The Great Betrayal Read Online Free PDF

flee. The Helions lost an entire task force to one of these ships in the war. It is a famous story. The Helions were sending a small force to reinforce one of their colony moons. There were two famous battleships, the pride of the Helion fleet and four escorts. The Ravager caught them and destroyed them all with fighter attacks.”
    Now Captain Campbell was starting to understand. The description and design matched his assessment of the powerful warship.
    “So, the Ravager is a hybrid aircraft carrier. Do you have any idea how many craft it can carry?”
    The Admiral shook his head.
    “No, we have never captured one. I would estimate over a hundred though, a mixture of fighters and bombers.”
    Captain Campbell could see the difficulty they were in, both as a fleet and as individual ships. The Narau fleet was substantial in number but lacked carriers and fighter cover. For fighting fleets of warships they should be just fine, against a major carrier they would be vulnerable. But what really concerned the Captain was the suggestion that discipline was poor in the fleet. He suspected this might be because it was only a polyglot force that held a fragile allegiance to its elected Admiral. The mission had been a simple one of a reconnaissance in force in the Anicinàbe sector, due to distress signals emanating from a number of their colonies, not a call to war.
    “What about the Rift?”
    The Admiral nodded at the glass once more. Campbell looked at it and spotted the silhouette of a ship he didn’t recognize. It was the long, sleek shape of a large class of warship. The design was long, smooth, and it bristled with antenna.
    “Anicinàbe cruisers?”
    “Yes, they must have been forced to help the Enemy.”
    Campbell shook his head.
    “Or they have sided with them. I wonder what they were promised.”
    The Khreenk Admiral pressed several buttons on his console and then shouted orders to his officers. Every one of them pulled at strapped and harnesses.
    “What’s going on?”
    The Admiral looked at him and smiled.
    “We are preparing for an emergency direction shift; we need to get to the secondary Rift before they can trap us.”
    “What Rift?”
    “It will take us back to the border of the Klithi. We can regroup with their fleet.”
    The ship began to shake as the engines put in massive amounts of additional thrust. Captain Campbell could feel the change in gravity, and he immediately felt heavier.
    “Strap yourself in, Captain, before it is too late.”
    He was already heading for one of the emergency seating areas, and an officer helped strap him in just as another series of bursts from the engines almost caused him to vomit. His secpad flew from his left hand, but he stopped it with the right hand before it could crash into the bulkhead. The face of the Alliance officer still showed.
    “We’re too late!” said the man on the screen.
    Captain Campbell had no idea what he meant and looked up at the glass windows. They had changed again, and this time showed a view of the fleet as it scattered, each trying to slow down and change course. It was a mess because they were all still traveling at great speed to their destination. Each of the factions had set a different course while a small number continued onward. Two vessels must have hit something because they were engulfed in a blue flash that spread through their hulls like burning hot plasma. That was when Campbell spotted it.
    Mother of God!
    It was a ship; identical to the ship they had been looking at near their destination. This one was right in the heart of the fleet and had somehow matched their overall course and heading.
    This can’t be, he thought, even as he tried to calculate the complex trajectories to be able to do that. He gave up after realizing it was irrelevant right then. All he had to worry about was surviving. Ripples of light ran down the hull of the ship, and each one was matched to a series of explosions and flashes on the ships of the