Exodus: Empires at War: Book 7: Counter Strike Read Free Page A

VII battle cruiser. 
The battle cruiser fights its way out of the system with the help of Commander
Bryce Suttler’s stealth/attack ship, and, along with Commander Maurice von
Rittersdorf and his destroyer, starts on the voyage to get Sean back to the
capital and the throne.  The Ca’cadasans track the two vessels, and Sean
escapes on the destroyer while Mei sacrifices her ship in a battle with the
Ca’cadasan supercruisers.  The battle cruiser Jean de Arc falls out of
hyperspace in a catastrophic translation, a low survivability event, but
nonetheless manages to survive and starts the long journey home.
    Rear Admiral Mara Montgomery is dispatched with
her scout force to locate Sean and get him back to the capital, while von
Rittersdorf plays hide and seek against the Ca’cadasans, trying to get the
unseated Emperor to safety.  Von Rittersdorf catches one of the much larger
Ca’cadasan ships in a brilliant ambush which destroys the enemy ship, while
causing severe damage to his own.  Montgomery’s task force enters the system,
and she dispatches the other two supercruisers, then takes the Emperor aboard
her flagship.  Von Rittersdorf begins the long journey home in his crippled
ship with escorts.  Sean learns that one of the nearby systems is under siege
and, against the protests of the Admiral, orders her to take her ships to break
that siege and evacuate the colonists on the frontier world.  Meanwhile, the
Leader of the House of Lords advances plans to put an Imperial Cousin on the
throne while the true heir’s whereabouts are unknown.  The Ca’cadasans invade
and take the kingdom of New Moscow, and make serious inroads into the New
Terran Republic, the sister governments to the Empire.
    On Sestius IV Brevet Brigadier General Samuel
Baggett fights the landing of the Ca’cadasans with his mixed command.  Farmer
and ex-hunter Cornelius Walborski deserts the militia to get his pregnant wife
to safety.  Though bleeding the enemy, Baggett is forced to fall back into the
wilderness before the enemy ground warriors.  Walborski’s son is born, but his
wife is killed while they are running from the aliens.  The farmer goes mad,
and stalks the jungle with the skills he had learned as an assistant hunt
master, killing many aliens in the jungle.  He meets the legendary Preacher of
special ops fame, now a retired Ranger and current minister on the planet.
    Montgomery’s task force takes the system and
the planet, and evacuates all those that want to leave, just before a larger
enemy force enters the system and forces it to flee.  Sean meets Dr. Jennifer
Conway, who has lost her own fiancé’ in the invasion, and falls in love with
her.  The scout force fights a running battle back to Conundrum base, rescued
at the last moment by the fleet of Duke Taelis Mgonda.  Von Rittersdorf makes it
to safety, while Mei Lei and her crew are rescued from hyper by another battle
cruiser.  The XO of the Jean de Arc, Xavier Jackson, falls out of hyper while
trying to rescue some crew who could not get off the ship.  Surviving the
translation, he is rescued by beings from legend, the Ancients that everyone
assumes are extinct.
    On the Donut it is discovered that an ancient
race known as the Yugalyth, another creature from legend, capable of changing
its very body form over a period of days and duplicating any creature, is at
large.  A Yugalyth agent imitates Dr. Lucille Yu, the station Director, and
attempts to destroy the huge construct.  Dr. Yu uses quantum teleportation, an
experimental technique that only succeeds in moving about half the material being
teleported to its target, to teleport negative matter to destroy the bomb the
creature put on the station attitude control board.  The new enemy is
discovered, one which originates in the realm of the Empire’s close ally,
Elysium.
    The Knockermen, a reptilian race in the Elysium
Empire, revolt against the dominant Brakakak.  The Brakakak eventually curb the
revolt,