Final Conflict Read online

  Galactic Empire Wars

  Final Conflict

  A Galactic Empire Wars Novel

  (Galactic Empire Wars: Final Conflict, Book 6)

  By

  Raymond L. Weil

  USA Today Best Selling Author

  Books in the Galactic Empire Wars Series

  Galactic Empire Wars: Destruction (Book 1)

  Galactic Empire Wars: Emergence (Book 2)

  Galactic Empire Wars: Rebellion (Book 3)

  Galactic Empire Wars: The Alliance (Book 4)

  Galactic Empire Wars: Insurrection (Book 5)

  Galactic Empire Wars: Final Conflict (Book 6)

  Website: http://raymondlweil.com/

  Copyright © February 2019 by Raymond L. Weil

  All Rights Reserved

  Cover Design by Humblenations.com

  This book 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 purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the author.

  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

  Epilogue

  Galactic Empire Wars: Final Conflict

  Chapter One

  Lieutenant Sue Adams threw herself to the ground as an energy beam passed overhead to strike a tree just behind her, setting it on fire. In the distance, she could hear loud explosions and the sky was full of smoke.

  “Damn aliens!” muttered Sergeant Styles, who was lying on the ground close by. “Don’t they know we’re here to free them?”

  “We’re Marines,” replied Adams over her comm unit. Both she and Sergeant Styles were encased in Type Seven battlesuits. The suits were nearly eight feet tall and could shield them from any type of hostile environment as well as being heavily armed. They were a deep black with hints of blue around the joints. “Besides, we don’t know if the incoming fire is from the inhabitants of this world or from Kleese conscripts.”

  Lieutenant Adams used the advanced sensors in her suit to scan the land ahead of them. They were on the outskirts of a medium sized spaceport, which was the primary base of the Kleese on Promar Five. It was heavily defended with numerous pop-up weapons, which would suddenly rise up out of the ground and begin firing on any nearby target. Sue had already lost four Marines to the infernal weapons.

  “Corporal Wright, I want an explosive barrage fifty meters in front of my position outward to three hundred meters. I want everything in that zone leveled!” From Sue’s position, she could see at least seven to possibly ten pop-up weapons. She was also certain there were more that hadn’t been activated yet. The Kleese over the years had learned how to make the Marines pay the maximum cost in lives for the ground they took.

  Lieutenant Adams and her Marines were about five hundred meters from the perimeter of the spaceport. The ground was mostly level with a few trees, bushes, and several small gullies. The gullies were only a few meters deep, not deep enough to hide a Marine in a fully active battlesuit.

  “Explosive barrage beginning,” reported Corporal Wright over the comm.

  Immediately in front of Lieutenant Adams’ position dozens of explosions began striking the ground, hurling dirt and other debris up into the air to rain down on the watching Marines. All battlesuits had heavy explosive launchers on the backs of the suits and automatic targeting sensors that could put the explosives wherever they were needed.

  Lieutenant Adams hunkered down as close to the ground as possible as the ground shook from the continuous explosive barrage. Smoke grew heavier in the air and she had to switch to the special filters in her helmet to allow her to see. Even as she watched she saw several of the pop-up weapons receive direct hits from the explosives, blowing them to pieces.

  “That’s blowing the hell out of those emplacements,” said Sergeant Styles as he watched the pop-up weapons being annihilated.

  The explosions came to a stop and Lieutenant Adams stood up and carefully peered through the smoke. The filters she was using allowed her to easily see through drifting clouds of smoke. The explosions had also set a few trees and some of the brush on fire. “Move out,” she ordered over the comm. “Staggered formation with scouts ahead. That means you, Private Bose and Evans.”

  -

  “Why am I always on point?” muttered Private Bose as he stood up and began jogging to the front of the Marine formation, his assault rifle held tightly in his arms.

  Private Evans shook his head. “It’s your constant complaining. Maybe the lieutenant is trying to get rid of you so we can all have some peace and quiet.”

  Private Bose stopped and glared at Evans though it wasn’t apparent through his helmet. “Naw, she likes me too well. She just wants me to have all the glory.”

  “Shut up!” growled Evans. “We need to pay attention before one of us gets shot.”

  The two quieted down and began advancing across the now uneven ground. Occasionally the two had to skirt bomb craters and twice they paused to examine destroyed pop-up weapons. Finally the two reached the perimeter of the spaceport and paused, standing behind a wall, which barely hid their eight-foot tall battlesuits.

  Evans looked around the corner of the wall, seeing the hard surface of the spaceport stretching out in front of him. There was no doubt in his mind there were probably more hidden pop-up weapons. The Kleese were experts at hiding them. Toward the center of the spaceport was a tall tower, which most likely housed the Kleese in charge of this world. On several of the landing pads Evans could see two of the two hundred-meter assault ships. “We have two assault ships here,” he reported over his comm unit. “The Kleese may already have evacuated to them.”

  -

  “Why haven’t they taken off?” asked Bose. “What are they waiting for? They have to know this world is lost to them.”

  “Our fleet,” answered Evans. “If they attempt to take off they’ll be shot down before they can make orbit.”

  Bose stepped over beside Evans, peering toward the two disk-shaped assault ships. “Those things normally contain several hundred heavily armed conscripts. I wonder where they are?” Bose scanned the entire area with his sensors but could detect no movement. The spaceport looked as if it had been evacuated.

  Looking back behind him, he saw the rest of the Marines moving up toward the wall. Lieutenant Adams was in the center along with Sergeant Styles. Bose shifted his heavy assault rifle in his arms. This particular rifle fired explosive shells and armor penetrating rounds. It was not unusual for them to be engaged by Kleese conscripts wearing their own battlesuits. Bose was about to say something when he felt a sharp pain in his left arm and just about fell over backward in his suit. The suit’s automatic servos kept him upright though a blinking red light in his HUD indicated damage to his suit. Looking at his left arm, he saw a large dent near his shoulder. “Damn, someone’s shooting at us!” He stepped back behind the wall, examining his shoulder closer. The round hadn’t penetrated though he knew he would have a painful bruise from the impact. The suit automatically injected a pa
inkiller and the throbbing pain quickly went away.

  “You think?” replied Evans sarcastically as he fired several energy beams bursts toward where he thought the round had come from. There were a series of large hangers between them and the spaceport tower. The firing from the hangers suddenly increased as numerous rounds slammed into the wall, some going all the way through.

  -

  Lieutenant Adams had taken cover behind a large tree near the edge of the spaceport. Around her other Marines were seeking whatever cover they could find. Occasionally a small explosion would throw up dirt and debris around them. Somewhere a Kleese conscript was firing a grenade launcher at the advancing Marines. Adjusting the sensors in her helmet, she studied the two assault ships sitting on the blastcrete. There was no movement around them and all the hatches seemed to be shut. Activating her comm unit, she sent a message to Captain Avery who was in charge of this mission. He was in orbit on the Marine assault ship Victory.

  “Sir, I’m requesting an orbital strike on the two assault ships sitting near the spaceport tower. I’m concerned they may turn their weapons on us if we move out onto the spaceport blastcrete.”

  “Just a moment,” replied Captain Avery. “I need to speak to Commander Brannon.”

  A few minutes passed and then Captain Avery spoke again. “The fire order has been approved. The Victory will initiate a kinetic strike in five minutes. Make sure all of your Marines are under cover.”

  Sue drew in a deep breath. She had seen numerous kinetic strikes over her career and knew full well how violent they could be. “All Marines, take cover! I’ve called in a kinetic strike against the two Kleese assault ships.”

  -

  Privates Evans and Bose both took cover behind the wall hoping it would give them sufficient protection.

  “I hope the tactical officer hits the targets,” muttered Bose. “I was on Hawkins World when a KEW round went awry. The damn thing took out twelve Marines.”

  Looking upward Bose could see several brilliant streaks that looked like meteors. “Here they come!”

  Moments later the ground shook violently and a powerful blast wave struck the wall, causing parts of it to collapse.

  Private Bose looked back around the corner of the wall to see two pillars of fire and smoke where the assault ships once were. One of the hangers was burning and two others had been leveled. The control tower seemed to be undamaged though Bose doubted if any windows in it had survived.

  Evans joined him and nodded in satisfaction. “Nothing left but two holes in the ground. That probably took care of whoever was shooting at us as well.”

  “That was some good targeting,” replied Bose, sounding pleased. “At least they missed us.”

  “All Marines, advance!” ordered Lieutenant Adams over the comm. “Staggered formation and watch out for pop-ups.”

  “Let’s go,” said Evans as he stepped onto the blastcrete of the spaceport. “Keep your eyes and sensors watching for pop-ups and whoever’s been shooting at us.” The firing had stopped when the two KEW rounds struck the assault ships.

  -

  The Marines rose from their covered positions and began advancing across the blastcrete. They had no sooner stepped onto the spaceport when dozens of pop-up weapons rose from the blastcrete and began firing. Some were energy weapons and others were firing armor penetrating rounds.

  “Return fire!” ordered Lieutenant Evans over her comm as she raised her assault rifle and fired an energy beam toward the nearest pop-up. She missed but two others hit the weapon, turning it into a twisted pile of smoking metal. Checking her HUD, she saw with anguish four more of her Marine icons were now showing red and six more amber. Amber meant their suits were damaged or worse. They had walked into a trap and were paying a deadly price for it.

  Explosions began to detonate on the blastcrete as some of her Marines switched to using explosive rounds. More of the pop-ups were destroyed and soon the firing died back down and then stopped. The blastcrete on the spaceport nearest them was now full of smoking and ruined pop-ups and numerous small craters where explosive rounds had struck. Once again the firing came to a stop.

  “Privates Bose and Evans, get your asses moving,” ordered Adams, feeling anger at the loss of more Marines. Some of them she had known and trained with for months. Over the years the Kleese had made the pop-ups more dangerous. “I want to know if there are any armed conscripts waiting for us and how many. Move out!”

  -

  Bose looked over at Evans. “I was hoping she’d forgotten about us.”

  “Are you kidding?” Evans said. “You know you’re her favorite. Who pulls all the extra duty all the time?”

  Bose didn’t reply but began walking across the blastcrete toward the row of hangers. If there were any conscripts here that’s where they would be hiding. The tall hangers or what was left of them would give the enemy some protection as well as the ability to fire down toward the advancing Marines. With a dejected sigh, Bose changed his rifle over to fire explosive rounds. He realized he needed to change his attitude or one of these days he was going to be sent on a mission and wouldn’t return. However, he had always had a hard time keeping his mouth shut.

  -

  Lieutenant Adams watched Privates Bose and Evans move across the blastcrete. She didn’t hate Private Bose; on the contrary he was one of her most dependable Marines. His biggest problem was his cockiness and not knowing when to keep his mouth shut. It reminded her of others she had commanded in the past. Most of them had moved on to become officers.

  -

  In space, aboard the Marine assault ship Victory Captain Marcus Avery watched the viewscreens showing the fighting on the planet. There were four spaceports under siege by Marines. So far two of them had fallen and the other two should shortly.

  “Any contacts on the sensors?” asked Avery, looking over at Commander Brannon who was in charge of the Victory.

  Brannon shook his head. “No, our battlecruisers have destroyed all twelve of the Kleese assault ships in the system and we’re jamming communications. The Alliance invasion fleet should be arriving in another two hours.”

  Avery turned his attention to the large tactical display to his left. It hung from the ceiling and showed the disposition of the fleet accompanying the Victory. There were two other Marine assault ships. The Lexington and the Terra. In addition there were four heavy battlecruisers, six standard battlecruisers, twelve light cruisers, and twenty assault ships with the fleet. For the time being they had control of the system until the Alliance fleet arrived and could take over.

  For the last thirty years Earth and the Alliance had been fighting the Kleese Empire, steadily freeing the worlds the Kleese held under its power. As worlds were freed most tended to join the Alliance, making it even stronger. In his last briefing back on Centerpoint Station, Avery had been informed it appeared the Kleese were abandoning the outer sections of their Empire plus strengthening the defenses around their core worlds and the planets they controlled in that region of space. Captain Avery knew there were still years of fighting ahead of them. There were many older conscript races who knew no other way than that taught to them by the Kleese. With some of those races, it would take the Alliance years to bring them back into the fold of civilization.

  Those worlds would have to be conquered and shown the way of the Kleese was not that of a civilized world. Shifting his gaze back to the main viewscreen, he could barely see the spaceport where the kinetic strikes had just gone in. Heavy smoke was covering many of the buildings and the control tower in particular. If there were any Kleese on the planet that’s where they would be. It was the only spaceport where disk assault ships had been spotted and now destroyed.

  -

  The Marines had made it to the hangers. After a quick search, they found all six of the still intact buildings to be empty other than a few small freighters there to be serviced.

  Lieutenant Adams stood between two of the hangers staring at the tall control tower.
It seemed to be solidly constructed and she could see only two entrances. There were a number of windows as well as the main spaceport observation windows at the top of the structure. All were broken and shattered glass lay everywhere. She wished she could order a kinetic strike to destroy it but there was a high probability there were civilians inside as well as Kleese so they would have to do it the hard way.

  Turning around in her battlesuit, she looked at Sergeant Styles standing next to her. “What do you think, Sergeant?”

  “I don’t like it,” he replied as he checked out the surrounding area. “Where are the conscripts? If there are Kleese inside that tower there should be large numbers of conscripts somewhere. Other than the pop-ups, the fighting’s been relatively light.”

  Adams pursed her lips. She knew Styles was right. Something wasn’t adding up. Could they be walking into a trap?

  “Everyone keep your eyes open,” she ordered. “Watch your sensors for any signs of movement.”

  Suddenly weapons fire erupted from the windows of the control tower and a ring of pop-up weapons pushed up from the blastcrete.

  “Return fire!” shouted Lieutenant Adams as she threw herself to the ground to avoid the incoming fire. The damn Kleese were using more pop-up weapons in every major battle. They were cheap to build and could be controlled remotely.

  Explosions rocked the base of the tower as a number of Marines used explosive rounds to take out the pop-ups. Others were firing energy beams and armor piercing rounds at the windows where the weapons fire was coming from. Occasionally Adams could hear a Marine cry out in pain from a weapons hit. Several more icons on her HUD turned red and even more glowed amber.

  After a few minutes of heavy fire it died down and came to a stop. Adams took some time to study the control tower. She could detect no movement with the advanced sensors in her suit.