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  One group of people had designed a fully automated ore smelter that only required a person to turn it on. The machine would then accept ore brought to it and process it into usable metals, which could be sent to whatever refinery needed it. It wasn't that much different than current methods, with the major difference being no human in the control room monitoring and making adjustments; a very specialized computer would be used for that. It also meant that the smelters no longer had to remain on a planet or moon; they could be built on the main mining ships themselves and accept ore directly from the parasite mining ships.

  It called for a minor redesign of the big mining vessels, but the addition would require less crew, be safer, and much more efficient over all. As there had been a new mining ship being built at the civilian dock, Ben approved the modification on an experimental basis. If it worked out, each of the other mining ships would be recalled, one at a time, for overhaul and refit. The miners were excited as hell about the upgrades.

  Admiral Yolinar asked Gail to come to Hyclarion to assist in the restructuring of the detection net and repositioning of the smaller resupply points. During this, Yolinar had ordered the defensive fleets to begin a shuffle that should confuse the Lizards. The shuffle would slowly rotate each of the defensive fleets through Sol System for the transponder upgrade. Gail asked for several of the old transponders to be kept and placed on small remote controlled drones that would slowly patrol the system as if they were the warships they had been removed from. Yolinar laughed and ordered all the old transponders to be used in the same manner but to be seeded elsewhere to confuse the Lizards. The tactic worked; while Gail and Yolinar restructured the detection nets and ordered the supply depots moved, the Lizards did not attack anywhere, but several of their forces could be seen to move around as if following the pattern of ships in Imperial space.

  The Lizards had to know something was going on when new ships began showing up in battles. Ships that had never been able to stand up to them were now blowing holes in the Lizard’s fleets. Three cruisers out on a recon were jumped by two of the Lizard’s super-destroyers; the battle was quick and took the Lizards completely by surprise. When the super-destroyers sprung their trap, the three cruisers turned into them instead of trying to flee. The tables were quickly turned on the two Lizard heavy ships when the cruisers began firing their own missiles and weapons while defending themselves from the heavy barrage of the Lizard ships. The Lizard ships split up, one ran for the system boundary while the other tried to distract the new cruisers. The ploy didn't work, and the two larger warships were destroyed while two of the cruisers took moderate shield damage. The damage to the cruisers was repaired before the ships arrived back with their home fleet.

  Imperial Intelligence knew of four 'ranches' deep in Lizard space where humans were being held for food. The planets were near the middle of Lizard space, just past the former Capitol world of the old Lizard Empire. Admiral Yolinar sent a force of refitted ships to attempt the rescue of Imperial citizens being held on these planets. The task force was comprised of two hundred fully upgraded ships. As a diversion, four other fleets would raid important Lizard targets at various locations all over their space. Many on the command staff felt this attack would be the beginning of the end for the Lizard war.

  Office of King Bedouin

  Tower of Government

  Stardock City

  16 Nov. 10267 CE (AD)

  Terra, Sol System

  Because it dealt with the rescue of humans, Imperial Command forwarded all data, and information, to General Greenwold who, in turn, kept Ben in the loop. Of course, for a week after the launch of the operation, there was nothing to report as the ships were in transit.

  The first of the distraction attacks was due to happen today. An Imperial fleet was due to drop out of hyperspace outside a system that the Lizards used as a main supply point. The hard part would be keeping the fleet from laying waste to the entire planet in return for Onaris-Four. Even though it had been four months since the attack, many of the Hyclarion races wanted payback, none more so than the Hyclarion themselves. In the months since that horrific attack, animosity toward the Lizards had grown. It had gone past anger all the way to rage. Most Imperial citizens felt a deep personal hatred for the Lizards now. Those feelings were more pronounced in the Imperial Military. The Imperial Commanders knew that rage would only get their people killed. They worked to find ways to redirect that rage. One of the ways Admiral Yolinar was trying to keep the fleet from destroying the planet was that many of the munitions supplied there were made on the planet and that meant slaves. More than likely human slaves, but they could be slaves from one of the other races. It was rare, but the Lizards did occasionally kidnap members of other races too.

  Most likely, the factories and assembly plants on the planet were staffed with human slaves. Part of the mission to that planet was the rescue of slaves, if any were found. Ben had ordered the rebuilding and refitting of the Lizard troop ships that had been captured for the express purpose of transporting rescued slaves. Four of those ships were with each of the 'distraction' fleets and two of the large Mercy Class ships were with the main fleet for the sole purpose of rescuing that slaves that might be found and liberated.

  Although she was getting pretty big, Deirdre was still working for the people. Since the announcement of her pregnancy, she had become much more popular in the media. Public opinion had been a mixed bag. Some of the people, mostly survivors from the 'Christian' countries, had a hard time dealing with their relationship. They had accepted it, but they hadn't been all that happy about it. They felt as though Ben had betrayed them by taking his 'sister' as a wife, no matter that they had not been related at all, and Deirdre's adoption by his father had taken place late in their teen years. Slowly, the people that Ben, Jorga and Deirdre knew talked to people they knew and the opinion was slowly changing. While Ben's popularity as their ruler did not suffer very much, it did decrease because of the incident. The simple fact that he constantly worked for the improvement of the lives of the people, and he could be seen to do so, worked more than anything to counter any bad publicity the family received.

  At present, his popularity and approval rating was just about the furthest thing from Ben's mind. He was focused on the hologram being displayed in his darkened office. He would have had company except that Deirdre had wanted to tour the housing and services projects before she got too far along to travel. Jorga, Marcy and Kaitlin decided to go with her. Of course, once Gail got wind of it, their normal guard and transportation detail got upgraded; from an armed civilian transport to a brand new cruiser, and the guard detail went from a platoon to a full company of Marines.

  Ben had argued with the ladies about the trip. Not that it wasn't needed, but because of the timing. He was worried about his family. Both Jorga and Deirdre argued that if they delayed any longer, Deirdre would be too far along in her pregnancy to make a hyperspace jump, and the people needed to see that their leadership really cared about them. The best way to do that was for Deirdre and Jorga to be seen out among them. So Ben lost the argument, and the women went on their trip. The whole trip was planned 'spur of the moment' and the course they would be taking was classified. They were protected by the strongest armor and shields ever developed and protected by the best trained Marines in the entire Empire. They should be as safe, if not safer, than they were while on planet.

  "Highness, the fleet is arriving at Rastjalin," Gail's voice said over the intercom. Ben had set it to automatically open for her calls.

  "Okay, I guess now we'll see how well the new upgrades work in a real battle. I'm just worried about what the Lizards will do to get their claws on this technology," Ben replied.

  "Imperial Intelligence tells me that the Lizards know we made a breakthrough in control systems technology, but have no details or the location to find them. At least not yet," Gail replied. "There are still enough traitors as well as spies in the Empire to point them in the general direction
, but so far that hasn't happened."

  "Let's just hope none of them have ended up here, or we'll be in trouble," Ben replied.

  "If we don't have at least one already, I'll quit this job and take up nude modeling!" Gail replied. "Ben, we have spies here, you can count on that. I'm not talking about the Imperial or the corporate spies either. There are Lizard spies here, you can be certain of that."

  "I know you've caught a few trying to sneak in but…" Ben replied.

  "We know of at least one that got past us; we just haven't caught him yet," Gail replied.

  "What? How do you know and why didn't anyone tell me?" Ben asked. In the holographic display, Ben could see the fleet had dropped out of hyperspace and was making their way in system. Telemetry from the fleet showed a sizable Lizard force moving out to intercept them, but as yet, they were still too far apart to fire at one another.

  "Because the only proof we have is circumstantial at best. The only proof we have is a murdered family that left no forensic evidence at all. Which means the place was scrubbed after the attack. We don’t even know for certain it was a spy, but the mother was a control systems design engineer. Testimony from her coworkers tell us she was acting strangely the day of the murders; the family was discovered later that evening when the eldest son missed a date. His girl discovered the bodies. We can only suspect it was a spy trying to get the designs for the control systems; we have no hard proof," Gail replied. "We do know that whoever did it was professional enough to clean up the scene to the molecular level and wipe the security record for the residence block. We also know that the person that did this is human."

  "Oh, how do you know that?" Ben asked.

  "Human residence block, an alien would have been noticed," Gail replied.

  "I didn't think we had segregated housing here," Ben replied, concerned.

  "Well, that's the policy, but for most of our people that’s simply the way it's always been, and it’s a hard 'tradition' to break. The alien blocks are the same way; the different species tend to congregate near each other. The only ones universally accepted are our people, most of whom seem to have actually tried to seek out culturally diverse living areas. I'm sure Deirdre would be able to tell you more about it," Gail replied.

  "I'll make a note to ask her about it. I'm not a fan of segregation; we're all citizens of the Empire," Ben said.

  "I think the issue is a bit more complex for our citizens, but like I said, Deirdre would have more information on this," Gail replied. "As for the murderer, Warmake and his people are on the case. We will find him; it's just going to take some time. This wasn't the crime of passion it was meant to appear to be."

  "Okay General, tell me what's happening here; what are we looking at?" Ben said.

  "Well, as you can see our fleet is moving in system, and the Lizards are moving to intercept. Our improved range on the missile systems should give us an early advantage if Admiral Br'enta wants to use it. Admiral Yolinar hinted that Br'enta was going to try to hide the improvements until their fleet was fully committed. He'll set his light cruisers and destroyers in front to act as a missile screen with their point defense weapons and shields. Initially, the missile cruisers and torpedo boats will be right behind them, but will pull back as the distance closes and the Lizards get range on them. They'll pull back behind the heavies to defend the transports. When the heavies finally engage, all the gloves will be off, and the fight will be on. If everything goes the way we think it should, it will be a relatively short fight. Then they'll move in, rescue any non-Lizards on the planet, destroy the factories and hold position until they detect an inbound hyperspace track," Gail explained.

  Ben nodded, which Gail couldn't see over the audio only connection. "Same plan with all the assaults, right?"

  "Pretty much, I'm sure there will be some variation based on each situation," Gail replied.

  "To bad they'll be able to rebuild the factories. I just wish we could put them out of business completely," Ben said wistfully. "I know it isn't the only munitions facility they have, but any reduction in their production is a gain in my book."

  "Like you said, it isn't the only one they have, but it is one of their largest. As for rebuilding it, that is going to be a lot easier said than done; at least for the heavy missile plants. Anti-matter is dangerous stuff and damn hard to store. Depending on how they are storing the stuff, they may end up having to build a completely new facility in a different location. If the missile facility is storing the stuff as already 'weaponized' warheads, it's going to leave a very large crater. The same goes for the enhanced nukes they use; which is why we don't do it that way.

  "However, if they are smart about it, the anti-matter is stored off-site and simply sent along with the missiles in special containers. It's then added to the warhead just before it's loaded into the launcher and fired. Even on a ship, the anti-matter is kept in a special hardened vault in the armory," Gail explained.

  Ben nodded again. "Yeah, I remember seeing ships explode when that area got damaged. That was the missile magazine detonating? I thought it would be a much larger explosion."

  "When a ship explodes from getting hit in the magazine, it's usually the missile propellant that explodes and not the warheads. They do get destroyed, but don’t actually detonate. If they did, it would be a much more violent explosion, and would probably take out any nearby ships as well," Gail explained. "That's why we assume the Lizards handle their anti-matter like we do ours; very carefully."

  "They started firing," Ben observed. "Is that our normal range? It seems pretty far out."

  "It looks to be just outside what the maximum range used to be. We should see the torpedo boats open up shortly as well," Gail replied. "Admiral Br'enta was a little skeptical of them, but agreed to giving them a good test for Admiral Yolinar. Old ‘wardogs’ like Br'enta are always a little wary of new systems, but agreed that at one time everything had been a new system."

  "I remember hearing about the mass driver argument. I suppose, in a way, I can see both sides of that, but after the fight we had here, you'd think they would be a little more receptive to them," Ben said. "The most ironic part of that whole thing was that Admiral Tyrel, the eldest and most experienced of the Admiralty, was very excited about the idea."

  Ben heard Gail chuckle. "Tyrel is a very different commander than the others. Firstly, he's from Eldonia, not Hyclarion. Secondly, he commands a specialized fleet designed to hunt down Lizard destroyers. Adding the mass driver weapon to his arsenal will give his fighters some teeth to help the rest of the fleet by at least taking out the shields.

  "When we rebuilt and upgraded his fleet after the Hyclarion battle, we had to retrain a lot of his people. Since there were so many new systems, we ran a bunch of simulations for him so he could see what was changed and how the stuff worked. He was so impressed he asked for an additional carrier," she finished.

  Ben smiled to himself. "Well, maybe once he proves the weapon for the empire, the other commanders will see its value. Which reminds me, I need to compose a thank you letter to him for taking the time to share his knowledge and experience with the academy."

  "Ah, about that; I'd been meaning to ask if you would also offer a teaching position to him at the academy. He's nearing mandatory retirement in the fleet and will be forced to step down soon," Gail said sadly. "He very much deserves the rest, but it will still be a loss for our forces."

  "Really?" Ben asked, surprised. "How old is he?"

  "He served during the last fifty or so years of the last war. He's almost fifteen hundred," Gail replied. "Eldorians live a long time, the average is between seventeen and two thousand years."

  "So why will he be forced to retire?" Ben asked.

  "Fleet regulations prohibit any being from serving more than seventy percent of their natural life span in the active military. Yolinar is loath to do this, because he knows how Tyrel feels about his fleet. He thinks forcing the man to retire after so many years of loyal and dedicated service
is an insult. However, if you offer him a position at the academy, that might help," Gail replied.

  "Consider it done," Ben replied. "I would have to speak to Elrond and Gerent, but I would think they would welcome any advice Admiral Tyrel could give them."

  "That’s if he accepts the position. Who knows, maybe Tyrel is tired and would like nothing better than to retire to his home and go fishing!" Gail replied.

  Ben was thoughtful as he looked back at the fight taking place in the holographic display. "It looks like our forces are not having any trouble at all. When do the other raids take place?"

  "Both will happen late tonight. The main attack force will arrive at its target the day after tomorrow," Gail replied.

  Again Ben nodded to himself. "Gail, could you get someone to piece together the highlights of the battles for the public? Make sure to run them past the intel folks first so we don't let any secrets out. Like our news services did back before The Fall."

  "The Empire already does something like that, Ben. Did you want us to make our own in addition to that?" Gail asked.

  Ben sighed. "The news releases the Empire puts out are pretty sanitized and don't show any of the fighting at all. Which is okay for them, as most folks in the Empire actually don't want to be exposed to that level of violence. However, you and I both know that we humans want as much information as we can get, violence and all. Actually, you might just take the news released by High Command and add video to it. We'll keep our version local so as not to violate any Imperial traditions. I'll speak to Hjoolous about it to make sure it'll be acceptable."

  Chapter Eight

  The attacks in Lizard space went very badly for the enemy. While the task force managed to liberate almost thirty thousand Imperial citizens, twenty-five thousand of them humans, they also destroyed a lot of Lizard forces in the process. One thing was made very clear to the Lizards; the Empire had made advances that gave them a major advantage in this war. The Lizard commanders had to accept a very hard truth: the humans from Terra had given the Empire this new advantage.