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  The Forgotten Empire:

  War for the Empire

  A Forgotten Empire Novel

  (The Forgotten Empire: War for the Empire, Book 4)

  By

  Raymond L. Weil

  USA Today Best Selling Author

  Books in the Forgotten Empire Series

  The Forgotten Empire: Banishment (Book 1)

  The Forgotten Empire: Earth Ascendant (Book 2)

  The Forgotten Empire: The Battle for Earth (Book 3)

  The Forgotten Empire: The War for the Empire (Book 4)

  The Forgotten Empire: The Confederation and Empire at War (Book 5)

  Website: http://raymondlweil.com/

  Copyright © March 2021 by Raymond L. Weil Publications

  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.

  DEDICATION

  This book is dedicated first and foremost to my mom, Debra. She encouraged my dad to follow his dream of writing and supported him throughout his writing career. She was his inspiration and comfort in times of struggles and hardships. They enjoyed 46 years of marriage.

  To my Dad’s sister, Diana, who he could joke around with and who allowed my dad to be his ornery self. They shared a love of cooking, which I believe came across in numerous books, in the detail of the food.

  To Aunt Bobbie and Uncle George, who were like parents to my dad. Thank you for supporting and taking care of both of my parents throughout their health struggles. You are truly appreciated. I know Dad always enjoyed your presence and nurturing manner.

  To my brother, Chris, who shared a love of farming and soccer with our dad. I am glad he had someone to pass on all of his farming wisdom too.

  To Payton, his oldest grand-daughter, who was cherished from the moment she was born. He was so proud of you for working hard in pursuit of your career goals. He enjoyed many years of watching you play soccer and your dad try to coach you.

  To Lexi, who he loved watching out on the farm spending countless hours riding and training your barrel racing horses. He was so proud that you were so determined and persevered through everything to follow your passion of barrel racing. He always did have pointers for you on how you could get better, but deep down knew that you probably knew more than he did about the subject.

  To my son Braden, who shared a love of camping and fishing with his grandpa. He also loved hearing Grandpa’s campfire stories. He always insists we tell stories around the campfire, but no one holds a candle to the stories Grandpa could tell.

  To Jacob, who I believe inherited his orneriness from his grandpa, as well as his creative imagination. Grandpa loved hearing all the stories I would tell him of how ornery you are and the things you say.

  To Victoria, who always had an ongoing game of tag with Grandpa. He really loved all the time he was able to spend with you and being able to pick you up from school.

  To Beckham, who will carry on the family name. He was so excited to watch Chris “pay for his raising.” I am sure we will all get some good laughs in the future watching you grow up. Hopefully you will take after your grandpa a lot, especially in orneriness.

  As for myself, I think I inherited my Dad’s imagination, although I don’t hold a candle to him.

  The treasured friendships of Dusty, Dana, Judy, and Bud, I am glad you guys were able to have the special friendships that you guys have had all of these years.

  To the friends that Chris and I grew up with who, throughout different parts of our lives, were like kids to my dad. He really valued you guys more than you could know. Ray, thank you for all that you did for my dad, I sincerely appreciate it.

  To all the kids my dad ever coached in soccer, he really had a passion for the game and for coaching, thank you for allowing him to pursue that passion.

  Lastly, I would like to thank all of the fans, who really allowed his dream of becoming an author to come true. Through you and his books his memory, and his imagination will live on.

  Raymond L. Weil

  1953-2020

  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

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Epilogue

  The Seven Races of the Confederation

  The Forgotten Empire:

  War for the Empire

  Chapter One

  The Great Council of the Confederation was once more in session. They gazed at a number of large viewscreens, showing the shattered remains of the fleets they had sent to attack Earth. Out of over eight thousand ships they had sent, only 2,237 had returned, many of them showing major damage.

  “How could this have happened?” demanded Clun, the Druin Councilor. “That fleet should have rolled over the Humans.”

  “Fleet Admiral Horrabe, in his last message, stated the Humans of Earth were far more dangerous than those in the Empire,” answered Morag Councilor Damora. “Horrabe believed it was due to them having a barbaric culture for many years, before making contact with some survivors from the Human Empire. Horrabe claimed the Humans of Earth would be the most ferocious warriors the Confederation has ever encountered. He warned that, if they were not dealt with, they would become a far greater threat than even the new Human Empire.”

  “Ridiculous!” said Clun, rising to his feet. “They are only a one-star system, and they are far away from us and the Empire.”

  “Nevertheless, they have defeated all three of the fleets we have sent against them,” replied Damora, his large eyes focusing on Clun. “I recommend we send a small fleet of warships to monitor the Earth System. We must stay abreast of what occurs there. While the Human Empire is a danger, I am more concerned about what Earth may do after our recent failed attack.”

  “Should we send a second fleet now to destroy the system, while it has been weakened by Admiral Horrabe’s fleets?” asked Head Councilor Ardon Reull, a Lormallian.

  Damora was silent for several long moments, and then he spoke chilling words. “I have spoken to a number of Morag military analysts. We have analyzed in detail the scans that Admiral Horrabe took of the Earth System. We estimate it would take, at a minimum, twenty thousand warships to destroy it.”

  “Twenty thousand!” spoke the Zang councilor in shock. “Of that twenty thousand, how many would we lose?”

  “Twelve to fifteen thousand,” answered Damora calmly. “Many of the surviving ships will be damaged to some extent.”

  “What do we do?” asked Klug, the Morphene representative, as his form flowed and shifted.

  “We build up our fleets but leave Earth alone for now,” replied Damora. “In time we will be ready to deal with Earth. For now, we must turn our attention to the growing threat within the Confederat
ion from the Human Empire. I propose we repair Admiral Horrabe’s fleet and greatly reinforce it. We then send it to the Human Empire and retake all their worlds. Once we have dealt with their Empire, then we can return our full attention to the Earth Humans and can decide what we must do to deal with them.”

  Ardon Reull frowned. On one of the viewscreens, a heavily damaged Lormallian battleship was visible. It had several large holes in its side, with burn marks the length of its hull. Ardon was surprised the ship had made it back. “It will take us weeks to repair all the damage to our ships. While we’re doing that and then conquering the Human Empire within our Confederation, what will Earth be doing?”

  “The small task group will be monitoring that,” explained Damora. “I want Earth kept under constant surveillance. We have another problem. Fleet Admiral Horrabe faced over seven thousand of the Humans’ small attack craft. We must have a way to deal with them.”

  Ardon Reull reached forward and switched to one of the viewscreens to show a small heavily armed light cruiser. “This is a ship stored in our military archives, specifically designed to deal with small ships. After a few minor modifications, it should deal with the Humans’ attack craft. The specs are in the archives on Bator Prime. We can modify several of our shipyards and produce these immediately.”

  Damora nodded. He saw how these vessels would be useful. They might have made a huge difference in the previous battle for Earth. “Send a copy of the specs to all the member races of this council. Each should build sufficient numbers of these light cruisers to protect our larger warships.”

  “It will be done,” replied Ardon. “In the meantime, all member races of this council need to continue to build new warships. Our remote scouts indicate the core worlds of the Human Empire are now producing large numbers of warships. The same is true of a number of other worlds in the Empire. Taking some of those worlds, particularly the core worlds, will be very difficult.”

  “Two weeks,” said Damora. In the back of Clun’s mind, Damora placed a mental command. In two weeks, we must send more ships to the Human Empire to retake those worlds for the Confederation. We must commit at least another five thousand warships to this endeavor.

  Druin Councilor Clun nodded approvingly. “I would suggest we start on the periphery of the Human Empire and work inward. We take the weakest worlds first and, by doing so, reduce the resources available to the core worlds. In time, only the core worlds will stand against us.”

  “And it will take time to conquer so many worlds,” commented Ralor Conn of the Zynth. “The Human core worlds will be no easy victory.”

  “But they will fall,” responded Clun. “Let us repair our ships and make preparations for a full-scale attack on the Human Empire.”

  All the councilors nodded in agreement. None knew that Damora had placed the suggestion to repair the ships and for an all-out attack on the Human Empire into Clun’s mind.

  -

  Admiral Dylan Cleemorl was in the Tantula Five star system. Every day new warships arrived from the core worlds. So many in fact that he had already sent a sizable portion of his fleet back to Earth. Cleemorl was intent on making the Hagen Star Cluster a roadblock for any Confederation attack on the core worlds. The cluster had seven major inhabited planets and eighteen other systems with major mining operations. Several of those systems had terraformed moons and large populations.

  On the main viewscreen of the Themis an ODP was being assembled in orbit of Tantula Five. This would make the sixth one. On the ground, large and powerful PDCs were under construction. Around all seven of the major worlds in this cluster, these massive defense grids were now in place. Over the coming weeks ODPs would be installed around all the major worlds, as well as continuing construction of PDCs.

  “We have 230 battlecruisers and 4 more dreadnoughts due to arrive by the end of the week,” reported Captain Fulmar. “That will put us up to 720 battlecruisers and 43 dreadnoughts.”

  Dylan nodded. “Yet all the crews are very inexperienced when it comes to wartime battles. I want daily combat drills scheduled. I want those crews up to par as soon as possible.” He was deeply concerned about the lack of combat experience in these new crews.

  “Yes, Admiral,” replied Captain Fulmar. “I’ll make the necessary arrangements. I would suggest we use the Novak Two system as a training area. It has a large number of asteroids and has been mined out. No Humans currently live in the system, and it will be a good location for some live-fire exercises.”

  “See to it,” ordered Dylan. “The sooner these crews are ready for combat, the better I’ll feel.”

  Returning his attention to the main viewscreen, he watched as two small construction vessels worked on the ODP. One of them had a weapons turret grasped in the vessel’s remote-controlled arms, which it slowly put in place. The small construction vessels were also equipped with fusion welders and cutters.

  “It’s going pretty quickly,” commented Captain Fulmar.

  “Yet again I’ll feel much better when we have all the major planets in this cluster protected by ODPs and PDCs,” replied Dylan, leaning back in his command chair. “It’s only a matter of time before the Confederation renews their attacks.”

  Fulmar nodded. “There have only been a few in the last couple weeks. I wonder what they’re waiting on?”

  “It may have something to do with their attack on Earth.” At that moment the alarm on the sensor console went off, drawing everyone’s attention.

  “Zynth battlecruiser just dropped from hyperspace,” reported Lieutenant Casella. “It’s in the far reaches of the system and appears to be taking scans.”

  Dylan let out a deep sigh. It seemed that every few days a Confederation warship appeared and scanned the system. “Send out two battlecruisers to chase it away.”

  The orders were quickly sent, and two Imperial battlecruisers made the hyperspace jump to accost the Zynth battlecruiser, which jumped out at the appearance of the Imperial ships.

  “Same as the last four times,” said Captain Fulmar. “They jump in, take a few scans, and then jump back out.”

  Dylan nodded. “Have the two battlecruisers stay there for an hour and then have them return.” He doubted if the Zynth ship would return that soon, but he wanted to be ready just in case.

  Dylan wondered where these ships were coming from. All seven of the major worlds in the Hagen Star Cluster had reported seeing them. Dylan had at least a full squadron of warships in each system, as well as ships monitoring the inhabited moons. If it came to a battle, he planned on being prepared.

  -

  Zynth Admiral Donlur gazed at the latest tactical information from the Hagen Star Cluster. It grew more evident with every passing day that the Humans were heavily fortifying it. Already the primary system of Tantula Five was a veritable fortress. The Humans were also building a massive base on the inhabited moon of Gideon in the system.

  “We must slow this defensive buildup, until our fleets are ready to attack,” spoke First Officer Zakor. “Every day this cluster becomes a bigger danger to the Confederation.”

  Admiral Donlur nodded; his yellow reptilian gaze moved across his Command Center. “We shall attack the system of Clovian Three. It has major mining operations. I plan on attacking all the Human mining operations throughout the cluster. It will greatly reduce their resources and will slow their defensive buildup.”

  “How many ships will we use in this attack?”

  “Our fleet is scattered, observing hundreds of Human worlds and installations. We will take the ships we have here with the flagship to make our attack.”

  First Officer Zakor nodded. “That will give us 130 battlecruisers and 20 battleships. That should easily allow us to overwhelm the mining colonies at Clovian Three.”

  “We’ll launch our attack tomorrow. We must soften up this star cluster, so our fleets can retake it for the Confederation.”

  -

  Captain Manson was on board the dreadnought Taggert, which was patroll
ing the inhabited moons and mining colonies of the Hagen Star Cluster. He had ten dreadnoughts and forty battlecruisers with him.

  “Still receiving reports of Zynth warships scanning many of our systems,” reported First Officer Tricia Jansen. “Nearly every star system, including Tantula Five, has reported Zynth ships in the last two days. They jump in, take a series of scans, and then jump back out.”

  “I don’t like this,” said Manson, crossing his arms over his chest. “It sounds too much like they’re up to something.”

  “Should we warn the mining colonies?”

  Manson nodded. “I think it would be wise. Unfortunately, there are a lot of them, and we can’t be everywhere at once.”

  On the main viewscreen, several Imperial battlecruisers were visible. The one-thousand-meter-long vessels were covered in weapons and ready for combat. Manson’s task group crews were all well trained. If it came to a battle, they were ready.

  -

  Mayor Adrian Styles sat in her crowded office on the largest moon of Clovian Three. Clovian Three was a G-type star but had no planets in the liquid water zone. It had several large asteroid fields, as well as numerous small moons around its four gas giants, all rich in minerals.

  On the moon of Clovian, the two large domed cities were where most of the miners and their families lived. Thanks to the Human Empire, both cities sat in a ring of protective energy beam turrets and heavy missile launchers. Both domes were protected by energy shields, and small spaceports were outside each one. Each city had a population of around fifty thousand.

  Adrian was currently being briefed on several recent mineral discoveries that might be worth setting up more mining operations.

  “We have two deep asteroid finds,” reported Darien Stokes. “Each has the capability of producing several million tons of heavy metals.”

  “Our primary worlds could use those heavy metals in their defense preparations,” mused Adrian, as she thought of the costs involved. “Who do we have who could handle these two projects?” Dozens of mining families controlled most of the major mining operations in the system.