The Slaver Wars: First Strike (The Slaver Wars Book Four) by Raymond L. Weil Page B

the
Aquarius habitat.”
    “That would be
great,” responded Admiral Johnson pleased with Teleck’s response. Each one of
the habitats inside of Ceres was named after one of the former Federation
worlds the Hocklyns had destroyed. “We will be staying here for a number of
days. There is a lot of planning that needs to be done.”
    -
    A few hours
later, they were deep inside Ceres in a secure conference room. Admiral Teleck
had sent for his entire staff as well as the head of the civilian government.
Governor Malleck was the current elected government leader of Ceres and a very
astute politician.
    Once everyone
was seated and introduced, Admiral Johnson began going over her plan for a first
strike against the Hocklyns. To say Admiral Teleck and his staff were surprised
would be putting it mildly. When Karla was finished, she looked around at the
group waiting for their response. She knew if she could not get the backing of
the Federation survivors, the plan would have no chance of succeeding.
    “That’s a bold
plan,” commented Admiral Teleck, leaning back and drumming his right index
finger on the conference table. He took a deep breath as he looked around the
room at his staff and Governor Malleck. “It’s one we have never discussed, taking
the fight to the Hocklyns at this stage. I have always thought the plan was to
lure them into attacking New Tellus and allowing the asteroid fortresses to
annihilate their fleet.”
    “We still
may,” responded Karla, nodding her head. “It’s just that they’re so far ahead
of their timeline, and we still have a lot to do in the Federation before we
are ready to engage them here. This will set the Hocklyns back and put them on
the defensive if it succeeds, at least for a while. It will give us the time we
need to put the Federation on a war footing and finish our defenses. Later,
when they mount a major attack, we can use New Tellus to cut them down to
size.”
    “You say you
will be turning over to Admiral Streth the entire Ready Reserve Fleet?” asked Admiral
Kalen, looking curiously at a computer pad in front of him. “Just how many
ships are we talking about?” Admiral Kalen was responsible for the upkeep of
the fleet units based inside of Ceres.
    “The life of Admiral
Streth is very important to us,” Governor Malleck added in a grave tone of
voice. He looked directly at the Fleet Admiral and continued. “Admiral Streth
may well be the best admiral we have for this type of daring operation, but we
must be sure he has the assets to ensure its success. We won’t risk his life
needlessly.”
    Admiral
Johnson nodded, activating her own computer pad and calling up the numbers of
the Ready Reserve. She had updated this prior to leaving New Tellus Station.
“It will be a massive fleet,” replied Karla, allowing her eyes to look across
the group. “This will be a general attack over a large area of space in an
effort to drive the Hocklyns back hundreds of light years. We may even free a
number of slave worlds they have conquered.”
    “Hundreds of
light years?” Kalen spoke in surprise, his eyes growing very wide at the
thought. To the best of his knowledge, no one had ever attacked the Hocklyn
Empire like this before.
    “That’s all
well and good, but the Hocklyns have a massive fleet as well,” Colonel Grissim
pointed out. She was in charge of Ceres’s military intelligence division. “Even
at the best estimates, we may still be outnumbered by a hundred or a thousand to
one if they ever call in all of their forces, and that does not include the AIs.”
    Everyone was
silent for a moment as they thought about the mysterious AIs that controlled
the galaxy-spanning Slave Empire. They were still the wild card in all of their
planning as no one knew exactly what type of weapons the AIs could bring to
bear or the number of ships they had at their disposal.
    “We will deal
with the AIs when we encounter them,” Karla replied in a firm voice. “We
believe our new