Stand Into Danger: Empire Rising Book 0 Read Free

mining station to investigate reports of an uprising. When he had arrived he found six men who had fallen out with the station’s administration and taken thirty workers hostage. The Captain of Brute’s marines had stormed the section where the hostages were but the men had used them as human shields. In the end twenty had been killed. Seeing all those bodies torn up by plasma rifles still haunted his dreams. He hated cravens who hid behind civilians. It was the worst form of cowardice. This Russian would pay, Somerville swore to himself. 
     
    “Record this and send it,” he ordered once he had calmed himself enough to control his reply.
     
    He then stood and looked towards one of the imaging devices on the bridge. “Russian commander, this is Captain Jonathan Somerville of the Royal Space Navy. It is customary to identify yourself when dealing with foreign representatives. My ship, HMS Achilles, is in the Ouvea system at the request of the French government. Two of your naval ships fired upon my ship without any provocation. I take that as an act of war. Your presence on Ouvea is another act of war. I hope you haven’t become too comfortable. We’ll be finishing this conversation in person very soon. Good day sir.” As he finished he made sure he projected his most confident smile.
     
    “Message sent sir,” the communications officer said. “May I ask,” she continued, “do you really intend to try to liberate Ouvea?”
     
    “Certainly not,” Somerville answered. “But it won’t hurt us for him to be thinking about what we might be planning.”
     
    “What action do you purpose we take then?” William Hamilton, Achilles’ First Lieutenant asked from his position at the tactical console. 
     
    “We need intel,” Somerville began. “We also need to hurt this confident bastard. Without naval cover his position will be very weak. If we can take out some of his ground equipment as well we may encourage the locals to rise up against him. Whether they do or not, we will have to move on. We simply don’t have the manpower to take on the Russian Army. There is nothing we can do for the populace of Ouvea at the moment. If the Russians have invaded this system they are likely trying to conquer all of French colonial space. If so then there is going to be fighting at New France. That is where we are needed.”
     
    New France was France’s colonial crown jewel. Outside of the Sol system it was their largest manufacturing base and generated huge tax revenues. It had been discovered sixty five years ago and since then the French government had been pouring resources into the system. The last report Jonathan had read estimated that the population had risen to over five hundred thousand. It was also the most heavily defended system in French space, with a large percentage of France’s fleet based there.
     
    “So how are we going to get any intel?” Hamilton asked. “The Russians obviously have the planet locked up tight. Not a single signal has got out. They must have some kind of jamming equipment.”
     
    Somerville brought up an enhanced image of the instillations in orbit around Ouvea. “There,” he said pointing to a smaller station, “that is a transit hub for cargo and passenger freighters. The crew of those ships will probably still be on board. The station they are docked at is too small to house them all. We’ll send in a force to cut out one of the freighters. We’ll get our intel from the freighter’s crew and sensor logs.
     
    “Sensors,” he continued, “I want you to carry out a detailed survey of the planet. Look for any heavy concentrations of Russian soldiers and material. Focus on the main cities. If the Russians have landed enough troops to subdue an entire planet there are likely to be large staging areas near the main population centers. We’ll hit as many of them as we can with ground attack missiles as a distraction while our marines get us a freighter.”
     
    As everyone