A Leap Across the Abyss - Глебов Макс Алексеевич

Max Glebow

Brigadier General. A Leap Across the Abyss

Prologue

This time our arrival at Groombridge took place without undue haste. Dragons Tail has left the portal without any interference in one jump from the planetary system. The flagship of the strike fleet was one of the last to arrive here, and I have got the opportunity to look again at the great forces gathered here to finally retake the planets captured by the quargs.

Five Titans, which already very faintly resembled the first captured battleship that received this name during the battle for the Barnards Star system, 10 aircraft carriers and 30 standard battleships built at Earth Federation yards, 25 dreadnoughts allocated for this operation by the lizards, cruisers, destroyers, corvettes, recon ships, 50 «Invisibles» and battleship New World  a quarg ship captured by us in the Kappa Ceti system, with a crew composed entirely of our former mortal enemies who have undergone the mental block removal procedure and expressed the desire to participate in the liberation of their compatriots from the control of the toads.

Imperial ships were not involved in the operation. A very impressive squadron from Brigadier General Deans world remained our bargaining chip, it was now based in the Solar System under the cover of powerful camouflage fields and a dense reconnaissance and patrol network, which prevented it from being detected by the enemy. But even without it, a formidable fleet has gathered here, and I had no doubt that the Groombridge Defence Force would have nothing to counteract our strike. But we werent going to turn into dust everything wed encounter on and around the occupied planets. On the contrary, the main task for us was a bloodless conquest of planets, if possible, and, above all, the quargs themselves.

The Federations policies have changed dramatically. The vast majority of the quargs, while still fighting against humans and lizards, were no longer considered to be the initiators and perpetrators of this long war, and, consequently, their deaths during the operation were not only not intended but were considered highly undesirable.

Here we wanted to test new tactics aimed at capturing a large number of quargs and then freeing them from the mental block. The Imperial admirals did not fully share our desire to help the enemy, who continued to actively fight us. In their view, it was necessary to act swiftly and decisively, but President Tobolsky and the Senior Lizard supported my plan and showed unexpected firmness in the matter, so the new allies decided not to exacerbate the situation, all the more so that in the operation they were only supposed to help us in case the ships of the toads appeared at Groombridge.

Commander, Sir, transports of the 15th and 35th Commando Corps have arrived. Thirty minutes from now, the fleet will be ready to accelerate and jump into the system, reported Chief of Staff Admiral Fulton, the same James Fulton who provided a guarantee for me in the court during the financial conspiracy and whose son I had kind of a disagreement with five years ago at the Planetary Commando Academy, and then fought shoulder to shoulder on Luyten-5. I must say, I was glad that fate brought us back together.

Any new intel from the recon guys?

Its still the same. The quargs do not yet know of the concentration of our fleet in one jump from the system. Their cover squadron is concentrated at Groombridge-2. Theres a standard patrol network. Our fleet will be discovered within minutes of emergence out of jump.

Judging by previous operations, well have at least 24 hours before aid arrives to the enemy, if it ever arrives, the commander of Dragons Tail lizard Slin-at has joined the discussion, Our firepower is ten times that of their cover squadron. If it comes to a fight, well crush them in a few hours. And even if help comes to them, the system will have already been under our complete control.

We may need more time than for a standard assault, I didnt go into the details of the plan. The Chief of Staff knew the plan, and Slin-at was only a commander of a battleship, even if it was the flagship of the fleet, so he didnt need the details. Fleet, start acceleration when ready.

On the tactical projection, I saw the transport ring split into 12 segments, which turned on the engines and took places at the end of the formation of the ships that were preparing to proceed in synchronized acceleration. They were supposed to be the last to jump, so that by the time they arrived in the attacked system, the exit zone would have been secured by the main force of the fleet.

Fleet Admiral, Sir, I was approached by Imperial General Clay, present on the flagship as an observer for our new allies, Among your ships is a battleship that is entirely under the control of the quargs. There are no men or lizards in its crew. I understand its a gesture of trust in former enemies. But they did fight against you very recently, even if they didnt do it quite willingly. Youre not afraid of being stabbed in the back?

Ive known Clay so long, I wont even remember when I first saw him. The General was one of the few people in the Empire and the Federation who knew who I was. After all, it was Clay and Dr Silk who planned the operation to send Brigadier General Deans consciousness through the abyss of space into my present body. I am so grateful to them for that, Ill never forget it. In that world, I was Clays subordinate for so many years, I couldnt get used to the fact that we are now in equal ranks, and besides we serve in the armed forces of different States, even if allied.

Well, if our security officers didnt object, then we have no reason to doubt their loyalty, I smiled at Clay. More seriously, of course, there are doubts. No, Im not afraid of direct betrayal, but I highly doubt theyll follow any orders. But Im not gonna make them bomb cities with civilians Thats an order I wont even give to my own people, let alone the quargs.

As far as the peaceful cities are concerned, thats understood, Clay still had his doubts, but will they be able to engage a battleship similar to their own and kill their former comrades in cold blood?

Thats the right question, General, Sir, I nodded to him, Of course, Ive asked myself that many times, and I finally found the answer. On board New World there are no lethal weapons, but it has not become a less serious combat force because of this.

But Clay was clearly embarrassed by my answer.

Youll see for yourself, General, Sir, I smiled again, Now, if youll excuse me, I have to get back to fleet command, were about to start acceleration for the jump.

Chapter 1

After our attack on Kappa Ceti and the release of the prisoners, the General Staff was most fearful of an immediate crushing strike by a new, formidable enemy. The crew of the toads cruiser we took captive claimed in one voice that this was likely to be the case, and this view was very well aligned with my ideas on how our adversary should proceed. But time passed, and the attack never happened, and the generals and admirals of the Federation, feverishly preparing for a hopeless battle, were wondering what was going on.

Rear Admiral Yoon Gao has kept all Fleet intelligence on their toes, but it turned out to be impossible to get close enough to the toads systems to know what was going on using our equipment. Even custom-made, manually tuned unmanned probes equipped with near-radiationless lizard-made engines and the best scanners and camouflage devices manufactured by Jeffs department, have been hit by the enemy far beyond planetary systems. Under these circumstances, Yoon Gao found it impossible to send manned ships to the mission.