The Lost Fleet: Genesis: A Slaver Wars Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

him.”
    “Fleet is at Condition
One and ready for your orders, Admiral,” reported Commander Arnett.
    “Weapons are
online and energy shield is at 98 percent,” added Colonel Cowel. “The WarHawk is ready for combat.”
    “Move us out,
formation Alpha-three.” Race leaned back in his command chair. He needed the ships
of that relief fleet intact, and he knew the Shari were going to do everything
in their power to try to deny him that.
    -
    High Lord
Aktill watched as his flagship prepared to make the jump into hyperspace. In
front of the Judgment of Dawn , a swirling vortex appeared. He planned on
jumping the fleet into an englobement formation around the new Federation force.
He would destroy it and then hold that position, which was much nearer the
Dyson Sphere than he currently was.
    “Federation
fleet is entering hyperspace,” reported Lower Lord Samarth.
    Aktill took
notice, seeing that his quarry was escaping. “As soon as the fleet exits the spatial
vortexes, plot their hyperspace exit point and we’ll jump immediately to its
location. We have the ships to destroy them, and I fully intend to do so.”
    He was tired
of allowing the Humans and their allies to demonstrate their superiority. Every
battle he had fought against them had ended in disaster. He had one hundred and
sixty battlecruisers and two hundred and fourteen support cruisers at his
disposal. That should be sufficient to extract the destruction he planned on
delivering to the enemy fleet.
    -
    Two hundred
million kilometers from the Dyson Sphere, Admiral Stoddard quickly took his
relief and supply fleet into hyperspace. Blue-white swirling vortexes formed in
front of his ships and they quickly fled into them, heading closer to the Dyson
Sphere. Even as the last ship entered the safety of its vortex, more vortexes
began forming and Shari battlecruisers and support cruisers flew out seeking to
destroy any stragglers from the Human fleet.
    Near the Dyson
Sphere, Admiral Tolsen led his fleet out past the defense grid and quickly
accelerated, hoping to reach the support and supply ships ahead of the Shari. In his fleet he had the heavy dreadnought WarHawk , eighteen other smaller
dreadnoughts, one hundred and twenty Alton battleships, forty-four Human
battleships, ten battlecarriers, one hundred and nine battlecruisers, and two
hundred and twenty-two strikecruisers. It was a truly powerful fleet, but due
to the situation they were in Tolsen couldn’t afford to take heavy losses.
Every ship he lost was irreplaceable.
    -
    Race shifted
his gaze to the nearby tactical display, noting Admiral Stoddard’s fleet was
beginning to exit hyperspace. At his fleet’s current speed, it would take
nearly twenty minutes to reach the relief fleet. Race knew a lot could happen
in that amount of time. In twenty minutes the entire relief fleet could be
destroyed.
    “Vice Admiral
Tolsen reports all of her fighters and bombers are prepped and ready to be
deployed,” Commander Arnett reported. “She’s armed the bombers for a shipping
strike.”
    “Shari fleet has exited hyperspace,” reported Captain Davis, and then a minute later he
turned toward the admiral. “I’m detecting energy spikes.”
    Race knew the
supply fleet couldn’t withstand an attack from so many Shari vessels. Admiral
Stoddard’s fleet would be wiped out before his ships could reach them. Even as
he watched, he saw the relief fleet form up into a defensive formation and
begin accelerating toward the Dyson Sphere and safety.
    “They’re not
going to make it,” Colonel Cowel pointed out as he checked some data on a
computer screen. “The Shari will catch them and Admiral Stoddard doesn’t have
the warships to hold them off.”
    “They’re going
to make it,” Race replied in a determined voice. “We can take the WarHawk and the other dreadnoughts and jump to Admiral Stoddard’s position. Our
hyperdrives should survive the strain of jumping inside the gravity well of the
Dyson