Exodus: Empires at War: Book 7: Counter Strike by Doug Dandridge Read Free Book Online Page B

this
war.
    The Emperor paced the deck of his flag bridge,
no longer needing to be ensconced in the holo control room that had been
developed for his use as battle commander.  Most of the stations on this bridge
were unmanned, the crew having been dismissed for relaxation, food and sleep,
recovery after the rigors of battle.  Many aboard the Augustine I, the
twenty-seven million ton vessel that was the first of her class, had not
survived the battle.  This deep into the mass of the ship there had been few
casualties.  Unfortunately, many of the battle stations were close to the
surface of the ship, where the weapons, defensive screen projectors and the
engine components responsible for normal and hyperspace travel were housed. 
Where the crew that manned and repaired them were needed.  And that area of the
ship, the outer skin, the armor, laser rings and particle beams, was a mess. 
Over a thousand men and women had died in the battle, to add to the numbers of
over a thousand other ships that had either been destroyed or sustained major
damage.
    My battle , he thought, shaking his head.  It had
been a good battle plan, luring the enemy fleet here for an engagement on his
terms.  But, like most plans, it had not survived contact with the enemy.  They
had still ravaged the enemy fleet.  Less than one in five of the Caca ships that
had entered the system had left it.  But he had also lost almost half of the
fleet he had brought into the battle.  His Admirals were all telling him what a
great victory it had been.  But in his gut, his emotions, it didn’t feel like
any kind of victory at all.
    Snap out of it, Sean , he told himself,
walking up to the tactical holo and ordering it by link to switch to an
expanded view of the half of the Empire that was involved in the war, some of
it up close and personal, some more peripherally, or engaged with another
enemy.  We don’t have time for me to second guess everything that goes
wrong.  We hammered the bastards here, and, by God, we’re going to do it again
in the very near future.
    He looked at the holo, studying what it showed
him about his dispositions.  One spot that stood out like a festering sore was
the incursion into Fenri Space.  That incursion had gone well at first, and
they had really hurt that enemy, taking away some of their most important
border worlds and causing severe damage to the Fenri fleet.  But that had
changed, as the Fenri had reacted with unexpected force, the Fleet had
retreated, and now he had six Imperial Army divisions trapped in their space.
    “I want a staff meeting called, immediately,”
he told Kelso over the link.  “We need to discuss strategy, and issue orders,
now.”
    “How about twenty minutes, in the flag
conference room, your Majesty,” said the head of his staff.
    “Do it.  I’ll expect everyone involved to have
some general idea of the strategic situation, so we can hit the ground
running.”  Sean severed the link and went back to studying the plot, bringing
up his military dispositions and committing them to his implant memory.  We
might just be able to do this , he thought, juggling the pros and cons in
his mind.  We just might be able to knock those little assholes out of this
war, or at least make them wish they had never gotten involved.
    *    
*     *
    “You sure you want to do that, your Majesty?”
asked Grand Fleet Admiral Gabriel Len Lenkowski, sitting in on the
conference by holo projection through the wormhole com.  “With another
operation coming up in the near future?”
    “Hell,” said Grand Fleet Admiral Duke Taelis
Mgonda, also sitting in by com holo.  “We’ve got the tech to pull it off. 
Might as well use it while we can.”
    The unspoken statement in there was that they
might not be able to count on the Donut in the future, with that future
still up in the air.  They might only have the wormholes they now possessed
into the foreseeable future.
    “And your opinion on the