Five Titans, which already very faintly resembled the first captured battleship that received this name during the battle for the Barnard’s Star system, 10 aircraft carriers and 30 standard battleships built at Earth Federation yards, 25 dreadnoughts allocated for this operation by the lizards, cruisers, destroyers, corvettes, recon ships, 50 «Invisibles» and battleship New World – a quarg ship captured by us in the Kappa Ceti system, with a crew composed entirely of our former mortal enemies who have undergone the mental block removal procedure and expressed the desire to participate in the liberation of their compatriots from the control of the toads.
Imperial ships were not involved in the operation. A very impressive squadron from Brigadier General Dean’s world remained our bargaining chip, it was now based in the Solar System under the cover of powerful camouflage fields and a dense reconnaissance and patrol network, which prevented it from being detected by the enemy. But even without it, a formidable fleet has gathered here, and I had no doubt that the Groombridge Defence Force would have nothing to counteract our strike. But we weren’t going to turn into dust everything we’d encounter on and around the occupied planets. On the contrary, the main task for us was a bloodless conquest of planets, if possible, and, above all, the quargs themselves.
The Federation’s policies have changed dramatically. The vast majority of the quargs, while still fighting against humans and lizards, were no longer considered to be the initiators and perpetrators of this long war, and, consequently, their deaths during the operation were not only not intended but were considered highly undesirable.
Here we wanted to test new tactics aimed at capturing a large number of quargs and then freeing them from the mental block. The Imperial admirals did not fully share our desire to help the enemy, who continued to actively fight us. In their view, it was necessary to act swiftly and decisively, but President Tobolsky and the Senior Lizard supported my plan and showed unexpected firmness in the matter, so the new allies decided not to exacerbate the situation, all the more so that in the operation they were only supposed to help us in case the ships of the toads appeared at Groombridge.
“Commander, Sir, transports of the 15th and 35th Commando Corps have arrived. Thirty minutes from now, the fleet will be ready to accelerate and jump into the system,” reported Chief of Staff Admiral Fulton, the same James Fulton who provided a guarantee for me in the court during the financial conspiracy and whose son I had kind of a disagreement with five years ago at the Planetary Commando Academy, and then fought shoulder to shoulder on Luyten-5. I must say, I was glad that fate brought us back together.
“Any new intel from the recon guys?”
“It’s still the same. The quargs do not yet know of the concentration of our fleet in one jump from the system. Their cover squadron is concentrated at Groombridge-2. There’s a standard patrol network. Our fleet will be discovered within minutes of emergence out of jump.”
“Judging by previous operations, we’ll have at least 24 hours before aid arrives to the enemy, if it ever arrives,” the commander of Dragon’s Tail lizard Slin-at has joined the discussion, “Our firepower is ten times that of their cover squadron. If it comes to a fight, we’ll crush them in a few hours. And even if help comes to them, the system will have already been under our complete control.”
“We may need more time than for a standard assault,” I didn’t go into the details of the plan. The Chief of Staff knew the plan, and Slin-at was only a commander of a battleship, even if it was the flagship of the fleet, so he didn’t need the details. “Fleet, start acceleration when ready.”
On the tactical projection, I saw the transport ring split into 12 segments, which turned on the engines and took places at the end of the formation of the ships that were preparing to proceed in synchronized acceleration. They were supposed to be the last to jump, so that by the time they arrived in the attacked system, the exit zone would have been secured by the main force of the fleet.
“Fleet Admiral, Sir,” I was approached by Imperial General Clay, present on the flagship as an observer for our new allies, “Among your ships is a battleship that is entirely under the control of the quargs. There are no men or lizards in it’s crew. I understand it’s a gesture of trust in former enemies. But they did fight against you very recently, even if they didn’t do it quite willingly. You’re not afraid of being stabbed in the back?”
I’ve known Clay so long, I won’t even remember when I first saw him. The General was one of the few people in the Empire and the Federation who knew who I was. After all, it was Clay and Dr Silk who planned the operation to send Brigadier General Dean’s consciousness through the abyss of space into my present body. I am so grateful to them for that, I’ll never forget it. In that world, I was Clay’s subordinate for so many years, I couldn’t get used to the fact that we are now in equal ranks, and besides we serve in the armed forces of different States, even if allied.
“Well, if our security officers didn’t object, then we have no reason to doubt their loyalty,” I smiled at Clay. “More seriously, of course, there are doubts. No, I’m not afraid of direct betrayal, but I highly doubt they’ll follow any orders. But I’m not gonna make them bomb cities with civilians… That’s an order I won’t even give to my own people, let alone the quargs.”
“As far as the peaceful cities are concerned, that’s understood,” Clay still had his doubts, “but will they be able to engage a battleship similar to their own and kill their former comrades in cold blood?”
“That’s the right question, General, Sir,” I nodded to him, “Of course, I’ve asked myself that many times, and I finally found the answer. On board New World there are no lethal weapons, but it has not become a less serious combat force because of this.”
“But…” Clay was clearly embarrassed by my answer.
“You’ll see for yourself, General, Sir,” I smiled again, “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to fleet command, we’re about to start acceleration for the jump.”
Chapter 1
After our attack on Kappa Ceti and the release of the prisoners, the General Staff was most fearful of an immediate crushing strike by a new, formidable enemy. The crew of the toads’ cruiser we took captive claimed in one voice that this was likely to be the case, and this view was very well aligned with my ideas on how our adversary should proceed. But time passed, and the attack never happened, and the generals and admirals of the Federation, feverishly preparing for a hopeless battle, were wondering what was going on.
Rear Admiral Yoon Gao has kept all Fleet intelligence on their toes, but it turned out to be impossible to get close enough to the toads’ systems to know what was going on using our equipment. Even custom-made, manually tuned unmanned probes equipped with near-radiationless lizard-made engines and the best scanners and camouflage devices manufactured by Jeff’s department, have been hit by the enemy far beyond planetary systems. Under these circumstances, Yoon Gao found it impossible to send manned ships to the mission.
At least we knew from the prisoners which stars had the enemy’s densely populated planets, but that was all we knew. But in the quarg space our scouts felt more free. I didn’t like what was going on there. It was clear that the quargs were feverishly working to recreate their fleet, which we had defeated and partially captured at the battle of star Ran. On the other hand, we understood that an immediate strike by the enemy was unlikely, and the Federation had time to negotiate with the Empire, where I went almost immediately. And a few days after I left, there was a meeting at the General Staff, which Nelson later told me about.
“Why didn’t they strike at once, flag officers, Sirs? Do you have a logical explanation?” asked President Tobolsky.
“Mr President,” General of the Army Knyazev has taken the floor, “analysts are considering several leads, but we believe the enemy’s lack of information about our forces and capabilities is the most likely cause.”
“Explain your point, Pavel Grigorievich,”