The Alexanderov Federation
Book 1 The Grendarl War
Part Eighteen - The Battle for Rrk'g'kreg
III (VI)
On the bridge of the Sharktooth II, the only
sounds were the bleeps and bloops of automated machinery and
computers. Nobody even breathed for fully ten seconds. They
simply forgot -- they were too shocked. No admiral in the
history of the Grendarl conflict had ever committed suicide
in battle, and surely not while they were winning! Finally
a few gasped for air, remembering to breathe before they passed
out, and that snapped the rest out of it.
"Goodman to all task forces," he drawled out slowly,
needing a few seconds to collect his thoughts. "It appears
that Admiral Stockert has committed suicide. Despite my having
the least time in rank among the Commodores, his last order
was for me to assume command. I now do so. Prepare to engage
the enemy for the last time." Gaining confidence now,
his speech quickened. The shock was still there, the sadness
at losing a friend and mentor, but he would deal with that
later. It was safely compartmentalized away, to be brought
out when he had nothing else to deal with, to be taken care
of then. But for now he had a job to do. "55 and 75,
your targets are the planetary missile bases, fire as soon
as you are all ready. 57.1 and 77.1, fire your last round
as soon as you can, targeted on the orbitals primarily. All
fighter groups, follow five seconds behind and clean up anything
that survives in orbit. 51 and 71, move in after the fighters
and assist with clean up. 57.1 and 77.1, follow but assume
defensive roles only."
A few acknowledgments fluttered in, but most simply obeyed,
to numb with shock to do anything but accomplish their jobs
by sheer rote. Well, the Alexanderov Federation trained its
navy personnel to be able to do their jobs in their sleep,
just in case. So that should be good enough.
A minute later, 57.1 and 77.1 opened up with their last salvo
of missiles. Again, the Grendarl never saw them coming.
****
As the first missiles of the last wave began impacting on
the orbital from which he commanded the fight, P'daR'T'S had
only time to think quickly Even five minutes was too long.
By the time they get that Sil-... His thought would never
be completed, as his command center breached to space and
he was killed instantly.
****
A few seconds later, 55 and 75 fired their burst of missiles.
These missiles, unlike the "invisible" smaller missiles
used by the PD frigates, would have been vulnerable to the
Grendarl PD platforms, for the few seconds they were detectable
by their sensors at least. But with all the platforms out
of the way now, the missiles continued to the planet surface
and almost all of them hit their targets with perfect precision.
A few were intercepted by the few surviving carrier frigates
in orbit, but not nearly enough to do any good. Worse yet
for the Grendarl, the missile bases had been ready to fire
again, just lacking in targets. The secondary explosions from
their missiles caused significant collateral damage. Millions
of those in line to obtain hand weaponry were crushed by falling
buildings. Millions more died when the factories they were
working in blew up from the EMP surges.
And a satellite launcher, which the crew working on it had
just gotten the last of the Silicoid sensor platforms packaged
into the nose and ready for launch, was knocked over onto
a nearby fueling station by the shock wave. The explosion
from that one slagged the sensor platform into component metals
and created a fireball hot enough to kill people a 100 yards
away.
Most of the forces in the Government DEA were unaffected,
but elsewhere along the planet, over two billion died from
the Grendarl misplacement of their missile bases.
H'R'l'Str'ZnaDk'S To M'RelDan looked out from his palace
window on the destruction and was grieved. His people were
dying out there, by the millions, perhaps billions, he didn't
know. He only knew that if he did not do something soon, billions
more would die to no avail. Now he finally understood the
human phrase, "War is Hell." Before, he'd merely
thought them cowards, afraid to fight. Now he understood that
it was not the fighting that they hated, but the unnecessary
deaths, the billions who died for no reason other than they
were in the wrong place at the wrong time. "Signal our
surrender."
Y'th'S'kaz bowed quickly. "Then we have lost? Can our
ground forces not repel their pathetic marine units?"
"No matter how many of their marine units we kill, we
cannot rebuild enough of an infrastructure to be able to build
sufficient planetary defenses to destroy that armada. We can
perhaps drive off their marines for several years, maybe decades,
but not if they bring the Rhea. And we cannot stop them from
bombing us to extinction. Our people will eventually all be
killed. Signal our surrender. Now."
"But sire! If you do that, you know they will execute
you!"
To M'RelDan roared at his aide. "What is my life against
the lives of my people! If I die, I die with honor, for I
sacrifice myself to save my subjects. Signal the surrender
now or I will disembowel you and do it myself!"
Y'th'S'kaz bowed again, and moved to comply.
****
"Signal from the planet, Commodore." Lewis reported.
"They offer their unconditional surrender."
"Accept it. There is no need to cause more death today
if we don't have too. Goodman to all ships. We have won. The
Grendarl surrender."
It took a few seconds for the news to percolate to all the
crews of all the vessels. But a few seconds later, despite
the fact the com channels were all off, Goodman could have
sworn he heard the cheering of Humans, Raas, Psilon, Trillarians
and Nommo, all carrying across the void of space, they cheered
so loud.
To M'RelDan literally means "the highest",
and in context means the Emperor.
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