Reconnaissance in Force (Book 6 of The Empire of Bones Saga) Read online

  Reconnaissance in Force

  Book Six of The Empire of Bones Saga

  by

  Terry Mixon

  Reconnaissance in Force

  When going to war, it pays to know your enemy. Particularly when they can crush you like a bug.

  Princess Kelsey Bandar has one fleeting opportunity to steal the tech the Terran Empire needs to survive. To seize it, she must lead a bold strike deep into enemy held space.

  Success gives them a fighting chance. Failure dooms them to death and worse.

  Kelsey and her friends once again risk everything for their people. If you love military science fiction and grand adventure on a galactic scale, grab “Reconnaissance in Force” and the rest of The Empire of Bones Saga today!

  Titles by Terry Mixon

  You can always find the most up to date listing of Terry’s titles on his Amazon Author Page.

  The Empire of Bones Saga

  Empire of Bones

  Veil of Shadows

  Command Decisions

  Ghosts of Empire

  Paying the Price

  Reconnaissance in Force

  Behind Enemy Lines (February 2017)

  The Humanity Unlimited Saga

  Liberty Station

  Freedom Express

  The Fractured Republic Saga

  Storm Divers

  Want Terry to email you when he publishes a new book or when one goes on sale? Go to TerryMixon.com and sign up for his new releases notification list. Those are the only times he’ll contact you. No spam.

  Reconnaissance in Force

  Copyright 2016 by Terry Mixon

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including information storage and/or retrieval systems, or dissemination of any electronic version, without the prior written consent of the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review, and except where permitted by law.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination, or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Published by Yowling Cat Press™

  Cover art - image copyrights as follows:

  DepositPhotos/innovari (Luca Oleastri)

  DepositPhotos/algolonline (C Atkinson)

  DepositPhotos/steho (Stefan Holms)

  DepositPhotos/Iurii (Юрий Коваленко)

  Donna Mixon

  Cover design and composition by Donna Mixon

  She may be reached at: [email protected]

  Logo design by Emily Karnes

  She may be reached at: [email protected]

  Dedication

  To my wife Donna. I love you more than life itself.

  Acknowledgements

  Once again, the people who read my books before you see them have saved me from looking like a hack. Thank Alan Barnes, Tracy Bodine, Michael Falkner, Michael Goad, Cain Hopwood, Kristopher Neidecker, John Naiser, Bob Noble, Andrew Olivier, Jon Paul Olivier, Bill Smith, Tom Stoecklein, Dale Thompson, and Jason Young for the parts you enjoyed.

  I also want to thank my readers for putting up with me. You guys are great.

  Chapter One

  Admiral Jared Mertz wrapped up his presentation to the senior Fleet officers aboard Orbital One with more than a hint of relief. Everyone had seen the data they’d brought back from Harrison’s World about the Rebel Empire, but it was still hard for them to get their minds around. Particularly the scope and danger their enemies represented.

  He understood the conceptual challenges they faced. Before the expedition, he’d felt the same way. The Old Empire had died over half a millennium ago. They’d known that all their lives. The New Terran Empire, as Kelsey had come to call them for convenience, was a peaceful civilization. One not ready for a war to the death.

  Which was what they found themselves saddled with.

  Thankfully, Admiral Yeats wasn’t the kind of man to roll over when faced with such an overwhelming threat. He was just the man they needed in Fleet command at a time like this.

  The older man rose to his feet. “Thank you, Admiral Mertz.”

  Yeats looked over the sea of faces as Jared resumed his seat. “This is a lot to have dumped on us with no warning. Even a month is hardly enough time to let it sink in, but we don’t have the luxury of sitting on our butts and hoping the Rebel Empire doesn’t come calling.

  “We could’ve had the displeasure of an enemy fleet dropping by instead of the forces Admiral Mertz brought home. Make no mistake, those ships are a godsend, but we’re still way behind the curve.

  “We’ll continue receiving repaired ships from Harrison’s World, but we need to start building our own. The first of the captured shipyards at Erorsi will be fully operational in thirty days. The other one was badly damaged, and will take longer. The ones we’re building from scratch will take over a year to become operational.

  “The shipyards at Erorsi are small, as well. Each will be able to build two destroyers or light cruisers at a time, or a single heavy cruiser. Nothing larger. The shipyards we’re creating here at Avalon will have dozens of slips, each capable of building any size ship we want. Once those are online, we’ll start building others throughout the New Terran Empire for redundancy and to increase production.

  “As each shipyard comes online, it will begin construction of an initial set of destroyers to make certain all systems are operational and that the personnel are completely up to speed. That first set of ships will take about nine months. I expect the timeframe will be a few months shorter for an experienced construction crew.

  “They’ll move up to larger hulls once we’re confident that everything is progressing well. Expected construction times are as follows: seven months for destroyers, twelve months for light cruisers, sixteen months for heavy cruisers, twenty-two months for battlecruisers, and thirty months for superdreadnoughts and carriers.

  He gave them a long, serious look. “That means it will be years before we have anything close to the fleet we want. We’ll need to be cautious in how we deploy what we have. Speaking of those ships, Captain Quinn, you’re up next.”

  The slender woman rose to her feet. “We’ve fully manned the ships Admiral Mertz brought back, but we’re running up against some hardware constraints as we work on the rest of the existing Fleet personnel. Boxer Station and the Grant Research Facility have sent all the completed implants they have on hand, but even their reserves are limited. We need to get our own implant manufacturing capability online.

  “The factory ships have helped and we’ve started refining the requisite materials and building our own implant infrastructure, but that will take at least another month to get fully off the ground just for what we need in Fleet.

  “The civilian side will take a year or more to really get rolling here on Avalon. The rest of the Empire will take longer. We’re focusing on the critical personnel first.

  “We’ll have the civilian implant manufacturing capability at Avalon running at full speed inside a year. Updating existing equipment to use them will take longer. Perhaps another year just for the most critical systems.

  “I’m estimating that it will take between two and three years before we’ve incorporated implant usage into every facet of civilian manufacturing and have it all rolled out to the general population. Fleet has priority, of course, so we’ll have retrofitted everything in about eighteen months. We’ve already begun that process.”<
br />
  Yeats nodded. “The basic computer systems on Orbital One have been upgraded to allow us to use implants. We’re all no doubt pleased that the administrative tasks go by much more quickly, but the paperwork never seems to end, does it?”

  That brought a round of laughter.

  Yeats rose to his feet, hands behind his back. “Thank you, Captain.”

  He focused on the rest of the compartment. “The information that Harrison’s World has on the rest of the Rebel Empire is sparse and inconsistent. I’m tempted to believe that some of what they do have is misinformation. In fact, we’ll assume it probably is.

  “The captured AI didn’t have any data on the area outside the sector it controlled. That had to be intentional. Not only does the ruling AI not want its human subjects to know too much, it doesn’t want the cybernetic competition knowing it, either. That makes stamping out any rebellions easier, I suppose. Such as what they did at Harrison’s World. It doesn’t make our jobs any easier, though.”

  Jared cleared his throat. “If I may, sir, I think I have a partial solution.”

  The older man gestured for him to continue. “By all means, Admiral Mertz.”

  This wasn’t going to be an easy sell, but Jared knew the time had come to make his pitch. He sent a command to the screen and it changed to a picture of their captured Rebel Empire computer specialist.

  “Meet Lieutenant Commander Michael Richards, Rebel Empire Fleet. We captured him at Erorsi. It’s taken a while, but he’s come to the conclusion that we’re telling him the truth. That the AIs lied to his people, and that they’re slaves. He’s ready to help us in every way he can. In particular, he knows the system where they picked up the Marine Raider hardware.”

  Yeats nodded, but his expression tightened. “Why should we trust him? Forgive me, but the man has to have reservations. If someone switched sides once, they can always change their minds again. How can we possibly trust that he isn’t leading us into a trap?”

  “Marcus vetted him through his implants,” Jared said. “That’s where the subject opens up access and allows the AI to verify the truth of his statements. Richards is honestly convinced his people are slaves and is willing to help us.”

  After a moment, Yeats shook his head. “I need to think about that. I’ll want more information on this vetting process, too. If it’s as effective as you say, it will be useful with the other prisoners.

  “Speaking of Marcus, where are we in building more AIs like him? We could use some help with all this work.”

  Doctor Leonard rose to his feet. “We’ve been hard at work reverse engineering the hardware, but progress is slow. Sir Carl tells me that it will take at least a year to design complete plans, and then we’d need to build one as a test. A test, by the way, that will almost certainly fail.

  “A realistic timeframe for success might be three to five years. Any serious setbacks—of which there will be a few—will delay the project further. If we could get our hands on the plans somewhere, that would be extremely helpful.”

  Quinn made a face. “I suspect the odds of that are low. Can’t Marcus help?”

  The elderly scientist shook his head. “That timeframe is with as much help as Marcus and Harrison can give. Without them, the time required goes up dramatically and the chances of overall success go down.”

  Yeats sighed. “Of course it does. Can you give us an update on the flip point blocker project?”

  “It’s not proceeding as well as I had hoped, Admiral,” the scientist said. “The people at the Grant Research Facility built the three existing units by hand over a period of years. They didn’t anticipate mass production for quite some time.

  “While they’re working diligently to correct that deficiency, it will be at least six months before we see the first new units roll off the line. It may take longer if they run into problems. Even then, the number of units produced in a month will be low until they get extra production lines working.”

  Yeats grimaced, but nodded. “That isn’t unexpected. We’ll just have to hope that things stay relatively quiet for a while. Once we can get more of the flip blockers, we can protecting our space from the rebels and even disrupt the sectors we intend to take away from them.

  “We have teams going over the maps of the Old Empire you brought back to present various scenarios where we might surgically use flip point blockers to disrupt the enemy. A number of choke points have suggested themselves.”

  “There’s going to be another supply ship for the AI at Erorsi in about a month,” Jared said. “There’s also a destroyer due to go report on Harrison’s World a month after that. Either one of those situations could blow up in our faces.”

  One of the officers in the crowd raised his hand. “Are they likely to be suspicious, Admiral? You took out their last supply mission.”

  Now it was Jared’s turn to grimace. That comedy of errors was the late and unlamented Wallace Breckenridge’s fault. They’d lost ships and men that hadn’t needed to die.

  “I think this year is safe,” he told the man. “The records indicate that ships have vanished before. Even warships. That speaks to some other situation that we’re unaware of, but gives us some breathing room. No doubt, the loss of this second set of ships will cause us more trouble. Our time of being undiscovered is coming to an end.”

  “Could the alien build flip points into the Rebel Empire?” a woman with captains tabs asked. “That would allow us to strike anywhere we choose.”

  Jared shook his head. “Omega says the power requirements are quite steep. He has at least four months of steady charging ahead to recover the energy needed to create even one. I floated the idea of providing him with extra fusion plants and power storage, but the hurdles are too steep. His people designed his hull to stay sealed, so we can’t just build a massive exterior station to support him. Everything would need to go inside the station.

  “The problem there is that our power generation and storage technology is woefully inferior to his. The word he used to describe out current technology is ‘adorable.’ We have a team of people working on rectifying that, but it will take time to even understand the principles his people are using.”

  “We also need to keep in mind that these new flip points are permanent. If we open one into rebel-held space, they can use it to get to us. We should keep that idea in reserve, but I strongly suggest we avoid it until it will have a decisive impact.”

  “Agreed,” Yeats said. “On the plus side, Sir Carl has finalized the design of the FTL coms. We’ll begin seeding them throughout the Empire over the next few months and should have reliable, redundant, real-time communication throughout the Empire inside a year.

  “Unfortunately, he’s discovered that this technology isn’t quite as undetectable as he’d originally believed. They do cause a resonance similar to, but far weaker than, a flip point. We will need to be cautious about using them in forward areas. They’re a tremendous asset and we don’t want to tip our hand to the enemy.

  “That leads me to the next subject. In consultation with our best ops planners, as well as Marcus and Harrison, I’ve decided that we need to firm up our understanding of the Rebel Empire. We need reliable data.

  “The best candidate for that mission is Admiral Mertz, of course. I’m authorizing a reconnaissance in force. He won’t be taking all the ships he brought back, but we’ll send him with enough strength to take care of business, if it comes down to it.”

  Yeats looked around the room. “Fleet has always relied on its commanders to make the hard calls for themselves, and I see no reason to change that. If the Rebel Empire manages to disrupt our new means of communication, we need people willing and able to act decisively. There will be no micromanagement from the rear in Fleet.”

  That brought a palpable sigh of relief from the crowd.

  “We’ll send Invincible as the flagship on this scouting mission,” Yeats continued, “and about half of the ships Admiral Mertz brought back with him. The freshly
recommissioned superdreadnought Gibraltar will form the core of our new Home Fleet once it arrives.

  “And before any of you start casting covetous glances at her, I’ve decided that I’m moving my flag there as soon as she arrives.”

  He glared at them for emphasis, earning a rumble of laughter.

  “Admiral Mertz, I want you to capture the supply ship intact this time. Preferably the escort, too, but definitely the freighter. Princess Kelsey has been hounding me about needing the supplies it carries. She wants more raiders, as do the emperor and I.

  “Then you’ll need to scout for the facility that made them. If the information on the freighter matches what Commander Richards told us, I’ll revisit my decision about him accompanying you.

  “Let me be clear. I not only want you to capture the supplies, but to get the technology to make more. The princess’s manuals only cover the use of Raider enhancements, not the construction of them. We need that knowledge if we’re to survive and fight effectively.”

  Jared nodded. “You can count on me to do my best, Admiral.”

  “I know I can. We haven’t finalized the timeline yet, but expect us to pull the trigger on the reconnaissance in the very near future. As in no more than a week, but probably less than that. We absolutely cannot afford to allow the enemy to know we’re here.”

  The older man smiled. “Also, I’ve spoken with His Majesty about the current situation on Persephone. He said that it is not acceptable to have a civilian in command of a Fleet or Marine Raider vessel.”

  “Princess Kelsey isn’t going to be happy about that, and neither is the computer controlling the ship,” Jared said. Unhappy was probably an understatement.

  “I know,” Yeats said. “So we’ve decided to commission her as a colonel in Imperial Marines. She’ll find out later today that she’s the new commanding officer of the Marine Raiders. If she’s going to fight, we might as well get rid of the fiction that she isn’t a warrior.”