The Hegemony didn’teven have a thousandsuperdreadnaughts. A lie made up out ofwhole cloth, or a simple translation error? Even the Cats hadn’t been able to establish perfect communicationsbetween alien races.



“Thank you,” she said. “I understand that recordings are not permitted?”



“I’m afraid not,” Barbie confirmed. “There are security issues involved, yousee. You never know what might prove usefulto enemy intelligence officers.”



“Oh,” Adrienne said, dryly. “Those bastards are always one step ahead.”



Barbie did have a point, even though she would havepreferred to believe otherwise. She’dtravelled on a dozen starships, including three military warships from Earth,yet she didn't really understand how they worked. The tours she’d been given on Wellington had been sanitized, enough tolet her gain a sense of her surroundings, but no direct access to anythingremotely sensitive. Some of the otherreporters had been too ignorant to realise it, others had demanded access, asif the military was keeping them from the classified equipment out ofspite. They didn't realise that humanity’sonly edge was its tech superiority and if that happened to be defeated, theHegemony would simply roll over human space.



The interior of Nimitzdidn't look much different to Wellington,but there was a sense that the cruiser was far less solid than the assault carrier. She didn’t have anything like the same number of crewmen or Marines as Wellington; indeed, the Federation Navyhad built a high degree of automaton into their ships, pushing the Association’slimits on developing AI right to the line. From what she’d picked up from a few of her sources on Terra Nova, thesmall crews were sometimes a handicap for the cruisers. They couldn’t put together boarding partieswithout running their manpower dangerously thin. War was teaching lessons that no amount ofexercises could teach. No one couldsimply declare victory and expect it to be taken seriously.



Barbie paused outside a hatch and pressed her handagainst a scanner. There was a briefpause, followed by the hatch slowly opening to reveal a cabin not much biggerthan the one Adrienne had been assigned onboard Wellington. The holographicdisplay covering the rear bulkhead was deactivated, leaving the compartmentappearing small enough to be claustrophobic. Admiral Sampson was seated behind a small desk, reading through a set ofdocuments on his datapad. He rose to hisfeet and held out a hand, which Adrienne took and shook firmly. For someone who had become Earth’s darling,with near-global approval, he looked reassuringly unconcerned about publicly. Adrienne had heard – from Ward – that somepolitical parties back on Earth were already considering drafting Sampson torun for President of America. Did heeven have ambitions to sit in theWhite House? Running a country was not the same as running a military.



“Admiral,” she said, as she took the other seat. Some of the other reporters had complainedabout their tiny cabins, but Adrienne knew better. Space was at a premium on starships and evenAdmirals didn't get very much more than anyone else. On Wellington,ten junior officers – or crewmen – shared the same bunking space. “Thank you for agreeing to meet with me.”



“You're welcome,” Sampson said, gruffly. He didn't seem intimidated by her reputation,or inclined to be more talkative than necessary. “Recent events have provoked much speculationon Earth, among the armchair generals.”



Adrienne nodded. Hammerfallmight have been a crushing victory, certainly compared to any of the brushfirewars between the Galactics, but in the end the human fleet had retreated fromthe system, leaving it in the Hegemony’s claws. No matter how much tonnage had been destroyed, or how badly crippled theHegemony’s installations on the planet, there had been some alarm onEarth. The public had expected theconquest of another Funk world and found it difficult to understand why theFederation Navy had retreated. Therewere already political leaders who were turning it into a major issue, askingquestions that their governments found difficult to answer.



“Which leads to the first question,” she said. “Why did we retreat from Hammerfall?”



Sampson smiled, rather dryly. “The battle was won,” he said. “We didn't need to occupy the planet torender it useless to the Hegemony. Ichose not to push the offensive against fortresses that could no longer helpour foes.”



“But the system remains in their hands,” Adrienneprotested. “Their propaganda has beenclaiming that they beat us, that they forced us away from Hammerfall.”



“All the propaganda in the universe cannot disguise thefact that we smashed their fleet,” Sampson said, firmly. “Fortresses cannot leave planetary orbit, letalone start raiding our space. Hammerfall is largely useless to the Hegemony now – it would take themyears to repair or replace all the installations we destroyed, even if we gavethem the time. And by crushing their fleet,we have made it impossible for them to launch a counteroffensive againstGaston, or even Terra Nova. It gives ustime to prepare for the next offensive.”



Adrienne nodded. “Andwhere is the next target?”



“I’m afraid that would be telling,” Sampson said. His face suddenly twisted into a grin. “But you’ll be among the first to hear of it.”



“Thank you,” Adrienne said. Armchair generals had been speculating on thecourse of the war ever since they’d first realised that the Federation Navy hadattacked Terra Nova. Some of thembelieved that humanity’s tech advantage was enough to allow the Federation Navyto carve it’s way to the Funk homeworld, others – more pessimistic – suspected thatthe Funks were already adapting their tactics to counter humanity’stricks. “Do you feel that you cancontinue to press the offensive until the war comes to an end?”



“I feel certain that we can carry on the war as long as necessary,”Sampson said, blandly. “It is my deepestwish that the Hegemony will understand that we have no intention of destroyingthem, merely to convince them to treat us as equals. We do not wish to occupy their entire system.”



“Which leads neatly to the next question,” Adriennesaid. “What are the long-term plans forGaston?”



Sampson shrugged. “Suchmatters are political issues,” he said. “Youwould be better off directing that question to the Federation Council.”



“But the Council is itself divided,” Adrienne said. “Where do youstand on the issue?”



There was a long pause. Even though humanity had lowered the taxes and tithes collected by theHegemony on Gaston – and the fees for using the quantum gate – Gaston stillrepresented a net gain to the Federation’s economy. The Galactics still used the world as atranshipping point along a dozen shipping lines, which meant that humanity’slimited stockpile of Galactic credits was slowly rising, allowing theFederation to purchase weapons, starships and production nodes on the Galacticmarket. Hammerfall was much less economicallyimportant, but that simple fact seemed to have been missed by the armchairgenerals, who seemed to believe that the more planets humanity held, the morecurrency they could obtain and use to purchase weapons.



And yet, Gaston’s surface was a seething mass of Funksand other aliens, with humanity’s forces caught in the middle. The first national contingents had arrived –Chinese and Russian soldiers, mainly – but there weren't enough of them topacify more than a handful of alien cities. They’d been forced to start separating the Funks from the rest of thepopulation, which had started the Funks screaming about how they were beingpunished for the sins of their former superiors. Outright civil war threatened to break out atany moment, with a constant stream of assassinations, bombings and sniperattacks pouring fuel on the fire. Humanity, as the occupying power, was supposed to protect the settlers,but how? Anything they did thatsupported one side hurt the other.



“If giving up Gaston would get us a peace we could livewith, a recognition that the Hegemony wasn't going to crush us when it feltthat it could, I would recommend surrendering the planet,” he said,carefully. “Unfortunately, the Hegemony deliberatelycreated an environment where they could play different factions off against oneanother to maintain their control of the planet, a balancing act that collapsedwhen we took Gaston from the Hegemony. Allof those issues are bursting out now, forcing us to try to keep the peace whenno one actually wants peace.”



“But some of those alien factions have offered to workwith us,” Adrienne pointed out. “Wouldn'tit be a betrayal to hand them back to the Funks?”



“I wouldn't dispute that for a second,” Sampsonagreed. “In the long term, I could see definiteadvantages to keeping Gaston, if only because of its location. But the Federation was never devised as agovernment, certainly not one that could occupy an alien planetpermanently. Ideally, we’d want theplanet to govern itself while we provided security, but I doubt that anyfaction on Gaston would be willing to trust its neighbours enough to relax itsdefences.



“One distant possibility is to separate all of the factions, but that wouldrequire massive upheaval and certainly provoke an insurgency directed atus. It may happen with or without ourencouragement anyway, given just how deeply the hatreds have sunk into theplanet’s population. An alternative isto ask some of the Galactics to contribute peacekeeping troops, but that would certainlycome with a political price.”



“A share in the profits from the system,” Adriennesaid. Sampson nodded. “Do youfeel that the planet is worth the hassle?”



Sampson paused to consider his answer. “The Hegemony didn't have time to destroymost of the industrial stations in orbit around the planet, or butcher theworkforce,” he said. “We can use theirfacilities to produce weapons for the campaign, even if they are primitive comparedto our own, and we need a much larger orbital-trained workforce than wehave. But using non-humans raises securityissues, even if we are not building anything advanced on Gaston.”



He shrugged, expressively. “There are pluses and minuses to everythingwe do,” he added. “Nothing is everperfect, or certain – even death and taxes.”



Adrienne smiled at the weak joke. Some of the Galactics were governed – if governedwas the right word – by political systems that made human anarchists look like fascists. There were no taxes, or any form ofgovernment control. Some humans heldthem up as the perfect governing system, although humans were probably lesssuited to such governments than the aliens. And the Cats were biologically immortal. They might have been very cagey about their biology, which was odd giventhat they’d once collected and distributed information on every other alienrace in the galaxy, but their immortality was a proven fact. Some of the Galactics, who’d been in spacefor thousands of years, had been dealing with the same Cat for all that time.



The other Galactics used nanites to extend theirlifespans, as did humanity, but none of them had ever managed to create theirown version of immortality. Adrienne hadheard rumours that wealthy humans were funding massive research projects intolife-extension – if the Cats could do it, humanity could surely do it too – andyet they’d produced nothing. Or perhapsthey had developed something and keptit to themselves. It was easy to becynical where the super-rich were concerned. Some of them probably had ties to the Galactics.



“There are only a handful of other questions,” shesaid. “The first one is simple; how doyou feel that the Federation Navy has performed in its first real combat test?”



Sampson smiled. “Ifeel that the Navy has performed magnificently,” he said. “Ever since we obtained our first warships,fifth-hand from a used starship trader, we have concentrated on training anddrilling to the point where our crews can carry out their duties in theirsleep. Each new weapon has been tested, integratedinto our fleet and then put through its paces until we know exactly how itworks and what it can do. The Hegemony didn'thave a clue what was going to hit them until it was too late.”



Adrienne nodded. “Andcrew morale?”



“Very high,” Sampson said. “We knew that we were going to be badlyoutnumbered by our enemies, but the success of the new weapons and the recoveryof Terra Nova sent morale skyrocketing through the fleet. I have every confidence in the men and womenunder my command and their ability to meet every challenge the Funks throw atthem.”



“So I hear,” Adrienne said. “And when do you feel that the Funks willmount a counteroffensive?”



“I hesitate to speculate,” Sampson said. “After Hammerfall, they will certainly becareful about coming into weapons range of our starships andfortifications. But they must launch a counterattack sooner orlater, or they have to surrender when we finally hack our way to theirhomeworld. We expect that they willattempt to attack us as soon as they feel confident they can produce a victory.”



“Yes,” Adrienne said. “Can we touch on a delicate subject?”



Sampson lifted an eyebrow. “On or off the record?”



“It depends,” Adrienne admitted. “I’ve heard a rumour” – it had leaked fromthe French Government and Ward had forwarded it to her, although Sampson didn'tneed to know that – “that you made the decision to release the enemy commanderand return her to the Hegemony. Thatseems like an...odd decision when you’ve been so determined to keep the secretsof humanity’s weaponry...”



“Unfortunately, secrets have a habit of getting out,” Sampsonsaid. Flying the gunboats to Garston orHeavenly Gate would have allowed the Galactics to get a good look at the newships. “I needed the Hegemony tounderstand just how badly they were outmatched by our weaponry. They would certainly have picked up rumoursfrom Terra Nova even if we did manage to prevent them from escaping, and keptall of the captured POWs in detention camps. And besides, we used some of the new weapons when we took Gaston. The secret is out.”



“But she was the enemy commander,” Adrienne protested. “Surely she knew too much. I couldn'tfind any incident in recent history where such an officer has simply beenreturned to their people, at least not without making a trade of equal value.”



“It has happenedin human history,” Sampson said. “Oneparticularly interesting example was the decision by Julius Caesar to return Ptolemyof Egypt to his loyalists during his campaign in Egypt. The irony was that an eunuch without anymilitary experience was doing an excellent job of prosecuting the siege whenthe boy was returned to his own lines. Some historians have claimed that Caesar was a fool, but it seemsevident that returning Ptolemy divided the enemy command and made it easier forthe Romans to win.”



“But that was...oldhistory,” Adrienne pointed out. Hardly anyone talked about Ancienthistory these days, not when the Association had been around for longerthan the entire human race. “Surely it doesn'tapply now?”



“It has also been practiced among the Hegemony as agesture of contempt,” Sampson said, seriously. “They don’t really have a tradition of total war as we understand theterm. And besides, they’re not very kindto failures. It’s quite possible thatthey executed the unfortunate officer as soon as she returned home.”



“Or that she might have deserted in the direction of theGalactics,” Adrienne said. “I don't thinkI would return home if I knew I was likely to be killed.”



“Moral courage isn't just a human trait,” Sampsonadmitted. “We consider the Funks to bebarbarians because they didn't develop their technology, merely obtained itfrom the Cats, and because they treat their client races like ****, but thatdoesn’t mean that they can’t be as brave, loyal and determined asourselves. They’re individuals, justlike us. I dare say that some Funksmight even been good people.”



“Not an attitude that will win you many friends on Earth,”Adrienne said. “Or Terra Nova, for thatmatter. What do you think of the trials?”



“I think the settlers want revenge,” Sampson said. “Trying the collaborators for lesser crimes thattreason may not be the ideal way to handle the situation, but no one couldsuggest a better way. The alternative wasa long and complex legal struggle.”



Adrienne stood up. “Thank you for the interview, Admiral,” she said. “Can I ask a question, completely off therecord?”



Sampson nodded, slowly. “The Federation’s limitations have been exposed by the campaign,” shesaid. “Do you feel that it needs to movetowards becoming a proper world government?”



“That’s another political issue,” Sampson said. “Practically speaking, none of the Federation’smember states will want to give up more independence to the Federation – and thenations that aren't members certainly won’t want to join unless they get a sayin how the Federation operates. I don’tthink that a world government is practical, at least not for a very long time.”



He smiled. “Butthat’s just my opinion,” he added. “Ifwe survive this war, who knows what might become possible?”

 

ChapterTwenty-Eight<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />



“No sign they’ve detected us, boss,” Karla reported. “There’s so much activity in this system thatthey probably wouldn't notice if we charged in transmitting a list of CaptainHaddock’s favourite curses.”



“Don’t get overconfident,” Joshua warned. “We’re just here to have a look at thesystem, nothing else. If they realisethat we’re watching the system, they might suspect what we have in mind.”



The Tauscher System had been utterly undeveloped when theFunks had arrived, established their supremacy over the natives and thenstarted to put them to work on behalf of the Hegemony. Over several hundred years, they’d built up arespectable orbital industry and a set of cloudscoops to provide fuel. Oddly, the system wasn't operated by a singleclan, but several clans – and it was clear that they didn't get along, eventhough the natives were restless. UnlikeEarth, or most of the Hegemony’s worlds, there was no unified command authorityin the system, even in orbit around Tauscher. Hundreds of STL asteroid miners swarmed through the belt, while FTL freightersdocked at the orbital installations or the cloudscoops. The Funks had been careful about just what technologywas imported onto the planet, but the Gobbles had admitted that they had muchmore than their masters realised. It hadn'ttaken Joshua long to understand why. They served in thousands of minor roles in the system, doing the workthe Funks considered beneath them. Itwas easy to evade most of their security, as long as they were careful.



Joshua had to smile as Blackbeard drifted closer to the planet, all passive sensors onlineand pulling in data from all over the system. Officially, they were nothing more than a trading ship built on a lightcruiser hull, an adaption that had proven popular with freighter commanders whohad to fly through regions of space infested with pirates. Most pirates wouldn't be able to separate outthe freighter variant from the light cruisers, and would probably prefer to letthe ship go rather than run into a warship.



“They look paranoid,” Karla added. “Look at that formation.”



Joshua studied the display, puzzled. Normally, there was little order to interstellarshipping, even among the races that made the Funks look like anarchists. Starships came and went almost atrandom. But now...hundreds of freighterswaited well away from the planet, while Funk shuttles moved from freighter tofreighter, inspecting them before they could slip into orbit. It made little sense to him, until he rememberedthe reports from Hammerfall. There wasno way to be sure about their accuracy, but if the Federation really had used afreighter to ram a control fortress and take it out, the Funks had to beworried about the same thing happening elsewhere. They had so much interstellar shipping that inspectingit all would take days, delaying travel by weeks or months. It was hard to be sure, but that was bound tohave an adverse effect on the Funk economy.



He smiled, coldly. But they couldn't assume that only human or Funk freighters would beused in suicide attacks. They would haveto search every freighter thatentered orbit, something that would have a knock-on effect far outside theHegemony. Freighter crews often lived onthe margin – he’d been luckier than most, and even he had had to struggle – anda number were sure to go bankrupt, creating political trouble for theirhomeports. It was even possible that anumber of the big combines would be adversely affected, perhaps even withdrawtheir freighters from the Hegemony. And that would have an unfortunate effect onthe Hegemony’s economy.



The Clunker Fleet and the pirates allied to it had takenout or captured over seventy freighters and warships in the Hegemony’srear. Joshua had been careful to targetonly Hegemony ships – the pirates had been less restrained, which might givehumanity some political cover if the **** hit the fan – and from what he’dheard, shipping insurance rates were going through the roof. The Hegemony might have a fine fleet – it did have a fine fleet – but how longcould it operate the starships if the logistics behind them wereshattering?



For want of a nail,a shoe was lost, for want of a shoe, a horse was lost...



Joshua knew more about the economics of interstellar shippingthan most and it was easy to understand just how much damage the attacks weredoing. Starships needed a secure supplyline just to keep operating, with freighters bringing everything from HE3 toreplacement torpedoes to replenish their ammunition stockpiles. Military-grade components were tough, butthey wore down quickly and needed to be replaced. The Funks would have to make tough decisions fairlysoon; abandon the shipping lanes and lose the revenue they brought in, ordivert freighters and escort ships from the war front. One way or another, the human race would benefit.



All the more so ifwe keep profiting, he thought, coldly. Nothing succeeded like success; each of the freighters and cargos theycaptured bought in enough credits to fund the entire fleet. He’d even started buying up warships fromshifty dealers, warships that could be crewed by the Gobble resistance or otherrebels from the hidden colonies. TheFunks could probably have destroyed them all if they’d managed to interceptthem with a superdreadnaught squadron, but the odds were massively against a successfulinterception. It was a shame one couldn'tbuy superdreadnaughts on the black market, yet even if he had he would havebeen unable to crew them.



But each successive purchase risked the danger that theywould be betrayed...



“Some of the ships are bugging out,” Karla said, breakinginto his thoughts. “The Funks arescreaming at them, but they’re not stopping.”



Joshua nodded. Independent freighter commanders weren’t inclined to listen to anyoneelse, even military starships with weapons locked on their hulls. If the Funks were forcing them to waste time –and credits – they’d take their ships elsewhere, heading onwards to their nextport of call. The Funks didn't have thenumbers to chase them all down before they reached the quantum gate – and someof them even had quantum drives. Theirdeparture from Tauscher was a neat way of giving the Funks the finger as theyleft.



“We may as well bug out ourselves,” he said. “There’s no point in letting them have a goodlook at our hull.”



Karla nodded and tapped commands into her console,bringing the drives online. “Do youthink we have enough intelligence to proceed?”



“Maybe,” Joshua said. The Gobbles wanted their homeworld liberated and were prepared to payany price, even supporting humanity’s war against the Funks. But even if they did manage to take the systemintact, the Funks would certainly react harshly – and there were no less thanthree superdreadnaught squadrons within five days of the system. They were supposed to be watching the Tarn –the Tarn had reinforced their borders, something that had forced the Funks tokeep a sharp eye on them even as theywaged war on humanity – but they’d certainly react to an rebellion that tookthe entire planet. Joshua had yet tothink of a way to defeat those ships when they arrived at Tauscher, with bloodin their eye.



The quantum gate opened up around them and they slid intothe safety of quantum space. “Take usback to Shadow,” he ordered. By now,most of his operations were masterminded well away from the concealed colony,but it was still a good place to pick up intelligence and offload their stolengoods. “I need to think, carefully.”



“Of course, Your Majesty,” Karla said. “Your loyal subjects will be more thanwilling to help you think. Just rememberthat there’s no such thing as a garment that can only be seen by clever men.”



Joshua snorted. “Andsince when did that stop anyone falling for something that looked too good tobe true?”

***​

Joshua would have preferred not to have to go onto Shadowin person – there was too great a chance of someone realising that he and hiscrew were human – but the fences refused to meet with an electronicpersonality. Shadow’s location wasprobably known to the Hegemony’s intelligence agents by now, if only by tracingback the smuggling routes. Every timeJoshua entered the system, he half-worried that he would encounter a Hegemonyfleet intent on revenge. Whatever benefitthey gained from monitoring the smugglers had to be outweighed by the lossesthey were taking to the Clunkers.



“Your crews have amassed much wealth,” the crabsaid. As always, the alien was withinits water tank, beady eyes peering at Joshua through the gloom. “I am happy to help you dispose of it.”



That was presumably a joke, although with some of theGalactics it was hard to tell. “And I amhappy to accept your help,” Joshua said. The crab sat at the centre of a spider’s web of contacts who passed ongoods or gathered intelligence for the pirates. Not all of the intelligence dealers were trustworthy, but the crab had agood reputation for verifying everything before it passed the data on to peoplewho could use it. “How might you assistme?”



There was a rustling sound from the tank. “Intelligence has come my way about plannedcounter-piracy operations by the Hegemony’s rulers,” the crab said. It’s voice, as always, was completely atonal,yet Joshua fancied that he could hear a note of amusement within the electronicvoice. “You may find the informationuseful.”



“Maybe,” Joshua agreed. The Hegemony was perfectly capable of inventing false data and passingit on to the pirate intelligence network. Hell, they might even have kept their own crews in the dark until theywere in quantum space and could open their sealed orders. It never creased to astonish him that so manyFunks were on the take. But then, theones assigned to this part of the Hegemony were the ones without the connectionsthat would assure them a glittering career. “I will certainly consider the offer.”



He smiled at the crab, fighting down the urge torun. Joshua was no xenophobe, no racistwho feared aliens because they were alien, yet the crab was truly alien,utterly inhuman. Even looking at its body provoked the arachnidreaction, the sense that something was deeply wrong. Intelligence could only go so far incountering feelings that lay deeply buried in the human mind.



“I asked you to keep looking for other warships,” hesaid, changing the subject. “Have youlocated any more since we last spoke?”



“Five,” the crab said. “Unfortunately, some have been worked hard by their previous owners, orhave been largely disarmed. They may notbe worth the money you will have to pay for them.”



“Send me the details,” Joshua said. He’d made deals with a handful of hiddencolonies, ones with space-based industries. They’d help repair damaged ships in exchange for vast sums of money andfirst call on supplies they desperately needed. “I’ll consider them and then get back to you.”



“I have also verified the credentials of the Gobbles youliberated,” the crab added. “They are definitelylisted as wanted terrorists by the Hegemony. The puppet government on Tauscher has sentenced them to death. If the Funks hadn't wanted to kill them infront of the Empress, they would be dead by now. As it is, they may not have realised thatthey were intercepted in transit.”



“Let us hope not,” Joshua said. It should have taken weeks for the convoy toreach its destination, but it was quite likely that they’d intended to pausesomewhere along the way. The Funks mightwell have realised that something had gone wrong by now, although they couldn'tdo much about it. Would they assume theworst, or would they conclude that the prison barge had been blown away on thegrounds that it might be a disguised warship? “And the weapons I asked you to find?”



“Have been located,” the crab said. “You should be well on your way to outfittinga small army.”



“Good,” Joshua said. “Have them shipped to the RV point. We’ll meet them there and take them onwards to their final destination.”

***​

In one sense, almost everything owned and operated by theGalactics was standardised, built using comparable technology developed by theCats. Practically, there weredifferences in almost everything, particularly weapons. A plasma rifle designed for human hands couldn'tbe used by a Funk, or a Gobble, without considerable problems. They had to be refitted to suit alien hands,or whatever they had that passed for manipulating digits. Obtaining weapons suitable for Gobbles wasn'tparticularly easy. The Funks had neverdesigned them and forbidden the Gobbles from designing their own. It hadn't stopped them for long.



“Suitable,” Xinchub said, after testing the rifle. It had been redesigned on one of the hiddencolonies, once they’d tested the Gobbles to find out what they needed. “How many of these can you produce?”



“Thousands,” Joshua said, shortly. Arming a resistance movement was technicallyoutside the letter of his orders, but it was a chance they couldn't allow toslip past. He hadn't hidden the scope ofthe problem from Xinchub, or the fact that the Funks would certainly respondwith overwhelming firepower when the **** hit the fan. “And plenty of other weapons as well. The problem lies in getting them to thesurface.”



The Gobble looked up at him, his mouth twisting into asmile that showed sharp teeth. “Thatwill not be a problem,” he said, firmly. “There are plenty of shipping lines between the asteroids and theplanet, ones we have used before to smuggle weapons and technology to thesurface. Even with the new regulations,we can run rings around the Hegemony’s inspection teams, if we have not alreadymanaged to subvert them. They willsuspect nothing until it is too late.”



“I hope you’re right,” Joshua said. He’d picked up enough intelligence to suggestthat the inspections were cursory, looking for nothing more dangerous thanhulls crammed with antimatter. They hadlittle choice – the time it would take to search each ship thoroughly wouldcause hundreds of additional delays – but relying on it didn’t seemparticularly safe. One nosy inspectorand the whole secret would be blown open. “I will not commit myself to assisting you unless I am fairly confidentof success.”



“A wise attitude,” the Gobble agreed. “But we have been their slaves for far toolong. If we are to fight and die, atleast we will deny them our service for the rest of time.”



“There are billions of you, scattered over the Hegemonyand outside,” Joshua said, quietly. Suchan attitude appalled him. “They mightall be slaughtered by the Funks, if they realise that you have risen up inrebellion. Your people might becompletely destroyed.”



“We know the dangers,” Xinchub said. “But we cannot go on like this. Whatever the risk, we will be free.”



It still bothered Joshua hours later, when they made theagreement to have thousands of modified weapons prepared for theresistance. He’d known the risks when he'dallowed Admiral Sampson to talk him into leading the operation, including thesimple fact that they were all expendable. Earth would never know what had been done for her. But risking an entire planet of harmlessaliens...? He couldn't accept that theymight trigger off a genocide unmatched in galactic history; alien races haddied out before, but never on such a scale. How could anyone becomfortable with it?



He looked up at the star chart, searching for options. They could take Tauscher, if not easily. Most of the pirates wouldn’t want to join anattack on a fortified world, but the Clunker fleet and the warships crewed byrebels could destroy the defenders on their own. But what would happen when the superdreadnaughtsarrived to take revenge? The entirefleet he’d assembled couldn't stand up to one superdreadnaught, let alone threeentire squadrons of superdreadnaughts. It wasn't as if they had the weapons the Federation Navy had used atTerra Nova.



A dozen schemes for crippling or destroying thesuperdreadnaughts crossed his mind, only to flounder on cold hard facts. The Hegemony would be on their guard. They wouldn't allow a ship crammed withantimatter close to their superdreadnaughts, not after what had happened atHammerfall. And no aliens served ontheir ships. They might be able to bribeone of the superdreadnaughts into taking an antimatter mine onboard, but notall of them. And there was little hopethat the Federation Navy would be able to intervene. They wouldn't even know what had happened at Tauscheruntil it was already over.



Unless...



Flicking through the star chart, he brought up astrategic display of the local sector. The Hegemony bordered three other powers nearby, one of the reasons whythere was so much shipping – and pirate activity – running through thesector. He doubted that any of thepowers would risk intervening to protect the Gobbles, but maybe...



It would be a gamble, but they had little choice.



“Karla,” he ordered, “start digging through the shippingmanifests. I think we took a handful ofrecon drones from the Funks. Can you letme know what happened to them?”



There was a long pause as Karla brought up the capturedmanifests. “We stockpiled them at BaseSeven,” she reported. “No one wanted tobuy them unless we knocked down the price to a handful of credits, so we didn'tsell.”



“Lucky for us,” Joshua said. It wasn't too surprising that none of the pirateswould want them – they weren't that useful without a space navy capable ofstanding up to other navies – but they'd come in handy. Maybe they could take Tauscher after all. “Have them brought to the support fleet. I've got a cunning plan.”

 

ChapterTwenty-Nine
“The Traders Alliance formally protests the Hegemony’s decisionto impose new security measures on independent trading ships,” the Ambassadorfrom the Alliance said. Shan listenedwith interest, concealing her amusement behind a carefully-controlledexpression. It had surprised her whenshe’d discovered that Westerners considered her people inscrutable – she’dnever had any difficulty reading her fellow Chinese – but the aliens probablyfound all humans inscrutable. Readingbody language wasn't easy when a nod could mean something different to a dozendifferent races. “The penalties imposedhave already cost a number of commanders their ships.”

There was a long pause. The Traders Alliance wasn't exactly a galactic power, but they wereentitled to a seat on the Commune for reasons that no human had ever been quiteable to figure out. Shan privatelysuspected that the traders had managed to bribe one of the independent planetsto allow the traders to claim their seat. If it had happened a few thousand years ago, it had probably become traditionby now. The traders hadn't beenparticularly interested in the war – they preferred a long tradition of neutrality– yet the Hegemony had started hurting them indirectly. It would have to provoke some kind ofreaction.

“We do not expect that the Hegemony will understand theproblems faced by the Alliance,” the Ambassador continued. “The Alliance has therefore resolved that ifthe matter is not resolved to our satisfaction, the Alliance will withdraw alltrading ships from Hegemony space and – furthermore – embargo any othergalactic power that continues to trade with the Hegemony.”

For the first time in decades, the entire Commune staredat the speaker. Shan certainly hadn't expectedit to go so far. Humanity must have hadmore friends than she’d thought, for the Traders Alliance held an economicstranglehold over parts of the Association. The Hegemony’s ability to trade with the rest of the Galactics was aboutto take a body-blow. They did have theirown trading fleet, even if it was smaller than most, but they’d find it impossibleto trade openly with the Traders Alliance ready to crush anyone who traded withthem. They’d still be able to use theblack market smuggling networks, yet they couldn’t guarantee deliveries. And some of the smugglers had their own tiesto the Alliance.

“This is not a step we take lightly,” the Ambassadorconcluded, “but we feel that it is necessary to prevent the Hegemony from doingmore damage to our interests.”

He sat down and waited. Formal protocol demanded that the Hegemony had a chance to reply, althoughShan suspected that nothing their Ambassador could say would have any effect onthe disaster unfolding in front of her red eyes. If the embargo went into action, the Hegemony’seconomy would start to collapse. Thefactions on their homeworld who wanted to replace the Empress would see it as agift from the gods. And if their greatclans lost enough money to cause them to fold, they’d almost have to end the war on human terms.

Great Lady Vanla rose to her feet, red eyes flashingaround the chamber. “So,” she said. “So we are faced with an impossiblesituation. The humans have used freightersto attack us, to raid our systems and wreck havoc on our worlds. And yet we are to be denied the right toensure that such a successful attack is not to be repeated? We are fighting for our lives and yet you seefit to infect our scales?”

A human would have spoken of stabbing a knife in someone’sback. “We are the ones fighting toprevent the humans from overrunning the galaxy,” she added. It was an astonishing change from her earlierattitude, but Hammerfall had shocked the Galactics – and the Funks. “We are the ones who have been attacked,without provocation, by a race intent on establishing itself as a new interstellarpower. You say that your crews havesuffered? How many of them have died in treacherousattacks? You say that your ships arebeing raided? It is the humans who areraiding your ships! And yet you blame usfor taking reasonable measures to protect ourselves!

“The Hegemony cannot give in to blackmail by those whofeel that they have the right to dictate to us. Your cowardly attack on our interests when we are fighting for our liveswill not go unavenged. It is the humans who have attacked us, it is the humans who are raiding our shipping, itis the humans who must be defeatedbefore the very shape of our society is reformed. You think you can force us to accept a dishonourablepeace? We will go onwards to win thiswar and then we shall see.”

Shan listened as Ambassador after Ambassador rose to havetheir say. It was difficult to know justhow much of their speeches should be taken seriously, if only because makingstatements of principle was easy, but it was far harder to actually back uptheir words. The powers nearer to theHegemony seemed less inclined to confront it directly, while the powers withthousands of light years between them and the Funks were more than willing tocondemn the Funks openly. But what ifthe Traders actually did carry outtheir threat? How many galactic powerswould have no choice, but to stop trading with the Funks?

She made a mental note to have her staff look into it,while starting to prepare her own speech. Whatever the Traders thought of the human race, they’d created a verydangerous situation for her people. Itwas quite possible that some of the other Galactics would try to impose apeace, one that might be unfavourable to humanity. They’d certainly want access to humanity’sweapons and other technological developments. Finally, after many other ambassadors had had their say, it was her turnto speak.

“The Federation was forced into war by constant pressurefrom the Hegemony,” she reminded them, again. It was easy to see how many Galactics had forgotten that in the wake ofhumanity’s unexpected victories. “We donot seek conquest, we do not seek economic damage to the entire galaxy; ouronly goal is to prevent the Hegemony from eventually crushing us and turningEarth into yet another slave world. Ifthat could be guaranteed, we would be happy to end the war right now. No one else on either side would have to die.”

Great Lady Vanla rose to her feet before she could be officiallyrecognised. “But you have committed atrocitieson Gaston,” she thundered. The Funks hadstarted broadcasting propaganda as soon as they realised that Earth wasn't goingto be a pushover. Gaston’s multiracialstew had, unfortunately, provided more than enough grist for their mill. “Youclearly have no intention of returning that world, to which you have noclaim...”

“But we now know that you have been committing atrocitiesagainst other races on Gaston,” another ambassador said. The floating orb of flesh glared with allthree eyes towards the Funk. “You havemistreated other races who have settled on the planet. I propose that the Commune dispatch afact-finding mission to establish the truth and then place Gaston under neutralcontrol.”

Shan sat back in her chair as the Galactics argued. The Hegemony would oppose the measure, ofcourse, and be regarded as a pariah because of it. Earth would make a show of reluctance, buteventually accept, provided that the forces sent were enough to prevent theHegemony from snatching it back. Assuming, of course, that the Commune managed to agree. There were so many factions involved that itwas unlikely that anyone would agree on anything in a hurry. By the time they did, the war would probablybe over.

***​

She was back in the Embassy, reading through reports fromEarth and Gaston, when her aide interrupted her musings. “Ambassador,” he said, “you have a visitor.”

Shan looked up, crossly. “I do?”

“You do,” her aide confirmed. “It’s Great Lady Vanla herself.”

Shan felt her eyes widen as she stood up. “Have her sent into the meeting room at once,”she ordered. “I’ll be through directly.”

The meeting room had been designed to be suitable for representativesof every known race, at least the ones that could operate in a standardatmosphere. It still felt weird, almostdiscomforting, to her, but at least the Funk probably felt the same way. The chairs, formed from a substance thataltered itself to match the contours of the visitor, had been provided by theCats. Her intelligence team stillsuspected that the material concealed bugs beyond their ability to detect, evenif the Cats had stagnated over thousands of years. They’d certainly want to keep an eye on whatthe younger races were doing as they withdrew from galactic affairs.

Great Lady Vanla looked...almost furtive as she sat down,giving Shan precious moments to compose herself. She’d expected visitors from the Tarn, or theTraders, or any one of a dozen races that might be friendly to humanity, butshe’d never expected the Hegemony to send a representative. Her security staff had noted that Great LadyVanla had come alone, without even her aide or a bodyguard, whichsuggested...what? The meeting wasclearly intended to be completely off the record.

“Great Lady,” she said, by way of welcome. “I think you for visiting my home.”

The Funk didn't smile. “In her infinitive wisdom,” she said, “Her Majesty the Empress of theHegemony, the Heir to the First Empress, has ordered me to raise the issue ofpeace terms with you and your people.”

Shan blinked in surprise. The Hegemony had taken blows, but they were very far from defeated. Earth’s ability to keep fighting was limited,even with the loans they’d secured from the various banking combines among theGalactics. Whatever the Traders did, itwas quite possible for the Hegemony to win the war if they kept fighting. Or...could it be that they’d decided thatcontinuing the fight was not worth the effort?

“I have always stated that we are willing to discusspeace terms,” Shan said, carefully. “Doesyour Empress wish to listen to ours, or does she have terms of her own?”

“The Empress believes that continuing the war would be disastrousfor both of our races,” Great Lady Vanla said. It was hard to tell, but Shan suspected that anything less thandictating peace terms at gunpoint wouldn't have sat well with her. The Hegemony’s superiority complex wasastonishingly powerful. “She is willingto propose terms for an end to the war.”

Shan listened, carefully. “The Empress is prepared to accept your independence from the Hegemony,now and forever,” Great Lady Vanla said. Shan, who knew that ‘forever’ really meant for as long as it suited theHegemony, said nothing. “If you returnto your pre-war borders, we will recognise them as inviolate.”

It was hard not to laugh. “So you want us to surrender everything we've taken from you and inexchange you will graciously agree to recognise our right to exist?” Shan asked. “Do you really think that those terms would be acceptable to theFederation?”

“When the alternative is total obliteration,” the Funkpointed out, “you would find those terms very acceptable.”

She did have a point, Shan had to admit, but thesituation wasn't that dire. “I stronglydoubt that the Federation Council would agree that your claim on Terra Nova isvalid,” she said, instead. “You not onlyheld a human population in bondage, but you oppressed that populationsavagely. The Federation will not returnthat planet to you.”

It didn't feel right to her to impose such a strict ruleon discussions, but Ambassadors had been sacked before for regardinginalienable rights and solid positions as things that could be negotiated andgiven away. Diplomats liked to keeptalking, and to keep the lines of communication open, but some things couldn't besurrendered or the results would be disastrous. At bottom, the Federation wanted – needed– the Hegemony’s formal recognition of Earth’s independence. Giving the Funks a sign of weakness would be disastrous.

“And you will lose it when we finally recapture theworld,” Great Lady Vanla said, coldly. “Youclearly have no intention of negotiating openly.”

“Neither do you,” Shan said. “You came to see me in private. I assume that you don’t want word of thisdiscussion getting back to your own people.”

“They would not believe you if you chose to tell them,”the Funk hissed. “I shall go.”

“I have terms that the Federation would regard asacceptable,” Shan said. “Don’t you wantto hear them before you slither out of here?”

If the Funk noticed the subtle insult, she said nothing. “We cannot accept terms imposed at gunpoint,”she said, flatly. Shan barely managed torefrain from pointing out that the Funks expected humanity to accept being dictated to. “But we will consider them.”

“You recognise our independence, including that of TerraNova,” Shan said. “Garston becomesindependent, governed by the settlers on the planet; Earth continues toadminister the high orbitals, but agrees not to turn the system into a navalbase. You refrain from rebuildingHammerfall or basing naval units within twenty light years of the border. And neither side will seek any reparationsfrom the other.”

The Funk hissed in amusement. “You must think us insane,” she said. “Why would we accept such unpleasant terms?”

“Because the longer this war continues, the greater thechance that your Empress will lose her head,” Shan said. She smiled in cold amusement. “It will take years for you to repair thedamage we’ve inflicted upon you, assuming that your neighbours give you thechance. What happens when they decidethey have a chance to take you down forever?”

“The Hegemony will not go quietly,” Great Lady Vanlasaid. She rose to her feet. “I will report your words to the Empress, butI do not believe that she will accept.”

Shan watched her go, and then walked back into heroffice. Whatever else could be said ofher, the Great Lady would not have come on such a mission without permissionfrom her superiors. Maybe, just maybe,there was a chance to end the war before it was too late. Or maybe the Hegemony had been hurt badlyenough that they couldn't settle for anything less than total victory. There was no way to know. She’d report it to Earth and hope that wiserminds than herself might be able to decide what to do next.

***​

Hammerfall had once been a proud system, the linchpin ofa defensive line intended to keep any aggressor away from the core worlds. Now...it had been crippled. After a frigate had struck a mine and hadbeen almost destroyed, most of the remaining starships had had to withdraw tohigher orbits, where they would be reasonably safe. Or so Lady Dalsha hoped. It was impossible to say just how many minesthe humans had laid, or precisely where they’d all gone as they drifted intoorbit around Hammerfall. Some of themeven seemed to have been rigged to explode when they picked up an active sensorsweep at close range. None of thefortresses could even risk dropping their shields, for fear that a mine wouldget through the shield boundary and detonate against their hulls. It was all a fearful mess.

The propaganda claimed that the Battle of Hammerfall hadbeen a victory for the Hegemony, but the long list of destroyed or crippledstarships told their own story. One wayor another, the plans for a mighty counterattack would have to be put backweeks, perhaps months – and what if Earth was defended by similar missiles? The entire Hegemony Navy might be unable tobreak through the defences and range in on the planet. It was no help that most of the independent freighterstravelling through the Hegemony had decided to go elsewhere, at the command ofthe Traders. If they couldn't find a wayto crack through humanity’s network of mines, they might have to completelyabandon the planet. And that would be difficult to justify to anincreasingly angry population.

At least no one had questioned her command. The smarter ones probably reasoned that they didn'twant to get the blame for the disaster; the stupider ones were probably toofrightened to see the opportunity for advancement. But she needed to do something before the morale problem got out of hand. How long would it be before starshipcommanders started refusing to go up against human starships? Millions of rumours were spreading throughthe fleet, each one crazier than the last. The humans had built weapons that could take out a superdreadnaught witha single shot, the humans had created a planet-killer that could eat an entireworld and use the debris as fuel, the humans had created a form of roguenanotech that could destroy an entire fleet in seconds. Each of the rumours had very little connectionto the truth, but that didn't help. Howcould it?

The last update had stated that heavy reinforcements werestill two weeks away from Hammerfall, if they didn't get diverted to innerdefence lines. Apart from the homeworlditself, many of the inner worlds hadn't received updated defences before thewar had begun, if only because fortifying the border had seemed moreimportant. None of the planners hadtaken the humans seriously.

She stared down at the latest report and cursed under herbreath. Sending a handful of smallerships to raid Gaston was – technically – exceeding her orders, but it mightjust win her some time. And if it didn't...atleast the humans would be responding to her for a change. Anything that could slow down their offensivewould be worth it.

And if the Empress disagreed, she’d lose her head.

Someone still had to take the blame, after all.

 

Chapter Thirty



“The new guys are shaping up nicely.”



“Looks that way,” Markus agreed. He grinned over at his wife. “But how will we know until we actually seethem in action?”



If there was one advantage of the pause at Gaston, it wasthat Grumble Squadron had had a chance to get some downtime and integrate thenew pilots and gunboats from Earth. Theirmothership might have gone off to raid a Hegemony world with the othersquadrons, but Grumble had been left behind at Gaston. Part of Markus resented the fact that he’dbeen left behind to babysit the newcomers, yet he had to admit that thereformed squadron needed time to train. They’d never exercised with the newcomers before the war had begun.



Gaston was slowly coming back to life, even if it was in the middle of a war. The various Galactic trading combines werestill calling in and drawing HE3 from the gas giants, as well as making use ofthe facilities in orbit around the planet. Several of the freighters, Markus had heard, were almost certainlyintelligence ships belonging to other interstellar powers, powers that had akeen interest in learning about the human weapons that had done so much toshatter entire Funk fleets. He’d askedif they should be training so publically, but ONI had insisted – and orderedthat the gunboats alter their IFF signatures on every flight, creating animpression of hundreds of gunboats ready to zoom into action. Markus privately doubted that many of theGalactics would be fooled, yet the Hegemony could hardly take the chance ofdiscovering the hard way that so many gunboats existed. They'd certainly be deterred from launching acounterattack until they worked out new tactics to deal with the gunboats.



“You were young once,” Carola reproved him, gently. “You weren't born an ace pilot.”



“Of course I was,” Markus said, mischievously. “My mother always said that I came out of thewomb sporting a handlebar moustache.”



He shrugged. Therehad also been time for the Federation Council to approve the medals andpromotions recommended by the post-battle assessment teams. The Federation didn't have its own medals forits crews, but both of them had been awarded the highest decorations of theirhomelands, as had a number of other pilots. And they’d given extensive interviews to the reporters, interviews thatwould encourage young cadets to try out for the gunboat training programs. The military had never been so popular sincethe end of World War Two. Whateverdoubts had fermented in the minds of civilians since the murky dawn of the waron terror, they’d been blown away by the occupation of Terra Nova and theHegemony’s ruthless pressure campaign against Earth. Now that Terra Nova had been liberated,humanity’s stock was rising high...



There was a chime from the console. “And now the drones are coming online,” hesaid. Four ECM drones, captured whenGaston fell to the Federation Navy, had been deployed to simulate Hegemonysuperdreadnaughts. They weren’t quite upto the standards of human technology, but they’d serve as targets for gunboatexercises. The pilots who got picked offby the – simulated – point defences would be buying the beer in Pilot Countryafterwards.



“All Grumbles, form up on Grumble Five,” he ordered. He should have led the attack – and he wouldhave, if it had been real – but all of the pilots needed to practice leadingthe charge. His luck would run out,sooner or later, as it had for Eagle’s CO. He’d died at Heavenly Gate. “GrumbleFive...take us in as soon as you please.”



Grumble Five altered course and swooped down upon thesimulated superdreadnaughts. Markus watchedthe chaotic formation with approval, even as the superdreadnaughts came to lifeand started to spit bursts of brilliant light towards the incominggunboats. Their weapons systems had beenupgraded by the simulation planners, who’d pointed out that – sooner or later –the Hegemony would find ways to improve its technology. Besides, if the gunboats practiced againsttougher targets than they expected to encounter, it would make their operationsmuch easier.



“Fire at will,” Grumble Fire ordered. “I say again; fire at will.”



Implosion bolts rained down on the lead superdreadnaught,tearing into its hull. Unlike the shipsthe gunboats had targeted so far, superdreadnaughts were so heavily armouredthat it was difficult for the gunboats to inflict enough damage to destroy themquickly. But picking off their weaponsand sensor blisters would cripple them, leaving their commanders forced tochoose between withdrawing or becoming little more than a sitting duck for thehuman cruisers. Markus diverted part ofhis attention to check the overall exercise feed. The simulated superdreadnaughts weresuffering, but not enough, not yet.



Their point defence was doing well too. A pair of gunboats had been blasted out ofspace in a moment of carelessness – one pilot was going to get chewed out whenthey got back to base – and another had narrowly avoided a burst of plasma firethat would have scorched the hull, if it had been real. Markus twisted his gunboat into an evasivepattern as they slashed closer to the lead superdreadnaught, before pulling upand slipping into a new formation. TheHegemony had, so far, been content to ignore gunboats that were heading away from their targets, but it wouldn'tbe long before they realised that gunboat pilots had a tendency to fly predicablevectors while they were leaving and started programming their point defence topick them off. Another gunboat died in aburst of simulated energy and Markus made a mental note to remind his pilotsnot to get cocky. A superdreadnaughtcould soak up one hell of a lot of damage before exploding, but a gunboat couldbe wiped from existence by a single shot.



Still, the superdreadnaughts were starting to staggerunder the weight of the gunboat attack. The rear superdreadnaughts started to drift closer to the lead ships,linking their point defence through the datanet into one entity. After what had happened at Hammerfall, theHegemony would have plenty of incentive to tighten up their datanets andcoordinate their fire against incoming ships. The point defence fire thickened until it seemed impossible that anythingcould survive, even something as small and nimble as a gunboat. Grumble Squadron pressed the attack, closingin to point blank range...



Markus cursed as his gunboat’s consoles flashed up amocking message. He was dead. It rankled, even in a simulation. But it was preferable to being picked off ina real battle. In theory, gunboats wereexpendable compared to the heavier cruisers, yet the human race didn't haveenough gunboats to swarm the entire Hegemony Navy. They’d have to hope that the new weapons andtactics that were already being rushed into development would even the odds. One gunboat – just one – survived the final assault.



“Well,” Markus said, as the exercise came to an end. “I hope we've all learned something fromthis...”



His radio buzzed. “GrumbleLead, this is System Command,” an unfamiliar voice said. “Long-range sensor platforms are picking upcloaking turbulence near your location. Request that you go active and ID the bandits.”



“Understood, System Command,” Markus said. The first order of business, once Gaston’shigh orbitals had been secure, had been to seed the system with stealthedsensor platforms, ones that were capable of picking up a quantum gate severallight-days from the planet. Theirpassive sensors were remarkably capable – and they were almost undetectableunless someone happened to literally stumble across one of them. “We’re on our way.”



He switched back to the gunboat command channel. “All Grumbles, go active; I say again, goactive. The exercise is terminated.”



Carola looked up from her console. “It’s a very minor contact,” she said. “It might be nothing more than a frigatetrying to spy on us.”



“Or the sensor platform might just have picked up thetailing edge of an entire assault fleet,” Markus added. The Galactics had produced an impressivecloaking system for their starships, one that – as far as he knew – humanity hadn'tmanaged to surpass. But a movingstarship produced very faint turbulence that could be detected by a watchingsensor platform, allowing the cloaked ships to be tracked to some degree. One way or another, they had to find outbefore the unknown ships got any closer to the planet. An attack fleet that managed to get intofiring range was going to do a great deal of damage before it wasdestroyed. “Are you picking up anythingon our own sensors?”



“No,” Carola admitted. The gunboat sensors were nowhere near as capable as the systems on thesensor platform. “But they have to knowthat we've seen them.”



Markus nodded. Asquadron of gunboats flying directly towards the oncoming ship – or ships –would be hard to miss. He tossedpossibilities around in his head as the distance closed, wondering just what wasout there, trying to sneak in on Gaston. A scout, or an attack fleet? Theycould be flying right into an ambush if the enemy commander had the nerve towait until the gunboats entered attack range. Or...there were just too many possibilities, none of them good. There were only twelve gunboats in thesystem, after all – and the Hegemony would know it the moment the othergunboats failed to materialise. Maybethey’d be lucky and the unknown ship would be a simple destroyer.



“Picking up turbulence,” Carola snapped. “Datanet calls them targeting systems.”



“Evasive action,” Markus snapped. The icons for a dozen starships appeared infront of him, the heaviest a battlecruiser. Five battlecruisers and seven destroyers, enough to overwhelm many starsystems – and there might be more waiting under cloak. A moment passed, and then the starshipsopened fire, trying to pick off the gunboats before they got too close. Their targeting systems had been improved, Markusnoted; they’d had a chance to reprogram their computers after the firstencounters at Gaston and Heavenly Gate. “Prepareto attack.”

***​

Tobias had been catching up on his sleep when the alarmrang, bringing Nimitz to general quarters. He threw himself out of his bunk, pulled onhis trousers frantically and raced for the CIC, yanking his jacket off the hookand carrying it with him. It feltfaintly absurd to be going into battle without any shoes on, but that would bethe least of his worries if Nimitz wasbadly hit. Regulations stated that allcrewmen were supposed to wear protective clothing if the ship was going intobattle, yet Tobias had cancelled those orders. The protective shipsuits were simply too hot to wear for more than a fewminutes.



“Report,” he barked, as he stepped into the CIC. The starship was coming to life around him,her systems flash-waking as she prepared for battle. Even human-designed technology couldn't berun at full power indefinitely, or wear and tear would grind the equipment downand eventually force the ship to return home for a full refitting. “What do we have?”



Commander Jake Lucas looked up from where he was fillingin for Commander Sooraya Qadir, who’d been granted shore leave on Gaston. Tobias had been allowing a handful ofofficers and men to take shore leave every day, giving them a chance to relaxand explore an alien world. Now thatsome of the cities were reasonably peaceful, it had seemed safe enough.



“An inbound enemy attack fleet,” Lucas reported. “At least twelve starships, including fivebattlecruisers. The gunboat CAP is preparingto engage.”



“Call them back,” Tobias said, studying the display. The Hegemony ships had to have arrivedseveral light-days from the star and made the rest of the transit in normalspace. No one, not even the Cats orhumanity, could open a quantum gate any closer to the star without beingdetected. And that suggested a degree ofpre-planning that indicated that the Hegemony had finally recovered itsbalance. Hammerfall might have shockedsome of them to the point where they were beginning to consider peace terms, atleast according to Ambassador Li, but the Empress really needed a victorybefore she could end the war. “Twelvegunboats won’t make much of an impression on them.”



“No, sir,” Lucas agreed. “Admiral, all ships are reporting ready for action.”



“Good,” Tobias said. He’d been the attacker in every other battle fought by the FederationNavy; now he was the defender – and he didn't like it. Ideally, he would take his ships away fromGaston and fight it out in open space – the Hegemony force was inferior to the First Strike Fleet – but that would meanleaving the planet’s orbital facilities open to attack. They had made some progress in pressingcaptured Hegemony automated weapons platforms into service, yet they wouldn't beenough to stand off an assault on Gaston. And the uneasy peace on the planet below depended on the Federation Navyretaining control of the high orbitals.



In theory, the 1^st Cruiser Squadron alonecould handle the incoming fleet, but it would be tricky. Their shields might be more capable than theHegemony shields, yet they’d be taking fire from several starships simultaneously,including torpedo fire. And every shiphe lost hurt the Federation Navy more than every lost superdreadnaught hurt theHegemony...



And he couldn't afford to lose. “The 1^st and 2^ndCruiser Squadrons are to form up on the flag and prepare to engage the enemy,”he ordered. “The 3^rd CruiserSquadron is to remain in orbit as a reserve.”



“Understood, Admiral,” Lucas said. His hands danced across his console. “Orders sent.”



“Take us out,” Tobias ordered. The Funks would see them coming, ofcourse. One possibility was that theywould simply jump back into quantum space and escape, without attempting toengage the human ships. The Funks mighthave been barbaric, but they were hardly stupid...and they'd know that Tobias’sfleet had smashed superdreadnaughts. “All units are to prepare to engage theenemy.”



He settled back into his command chair, worrying. Something didn't quite add up. He could have understood the Funks raidingthe asteroid mining complexes or the cloudscoops, even though that would haveirritated the other Galactics, but why would they send a demonstrably inferiorforce into battle that could only have one outcome? Maybe the Empress wanted to get rid of thecommanding officer...no, surely the Funks wouldn’t throw away so many shipsjust to assassinate someone who had displeased their Empress. Unless there were more ships hiding in cloak...



...But it would have required omniscience to know when they would be detected by thehuman defenders. One tactical lesson thehumans – and the Funks, he assumed – had taken directly from the Galactics wasthat military operations should always follow the KISS principle. Keep It Simple, Stupid. The more complex a military plan, the greaterthe potential for a screw-up that would cost lives and equipment. Unless the Funks had their own secretstockpile of advanced technology, they couldn't have detected the sensorplatforms...maybe they’d hoped to get closer to the planet before beingdetected. And yet even that didn't make sense.



“Admiral, the Funks are altering course,” Lucasreported. “They’re heading in righttowards us.”



It had to be atrick, Tobias told himself. The Funks weren'tinsane. They had to know that their force was aboutto get chopped into mush, even though they’d damage the human fleet before theywere destroyed. Were they so reluctantto go home and admit failure that they would prefer to be destroyedinstead? There had certainly been somehuman commanders who would have understood that feeling, even shared it. Better death than dishonour...and yet, theoutcome of a battle was never as important as the outcome of a war.



“Order the fleet to spread out,” Tobias ordered,finally. Maybe the Funks had come upwith their own version of the missile cloud and arsenal ship. They might not have anything speciallydesigned for the role, but they could cram extra torpedo launchers into theirhulls or outfit a freighter as an additional torpedo platform. It would be surprisingly inventive, yet theFunks weren’t idiots. They’d seen themissile cloud in action and had plenty of incentive to duplicate it for themselves. Not that it would be that helpful against human technology, but it would certainlythreaten the other Galactics. “Launchrecon probes towards the enemy force.”



He watched as the probes slid away from his ships,heading out past the Funk formation. Recon probes were the most sensitive platforms in the fleet, althoughthey weren't as stealthy as the satellites they’d positioned around the system. If there were additional cloaked units hidingbehind the ships they’d spotted, they’d be detected before the human fleet flewright into their waiting jaws. But whatif the Funks were trying something else...?



“Two minutes to engagement range,” Lucas reported. The human cruisers would pick up speed and manoeuvrearound the enemy ships, rather than the battering match that the Hegemonycommander seemed to be trying to entice them to accept. Phase cannons would tear through theirshields and obliterate the enemy ships. “Admiral...oneof the enemy ships just transited out.”



“Odd,” Tobias said. Something was nagging at the back of his mind. Why hadn't they all fled? “Why would theysend one destroyer away...?”



He broke off as an alarm sounded. “Admiral, a new quantum gate is forming,right on top of us,” Lucas snapped. Tobiasswore out loud as the shape of the enemy trap became clear. “I'm reading another nine battlecruisers andseventeen destroyers, closing rapidly on attack vector. They’re broadcasting a demand for surrender.”



“Alert all ships,” Tobias ordered, ignoring the surrenderdemand. They’d been suckered, allright. The Hegemony had kept the otherhalf of the assault fleet in quantum space until the human ships were in theright position. And he’d flown rightinto the trap! “Prepare to engage theenemy.”

 

Chapter Thirty-One



“Force Two closing to engagement range,” Lucas said. “Enemy ships are locking targeting sensors onus.”



“Deploy ECM countermeasures,” Tobias ordered. He would have preferred to keep thosesurprises for the next attack on a Hegemony system, but there was no otherchoice. Even if they wiped out theentire attack force, they’d still take heavy losses. “And then bring the fleet around. Take us right at Force Two.”



The Funks had planned their trap well, even though therewere some aspects they'd have had to leave to chance. Hide a fleet in quantum space, dangle bait infront of the human defenders...and wait until the humans walked right into thetrap. They’d even had the unexpectedbonus that Tobias had left a third of his fleet in orbit, rather than bringingit all out to challenge the cloaked ships. There was no way they could have counted on that, which suggested thatthey felt that they had enough firepower to defeat all three cruisersquadrons. The only alternative to anengagement was to run – and that would mean leaving Gaston undefended, readyfor the Funks to move back in and launch reprisals against the non-Funkpopulation.



Humanity’s ECM drones spread out ahead of the fleet. Each one was capable of creating a dozensensor ghosts, a variant on the tactic that had made the missile cloud soeffective. The Funks would be unable totell the difference between real or ghost ships at long range, but theypresumably had locked their sensors on the real ships. Using countermeasures, the locks broke,rendering it far harder for them to work out which ships were real. It still wouldn't be enough, if only becausethe ghost ships couldn't engage the enemy. They’d fire on any ship that fired on their formation.



The distance between the two forces closed rapidly. Behind the Federation Navy, Force Oneabandoned its casual approach to Gaston and brought its drives to full power,intent on helping Force Two to crush the human fleet. Once they combined their ships, they wouldpresumably advance on Gaston and force Tobias to engage them or surrender theplanet. The gunboats twisted around,ready to slash down into Force Two. There would be so many targets that the point defences would have problemstracking the gunboats. But there werestill only twelve of them...



“Force Two entering phase cannon range,” Lucasreported. Humanity’s slight rangeadvantage might just even the odds. “Allships report ready to engage the enemy.”



“Fire at will,” Tobias ordered.



Nimitz openedfire, brilliant beams of energy lancing out towards the enemy ships andstriking their shields, just before the rotating modulation hit on the rightfrequency and slashed directly into the target’s hull. The enemy ship twisted at once, rotating itsown shield frequency in hopes of avoiding serious damage, but it was too lateto stop the phase cannons from digging deep into her hull. She rolled out of the enemy formation,trailing plasma as her crew fought to save their ship. An antimatter torpedo from one of Nimitz’s consorts finished her offbefore her crew could escape.



The enemy fleet opened fire seconds later, bombarding theentire human fleet with phase cannon fire. They seemed to be scattering their fire, something that made no senseuntil Tobias realised that it was a way to separate the sensor ghosts out fromthe real ships. Nimitz rocked as a phase cannon burst stuck her hull, just beforeshe unleashed a spread of torpedoes towards an enemy battlecruiser. Compressed antimatter flared out in thedarkness of space and the enemy ship lost her shields. A moment later, she vaporised as a torpedoexploded against her unprotected hull.



Tobias smiled darkly as the range continued tonarrow. The Funks had largely separated outthe sensor ghosts now, but they were still drawing fire as skilled ECM crewsprojected the ghosts forward, ahead of the advancing ships. Several human ships had taken damage, yetthey were all still moving, their weapons digging into enemy hulls. The Funks opened fire with antimattertorpedoes of their own, only to discover that humanity had learned how todeploy their phase cannons as point defence weapons. Only a handful of torpedoes survived tostrike home.



“John Paul Jones is taking heavy fire,” Lucas reported. “Her Captain is requesting permission todisengage...”



“Granted,” Tobias snapped. It was too late. The cruiser had been broadsided by a pair ofenemy battlecruisers, her shields failing before she could escape. A brace of antimatter torpedoes finished heroff and she vanished in a ball of fire. “OrderFarragut and Cochrane to watch for survivors as they blaze through that part of theenemy formation.”



Nimitz rotatedin space, spinning alongside the hull of one of the enemy battlecruisers. They were far too close to risk unleashing antimattertorpedoes, but her phase cannons dug deeply into the enemy hull. A direct hit blew through one of thebattlecruiser’s fusion plants and a chain reaction of explosions tore herapart. Two of her consorts attempted touse her death agonies as cover to bring their own weapons to bear on theimprudent human ship, but Nimitz turnedand showed them her heels, launching a spread of torpedoes to cover herretreat. Open space beckoned in front ofthe human ships and they raced for it, two cruisers trailing plasma as theyescaped Force Two.



“Order the 3^rd Cruiser Squadron to leave orbitand reinforce us,” Tobias ordered. Between reinforcements and the damage they’d inflicted on Force Two, theodds would be a great deal more even. Ifhe’d been in the enemy’s shoes, he would have seriously considered takingadvantage of the brief pause to open a quantum gate and escape, knowing that he’dalready dented the myth of human invincibility. “Togo and Surcouf are to break contact and jump out to Point Shiloh.”



“Aye, sir,” Lucas said. Point Shiloh, one light year away from Garston, was where the fleettrain was waiting, a handful of ships loaded with supplies and repairworkers. The mobile shipyard andfabricator wasn't exactly a new idea, but the Federation Navy had taken therisk of constructing mobile units rather than a handful of heavily-defendedshipyards like most of the Galactics. Earth had only had fifteen years to produce a space-capable industry anda number of corners had had to be cut. “ForceOne and Force Two are uniting now.”



Tobias nodded. He’dexpected as much, but unless the enemy chose to withdraw he would have toengage them again. There were hundredsof thousands of human soldiers on the planet, mostly national rather thanFederation units. Abandoning them couldbring down the entire edifice. Inhindsight, they’d badly underestimated the Funks – and their ability to bounceback from losing more tonnage than the entire Federation Navy.



And a single defeat could mean the end of the war.



“General Chekov is attempting to raise you, sir,” Lucassaid. Chekov was the overall commanderon the ground, now that the Federation Marines had been relieved by nationalunits. “The message is marked urgent.”



Tobias scowled. The Funks were sorting out their formation, slipping Force One’s shipsforward to replace the losses inflicted on Force Two. Their datanets were presumably as capable asthose belonging to the other Galactics; slotting the other ships into theirholes wouldn't take longer than a few minutes. If they’d attacked then...but they couldn’t, not until his fleet wasconcentrated.



“Pass him to me,” he said, picking up his earpiece. “And order the fleet to prepare to move on mycommand.”



“Admiral,” Chekov’s voice said. Like most officers cleared to work with theFederation, his English was perfect, although with a faint Russian accent. “I understand that we have visitors.”



“Yes,” Sampson said, tightly. Multinational operations had always been aheadache even before Mentor had arrived and turned Earth upside down. At least Chekov had a reputation for being competent,commanding the Russian forces that had assisted in disarming and occupyingNorth Korea after the Second Korean War. Some of the horror stories about multinational forces from before FirstContact had been chilling. “I supposeyou could put it that way.”



“I have ordered my forces to go dark,” Chekov said. “If you have to withdraw from the system, we’llgive the bastards a welcome they’ll never forget.”



“It’s not over yet,” Sampson said. He understood what Chekov was trying to say –and he was grateful – but the Funks would simply bombard the planet intosubmission from high orbit, once they drove away the Federation Navy. Chekov would be forced into surrender oncehis forces were targeted from well outside their own range. It was possible that the Galactics wouldrespond harshly, particularly after so many horror stories about how the Funkshad treated the other races had been transmitted onto the news networks, butTobias knew that they couldn't take it for granted. “If we have to leave...”



He shook his head. “Thank you,” he said. “Earth willnot forget.”

***​

“Here they come,” Markus said. “On my mark...engage!”



The gunboats slipped out of their holding formation andraced towards the enemy rear. Unsurprisingly, the Funks had continued their drive on Gaston, knowingthat the humans would have to either engage them or surrender the planet whenthey got into orbit. Markus hadpositioned Grumble Squadron outside the Funk engagement range and waited. Now all twelve gunboats, supported by themost advanced ECM systems in the galaxy, closed in on their targets from therear. It was the closest thing they hadto a weak spot that could be exploited.



A handful of Funk destroyers turned to intercept them asthe gunboats closed in on their targets, spitting point defence fire towardsthe human ships. It wasn't a bad tactic,Markus had to admit, but it didn't quite take account of gunboat speed and manoeuvrability. The gunboats lanced through the destroyers,holding their fire, and left them behind in their wake. Markus would have preferred to remain behindand engage them, wiping them out one by one, but there was no time to clear theway properly. Their targets were the bigbattlecruisers before they could engage the human cruisers.



The Funks refused to be distracted by the gunboats,either because they knew there were fewer gunboats in the attacking force thanit seemed, or because they intended to absorb the damage inflicted by thegunboats and keep going. Without eithergunboats or assault shuttles of their own, there was really little otherchoice. Markus braced himself as theyslid into engagement range, and then led his squadron mates towards the enemy battlecruiser. He touched the trigger and sprayed a handfulof implosion bolts towards the big drive structure at the rear of theship. There were fewer point defenceblisters surrounding their target, making it easier to hit.



There was an explosion and the Funk starship fell out offormation as her drives failed. Markus wantedto finish her off, but there was no time; instead, they had to cripple as manyof the other battlecruisers as possible. The destroyers had caught up with them and were attempting to shieldtheir larger companions, knowing that even if they served as targets for thegunboats they could still distract them from their mission. Markus cursed aloud as one of the maggots –the new pilots – slammed right into a destroyer’s shields, vanishing in a ballof flame that barely scratched the ship’s defences. A mistake at the wrong time could cost apilot everything.



Another Funk battlecruiser loomed up in front of him andhe led his gunboats towards her, firing implosion bolts that dug deep into theship’s hull. The sheer volume of pointdefence fire was impressive, suggesting that the Funks had outfitted theirships with extra weapons from Hammerfall. There had certainly been enough cripples from the last battle to serveas a convenient source of spare parts.



Tiny explosions blossomed along the target’s hull as thegunboats raced towards her drives. Adestroyer appeared out of nowhere, targeting the gunboats and picking off twoof them before they could evade. Markus swalloweda curse as the remaining gunboats flipped over and drove away from the newthreat, their weapons automatically tracking and picking away at theirtarget. The battlecruiser would havetime to engage before the remains of Grumble Squadron could reform and fall onher again. At least the maggots had morethan proved themselves, those who had survived. Only six Grumbles remained to take the offensive once more.



They have to knowwe were bluffing now, he thought. We’d have launched every gunboat we had atthem, if we’d had the gunboats to launch.

***​

Tobias braced himself as Nimitz lanced towards the enemy formation, ready to open fire assoon as she came into range. This time,he intended to try a variant on an old Galactic tactic, one he wouldn't havedared try against superdreadnaughts. Thefleet advanced and came to a halt, relative to the enemy fleet, as soon as itentered weapons range. Humanity’s phasecannons could harm the enemy ships from outside their own range, at least intheory. It was time to find out if thatwas actually true.



“Open fire,” he ordered. Deadly beams lanced towards their target, splashing away from enemyshields. The rotating modulation trick wasn'tso effective at long range, if only because the phase cannon beams tended tofade as the range opened. Rotatingshields randomly wasn’t supposed to be possible for the Galactics, but oncethey realised what the humans could do it was certain that they’d attempt todiscover a countermeasure to the human weapons. “Damage report?”



“Minimal,” Lucas admitted. “We’re hurting their shields, but beam diffusionis too great to damage their hulls. Weneed to engage at closer range.”



Tobias nodded. “Takeus in,” he ordered. “Open fire withantimatter torpedoes as soon as we enter range.”



Space became a boiling mass of energy as antimattertorpedoes slammed against their targets. Five more Hegemony battlecruisers vanished in the blaze, along with apair of destroyers, but they didn't die alone. Perry died before any of hercrew could escape, while Jellicoe staggeredaway, too badly damaged to even open a quantum gate and escape the battle. If the Hegemony had targeted her, they wouldhave blown her apart before it was too late; instead, the battlecruisersstarted to angle away from the planet. Tobias watched in disbelief as the Funks turned and retreated, leavingtheir puzzled opponents in command of the battlefield. Moments later, they opened a quantum gate andvanished. The battle seemed to be over.



“Maybe it’s a trap,” Lucas said, as puzzled as hissuperior. “Maybe they expect us to chasethem into quantum space and run right into another formation of ships.”



Tobias shook his head. The Galactics were reluctant to fight battles in quantum space, for fearthat the disruptive storms would give the weaker side an advantage. It was a known fact that quantum spaceresponded to weapons fire, although no one had managed to come up with an explanationas to why. The Funks would hardly haverisked a battle in quantum space if there was any alternative.



“Curious,” he said. “I wonder...”



“Sir, I’m picking up transmissions from Convoy-46,” Lucassaid, suddenly. “They just entered thesystem. Her CO didn't even realise thatthere was a battle underway until they picked it up on their sensors.”



Tobias started to laugh, despite himself. The Funks had detected the convoy too and hadassumed that the freighters were more arsenal ships. It wasn't as if the missile cloud would be souseful against targets in clear space, where they could jump into quantum spaceand escape, but they couldn't have risked the total obliteration of their forcewithout inflicting equal or greater losses on their foe.



“Welcome her CO to the system and thank him for histimely arrival,” he said. “And then getthe repair crews to work. I want all ofthe damaged ships repaired before we return to Hammerfall.”



He settled down in his command chair. “And pass a message to all ships,” headded. “Well done.”

***​

An hour later, he found himself studying a report that didn'tplease him in the slightest. Two of thedamaged ships could be returned to service within five days, but the remainderwould require several weeks at the very least. Whatever they’d had in mind – retaking Gaston or reconnaissance in force– they’d accomplished at least one of their goals. The Federation Navy would be unable to takethe offensive and return to Hammerfall, unless he called up reinforcements fromEarth. And doing that risked leavinghumanity’s homeworld uncovered.



The Hegemony could lose a dozen worlds like Hammerfall andkeep going. Humanity couldn’t afford tolose Earth and the industry that had been painstakingly built up in the solarsystem over the last fifteen years. Presumably,the Funks knew that as well as he did. He was mildly surprised that they hadn't ready tried to raid the system,even if they were spooked by thethought of what kind of defences humanity might have emplaced aroundEarth. Tobias was one of the very fewwho knew that humanity’s fixed defences were minimal, almost non-existent. There had been no time to constructfortresses when the Federation Navy needed starships.



He shook his head. But there was no real choice. They had to call up the reserves and continue the advance, hammeringaway at the Hegemony. It couldn't belong before someone overthrew the Empress. Even if the war ended tomorrow, the clans would need years to rebuildall they’d lost. If the Hegemonyrecovered first, humanity was screwed, without lube.



They’d just have to see what they could do to keep theHegemony off-balance until they were ready to win the war.

 

Chapter Thirty-Two


“What do we have today?”



“One bulk freighter, two general freighters and a pair ofdestroyers,” Karla said. “Traffic hasbeen really slowing down lately.”



Joshua nodded. TheTraders Alliance wasn't the only organisation that claimed to supervise interstellartrade, but it represented hundreds of thousands of independent shippers andsmall trading companies. Joshua was amember himself. Even their rivals, asmuch as they would appreciate the chance to sneak business from under the Alliance’snose, wouldn't be inclined to break the embargo on the Hegemony. The Funks were making it harder forindependent freighter commanders to make a honest living.



Ironically, it was also making it harder for the pirates. With fewer ships travelling through thethreatened sectors, the Funks had a chance to escort more of them with escortsheavy enough to daunt even the Clunker fleet. The rebels were still committed, but some of the pirates were edgingaway, perhaps to the point of considering selling Joshua out to the Funks. They’d find it harder to make a living if theFunks kept escorting their ships – and they were less inclined to pick fightswith any warship. Getting rid of Joshuahad to seem like a bargain to them. He’dresponded by moving most of his activities away from the known asteroidcolonies and keeping as much as he could firmly out of sight. Even if they did manage to sell him out tothe Funks, the rebellion would go on.



“It can't be a very important cargo,” Joshua said,thoughtfully. The last convoy they’dseen had been escorted by four heavy cruisers, far too much to tangle with forhis little fleet. What intelligence they’dpicked up had suggested that the Funks had been moving heavy industrial equipment. Unlike most Galactics, the Funks weren't tookeen on the idea of developing colonies building their own industries, eventhough it would save them a great deal of money in shipping costs. “But if we could take out those destroyers...”



He smiled, coldly. The Hegemony had been losing a great many escorts lately, thanks toJoshua and his men. Even a force thesize of the Hegemony Navy had to be feeling the pain; light units were neededto escort their superdreadnaughts as well as everything else and they couldn't replenishtheir losses quickly enough. It was hardto tell if his tactics were having a major effect on the Hegemony, but with thetrade embargo and the pirate raids, the Hegemony had to be in trouble. Their currency had been falling compared tothe Galactic Credit for the last two weeks. It wouldn't be long before they had to dip into their own stockpile ofcredits to purchase almost anything they wanted from outside the Hegemony. The knock-on effects would certainly destroythe economy...



...On the other hand, plenty of human governments hadgritted their teeth and kept fighting even in the face of economicdisaster. Why couldn't the Funks showthe same resilience?



“Take us in on attack vector,” he ordered. There were enough ships in the raiding forceto hunt down all of the freighters if they tried to scatter. “Prepare to engage the enemy.”



The standard Hegemony tactic for dealing with pirates wasto mount a resolute defence and hope that that deterred the pirates frompressing the offensive. Joshua hadplanned for that, but instead the Hegemony seemed to be playing it very cagily. The destroyers were hanging back , guardingthe freighters, a tactic that suggested that they weren’t eager to fight. And that made little sense.



“Maybe one of their Great Ladies is onboard the freighter,”Karla suggested. “Someone worth a fewmillion credits to them.”



Joshua shrugged. It was possible, but Great Ladies normally didn't travel on anythingsmaller than a battlecruiser. On theother hand, it was also possible that the Hegemony had recalled most of itsgood crews and starships to the war front and left behind the dregs of theservice, Funks who were less inclined to die for the Hegemony. But if they wanted to live, they should havescattered and hoped to lose themselves within quantum space. What was going on...?



“The bulk freighter is coming apart,” Karla said,puzzled. “The hull appears to becrumbling into its component pieces.”



“Odd,” Joshua said. The Cats had developed hulls that were held together by a combination ofprehensile materials and the ship’s structural integrity field. They could be damaged, but it was rare forone to simply wear out, certainly on a starship belonging to a reasonablycapable galactic power. It made no senseat all, unless...



“Break off,” he snapped. “It’s a trap!”



The power signature of a Hegemony battlecruiser appeared,rising up out of the remains of the bulk freighter. Someone on the other side had heard ofQ-ships and decided to go one better, hiding a battlecruiser within a bulk freighteruntil the enemy ships entered attack range. The battlecruiser couldn't have used its own targeting sensors withoutgiving the gave away too soon, but there was no reason why it couldn't drawtargeting solutions from the destroyers falling in behind it. Joshua and his ships were already withinrange.



“Order all ships to scatter,” he said, grimly. The pirates were going to hate him forleading them into a trap. Some of therebels might even have second thoughts about facing the Hegemony. They might be able to defeat thebattlecruiser, but the cost would be far too high. “We’ll regroup at Point Delta.”



“They’ve locked onto our hull,” Karla snapped. “The battlecruiser is opening fire.”



“Evasive action,” Joshua ordered. “Configure the torpedoes for proximitydetonation and return fire.”



Blackbeard lurchedas she launched a spread of antimatter torpedoes, just before the first enemytorpedo slammed into her shields. If thebattlecruiser had concentrated her fire, they would have been vaporised. As it was, Blackbeard spun like a top, hopefully convincing the Hegemony shipthat she’d been badly damaged. Eddies ofquantum space energy shimmered around her as the fleet scattered, leaving thebattlecruiser and her two escorts to pick targets and go after them. Joshua wondered, grimly, if someone hadmanaged to sell them out already, before deciding that it was unlikely. The Hegemony had simply gotten lucky – and he’dgot sloppy. He should have sensed thetrap before they committed themselves.



“They’re coming after us,” Karla reported. “Damn – those sensors are powerful.”



“Crash transition,” Joshua snapped. They might be able to hide in quantum spacesenergy storms, but not if the battlecruiser had a clear lock on theirhull. “Get us into normal space.”



Blackbeard shuddered,as if the hull was about to break apart, before finally crashing back down intonormal space. “Go dark,” Joshuaordered. They’d already taken down mostof the systems that would have released betraying emissions, but even a pirate shiphad active sensors and targeting systems. There was no point in trying to run if the battlecruiser came afterthem. “Shut down everything we canwithout compromising ourselves.”



Karla snorted. “Worsethan we are already?”



An alarm from the tactical console cut off the retortthat rose to Joshua’s lips. “The bastardjust made transit,” he said. “Maybe theydid know who we are after all.”



The enemy battlecruiser wasn't trying to hide. Her active sensors swept space, projecting animage of iron determination to track down her prey. Joshua watched her through passive sensors,wondering just what kind of reward would be offered to the enemy commander ifshe managed to take the infamous pirate king alive. After all the chaos he’d caused, the Funkshad probably put millions of credits on his head. But then, how would they know they’d caughtthe real pirate king?



Karla looked over at him. “If she paints us, we’re dead,” she said. Her voice was very quiet. “Now what?”



“We wait,” Joshua said. He keyed the intercom. “Allhands, an enemy starship is hunting us. Do not activate anything thatmight betray our location.”



“Everyone is going to be whispering,” Karla said,softly. They shared a grin. “We don’t dare even risk a VR simulation.”



“I always thought that they were bad for kids,” Joshuasaid. “I guess we’ll have to have our pleasuresthe old-fashioned way.”



He shook his head, slowly. Hollywood had been slow to understand the potentialin Galactic-designed VR simulation packages, which had left the big-name filmproducers struggling to catch up when the bell finally rang. Who wanted to watch the latest actor playingSpiderman when a VR simulation could put a watcher directly into Spiderman’s outfit? Joshua had made millions of dollars sellingsystems imported from nearby Galactic worlds by the time Earth had finallyproduced its own version. Unsurprisingly, the pornography industry had been among the first tocapitalise on the market. VR sex wasclear, private and almost any kind of fantasy could be played out inside aperson’s head.



A long hour passed as the enemy ship hunted them, hersensors probing every last piece of space dust. Luckily, her transition had come several minutes after Blackbeard’s, leaving her some distancefrom the point where Joshua had returned to normal space. A few kilometres in quantum space could meanlight-minutes in the mundane universe. It was also quite possible that Blackbeardhad broken apart through the stress of the transition and had beenvaporised. But the Funks wouldn't wantto assume that if they knew who they were chasing.



“They might go dark themselves,” Karla said, slowly. “It might trick us into believing that they’vedeparted.”



“We’ll just have to be careful,” Joshua said. He’d evaded pirates in quantum space, butnormal space was a whole different problem. Even the slightest transmission might betray their location, let alonepowering up the drives and trying to flee. He worked it out, piece by piece, in his mind. By the time they managed to power up enoughto jump back into quantum space, the enemy battlecruiser would be right on topof them. “Unless...”



He looked over at her. “Do we have any of the static bombs left onboard?”



“Only a couple,” Karla said. She stared at him. “We’ll never be able to use them to destroythat ship.”



“I don’t intend to destroy that ship,” Joshua assuredher. “I have something sneakier in mind.”

***​

Almost every Galactic-designed starship carried a WorkerBee, a tiny self-contained spacecraft intended to allow the crew to do outsidethe ship and carry out routine maintenance work on the hull. Only one human could fit inside the Bee atany one time, which limited its use as far as starship maintenance wasconcerned, but Joshua had other plans. It took nearly twenty minutes to pack both of the static bombs insidethe Worker Bee, during which time Karla reported that the enemy battlecruiserwas slowly, but surely drawing nearer. Their search pattern would have been admirable if they hadn't been chasingBlackbeard, Joshua had to admit; they’dbe able to give any suspicious sensor reading a thorough examination before decidingthat it was nothing more than a stray atom.



“We’re ready, sir,” the Chief Engineer said. “Seems a bit of a waste, man, but better itthan us.”



“Yep,” Joshua agreed. Losing the entire Bee would be a fine trade if it saved theirlives. “You may fire the gas cylinderswhen ready.”



The Funks would have detected a drive field the moment itpowered up, but they wouldn't be able to detect a stream of gas shielded by Blackbeard’s hull. It would take several minutes for the Bee toreach the best position for stage two of Joshua’s plan, giving him time toprepare his crew for action when the time came. They’d have to move swiftly. Evenif the plan succeeded perfectly, the Funks wouldn't be surprised for long. Guided by a pinpoint communications laser,the Worker Bee moved steadily away from the hull. Unless they got very lucky, the Funks wouldbe unable to detect her.



“She’s nearing Point Fred,” Karla said. She’d mocked his choice of name mercilessly,but now she was all professional. “Doyou want me to take her active?”



Joshua sat down in his command chair, and thennodded. “You may fire when ready, Gridley.”



The Worker Bee’s active sensors came online. With a little careful tweaking, they lookedlike a damaged starship’s sensors trying to work out just what had happened totheir opponent, risking detection in the process. The Funks certainly picked her up at once;their battlecruiser wheeled around and raced towards the Worker Bee, hersensors locking onto the new threat. It wouldn'tbe more than a few seconds before they realised that they’d been tricked, butthere would be just enough time for them to get too close to the WorkerBee. The static bombs detonatedtogether, destroying the Bee and flooding space with brilliant radiation. Static bombs were useless in fleet actions –they blinded both sides indiscriminately and their effects didn't take long toshake off - but they worked very well as part of a sabotage mission. For as long as it took the Funks to reboottheir computers and replace blinded sensor blisters, the battlecruiser wasblind.



“Bring up the drive,” Joshua ordered. Blackbeardhummed to life, alarmingly close to the battlecruiser’s last reportedposition. Her passive sensors had beendamaged too, even though she’d been further away from the Bee than thebattlecruiser. “Take us out of here,now!”



It took several minutes for the battlecruiser to repairits sensor systems. By the time itstarted sweeping space again, Blackbird wasalready opening up a quantum gate and vanishing into quantum space. The battlecruiser gave chase, but it was fartoo late. Joshua and his crew had made aclean break and lost themselves within the storms of quantum space.



“Thank God,” he said, as they realised that they weresafe. A single error in the timing couldhave cost them their lives. “That couldhave ended badly.”



Karla chuckled. “Isuppose it could have done, sir,” she agreed. She seemed to hesitate, and then winked at him. “Want to join me in my cabin to celebrate?”



Joshua blinked at her, and then pushed his doubtsaside. “Why not?” He asked. A hundred possible answers arose in his mind, but he pushed themdown. It would be two days until theycould return to Shadow, whatever else happened. “I don’t think we'll have much more to celebrate for a while.”

***​

Joshua had been feeling paranoid when they returned toShadow and had taken care to bring Blackbeardout of quantum space some distance from the asteroid. Even so, it was easy to see the expandingshell of debris where the asteroid had once been, torn apart by antimattertorpedoes launched by Hegemony starships. Some of the drifting clouds of debris looked to have come fromstarships, hunted down and destroyed by the invaders while trying toescape. The Funks had hit the system,blown apart the asteroid, and left again, leaving the debris as a silentwarning to anyone who had thought that the secret colony was a safe place tohide from their wrath.



Few of the people on Shadow had been morally uptightcitizens, even of societies where anarchy was the general rule. They’d been criminals, hunted by their owngovernments and every other government in the galaxy, or rebels from theHegemony and a dozen other repressive powers. But one man’s terrorist was another’s freedom fighter. The Funks would have obliterated rebels fromany other power with the same lack of compassion they would show to theGobbles, or insurgents on Terra Nova. They’d probably sent the other governments a bill.



“They’ve mined local space,” Karla said. She was quietlyprofessional, betraying nothing of the passion she had shared with him over twolong nights. Joshua found it easier tograsp than most; freighter crews got very close or they ended the voyage hatingeach other. He’d always found it easierto assign ships to married couples than singletons. “Nothing particularly subtle – they wanted the mines to be detected.”



“Their version of sowing the ground with salt,” Joshuamuttered. “They wanted to make sure thatthe message was rubbed home. Thou shallnot conspire against the Funky bastards.”



He shook his head. Someone had definitely betrayed him, probably one of the pirates he’dpulled into his growing fleet. Or maybeone of the rebels was actually a long-term sleeper agent from theHegemony. Some of the tricks theGalactics had developed had horrifying implications. It was possible to program someone to be anunwitting spy, leaving them unaware of their actions – and if tested under alie detector, swearing that they were innocent because they believed that they were innocent.



But unless they’d had access to more information that waspossible, they wouldn't have been able to wipe out the other bases, or even therest of the Clunker fleet. The tinyfleet of freighters carrying his supplies wouldn't have been touched. And that left him with options, includingsome the Funks would never suspect. Theymight believe that they’d killed the pirate king, or at the very leastscattered and unnerved his followers, but they were in for a surprise. Joshua smiled to himself, remembering thestrange civilisation that had existed inside the asteroid, and then looked overat Karla.



“Take us out of here,” he ordered.



“Aye, sir,” Karla said. She looked down at her console, before looking up at him again. “And where exactly are we going?”



“Point Pooh,” Joshua said. They’d meet up with the remainder of thefleet, at least those who had stayed loyal, on the way. Some of the pirates probably wouldn't stoprunning until they reached a whole different sector, but the rebels had nowhereelse to go. “And then we’re going to Tauscher. It’s time to give the Hegemony a very unpleasantsurprise.”

 

<b><font size="3">ChapterThirty-Threefficeffice" /><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com“I must say that Earth was not impressed with ThirdGaston,” Admiral Sun said. “I spent fartoo much time soothing the nerves of old women of both genders.”



“Neither was I,” Tobias said. Gaston had been settled long enough to have afirst-class interstellar communications array. Right now, part of him was wishing that it had been accidentallydestroyed during the invasion of the system. “It was just a reminder that our enemy is more inventive than we wouldprefer.”



“The incident certainly disturbed our political masters,”Sun confirmed. “It took hours of arguingto convince them to sign off on the transfer of the 4^th Cruiser Squadronto the war front. That will have consequencesback on Earth.”



He wasn't explicit – for fear of interception, even withthe best encryption programs in the galaxy – but Tobias knew what hemeant. Earth’s defences would rest inthe hands of a single squadron of modern cruisers, a number of refittedseventh-hand starships purchased from the Galactics and a handful of gunboatsthat were meant to be working up for their own transfer to the war front. It was just possible that the two capturedsuperdreadnaughts could also be pressed into service, but the last report hadsuggested that it would be at least six months before they were ready for evenlocal defence. Besides, if Earth startedbuilding superdreadnaughts rather than cruisers, they’d be massively outgunnedby the Hegemony.



But there would belittle difference, he reminded himself, dryly. We aremassively outgunned by the Hegemony.



“There have also been political consequences on Centre,”Sun added. “Some of the negotiations forloans and starship purchases have stalled. The Hegemony is still proclaiming its faith in total victory and you canbet your life that they won’t pick up our tab if they win. Not all of the Galactics are badly spooked,but even the ones who are still willing to deal want collateral for anyloans. And we don't have much to offerthem. A couple of the bastards want usto sign Gaston over to them. The Federation Council is divided on thequestion – if we accept, we lose all revenue from the system, but if theHegemony takes it back...”



“We lose it anyway,” Tobias agreed. “And simply denying it to the Hegemony doesn'treally impact upon their ability to fund the war.”



“Not so much as the Traders Alliance has,” Sun said. “I’ve had teams of sociologists studying thequestion ever since they laid down the embargo on the Hegemony. Some believe that the Traders Alliance canafford to keep up the embargo for several years, others think that a few monthswould be enough to convince it to rethink its policy. It’s really just a gigantic trade union and aunion that conspicuously fails to look after the interests of its members isdoomed. There are really too manyfactors for them to make a precise estimate.”



“There always are,” Tobias said. He had limited faith in sociologists, letalone the headshrinkers that infested the personnel departments of theFederation Navy. Most of them were purelycivilian and never had any real understanding of the military mindset, doingmore harm than good. “As always,perception is so much more importantthan reality.”



He shrugged. “I believethat it is time to move ahead with Operation Doolittle,” he said. “It carries risks of its own, but we need to re-establishthe myth of human invincibility as quickly as possible. I’d also like to take First Strike Fleetforwards and deal with the remaining starships at Hammerfall. Recon missions have confirmed that the enemyships came from that system.”



“Despite the mines we laid in orbit,” Sun said. “I understood that you opposed invading andoccupying Hammerfall.”



“Taking it would be pointless, once we reduced thedefences and its ability to support a fleet,” Tobias said. “Unlike Gaston, there are no interstellar shippinglanes that rely on the planet as a base. The Funks would simply destroy everything in orbit before they left,leaving us without any gains to show for our losses. But if we take out the starships, we shouldthrow them back on the defensive.”



“And hope it’s enough to unseat their Empress,” Sunagreed. “We have been picking up reports of...social unrest on a dozen Hegemonyworlds. The Empress appears to be firmlyin control, but discontent is spreading. I think that our policy of raiding worlds connected to the major clansis starting to pay dividends.”



“Let’s hope that it pays off in a big way soon,” Tobiassaid. “It was clear from their attemptto negotiate with Ambassador Li that they weren't serious about talking peace.”



“Some of the diplomats wanted to accept the offer,” Sunsaid, dryly. “The US State Departmentwas very vocal on the subject. You’dthink they’d have learned a few lessons from pretty much their entire existence,but...” He shrugged. “The President is made of sterner stuff,luckily for us. America was one of themajor investors in Terra Nova, after all, and lost thousands of colonists tothe Funks. But in the long term, publicopinion may swing against the war. TheHegemony has been crowing to everyone who will listen about Third Gaston.”



“And elections are coming up in Britain and France,” Tobiassaid. “At least the Hegemony didn't maketheir offer publically.”



“Some of the details leaked out,” Sun admitted. “Probably from the State Department. The Funks would probably be forced to denythat they’d ever considered talking peace if challenged – the Empress’sposition would become untenable. I’vebeen pressing for strong action to be taken against the leakers, but you knowhow hard it is to punish anyone for leaking information to the press in Washington. It may even have cost us our chance to endthis war while we’re ahead and the bastard reporters don’t give a damn.”



He shook his head. “I’ll keep you informed of developments,” he said. “There is a more serious matter that needs tobe addressed. The Hegemony has filed aformal complaint against Earth in the Commune.”



Tobias blinked. “Anotherone?”



“This one may be far more serious,” Sun said. “According to the case they’ve filed, theyhave evidence to prove that human agents were behind the massive upsurge in piracyin their rear areas over the last few months.”



“Unfortunately, there have been human pirates ever sincewe entered the interstellar community,” Tobias said. He kept his voice under firm control. “And there are the Funk raiders who raidpretty much everyone they can, even the Cats. Are the Funks blamed for their actions?”



“You know that they are not,” Sun said. It had been a sore point for years. The raiders were officially independentagents, but they had links to some of the Hegemony clans. Some of their operations had weakened localgovernments to the point where they’d been forced to accept an offer of ‘protection’from the Hegemony. “But the Funks havemanaged to identify one of the humans. It’s Captain Joshua Wachter, the CEO of Stellar Trading. That’s a little more serious than a handfulof ex-mercenaries who will be arrested the moment they return to human space.”



Tobias nodded slowly, his mind racing. In truth, he’d expected a security leak themoment he’d heard that Wachter was recruiting pirates and rebels to hiscause. But only Wachter – and Tobiashimself – knew that Earth had provided the first starships and seed money tothe pirates. Tobias had been careful,very careful. No one else had enough ofthe pieces to draw a link between their work for the CNO and the pirate raiders. Even the endless paperwork was deliberatelymisleading. The starships he’d given tothe pirates had been listed as destroyed in gunboat training exercises. There should be nothing to prove that Earth was directly involvedwith the pirates.



“Wachter is not exactly Earth’s favourite son,” he said,mildly. There were still people in theFederation Navy who wanted to try him for treason, or kill him withoutbothering with a trial. It wasn't aparticularly rational response, but rationality rarely overcame cold logic – orthe fact that Wachter’s refusal to be bound to Earth had come in handy over thelast decade. The money and intelligence he'dsent home had been very helpful. “Ihardly think that we can be held accountable for his actions.”



“The Funks don’t see it that way,” Sun said, “and thistime they may manage to sway some of the uncommitted Galactics onto theirside. You know how they feel about pirates,even ones who only raid the shipping belonging to evil bastards. God forbid that anything should disturb theirprecious status quo. The FederationCouncil feels that we need to make a statement disowning Wachter – and putting aprice on his head.”



Tobias had known that it might come to that. He’d picked Wachter, rather than a randomOperative from SpecOps, because there wasa strong case for Wachter being independent of Earth. After he’d formed his own company, he'd beencareful to incorporate on a galactic tax haven rather than on Earth, evadingthe heavy taxes levelled on all businesses that drew in Galactic Credits. He’d certainly paid more than he would haveowed, over the years, but various governments didn't see it that way. It was theirjob to determine how much their people should pay in tax.



Still, it pained him to cross that line. He'd known it might happen, he’d even warned Wachterof the danger, but still...it pained him. Betraying someone who had put their life on the line for Earth – at hisdirect request – didn't sit well with him. It happened, more often than anyone would care to admit, yet there werealways consequences. Perhaps Wachterwould tell all from a safe distance...no, Tobias knew better than that. Wachter had known the dangers from the firstday he’d embarked on his career as a pirate king.



And Earth couldn’t afford the full weight of Galacticopinion swinging against her.



“I have to agree,” he said, feeling each word taste likeashes in his mouth. “We can disown himat once. Putting a price on his head mighteven encourage some of his associates to turn him in to Earth.”



“The Hegemony can probably outbid us,” Sun said,crossly. “But we have to try.”



Tobias nodded. Atleast Stellar Trading wouldn't be immediately affected. The Canaries weren't threatened by pirates andwere unlikely to allow the other Galactics to push them around; they’d probablystall on seizing Wachter’s assets for a few months, depending on who was doingthe pushing. But in the long term...hehoped that Wachter had taken the chance to convert his holdings into untraceablecurrency and made provisions for his crews. The Hegemony wasn't likely to believe that Stellar Trading wasn't involved– an interstellar company would make an excellent front for a pirate operation –and they’d come down like a hammer on anyone who fell into their hands.



“Keep me informed,” Tobias ordered. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have an operationto plan.”



“Of course, sir,” Sun said. “Good luck.”



His image vanished from the display, leaving Tobiasshaking his head sadly. As a youngrecruit, he’d long believed that military service was primarily about honour,about fighting beside your fellows and never letting them down. A proper team of sailors – or soldier – woulddiscover new reserves of courage rather than panicking and fleeing for theirlives, leaving their comrades in the lurch. But as he'd grown older, and risen to ranks were playing the politicalgame was more important than military competence, even genius, he’d become morecynical. He sent men and women out tofight and die on Earth’s behest – and he’d known many of the dead personally –yet he’d never had to betray someone who trusted him.



Years ago, Jackson Sampson – nine years older than hisbrother – had become a Navy SEAL and served in Afghanistan. He’d died in combat with the Taliban,fighting to the finish; it hadn't been until much later that Tobias had discoveredthat the only reason the SEALs had been ambushed and forced to fight their wayout was that a uniformed politician, fearful of the bad press that came fromdeploying the promised air support so close to so-called civilian populations,had ordered the pilots to remain firmly on the ground. Four SEALs had died and two more had been badlywounded, just so that an officer could feel good about himself. He should have been shot for gross incompetence. Instead, he was firmly positioned working fora firm that produced military hardware for the Pentagon. Tobias had taken a small measure of revengeby ensuring that everything they provided for the Federation Navy was checkedand rechecked, but it wasn't enough. Hehad wanted the man dead.



And now, older and wiser, he understood how the officerhad felt.



He tapped his console, pushing the issue aside. “Commander Qadir, report to my office,” heordered. “We have an operation to plan.”

***​

“Are you sure that this is such a good idea?”



The Russian General looked at Adrienne as if she weresomething he’d scraped off his shoes. Ithad taken every bit of Adrienne’s formidable persuasive abilities to convincethe man to agree to be interviewed, and yet as soon as she’d arrived at the basehe'd insisted on showing her the troops exercising on the training field. None of them were human. A dozen races were represented in theirranks, with a single glaring exception. There were no Funks at all.



“Your nation found it extremely difficult to hold down asmall country with only a handful of ethnic and racial divisions,” GeneralChekov said, finally. Adrienne had metdangerous men before, but the General was the first she’d met who might havebeen an outright sociopath. “I have beentasked to keep an entire planet undercontrol and Earth has refused to forward me more troops. There is no choice, but to recruit localsupporters, people who do not wish the Funks to return.”



Adrienne couldn't disagree with his assessment. Earth had undergone a major panic attack assoon as the news of Third Gaston had reached home. Judging from some of the reports, large partsof the human race expected a massive fleet of invincible superdreadnaughts tojump into orbit and bombard Earth into radioactive debris. The fact that the assault had been beaten offdidn't seem to matter too much. Punditshad been pointing out gleefully that the Hegemony’s total losses were tiny,compared to its entire navy. They’d beenforced to keep silent about humanity’s losses, but it didn't take an expert torealise that every human loss had a greater effect than every Hegemony loss.



“But the Funks themselves are not represented in yourarmy,” she said. “How do you expect themto react to us arming and training the others?”



“I do not expect them to react well to anything we willdo,” Chekov said, slowly. “Theirdistricts have become armed camps. Gangsof every race have been practicing ethnic cleansing on their neighbours,whenever they think they can get away with it. We simply do not have the manpower to stop themfrom paying off every petty dispute over the last hundred years.”



Adrienne snorted. “Butyour army might turn on the Funks,” she pointed out. “Won’t that just make us look bad before theGalactics?”



Chekov placed a hand on her shoulder, swinging her aroundto face him. “Let me put it as simply asI can,” he said. “When the Funksoccupied Terra Nova and enslaved thousands of humans, the Galactics didnothing. The Funks claimed a fig leaf oflegality and the Commune used it as an excuse to avoid confronting theHegemony. When the Funks started toslowly increase the pressure on Earth, what did the Commune do? Nothing. The Association’s glory days are long over. Galactic opinion doesn't care what happens tous, so why should we care about what they think of us?”



He snorted. “You Americansalways expect war to be clean,” he added. “It should be a nice tidy affair, with only a few enemy killed and noneof your own lost in combat. But war doesn'twork out that way, does it? TheFederation Council has ordered this world to be pacified. I do not have the manpower to convinceeveryone on this goddamned world to play nicely, so I am doing the only thing Ican do to actually carry out my orders. And if the Funks don’t like it...



“Tell me; when was the last time the Funks liked anythingwe did?”



“I see your point,” Adrienne said. She could too, although she wasn't soinclined to dismiss Galactic opinion. Itmight have been difficult to restrain the Funks, but intervening against Earthwould have to look a great deal easier. All they’d have to do was threaten to call in their markers and demand immediaterepayment of their loans. “But do youfeel that the locals can be trusted?”



“I have faith that none of them want the Funks to returnand reassert control over this planet,” Chekov informed her. “That should keep them motivated to work withus – or to put up a fight, should the Funks return to Gaston. The recent battle concentrated a few minds onthe prospect of hanging.”



Adrienne grinned. “Andon the fact they were going to be hanged?”



“But enough of this matter,” Chekov added, thawing alittle. “I’m not at liberty to talkabout our current deployments, but I would be happy to discuss the early stagesof the occupation. We’ve actuallymanaged to pacify a few additional cities. We may have to start moving the Funks and isolating them from everyone else...”



“Maybe,” Adrienne said. “But how do you intend to do it fairly?”



“We can’t,” Chekov admitted. “But since when were the Funks fair toeveryone else?”

 

ChapterThirty-Four<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />



“Congratulations on your victory, Your Majesty.”



“And thank you for your contribution,” the Empresssaid. She’d claimed personal credit forthe plan that had bled the humans at Gaston. “Your position has been secured, for the moment.”



Lady Dalsha nodded, careful not to betray herrelief. The Empress would need a scapegoatfor the defeats the Hegemony had suffered so far and she knew that she was theprime candidate. Ironically, her clanhaving disowned her gave her a freedom shared by few others among theHegemony. There was something to be saidfor living an independent life.



“We have also crippled the human raiding operation,” theEmpress added. Lady Dalsha wasn’t sosure – the humans understood basic security far better than most Galactics –but there was no point in contradicting the Empress directly. “One hopes that we will shortly be able toreassert our position against the human invaders and evict them from our space.”



“Yes, Your Majesty,” Lady Dalsha said. Personally, she was less confident. The Empress might have proclaimed ThirdGaston a glorious victory, but it had cost – badly. At least the force’s commander had had thesense to break off from Gaston when human reinforcements had arrived. Intelligence hadn't been able to provide any definitefigures for how many long-range missile pods the humans possessed, but no onewanted to find out the hard way that the humans had more than expected. Given enough time, someone would duplicatethe human system, yet would it come in time to reshape the course of thewar? “I have proposed two more plans forraiding human space.”



“So I have seen,” the Empress said. “My advisors inform me that cutting loose somany squadrons will weaken Hammerfall and allow the humans to claim the system. To lose another world would be a gravedefeat...?”



She waited, inviting Lady Dalsha to have her say. The Empress’s position was not enviable, notnow that the humans were raiding other worlds along the borders, worlds thatbelonged to powerful clans whose interests were threatened. They might all be publically allyingthemselves with the Empress, but in private they would be considering otheroptions. What was their loyalty to theHegemony when they faced – at the very least – massive expenditures inrebuilding the installations the humans had destroyed? An unfavourable peace could only be toleratedif it happened over the Empress’s dead body.



In some ways, that would be the ideal solution. Few of the human weapons were really new, at least according to the Hegemony’scontacts among the Galactics. They werereally applications that the Association had either never considered or neverput into practice, something that made a certain kind of sense. The Cats had been the unquestioned masters ofthe universe for thousands of years. Theywouldn't want a new weapons system coming online that threatened theirdominance. What if someone did develop a weapon that could blow asuperdreadnaught apart with a single shot? Every navy in the galaxy would be instantly rendered obsolete.



The study of human history hadn't found favour among theHegemony, not when it was an article of faith that no other race had anythingto teach the heirs to the galaxy. Humanhistory was very short compared to the Cats, but a surprising amount had leakedout into the galaxy after the Galactics had realised that a rogue Cat hadinvited the humans to join the interstellar community. It was difficult to be sure – humans just didn'tthink like her people – yet it seemed that much of human history was basedaround developing new weapons that altered the balance of power. The steam-powered ironclad, the tank, theaircraft, the machine gun, the superdreadnaught, the aircraft carrier, theprecision-guided missile...and even the atomic bomb. Even the human superpowers had been forced topress ahead with weapons development, if only because their competitors wouldcertainly do the same, seeking something that would alter the balance of powerin their favour.



And the Hegemony clans had completely skipped that partof history. They’d never had to advancebeyond mounted riders and spears; even basic metalworking had been limitedbefore the Cats arrived. And like mostof the Galactics, the Hegemony had accepted the myth that the Association hadtaken technology as far as it could go. But...what if the Cats, with the long-term perspective granted byimmortality, had seeded that myth throughout the galaxy? They would never have to worry about beingoverthrown if everyone believed that they could never be matched, let alonesurpassed.



But what if the other Galactics didn't buy into the myth? The galaxy was a big place and even the Cats couldn't hope to watch itall. What if the other Galactics hadbeen running their own research and development programs into surpassing the technologythey’d received from the Cats? Thethought was terrifying, for the Hegemony’s supremacy rested upon brute forceand a willingness to do whatever it took to maintain their power. And yet, of all the major powers, theHegemony was the least capable of operatingits own independent research and development programs. It was quite possible that the other Galacticpowers had already built their own advanced weapons long before humanityexploded onto the galactic stage.



It didn't seem likely, viewed through bright redeyes. Given superiority over an outsider,the Hegemony’s first step would be to make sure that that outsider understoodthat the Hegemony was superior, thattheir mere survival would be only on the Hegemony’s terms. And yet it was true that other races didn’tthink like her own people. What if oneof the Galactics had developed superior weapons and merely decided to keep themto themselves? The long-term plan toreplace the Cats as masters of the universe might be doomed from the start...



She outlined her thoughts to the Empress, who didn't seemamused. Humanity simply didn't have thenumbers to crush the Hegemony; they had a quantitative answer to qualitative superiority. But the Tarn, or the Melkot, or even theYel-Throd...they could combineadvanced technology with the numbers required to win a decisive victory. None of the brushfire wars had grown out ofcontrol because the combatants had known that victory would come at astaggeringly high cost, but with advanced weapons...that might change.



And even if the Galactics hadn’t developed advanced weapons, there was no reason why thehumans couldn't start selling their wares on the arms market.



“There is little we can do about that at the moment,” theEmpress said. “Our priority remains thedefeat of the human race before some of the other Galactics decide to join thewar on their side. Your plannedoperations are approved, but you will not be commanding them.”



Lady Dalsha felt cold ice trickling down the back of herneck. The Empress might have decidedthat she needed a scapegoat immediately. Her position wasn't very strong, even if there had been a victory at Gaston. Lady Dalsha had hoped that commanding the operations would give her adegree of protection, assuming that the humans didn't manage to kill her whenthey struck back. But there was one definiteadvantage for the Hegemony in humanity’s limited number of ships. Technologically superior they might be, butthey couldn't be in two places at once.



“I have given orders to withdraw three squadrons ofsuperdreadnaughts and escorts from the Tarn border,” the Empress said. “They will travel to a position nearHammerfall, where you will assume command of the ships and take them directlyto Earth. Once in orbit, you will forcethe humans to surrender or systematically destroy every last piece of militaryhardware and industry in the system. Thehumans do not have a secondary shipyard complex – destroying their industrywill certainly cripple their war effort. They will be forced to surrender or we will force them into a war ofattrition.”



Lady Dalsha had devised the original plan, but now shehesitated. “The Tarn have been fortifyingtheir border,” she warned. “They maytake advantage of our weakness.”



“Which is why we will not broadcast anything about this operation,”the Empress said. “Officially, thesuperdreadnaughts are on routine patrol. The remaining ships in the sector will switch their IFF signalsroutinely, disguising their absence until it is far too late. And the Tarn do not appear to have developedany new weapons. They will be boggeddown if they try to invade our space, giving us time to beat the humans andthen turn on the Tarn.”



“It should work,” Lady Dalsha said, finally. “But what if it fails?”



“Neither of us will see the end of the war,” the Empresssaid. She would throw Lady Dalsha to thewolves, but they wouldn't be satisfied with a mere outcast, not if three entiresquadrons had been lost. It took twoyears to build a superdreadnaught from scratch and the war had alreadydestroyed or crippled twenty of the most powerful ships in the galaxy. Replacing what they’d lost would takedecades. “I suggest you bear that inmind.”

***​

Markus painted a smile on his face as he stopped in frontof the armed Marines guarding the Admiral’s office. The summons to Nimitz had come during his rest period, after spending hours tryingto put Grumble Squadron back together again and deflecting ‘suggestions’ fromsuperior officers that perhaps it was time to disband the remains of Grumbleand have her pilots and gunboats distributed to other squadrons. At least Admiral Sampson hadn't weighed in sofar, but perhaps that was about to change. He could imagine no other reason for the Admiral to order him to reportin person. Electronic communicationsworked perfectly for most discussions.



The Marines nodded and stepped aside, allowing him topass through the hatch and into the office. It was smaller than Markus had expected, even though he’d known thathuman-built starships simply didn't have the colossal interior space ofAssociation-designed superdreadnaughts. Some of the reports from the post-battle assessment teams crawling overthe captured ships had made entertaining reading; Hegemony superior officers,it seemed, had huge quarters, including what appeared to be private mudbaths. It was hard to think of any humanofficer who would want the mud baths, but they’d probably take everything elseif they could. The quarters for juniorofficers and enlisted crewmen were, as expected, tiny. Some things were universal.



Admiral Sampson looked up at Markus as he saluted,returning the salute before waving him to a chair. They’d met several times before, but Markus couldn'thave said that he knew the Admiral socially. He’d had to report on the progress of the gunboat program, receive oneof the medals a grateful Earth had granted to her pilots, and commend a handfulof the maggots who’d fought at Third Gaston. The survivors would never be called maggots again.



“Commander,” Admiral Sampson said. “Captain Walsh is dead.”



Markus looked up, sharply. He’d worked closely with Captain Walsh on Formidable; he’d been one of the fewofficers who had believed in the gunboats from the start. The program had now been amply justified, butlosing him was still a blow. And if hewas dead...



“Formidable,”he said. He’d had friends on theship. “Is she...”



“Intact,” Sampson said. “The Funks managed to score a lucky hit that took out the mainbridge. Commander Rogers took commandand managed to pull the carrier out before we lost her, but he’s too inexperiencedwith the gunboats to retain command. I’dlike you to take Captain Walsh’s position.”



Markus stared at the Admiral. One rule he’d learned as a cadet was that ifyou declined promotion when it was offered to you, it was never offered to youagain. An officer who considered himselfunfit for higher position was likely to find his superiors agreeing withhim. But command of Formidable would mean that he couldn't fly a gunboat any longer. The Captain had no business abandoning hisship to fight the enemy directly, not when his ship was the only way out of thetarget system for the gunboats. He wouldhave to watch helplessly from a safe distance as the three squadrons went up againstthe enemy.



But it hadn't been a safe distance for Captain Walsh, hadit?



“Grumble Squadron needs me,” he said, finally. “Surely Commander Rogers could remain incommand.”



“I’ve ordered him transferred to Pinafore,” Sampson said. “Sheneeds a CO and Rogers has had considerable experience on destroyers. I think he’ll do fine as her commander, butwhoever commands Formidable has tohave experience with gunboats, experience that tells him what they can andcannot do. And Formidable has been placed to one side for a specialoperation. She needs you in command.”



It wasn't really a choice, Markus realised. Take command...or see his naval careerstagnate and eventually decline. “I willtake command,” he said, finally. “Butyou do realise that my own command experience is limited to gunboats?”



“I have to balance the options,” Sampson admitted. “Lieutenant-Commander Spinner is also beingpromoted and will take up the post of XO. He was earmarked for the position when Walsh or Rogers went to Lexington, once she finishes her trialsand is declared ready to join the fleet. I think you’ll get along.”



His voice hardened. “And if you have problems with each other, I expect you to button themup and do your duty,” he added. “This iswar. I don’t have time for officers wholet their personal issues get in the way of serving the navy.”



“No, sir,” Markus said. He had no real problem with Spinner, although the young man had come upthrough a tactical career path rather than as a gunboat pilot. That would probably change when there wereenough gunboats and carriers to allow officers to be selected with the idealmix of experience. “You mentioned anoperation for us?”



Sampson nodded and tapped a key. “This remains in confidence,” he said. “You’ll be given sealed orders before youdepart, but you are not to discuss this with anyone – including your wife –until you are safely in quantum space. If we can free up a handful of other ships to serve as an escort, I’llbrief their commanders personally.” Helifted one hand and pointed at a single red star floating in the midst of thestar chart. “Your target; HegemonyPrime.”



“Their homeworld?” Markus asked. “But they must haveit heavily defended.”



“They do,” Sampson said. “Most of our data comes from before we hit Terra Nova, so it is quitepossible that some of it will be outdated, but they have at least forty orbitalfortresses and a sizable fleet stationed in the system. Intelligence thinks that they will havescraped up every assault shuttle within fifty light years to give them somecounter-gunboat capabilities. They couldalso have pulled in starships from their inner worlds...”



He shrugged. “You’llhave to carry out reconnaissance before you launch the attack,” he added. “We’ll give you the latest recon drones we’veproduce, including some that haven’t been risked in action before now. Your overall objective is to destroy theirprimary industrial complex here” – an icon on the display started blinking – “andembarrass the Empress. It’s always difficultto untangle their politics, but we have good reason to believe that severalclans would be financially destroyed if the complex went up in smoke. Added to the chaos caused by the Trader Allianceplacing an embargo on the Hegemony and it’s quite possible that their entireeconomy would collapse and a civil war break out.



“I won’t lie to you, Captain. It’s also quite possible that this is asuicide mission. Even if they haven’treinforced the defences since the war began, you’ll still be facing their mostcomplex network of sensor stations, backed up by their most formidable fleet. That’s one of the other reasons for hitting theirhomeworld; if they decide they can free up some of their defending starshipsand send them against us, it would tip the odds in their favour. The entire navy is counting on you.”



“I understand,” Markus said, feeling a little dazed. Command of a starship was one thing, but asuicide mission right into the heart of enemy territory...? “I won’t let you down.”



“I’m going to give you complete freedom in planning your operation,”Sampson said. “You will have access tothe latest intelligence we possess, although they’ve been very good at sealingoff their system since the war began. Don’t take anything for granted. What happened in the recent battle should remind us all that our enemy isn'tstupid.”



“Yes, sir,” Markus agreed. A thought had already crossed his mind. “With your permission, sir, I’d like torequest a company of Marines. I’ve hadan idea.”



“I’ll cut them orders at once,” Sampson assured him. He smiled, as if he’d thought of somethingmore pleasant than suicide missions. “Andas for the matter of Grumble Squadron...”



Markus hesitated. “Sir?”



“I feel that the name has earned a chance to live on,”Sampson said. He smiled as Markus relaxedin obvious relief. “Some of thereporters have been telling tales about your heroism and kids back home arepretending to fly gunboats in mock battles. New pilots and gunboats are already on their way, but you’ll have todraw pilots from the other squadrons to replenish your losses. I need you on your way as soon as possible.”



“Yes, sir,” Markus said. He'd have to check up on Formidable,but the ships had been designed for easy repair. It was possible that the carrier was alreadyready to return to active service. Anylonger than a week and the Admiral would probably have assigned another carrierto the mission. “I’ll make sure we leavequickly.”



He left the office, shaking his head. How was he going to explain it to Carola?

 

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Nimitz explodedout of quantum space in a blaze of light, heading right towards Hammerfall andthe remaining Hegemony starships near the planet. Her consorts followed, not even trying to hide,as they spread out and slipped into formation. Behind the main body of the fleet, three carriers and a dozen freightersemerged through the quantum gate, which faded away after the final shipsreturned to normal space. Every Funkoutpost in the system would have picked up their arrival and know that theFederation Navy had returned to Hammerfall.



“Report,” Tobias ordered, as the fleet shook down. He'd considered coming out of quantum spacecloser to the planet, but the strange disruptions in quantum space near thesystem had dissuaded him. They’d justhave to rely on their technology and skill to defeat their enemies. “What do we have?”



“Two of the enemy squadrons appear to be missing,” CommanderSooraya Qadir reported. “The remainderare coming to life now.”



Tobias nodded, unsurprised. They’d given the enemy plenty of warningbefore the two fleets entered engagement range. Even a half-crewed ship would have time to get ready to repelattack. Curiously, the sole remainingenemy superdreadnaught in the system looked to have been completely powereddown, even though she was on the front lines. Maybe the enemy had believed that she was beyond repair, or perhaps theyintended to tow her through quantum space to a repair yard. Tobias’s last visit to the system had wreckedall of the shipyards and industrial nodes that would have normally supportedthe fleet. Judging from the state of thefixed defences, the mines he’d left behind had taken their toll on enemy installations.



“They’re sweeping drones through low orbit,” Soorayaadded. “I’m not entirely sure why.”



“Probably trying to trigger the mines,” Tobiascommented. It wasn't a bad idea, ifsomeone on the other side had figured out that some of the mines were triggeredby active sensor pulses at very close range. Losing a drone, no matter how expensive, had to be a bargain compared tolosing an entire ship. But not all of the drones were programmed toexpend themselves on enemy sensors. Itwas quite possible that the Hegemony would declare victory, only to discoverthat they’d only accounted for a third of the mines. “Mark the drones down for attention once we’vedealt with the rest of the ships.”



He studied the display as the two fleets converged. The Hegemony ships, some badly damaged afterthe Battle of Hammerfall or Third Gaston, were forming into a simple defensiveformation, linking their point defences together into a single coherentunit. Tobias had half-expected them toretreat into quantum space after taking stock of the fleet bearing down onthem, but they probably had orders to fight to the death. After giving the Federation Navy a bloodynose at Third Gaston, the Hegemony was pumping the victory for all it wasworth. The last thing they wanted wasanother defeat, particularly of a seemingly superior force by an inferior.



Tobias smiled. Hewas determined to deny them another victory, even if it meant occupying Hammerfallfor a short period. The world was stilllargely useless to the Federation Navy and that wouldn't change, not when theFunks would destroy anything left in the system before pulling out orsurrendering. Perhaps they would simply surrender,rather than trying to force him to bleed his fleet white. There was nothing left on Hammerfall worththe loss of so many personnel in a futile defence.



“Time to engagement, seven minutes,” Soorayareported. “Enemy ships are turning andattempting to close on attack vector.”



Tobias frowned. That was odd, odd enough to puzzle and worry him after Third Gaston. The smartest thing the Funks could do was cuttheir losses and retreat from the system, leaving the remaining defenders toblow the installations and surrender. Some Funk propaganda claimed that humans had slaughtered prisoners outof hand, but the Galactic reporters had countered it by running extensiveinterviews with POWs who reported good treatment. It was certainly better treatment than they’dreceived from their own leaders; ONI had picked up on reports that severalFunks had been shot for losing battles. How long would it be, Tobias asked himself, until the Funk commandersbecame more terrified of their own Empress than of the human invaders?



“Maybe they don’t dare retreat without trying to bleedus,” he said, slowly. “Or maybe theyhave a trick up their sleeve.”



He shrugged. Therewas no need to worry about defending a planet this time. If the odds grew too unfavourable, he’d pullthe fleet out and leave the Funks in possession of a ruined system. But those missing ships worried him. There weren't enough of them to pull offanother surprise like Third Gaston – unless the Funks had additionalreinforcements the recon ships had missed – yet they could cause havoc if theyslashed into humanity’s lines. Earthitself should be able to stand them off, but no other colony world had seriousdefences. They only had a handful ofships from various Galactics working up before they were added to the battleline.



The thought made him scowl. They'd been able to purchase hundreds ofships from the Galactics – mainly using revenue from Gaston, or taking outloans from the bigger powers – but none of the second-hand ships had been armedwith the latest weaponry. The Funkswould face them on even terms until they were refitted, giving them a decisiveadvantage if they managed to get back on their feet and come blazing forEarth. It didn't help that some of theGalactic used-starship dealers had played down the age or condition of theirships until it was too late to refuse to pay. One day, he promised himself, there would be a reckoning.



“Alert all ships,” he ordered, calmly. “They are to open fire the moment they enterweapons range.”



“Aye, sir,” Sooraya said. “Weapons range in two minutes.”



The Funks were still picking up speed, the healthierships keeping their speed to match their damaged consorts. It was surprising behaviour from the Funks,even though Tobias had witnessed some of them sacrificing themselves to saveothers in the past. Just anotherreminder, he told himself, that some of the Funks were capable of more thanhumanity would prefer to admit. They weren'tcompletely alien, not like some of the weirder beings in the Association. Some of them were so alien that it wasimpossible to hold a rational conversation with them about anything. Even the Cats had problems talking to them.



“Weapons locked on target,” the Captain said. “Firing...now.”



Tobias watched in disbelief. The human phase cannons were still rotatingthrough the various modulations, but it seemed as if the Funks had no vulnerable frequency any longer. They still weren't firing themselves, evenwhen the human ships closed into their range and started launching antimattertorpedoes at them. And yet their shield seemedto be almost impenetrable. It wasimpossible...



“Sir, I have a report from battle analysis,” Soorayasaid. “They confirm that the Funks haveestablished inner and outer shield layers. The best guess is that they’ve cannibalised the shield generators fromwrecked craft to produce a second deflector bubble around their ships.”



Tobias cursed. Asimple counter, provided one didn't mind not being able to fire back at thetargets. Each starship configured it’sshield generators to provide a path for the phase cannons to shoot throughwithout hammering their own shields, but two different shields on two differentfrequencies made it impossible to open fire. Getting two shield generators to work together was tricky – the humanresearchers hadn't even tried, having found their own way to generate improvedshields – yet the Funks had apparently solved the problem.



He hastily thought back to the briefings when they’ddiscussed Funk countermeasures to new and advanced human weapons. There were other problems than simply makingit impossible to fire back when two shield generators were paired. If he recalled correctly, there would be weakspots where the two shields actually interfered with each other, although astarship with enough power to generate two different shields might be able tocompensate for such weaknesses. Or maybenot. Some of the ships hit by antimattertorpedoes were already showing power fluctuations, suggesting that they wererunning their shield generators over the limits. It was a dangerous risk; if the generatorsoverloaded, the shields might vanish without having to be battered down.



“Continue firing with antimatter torpedoes,” heordered. “Scan for weak points andattempt to target them with phase cannons.”



The human fleet passed through the Funk formation, justas several Funk ships dropped their inner shields and opened fire. Their phase cannons lashed out at humancruisers, forcing them to slip into evasive patterns even as their own phasecannons dug deep into enemy hulls. Warning lights flared up on the display as the Funks unloaded hundredsof antimatter torpedoes towards the human ships, driving them away from theirtargets. Their targeting had improvedtoo, Tobias noted absently, although it was rare to risk using torpedoes atsuch close range. Human torpedoes hadalready smashed a number of Funk ships.



One of the cruisers twisted in an attempt to avoid aspread of torpedoes, but it was too late. Nearly thirty torpedoes slammed into her shields, battering them downthrough sheer weight of numbers and destroying the entire ship in a blindingflash. There was no hope of survivors. Tobias snapped orders and the fleet reformed,firing a spread of antimatter torpedoes back to distract the enemy as theyprepared for another run. Some of theFunk ships had lost their dual shield generators, either through overloads ordirect hits, leaving them vulnerable. Human tactical officers started marking them down for engagement as thefleets started to close again, even though the Funks were heading away from theplanet. Tactically, they’d already wonthe battle, Sampson had to admit. They’dinflicted another loss on the already overstretched Federation Navy.



“Take us back towards them and engage as soon as we enterweapons range,” he ordered. Humanstarships still had a high tactical speed advantage, enough to let him pick andchoose the best attack vector. The Funkscouldn't outrun them unless they retreated into quantum space and abandoned theplanet. “Order the freighters to advanceon attack vector” – he designated a course on his console – “and attempt tobluff them.”



He hesitated. “Andtransmit a demand for surrender,” he added. “Maybe they’ll decide to surrender instead of continuing the fight.”



There was a pause as the Hegemony ships altered courseagain. “No response, sir,” Soorayareported. “They’re still under tightcontrol.”



The Hegemony ships opened fire as soon as the human fleetcame into range, forsaking their reinforced shields for firepower. Tobias braced himself as an antimattertorpedo struck Nimitz’s forwardshields, only to be deflected away as the starship lashed out at the nearestHegemony battlecruiser. The enemy ship staggeredout of line and fell astern of the fleet, spinning helplessly in space. Tobias designated a pair of Marine assault shuttlesto be dispatched to receive surrender, if the enemy was interested in surrender. It was possible that the crew would waituntil the shuttles were close to the hull and blow their fusion plants, takingthe shuttles with them to a fiery grave.



“Enemy ships altering course and attempting to evade,” Soorayasaid. “I think...correction; enemy shipsattempting to open a quantum gate.”



“Take us away from their formation,” Tobias snapped. It was theoretically possible to overload a quantumgate and create an explosion with the force of a small supernova. No one had actually done it in recordedGalactic history – unless the Cats had done it during their first explorationsand covered it up from their clients – but if the Hegemony intended to try,they would wipe out First Strike Fleet in the blast. “Prepare to make an emergency jump into quantumspace.”



The two fleets separated at terrifying speed as the quantumgate blossomed open in front of the enemy ships. One by one, they retreated into quantum spaceand vanished, leaving humanity in possession of the system. The quantum gate closed behind them andvanished. Tobias let out a sigh ofrelief. They weren't going to dietoday. There was a theoretical proposalfor disrupting a quantum gate, making it impossible for a fleet to escape anenemy trap, but it had never been tested. He’d ordered it held in reserve, just in case Earth herself wasthreatened by the enemy.



“Broadcast a signal to the planet,” he ordered. “Assure them that we will treat them well ifthey surrender – and if they refuse, we will simply leave them here to die onthe vine.”



The recon ships had deduced that the Funks had attemptedto evacuate most of the remaining fortresses, an exercise fraught with peril ina mined orbit. There would be a skeletoncrew left onboard to ensure that the Funks maintained their claim toHammerfall, although under the circumstances Tobias wasn't sure why they’dbothered. The installations aroundHammerfall had already been destroyed, leaving only the cloudscoops and ahandful of asteroid miners. Destroyingthem might have irritated the other Galactics, though Hammerfall rarelysupplied fuel to anyone else. It wasnowhere near as connected to the galactic trade lanes as Gaston.



“I’m picking up a response,” Sooraya said. “The current commander of the fortresses isprepared to surrender if his personnel are repatriated to the Hegemony.”



Tobias blinked. “His?”



“Apparently so,” Sooraya said. “Intelligence doesn't have a file on him, butthere are a number of male senior officers in the Hegemony Navy – just not verymany of them.”



“Interesting,” Tobias mused. And also dangerous, he admitted, privately. The Hegemony females were worse than thehuman patriarchs who thought that women should be left barefoot and pregnantwhile slaving over a kitchen stove. Evennow, there were parts of Earth where women were very much second-classcitizens. Their men claimed that womenwere supposed to be under men, unsuited for the rough and tumble of politicallife, or even controlling their own destinies. The Hegemony females actually had some measure of proof for their claims. AnyFunk male who rose to become a senior officer had to be far better at his job than a femaleofficer. At least the Funks didn't haveany tradition of officers sleeping their ways to important posts.



He shrugged. “Tellhim that we will return his personnel to the Hegemony once the war is over,” hesaid. “Until then, they will bewell-treated in a POW camp on Terra Nova or Earth – any of them who wish todefect will be welcome to do so.”



“Yes, sir,” Sooraya said. “Should we add a warning against murdering their own crewmen?”



Tobias nodded. Some high-ranking Funk POWs had murdered subordinate officers, for noreason that made sense to the human mind. Tobias was inclined to wonder if they’d been fearful that theirsubordinates would pay off a few private scores now that they had been reducedto equality, but at least two of the murders hadn't even made that muchsense. The sociologists had finallysuggested that the Funks had wanted to kill the weak. Tobias had privately given orders that allsuch murders were to be prevented. Oneway or another, they would make the human race look bad.



A long moment passed as messages raced to and from theplanet. “He’s accepted your terms,” Soorayasaid. “They don't want to lower theirshields, however, until they receive assurances that we've disarmed the mines.”



“Unsurprising,” Tobias said. “We’ll get around to them once we’ve finishedsecuring the system. They can keep theirshields up until then.”



He tapped his console, assigning a handful of starshipsto take up defensive positions. The Funkshad used the defence of Hammerfall for propaganda, even though the system hadbeen rendered effectively useless. Nowthat humanity had taken the system, the Empress would be under immense pressureto launch a counterattack as soon as possible. ONI had been tracking enemy transmissions and noted that several moresquadrons were being deployed to face the human advance, forming a defensiveline that would combine with the fixed defences to stall the human fleet wellbefore it reached Hegemony Prime. It wasa pity that the deep-strike concept remained a concept for the moment, butthere was little hope for developing it until thousands of additional missileswere produced. The last report hadwarned of delays in missile production facilities.



Still, Hammerfall’s capture would look good, at least onpaper. The Funks themselves wouldprobably know better, but the Galactics – and human public opinion – wasunlikely to see anything other than another world falling to the humanadvance. Once again, a fleet numericallysuperior to its opponents had been defeated, even if it hadn't been as crushinga victory as the Battle of Terra Nova. They’d even captured another half-wrecked superdreadnaught. Given enough time, the raw material of thehull would be broken down and turned into new weapons and starships for theFederation Navy.



“Organise the reporters so that they can inspect thecaptured fortresses,” he ordered. PR rearedits ugly head once again. At least mostof the reporters from Earth were sensible – and those that weren’t had theirreports heavily censored before they were transmitted home. The Galactics were less sensible, but they didn'thave the sources human reporters could develop. One particularly enterprising reporter had apparently seduced both amissile tech and a Russian soldier on Gaston. “And then see if we've captured a tachyon beam array. If so, I’ll use it to report to Earth.”



He allowed himself a grim smile as the fleet stood downfrom battlestations. They’d won – and theHegemony had taken another blow – but how long could they go on? What had an ancient king, back before theRoman Empire, said about a costly victory?



One more victorylike Hammerfall and Earth might be ruined...

 

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“That’s interesting,” Joshua said. “Are you sure about this?”



The rodent-like alien nodded. Plenty of pirates had been scared by thedestruction of Shadow and the – presumed – capture and interrogation of the habitat’spopulation, but the intelligence networks that attempted to track potential targetswere still active. The pirates, Joshuahad discovered, beat even the Association hands down when it came to buildingmultiracial coalitions. They’d managedto seduce or corrupt a vast range of bureaucrats from a dozen different races.



“There is little room for error,” the alien assuredhim. Like the crab, he was aninformation broker first and foremost, although he had a less stellarreputation. “I actually had their drive signaturesmonitored. Three squadrons of superdreadnaughtshave departed the sector; the remaining two squadrons are attempting toconvince observers that all five superdreadnaughts are still in the sector.”



Joshua frowned, looking down at the raw data. Every starship had a unique drive signature,but it was possible to distort it to the point where it was difficult topositively identify the starship at long range – and few would dare to slipclose to a superdreadnaught just to get a more accurate read of its drivefields. And yet the report had the ringof truth. The only reason he could thinkof for the Funks attempting to convince observers that they were still at full strengthwas that they were no longer at full strength – and that meant that three squadrons of superdreadnaughts had gonesomewhere else. But where?



There was no logical reason for the superdreadnaughts tobe deployed against the pirates, even if the Hegemony believed that Joshua andhis men were still a threat. Superdreadnaughts were designed for destroying enemy fleets and invadinghostile planets, not for routine anti-piracy operations. They would have no trouble swatting any pirateship that came into range, but any pirate ship worthy of the name would smell arat and start running long before the superdreadnaught had a chance to blowthem away. Fifteen superdreadnaughtswere massive overkill against pretty much anything short of another interstellarpower...and the last thing the Funks would want was to tempt the Tarn intocrossing their border and snatching a number of undefended worlds. In fact, the performance – the attempt toconvince everyone that fifteen superdreadnaughts were still there – might beaimed at the Tarn. They weren't the mostpowerful of the Galactics, but with the Hegemony on the verge of collapse andfighting one war against Earth, the Tarn might be able to topple the Funks anddestroy the Hegemony.



And yet...where had the superdreadnaughts gone?



A human might have been tempted to lay a trap for theTarn – and the Funks were more imaginative than anyone would have preferred, alesson Joshua had learned when they’d attempted to trap and destroy hisfleet. But they wouldn't want to riskplaying games when the Hegemony was in a dangerous situation, not when the gamecould spill out of control. And besides,assuming that they’d intended to lure the Tarn into a trap, why wouldn't theyput up a show of weakness instead of strength? It made little sense. Applyinghuman logic to aliens was often nothing more than a way to be wrong withconfidence, but even the most cunning Funk wouldn't want to risk expanding thewar. The Hegemony had too many enemies.



“I’ll want the hard data, of course,” he said. “I assume you’ll want the regular payment?”



“Yes, My Lord,” the alien said. His race had been spread throughout theAssociation by the Cats, although they had never developed spaceflight on theirown or built an empire like the Funks – or humanity. There were enclaves in a hundred differentGalactic powers, giving them unprecedented access to information and technology. Some of them had made common cause withhumanity right from the start, even though they preferred to workindirectly. The Funks didn't treat theenclaves on their worlds particularly well. “And I wouldn't object to information on your operations either.”



Joshua snorted. There were limits to how far he trusted any information broker. One of them had probably sold Shadow out fora large infusion of cash. Why would theFunks bother with torture when a few thousand credits would loosen lips? Even in the midst of a growing economiccrisis, the Funks could scrape up enough galactic currency to make someonewealthy for life.



“Maybe later,” he said. The encounter suit he wore concealed everything human about him, butsomeone with access to information from Shadow could probably guess at hisrace. This asteroid was even lesscivilised than the previous asteroid, if such a thing were possible. If they realised just who and what he was,they’d sell him out to the Funks before a Funk battlecruiser turned up withorders to blow the asteroid into a cloud of debris. “Here.”



He passed a loaded credit chip over to the informationbroker and retreated out of the doorway, into the asteroid’s massivecavern. It was a crude piece of work,generating gravity by rotation rather than using a standard gravity generator,inhabited by criminals, drifters and rebels with nowhere else to go. He’d been careful to bring along a small armyof bodyguards just to ensure his own safety, although no one could be reliedupon completely. The Funks had put amassive price on his head...



...And so had Earth. Joshua had known that that would happen, sooner or later, but it stillhurt. He knew that the FederationCouncil had had little choice. One thingthat annoyed all of the major galactic powers was piracy – and Joshua hadbecome the greatest pirate in the galaxy’s recent history. It didn't matter to them that it had been away of keeping the Hegemony off-balance, of crippling the Hegemony’s economy,not when the effects of Joshua’s activities had spread far beyond the Hegemony’sstars. Admiral Sampson had told him,right at the start, that he might be declared rogue, that Earth would disown himand put a price on his head. It was funnyhow much it still hurt, when the bad feeling he’d created by going to the starsand building his own commercial empire had washed off him like water off a duck’sback.



He smiled, rather bitterly. Who hadit been who’d said that patriotism was the large refuge of the scoundrel?



The asteroid was poorer than Shadow had been – and almostcertainly known to the Funks, even if they hadn't destroyed it – but it hadbeen able to supply some of the weapons and equipment he needed. He’d worried about the risk of exposinghimself to detection – someone with a brain might put together his differentpurchases and realise that he was supporting an entire fleet, not to mention arebel army – yet there had been little choice. His plans had been too far advanced when Shadow had been destroyed andpulling back now might have been disastrous for the rebels. Some of the Gobble cells wouldn't get theword in time and launch their uprisings without support from his fleet. It would be a nasty shock for the Funks, butthey’d still control the orbitals and they’d be able to bombard the rebels intosubmission.



Shaking his head, he allowed the bodyguards to lead himback to Blackbeard. It was only a few hours to the nearest interstellarcommunications array, and then they would be free to advance on Tauscher. One way or another, the Hegemony’s supremeself-confidence in itself wouldn’t survive the war. Who knew? Maybe it would shock them into becoming a civilised race.

***​

“You do realise that they disowned us?”



“Of course,” Joshua said. He’d been the only person mentioned by name, but then he was one of thefew humans – at least prior to the war – with a reputation that had spreadbeyond the Nine Stars. The remainder ofhis human personnel would probably be able to return home and slip back intocivilian life – or go to the Federation Navy, if they chose to remain inservice – but he’d never be able to go home. At least the people who worked for him would be safe. He’d passed ownership of the company to oneof his subordinates, creating the impression that she’d managed to launch acoup and take over against his will. Itwould probably serve as a plausible motive for turning pirate. “But does that really mean that we don’t haveany obligations to Earth?”



“They sent us out here to do their dirty work,” Kanggrunted. He’d spent most of the lastmonth working with the Gobble rebels, helping them to learn how to use theirnew weapons. “And if they catch us, they’llput us in front of a wall and shoot us out of hand.”



“We knew the risks when we took the job,” Joshua said,flatly. He had his own doubts, but he’dnever had much sympathy for people who signed contracts without reading thesmall print first. At least AdmiralSampson hadn't lied to him. “Thosesuperdreadnaughts have to be going to the war front.”



Tracking Hegemony starships wasn't easy – the only way tolocate them without maintaining a permanent recon post in a system was to tracktheir transmissions – but it was clear that a number of starships were movingtowards the war front. The Hegemony hadclearly decided that taking the risk of thinning the defences on their otherborders was preferable to admitting defeat and asking for reasonable terms fromthe human race. From a human point ofview, the incredibly wealthy and greedy Hegemony wouldn't be giving up anythingmore than a couple of rebellious planets and conceding human independence, butit would be a colossal loss of face for the Empress. The kind of mindset that would take the riskof the war suddenly turning into a four-against-one conflict rather than merelyaccepting reasonable terms was alien to him, although some humans had shown a similardesire to keep fighting against all logic and reason. Hitler and Napoleon, for example, had bothkept fighting even when they could have won a liveable peace.



Karla snorted. “Don’tyou think that ONI will already know about them?”



“I don’t know,” Joshua said. He’d often shared information with ONI beforehe’d become a pirate, but he didn't know just how widespread humanity’sintelligence network in the Hegemony actually was. Certainly ONI had concentrated on spreadingthe net as widely as possible, yet...just how many assets could they havehundreds of light years from Earth? Andbesides, he’d never been particularly impressed with human intelligenceservices even before First Contact. Itwas too easy for analysts back home to assume they knew everything when theywere only looking at a small part of the puzzle. “I do know that if they don’t know about the newcomers the Federation Navy is going to bein for a nasty surprise.”



“Assuming that they challenge the Federation Navy,” Kangsaid. He grinned, unpleasantly. “First rule of combat; fight where youropponent is weak, not where he is strong. Why send fifteen superdreadnaughts against a force that has alreadydestroyed or captured ten of them when there are nine vulnerable targets behindthe lines?”



Joshua blanched. “Youmean Earth?”



“But Earth has to be heavily defended,” Karlacountered. “Surely the Federation Navyhas reserves there...”



“Maybe,” Joshua said. He wasn't so sure. The FederationNavy kept its exact strength secret, but Joshua had had plenty of experiencewith constructing, purchasing and maintaining starships. Mentor had brought some mobile fabricators toEarth to assist in human development and expansion, yet they had limits. Building the fleet that had retaken TerraNova and given the Funks a bloody nose might have only been possible byskimping on planetary defences. Earth’spopulation might have been much more armed than it had been before FirstContact, yet no amount of weapons in private hands could defeat a force holdingthe high orbitals. “But we have to warnthem. Even if they already know...”



“But that would allow them to locate us,” Kang said. “And they would know that you were alive.”



Joshua shrugged. “Idoubt anyone believes that I died on Shadow,” he said. The Funks had proclaimed his death, but they hadn'tmanaged to produce a body. Deep-spacecombat rarely produced bodies, so the Funk claims wouldn't be disbelieved onthose grounds, yet Joshua had been quick to contact the rebels. They’d know better – and so would any skilledinformation broker. “Besides, we’ll useone of the spammer hack workarounds we took from Earth. They won’t be able to locate us in time.”



He stood up. “Takethe helm,” he ordered. “We have work todo.”



“Yes, boss,” Kang said. “Do you intend to let Earth know about Tauscher?”



“It would only upset them,” Joshua replied. “Besides, someone might intercept the signaland let the cat out of the bag too early. We’ll just warn them about the superdreadnaughts and nothing else.”



Admiral Sampson had given him a copy of a limited editiondictionary to serve as the base for a simple substitution cipher. It had amused hell out of Joshua when he’ddiscovered that even the most advanced Galactics hadn't been able to eliminatespam email, despite having far more control over the tachyon-burst network thanany of Earth’s pre-Contact computer authorities. No one would think twice about a message thattried to sell Admiral Sampson fifteen bagels and a couple of soda drinks – and AdmiralSampson would know what it meant. Fifteen superdreadnaughts were heading for humanity’s lines, perhaps evenheading for Earth. He would have time toprepare a reception committee.



The asteroid had no quantum gate to use as a transmitter,so Blackbeard made the flight throughquantum space to the nearest gate in the sector. It had originally been built by the Cats,unlike most of the later gates in the Hegemony, and was over five thousandyears old, far older than anything built by humanity. The gates built by the younger races didn't havethe same elegance as the Cat-built gates – and they wore out far quicker thanthe original gates. It was quitepossible to imagine the slow decay of the network until the association finallycollapsed into rubble, leaving countless stranded civilisations in itswake. How long would it be until someonerebuilt a galaxy-spanning power?



“No sign of any unfriendly patrols,” Karla reported, asthey emerged through the gate. For somereason of their own, the Cats had installed it at the very edge of the system,rather than close enough to the planet to make trade shipping economical. It was almost as if they’d been trying tohide the gate, yet any race with even the faintest awareness of tachyons couldhave detected its presence unless they shut it down completely and allowed itto drift off the network. According tothe data they’d downloaded from the Association Almanac, the system wascompletely uninhabited. It was a mysterythat Joshua would have liked to solve, one day. But that would have to wait until the end of the war. “You can spam the network at will.”



Joshua chuckled. He'dprepared the message in flight. All heneeded to do was upload it to the quantum gate, pay the small fee fortransmission, and then depart long before the message reached Earth. The access code he’d added to the messagewould get it through most of Earth’s spam filters completely undetected.



“Spamming now,” he said, tapping his console. There was a slight pause while the messageuploaded and was then scanned for viruses by the automated gate security protocols. It was harder to transmit viruses through thenetwork than spam messages, but that didn't stop some of the Galactics fromtrying. There were tales of entirecivilisations brought to a sudden halt by a single carefully designed computervirus. Joshua had never placed muchcredence in them, yet it was theoreticallypossible. It was a pity no one hadworked out how to do it to the Hegemony, at least not without humanity gettingthe blame. “Message away.”



He smiled as Karla brought Blackbeard around and reopened the quantum gate, taking them backthrough the vortex into quantum space. Evenif the Funks were patrolling theunnamed system, they wouldn’t have a hope of intercepting them in time. The cruiser raced away from the system, usingthe energy storms to hide her trail. Itwouldn’t be long until they met up with the rebel fleet and then headed to Tauscher. Joshua had never planned on a directconfrontation with the Hegemony until he'd realised that he had an opportunity,and yet...now he was committed, he had doubts. A failure could destroy his entire fleet.



But if he succeeded...at least one world would accept himafter he’d been declared rogue.



“Rebel fleet coming into view now,” Karla said. Joshua stood up and crossed over to the maindisplay screen. The rebel fleet, fivehundred starships from a hundred different worlds, was waiting for him. Some were crewed by pirates who expectedloot, unaware of Joshua’s real plans; others were crewed by rebels willing tofight and die for liberation from the Hegemony. It was an impressive sight, larger – in numbers – than the entireFederation Navy. But a single superdreadnaughtcould trash them without working up a sweat. They’d have problems dealing with a squadron of heavy cruisers. The entire plan could go horribly wrong.



“Inform them that it’s time to move,” Joshua said. The pirates hadn't been told the targeteither, just that they’d have an excellent chance to loot if they joined up andfollowed orders. There was plenty ofwealth in the Tauscher System, enough to satisfy the survivors. And some of them would probably run when theydiscovered just where they were targeting. They wouldn't get anything from the mission. “Our target is waiting for us. Let’s go.”

 

ChapterThirty-Seven<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />



“Transition in three...two...one...zero!”



Joshua braced himself as Blackbeard exploded out of the quantum gate, weapons primed andready. The Funks had only stationed ahandful of automated weapons platforms near the gate – it was technically illegal,after all – and they were picked off before they had a chance to openfire. A small customs station floatingnext to the massive gate was eliminated rapidly with its occupants stillscreaming for help from the ships guarding the planet. Behind Blackbeard,the remainder of the fleet rapidly followed her into normal space.



“All targets destroyed,” Karla said, as the fleet startedto shake down into something reassembling a formation. “Picking up seventeen Type-5 orbital weaponsplatforms and twenty-two starships, led by a light cruiser squadron. Other ships in the system appear to be freighters,but some results are inconclusive.”



“Keep an eye on them,” Joshua ordered. Now that they were in action, he felt hisdoubts drain away. Some of the shipspicked up moving to and from the asteroid belts might be warships, but theywere too far away to be immediately dangerous. “Hack the gate – take out their interstellar communications node.”



“Done,” Karla said. The Funks could still transmit messages begging for help, but it wouldtake longer for them to reach anywhere with a Hegemony Navy Base. They’d never bothered to give the system a communicationsarray that could bypass the quantum gate if necessary, something that was goingto cost them dearly. “Enemy fleet isforming up into a defensive formation.”



Joshua smiled, even though he knew that the coming battlewas going to hurt. The Hegemony had seenfit to take advantage of the Gobbles, using them to create a space-basedinfrastructure that was superior to what Earth had built in fifteen years. But they hadn't realised, perhaps because oftheir own inability to understand everything they’d inherited from the Cats,just how much the Gobbles would learn from their servitude. The defences of the Gobble Homeworld lookedtough until one considered how much of it was built and maintained by the TeddyBear-like aliens.



“Inform our friend that he can begin transmitting,” heordered. Some of the captured freightershad been pressed into service as troop transports, housing rebels from across theHegemony. They’d form the first elementsof an army that would seek to bring down the Funks and replace them withsomething a little more friendly. “Andprepare to engage the Funks.”



The two fleets closed with remarkable speed as the firstsigns of rebellion broke out on the orbital stations. Some of the defences lost power, or becamebloody slaughterhouses as the Gobbles turned on their former masters; othersstarted to fire on enemy-controlled installations on the planetarysurface. The Hegemony would have realproblems sorting out friendly from rebel stations, assuming they eventried. If they’d allowed the Gobbles ontheir starships, the entire battle might have ended there and then. Joshua half-suspected that the Funks wouldpull out of the system before the defences started firing on them, but instead theypicked up speed and aimed right for the rebel fleet. Some of the pirate ships turned and ran whenthey realised what they were facing, despite the chaos breaking out in highorbit. Others stayed loyal, despite therisk. Looting an entire planet would beworth the possibility of death or capture.



“Enemy ships are locking on,” Karla reported. They had one advantage over their enemies,even though they were badly outnumbered. The Funks were presumably much more experienced in operating as a formation. “They are preparing to fire.”



“Fire at will,” Joshua ordered. Phase cannons opened fire, followed byvolleys of antimatter torpedoes. They weren'tas powerful as the improved versions devised by human engineers, but there wereenough of them to make up for any deficiencies. The Funks returned fire savagely, switching their targeting over a dozenstarships as they pumped out their own antimatter torpedoes. Blackbeardlurched violently as a torpedo exploded on her forward shield, followed bya tearing scream as phase cannons burned into her hull. Joshua cursed as the entire ship shuddered,just before their tormentor was blown away by two of the other ships. “Damage report!”



“Major damage to forward hull,” the engineerreported. “They’ve taken out a couple ofour drive nodes and all of our forward weapons. We’re looking at around two weeks to replace them and repair the hull.”



“Keep firing,” Joshua ordered. The Funks were passing right through hisformation, trying to take out as many ships as they could before they had toretreat. Joshua would have preferred aclean kill, wiping the entire enemy force out, but the Funks didn't want tooblige him. Why should they throw themselvesaway for no return. It might have beendifferent if they'd had ships nearby that could retake the planet quickly...yetif the information broker was right, the closest reinforcements were severalweeks away. “See if you can get a linkto the rebels in orbit.”



The last of the Funk starships escaped the formation,fired a final volley of torpedoes and then opened a quantum gate andvanished. They probably hadn't gone far –the Funks would need someone to remain in the system and watch the rebels – butfor the moment they were no longer an issue. Joshua barked orders as Blackbeardcaught up with the remainder of the formation and headed right towards Tauscher. The planet’s orbital space seemed to have dissolvedinto chaos. Automated platforms werefiring on most of the manned platforms, while some of the other platforms had shutdown completely. Joshua whispered aprayer for the unfortunate souls on the dead platforms, even if they wereFunks. No spacer wanted to die slowly asthe atmosphere turned to poison, rendering the platforms completelyuninhabitable.



“Nineteen ships destroyed outright, twenty-seven damaged,”Karla reported. “And seven fled for fearof losing their lives, the cowardly ****ers. You want to shoot them if they show their faces around here again?”



“If they do,” Joshua said. The range to the planet’s orbital space was droppingsharply. They had to know who wasfriendly by the time they reached orbit. “Can you raise someone – anyone?”



“Nothing,” Karla said. “The orbital datanets appear to have been completely scrambled. It’s possible that they’ve uploadedsubversion software to disable platforms that weren’t likely to fall to therebels. Even if they can still fight,they won't be fighting as a unit.”



Joshua winced. “Holdour position outside their effective range,” he ordered. “If anyone tries to fire on us, assume thatthey’re hostile and mark them down for later attention.”



He tapped his console, opening a link to Xinchub. Whatever cuteness the alien had once had waslost in the sheer number of weapons he carried as he prepared to head down tothe planet. The Funks had never botheredto design battlesuits for their clients and even the hidden colonies hadn’tbeen able to produce a workable version in time, leaving the Gobbles at a disadvantagewhen facing their masters. It didn't seem to bother them.



“We need to sort out the friendly platforms from thehostiles,” he said. “Can you get throughto your allies?”



“I’m trying,” Xinchub said. “The Funks are trying to jam radiotransmissions from the planetary surface. What little I’m picking up suggests that all-out war has broken out andboth sides are being slaughtered.”



Joshua shuddered. Even humanity couldn't match the Gobbles when it came to sheerunthinking hatred for the Funks. And theFunks had a major population down on the surface, treating the natives in waysthat would have made the worst of South Africa’s apartheid racists blanch. Black men had been human too, howeverreluctant their enemies were to acknowledge it, but there was no such tiebetween the Gobbles and the Funks. Evenwithout weapons, the Gobbles were likely to slaughter their masters and bathein their blood.



“Keep trying to get through to them,” he said. He’d warned Xinchub that he didn't want aslaughter, let alone effective genocide, but it didn't look as if he was incontrol of the situation any longer. “I’ll...”



“I’ve got a laser link from one of the stations,” Karla interrupted. “They’re asking to speak to Xinchub.”



“Put them through to him,” Joshua ordered. There was a long pause as the two Gobbleschattered together in their high-pitched language, defeating the translation programhe’d bought from Shadow. From what he’dpicked up from the rebels, the Gobbles actually had a simpler version of theirlanguage they used to talk to the Galactics. They called it, roughly translated, the Stupid Speech. “What’s happening down there?”



“We have control of most of the platforms,” Xinchubsaid. “Tactical data is being uploadednow. The ground is still horrificallyconfused. We have to get down there assoon as possible.”



Joshua glanced at the data from the capturedplatforms. “It should be possible to getyou and your men down to the surface without being intercepted by the remainingplatforms,” he said. “I assume you wishto laugh immediately?”



“Of course,” Xinchub said. “I’m going home!”



The fleet slowly advanced on the planet, targeting andpicking off the remaining enemy-controlled platforms. Joshua watched dispassionately as they died,one by one, even though they claimed victims before they were finallydestroyed. Some of the planet’s defenceswould have to be rebuilt quickly before the Funks gathered the forces to returnand reclaim the planet, although he had been informed that the Funks had usedtheir client world as a base for manufacturing missiles and other military equipment. It had seemed a curious oversight on theirpart to put valuable production nodes near a rebellious planet until Joshua hadlooked into the history of the occupation. The Hegemony clans that had claimed the planet – and its inhabitants – hadn'thad much of a presence anywhere outside the system, for internal politicalreasons that Joshua hadn't been able to follow. They’d regarded the Gobbles as their last chance to regain prominence –under the Empress, of course – and their lust for power had overridden theircommon sense. But then, the Gobbles had been under control until Joshua haddestroyed or driven away the starships guarding their planet. Resistance would have been futile.



Xinchub launched his shuttles as soon as he came intorange, hurling thousands of heavily-armed rebels into the teeth of enemypositions. The Funks fought with asavagery born of desperation, pressing every last craft into military serviceand forcing civilians to join their defenders. Joshua watched helplessly as the captured orbital platforms turned on theplanet they were supposed to defend, wiping out Funk fortifications andsettlements with a ruthlessness that shocked him. In no more than two hours, hundreds ofthousands – perhaps more – of Funks had been slaughtered. There was nowhere to hide for the formermasters of the planet. The onlysurvivors were the ones who lived far from any Gobble settlements.



Joshua redeployed his fleet and sent small detachments toclaim the various colonies and industrial nodes scattered throughout thesystem. Most of them were run by Gobblesand they were quite willing to join the rebels; the remainder, mostly operatedby Funks, refused to surrender until Joshua promised not to hand them over tothe Gobbles. The penal ship he’dcaptured months ago would come in handy as a place to hold them until theycould be returned to the Hegemony. Noneof them were any use as hostages. Finally,an uneasy peace covered the entire system. Joshua didn't want to think abouthow many Funks had died when their slaves had turned on them. The final death toll would probably be in themillions.



“It was necessary,” Xinchub said, when he returned to Blackbeard. The Gobbles seemed to be firmly in control ofmost of the system’s infrastructure and they’d already started offering theirservices to repair the damaged ships. Others were starting work on restoring the disabled platforms, afterJoshua had sent shuttles to pick up the Funks. “They needed to understand just how badly we hate them.”



Joshua found himself at a loss for words. Three Hegemony clans – relatively minor ones,true – had been almost exterminated by the uprising. Whatever their exact relationship with therest of the clans, or the Empress, the Hegemony could hardly let that go pastwithout retaliating. Even if they didn'tblame humanity for the whole affair – and they probably would – they’d stillwant to punish the Gobbles. A singleantimatter torpedo would render the entire planet uninhabitable. The debris falling into the planet’satmosphere probably wouldn't help. Godknew that the Funks had left large parts of the surface an ecological disasterarea.



“I think they got the message,” he said, finally. He’d seen the images from the ground, thepictures of burning cities and slaughtered Funks, their bodies piled high sothey could be cremated by orbital lasers. No Funk who remained alive on the planet’s surface could ever feel safewhen his or her family had been brutally murdered. “How do you intend to explain it to theGalactics?”



“The Galactics have never done anything for us,” Xinchubsnarled. “Why should we care about theiropinion?”



It wasn't an attitude Joshua found hard to share. The Association had done nothing to protect humanity from the ravages of powerfulneighbours, any more than they’d done anything to force the Hegemony to let theGobbles develop in peace. There wassomething to be said for rubbing their noses in the trauma inflicted on slaveraces, and what happened when that trauma finally found an outlet, yet it wouldmake it harder for the Gobbles to win allies from outside the Hegemony. And they would need those allies to stave off the Hegemony when the Funks cameback, bent on extracting revenge.



“Because you might need their help,” he said, tiredly. If Earth hadn't already disowned him, itwould have done so once news of the slaughter reached home. “They might be willing to help you now thatyou have freed yourself.”



“I wouldn't have bet money on that,” Xinchub said. “The Galactics simply don’t care. There is no justice in the universe, or evenany agreement on shared ethics and morals. How long will it be until everyone realises that there is no common law?”



“Not long,” Joshua said. The brushfire wars had started the process, but humanity’s war againstthe Hegemony had probably accelerated it. Laws had no power unless they were enforced and no one was interested inserving as the enforcer. The Cats didn'thave the will and no one else had the power. Anyone who tried would probably force several other powers to uniteagainst them. “I don't think it will bevery long at all.”

***​

“Blackbeard willbe at least a week in the yard,” Karla said, an hour later. “The Gobbles seem pretty sure that they canrebuild her faster than we estimated.”



“We’ll see,” Joshua said, slowly. He felt tired; not physically tired, butmentally tired. The war had turnedsavage and it was partly his fault. “Andthe orbital fortifications?”



“Repaired,” Karla said. “They’ve improvised a number of systems that will give them a fewunexpected surprises when the Funks return. The defences are maybe not as deep as we would like, but the Funks will definitelyknow that they’ve been kissed.”



She smiled. “I’mafraid a number of pirates want their loot and then out of here before theFunks come back,” she added. “The rebelsare more interested in turning this system into a permanent base. They have families who need somewhere to livewhere the Funks can’t threaten them.”



“Maybe they can find a home here,” Joshua said. “God knows there’s plenty of room for themnow.”



Karla reached over and shook him, firmly. “What exactly do you think the Funksexpected?” She demanded. “You know how they treated anyone who evendared to question their orders. Theymight be able to integrate their own race into society after a few generationsof slavery, but how could they do that when they couldn't even breed with the non-Funkslaves? The Gobbles were doomed topermanent servitude until we came along and helped them to be free.”



She snorted, loudly. “The Hegemony wasn't innocent beforethey encountered us,” she reminded him. “Youshould know exactly how they treat their own people – and what happens when themasters lose control. How much worse isit on a planet populated by aliens who cannot even claim to own their world?”



“And it will solvethe problem of what to do with the Funk population,” Kang added. “They would have been a major issue if they’dbeen left alive...”



“And now millions of them are dead,” Joshua snapped. “Try as I might, I cannot see that as avictory. The blood on our hands willnever wash off.”



“You don’t need to be dramatic about it,” Kang said,dryly. “Look; the Funks treated everyoneon the planet below like ****. They gotexactly what they deserved when they lost control. It wasn't your fault that the Funks built upsuch a reservoir of hatred and anger among the locals. You couldn't be blamed for not realising thatthe teddy bears would turn on their masters as soon as their masters lost theability to keep them under control.”



He stood up and headed to the hatch. “I think that we have more importantproblems,” he added. “You need toprepare this system for the inevitable counterattack.”



“He’s right,” Karla said, as the hatch closed behindhim. “Hey, do you want to go to bed and celebrateagain?”



“I don't feel like celebrating,” Joshua said. The thought of the dead chilled him to thebone, even though part of his autonomy was insisting that he take her up on heroffer. “We won today – but I feel as ifI lost. What does that say about me?”



Karla didn't try to answer.

 

ChapterThirty-Eight<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />



“Come and take a look at this.”



Captain William O’Hare smiled to himself as his youngestson looked up from the sensor console. Awarship would have had a trained and experienced officer, but Mother’s Milk was no warship. She was a freighter that was officially olderthan five hundred years, purchased on the open market by human investors andleased out to William and his family as long as they brought in the goods. His son had yet to lose the certainty thateach voyage would bring in a new and remarkable discovery, even though all he’ddiscovered was a handful of comets and an asteroid that would have been worthsomething if there hadn't been millions more like it in the asteroid belt. Clarke was not a particularly well-travelledsystem, yet anything really interesting would have been noted long before thehuman race learned about the community that existed between the stars.



He looked down at the sensor console and frowned. There should have been nothing between themand the quantum gate, their only way of entering quantum space. But there was something...it looked almostlike turbulence from a cloaked ship. Space wasn't as empty as the average civilian thought, and there werefrequent energy discharges that could be mistaken for a cloaked starship, yetthis pattern looked too regular to be natural. Someone seemed to be trying to sneak up on Clarke...



“Send an emergency signal to the planet,” hesnapped. “Cloaked ship – or ships –operating near the quantum gate!”



He hoped – prayed – that the unknown ship wasn't intenton wiping out the human presence within the system. The freighter couldn't run or hide if theenemy wanted to kill them; there was no way she could even get into the quantumgate before being obliterated if the enemy ship opened fire. His action might have doomed them all, but heknew his duty. Humanity had to bewarned, even if it cost him his ship and family...



“I’m picking up a change in energy readings,” his sonsaid. “I think they’re decloaking...”



William had wondered, briefly, if the ship was aFederation Navy starship running through its final trials. But the decloaking ship was clearly not ofhuman design. The battlecruiser thatwobbled into view was Galactic, almost certainly belonging to theHegemony. William cursed their ill-luckas the battlecruiser locked weapons on their hull, ripping their ship apartwith a single burst of phase cannon fire. There was barely time to hug his son before the ship exploded aroundthem and they fell into darkness.

***​

Calling Clarke a habitable world required stretching thedefinition of ‘habitable’ about as far as it would go. Clarke possessed a breathable atmosphere forhumans – and most other humanoid races – but its surface was completelyinfested by foliage that might actually be a life form in its own right. The first settlements on the planetarysurface had been destroyed by the local plant life, which had moved withstunning speed to repel the invaders. Later research had discovered that the plant life actually hunted fishand seemed to have domesticated several species of animal. There were even reports that a handful ofhuman survivors had been domesticated and allowed to live in harmony with theplants.



The main human settlements on the planet had beenestablished on small islands, the largest barely the size of Nantucket. They’d had to use firebombs to sweep theislands clean of native life and replant with seeds from Earth before theycould support a growing population, something that couldn't really be appliedto the larger continents. It saidsomething about how useless the system was that the Hegemony had neverattempted to claim it, which might have been a mistake on their part. Clarke had plenty of surprises on its surfaceand some of them were potentially very profitable.



Governor Mountbatten had been in office for two yearswhen researchers had discovered that the strange plant life could be harvestedto produce a surprising number of vaccines and pleasure drugs. Some of them were useless – even poisonous –for humans, but they promised to be a gold mine when they were sold to theGalactics, assuming that the Hegemony didn't simply grab the planet as soon asthey realised that it was turning a profit. Mountbatten had been devising a cunning plan to prevent the Funks from discoveringthe truth when the war began. Sincethen, he’d prayed for victory. If Clarkebecame a gold mine, the world he’d come to love might grow into a proper humancommunity – and his career would be boosted beyond recognition.



He looked up as the door opened and his aide ran inwithout knocking. “Governor,” he said, “we’repicking up a very disturbing report from the deep-space tracking network. I think you’d better come see this at once.”



Mountbatten nodded and followed his aide through thecorridors of Government House to System Control. Clarke just didn't have the room for massivesprawling mansions, or separate installations; everything was jammed togetherin Government House. The Marines had asmall training base nearby, shared with the local militia and nationalcontingents from Earth, but apart from them Clarke was almost defenceless. A handful of third-hand automated weaponsplatforms weren't going to slow any serious attacker down for long.



A single red icon glowed on the display as it came closerto the planet. “One battlecruiser, almostcertainly Hegemony,” the operator reported. Mountbatten felt his chest turn to ice. “It destroyed a freighter near the quantum gate before advancing onus...”



“Send out the alert,” Mountbatten ordered. The local militia would muster, for all thegood it would do. There weren't anyFederation Marines on Clarke apart from the training cadre. A battalion from the French Foreign Legion,part of the 10^th Mountain Division and a handful of SAS soldiers wererunning exercises on the mainland, but they’d never be able to get back to thesettlements before it was too late. “Andthen we’d better put the evacuation plan into operation. Now.”



Clarke had never expected to be attacked, not when theworld was generally believed to be almost worthless. Mountbatten had developed a plan to defendthe settlement, but no one knew better than him that any determined attackercould take the planet or exterminate the human population without muchtrouble. The only drill they’d held hadbeen a disaster, which had at least concentrated a few minds. By now, the schools would be ordering theirchildren to head to the shelters while the entire planet went dark. Most of the fishing boats didn't normallybother with radio transmissions, thankfully. They might be missed if the enemy didn't look closely.



“Enemy ship entering firing range of the platforms,” theoperator said. “Am I authorised to openfire?”



“For God’s sake, yes,”Mountbatten snapped at him. The enemyship was already firing on the platforms. Two of them were gone before they even managed to fire back. “See if you can hurt the bastard!”



He took one last look around the command centre, and thenled the way to the door and out into the small town. Government House would surely be targetedfirst if the enemy intended to invade and occupy the planet and he could do nomore good by remaining in the mansion. Once outside, he could put on his militia hat and take command of hisforces, such as they were. TheFederation had encouraged thedevelopment of a militia and even supplied weapons, but the population was toolow to put up a real fight. And theirenemy could bombard them from orbit anyway.

***​

“All right, listen up,” Sergeant Tommy Hawkinsbellowed. He’d been in 3 Para beforeFirst Contact, a line on his resume that had ensured he received sergeant'srank in the militia when he retired and emigrated to Clarke. “We have incoming assault shuttles and they’regoing to be coming in hot.”



He glared at his troop until they stopped looking sonervous. A handful had had militaryexperience on Earth, but most of them were youngsters who had been raised onClarke by their parents and had never seen anything more dangerous than huntingexpeditions and rescue missions. Somehad declared their intention to join the Federation Marines, but in Tommy’srather less than humble opinion few of them had the dedication to join andremain in service for the ten year period. It might not matter in the long run. Many of his men were going to die today.



“You’ve trained on the Super-Stinger,” he continued. The Super-Stinger was an antiaircraft HVMbuilt using Galactic technology, capable of shooting down anything that flew withinrange. And yet they’d never been testedin combat. “You know how to handleit. Anything that flies within range ofus is a target, understand?”



He caught sight of a nervous-looking blonde farm girlholding a rifle and rolled his eyes. Shedidn't really look particularly dangerous at all. Rumour had it that her father had ordered herinto the militia for political reasons, rather than any desire on her part toserve. But she did her part, which wasmore than could be said for some of the others with political ambitions. Some of them seemed to think that all theyneeded to do was be on the rolls, without training and exercising with theothers. Tommy had worked hard to expelsuch layabouts from the militia.



The training had been makeshift compared to whatpre-Contact soldiers had been offered, but at least they’d been able to hammer properrifle skills into their heads. Some ofthe youngsters had picked up bad habits from hunting rifles they kept on theirfarms. The riflemen would providelimited protection to the missile crews, or so Tommy had explained. They didn't need to worry about the enemybombing them from high overhead, if only because there was nothing they coulddo about it if the Funks decided to kill them all.



“Once we run out of missiles, we get back to the RV pointas we practiced,” he concluded. “And Iwill personally kick any slowcoach up the ass, you got me?”



He could hear the sound of shuttles in the distance asthe team scattered, the missile crews picking up their weapons while theriflemen took up guard positions. Tommyhad picked their firing location with malice aforethought. The enemy should have problems locating themunder the small forest of trees, at least until they landed ground troops toflush out the resistance. At least theFunks weren't likely to be as unpleasant as certain human forces, although theywouldn't hesitate to kill insurgents.



There were nine large settled islands on Clarke and ahundred smaller ones, some housing nothing more than a dock and a couple offishing settlements. Logically, theenemy would land on Colchester Island first and take the spaceport, using it asa place to land their forces and deploy out to seize Wells City. His position should give them a clear shot ata handful of enemy shuttles before they had to cut and run, unless the enemyhad their own plans for landing. It wasjust possible that the Funks might drop into the sea and attempt an amphibious landing,if they really wanted to outflank the defenders. For a race that had evolved on a hot dryworld, they swam remarkably well.



“Here they come,” he said. “Take aim and...fire!”



The HVM blasted out of his launcher and roared for thesky, tracking its target at terrifying speed. They were too close for most countermeasures, although the Funks didwhat they could by throwing their shuttles into evasive patterns. Two missiles had tracked the same target,part of Tommy’s mind noted, blowing the Funk shuttle into a pile of fallingdebris. The remaining shuttles followed,save one which rocketed away over the ocean. Tommy tried to form a mental picture of it trailing smoke and crashinginto the water, but he had to admit that it was unlikely. Besides, the native seawater life would eatthe Funks for dinner and probably get even more hostile to land-dwelling lifeforms.



“Grab your weapons and run,” he barked. The Funks knew where they were now; activeHVM launchers would show up on every orbital sensor. “Run, now!”



The militiamen turned and ran for their lives. They’d practiced often enough, once Tommy andhis fellow trainers had managed to convince them that retreat wasn't always acowardly act. He heard the screamseconds before the missile plunged down and detonated where they’d been lucky,blowing a colossal fireball into the air. The shockwave picked him up and threw him forward, sending him crashingdown into a prickly bush. He’d been oneof the lucky ones. The blonde-haired militiawomanwas less lucky. She’d been blown rightinto a tree and her head had almost been severed from her body. One glance was all it took to confirm thatthere was no point in calling for a medic. Tommy dropped a small grenade beside her body, booby-trapping it tosurprise any Funk troopers who found her, and then led the remains of theplatoon into the untamed wilderness the ecologists had created. They could hide out there until the Funksretreated or the Federation Navy organised a relief mission.



He shook his head tiredly as they headed furtheronwards. At least they’d hurt thebastards, even if they hadn't hurt them badly enough to make them think twiceabout invading Clarke. Raid oroccupation, a lot of people were about to die – and all he could do was hideand await the opportunity to strike back. There was nothing else he could do.

***​

Jeanette saw the shuttle fall out of the sky and hit theground, sending up a massive fireball that could be seen for miles around. She hadn't bothered to go to the shelters,even though she knew that she should; her general store was about to bedestroyed by the Funks and without it, what would become of her? She’d seen the indentured workers on themainland, the men and women who hadn't been able to repay their settlementloans and ended up working as virtual slaves for the development corporation,and she had no intention of ending up like them.



She'd ordered her two sons to the shelters and taken up aposition just outside Wells City, along the road leading to the spaceport. The last update she’d had from the Governmenthad warned that shuttles were landing there, brushing aside the militia unitsthat attempted to delay them. Herworthless ex-husband was probably among the dead; oddly, despite her feelingsfor the man who had given her children and little else, she found herselfhoping that he’d died well. The radiohad gone silent soon afterwards, suggesting that the Funks had taken out thetransmitter. A handful of plumes ofsmoke in the distance suggested the worst.



The faint sound of vehicles caught her attention, comingdown the long road to the spaceport. Noone drove on Colchester Island, except the police and the emergencyservices. Fuel was incredibly expensiveon Clarke, limiting the kind of vehicles they could use. Besides, Colchester was a relatively smallisland. Anywhere she wanted to go waswithin walking or bicycle distance. No,the oncoming vehicles had to belong to the Funks. She peered down the scope on her rifle asthey came into view, heavy vehicles without any of the elegance that some ofthe Galactics insisted on working into everything they produced. They bristled with weapons and lizard-liketroopers, who looked around nervously with flickering red eyes. Some of them wore combat armour; others worenothing more than protective breastplates and helmets. They seemed ready for anything.



Jeanette took aim at the nearest unarmoured Funk andpulled the trigger. The hunting riflejerked in her arms, but she had the satisfaction of seeing the Funk staggeringbackwards and stumbling into two of his comrades. She was already moving as the vehcile’sturret moved with stunning speed, bringing a pair of heavy machine guns to bearon her position. Jeanette dived into thestream as a fusillade of shots tore through where she’d been hiding, leaving adusty mess hovering in the air. Shestarted to crawl down the stream, praying that they wouldn't dismount and checkto be sure they'd caught her; a second later, she heard a shot and feltsomething crack into her left leg. Thepain was so agonising that she couldn't help screaming, even as she realiseddimly that she’d been shot. Her legseemed to refuse to work properly and she found herself twisting over and overagain, only to see a pair of green legs appear beside her. She looked up into the bright red eyes of aFunk, pointing a gun at her head. Jeanettetried to reach for her rifle, but it was gone. She couldn't even think of where it might be.



The Funk pulled the trigger – and the entire world wentblack.

***​

Carolyn Jonson had been hiding in the shelters, with anumber of other refugees, when the doors were flung open and they cameface-to-face with the Funks. Carolyn hadnever considered herself an xenophobe – her settlement application wouldprobably have been rejected if she’d disliked aliens – but the Funks lookedhorrific in the bright sunlight. Theirhissing voices, speaking barely intelligible Galactic Three, ordered the humansout of the shelter. Those who tried to moveslowly found themselves being helped along by rifle butts and heavyshoving. The Funks were stronger thanthey looked.



Wells had never been a pretty city, but now it lookedlike a war zone. Buildings had beenshattered, casually destroyed as if they had been struck by an angry god. A handful of vehicles were nothing more thanburning wrecks. And there were a dozendead bodies within easy view of the children. Carolyn felt tears welling up behind her eyes and started to sob. She wasn't alone.



The Funk leaned forward. “Your world is ours now,” the alien hissed. “Resistance is futile.”

 

ChapterThirty-Eight<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />



“Come and take a look at this.”



Captain William O’Hare smiled to himself as his youngestson looked up from the sensor console. Awarship would have had a trained and experienced officer, but Mother’s Milk was no warship. She was a freighter that was officially olderthan five hundred years, purchased on the open market by human investors andleased out to William and his family as long as they brought in the goods. His son had yet to lose the certainty thateach voyage would bring in a new and remarkable discovery, even though all he’ddiscovered was a handful of comets and an asteroid that would have been worthsomething if there hadn't been millions more like it in the asteroid belt. Clarke was not a particularly well-travelledsystem, yet anything really interesting would have been noted long before thehuman race learned about the community that existed between the stars.



He looked down at the sensor console and frowned. There should have been nothing between themand the quantum gate, their only way of entering quantum space. But there was something...it looked almostlike turbulence from a cloaked ship. Space wasn't as empty as the average civilian thought, and there werefrequent energy discharges that could be mistaken for a cloaked starship, yetthis pattern looked too regular to be natural. Someone seemed to be trying to sneak up on Clarke...



“Send an emergency signal to the planet,” hesnapped. “Cloaked ship – or ships –operating near the quantum gate!”



He hoped – prayed – that the unknown ship wasn't intenton wiping out the human presence within the system. The freighter couldn't run or hide if theenemy wanted to kill them; there was no way she could even get into the quantumgate before being obliterated if the enemy ship opened fire. His action might have doomed them all, but heknew his duty. Humanity had to bewarned, even if it cost him his ship and family...



“I’m picking up a change in energy readings,” his sonsaid. “I think they’re decloaking...”



William had wondered, briefly, if the ship was aFederation Navy starship running through its final trials. But the decloaking ship was clearly not ofhuman design. The battlecruiser thatwobbled into view was Galactic, almost certainly belonging to theHegemony. William cursed their ill-luckas the battlecruiser locked weapons on their hull, ripping their ship apartwith a single burst of phase cannon fire. There was barely time to hug his son before the ship exploded aroundthem and they fell into darkness.

***​

Calling Clarke a habitable world required stretching thedefinition of ‘habitable’ about as far as it would go. Clarke possessed a breathable atmosphere forhumans – and most other humanoid races – but its surface was completelyinfested by foliage that might actually be a life form in its own right. The first settlements on the planetarysurface had been destroyed by the local plant life, which had moved withstunning speed to repel the invaders. Later research had discovered that the plant life actually hunted fishand seemed to have domesticated several species of animal. There were even reports that a handful ofhuman survivors had been domesticated and allowed to live in harmony with theplants.



The main human settlements on the planet had beenestablished on small islands, the largest barely the size of Nantucket. They’d had to use firebombs to sweep theislands clean of native life and replant with seeds from Earth before theycould support a growing population, something that couldn't really be appliedto the larger continents. It saidsomething about how useless the system was that the Hegemony had neverattempted to claim it, which might have been a mistake on their part. Clarke had plenty of surprises on its surfaceand some of them were potentially very profitable.



Governor Mountbatten had been in office for two yearswhen researchers had discovered that the strange plant life could be harvestedto produce a surprising number of vaccines and pleasure drugs. Some of them were useless – even poisonous –for humans, but they promised to be a gold mine when they were sold to theGalactics, assuming that the Hegemony didn't simply grab the planet as soon asthey realised that it was turning a profit. Mountbatten had been devising a cunning plan to prevent the Funks from discoveringthe truth when the war began. Sincethen, he’d prayed for victory. If Clarkebecame a gold mine, the world he’d come to love might grow into a proper humancommunity – and his career would be boosted beyond recognition.



He looked up as the door opened and his aide ran inwithout knocking. “Governor,” he said, “we’repicking up a very disturbing report from the deep-space tracking network. I think you’d better come see this at once.”



Mountbatten nodded and followed his aide through thecorridors of Government House to System Control. Clarke just didn't have the room for massivesprawling mansions, or separate installations; everything was jammed togetherin Government House. The Marines had asmall training base nearby, shared with the local militia and nationalcontingents from Earth, but apart from them Clarke was almost defenceless. A handful of third-hand automated weaponsplatforms weren't going to slow any serious attacker down for long.



A single red icon glowed on the display as it came closerto the planet. “One battlecruiser, almostcertainly Hegemony,” the operator reported. Mountbatten felt his chest turn to ice. “It destroyed a freighter near the quantum gate before advancing onus...”



“Send out the alert,” Mountbatten ordered. The local militia would muster, for all thegood it would do. There weren't anyFederation Marines on Clarke apart from the training cadre. A battalion from the French Foreign Legion,part of the 10^th Mountain Division and a handful of SAS soldiers wererunning exercises on the mainland, but they’d never be able to get back to thesettlements before it was too late. “Andthen we’d better put the evacuation plan into operation. Now.”



Clarke had never expected to be attacked, not when theworld was generally believed to be almost worthless. Mountbatten had developed a plan to defendthe settlement, but no one knew better than him that any determined attackercould take the planet or exterminate the human population without muchtrouble. The only drill they’d held hadbeen a disaster, which had at least concentrated a few minds. By now, the schools would be ordering theirchildren to head to the shelters while the entire planet went dark. Most of the fishing boats didn't normallybother with radio transmissions, thankfully. They might be missed if the enemy didn't look closely.



“Enemy ship entering firing range of the platforms,” theoperator said. “Am I authorised to openfire?”



“For God’s sake, yes,”Mountbatten snapped at him. The enemyship was already firing on the platforms. Two of them were gone before they even managed to fire back. “See if you can hurt the bastard!”



He took one last look around the command centre, and thenled the way to the door and out into the small town. Government House would surely be targetedfirst if the enemy intended to invade and occupy the planet and he could do nomore good by remaining in the mansion. Once outside, he could put on his militia hat and take command of hisforces, such as they were. TheFederation had encouraged thedevelopment of a militia and even supplied weapons, but the population was toolow to put up a real fight. And theirenemy could bombard them from orbit anyway.

***​

“All right, listen up,” Sergeant Tommy Hawkinsbellowed. He’d been in 3 Para beforeFirst Contact, a line on his resume that had ensured he received sergeant'srank in the militia when he retired and emigrated to Clarke. “We have incoming assault shuttles and they’regoing to be coming in hot.”



He glared at his troop until they stopped looking sonervous. A handful had had militaryexperience on Earth, but most of them were youngsters who had been raised onClarke by their parents and had never seen anything more dangerous than huntingexpeditions and rescue missions. Somehad declared their intention to join the Federation Marines, but in Tommy’srather less than humble opinion few of them had the dedication to join andremain in service for the ten year period. It might not matter in the long run. Many of his men were going to die today.



“You’ve trained on the Super-Stinger,” he continued. The Super-Stinger was an antiaircraft HVMbuilt using Galactic technology, capable of shooting down anything that flew withinrange. And yet they’d never been testedin combat. “You know how to handleit. Anything that flies within range ofus is a target, understand?”



He caught sight of a nervous-looking blonde farm girlholding a rifle and rolled his eyes. Shedidn't really look particularly dangerous at all. Rumour had it that her father had ordered herinto the militia for political reasons, rather than any desire on her part toserve. But she did her part, which wasmore than could be said for some of the others with political ambitions. Some of them seemed to think that all theyneeded to do was be on the rolls, without training and exercising with theothers. Tommy had worked hard to expelsuch layabouts from the militia.



The training had been makeshift compared to whatpre-Contact soldiers had been offered, but at least they’d been able to hammer properrifle skills into their heads. Some ofthe youngsters had picked up bad habits from hunting rifles they kept on theirfarms. The riflemen would providelimited protection to the missile crews, or so Tommy had explained. They didn't need to worry about the enemybombing them from high overhead, if only because there was nothing they coulddo about it if the Funks decided to kill them all.



“Once we run out of missiles, we get back to the RV pointas we practiced,” he concluded. “And Iwill personally kick any slowcoach up the ass, you got me?”



He could hear the sound of shuttles in the distance asthe team scattered, the missile crews picking up their weapons while theriflemen took up guard positions. Tommyhad picked their firing location with malice aforethought. The enemy should have problems locating themunder the small forest of trees, at least until they landed ground troops toflush out the resistance. At least theFunks weren't likely to be as unpleasant as certain human forces, although theywouldn't hesitate to kill insurgents.



There were nine large settled islands on Clarke and ahundred smaller ones, some housing nothing more than a dock and a couple offishing settlements. Logically, theenemy would land on Colchester Island first and take the spaceport, using it asa place to land their forces and deploy out to seize Wells City. His position should give them a clear shot ata handful of enemy shuttles before they had to cut and run, unless the enemyhad their own plans for landing. It wasjust possible that the Funks might drop into the sea and attempt an amphibious landing,if they really wanted to outflank the defenders. For a race that had evolved on a hot dryworld, they swam remarkably well.



“Here they come,” he said. “Take aim and...fire!”



The HVM blasted out of his launcher and roared for thesky, tracking its target at terrifying speed. They were too close for most countermeasures, although the Funks didwhat they could by throwing their shuttles into evasive patterns. Two missiles had tracked the same target,part of Tommy’s mind noted, blowing the Funk shuttle into a pile of fallingdebris. The remaining shuttles followed,save one which rocketed away over the ocean. Tommy tried to form a mental picture of it trailing smoke and crashinginto the water, but he had to admit that it was unlikely. Besides, the native seawater life would eatthe Funks for dinner and probably get even more hostile to land-dwelling lifeforms.



“Grab your weapons and run,” he barked. The Funks knew where they were now; activeHVM launchers would show up on every orbital sensor. “Run, now!”



The militiamen turned and ran for their lives. They’d practiced often enough, once Tommy andhis fellow trainers had managed to convince them that retreat wasn't always acowardly act. He heard the screamseconds before the missile plunged down and detonated where they’d been lucky,blowing a colossal fireball into the air. The shockwave picked him up and threw him forward, sending him crashingdown into a prickly bush. He’d been oneof the lucky ones. The blonde-haired militiawomanwas less lucky. She’d been blown rightinto a tree and her head had almost been severed from her body. One glance was all it took to confirm thatthere was no point in calling for a medic. Tommy dropped a small grenade beside her body, booby-trapping it tosurprise any Funk troopers who found her, and then led the remains of theplatoon into the untamed wilderness the ecologists had created. They could hide out there until the Funksretreated or the Federation Navy organised a relief mission.



He shook his head tiredly as they headed furtheronwards. At least they’d hurt thebastards, even if they hadn't hurt them badly enough to make them think twiceabout invading Clarke. Raid oroccupation, a lot of people were about to die – and all he could do was hideand await the opportunity to strike back. There was nothing else he could do.

***​

Jeanette saw the shuttle fall out of the sky and hit theground, sending up a massive fireball that could be seen for miles around. She hadn't bothered to go to the shelters,even though she knew that she should; her general store was about to bedestroyed by the Funks and without it, what would become of her? She’d seen the indentured workers on themainland, the men and women who hadn't been able to repay their settlementloans and ended up working as virtual slaves for the development corporation,and she had no intention of ending up like them.



She'd ordered her two sons to the shelters and taken up aposition just outside Wells City, along the road leading to the spaceport. The last update she’d had from the Governmenthad warned that shuttles were landing there, brushing aside the militia unitsthat attempted to delay them. Herworthless ex-husband was probably among the dead; oddly, despite her feelingsfor the man who had given her children and little else, she found herselfhoping that he’d died well. The radiohad gone silent soon afterwards, suggesting that the Funks had taken out thetransmitter. A handful of plumes ofsmoke in the distance suggested the worst.



The faint sound of vehicles caught her attention, comingdown the long road to the spaceport. Noone drove on Colchester Island, except the police and the emergencyservices. Fuel was incredibly expensiveon Clarke, limiting the kind of vehicles they could use. Besides, Colchester was a relatively smallisland. Anywhere she wanted to go waswithin walking or bicycle distance. No,the oncoming vehicles had to belong to the Funks. She peered down the scope on her rifle asthey came into view, heavy vehicles without any of the elegance that some ofthe Galactics insisted on working into everything they produced. They bristled with weapons and lizard-liketroopers, who looked around nervously with flickering red eyes. Some of them wore combat armour; others worenothing more than protective breastplates and helmets. They seemed ready for anything.



Jeanette took aim at the nearest unarmoured Funk andpulled the trigger. The hunting riflejerked in her arms, but she had the satisfaction of seeing the Funk staggeringbackwards and stumbling into two of his comrades. She was already moving as the vehcile’sturret moved with stunning speed, bringing a pair of heavy machine guns to bearon her position. Jeanette dived into thestream as a fusillade of shots tore through where she’d been hiding, leaving adusty mess hovering in the air. Shestarted to crawl down the stream, praying that they wouldn't dismount and checkto be sure they'd caught her; a second later, she heard a shot and feltsomething crack into her left leg. Thepain was so agonising that she couldn't help screaming, even as she realiseddimly that she’d been shot. Her legseemed to refuse to work properly and she found herself twisting over and overagain, only to see a pair of green legs appear beside her. She looked up into the bright red eyes of aFunk, pointing a gun at her head. Jeanettetried to reach for her rifle, but it was gone. She couldn't even think of where it might be.



The Funk pulled the trigger – and the entire world wentblack.

***​

Carolyn Jonson had been hiding in the shelters, with anumber of other refugees, when the doors were flung open and they cameface-to-face with the Funks. Carolyn hadnever considered herself an xenophobe – her settlement application wouldprobably have been rejected if she’d disliked aliens – but the Funks lookedhorrific in the bright sunlight. Theirhissing voices, speaking barely intelligible Galactic Three, ordered the humansout of the shelter. Those who tried to moveslowly found themselves being helped along by rifle butts and heavyshoving. The Funks were stronger thanthey looked.



Wells had never been a pretty city, but now it lookedlike a war zone. Buildings had beenshattered, casually destroyed as if they had been struck by an angry god. A handful of vehicles were nothing more thanburning wrecks. And there were a dozendead bodies within easy view of the children. Carolyn felt tears welling up behind her eyes and started to sob. She wasn't alone.



The Funk leaned forward. “Your world is ours now,” the alien hissed. “Resistance is futile.”

 

It is my great pleasure to announce that I have published anew book on Kindle. Check out my blogfor a freesample and a special offer to my readers, or buy it directly from Amazon here.

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Chris

 

Always good to read your new stuff Chris will check out the sample tonight and will be buying the new book on Thursday will be sure to leave you some feedback once I'm done, Thanks for all your hard work

 

ChapterThirty-Nine<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />



“It’s confirmed, then?”



“I’m afraid so,” Admiral Sun said. “Clarke has definitely fallen to theHegemony.”



Tobias cursed. TheFunks had finally managed to start launching counterattacks – and he couldn'thope to stop them all. Apart from Earthitself, the defences of humanity’s worlds were minimal; Hammerfall alone hadhad more defences than all of the Nine Stars combined. It was a reminder of humanity’s greatestweakness; the Hegemony could afford to lose hundreds of smaller ships withoutmaking a serious dent in its combat power, while each lost human ship weakenedthe Federation Navy.



“I took the decision to send one of the scouts to Clarke,”Sun continued. “The Hegemony landed atleast two divisions of ground troops and remains in possession of the highorbitals. We were unable to make contactwith our forces on the ground, which could mean that they were observing radiosilence...”



“Or that they’ve been destroyed,” Tobias said,tightly. “Did they capture any data onClarke itself?”



“We don’t know,” Sun admitted. “The Governor and his staff were under strictorders to destroy all of the data in the files if the planet was invaded, buttoo many people knew something about the planet’s actual value for us to be completelycertain that the Funks don’t know anything. Someone might try to bargain with the bastards if they feel that theFederation can’t liberate them.”



“And they’d have something to bargain with,” Tobiasmused. The Funks enslaved those theycaptured, but slaves who had something to bargain with could press for bettertreatment or even a fast track to citizenship. And if the Funks suspected Clarke’s true value...they’d definitely bewilling to deal. “I assume that theCouncil had something to say about it?”



“They met in emergency session only an hour ago,” Sunconfirmed. “So far, the news hasn't leakedout on Earth, but it won’t be long before the Funks start crowing about theirgreat victory to anyone who will listen. The general public will realise that there’s a Funk battlecruiser onlynine light years from Earth and start to panic.”



“Even though a single battlecruiser would be cut to piecesif it tried to break through Earth’s defences,” Tobias said. But there was no proof that it was just a lone battlecruiser. The Funks were devious and it would have beeneasy for them to hide an entire fleet in quantum space, or simply under cloak afew parsecs from the planet. They’d bewell beyond any risk of detection as long as they were careful. It was possible that Clarke was nothing morethan the bait in a trap.



“The Federation Council wishes you to dispatch a cruisersquadron to liberate Clarke,” Sun informed him. “We cannot allow the Funks to remain in control of human territory forany longer than strictly necessary.”



Tobias winced. “Iunderstand their point,” he said, “but do they understand that Clarke ismeaningless in a strategic sense?”



“I think they understand that losing Clarke and forty thousandhuman colonists is a disaster in a PR sense,” Sun said, dryly. “Even if Clarke was hardly a net gain to us,it still makes us look weak; we have to push back as hard as we can. They’re quite insistent on that point,Admiral. I’ve never seen the FederationCouncil so united.”



“Fear is a great motivator,” Tobias agreed, dryly. The Russian and Chinese permanent members didn'thave to worry about public opinion, but the remainder of the permanent members definitelydid. Even after the great victories atTerra Nova, Gaston and Hammerfall, there had been a sizable minority thatwanted peace at any price. That minoritywould be taking the opportunity to press its case upon ears that were suddenlywilling to listen. “I’ll have toconsider our options carefully.”



“I think that this isn't a time to resist our politicalmasters,” Sun warned him. “They’reunited, Admiral. The absolute last thingwe need right now is your relief and a power struggle over who gets to nominatethe next CNO.”



Tobias nodded, sourly. Sun would have made an ideal replacement for himself, when his term asCNO expired, but the political leaders wouldn't see it that way. The Chinese would want him because he was Chinese;the Russians would oppose him on the same grounds. America wouldn't be too keen on the idea; theJapanese would be utterly opposed. Giventhe weighted voting system, it was a hell of a lot easier to veto candidates thanhave one selected and confirmed by the full council. Tobias had had to fight hard over the yearsto prevent his political lords and masters putting forward candidates for highpositions purely based on nationality and political connections. He hadn't won all of the battles. The best he’d been able to do was make surethat some of the less reliable or competent officers were shunted off tomeaningless posts and makeshift work. And he still worried about the recent crop of potential commandingofficers.



But strategically, Clarke was meaningless – unless theHegemony did know that the planet wasn'tas worthless as everyone thought. Andyet that didn't make sense. Tobias knewjust how extensively the Hegemony had tried to penetrate Earth – and how ONIand Federation Intelligence had worked to counter them – and if they’d realisedthat Clarke might be a valuable possession, they would surely have bulliedhumanity into surrendering the world before the Federation Navy was ready tostart the war. Why wait until now tomove in? No, that made no sense. The Funks had gotten lucky and were in astronger position than they knew.



“And if we offered to trade Gaston for Clarke, they’d bebound to smell a rat,” he commented. “Idon’t suppose there’s been any word from Ambassador Li?”



“Nothing new,” Sun confirmed. “They keep going over and over the sameissues in the secret peace talks. Shethinks that they’re stalling, hoping that we’ll surrender our gains and let theEmpress claim a victory of sorts. The sociologistsagree with her, although I wouldn't trust those bastards to guess my weight.” He smiled. “And the news from the Gobbles doesn't help one little bit.”



Tobias smiled. Humanity knew little about the Gobbles, one of the Hegemony’s two clientraces, but all of a sudden they’d become very important. Their homeworld had risen up against theHegemony...and, according to some reports, they’d been aided by the dreadedhuman pirate king. In the short run, theplan to send a completely deniable agent to the sector to wreck havoc had succeededbeyond his wildest dreams; in the long term, everything would depend on howwell the Gobbles could defend themselves when the Hegemony returned to theirsystem.



But according to ONI – and some of humanity’s alienallies – the Hegemony had suffered a colossal political earthquake. Two clans had collapsed, leaving their peopleat the mercy of their enemies. Theircreditors were already moving in and enslaving lesser clansmen to ensure thatthey got at least some of their money back. The projections varied from analyst to analyst, but they all agreed thatthe shockwaves had only just begun. Howlong would it be until the Hegemony collapsed into civil war? Some reports claimed that martial law hadalready been declared on Hegemony Prime. It might not bode well for Formidableand her mission.



“I’ll ensure that starships are sent to deal with theenemy force on Clarke,” he said, reluctantly. At best, they’d mop up the enemy ground troops quickly, assuming theenemy battlecruiser was alone or pulled out before the cruisers arrived. The alternative was that an isolated humanforce would fly right into a trap. “Isuppose they’re not going to release any of the ships covering Earth?”



“Not a one,” Sun agreed. “They won’t even release the damaged ships we purchased from shiftyused-starship dealers. God knows thatmost of them aren't fit for combat anyway. We need more cruisers, Admiral.”



“Tell me about it,” Tobias agreed, tiredly. Humanity had strained every muscle to buildthe Federation Navy, yet there had only been twenty-five cruisers at the startof the war. Ten more were underconstruction in the Luna Yard, but the most optimistic estimate said that theywouldn’t be completed and worked up for battle for another six months. By then, Earth’s economy would probably have collapsedeven if the Hegemony was still hanging on. God alone knew what would happen to the market once the news of Clarke’sfall got out to the media. “I’ll updateyou once I decide which ships to send.”



He closed the channel and tapped his console, bringing upthe fleet’s order of battle. The newsquadron of cruisers from Earth – which had arrived just prior to news of thefall of Clarke – made up the holes in his force, but their crews weren't anythinglike as experienced as the veterans from the original squadrons. Tobias had ordered extensive training andexercises while the repair crews worked on the damaged ships and salvaged whatthey could from the remains of Hammerfall’s once-proud facilities. The irony would have been funny if it hadn't beenso irritating; the Galactics used standardized equipment, but some human technologywas incompatible with items that any other race could plug into their own shipsand expert them to work perfectly.



A message blipped up on his screen and he frowned. His galactic mail account was known to only ahandful of people, which didn't stop him from receiving his fair share of spammessages from across the galaxy. Quitewhy a spammer would think that he would be interested in sexual treatmentsdevised for a race that had five different sexes was beyond him; it made lesssense than sending him messages that offered to improve the size of hisbreasts. At least they went to the rightrace, if not the right sex. Some of themessages were clearly useless, but one of them was from an address herecognised.



He opened it and read it, and then reached for thedictionary. The code was a simple one,but almost unbreakable without an understanding of English and a copy of thebook used to encode the message. Earth’svast spectrum of languages had puzzled the Cats when they’d first discoveredEarth; they’d unified their languages into Galactic One by the time they’d lefttheir solar system and started poking through quantum space. The insurgents on Terra Nova had usedlanguages as code at first, but the Funks had eventually started programming theirtranslators to decrypt them automatically. They had had their own multiple language problem, although in their casea unified language had been forced on them by the First Empress.



Joshua Wachter had learned something, something soimportant that he’d decided to take the risk of communicating with theFederation Navy. Tobias had no intentionof actually enforcing the Federation Council’s orders regarding the pirate king,but it would cause a great deal of political embarrassment if the media realisedthat Wachter had had a direct line to the CNO. It wouldn't take a conspiracy theorist to realise that the CNO mighthave been quietly backing him ever since he’d left Earth. Tobias read through the message twice,feeling ice congealing within his chest. There were fifteen enemy superdreadnaughts that had left their sectorand were – presumably – on their way to the war.



Tobias calmed his mind with as much mental discipline ashe could muster and tapped a key, bringing up the star chart. Every spacer knew how to estimate transittimes – and every spacer knew that the estimates were rarely completelyaccurate. The enemy ships might havebeen in transit for up to a week prior to Wachter discovering that they weregone; hell, the discovery might have been what tempted him to liberate theGobbles in the first place. And thatmeant...



Where were they going? Hammerfall made little sense any longer, not now the system had beenrendered totally worthless. The Funkscould plan on crushing the Federation Navy, but they had to know that Tobias wouldn'tfight for Hammerfall against superior forces, no matter how important the mediaclaimed the planet to be. They couldn't hopeto catch Tobias if he chose to avoid engagement...



...Unless they went to Earth. He wanted to avoid even considering thepossibility, but the Federation Navy had extensively war-gamed theEarth-Hegemony War ever since the occupation of Terra Nova. They’d knownthat the Hegemony was far larger than Earth’s paltry Nine Stars. The best option for the Funks to win outrightwas to fight a delaying action, concentrate their naval forces and then attackEarth directly. If they were lucky, themain body of the Federation Navy would be light years from the planet when theyattacked – and even if they weren't lucky, they would have a chance to forcethe Federation Navy to fight on unfavourable terms. Speed meant nothing when the enemy wasadvancing on a target the Federation Navy hadto defend.



And if the Funks won...game over.



There was Bolthole, of course, but no one knew betterthan Tobias that Bolthole was a gamble with no guarantee of success. Past the Rim, past the space explored by theAssociation, it was far harder to navigate in quantum space. The Bolthole ship might find a habitableworld several thousand light years from Earth and establish a colony that wouldbecome a new homeworld for the human race, or it might run into hostile aliensand be destroyed. ONI had collected all theinformation it could on the space beyond the Rim, but most of it boiled down to‘here there be dragons.’ Anyone who knewanything concrete wasn't talking.



The Funks were certainly watching Hammerfall. Their ships had been detected making brieftransmissions to their superiors before they vanished back into cloak. A star system was an immense place to hide,particularly if they were only monitoring drive signatures with passivesensors; there was little hope that the Federation Navy would track them downand destroy the spies. And that meantthat the Funks would know if the Federation Navy withdrew from the system. Or would they?



A plan slowly started to take shape in his mind. The Funks were gambling, drawing down theirforces on the Tarn border to dangerously low levels. It had tobe their final attempt at winning the war outright. Another failure would topple the Empress andtrigger a civil war. If Tobias could getFirst Strike Fleet back to Earth in time to intercept the enemysuperdreadnaughts, Earth might be saved. And if the Hegemony believed that First Strike Fleet remained atHammerfall, their estimates of how powerful the Federation Navy was wouldbecome distorted. ECM drones could poseas the cruisers for a few weeks. Ifworst came to worst, Hammerfall would be recaptured – but keeping Hammerfall wasn'tworth losing Earth. Without Earth, theywould have no choice apart from surrender.



He keyed his console and opened a channel. “Command conference, right now,” heordered. He’d have to share his thoughtswith his officers, make the deployments – and then order a complete mediablackout. At least he didn't need anyone’sapproval for fleet deployments. Evensending a message back to Earth might be risky. Who knew who might be listening? “Andthen authorise Blackout; I say again, authorise Blackout.”

***​

The newspaper had been in decline before first contact,challenged by television and then by the internet, the most remarkable mediumfor spreading lies and half-truths ever invented. But First Contact had given them a new chanceat life. Streaming video over lightyears was incredibly expensive, making it far cheaper to simply send compressedtext. Adrienne was halfway throughwriting a report on Hammerfall when her cabin’s hatch chimed. When she opened it, she saw a grim-facedMarine carrying a sidearm.



“Excuse me,” he said, in a tone that was both polite andfirm, “but I’m afraid I have to secure all of your electronic devices.”



Adrienne gaped at him. “I beg your pardon?”



“I have been ordered to secure all of your electronicdevices,” the Marine said. There was nogive in his voice at all. “All of them,including your watch. I must warn youthat attempting to conceal electronic devices until the lockdown is lifted willresult in brig time and charges of attempted espionage when we return toEarth. If you would prefer brig time,please let me know.”



“No, thank you,” Adrienne said, stiffly. The Marine was only doing his job, even if itdid impinge on her ability to do hers. Itwas about as pointless as ordering passengers on a jumbo jet to turn off theircell phones, but pointing that out would be equally pointless. “I have a tablet, a laptop and a securestorage hard drive. And a watch.”



The Marine picked them up and scribbled out a receipt forher. “I have to search your cabin aswell,” he added, more apologetically now that she was cooperating. “Blackout has been declared.”



Adrienne lifted an eyebrow. Blackout? Hadn't there been something in the papers she’d signed when she’dembedded about Blackout? She thoughtback, remembering that the military had the right to completely forbidtransmissions from its ships if it believed that making transmissions wouldviolate operational security. Taking herlaptop seemed like pointless paranoia, but some reporters had managed to hackstarship communications systems before and use them to get messages out.



“I forgot to bring my lacy underwear,” she said. “It’s all strictly functional, I’m afraid.”



She’d hoped to get a rise out of the Marine, but heignored her and searched her cabin with rigorous efficiency. Adrienne rolled her eyes behind him as heremoved the sex toy she’d brought along and dropped it into his bag. Did he think that she’d hidden a transmitterin a vibrator?



“Thank you for your cooperation,” the Marine said,gravely. “The items will be returned assoon as possible.”



He left, leaving a puzzled Adrienne sitting in her cabin.



Something was up, but what?

 

Chapter Forty<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />



“Miserable looking world, isn’t it?”



“I couldn't say, sir,” Commander Spinner said. “I grew up in Nevada. We were used to deserts.”



Markus shrugged. The Funk homeworld – called Squeak Hiss Squeak by the Funks and HegemonyPrime by everyone else – was as dry as dust. Most of the planet’s water existed below the surface, with only a coupleof oceans roughly the size of Australia. It wasn't a pure desert, but it was easy to see how it had evolved arace determined to reach out and take every resource it could. The Funks had yet to evolve past the patternsthey’d developed for survival on their world and they might never manage to doso. It wasn't as if anyone had stood upto them before humanity had given them a bloody nose.



The Funks might have copied Galactic technology withoutdeveloping more for themselves, but they’d used what they’d copiedruthlessly. A massive shipyard hung nearHegemony Prime, protected by a network of fortifications and patrolled bydestroyers and frigates. The Funk Home Fleetorbited the planet itself, watching endlessly for signs of a possible attack –and, according to the transmissions, providing a very visible reminder of theEmpress’s power. It sounded as if partsof the planet were under martial law.



“I don’t think we’ll get much closer,” Spinneradded. “They’re checking every freighterbefore it even enters orbit.”



“Clever of them,” Markus said. The Funks didn't want another freighter crammedwith antimatter detonating anywhere in their system. It would probably render Hegemony Prime uninhabitable,which would have brought the wrath of the Galactics down on Earth, but in theirplace he wouldn't take it for granted either. The Traders Alliance had actually helped, in some ways, by declaringtheir embargo. They’d managed to limitthe number of freighters visiting Hegemony Prime, which made it easier for the Funksto inspect them all without undue delay. “And the minute they get a close look at our hull, they’ll realise thatwe’re rigged up to launch gunboats.”



It was unlikely in the extreme that the gunboats would beable to inflict any major damage on their own. Even if their enemy hadn't the experience and motivation to developcountermeasures, they’d have had to burn through massive defences beforereaching any vital target. A swarm ofgunboats – or the missiles deployed at Hammerfall – might have worked, butEarth didn't have enough gunboats to punch through the planet’s defences. Markus was silently grateful that he’d hashedout a plan that should work, even though he felt guilty about asking people totake on risks he wouldn't be taking on himself. But if the Hegemony managed to capture him alive, they’d ensure that hisdeath was slow and very painful.



He tapped his console. “Sergeant McDonald,” he said, “are you ready to deploy?”



“Yes, sir,” the Marine said. He’d volunteered for the mission, once he’dunderstood what the mission actually entailed. It would be one hell of a stunt if they pulled it off and got outalive. “How long do we have before yougo hot?”



“Roughly seventeen minutes,” Markus said. The enemy shuttles hadn't reached Formidable yet, but they might decide toinspect her earlier once they realised that she was the same class as the shipshumanity had turned into gunboat carriers. Or maybe they’d already had plenty of false alerts. The Galactics only had a few dozen different freighterdesigns. “You may deploy when ready.”



“Understood, sir,” McDonald said. “Good luck.”



In the cockpit of his gunboat, he'd been calm and readyto face danger. On the bridge, ahelpless observer, he found himself fretting about all the things that could gowrong. Carola – his wife – was going tobe out there, fighting the Funks, while he watched from afar. He could bug out at any minute while shewould have to fight her way out. They’dknown that they could die together; somehow, the thought of living on withouther was intolerable.



The minutes ticked away as the Marines deployed and theenemy shuttles came closer, sweeping nearby freighters with tacticalsensors. Markus braced himself as thegunboats powered up, knowing that this was the most dangerous part of launchinggunboats. It hadn't bothered him beforethat an alert enemy might just be able to destroy Formidable before her gunboats were launched; now, he found himselfunable to avoid thinking the worst. Howhad Captain Walsh made it look so easy to take command?



“Here they come, sir,” Spinner said. “Two minutes to intercept.”



“Punch the gunboats,” Markus ordered. Grumble Squadron was blasted free of the carrier,followed rapidly by Eagle and Dare Squadrons. Dare had been transferred from Illustriousto ensure that Formidable hadthree veteran squadrons, but they’d fitted in nicely with the other two. It had probably helped that Markus had chewedout anyone who wanted to pick a fight. “Tellthem to fire at will.”



Led by Carola, Grumble Squadron formed up and chargedright at the enemy shuttles. The Funks,caught by surprise, didn't stand a chance. They were picked off and destroyed before they could even scream forhelp. The remaining gunboats fell on thefreighters, hacking them apart before moving on to the next targets. Markus watched helplessly as the planet’sdefenders came to life, launching a wing of assault shuttles towards thegunboats. They didn't have the enduranceof the gunboats, which was limited compared to that of a starship, but they didhave guts – and numbers. Nearly ahundred assault shuttles were closing in on his wife.



“Grumble Squadron is altering course and deployingdrones,” Spinner reported. “Drones aregoing active...now!”



Markus smiled. TheHegemony had seen humanity’s improved ECM drones at Hammerfall, but they hadyet to devise a counter. ONI had beencertain that one or more of the Galactics would be inspired to inventcountermeasures – and sell them onwards to the Funks – sooner or later, yetnone had materialised in time to aid the defenders. They had to know that some of the sensorreturns they were getting were nothing more than ghosts, but it would beimpossible to tell the difference unless they reached close range. And if the sensor ghosts were hidingmissiles, allowing them to close could be disastrous.



There were no illusions about how long the sensor ghostswould fool the Hegemony. A smarttactical analyst could probably have sorted half of the fakes from the realgunboats by now, but the ghosts would work long enough to keep the Funksdistracted. The real threat layelsewhere.

***​

The immensity of space could defeat even the mosthardened soldier. Humans were less thansand grains on an immense desert; even the largest artificial structures builtby the Association were tiny compared to stars and planets. Conrad felt...meaningless, almost insignificant,as the Marines drifted closer to their target. It was that very insignificance that gave them a limited immunity fromdetection, but he knew better than to take it for granted. The Funks would be listening for anythingthat might betray their presence. Asecond of radio chatter could get them all killed.



He watched as the Funk shipyard slowly came intoview. It was immense, larger than theshipyards built in orbit around Luna by the human race, a spidery network ofstructures right out of a science-fiction movie. Unlike the free-floating shipyards designedby humanity, it was one vast structure, a design that provided the Funks with anumber of advantages – and at least one weakness. A disaster on one part of the platform mightspread to other platforms and cripple the entire complex. His blood ran cold as he saw threesuperdreadnaughts in varying stages of construction, being slowly assembled bythe Funks. How long would it be untilthey were ready to join the fleet massing to attack the human-held stars? ONI hadn't ventured to even guess at the answer.



The tachyon web appeared in front of him and he bracedhimself, even though he knew it was futile. A cloaked ship couldn't have slipped through the network without beingdetected, simply through disrupting the tachyon field. The Marines had an ace up their sleeve,unless the Funks had anticipated their tactics and planned accordingly. Conrad smiled to himself as the tachyongenerator came into view, a structure roughly about the same size as adestroyer – and copied from plans developed by the Cats. The Marines touched down on its surface andscrambled towards the access port embedded in the generator’s hull. If the Funks had anticipated their arrival...



No enemy shuttles appeared to pick off the Marines whilethey were helpless. Two of the techexperts linked their suits into the systems and started to hack into thecomputers, using hand signals to keep the other Marines informed. It would have been neat if they could haveshut down everything, but the Funks weren't stupid enough to link all of theirsystems together. They’d discovered thatthat was a bad idea long before Ron Moore had made the idea of using computerhacking to take down a defending fleet famous.



A hatch opened and he smiled, leading the Marines intothe interior of the generator. There wasanother hatch on the other side, one that would allow them to get into theshipyard without triggering any alerts. He opened it and peered out, watching for traps. There was no sign of anything dangerous,apart from a handful of Worker Bee vehicles buzzing about the shipyard.



Probably givingtours for political leaders, he thought, as the Marines started to driftthrough the shipyard. He’d seen humanshipyard workers giving similar tours to their political superiors, back whenhe’d been in training. There had alwaysbeen the danger, if highly unlikely, of a collision that would leave them alldead. The shipyard grew closer andcloser...and then he found himself standing on the superstructure. His head swam, despite the training, as hismind struggled to cope with the shifting perspective. Some of the skills he’d learned as a RoyalMarine were actively harmful to a Federation Marine. In space, there was no need to have everythingin the same orientation.



And it was quite possible that someone working on theships would see them with the naked eye. The combat suits were designed to blend in with their surroundings, but therewere limits, particularly if the person who saw them was experienced enough toknow what should and shouldn’t be there. Quickly, the Marines split up into four fire teams and headed towardstheir objectives, the mules unloading their backpack antimatter mines andbeginning the arming sequence. It was ashame that they couldn't bring enough antimatter to vaporise the entireshipyard, but carefully-placed charges would wreck havoc. The first point – a worker’s den, hidden inside the superstructure came into view– and he cursed. There were at leastfive Funks in the den, wearing light shipsuits.



Probably slackingoff, he thought, remembering the ‘peacekeeping’ missions the Royal Marineshad handled on Earth. The Western troopshad been professional, but the ones from Africa or the Asian subcontinent hadbeen a very mixed bag. Some had beenreasonably professional, others had been looters, rapists and childmolesters. It had been a relief whenthey’d pulled out, even though it hadn't solved much for the locals. One group of local bastards had been replacedby outsider bastards.



Shaking his head, he extended the knives on his suit andopened the hatch. The Funks were caughtcompletely by surprise, unable to react before he was among them, lashing outwith augmented strength. Trainingaccidents had crippled a number of would-be Federation Marines before they’dever been commissioned into the force; he hit one Funk’s scaly head and saw it disintegratein a shower of disturbingly human-like red blood. The other four died before they could summon help,or even alert their security teams. Conrad positioned his mine in the right place, nodded to his comradesand then led the way back up the superstructure. A superdreadnaught hull loomed below him, hervitals exposed as Funks worked on her; absently, he wondered just how badly itwould cost them when the ships were destroyed. The other teams met up with him at the RV point and exchanged brief handsignals, confirming success. Keeping awary eye out for watchers, they started to run back towards the rigged tachyongenerator, just before they ran into a small group of workers. The Marines tore them apart, but not quicklyenough to prevent them from transmitting a distress signal. It was vaguely possible that the Funks wouldn'trealise that the shipyard was being attacked by humans...



...But Conrad knew better than to rely on it. Formidableand her gunboats were still wrecking havoc in the system, daring the Funksto uncover their homeworld and come after them. There was no longer any point in trying to hide; the Marines leapt offthe superstructure and raced for open space. Behind them, the timers on the mines started to count down the secondsto detonation. Even if the Funks killedthem all, they’d be too late to save their shipyard.



“Assault shuttles inbound,” one of the Marines sent. “Weapons hot?”



“Weapons hot,” Conrad confirmed. The Marines hadn't brought their plasma rifles,but the internal weapons on their suits should be enough to let them give agood account of themselves. “Time todetonation; two minutes, seventeen seconds.”



The shuttles came into view and the Marines opened fire,targeting vulnerable points like cockpits and portholes. A shuttle staggered out of the firing line,another exploded...but the remainder could track the Marines by their ownfire. Three Marines died within secondsas the Funks returned fire, followed rapidly by two more. The remaining shuttles drew back out ofrange, puzzling Conrad until he realised that they’d probably want to try tocapture the would-be infiltrators alive. He smiled as the counter on his HUD ticked down to zero. They were in for a nasty surprise.



His suit’s visor dimmed automatically as the antimattercharges detonated, sending colossal fireballs racing down the superstructureand into the half-constructed ships. They blew apart, throwing massive pieces of debris into the remainingparts of the shipyard. He found himselflaughing as a Funk cruiser, caught docked to the shipyard, was destroyed beforeher crew could even begin to disengage and retreat. They probably hadn't realised what had hitthem until it was already too late.



The devastation swallowed up the massive industry builtto support the shipyard, certainly at least five to ten percent of the entireFunk space-based industry. Even they had to be hurt by so much destructionand the loss of a valuable investment; God alone knew how many clans had justseen their entire financial resources wiped out. The Funks hadn't even invented the concept ofinsurance! If they won the war, theywere still going to be weakened compared to the other Galactics. Maybe the Tarn would work up the nerve tojump them while they were still reeling from the loss of one of their majorshipyards.



Piece of debris were flying everywhere, some heading downtowards the planet. Conrad hoped thatthey would burn up in the atmosphere, if the Funk defenders didn't blow theminto more manageable chunks first. If piecesof Skylab could survive the passage through Earth’s atmosphere, he was surethat pieces of metal built to Galactic standards could come down hard on aplanetary surface. The results might be devastating. But no one, not even the Empress, would beable to cover up what had happened.



His suit rocked suddenly as a tractor beam caughthold. With bloody-minded persistence,the Funks were still trying tocapture the Marines, even though they might be better off recovering theremaining workforce before they all died in the vastness of space. The analysts had claimed that losing theworkforce alone would cripple the Funk industries, forcing them to retrainworkers from the planet and hire experienced personnel from the otherGalactics. Who knew how many of themmight be in the pay of humanity?



He looked up at the Funk shuttle and felt an odd calmsinking over him. There was no escape,not now. He remembered Cindy and felt antwinge of remorse, but there was no time to record a message for her. The one he’d left on Formidable would have to suffice.



As they pulled him into the shuttle’s hatch, he calmlydeactivated the suit’s safety precautions and overloaded the plasma confinementchamber. The world vanished in ablinding flash.

***​

“Gunboats have picked up two of the Marines,” Spinnerreported. “We haven’t been able to pickup beacons from the others, but they might be lying low...”



Markus nodded. TwoHegemony battlecruisers were already playing catch with Formidable. He should haveordered the carrier to break off and withdraw ten minutes ago, but he wasn't goingto abandon the Marines as long as there was a chance to get them outalive. And yet...could he risk theentire ship for a handful of Marines? They'dknown the risks going into the mission.



“Recall the remaining gunboats,” he ordered. The guilt would haunt his dreams for the restof his life, but there was no other choice. It wouldn't take long for the Funks to get other ships out, once theyrealised that there was little hope of rescuing survivors from the shipyard orsalvaging enough to make recovery worthwhile. “We’ll bug out as soon as they’re within gate range of us.”



He shook his head. By any standards, the mission had been a monumental success. The Funks hadn't just been embarrassed, they’dbeen humiliated. And their people wouldsee just how badly their defenders had failed them. No amount of scapegoating could save theEmpress now. Surely even the Funks wouldgive up the war when they couldn't even guarantee the safety of theirhomeworld.



“And transmit the propaganda as we leave,” he added. “We might as well ensure that they know whatwe’ve done.”

 

<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><font size="3">Chapter Forty-One<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com
Task Force Retribution was the single most powerful forceassembled by the Hegemony outside of Home Fleet. Lady Dalsha was not blind to the implicationsof the Empress giving her the command, clearly calculating that an outcast whohad been disowned by her clan wouldn't be able to seize the throne and declareherself Empress. Her trust had limits,as the presence of a number of Ghost Soldiers indicated; Ghosts were known forbeing completely loyal to the Empress and being ready to execute anyone at hermerest whim. Lady Dalsha had orders totake her fleet to Earth and crush the human race. Any other direction would have signed herdeath warrant.

Fifteen superdreadnaughts made up the core of her fleet,backed by two squadrons of battlecruisers, three squadrons of heavy cruisersand seventy destroyers. It had beendecided that there was no point in including a ground assault element, not whenthe human race had had years to prepare for an invasion. They’d either force Earth to surrender or systematicallybombard the planet into radioactive debris. Even if they encountered Earth’s full strength, Lady Dalsha wasconfident of victory. Not beingconfident would also have signed her death warrant.

The Task Force had another advantage that hadn't beengranted to other forces that faced the human race. Lady Dalsha had trained them hard,incorporating all the lessons learnt through previous battles against human technology. The humans might be ridiculously inventive, butthey weren't gods, a theme she had hammered into her personnel’s heads untilthey believed her. What the humans haddone so far was shocking, yes, yet they weren't invincible. They could be beaten. And besides, most of their fleet was tryingto hammer its way towards Hegemony Prime. They’d be surprised when their homeworld was captured or destroyed – andwhere would they go, if their worlds were lost to them? Their ships wouldn't be able to keepoperating without supplies and no one would be helping them. Even the Tarn would give up the humans ratherthan face the Hegemony’s wrath.

She looked down at the display showing her fleet andsmiled, coldly. Some of the fleet's officerswhispered that she’d been beaten by the humans and returned, a gesture ofcontempt that echoed back to the days before the First Empress. Such people could never be trusted fully, notwhen they’d been pushed into submission. They might have moved against her if the Empress hadn't sent the Ghosts,allowing them to watch her back while she planned her war against Earth. But the Ghosts might have orders to removeher anyway once the battle was won. TheEmpress wouldn't want anyone else claiming the credit for the victory.

There was a hiss from the speaker. “My Lady, you have a priority call fromHegemony Prime,” the communications officer said. He was a male, oddly enough, serving assomething of a mascot for the female officers on the ship. And a leman when they wanted to mate. Apparently the humans had similar problems,only reversed. “The Empress wishes tospeak with you directly.”

“Put her through,” Lady Dalsha ordered. A direct call from the Empress could not berejected, not if one wanted to keep one’s head on one’s shoulders. The Empress’s face appeared in front of her,looking tired and worn, almost defeated. “My Empress...”

“The humans have attacked Hegemony Prime,” the Empresssaid. Lady Dalsha stared at hermistress, her mind reeling. Had they been forced to surrender? “A raid, but one that inflicted staggeringdamage for minimal cost. The shipyardshave been destroyed.”

Lady Dalsha felt her mouth drop open in shock. The human pirate who had led the attack on Tauscherhad taken down two entire clans, both losing everything and entering permanentservitude as the only way to pay their debts. But both of those clans had been small, hardly significant compared tothe other clans. The destruction of theshipyards would have crippled over a dozen other clans, including some of theones who had backed the slow pressure on humanity that would have led toeventual annexation. And a few who hadn'tcared one way or the other would probably go down too. It didn't take much imagination to visualisethe slow collapse that would eventually lead to civil war...

...And the High Clan would go down as well. By law laid down by the First Empressherself, the High Clan maintained a stake in each and every space-basedindustry or facility built by the Hegemony. In the case of the shipyards, the High Clan had poured vast sums ofmoney into the facility, unwilling to trust other clans with control over oneof the most vital facilities in the entire Hegemony. The High Clan was the richest in the Hegemonyby a very long way, but could even its resources survive the loss?

It might have been worse than the humans had anticipatedwhen they’d struck at Hegemony-Prime. LadyDalsha knew that her former clan hadaccepted loans from the High Clan, loans that helped keep them firmly undercontrol. How many others had done thesame? What would happen when those clanswent under because they ran out of money to pay their debts? If there was only one clan, the entirepopulation would be enslaved and sold off to help pay for their debts, but whatif most of the clans went down? Some ofthe most powerful aristocrats in the Hegemony wouldn't accept slavery tamely. Why not take up arms against theEmpress? They might just win.

And many of them had friends, family and allies among themilitary. The Empress had tried hard tokeep the defences of Hegemony Prime under her direct control, but some of thefemale officers had probably been subverted. And males didn't have the imagination to realise that they were beingordered to wage war against the Empress or the independent mindset to refuse ifthey did. Outright civil war would turnbloody very quickly as the remains of the shipyard burned up in the planet’satmosphere.

She found herself looking closely at the Empress. Was that shootingshe could hear in the background? The Imperial Palace was the most heavily-defended building on theplanet, but no building was invulnerable, even one that the attackers neededreasonably intact to support their claims to being the new Empress. And if the Empress fell...

The High Clan had survived because it allowed no strongrivals. That much was clear, even thoughmany of the other clans had power enough to block the Empress if they united ona single issue. If the High Clan fell,there would be no single dominant power, no unifying leader. Without a strict dictator who could keepthings in order...

...The entire Hegemony might collapse into chaos.

“My Empress,” she said, slowly, “do you need me to bringmy fleet to Hegemony Prime and...?”

“No,” the Empress snapped. “You are ordered to depart at once for Earth,observing strict communications silence along the way. Once you arrive at their homeworld, you areto demand surrender – and if they refuse, you are to exterminate every lasthuman within the solar system. Once youhave cleansed their filthy system, you are to do the same to their othercolonies. There will be no second chanceto surrender.”

Lady Dalsha hesitated. She could understand the need to exterminate humanity before theyreached a position that would allow them to crack the Hegemony like aneggshell, but it would enrage the Galactics, particularly the ones who alreadyhated the Hegemony. If enough Galacticsagreed, they could probably put together a fleet that would crush the Hegemony –or what remained of it. It would be theend of her people’s independence...

...But if the Empress lost her head, and the Hegemony hada civil war, her people were doomed anyway. At least humanity wouldn't be around to expand into a power vacuum causedby the civil war.

“I understand, My Empress,” Lady Dalsha said. She wanted to say something reassuring, butthe code that bound her people together admitted of no reassurance from aninferior to a superior. The Empress waslikely to die long before the fleet reached Earth on its final voyage. What could she do once she had carried outher final order? The remains of theHegemony might need her, if the Galactics didn't intervene...

“Good luck,” the Empress said. She smiled, suddenly. “And thank you for carrying out your duty,even now. Not everyone is so loyal.”

Her face vanished from the display. Lady Dalsha stared at the blank screen for along moment, and then tapped her communicator, issuing orders. At least activity would keep her busy longenough to keep her from brooding. Therewould be time for that later, once the fleet was as ready to attack as shecould make it. And she had ensured thatno one could communicate with the outside world until after the battle.

One hour later, the task force jumped into quantum spaceand started its voyage towards Earth.

***​

What if I’m wrong?

The question echoed through Tobias’s mind as the FirstStrike Fleet raced back towards Earth, desperately preparing for a final confrontation. He was the Admiral in command, yet he hadlittle to do once he’d issued his orders apart from paperwork...andbrooding. What if he was wrong? History was littered with commanders who hadmisjudged their enemies and ended up with egg on their faces – or dead. And theyhad been guessing at enemies who at least shared a same basichumanity. The Funks were very far fromhuman.

Human commanders had cursed the development of radio –and satellite communications networks – because they made it easy for theirsuperiors to intervene. Tobias was oldenough to hear stories about how micromanaging politicians had issued ordersfrom the safety of Washington to the troops on the ground, orders that oftenbore little resemblance to reality. Atleast the Federation Navy spent much of its time on deployment outside of easycommunications range, allowing him latitude to make his own decisions – butthen, the disunity of the Federation Council made it easier to run thewar. They set the objective; Tobias andhis subordinates concentrated on making it happen.

But right now, he would have sold his soul for a far morecapable form of interstellar communications network. In quantum space, they were blind. It was impossible to tell if Formidable had succeeded in her mission,or if the Funks had realised what she was and destroyed her before she couldlaunch her gunboats. And...what if thedata they’d picked up from the pirate king was inaccurate. If the Funks had left a week earlier thanreported, it was possible that they’d already reached Earth while theFederation Navy remained in quantum space. They might return home to discover that their world was a charredcinder, with the defence force burning in space. What would be left for them, but revenge?

He’d passed on a coded warning to Sun, who would commandthe fleet defending Earth, but he hadn't gone into details about his ownplans. Once they reached Earth, heintended to keep the First Strike Fleet under cloak, well away from the shippinglanes. The Funks would probably have thesystem under observation and would report to their commanders if a fleet ofcruisers arrived from Hammerfall. Hesuspected that smaller ships would soon recover the wrecked system in the nameof the Hegemony, but it would be a pointless victory. The loss of Gaston would be moreserious.

And there was another danger. If the Federation Council declared a state ofemergency, warning Earth’s population to get to the shelters, there would bepanic – and enemy observation ships might pick up on it. The shipyards would have to be evacuated, theasteroid mining colonies would have to go dark...all precautions that weresenseless, unless someone expected an attack. If the Funks realised that their arrival had been anticipated, theymight change their plans. Or maybe they’dattack anyway. If Formidable had succeeded, the Hegemony was going to have a veryrough time of it before it pulled back together. Taking out Earth would cripple the humanrace.

But that decision wasn't his, thankfully. He just had to assume the worst.

The Admiral had no one he could confide in, not even hisaide. He was solely responsible for theFirst Strike Fleet, the man who ordered it into battle. No one could become close to him withoutviolating regulations. Lower ranks mightbe allowed to fraternise provided they were careful about who they slept with –and gunboat pilots enjoyed a degree of freedom no other personnel could dreamof – but the Admiral was alone. Somemilitary officers in the past had enjoyed having their mistresses or even theirwives with him, yet Tobias would never have been able to allow himself to fallso far. The Federation Navy needed a tradition where its officers didn'trub their advantages in the faces of the enlisted men. It was hard enough being a mustang from oneof the countries that didn't contribute to the Federation’s budget withoutmaking it worse.

Shaking his head, he headed for his bunk and sleep. His officers knew to wake him if there was aproblem, such as an energy storm that forced them to alter course. And he needed rest before arriving at Earth,assuming they weren't too late.

And what if he was wrong?

Despite himself, he got very little sleep that night.

***​

The President of the United States didn’t care forAdmiral Sun and he suspected that the feeling was mutual. It had been the United States that hadblocked Sun’s candidature for the Federation Navy’s Chief of Naval Operations,a political deal that had been planned with the Russians to ensure that GeneralChekov was named Supreme Allied Commander Extra-Solar Expeditionary Force, andSun presumably suspected it. Even anofficer from a state where it was unwise to dissent too openly with one’ssuperiors could resent his superiors; officers like that were often the bestintelligence sources in the business.

But with Admiral Sampson at Hammerfall, Admiral Sun wasin command of the Earth Defence Fleet.

“Assuming that the reports are accurate,” Admiral Sunsaid, “we can expect a Hegemony battle force to reach Earth within one week totwo months.”

The President watched the reactions of the other worldleaders. Organising the conference atsuch short notice had been difficult, even though the Federation Council hadbeen conferring regularly ever since the war had kicked off. The secret of politics was that it was oftenmore important to seem to be doing something rather than actually doingsomething, even if you couldn't do anything more than get in the way. He’d told himself that he’d do thingsdifferently when he became President, only to discover that there was littlechoice. Politics often got in the way ofpoliticking.

“But the Hegemony has just lost a major shipyard,” the JapanesePrime Minister said. He sounded worried,but then Japan had had plenty of experience with surprise attacks as a way tostart a war. They always tended to bemerciless. “Surely they cannot riskadditional losses.”

“I have a different question,” the German Chancellorgrunted. “How is it that we know aboutthis?”

Sun hesitated. “Classifiedintelligence sources,” he said, finally. “I’m afraid we have to keep them strictly compartmentalised...”

“How dare you?” The French President demanded. “TheFederation Council is above suspicion!”

The President would have sniggered if he hadn't had goodcontrol of his expressions. Trying to steerthe Federation Council was rather like herding cats, with each member trying toget an advantage for his own country out of the system. At least they were all grown up enough not tobring down the Federation in their power games. The same couldn't be said for some of their countrymen. Despite Terra Nova, despite the endlessthreats from the Hegemony, there were plenty of Americans who saw theFederation as just another prototype world government, one that would swallowup America and destroy everything that made the country great. It had amused the hell out of him to discoverthat every other world leader had similar problems.

Admiral Sun didn't snicker either. “The Federation Councillors are supported bysmall armies of aides,” he said. “Arethey all trustworthy? What about thesecretaries? Or the interns? Or the guards? Are they all such paragons of virtue that secretscan be freely discussed in front of them?”

The President smiled. Bill Clinton should have been more careful about trusting the intern who’dgiven him oral sex, although he had no idea how Clinton had found thetime. The President was always busy,mostly reading reports, listening to briefings and pressing the flesh. It was easy to believe that one of the peopleworking for him reported to someone else without his permission. Information was power in the American Government,particularly if you got it first.

“That isn't the issue at hand,” the President said,cutting into the discussion. Perhaps Sunwasn't such a bad guy after all. “Webelieve that we have an attack incoming. Do we declare a state of planetary emergency or do we take the chancethat the reports are false?”

He looked from face to face. “This has to be a joint decision,” hesaid. “We cannot have one of usdeclaring a state of emergency and expect the media not to notice. There will be panic.”

“And if we do declarea state of emergency,” the French President pointed out, “the economy goes downthe tubes. It's fragile right now, evenwith the loans from the Galactics.”

The President scowled at him. He would have bet good money that theFrenchman’s ugly wife, bratty teenage daughter and two preteen sons werealready on their way to somewhere safe. TheSecret Service had provided him with a dossier on their behaviour during astate visit to the White House that had made interesting reading. It was a pity that it probably couldn't beused for blackmail material.

“I don’t think that any of us would want to be in officewhen the survivors start asking questions,” he said, flatly. Maybe he could push the council in the rightdirection. “I’m going to declare a stateof emergency. My very strong advice isthat you all do the same. So far, thewar has been far from our world. Thatmay be about to change.”

He stood up. “Wemay not meet again,” he added, allowing himself a little melodrama. “But even if we lose this war, we gave them alesson they won’t forget in a hurry. Maybe we will upset the Galactic apple cart so badly that the Hegemonywon’t be able to keep up.”

 

Great story, thanks for sharing.