Free Out of the Ashes (Rise of the Empire Book 3) by Ivan Kal

them all down at the same time will be difficult.” Akulov noted.
    “Yes. But the other bases are much less fortified. Perhaps we could hit them from afar as well? At least those that are most heavily defended.” Jacob said.
    “If we are to take down the Rome base we will need to lower the time they have to react, which means parking the subs right next to the coast.” Anissa said.
    “Do we need to use both?” Eldritch asked.
    Anissa grimaced, “Colorado has a lot shorter range, its missiles will not be able to reach all the targets at the same time. But the Lord could. We could use the Colorado for Rome, and the Lord for the other targets. But there will still be a lot of outposts we won’t be able to hit. That means attacking with ground troops.”
    “Ra’a’zani have never seen our suits in action. I’m confident that we can take them.” Akulov said.
    “It is your specialty Igor. It will be up to you to plan the assaults.” Jacob said, Akulov was a General in the Coalition’s army before the Ra’a’zani, “And I’m sure that Oliver can manage a few unfortunate accidents that will give you the opportunity to strike decisively.” Oliver Eldritch, was a spook during the war, and was now in charge of the Resistance’s spy network.
    Eldritch nodded. “I can arrange a few power failures. We have been setting things up and planning for a long time.”
    “Well then, I guess that we finally have a semblance of a plan.” Anissa said, everyone had grown tired of constant bickering and inability to agree on anything.
    “Great. That means that I can return to the belt and start planning how to take control of the mines.” Jacob said. From there the discussion moved towards weapon fabrication. As the others argued over who gets to fabricate things first, Jacob looked at the three ships still shown on the hologram, turning in the air above the table. He couldn’t help but wonder what more Ra’a’zani had that his people were unaware of.

Chapter Seven
    February 2171 – Leviathan
     
    “We will be exiting hyperspace in two minutes Fleet Commander.” Ship Master Paul Isaacs said.
    “Good. Be alert, we are not expecting any trouble, but…” Adrian said.
    “Yes Fleet Commander.” Paul said.
    Adrian turned to the person standing next to his chair, Retsar Isani.
    “How long do you think it will take them to respond?” Adrian asked.
    “Not long. The council will move quickly to meet with us and open dialog. The problems will come after that.” Isani said.
    Adrian nodded to himself and waited. Then the Navigation Handler called out. “Exiting hyperspace.”
    A moment later a portion of the forward wall turned into a screen and they could see stars. The holo in the middle of the CC started receiving the sensory information from the ship and updated its status. Two ships appeared almost immediately close to the Leviathan. The light cruiser Swift and the heavy cruiser Enterprise. Then the planets and the rest of the system.
    “Damn…” Paul let said under his beard, but loud enough that Adrian heard him. Adrian felt the same. The holo now showed the state of the system as it was a few hours ago, when the light it read originated. The system had six planets, three of which had at least two moons, and one five. The second planet from the sun was Earth sized, and from Retsar Isani, Adrian knew that was Nelus, Nel home world. But that was not what shocked them. No, it was the amount of traffic in the system. Countless ships moved from one planet to the other, from one moon to the other or to stations in orbit of every planet. The holo had a hard time showing them all, as there were thousands. The stations were massive constructs that dwarfed the biggest ships around them.
    “And we want to offer our help to them?” Adrian said in his head.
    “They had a lot longer to spread across their system. But technologically we are closely matched.” Iris said.
    Adrian looked to his left only to see Isani studying