Koban: When Empires Collide Read online

  Koban: When Empires Collide

  By Stephen W Bennett

  Koban: When Empires Collide

  Text copyright © 2017

  By Stephen W Bennett

  All Rights Reserved

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  This eBook is licensed for your personal use and enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the many months of long and hard work of the author.

  This book is written in “American” English, so there may be some differences in spelling and usage than in other countries use of the language.

  This is a work of fiction and all characters are fictitious or are portrayed fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

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  To Paul Benkert

  Again, I offer my sincerest thanks to you Paul, for your painstaking proofreading of my malapropisms, typos, wrong words used, odd phrasings, and story inconsistencies. With the full story in my head, I sometimes leave out links between items that seem connected in my mind, but in retrospect make no sense to the first-time reader at that point in the story. I’m indebted to you for staying with a difficult task, when it’s easier to speed through the story for enjoyment. Thankfully, you pause to take notes. It bears repeating that there are more errors than we both can find, even on a second pass by each of us. I’m adroit at sneaking goofs in at anytime, anyplace. As proof, I’ll be posting new editions as kind readers find what fresh eyes see, and our tired eyes missed.

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  Table of Contents

  Maps of Milky Way

  Chapter 1: Organizing for War

  Chapter 2: PU Scouts go Rogue

  Chapter 3: Ragnar Team

  Chapter 4: Reconsidering Ragnar Priorities

  Chapter 5: Finth Team

  Chapter 6: The Empire Strikes Back

  Chapter 7: PU, a Nicer Smell

  Chapter 8: The Thack Delos

  Chapter 9: The Silha

  Chapter 10: A Great Defense

  Chapter 11: Countering Counter Measures

  Chapter 12: Intimidation Diplomacy

  DRAMATIS PERSONAE

  About the Author:

  The End

  Maps of Milky Way

  The Milky Way Galaxy. Earth, Human Space, Koban, and the Federation reside in the Orion Spur, between the Perseus and Sagittarius Arms.

  The Thandol Empire is spread along the Sagittarius Arm, near where the Orion Spur branches away.

  Expanded view of approximate stellar boundaries of Human Space and the Galactic Federation in the Orion Spur, with positions of Earth and Koban shown. Human Space consists of the Hub worlds, New Colonies, and Rim Worlds

  The Thandol Empire is divided into three Security Sectors, and is patrolled by the Ragnar, Finth, and the Thack Delos species.

  Chapter 1: Organizing for War

  Mirikami didn’t sugar coat the situation. “The Empire is going to throw everything they have at us, as quickly as Emperor Farlol can get his three security forces organized to start an all-out war. We estimate the first attacks in this war will start within two months. The planetary bombardments by each of the security species, if destructive enough to severely reduce planetary defenses, will be followed by additional assaults on cities using the full might of three large Thandol naval fleets. Afterwards, their security forces will return with millions of ground assault forces to make invasion landings, supported by their space forces, with the goal to crush resistance, and to hold onto the planets attacked.

  “They intend to force survivors to swear allegiance to the Emperor, and his Empire, or die. There will be no middle ground acceptable to the Emperor. If a world is conquered, or it surrenders, the entire population will become subservient to the Thandol and their Empire, working on their behalf and paying them taxes, or cease to exist. Dozens of other subservient species have survived in this fashion for millennia, so life can go on, but only under the conditions allowed by the Thandol. Their rule is absolute, and punishment is brutal if there is renewed resistance. However, if the Thandol are obeyed, the indentured species endure. Although, they must give up expansion to new colonies, limit scientific research, and any hope for a future not controlled by the Thandol.”

  The Federation Council was in session, all representatives were present, an overflow audience filled the public portion of the large amphitheater-like chamber, and the proceedings were being streamed live, via instant tachyon broadcast on Instellarnet, to Haven, Koban, and their thirteen growing colonies.

  “President MacDougal and I, and the members of the council, agree that we have to be proactive, and act before the Empire can launch their first attacks on us, and on Human Space. We include the Rim Worlds and the Planetary Union because we know the Empire makes no distinction between our worlds anyway. They see the Federation and Human Space as existential threats to the future of their empire. They will not tolerate or accept free neighbors as independent political entities, which are examples they cannot allow their subservient species to see.

  “I have called on former Admiral Mauss, and General Nabarone, to accompany me and President MacDougal to meet with President Strickland of the Planetary Union, her Secretary of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. We need to coordinate our operations, and convince some of the doubters that Human Space is truly in the Empire’s crosshairs. We will be departing on that mission later today.”

  He pointed to holographic images of the Federation’s new warships, the Mark II heavy cruiser class, and the much smaller, but surprisingly effective Scout class.

  “Production of the larger Mark II class will continue, but only on one production line on Haven, and we will cease building civilian versions of that line entirely. We need fighting ships. Our clanships will take on the bulk of commercial shipping and supply. The three other ship production lines on Haven will be devoted to building Scouts, as will the three available production lines on Greater West Africa, the former Krall base world of K1. This is in Human Space, and we are offering these ships to the PU to raid into the Empire.

  “With Hub worlds, which have far greater production capacity than we do, we intend to offer them licenses to build Scouts, with an obligation to come to our defense, as we have come to theirs. Some Council Representatives objected to this offer. However, with our far smaller population, and the simple fact that we could never maintain control of the basic technology of the new ships for very long anyway, we need them. Having more ships to disrupt and slow the Empire’s ability to organize the multiple fleets they can send against us, is critical at this early stage of the war.

  “I mentioned the problem we have with our low population. If I was speaking only of those of us that live on Haven and Koban, and the sprinkling of Federation born Kobani on our new colonies, we’d be spread hopelessly too thin. Fortunately, we now have twice as many Kobani that were Human Space colonization volunteers, who are now members of the Galactic Federation, and live mostly on our new colonies. Since the Krall war ended we have increased our Kobani population by a factor of six. I assure you that against the Empire’s resources they aren’t enough.

  “O
ur Prada, Raspani, and Torki citizens will fight with us, as will some of the small Krall’tapi population. The Scouts, with their so far undetectable T-cubed movements, gives our other citizens the means to supplement the Scout raider forces we can use against the Empire. Their gravity guns have proven extremely effective.”

  Mirikami shrugged. “Unfortunately, our nonhuman populations have not had time to recover from the millennia of Krall oppression and population suppression. They more than pull their own weight in producing and improving our technology, but they are too few as it is, and they can’t send many to fight alongside us, to effectively counter what the Empire can send against us.

  “On a more optimistic note, Mauss and Nabarone informed us this week that Kobani converts within the ranks of the PU army and navy, have now surpassed the two hundred thousand or so Kobani within the Federation. We disrupted Krall war plans with only thirty thousand Kobani, and the forty million PU soldiers and sailors, in Human Space, followed our lead to push them off planets where they were entrenched. We know now that there were only about fifty billion Krall, all of them essentially warriors, and had they been willing to leave their Great Path sooner and fight all out, humanity would have been toast.

  “Despite their larger numbers of fighters, and vast egg laying reproductive capability, we original Kobani took away their main weapons, and their transportation and supply system, just prior to their intent to employ what I used to call their Population Bomb. The waves of billions more of Krall hatchlings and younglings could have won the war for them, even without the planet busters we put an end to.”

  He paused to let his audience appreciate how they had overcome the odds in the last war. Then he described the new odds and forces against them.

  “There are over one and a half trillion residents within the Thandol Empire, against just a trillion population in Human Space and the Federation combined.” He let that sink in before he pointed out an important distinction.

  “Nearly sixty percent of their population is composed of twenty-two species, of non, or low-aggressive races, who were conquered and forced to join the Empire. They are subservient to the Thandol, and are forced to produce material for the defense of the Empire in exchange for being allowed to exist, and to trade with each other and the Thandol.

  “The Thandol, and three security species, the Ragnar, Finth, and Thack Delos, comprise the Empire’s two-tiered set of ruling classes. Although the second-tier security forces have no love for the Emperor, or for each other for that matter, they were defeated by the Thandol thousands of years ago, and given an opportunity to retain some of their military forces. They were offered higher status within the growing empire as an inducement to support the Thandol. They now back the Emperor’s authority, and perform much of the empire’s military and police enforcement in their three regions, perform tax collection, and engage in fighting new species when encountered. They do this under the continued threat of the massive naval superiority the Thandol wields over their three combined forces, and the threat posed to their home worlds and limited number of colonies.

  “Our primary plan is to damage the Thandol naval forces enough to encourage the security forces to jointly, or individually, rebel against their overlords. If any one of them refuses this offer, then we will attack their naval forces as well. To give you a measure of why we think this is our best hope, let me provide you with some unpleasant numbers.”

  Mirikami brought up a graphic, showing estimates of the three security forces strengths. “The individual fleets of the security forces are each comprised of roughly three thousand heavy and medium cruiser class fighting ships, of tonnage and armament comparable to our captured clanships, and to the PU navy’s medium and heavy cruisers. Some of them have another two-thousand lighter warships that are much like the now abandoned destroyer class of the PU Navy.

  “The lighter ships are intended as fleet screens, and with our Krall-like tactics we bypass them and Jump inside the enemy fleet formations, rendering the poorly armed and armored ships nearly useless. The Thack Delos, who are a strange thinking species we’re told, opted for another five hundred medium cruisers and no light destroyers.

  “They all have armed patrol boats, roughly the size of our Scouts, but they have proven as ineffective as their destroyer class craft against us.

  “Our Scouts, with gravity control, excellent stealth, and which can move at T-cubed speeds undetected, at least thus far, have proven extremely effective. We used only five of them to damage or destroy a couple of thousand Thandol warships in a surprise attack, when the vessels were left unattended at a secret base.

  “If combined, the three security forces, with just over nine thousand five hundred combat effective ships, match the nearly five thousand Federation ships, and about four thousand PU ships. This is not much of a numerical advantage for them, considering that humans appear to be better at space warfare than at least the Thandol and Ragnar. We employ innovative strategy and unconventional tactics, which the Empire has never faced against their weaker opposition.

  “If the security forces were all that we faced, we could at least expect to hold our own, or even prevail. The Federation fleet did face most of the Ragnar fleet at Tanner’s World, and by outnumbering them, we forced them to withdraw quickly, after they suffered heavy losses.

  “However, the Thandol have maintained three fleets of their own, which if combined consists of roughly fifteen thousand heavy capitol ships, another ten thousand of a medium cruiser class, and probably ten or twelve thousand of what we would declare a destroyer class. Although, the Thandol, with large bodies and egos to match, built their light ships larger than PU destroyers. They always build larger, and operate more types than their security forces are permitted to construct, or that we and the PU have built.

  “The Federation has, I believe, proven that the absolutely humongous ships of the Thandol, their immense Crushers we could call Super Dreadnaughts, are extremely vulnerable to our nova bombs, and are not maneuverable enough to fight the slashing, intermingled space battles we conduct, a dogfight-like tactic which the PU navy has now adapted. But they only had eight of those Crushers, and are now down to four. The bulk of their massive fleet has the capability of overwhelming us, including their security forces even if we somehow convinced them to revolt, which it is unlikely we could convince all three to do that.

  “Although, it isn’t by space battles alone the Thandol will try to win. It’s by delivering devastating punishment to the most vulnerable targets of their enemies. Which isn’t our fleets, or those of their security forces if we turned them. It is the worlds, their people. The Thandol specialize in attacking noncombatants, and yet keep a targeted world intact enough that when defeated, the conquered species can work for them. It’s why they employ the unstoppable Decoherence bombs, and use Debilitater rays, to damage populations and housing, yet leaving factories, infrastructure, and agriculture largely intact.

  “The Federation is young, and we have few inhabited worlds, none of them well developed. That makes us hard to find, but we simply can’t lose the Koban system, with our two most populated worlds, where nearly all our manufacturing and research takes place.

  “The PU, on the other hand, paw, or claw, has hundreds of industrialized and developed worlds, and a lot of population. We need them in this fight with us, and we must share our new ship technology with them if we are to combine forces. They can survive the loss of populated worlds, and did so in the war with the Krall. We can’t lose this one system, and remain an independent Federation.

  “Gearing up to focus on defending our worlds isn’t a winning strategy for us. We cannot match the number of ships they could use to swarm us. Instead, we need to keep them at home, inside their own territory as much as possible. That’s why our most effective defense is as strong an offense as we can mount, and hit them at home, where there are tens of thousands of targets that they can’t protect constantly. Hopefully, we’ll do this with the PU joining us.
r />   “To describe that aspect of our mission to Earth later today, I’ll return the podium to President MacDougal.” Mirikami stepped aside, as MacDougal nodded and smiled, shook his hand, and walked to the podium.

  His deep booming voice was steady, and he spoke with determination. “Citizens, we are not confronted by a barbarian horde in this war, and the Krall were unconcerned with their own people’s lives, and distained property and territory. We used their social structure to provoke blind range and foolish actions that we were prepared for, and used to our advantage. This will not work as well with the Thandol, although they can be provoked.

  “It’s true the Thandol don’t care about the subservient species they rule, or particularly covet to live on their worlds with them, but their huge egos, and pride of position over other races is of tantamount importance to them. To the males that is. Their females have no role in government. A Thandol leader has an innate Herd Master’s urge to dominate, not only his own family herd, but to place his family herd above all other families. Yet top Thandol males are willing to ally with other families to retain his family’s preeminence, and trade or share power with those other family herds that will support him.

  “This basis of social structure, or motivation if you prefer that term, of Thandol male society, is what drives the Emperor and his supporters. There is constant pressure by other high placed, powerful Thandol males, to jockey for position to become the Imperial Herd Master.

  “The ruling emperor is changed relatively often, considering it’s a position granted for life. A noble male vying for that position isn’t considered worthy of support until he’s invested nearly half of his life in climbing the social ladder within his own family, establishing contacts, doing favors, reaching out to strong males of other powerful families. Then, when he believes the existing emperor has weakened, or blundered, or has allowed his power to corrupt him and his closest supporters, there is a coup to try to replace that Emperor. It is always fatal for either the current Emperor and his closest followers, or for the usurper and his followers. If a ruling family is replaced, the bloodshed is widespread.