No Quarter
Joshua Dalzelle
©2020
Digital Edition
Contents
Foreword
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Epilogue
Also by Joshua Dalzelle
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This is a work of fiction. Any similarities to real persons, events, or places are purely coincidental; any references to actual places, people, or brands are fictitious. All rights reserved.
The Black Fleet Saga in order:
The Black Fleet Trilogy
Warship
Call to Arms
Counterstrike
The Expansion Wars Trilogy
New Frontiers
Iron and Blood
Destroyer
The Unification War Trilogy
Battleground
No Quarter
Empire (Yet to be published.)
Prologue
An excerpt from Peace In Our Time, A History of the Great Unification War:
Historians and researchers have disagreed for centuries as to the exact political climate that led up to the Unification War. This stems from academic bias that leads some people to view the Eastern Star Alliance as a sympathetic actor forced to defend its right to self-determination against an overmatched, aggressive enemy. Others argue that the United Terran Federation had every justification to go to war with the ESA after the Alliance had consorted with an alien power to kill Federation citizens.
A stronger argument can be made by those that point to the proof the Alliance had been attacking Federation targets for a year before the war was officially declared. Much of what is known about the different factions within the ESA's political structure come from the journal of a man named Wei Zhang. While he's best known for heading up the Asianic Union's illegal expansion and colonization program that alerted the Phage to humanity's presence, he also claimed to be one of the members of a cabal within the ESA government that had been actively trying to start a war they saw as inevitable.
One thing everyone agrees on, however, is the war got its unofficial start during the fateful and tragic events in the Odmena System all those years ago. It was here that the legendary Jackson Wolfe, then an admiral, was pitted against a then-unknown Alliance officer named Vadim Kohl. Admiral Kohl had been dispatched from ESA space ostensibly to represent the Alliance as the Odmena regional government indicated they would be willing to cut ties with the Federation and join the ESA. Admiral Wolfe had been sent to make sure Odmena understood they still had an obligation to the Federation and to counter any aggressive moves by the Alliance task force.
From all official accounts from the survivors, the two opposing forces weren't overly antagonistic until Admiral Wolfe decided to move his flagship—the Juggernaut-class battleship, TFS Jericho—further down into the system and into orbit over the planet Odmena itself. The admiral had brought a single ship from his task force down to the planet, likely hoping it would be adequate force projection while not goading Kohl into rash action. The chain of events that decision kicked off left the planet of Odmena nearly depopulated.
Admiral Kohl, his ships harassing the Federation force the entire time, pursued Wolfe's battleship over the planet. In Kohl's formation were Dagger-class small attack boats, ships that carried the ESA's newest secret munition: high-yield antimatter warheads. Too dangerous to be risked on a capital warship, the smaller attack ships carried one missile each, powerful enough to destroy a starship with a single hit. Up to that point, antimatter weapons were thought to be purely theoretical, but Admiral Kohl had brought eight to the Odmena System to face Wolfe with.
Almost every human born since will have seen the footage of what happened next. Kohl's small attack ships made a critical error, stacked behind the Jericho and clustered too close together. There was a collision between two that sent the three ships into Odmena's atmosphere where all three antimatter warheads detonated. The devastation was indescribable. A city of four-million people was simply erased from the surface as one of the warheads blew up almost on top of it. The other detonations caused tsunamis that took out coastal cities and threw up enough debris into the upper atmosphere the planet was dark for nearly half a decade, killing most indigenous planet life.
Regardless of whenever the two political factions decided to officially declare war on the other, this incident is nearly universally regarded as the beginning of the Unification War. In the face of such an atrocity, and in the heat of the moment, Admiral Wolfe ordered his taskforce to engage the ESA ships. The resulting battle was so savage and absolute that any chance for a diplomatic solution was effectively gone.
A deeper dive into the Battle of Odmena and the beginnings of the Unification War in general show Admiral Jackson Wolfe is much more of a reluctant combatant than his military record would indicate. The official transcripts from the Jericho's logs have been preserved in the Archives, and they clearly show an officer who only cared about protecting civilian lives and did everything he could to head off the violence that cost the people of Odmena so dearly.
That being said, Admiral Wolfe is still the same man who defeated the Phage and the Darshik, two advanced alien powers bent on the eradication of humanity. A reluctant warrior though he might have been, once the battle had been met, he would show no quarter. The actions of the admiral following the massacre of civilians in the Odmena System are still studied by Academy students even today.
1
"Still no indication we have been detected, Admiral."
"Maintain posture," Admiral Xiao said. The commander of Taskforce Nine, Third Fleet, sat in the Kuài Jiàn's command chair while the heavy cruiser's captain sat quietly at one of the observation stations. The taskforce was a small one, only nine ships strong, and all of them built before the fall of the Terran Confederacy and the subsequent restructuring that saw all Asianic Union worlds come under the newly formed Eastern Star Alliance. The ships were old—hell, they'd been old before the Phage War—but they were in excellent shape due to the fact they had spent most of their time on patrol or sitting in dock for months and, sometimes, years on end.
All of Xiao's ships had been refitted with the newest RDS pod from ESA's primary shipbuilding contractor so there were no visible plumes of superheated plasma belching from massive thrust engines to give their position away. The reactionless drive systems gently ghosted his force downhill towards the Fed logistics outpost, their power output so low even the enemy's advanced detection grids would likely miss the gravimetric ripple they were creating.
"Sensors aren't picking up the fleet that is supposed to be here, but we're still at the extreme edge of our detection range," the captain of the Kuài Jiàn said. "If they've arrived ahead of schedule—"
"Then their engines will already be cold and the powerplants throttled back." Xiao's voice was emotionless. "Thank you for the needless exposition, Captain. You may return to your post."
"At once, Admiral," Captain Lu said, nodding in what was not quite a bow, and retreating to where he normally stood near Operations.
Xiao had grave misgivings about his flagship's captain, his taskforce, and the looming war the Eastern Star Alliance and United Terran Federation seemed hellbent to start. In truth, the war had already started, and they were all just waiting for the paperwork to catch up. There had been five major engagements between the two sides, and yet, the politicians talked incessantly, seemingly unaware their endless blathering had no effect on outcomes in the border region.
The age of the ships in his command as well as the complete lack of experience by his crews was alarming when Xiao considered most Fed captains were all hardened by combat in two different wars. While the aging fleets of the former Asianic Union and Warsaw Alliance mostly sat on the sidelines during the Phage War, and didn't participate at all during what the Federation was calling the Expansion War, the Federation fleet had fought countless engagements against a superior enemy and kept finding ways to win. The ESA may have had a numerical advantage, but they were facing a Fed military used to fighting against long odds and coming out on top.
"Time to target?" Xiao asked.
"One hundred and thirteen hours, assuming no change in acceleration profile, Admiral."
"Very well," Xiao said. "Maintain passive posture. No emissions or power increases of any kind."
"Yes, Admiral."
Without a word, Xiao stood to leave the bridge. He pointed at the command chair to indicate to the captain he had the bridge, but he didn't even bother to make eye contact with the man as he strode off, his personal security falling in behind him. With over a week just to get within maximum weapons range, he had some time to himself before any real decisions needed to be made.
Space combat was an exercise in patience. Doubly so when you were trying to be stealthy about it. When ships transitioned into an area of operations, emotions were high and everybody was ready for instant action, but jump points were far out in the outer system. Most combat operations took place much further down the well where planets could be used strategically. That meant that once a ship arrived, it was days and days of transit time just to get in position, and likely even more days of hard flying to pursue any targets.
Admiral Xiao, a man who had as little combat experience as his crews, wasn't accustomed to the interminable stretches of time punctuated by short, adrenaline-charged periods of action. Alliance Fleet Command's training system for their mainline commanders left much to be desired when it came to preparing them.
The most glaring deficiency was the lack of instruction on the successful tactics and strategies the Federation had worked out while fighting two overmatched enemies. It would have not only been insightful to see how they'd engineered their own victories, but also to be able to counter those same moves when used on them.
But the Alliance Council's oversight on the military was absolute, and that included enforcing their own shortsighted political dogma. The main problem with the Alliance even admitting the Federation's brutal war against the Darshik came down to just one name:
Jackson Wolfe
Since the infamous Fed officer had been instrumental in developing and executing most of their strategic and tactical doctrines during the Phage War and through the fight against the Darshik, it created a problem for Fleet Command when it came to teaching its officers about his victories.
The Alliance Council had spent considerable political capital to make sure its citizens looked at Wolfe as a dangerous, bumbling Earther, and that he was the one responsible for all their hardships and struggles. To then have to backtrack and admit he might also be a tactical genius would harm them, thus his writings and mission briefs were banned within the ESA's military.
Xiao had obtained illegal copies of Admiral Wolfe's manuscripts submitted to the Federation War College, as well as the writings of his protégé: Celesta Wright. But without proper context, much of it was useless to him. Wolfe hadn't provided a manual that would allow others to emulate him. Instead, much of it had been useless drivel about the futility of war and some nonsense about how a small defeat in the beginning of a conflict can prevent much larger defeats in the future. Xiao needed to know how to win not how to feel.
Admiral Xiao's taskforce was one of nine, each hitting Federation resupply outposts along the border region and any other targets of opportunity. Since most of the supply dumps were just automated stations ships would dock with to take on fuel and consumables, the mission was just another harassment of the depleted and exhausted Fed fleet.
While they still struggled to fill patrols with the operational hulls they had remaining from the Expansion War, the ESA had ships to spare, outdated though they might be. Nine of their resupply platforms would disappear, and there was simply no way that the Fed could protect them all with the forces they had in the area.
"Admiral Xiao, to the bridge, please!"
"What is it, Captain?" Xiao said, scowling at the intercom panel.
"We've made contact, sir!"
"Calm yourself! How far out are they?"
"They are—" the captain was cut off by a harsh buffeting that rocked the ship. Xiao knew his ship was taking fire. Low power laser batteries, meant to get their attention. His heart hammered in his chest as a trembling finger pushed the button on the panel.
"I'm on my way up, Captain."
* * *
"That got their attention, sir. Lead ship is cutting power to her engines."
"Keep us out of range, countermeasures active," Captain Ross said through a yawn. "Our outer patrol is sure they collected all of their com relay ships?"
"Yes, sir. There were only two small patrol boats loaded with four com drones each. They've been neutralized," Ensign Steger said from the OPS station. The small bridge of the Predator-Class Federation Prowler only had four crewmembers on it: the captain, a pilot, and then the OPS and Tactical officers. The Predator was one of the newest additions to Prowler Fleet and boasted the latest and greatest in stealth technology and passive sensor systems. The fact his force had been able to fly right up on the ESA's attack formation without being detected seemed to indicate the eggheads at Fleet R&D got this one right.
"Let's break EMSEC." Ross sat up in his seat and smoothed out his dark gray uniform. Prowler Fleet belonged to the Central Intelligence Service not Starfleet or CENTCOM, so they didn't wear the usual fatigues or dress blacks the regular fleet spacers wore. "Ping the lead ship and request a channel."
"Standby," Steger said.
"Easton, while he's doing that, go ahead and send a Bluebird to Captain Barrett and tell him he is clear to proceed," Ross said.
"Aye, sir," Lieutenant Commander Easton said, her hands flying over the controls. The small staff of three who worked in the Prowler's CIC would relay the message over Bluebird—the Federation's top secret, superluminal communication system—and let Captain Barrett know he was clear to bring in his taskforce.
Captain Ross's group had been tracking the ESA ships since they'd crossed the border into Fed space. They'd gotten strong intelligence the Alliance planned to hit soft targets throughout the region with as many as ten different strike groups. Ross had watched this particular group refuel in Alliance space, and then had tracked them to the most obvious destination, an unmanned resupply depot with little defensive capability. He's called ahead to Starfleet Captain Michael Barrett and had him prepare the surprise the Alliance taskforce had so helpfully flown right through on their way down to their target.
"Channel is established, sir. Clear voice. It'll trigger once you start talking," Ensign Steger said.
"This is Captain Elliot Ross of the United Terran Federation aboard the Prowler sitting approximately two hundred and forty kicks off your formation's starboard flank," Ross began. "I appreciate you taking the warning laser fire we sent your way in the spirt with which it was intended and resisted the urge to do anything foolish.
"I'll get right to the point, Admiral Xiao…your formation flew right through a cluster of very specialized mines we set near the jump point you came in through. They were attracted by your low-level gravimetric signatures and, by our last count, almost thirty-seven of them have attached to all the ships of your taskforce. I can trigger them manually, but they're also set to go off if your engine output exceeds fifty percent of maximum. We'd like to avoid any unnecessary bloodshed, Admiral, so if you'll just sit tight and not do anything foolish, we'll have it sorted out soon. Please, take your time checking over your hulls to verify my claims, but I warn you not to try and tamper with the mines…they're nuclear and very touchy to being fiddled with. Ross out."