went along – yet all the while concealing an agenda of their own.
The revolt against the Klin had been inevitable and carried out in a matter of days. Now the Kracori were in a position to launch the most audacious part of their plan.
It would be two-fold. The first, of course, included the sacking of the planet Juir and the destruction of the Expansion infrastructure within the Alliance Cluster. The second part was even bolder.
The Kracori Ludif leaders – in their infinite wisdom – realized that even if their forces could lay waste to the Juirean Legend of invincibility, it would be quickly replaced by the Legend of Earth, once the vastly superior Human fleet arrived and drove the Kracori from the region, like scared little animals from a carcass. The Kracori would be forced to withdraw, making it evident to all who was the strongest animal of the two. This humiliating action would make the Kracori the laughing stock of the galaxy, and come only months after first exposing their existence to the Expansion. It would be difficult for their legend to ever recover.
So the Kracori needed a way to draw the Humans away from the area, and to give them a reason to abandon their campaign against the Juireans altogether. It was Jonnif you offered a solution.
An attack upon their homeworld of Earth.
Preparations were hastily begun on the planet Glasien-4 once the Kracori revolt was complete. Yet unlike the earlier Juirean attack on Earth, which only utilized energy bombs so as to preserve the viability of the planet for future use, the Kracori attack would be nuclear. As Jonnif and the Council reasoned, it would be one thing to draw the Human fleet away from Juir, only to have it return later with even more resources – and a meaner attitude. It was quite another to ravage the planet with an inferno of deadly radioactivity, rendering the Earth useless for decades to come. The Ludif leaders figured this was the only way of ensuring that the Humans would not be around to interfere with Kracori plans into the future.
Entering the Human stellar system undetected could be a challenge, but the Kracori planners reasoned that the Humans wouldn’t be expecting such an attack, and the strike force would be arriving in Klin-built ships, the same as all the others flitting around the planet at the time. The plan would have a high probability of success, after which the Humans would have no choice but to withdraw their fleet in order to assist in the defense and recovery efforts.
As far as the first part of the plan went, Jonnif was confident in its execution and success. The Juireans would be expecting the Human fleet to arrive in the Cluster in four months-standard, and would be making plans based on that timetable.
Yet with a two month head start – and by utilizing the secret path through the galactic core – the Kracori were already there….
Chapter 9
Two days later Council Elder Hydon entered the darkened confines of the Juirean Strategic Command Center for a meeting with Fleet Marshal Relion. The Juirean military higher commander had sent out every scout and called on every sensor available to try and locate any mass-gravity signatures approaching ahead of the invading Human fleet.
“We’ve been unable to detect anything out of the ordinary, my Lord,” Relion said, frustration thick in his voice. “There does seem to be a major exodus from the gravity lanes by just the normal traffic, all trying to avoid the Humans, yet nothing that would indicate a concentrated force of three hundred ships or more.”
“You’ve scanned all along the lanes, even the most obscure?”
“Yes, my Lord. The gravity routes to Juir are the most-traveled and monitored in the galaxy, even coming from that side of the Core. If there was a fleet in deep-well transit it would have been detected.”
“Then the Human has lied to us,” Hydon stated, pursing his thin lips together in anger.
“It appears so – but to what end? He had to surely know we would attempt to verify his claims, and if no traces were found, then our evacuation efforts would have been delayed only temporarily. Are the Humans so anxious to kill Juireans that even a few days’ delay in evacuating the population would mean a few more of us left behind to kill?”
“They are a deceptive and diabolical race. They appear to thrive on subterfuge and underhandedness, so their motives are always in question. I will be