Free Dark Space: The Invisible War by Jasper T. Scott

out of his stack of pancakes to see Atton smiling at him over the rim of his cup of caf. Ethan took a moment to breathe and wash the pancakes down with a big gulp from his own cup.
    “So, what’s your first move, Overlord?” Atton asked.
    Ethan swallowed and took another sip of caf while he considered the question. “You said there’s another group of survivors.”
    “Yes, Admiral Hoff Heston and the remnants of the Fifth Fleet. They were cut off during our retreat to Dark Space, so they holed up someplace else.”
    Ethan’s eyes narrowed. “ Someplace? You don’t know where they are?”
    “No, they don’t trust us to have that information—since we’re working with the Gors. We coordinate attacks and salvage operations together, but they keep us at a distance.”
    “I see. And our forces? How many are they and where?”
    “They’re split up into four separate strike groups, each with its own base of operations. There are 13 capital-class vessels in all. Fourteen now if you count the Defiant .”
    “Not very many. Will it be enough to take on the Valiant? ”
    Atton hesitated. “I imagine Brondi is also short-handed right now, so we stand a chance, but we would take very heavy casualties in a straight fight. I would recommend a different course. I doubt Brondi will be able to get Roan’s cooperation to help him detect any cloaked ships in the area, so if we had one, we might be able to sneak aboard with a small landing party.”
    Ethan raised an eyebrow. “I think you’d need a large landing party to overwhelm the troops Brondi has aboard that carrier.”
    “Not if he can’t see us. How many men do you think one invisible soldier could kill?”
    “The Gors,” Ethan said as his eyes lit with understanding.
    “Even a few dozen of them would be enough to clear the Valiant .”
    “Well, what are we waiting for, then?”
    “The Defiant isn’t cloaked, and we only have Tova with us, so we can’t launch the attack ourselves.”
    “I know,” Ethan replied. “I meant we need to call the Gors and put together an op.”
    Atton shook his head. “We can’t call them. The commnet doesn’t exist out here. The gate relays are all down.”
    “All of them?”
    Atton nodded. “They were mostly destroyed by Sythians, but some have just fallen into disrepair. We’ll have to travel to the nearest strike group to contact them.”
    Ethan frowned. “We’re not cloaked.”
    “We’re not that far away. The nearest task force is at Obsidian Station. A few jumps and we’ll be there.”
    Ethan’s eyes narrowed. “How many is a few?”
    “About five.”
    Ethan winced and took another sip of caf. “We need to get Tova’s help for this. If she doesn’t help us detect cloaked Sythians, we’ll be taken out before we even know what hit us.”
    “She may not be willing to work with us if she finds out the truth about what happened to Roan.”
    “Well, the truth is, we’re going to rescue her mate. If she’s got any brain at all she’ll work with us to achieve that end.”
    Atton conceded that with a shrug. “They don’t reason like us, Ethan, but it’s worth a try.”
    “Right. While we’re at it, is there anything we can do to bolster our nova compliment? We just have six fighters. That’s half a squadron.”
    “There’s another squadron aboard the transfer station,” Atton said. “But no pilots.”
    “That’s funny,” Ethan said.
    “What?” Atton replied.
    “When I wanted to join the fleet as a civilian, I was told that they had more applicants than ships, but now that I’ve been . . . conscripted . . . I’m finding that it’s just the opposite.”
    “Well, in Dark Space we do have more applicants than ships, and even outside, we’re training more Gors than we have ships to fill. All the Gors we free now are going to form our very first invasion army.”
     Ethan sat back and steepled his hands before his chin. “I suppose we’ll have more than enough troops to take back the Valiant