Chapter 63 Scapegoats.

Before they left Simon ordered, to drop all the mines they had around the planet.

It wouldn't stop the enemy but with any luck they would lose some more ships and it would definitely be a hindrance for any ground forces dropping in from orbit.

It was frustrating to successfully defend the planet only to have to abandon it right after that but there was no other way.

They couldn't defeat the incoming forces with what they had left and before the colonies went fully dark they managed to send reports of the slaughter that the enemy turned them into.

Their adversaries were hellbent on eradicating the Elani but no one knew why,even the empress had no idea why someone would do that as her empire didn't use conquest as a means to expand and there was no need to use it as around 350 light years in any direction from their home world was an empty space without any sentient species around and their empire spanned a little more than 200 light years in total. 

The twenty eight hours went by very quickly but not a minute was wasted.

Fortunately the Elani had a way smaller population than humanity or they would have to leave many more behind.

Their population totaled a few million on the capital world and the same on each of the colonies as they propagated slowly but thanks to their long lifespans they managed to increase their population and finally create an empire that was now crumbling.

THe imperial family wanted to board their imperial battleship but their own officers convinced them to board the Thanatos as it was the mightiest ship in the system and had a higher chance of survival if something went wrong.

After talking about it with Simon it was decided that this was a good idea especially if the enemy wanted to take out the imperial family.

No one would suspect that instead of boarding their own vessel they boarded a terran ship.

-Welcome aboard the Thanatos.

Simon welcomed them aboard his ship with Athena's avatar materialized by his side.

The imperial family was shocked when they heard that she was this ship's A.I.

The welcoming was cut short as they had to leave soon and there was still much work to be done.

The empress and Alesia were on the bridge with Simon when he gave the order to leave the system.

-Will we ever return here?

Alesia asked.

-Yes,we will return here one day.

When we are strong enough to wipe out the enemies and secure this region of space,then we will come back and reclaim your home planet.

Simon answered.

The atmosphere on the bridge was solemn as everyone understood that their allies just lost their empire and most of their population to the enemy they knew nothing about.

-I almost forgot.What happened to that guy I fought in the arena?

Simon just now remembered about it.

-He disappeared along with the prime minister and his whole family during the attack.

We don't know where they went but it's a good bet that they are the traitors who helped the enemy.

The empress answered.

-You are an undisputed victor of that duel even if it doesn't matter anymore as our empire fell.

She continued.

-It matters to me.

Simon said.

-I wanted the return ceremony to be held in the palace but under the circumstances it might have to be held on earth or the moon.

He spoke seriously.

-So you still want to be Alesia's partner?

Liara asked.She was convinced that both Simon and Alesia were in love but the marriage was a political arrangement that just coincided with their wishes.

-Of course I do.

If I didn't want her then why would I accept that duel and even come here in the first place.

Simon forgot that they were on the bridge and the crew was listening in.

Alesia was blushing so hard that her skin tone darkened several shades.

The men on the bridge were proud of their Admiral for getting the princess and the women were a little jealous as a history like that was only seen in the movies or in books.

When Simon looked at his gossiping crew he also blushed a little but he didn't say anything about it as he was also proud of his most important achievement which was to get his girl.

-Admiral we just got a message from one of our scouts and the enemy just jumped out of their rallying point.

The comms tech reported.

It looked like the rest of this conversation would be put on hold for now.

The crew also stopped gossiping and went back to work.

-Status on the evacuation?

Simon asked.

-The evacuation is complete Admiral,the only ones left are the ground forces and those that wished to stay.

His intel oficer reported.

-Status of the fleet.

-All ships are ready and awaiting your orders admiral.

Athena said, materializing next to his command chair.

There were thousands of ships now ready to jump on his command.

If they were all military vessels then they could destroy the enemy but unfortunately only four thousand of them were military ships and over half of them were obsolete ships that were held in reserve and just so happened to come in handy now as evacuation ships.

The sight was breathtaking nonetheless when they were all grouped together.

-Signal the fleet to jump out at will,to the rendezvous coordinates we provided.

Simon ordered.

A moment later ships started to jump away.

The Thanatos and his escorts stayed behind to make sure that everyone left and if need be to cower for the ships that had a little longer FTL charging cycle.

THe fleet just finished jumping and now it was the terrans turn when the incoming ships were spotted on the sensors.

-Enemy ships incoming ETA ten minutes.

Athena reported.

-Do we know where they will jump in?

Simon asked.

-Yes but only in approximation so there is no way to target them short of waiting for them and that's a terrible idea.

Athena said,figuring out what Simon was planning.

-We won't wait for them but i want to leave them a small surprise.

Calculate the time for our ordinance to reach the approximate jump in coordinates and fire missiles,torpedoes and MAC,s in the intervals needed to reach the target area as the enemy jumps in.

Athena calculated it in seconds, a human would need at least a few minutes to do the same.

She sent the order in which their fleet was to fire and the coordinates to fire upon.

All the ships opened fire at once and the Tolrp[edos went first followed by missiles and the last to be fired were MAC's.

After firing six salvos the Terran fleet jumped away to the rendezvous coordinates.

Simon would see the results of the salvos they just fired as well as the mines they left.

He left behind some probes like the one he,Steuner and Mikael left on the JK 18557.

The feed from them would show the situation and also revealed some of the enemy weaknesses or secrets if they were lucky.

The Enemy jumped in minutes after the Terran fleet left and immediately started to take hits from the ordinance the humans fired in advance.

The enemies were in disarray since they were attacked but couldn't find the attackers.

They suffered some losses from the incoming projectiles,torpedoes and missiles since they jumped in all at once but the real losses were inflicted when they panicked and started shooting blindly,trying to hit the invisible enemy.

All together they lost over a hundred ships destroyed or heavily damaged before they figured out that there was no invisible enemy fleet waiting for them.

They proceeded to the Elani home world and got hit by the mines left in orbit, losing around sixty ships to the mines and from the space defense weapons on the surface before they bombed the weapons from orbit and used their point defense weapons to clear the mines.

The next phase was the ground assault and it also took a toll on their forces as the shuttles went under fire from the anti air sites all around the planet.

When they finally landed and destroyed most of the AA sites they had to face the Elani Imperial Army in combat.

Even with the space and air superiority the invasion took over a month to finally destroy the last defenses of the Elani and over five months to kill the last soldier on the planet.

The imperial capital world was protected by five million troops and residents that refused to leave.

The enemy lost one and a half million of their own troops to clear the planet and that was while using orbital bombardments and fighter drone support.

The worst of it all was that the Elani managed to evacuate and they had a powerful ally who helped them in repelling the first invasion attempt on the capital world.

So they might come back to seek vengeance for what they had done to their empire and the enemy didn't want to pay the price for the masterminds of this whole plan.

In the end they were just some minor species doing the dirty work for someone else and if they weren't careful then they would become the scapegoat and take the blame for all of this.