Admiral's War Part Two (A Spineward Sectors Novel: Book 10) Read online

  Admiral’s War -Part II - A Spineward Sectors Novel: Book 10

  by

  Luke Sky Wachter

  Copyright © 2016 by Joshua Wachter

  All rights reserved.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. All resemblance to persons living or dead is coincidental. Respect my electronic rights because the money you save today will be the book I can't afford to write for you tomorrow.

  Other Books by Luke Sky Wachter

  As of 08-06-2016

  SPINEWARD SECTORS NOVEL SERIES

  Admiral Who?

  Admiral’s Gambit

  Admiral’s Tribulation

  Admiral’s Trial

  Admiral’s Revenge

  Admiral’s Spine

  Admiral Invincible

  Admiral's Challenge

  Admiral’s War - Part One

  Admiral’s War - Part Two

  RISE OF THE WITCH GUARD NOVEL SERIES

  The Blooding

  The Painting

  The Channeling

  RISE OF THE WITCH GUARD NOVELLAS

  The Boar Knife

  Books by my brother, Caleb Wachter

  SPINEWARD SECTORS: MIDDLETON’S PRIDE

  No Middle Ground

  Up The Middle

  Against The Middle

  McKnight’s Mission (A House Divided)

  Middleton’s Prejudice

  Lynch’s Legacy

  SPHEREWORLD NOVEL SERIES

  Joined at the Hilt: Union

  SPHEREWORLD NOVELLAS

  Between White and Grey

  SPINEWARD SECTORS: A TRACTO TALE

  The Forge of Men

  SEEDS OF HUMANITY: THE COBALT HERESY SERIES

  Revelation

  Reunion

  IMPERIUM CICERNUS SERIES

  Ure Infectus

  Sic Semper Tyrannis

  COLLABORATIVE WORKS BY LUKE SKY WACHTER & CALEB WACHTER

  SPINEWARD SECTORS NOVELLAS

  Admiral’s Lady: Eyes of Ice, Heart of Fire

  Admiral’s Lady: Ashes for Ashes, Blood for Blood

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter One: Let’s See What She’s Got!

  Chapter Two: The Mysterious Man

  Chapter Three: Running Home to Wolf-9

  Chapter Four: Let the Finger Pointing Ensue!

  Chapter Five: A meeting of the minds

  Chapter Six: Discord behind closed doors

  Chapter Seven: The Oleander Perspective

  Chapter Eight: Kong Pao’s Sector 23 Reinforcements

  Chapter Nine: Playtime

  Chapter Ten: The Imperial Side!

  Chapter Eleven: Repairs and concerns

  Chapter Twelve: The Delaying Force

  Chapter Thirteen: Reporting Home

  Chapter Fourteen: Reinforced at Wolf-9

  Chapter Fifteen: A Private Meeting

  Chapter Sixteen: New Arrivals Admiral

  Chapter Seventeen: Oleander Changes Ships!

  Chapter Eighteen: The Arms Dealer from Sector 24

  Chapter Nineteen: As ready as we can be

  Chapter Twenty: Imperials move into position

  Chapter Twenty-one: Slashing Attacks

  Chapter Twenty-two: Survivors arrive

  Chapter Twenty-three: The Third Battle for Easy Haven

  Chapter Twenty-four: Stuck in Gambit

  Chapter Twenty-five: The Second Battle for Sector 25

  Chapter Twenty-six: Head to Head on the outskirts

  Chapter Twenty-seven: Paying it back

  Chapter Twenty-eight: The Hammer of Man

  Chapter Twenty-nine: Falling Back

  Chapter Thirty: Moving the Main Force

  Chapter Thirty-one: An Imperial Push

  Chapter Thirty-two: Testing the Water

  Chapter Thirty-three: The Wolf-9 Response

  Chapter Thirty-four: The Montagne Initiative

  Chapter Thirty-five: Janeski and the Fighter Strike

  Chapter Thirty-six: Kling and the Light Relief Force

  Chapter Thirty-seven: LeGodat’s Price

  Chapter Thirty-eight: Imperial Cruiser Command

  Chapter Thirty-nine: Fighters Move In

  Chapter Forty: Right up their sterns and fleeing the scene of the crime!

  Chapter Forty-one: Confusion in the Sensor Department

  Chapter Forty-two: Imperial Fighters moving in

  Chapter Forty-three: A hit! A definite hit!

  Chapter Forty-four: Riding it out

  Chapter Forty-five: Fighting for the lives of their comrades

  Chapter Forty-six: An Imperial Push: Destroyer Style

  Chapter Forty-seven: Moves like a Primarch

  Chapter Forty-eight: Moving in for the Kill

  Chapter Forty-nine: Jason Swings his squadron of Battleships around Wolf-9

  Chapter Fifty: Grinding them down

  Chapter Fifty-one: Serge’s Strike

  Chapter Fifty-two: Klinging to Hope

  Chapter Fifty-three: Led by the nose

  Chapter Fifty-four: Caught Out

  Chapter Fifty-five: The Imperial Flag Bridge

  Chapter Fifty-six: Admiral’s Choices

  Chapter Fifty-seven: The Clover Lives!

  Chapter Fifty-eight: In the Outer System

  Chapter Fifty-nine: Attacking the Starbase

  Chapter Sixty: Dark Matter’s Second Ride

  Chapter Sixty-one: Droid Conflict: A Weak Link on the Chain of Command

  Chapter Sixty-two: MSP to the Rescue?

  Chapter Sixty-three: Firing Main Cannon

  Chapter Sixty-four: On the Starbase

  Chapter Sixty-five: Reaction on the Invictus

  Chapter Sixty-six: The Montagne Maneuver!

  Chapter Sixty-seven: Without a flank to turn

  Chapter Sixty-eight: Forced Duty

  Chapter Sixty-nine: Dark Matter: Coming to Grips

  Chapter Seventy: The Eye of the Tiger

  Chapter Seventy-one: Imperial Reaction

  Chapter Seventy-two: The opening

  Chapter Seventy-three: Rage on the Flag Bridge

  Chapter Seventy-four: On the Gun Deck

  Chapter Seventy-five: Desperate times

  Chapter Seventy-six: The Tide Turns

  Chapter Seventy-seven: Chaos on the Gun Deck

  Chapter Seventy-eight: The Imperial Flag unfurled

  Chapter Seventy-nine: Lancers on the Invictus Rising

  Chapter Eighty: Desperate Times on the Hull

  Chapter Eighty-one: Akantha on close approach

  Chapter Eighty-two: Imperial Irritation

  Chapter Eighty-three: General McMann

  Chapter Eighty-four: The Brunt

  Chapter Eighty-five: Nottingham’s Plan

  Chapter Eighty-six: A Little Elbow Grease

  Chapter Eighty-seven: The Boats Arrive

  Chapter Eighty-eight: Into the Burrow

  Chapter Eighty-nine: The second shot

  Chapter Ninety: Wolf-9 Falls?

  Chapter Ninety-one: Dark Matter vs. Entropy

  Chapter Ninety-two: Imperial Command II

  Chapter Ninety-three: Dark Matter

  Chapter Ninety-four: Chaos on the move!

  Chapter Ninety-five: Just a Shrub in the Office

  Chapter Ninety-six: Breaking into the Breakout

  Chapter Ninety-seven: The Battle Turns

  Chapter Ninety-eight: Pride of the Imperial Hunter

  Chapter Ninety-nine: A Late Start
: It’s a Spalding!

  Chapter One hundred: Hold! Push!

  Chapter One hundred one: Out of Moves?

  Chapter One hundred two: Arnold Janeski

  Chapter One hundred three: Moving into Firing Position

  Chapter One hundred four: Rivals Rage

  Chapter One hundred five: Bad news from the Carrier

  Chapter One hundred six: She was the very model of dangerously outdated space technology.

  Chapter One hundred seven: Fire and Fury on the Command Deck

  Chapter One hundred eight: Admiral’s Trouble

  Chapter One hundred nine: Gunboats to the rescue…is it enough?

  Chapter One hundred ten: Under Threat

  Chapter One hundred eleven: On the Command Carrier

  Chapter One hundred twelve: The Tide Turns

  Chapter One hundred thirteen: The Furious Phoenix

  Chapter One hundred fourteen: Heroic Measures

  Chapter One hundred fifteen: He was the very model of an old, outdated space engineer

  Chapter One hundred sixteen: The Metal Titan

  Chapter One hundred seventeen: Rivals Rage Redux

  Chapter One hundred eighteen: Hard Decisions

  Chapter One hundred nineteen: A simple engineering problem

  Chapter One hundred twenty: Is it Victory?

  Chapter One hundred twenty-one: Survivors

  Chapter One hundred twenty-two: Counting the Cost and Tallying the Gains

  Preview Content: Fear God and Dread Naught

  Preview Content: Lynch’s Legacy

  Chapter One: Let’s See What She’s Got!

  “Let’s see what she’s got!” Spalding yelled, slamming his hand on the button.

  The sound of Elder Tech Jump engines’ oscillations were like those of a revving internal combustion engine. The thrum filled the bridge of the newly rechristened Lucky Clover, and to say the tension was palpable would fall well short of doing the scene justice.

  “Here she goes,” Spalding declared as the vibration continued to build and the hyper field began to form outside the ship.

  “Uh…sir,” Brence asked, sweat breaking out on his forehead as the far-from-usual event unfolded around them.

  The ship’s revving noises sputtered, resumed even louder than before, sputtered again, and continued to increase in intensity and frequency with each passing second.

  “There she is!” the old Engineer chortled, pumping his fist in the air as the hyper field flashed.

  “Sweet Murphy!” cried Brence. Modern jump engines simply didn’t make noises or flashes prior to a jump—not unless something was about to explode and everyone was destined to die. It either worked like flipping a light switch or the ship was torn apart. There was no in between.

  The revving and sputtering suddenly hit a snag, and the oscillations quickly began to diminish in intensity and frequency.

  “No…no!” Spalding shouted with sudden outrage.

  Sounding as though the fuel lines had been kinked, the oscillations spluttered lower and slower until they seemingly vanished altogether—and with them, the hyper field flickered like a mouse-eaten piece of Holy Cheese.

  “Blast it. She’s drawing too much power…the energy banks can’t keep up! This is at least a two week fix.” Screaming like he’d just been stabbed, Spalding pounded the side of his chair and kicked the metal console on the bridge hard enough to dent metal just as the hyper field vanished completely.

  “Uh Sir?” Brence said eyes wide. Standing up, red-faced and breathing hard like a madman it took the Commander a full minute before he regained his rationality.

  “Chief Engineer?” Brence prompted again.

  “Don’t worry, Brence, she’ll be made right—and in time for the party too. It’s not her design that’s the problem,” Spalding’s voice rasped as he stoutly defended his ship, “it’s got to be the heavy draw from those newfangled Elder tech jump drives. Yep, that’s the problem. But don’t you worry none—old Spalding can compensate for it. I think…” he paused before his jaw clenched, “it’ll take more than a piece of the most advanced technology this ever produced in this galaxy before being left behind by a long-dead race whose technological achievements are currently beyond mere human understanding to stop—”

  “Uh…” Brence winced at precisely the same time as Shepherd’s stuttering from Navigation interrupted the two of them.

  “T-T-T-T-he scre-en is n-ow sho-wing a one-tw-w-welf-th charge!” he badly stuttered.

  “What?!” Spalding cried, jumping out of his seat and running over to the nav-console.

  “He-here,” Shepherd pointed at his screen.

  Spalding’s eyes rapidly flowed over the AI Program/Elder Tech interface.

  “Gravitational constant of the universe…the hyperspace resistance quotient has increased. Increased power storage needed for…?” for a moment he looked dumbfounded before he slamming his hand down on the Nav-plot table. “That that’s impossible!” he shouted, causing several navigation trainees to jump and immediately break away.

  “Bad news, sir?” Brence asked, surreptitiously sliding his body between the Chief Engineer and the rest of the crew.

  “Ahhh!” the old man cried, grabbing his head.

  Brence bent over and his surprise saw that the interface did indeed list all the things the old engineer had just been raving about.

  “I wasn’t aware there was a ‘hyperspace resistance quotient’ that the hyper techs and navigators had to factor in,” Brence said with surprise.

  “There isn’t!” Spalding threw his hands in the air.

  “An error in the interface perhaps?” Brence said with increased worry. If they were working with a buggy interface and with untested technology then the odds of survival had just gone down significantly…

  “That’s not the problem,” the Commander swore, linking his tablet to the interface before spinning it so that Brence could see, “not even the half!”

  The screen said 22.458 days and was even now slowly counting down.

  “A self-destruct!” Brence blurted, immediately backing away from the data slate.

  “What?” Spalding stared at him, bewildered before slapping the slate on the edge of the nav-plot for emphasis. “No, you bloomin’ idjit! That’s not a self-destruct countdown. That’s how long the hyper engines estimates it’ll take us to charge up for the jump at our current level of power! Gah!” he tossed his slate down on the nav-plot, “22 days! Can you believe it? Why, the war could be lost by then.”

  “Uh…just to be clear. The part that bothers you isn’t the fact that the engines are running calculations regarding the gravitational constant of the universe and other factors—such as ‘hyperspace resistance’—none of which are even used with the height of modern technology…but rather the fact it’s going to take 22 days to re-try?” he asked cautiously.

  “Why of course! There’s no point in arriving after the war’s already over, my boy,” Spalding bestowed a withering look on the other man. He waved his hands in the air wildly, “Didn’t you see? Eleven more segments to charge and each one a potential landmine…I mean it’s not like we can just install another generator anytime we…like. Well…I suppose we could, but by the time we did most of those 22 days would already be over,” the Commander said, pausing in contemplation before obviously throwing out the idea as a bad game.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong, Sir. But why don’t we just feed it more power and cut down those 22 days?” Brence asked perplexed. The solution seemed simple, therefore there must be something complex that he was missing.

  “What are you blathering about man? I just told you by the time we installed more generators it’d already be—” Spalding demanded wryly.

  “No. I mean why do we need to install more generators on the Clover, Sir? We’re in a great big yard here and there are lots of generators. Why can’t we just hook up the Elder engines to more generators until we get the time down to something more reasonable than three wee
ks?” he asked, honestly stumped. “I mean it’s not like the hyper field is confined to one ship. We could just hook up lines to the engines from inside the field. Or maybe even from outside the field? Would the lines just be severed when it jumped or should we manually cut them in the last minutes before jump? Of course, I’ve never seen jump engines like these before so I could just be way off-base—”

  “Brence, you’re a genius!” Spalding declared happily.

  “I am?” he asked with surprise, totally expecting that he would have been educated in just how wrong he was right now, not complimented instead.

  “O’ course, the power generated by the smaller ships would be a drop in the bucket…and even our bigger ships are limping along on limited fusion generators right now. But I’m sure that if we put our heads together we can figure something out!” he said happily.

  “Uh…good,” Brence said, wondering if he’d just shot himself in the foot and feeling compelled to add, “I mean, unless you think maybe we ought to go back over that interface program with a fine-toothed comb first? I don’t know…maybe we should make sure we aren’t about to jump into the middle of a sun or a black hole or overcharge the jump engines and explode?”

  “My boy, you cycle back and forth between hot and cold faster than anyone I know,” Spalding rolled his eyes.

  “I cycle back and forth faster?” he repeated with outrage.

  “It’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Spalding hastened to console him, “there are worse things a man could be saddled with. Why, I was saddled with a heart grown in the same vat as that of a natural born coward, and see how I turned out—”

  Right at that moment the stress and uncertainty of the last two days came crashing down hitting the younger engineer all at once. “Bah!” Brence shouted in exasperation.

  Chapter Two: The Mysterious Man

  It had taken the better part of two weeks of careful planning, followed by two entire days of floating out in the middle of cold space watching his oxygen tanks and power cells dwindle down to nearly nothing. But he had finally done it, and his quarry was now in sight.