Star Feud Read online

  Star Feud

  A Lori Adams Novel 03

  Author: D. R. Rosier

  Copyright 2018. This is a work of fiction. Names, Characters, Places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Afterword:

  Other erotic fantasies by D. R. Rosier:

  Non-erotic Fantasy titles:

  Book Description

  Chapter One

  Vik ordered, “Report enemy status.”

  It’d been four months since our harrowing escape from Earth. The ships were ready, the new reactors with gravity containment yielded another two percent efficiency compared to the older reactors with artificial gravity disabled around them. Seventy-four, instead of seventy-two percent. I’d also managed to get shielding on the missiles, they’d still be vulnerable to spoofing and jamming, but the laser point defense would be worthless against them, it would take a plasma hit to stop them.

  The human crews were well trained, four solid months of simulation training. I hadn’t come up with any other obvious upgrades, at least for the current vessel type, but no doubt I’d think of something when it was needed, and too late.

  My personal life was going well too, I was closer than ever to my three lovers. Though Sylara and Dessia continued to not approve, Solyra was as equally welcoming to me, almost like a sister. In a way, it was terrifying, I’d never been so rich or happy in my personal life, never had so much to lose before.

  Things were going well on our end, but the enemy hadn’t been idle either.

  Jillintara said, “The Suaterans and Stolavii systems are occupied, and are under your brother’s thumb. However, both of their hidden ship building yards have increased the amount of ships being built. I estimate they’ll have enough to move against your brother in a few months, if we weren’t going to take them first. It could be a problem for us later. The Gionii are also occupied, but all their ships and space infrastructure are destroyed. Earth is blockaded, but without the Earth’s general knowledge, no attempts to communicate have been made.

  “The other species in the empire, the Raitov, Xulia, and Vehiri, are showing signs of discontent, but so far your brother hasn’t acted against them outside of setting the new taxes and food costs. Even if we defeat your brother, it might be problematical to hold the empire together.”

  Sylara said, “That’s my problem, and I have plans for that.”

  Jillintara nodded, “As expected, your brother has just over two thousand ships, five hundred of which are manned by the remaining brainwashed and controlled humans. A thousand of those are in the main system, all manned by empire personnel. There is another one hundred around the other four worlds in the empire, and the three unaligned worlds. Two hundred of them are spread out in the empire’s territory searching for us and other enemy vessels, and being used for relief forces for downtime.”

  It was ugly, it wouldn’t be as simple as killing Denik, putting Sylara on the throne, and reversing his changes. There was lost trust with the four races of the empire, and increased animosity from the three independent races, I wondered if things could ever be the same. At the very least, I had a feeling they’d demand check and balances against the royal family, too much power in one place. Of course, I wouldn’t suggest that, and it wasn’t really my problem to deal with.

  Still, I hoped one thing to come out of it was the removal of A.I. overrides, but I wasn’t going to hold my breath on that either. I supposed I was a bit biased, since I was in love with one of them. We also had a solid advantage in data gathering, with probes around every star system in the three hundred light year globe that the empire claimed with Isyth at its center.

  Vik nodded, “Suggestions?”

  I asked, “Do we know where Denik is?”

  Jillintara replied, “I believe he’s on Isyth.”

  “You aren’t sure?”

  Jillintara shook her head, “The last public update he sent to his people appeared to be from the palace, but with holographic technology he could be anywhere, or aboard a ship across the universe for all we know.”

  Right, quantum communications didn’t reveal location, not unless the sender included that information in the data stream, and even then it could probably be spoofed.

  Vik asked, “Why?”

  I sighed, “We need to end him for the simple reason he controls the A.I.s via the overrides. Once he’s dead, Sylara can release the overrides with her new authority. Once that happens, the war is over, and the cleanup can start. Any crews who refuse a lawful order to stand down by our new empress would have the A.I. locking them down. The less ships we have to destroy, the better. If we lose most of both of our forces, the Suaterans and the Stolavii will fall on us like a ton of bricks. If Denik is in the home system, we have to fight against a thousand ships, but at least we’d have a couple a hundred of ours left, plus a thousand of his fleet to maintain security. That will give Sylara some breathing room to fix things at the diplomatic table, rather than with war, while we upgrade the rest of the fleet and keep building the more advanced ships. We’ll either need the added numbers, or if we can work things out peacefully after that, your brother’s destroyers can be gutted of weapons and sold to private owners.”

  Sylara gave me a haughty look, but she didn’t disagree.

  “Point is, if he’s not on Isyth we shouldn’t attack there.”

  It would be the costliest battle. A thousand to our five hundred. Our five hundred would still out gun theirs, despite their numerical superiority, at a ratio of about three to two. That meant we’d lose about three fifths of our forces, even with surprise and more powerful shields on our side. Or maybe just two of five, if we can make the first strike count and take down half their forces before they even fire a shot. We’d also lose fifty more, as fifty of the ships would go back to Earth at that point. The human part of deal was just the civil war, not to stick around afterwards for stability. We really couldn’t afford the losses, the empire would need a big stick even as Sylara tried to regain trust.

  Vik asked, “Okay, how do we find out?”

  “Likara maybe? Would she know if she was cooking for the emperor or not? We could enter the system cloaked and set up an ambush. Only after verifying with her that Denik is in the system should we spring it, if he isn’t we should back out and leave.”

  Telidur said, “It’s likely that she would.”

  Vik said, “It will also tip off Denik, our comms wouldn’t be secure, and she’d be in danger.”

  I nodded
, “That’s why we set up the ambush first. Once we have verification we spring the trap. At that point, he’ll be too busy to send anyone after Likara. Once the ships are dealt with, we head to the surface to end it. I suppose if he isn’t there, we could try to extract her? We could send her a ship suit at the very least, a cloaked one. She could join us, or disappear on the surface for a while.”

  Vik nodded, “Good idea.”

  Jillintara said, “I’ll get one made, and I can send it down before we contact her.”

  Sylara said, “One change, we must give Denik the option of repudiating the crown and stepping down in favor of me. That’s just as good as him dying, as far as authority over the A.I.s is concerned. I want him to face a court for his crimes, it will also give the other races, and our own people, a reason to come together. It would be better, if they see us holding our own brother accountable for his lawlessness in a court, not on the battlefield.”

  That worked for me, less people would die. Even after the ships were destroyed, we would still have to go to the surface and get through security to take him out. That could be problematical, worse if it takes more than a day to get done, he could have a thousand more ships here in over a day or so.

  Admiral Janson Hiller said, “Looks like we have a plan.”

  Jillintara said, “I’ll get the details ironed out, and assignments for each ship.”

  Sylara said, “Excellent, Rilok you’re with me. It’s time to claim our own cruiser. Mother and Solyra, you should get to yours as well.”

  It just made sense not to put all three heirs on one ship during a battle. Both of them would be working with two humans to round out their crews. Of course, there were two humans on this ship as well for the duration of the battle and counter-revolution, myself and Janson. Once it was over, Janson would go home with the human part of the fleet, we’d get Rilok back, and the queen, queen mother, and her younger sister would be in the palace where they belonged, ruling. I imagined Vik would run the military, and wondered if that meant he’d get a battleship, instead of a cruiser.

  The future was unsure, the empire could still fall apart even if we won against Denik, and who knew where we would end up. Selfishly, I was far more worried about losing any of my three lovers, or worse, having to share them at some point.

  Mine. I felt like a three-year-old. I both loved and feared how much they meant to me.

  The meeting broke up at that point, we had a general plan, and the artificial assistants would handle the minutiae of assigning targets for the ambush. It was time, our fleet of five hundred ships was complete, the humans were trained, and we were ready to take down Denik.

  Chapter Two

  “Status?”

  Janson replied, “Fifteen minutes to transition to normal space. All ships report ready. All ships are cloaked as ordered.”

  We had five hundred ships, including the three command cruisers, which were in the center of the three equal formations. We took the slower way of subspace on the way there because the stealth systems would hide a subspace transition, but not a wormhole.

  Jillintara said, “No change in enemy status according to the probe. All thousand ships are within a few million miles of Isyth in defensive formations around the planet, and all indications are that Denik is there.”

  Vik grunted, “We’ll find out when we get there.

  We planned to contact Likara, the royal chef before we committed, but something told me Denik was definitely there. A thousand ships, Denik was too selfish to have that many ships protecting his people, those ships were there because he was. It could be a cunning misdirect though, but I doubted it.

  Strangely enough, I kind of missed Rilok, though I was glad my lover Telidur was still here. Better than the other way around. Still, the bridge was a little too tense, and maybe it made me weird, but I missed his sniping comments. Negative or not, the distraction would take my mind off the coming death and destruction.

  Jillintara said, “Sir, now might not be the best time to mention it, but I’m detecting increased activity along the borders.”

  Vik asked, “Borders?”

  “Yes sir, the Alirann and Kruterran Empires. It started a few hours ago on the former, and the latter seems to be responding.”

  That wasn’t good, both empires spanned thousands of light years and had millions of star systems. From what I was able to glean over a few conversations the last few months, both empires had ships in the millions. They were supposedly more advanced too, but even if that wasn’t true either empire could bury the Isyth empire in numbers alone.

  From what I understood, the Isyth empire was tiny in comparison, but also made a good buffer between the super star empires. Neither side had absorbed us for multiple reasons. Part of it may have been they weren’t conquerors at heart and respected the borders, but another part of it was the Isyth empire was like a neutral zone for them both. We were a tiny empire that buffered the two giant ones and prevented them from butting heads along the fence line, and it was likely if one swallowed us, the other one would take exception to that and start a war.

  In other words, neither feared us, but they feared each other and what would happen if one of them absorbed the Isyth empire into theirs.

  Except, now we weren’t the stable and quiet empire we were a year ago. Two large scale conflicts in a year’s time, plus we were putting a lot more ships into space. Such rapid growth was bound to make them curious, or perhaps even worried the status quo was about to change.

  As if we didn’t have enough problems, between revolution, and four independent worlds with two of them getting ready to go to war with us, and all of it thanks to that asshat Denik.

  Vic asked, “Have they crossed?”

  Jillintara replied, “No sir. I think they’re reacting to each other at this point, but they may have moved ships to the border in response to us.”

  Vic tilted his head, “Explain.”

  Jillintara said, “Well, Denik built up fleets, and keeps building, and he sent ships to blockade and control the four worlds not in our empire, and he obviously took over. They must be watching us. No doubt they saw our five hundred ships get built, and then cloak. They’re probably wondering what we’re doing, or where we are going. I believe when they see us engage your brother’s forces, things may calm down, they might not have realized we’re Denik’s enemy and may believe we’re going to their space.”

  That… kind of made sense. Maybe? I suppose if they had similar probes in our systems keeping an eye on us, they wouldn’t get our secure data communications, and could only see what we were building, not why or for who. The more I thought about it, the more sense it made, except for the craziness of invading an empire so much larger than ours. Still, five hundred cloaked warships, I could see how that might make them a little nervous.

  Vik grunted, “Or it’s a not so subtle statement that they’re watching us, and not happy about our instability. Nothing we can do about it at this point, but let me know if they cross the border, either of them.”

  The bridge was quiet after that, until we dropped out of subspace and started to move in system.

  Vik asked, “Any response.”

  Jillintara shook her head, “I don’t believe we were seen.”

  Vik grunted, “Very good, we’ll need a little over thirteen hours to get into position, let’s take a break and get some rest, meet back on the bridge in thirteen hours.”

  I wasn’t going to argue with that…

  Vik ordered, “Open a channel to Likara.”

  I felt refreshed, I did manage to get some sleep the last thirteen hours, but mostly I spent time with Vik in his quarters. I was sure I loved him, my heart raced every time I looked into his eyes, and his lightest touch could make me tremble in need. Yet… I still hadn’t told him I loved him, though I couldn’t doubt he felt the same way for me.

  A year ago, when all this had started, it was little more than attraction, need, and a yearning to be close to someone, anyone. A year la
ter and things had progressed. The simple lust of the past was merely the bonfire that had started us going. Still, he was the heir now after his sister, second in line, first once she was on the throne, at least until she had children to ensure her legacy. I had no illusions, and knew it would end someday. It had to, didn’t it? He’d need to find someone of his own species and start a family at some point, and he would take Telidur and Jillintara with him.

  The best I could hope for was living in the moment. Realistically, we had decades, perhaps even centuries before that needed to happen. His hopes and dreams were to run the military, and be on this ship with me and his friends who were like family.

  A hologram of Likara appeared on the bridge before Vik.

  Likara snapped, “Are you crazy?”

  Vik laughed, “Maybe? I have a plan, is my brother on the planet?”

  Likara sighed, “He was as of three hours ago.”

  That meant he was still there, no ships had left the planet in the last three hours to head out-system.

  Vik nodded, “For your own safety I want you to put on the ship suit we sent you, and disappear for a few hours.”

  Likara frowned, “Very well. Be careful.”

  Vik replied, “You too.”

  The hologram winked out.

  Vik said, “Open a channel to all ships.”

  Jillintara said, “Open.”

  Vik said, “Start the attack.”

  Our five hundred ships de-cloaked and opened fire. They outnumbered us two to one, three to one would have been an even fight with our more advanced ships. They really didn’t have a chance, but that didn’t mean the fight was one sided.

  Five hundred ships opened fire and launched missiles from close range. The targeted ships started to lose shield integrity fast, and it took a few moments for them to respond. They started evasive maneuvers as they returned fire. Most of them got off missiles before their shields failed and the ships exploded.

  That fast, it was suddenly one on one, but that first missile launch meant twice the missiles we launched headed in our direction, as our missiles struck and turned the damages ships into balls of fire. Using countermeasures, I managed to spoof or shoot down several of them, over twenty, but ten got through. Our shields on our destroyers, and the cruiser we were on were equivalent to the larger battle ship shields. Our ship shook and shuddered, but the shields held.