Chapter 24; The 2nd Battle of Hazey Point
General Z rushed to the hangar used by Pedra’s new attack ships. There, far below the surface, groups of four soldiers in rifle patrols were moving through the armory in orderly lines and loading up for this mission. Baraz was heading this portion of the staging. “Light weapons…small arms… tiny explosives…take three plasma knives…” he kept repeating. “Head for Hanger eight…”
The Guardian troops moved swiftly and quietly to Hangar eight for boarding missions. Pedra was loading them into the virtual null space in her mothers Wolf Ship when her father arrived.
Not wanting to disturb the work, he spoke to his other daughter, "Lea, what's going on?"
"Pedra is nearly done loading all your troops, Sir. Just as you predicted, father, their cloaking devices had to be shut off to jump their people in here. The cocky bastards are still visible up there, and Lea and I have laid out boarding patterns for your approval."
As the only member who had attended the Naval Academy, Baraz spoke next, “I expect that the Admiralty followed standard attack protocols. That means that these ships,” he pointed to the ones on the lower periphery of the formation, “should be the emptiest. If we attack right away, they may still be in such shock. I am saying that because they still have not bothered to re-mask their positions. “
They all began to talk at once. As usual, one person’s half stated plan came to full fruition in the seemingly combined minds of the others in this group as they discussed the details. One would start a sentence, and another would finish it. They had worked together so long that this was their style now.
Pedra finally asked, "How big are your patrols?"
"At the moment, they are four to ten soldiers in each."
"Father, I have never done ten people at a time. I have only tested it to three, but I am sure that I can do four."
"That's alright dear. Let’s only create parties of four in multiple landing sites."
“Good! Last night, I wrote a new algorhythm to my sister’s program that isolates each soldier in a discreet file. I have over a thousand soldiers loaded in mom’s ship. Once we are above Lea’s scrambler grid, I can jump them out in rifle patrols.”
“Excellent work, ladies. Shall we go?”
They scrambled aboard and energized their masking device. Unseen by their enemies, they flew up above the jump scrambler layer of satellites. Pedra brought the Mara quietly up into a cluster of the Admiralty’s empty troop ships. Pedra’s improvements on Lea’s technology allowed them to use so little energy that they were able to operate their jump tubes and remain invisible.
Meanwhile, on the Battle Bridge of the Mara, General Z, and Lea made final checks of the charts they had made of the known ship locations. General Z spoke, “From the number of bodies that we have scanned out there on Batt, I predict that there are some empty ships up here.”
Pedra chimed in, “Yes, Father. I am almost in position to start jumping in boarding parties of those troop ships.”
“Just like shooting fish in a barrel,” said the old General.
“Finally, I have my first victory.” said Baraz solemnly, “We must find a way to turn this victory into a truly new beginning for this Empire.”
“Plan accepted?” asked the Emperor. Each in turn nodded.
“The General simply said, “Go.”
Like the other men in the groups, Baraz stood with the in the new Jump Port and, with a small flash of blue light, disappeared.
He and the other three men reappeared on a lower deck of the troop ship "Flora". They hurried along to check the barrack levels. This ship had been one of the first to get the new High Speed Jump Tubes. It had disgorged almost seventy thousand souls in three and half ticks. It was now as silent as a tomb. Their boots echoing in the metal passageways, they made their way to the Bridge. On the way there, they found rifle patrols already rigging the ship’s cannon blasters for autofire. They were attaching remote units, so they would begin from a signal once the boarding crews had jumped off. One man from each crew went with Baraz to the Bridge. With a hundred riflemen, Baraz entered the bridge. There they found the pitiful sight of, sobbing and in total shock, a crew of only six.
"I am THE Emperor! I command you to surrender this ship!"
The crew was so surprised they just put their hands up. Baraz typed a message into the super Scrambler and activated the sending unit. "Six..." was all it said. That was the signal for “Flora taken. No losses.
Without waiting for a reply, the new crew aimed their blasters at the directional controls and decimated them. Now, this ship was floating freely in space. Its guns would fire at anything in range. With the Seventh Fleet packed in so tightly, these jammed units would fire until they melted down or were destroyed by incoming fire. The whole ships guns were set for final activation at the Commander's chair of the bridge.
Baraz looked to see that all was ready. He pushed the green button on his comm. Unit to signal to Lea that they were ready to go. In less than an hour, three hundred ships were sabotaged in this manner.
The whole operation had taken forty eight clicks with only forty losses. The General and his daughter were very happy to have their people back where they belonged. Like the other teams, just before leaving the bridge, Baraz pushed the button to activate the auto-fire systems on those three hundred ships.
Once the ship was back in the hangar, they all crowded around the monitors to watch the fun. Ships were on fire and blowing up right and left. Ships not even sabotaged joined in not really knowing what to think.
Back on board the "Keeth", the Admiralty tried to solve the puzzle. "Alright, people, what are we going to do about this?"
Before anyone could answer, a young ensign burst into the room, "They're blowing each other up, sir! Look…look!"
All eyes turned to the near space monitor screen as it came on. They saw what everyone on the planet had been watching for several minutes. He leaped on the phone. "This is Admiral Keeth. All Admiralty ships cease firing! Those ships are on automatic! Just get back out of their range and stay out until they can be re-boarded. That is an order!"
The Royals back on the planet watched the commotion begin to subside as calmer heads prevailed up above. With a twinkle in his eye they had not seen in many years he said, "Now, my children, what do you think about boarding some and keeping them this time?"
"Capitol idea, Grandfather."
A group of ships had gone off to one side of the mass to get out of the firing range of the previously boarded vessels. Aboard them, crews were working feverishly on damage control, putting out fires, resealing blown bulkheads and generally not paying attention to the groups of rifle patrols that wavered to life in a central corridor.
With quiet determination and great resolve, the boarding party moved quickly to the bridge, covered their faces, and released a sleep gas grenade. Leaving one member, they headed for the Marine barracks. Opening the port, they walked in.
Baraz, in a bold move, pulled the Royal Scepter out of his tunic and said, "Behold the Royal Scepter of the house of Menzi. Honor it and obey me.
To the man, the Marines knelt before their Emperor to re-pledge their oath. Later, it was discovered these men had been told that the Royal Guardians were in revolt to explained the uniforms on the corpses around them. Word spread throughout the ship and almost a hundred thousand Fleet Marines were repatriated back to the cause. Lea turned off her scrambler and these new troops were safely jumped down to the surface.
Remaining masked, the ship was moved to the other side of the planet. While the attention of the Admiralty was consumed by the three hundred ships that had been left on automatic firing, ship after ship was secretly removed from formation.
On the ghost hulk ships, the guns were starting to get so hot they were melting through the hulls of their ships. The ships then started to implode. These large explosions became a new source of terror in the packed formations. To try to save themselves fr
om this development, many ships were moving out of formation. In the confusion, the ones being stolen were not noticed. Altogether, seven hundred and forty three thousand troops were brought over to the Crown. And the best part about it was that Keeth didn’t even know that the troop ships he did have were nearly empty and the full ones were gone.
If Fleet Marines bowed to Baraz, then they were repatriated to Hazey Point. If they didn’t, they were jumped in to space and killed. It was a clean surgical operation to gut Keeth’s operation.
By the next morning’s report, the truth became all too evident to Admiral Keeth. Leaving a few ships to keep an eye on things, the ragged remains of the Seventh Fleet moved out of the sector to regroup and plot new strategy. Keeth thought the Emperor was still trapped. As long as he had him like this, he still had plenty of time to figure out how to land his troops. He thought he still had millions of troops and would end this war with the appropriate outcome.
When the General awoke the next morning, he looked into the monitors and saw what Keeth had done. At first, he was tempted to take those remaining ships immediately.
"Why," he thought to himself, "I've got nearly two million healthy troops here now. Those twenty ships wouldn't stand a chance. But no, why not go on to our next target and leave those measly wretches to stew in their pots. I'll give them a false sense of security, that's what I'll do. I've got bigger fish to fry."