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

but are forced to commit their entire fleet to searching out the rebels
and breaking the rebellion.  The leader of Elysium and his family are forced to
take refuge with the Terrans during the battle of the capital.
    Sean comes back to the Supersystem by the
wormhole gates that are now being deployed through Imperial space.  Chief of
Naval Operations Gabriel Lenkowski gathers a fleet that transports Sean to the
capital planet, where, with a large force of Marines, he lands during the
coronation ceremony and stops the Lords from crowning his cousin.  Sean is now
Emperor, Commander and Chief of the Imperial Military, and, given his wartime
powers, the most powerful Monarch in a century.  His companions go off to other
commands; Mei Lei to a battle cruiser squadron, one equipped with new wormhole
launched weapons; von Rittersdorf to lead a new destroyer squadron; and Baggett
to command of a heavy infantry brigade.  Cornelius Walborski, on the
recommendation of Preacher, joins the Imperial Army with hopes of being
augmented and becoming a Ranger.
    The Ca’cadasans hit Conundrum, the HQ of Sector
IV, hours after Sean jumps through the wormhole from there.  They take the
system, and land troops to complete the conquest of the planet.  Sean is forced
to engage in a hit and run war against an enemy that is still more advanced,
and more powerful, than his own fleet.  He orders his units to refuse combat
when possible, and only to fight when they can inflict maximum damage on the
enemy.  Q-ships, militarized merchant vessels with quantum teleporters capable
of sending antimatter into the interior of an enemy ship, bait and destroy
Ca’cadasan raiders.  The Lords go on the warpath against Sean, demanding that
he commit his fleet to a major battle.  His prophetic dreams indicate that one
of the core worlds, the heavily populated industrial planets at the heart of
the Empire, is a target.  But the dream does not tell him when.
    Wormhole gates are dropped in occupied systems,
then maneuvered to planetfall, allowing ground forces to insert.  This is done
on most of the occupied worlds, allowing the units to engage the aliens in
Guerilla warfare.  Preacher leads a Ranger brigade against the Ca’cadasans on
the surface of Conundrum, and the campaign forces the enemy off the planet. 
The Lasharans, religious fanatics, are again attacking the frontiers of the
Empire, and Baggett’s unit, as part of a heavy infantry corps, is sent to take
their home planet and occupy their primary temple, breaking their will.
    The Ca’cadasans strike at the Cimmeria system,
utterly obliterating the two inhabited industrial worlds located there.  Sean
retaliates by sending forces through wormholes to strike behind the main enemy
fleet and destroy their bases.  The Fenri Empire, old enemies of the humans,
sign an alliance with the Ca’cadasans, and the New Terran Empire launches a
spoiling attack on those aliens.  The logical beings of the Crakista Empire,
seeing the Ca’cadasans as the greater threat, join the human cause, ordering
their military to offer all possible aid to the humans.  Things are beginning
to look up until the Ca’cadasans launch yet another assault, almost overrunning
all of Sector IV.
    Sean and Jennifer become lovers, a fact taken
advantage of by the Yugalyth agents, who kidnap her and threaten to kill her if
Sean does not place himself in their hands.  Sean agrees, and has himself
equipped with a pair of small wormholes that allow him to kill the kidnappers
when they think they have him in their power.
    Cornelius completes Ranger school, finds a new
love himself, and is assigned to the planet Azure, one of the deadliest in the
Empire.  He and his men stalk the Ca’cadasans through a jungle that is enemy to
both, and encounters a new client race of the Ca’cadasans, the supremely
competent hunters called Maurids.  Cornelius saves and is saved by a young
girl, Rebecca, and completes the mission his company