Free The Tactics of Revenge by T. R. Harris

looking out at the illusionary emptiness of space, and in the process of second guessing the plan he and Overlord Kackil had devised. He knew that a battle of this size and complexity was purely an exercise in military theory, and with the Human’s short history of unpredictability, Hoan was having trouble maintaining confidence in his plan.
    Even though he knew the computers had already counted the foreign contacts dotting his main tac screen, Hoan couldn’t help but try to manually count them himself. One-thousand thirty-four contacts, divided into three distinct groups. He let out a deep breath. His fleet level now stood at two-hundred nineteen ships, all front-line battlecruisers with the most powerful weapon systems in the Expansion. Still, it was an overwhelming numerical advantage for the invaders.
    The Juirean plan called for the battle to take place within the Melfora Lum system, sandwiched between an asteroid field and a large gas giant. With such a narrow field of battle the Human numerical superiority should be muted, but not totally negated. The battle would be joined, and counting the enemy contacts on the screen, Hoan knew instinctively that the second part of their plan would have to be initiated. That realization made him feel a little better.
    The idea of a Juirean victory in this initial meeting with the Humans had been entertained by the powers that be – briefly. But now, in light of the swarm of blue contacts on his screen, he knew that was not a possibility.
    So all he had to do at this point was make it look convincing….

Chapter 12

    Lee Schwartz couldn’t believe where he was – this was like something out of Star Wars .
    Less than a year ago, he had been living out his life on the only world he knew of, yet like most boys growing up in America, having spent much of his childhood fantasizing about glorious battles in outer space, with ray guns and light sabers. And now, here he was, over a thousand light years from Earth, staring out at an enormous Jupiter-like planet with a thin, brightly-lit ring of yellow and orange. He was also in the pilot seat of an alien-built flying saucer, his small crew of twenty-five at their stations, and about to enter a desperate fight against the forces of a vast galactic empire.
    In one way, it was a dream come true; in another – a nightmare.
    Lee was operational commander of Eagle Squadron, with ninety KFV-A’s making up thirty three-ship units. Each unit was configured into a triangular formation, with a lead ship and two wingmen. Lee’s assignment was to feign a head-on attack of the Juirean lines, and then sweep to port, toward the asteroid belt. He would then cut across the enemy lines, crossing the ‘T’ while his ninety ships concentrated fire on the one or two Juireans at the narrowest point in their lines. The Juireans would then alter their profile to confront his forces. Once the Juireans broke formation, Falcon Squadron would penetrate straight through the center of the regrouping aliens and split their forces.
    The Juireans were blocking the space between the gas giant and the asteroid belt, having formed four long lines of capital ships, stacked one upon another, and with shorter lines capping the top and bottom of these four lines. Even though the distances involved did not allow for the ships to be visible to Lee and his squadron, their locations were brightly illuminated on the forward tac screen, along with the half-dozen smaller screens at the various bridge stations.
    There were six other people on the bridge with Lee. Four others manned the generator room, five were on the damage control gang, with the remaining ten divided among the two weapons-control stations. Lee’s ship was one of the few in the fleet that had been fitted with additional armament, namely the good-old-fashion 90-mm cannon and Hellfire missiles. The missiles had been modified to carry liquid fuel, allowing them to operate in the vacuum of space. Even though he