“Approximately sixty years ago, one race broke the contract they had made with another race. The contract was verified by the Erasi, and the harmed party called on the Erasi to reinforce the deal. The Erasi sent one of their fringe taskforces to reinforce the deal, which meant that they weren’t their top ships, mostly ships from smaller and newer members.” The holo showed a group of ships, numbering twenty-six; they were of various shapes and sizes, but none was as big as the Empire’s battleship.
“The ships were fairly advanced, though nothing that could be a match to our ships now; more on the line of old Consortium ships,” Aileen said. “But they were still more advanced than what anyone in the region had.” The holo changed to show a star system. “Once the Erasi arrived in this system, they were met with fleet far larger than what they had expected.”
Again the holo changed, receiving commands from Aileen’s implant, now showing ships of a different make—cylinder shapes, in various sizes but all following the same design. “The offending race had broken its contract because they were funneling too many resources into shipbuilding. They had built a massive fleet in secret, almost six hundred ships. The Erasi ships were slightly more advanced, but they were outnumbered; all except one were destroyed, which returned to Erasi territory and reported what had happened.”
The holo changed again, now showing much larger saucer-shaped ships. “A year later, the Erasi fleet arrived, two hundred ships strong. They destroyed the aliens’ ships and wiped them out, making an example of them. No one has tried to defy the Erasi since.”
Adrian studied the Erasi ships. “Saucer-shaped ships are their real military ships?” he asked.
“Yes. They are usually kept back in the more important systems, or on borders with hostile civilizations. The rest is handled by smaller members of the Erasi and their militaries; their ships-of-the-line are all constructed in the core and are crewed by their more important members,” Aileen answered.
“There were a few of those ships at Tarabat,” he commented.
“They weren’t there when I went back. And I couldn’t find anything about why they were there, or why they left.”
“Hmm… Did you find out anything new about their military ships?” Adrian asked.
“They are mostly the same classes as they were sixty years ago; data on them is scant. Gravity drives and energy shields are confirmed, but we don’t know their strength. From few records I managed to dig up, we know that they use energy weapons and missiles. No kinetics recorded. But if information they gave us about the Shara Daim ships is true, then we can assume that Erasi ships are of comparable strength. I doubt that the Shara Daim could have such reputation in the Erasi if they couldn’t be a threat to them.”
“Agreed,” Adrian said. “And they don’t appear to have normal space FTL tech. Coupled with the rest of things we have, I would say that we are superior in technology.”
“What are our chances against the Shara Daim, real chances, if your plan fails?” Aileen asked.
“Tomas and I have a few contingency plans. Based on what we know about them, and if we assume that our projections of their numbers and tech are correct…” He paused, making a Nel gesture that she couldn’t identify. “We could take them, if we manage to sucker them into a few battles that favor us. But we would suffer heavy losses, and if they decide that it is worth it to them to sacrifice a large chunk of their Legions, they might still take us. If we slow down their initial attacks enough, the technologies from the sphere will give us an edge.”
“How long until we can be sure that our systems are safe?” Aileen asked. She knew that Tomas was focusing the system defense technologies from the sphere.
“Seven years for Sanctuary and Sector One, nine for the rest of the Empire,” Adrian said.
“It will take the Shara Daim time to gather a force big enough to get past Sol. Especially if they first attack with insufficient numbers,” she said. “And if your plan works, we might not even need to fight them anymore.”
“You know that changing the mind of someone who has spent their entire life thinking one way is a tricky thing. It took years for those we saved from Earth to change their views to that of the Empire. I have only one person to work with. Even if I manage to plant the seed of doubt in Anessa, we will still have war; they will come to Sol regardless.”
“Perhaps… But if she starts speaking for peace, it might give us enough time.”
The massive fleet exited the trans-lane and entered the Ra’a’zani system behind the sun of its target, giving them some time before the Ra’a’zani were aware of the Empire’s fleet. The fleet moved slowly, with no urgency; the 6402 ships of the fleet had nothing to fear from the Ra’a’zani in this system. Out of those 6402 ships, 5132 were warships, 870 were auxiliaries—support ships and army transports—and another 400 were large transport ships, more like freighters, added to the fleet in order for it to fulfill its mission: the rescue of the humans taken as slaves by the Ra’a’zani decades ago.
Johanna knew exactly what to expect from their enemies in this system. Ever since they had learned location of the Ra’a’zani, the Empire had been sending scout ships to verify all the information that they received from the Erasi. There was nothing that could threaten her fleet here, nor anywhere in the Ra’a’zani space. Their war with the Shara Daim had weakened them too much; they had sacrificed most of their war fleets in order to set up and hide at their furthest colonies, in order to get time so that they might have a chance of rebuilding. But sadly for them, the Empire had come to settle a promise.
Their first target was a system held by the clan that had enslaved Earth, and so had the most human slaves. According to their scout ships, most of the human slaves were held on the planet, in two different kinds of camps. Many of the slaves were in work camps, working in Ra’a’zani assembly lines and mines. The rest were in breeding camps, mostly women and children, with some elderly to take care of them. According to Aileen, the slaves that proved themselves to their overlords would be given leave to visit the breeding camps and reproduce.
And then there were the thralls: humans raised by the Ra’a’zani, indoctrinated and completely loyal to their masters. Johanna knew that they would have problems with the ordinary slaves. She remembered the people who they had rescued from Earth; they had had a rough time adjusting to the Empire and freedom. They had known nothing about humanity, and slaves here would know even less; many of them would have been born there, on an alien world, and would have no knowledge of anything other than what the Ra’a’zani told them. It was doubtful that there were any slaves still living that had seen Earth, who even knew anything about who they were.
But there would also be another race of slaves, the Yunkari. Johanna’s mission was to liberate them as well.
As the fleet moved out of the shadow of the system’s sun and into the open where the Ra’a’zani could see them, Johanna turned to Aileen and Adrian, who were standing by her chair. “You ready?” she asked Aileen.
Aileen closed her eyes and then nodded. “Yes.” She would be the one to make the first contact with the Ra’a’zani; she knew them best, as she had once been their slave.
“Good,” Johanna said, and then turned to her subordinates sitting on their stations below her dais. “Skim the fleet to alpha position.”
“Skim in fifteen seconds, Fleet Commander,” the Navigation Handler responded.