Descent into darkness bl.., p.32
Descent into Darkness (Blood on the Stars Book 17),
p.32
Even if it had been pointless.
Tulus had actually come to believe in the plan, to feel it could work. When Andi had returned with three captives, he was disappointed none of them were showing any infection…but he’d told himself it just took longer. Now, Andi had been back three weeks, and the time since infection was rapidly approaching the longest projected period for success. He still believed it would work, at least in a way, but his doubts were growing, too.
Tulus looked at the fleet on the main display. It appeared powerful, if too small to beat the enemy force bearing down on it, but he knew most of the ships were badly damaged. What work could be done was in progress, every second, but he knew it would be at least a year, and probably two, before the force was back to anything approaching its prebattle power.
And he seriously doubted they had that long.
In fact, he knew the only delay, the only break the fleet would get was the time until it reached Fortress Grimaldi. What had been Grimaldi, at least. Tyler Barron had ordered the plan, and he’d given barely enough time to carry it out. It wasn’t a route to military success, at least not beyond a short time, but it did offer the chance of some success, even if it only lasted a few weeks.
Tulus knew the main enemy fleet would pursue the force, probably right after it departed. It wasn’t even sure that Barron could escape, that his ships could stay enough ahead of the pursuing enemy to arrive with time to at least take Grimaldi’s location back.
But it was a hope, and short of the virus, the best hope his side had.
Tulus knew Barron’s plan was the best that was available, but he was also aware that any success would be very short-lived. The only chance at a real victory, at a chance of one even, was for the virus to work. But Tulus had checked every day and sometimes twice.
There was nothing. Nothing at all, and with each report that came in, the same as the last one, his mood sank deeper.
* * *
“I bet we make it back, and we take out every ship there.” Jerry Collins spoke, his levity artificial, at least in part. He did hope that the fleet would reach Grimaldi’s location in time, that he would experience one more victory…before the almost guaranteed defeat that awaited them all.
“Absolutely, Jerry…we will get there and crush what is waiting. Then we’ll turn about and hit the enemy’s main fleet…and this time, we’ll beat it.” The words came from Collins’s partner, Tom Gareth.
Collins knew they were both full of it, though. He was sure the force faced certain defeat, that as much effort as Tyler Barron and the other senior generals had put into it, there was really no chance. Lieutenant Collins was far too lowly ranked to have any real say in things, but for whatever it was worth, he didn’t believe in the chance that the enemy had been infected. He understood why the effort had been made, but he’d never given it much hope, and whatever he had put into it at first had left him, a little bit at a time. He had done the twice daily checks on the prisoners, looked for any sign that the disease was real, that it had taken hold. But there had been nothing, nothing except the steady improvement on the subjects’ injuries.
Collins had given up whatever hope he’d had.
He sat down in his chair, startled by the absence of anyone. It wasn’t the first time he and Gareth had been alone—save for the pair of guards down outside the prisoners’ chamber—but it was damned close. Not even Andi Lafarge was present, and she’d been there almost every time.
Everyone’s given up on this. Over a hundred ships lost, a huge effort…and nothing.
He reached out, turned on the instruments. He punched in a series of codes…and he froze.
“Subject one has a fever…three point one degrees over normal.” He felt some excitement, but he controlled it. One alien with a fever was hardly conclusive evidence.
“How about number two?” Gareth sounded the same as Collins…excited, but also cautious.
Collins hands moved over the controls, more quickly than before. He was excited…but the results of the test drew away some of his enthusiasm. “Number two is normal.” He redid the procedure, just to be sure. “Totally normal.”
He told himself it didn’t matter, that subject two was just a bit behind…but it drained him anyway. Still, his hands continued to move. He had a third subject.
He stared and waited, no more than four or five seconds, but it seemed like forever. Then he saw the numbers.
Patient three was even worse than number one, almost four percent above normal. He felt strange, and he reminded himself that it was no guarantee, that it could be a number of things, that the enemy could still have a cure. But his excitement grew, nevertheless.
One thing was sure…he had to report this. He had to report it to Admiral Barron. Right now.
His hands moved to the communications, grid…as quickly as possible.
“This is Lieutenant Collins…I need Admiral Barron. Right now!”
Blood on the Stars Will Conclude with
Empire Reborn
Book 18
Appendix
CFS Excalibur-Class Superbattleship
The Excalibur is the first Confederation ship class to fully employ a combination of its own newest technology with that of the Hegemony, provided per the terms of the Pact. It was designed at a rapid pace in response to the dire situation on the front, and the Excalibur itself, the first, and to date only, vessel of the class to launch, was constructed at the Kirovsky Shipyards, orbiting the Iron Belt planet Belgravia.
The Excalibur is more than twice the size of Repulse-class battleships such as Dauntless, and the vessel carries a massive arsenal of weaponry and defensive system, much of them representing major leaps forward in Confederation technology.
Offensive Array
1 – Spinal mount antimatter-powered hyper-velocity railgun, launching 120kg projectiles.
4 – Quad 10 gigawatt Confederation “primary beam” particle accelerators (16 guns in total).
40 – Omega fourth generation 2 gigawatt laser cannons.
20 – Ground bombardment pulse cannons.
10 – Plasma mine launchers (1,000 mines held in magazine).
Defensive Array
60 – 200 megawatt point defense lasers in double turret mounts.
20 – Blast gun anti-fighter pellet launchers (developed from railgun technology).
4 – Deflector screen projection systems (designed to warp and distort incoming energy weapons fire.
Small Craft Contingents
180 – Lightning III (“Black Lightning”) assault fighter-bombers (12 squadrons, 2 assault wings).
30 – Attack Wave (“Ironfist”) heavy bombers (crew of 6).
20 – Heavy assault shuttles (capacity 20 Marines).
20 – Standard Fleet shuttles.
2 – Admiralty-3A class fleet command cutters.
Power Generation
Dual “Confed-1.0) antimatter reactor system.
12 – 15 gigawatt fusion reactors.
Complement
Primary ship crew – 1,620
Fighter-bomber pilot and flight crews – 960
Marine contingent – 840
Admiral’s command staff – 40
Total – 3460
Initial Ships of Class: Excalibur, Constellation, Starfire, Argo
The Pact
The Pact is the document forming an Alliance between the Hegemony, the Confederation, the Palatian Alliance, and nine separate Far Rim nation states. The ratification of the agreement faced significant opposition by both the Confederation Senate and the Hegemonic Council. The Senate was wary of the economic burdens it would impose and the requirements it held for the Confederation to commit he vast bulk of its armed forces to the Hegemony front. The Hegemonic Council objected to the provisions requiring full sharing of all science and technical data, an obligation that flowed almost entirely in one direction as a result of the Hegemony’s generally greater tech levels.
The name came to refer to the alliance itself, though such usage was not specified in the document and was entirely colloquial.
Blood on the Stars Will Conclude with
Empire Reborn
Book 18
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Table of Contents
The Crimson Worlds Series
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Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Appendix
Books by Jay Allan
Jay Allan, Descent into Darkness (Blood on the Stars Book 17)
