Read The Catherine Kimbridge Chronicles #4, Retribution for Free Online

chair.
    Ricky snorted .“ Admit it, sweetie. Ya love me handling yer buttons and knobs . ”
    Honey blushe d— which was purely voluntary in an android .“ Please, captain ! ” she said in mock alarm .“ Not in front of the crew ! ”
    At the correct moment Honey micro-jumped the contents of the loading platform into the space surrounding the dreadnaught. The suppressor probes immediately attached themselves to the massive ship at strategic locations. They would remain cloaked and undetected until they received a special signal. At that point they would engage a hyperfield-dampening system that would effectively prevent the dreadnaught from engaging in a jump or maintaining their shields.
    Scattered throughout the system were numerous similar probes. Some were attached to ships, while others were placed strategically to automatically hitch rides on ships hyperjumping into or out of the Naanac system. For the moment the units were inactive. They would remain so until Admiral Kimbridge signaled the start of the GCP counteroffensive. Once that began, the Modos Syndicate would suddenly find itself unable to jump into many of its outlying systems, including its de facto capital, Naanac.
    Captains Valen and Takei had already visited over a dozen star systems currently under Modos control. In each there was a strong underground that the GCP was hoping to support.
    ***
    Newly promoted Commodore Jason Ruck commanded the SgrA task force near the galactic core. His task was a simple one: Make a good showing for the GCP while minimizing his loses. His command ship, the Mador, was a virtual twin of the GCP Yorktown . It represented the best technology available to the GCP. His task force consisted of twenty such ships, as well as several hundred lesser vessels from the various Coalition worlds. That said, he was under no illusion about the ultimate outcome of their encounter with the Modos forces.
    Thousands upon thousands of ships would soon be streaming out of the hyperfield conduit that would soon form near the massive gravitational well that represented the galactic core of the Milky Way. It was a simple matter of numbers. The Syndicate had them and the GCP did not.
    “ Here they come, sir ! ” Ensign Riker reported, from his sensor station in the back of the Mado r ’ s bridge .“ There is a massive neutrino surge building up. Dexter estimates the corridor will open in sixty seconds . ”
    Commodore Ruck swiveled in his seat to nod an acknowledgement toward the Ensign, while at the same time facing his new XO, Commander Decker.
    “ Jim, have Dexter coordinate with the Rutledge , Timkim, and Reliant . See if we ca n’ t pin down the entry point. Feed the results fleet-wide. I want all ships within twenty AU to micro-jump away from the expected backwash . ”
    “ Aye aye, sir ! ” the XO responded crisply in his characteristic West Country English accent. Dexter was the shi p’ s newly upgraded AI.
    Hitting his fleet-wide comm link Ruck, briefed the armada under his command.
    “ This is Commodore Ruck on the Mador . I want everyone sharp. Our mission is to engage the enemy but not sacrifice ourselves. This will be a battle won or lost by numbers. They have them and we do n’ t. Victory for us will be surviving to fight another day while at the same time giving the Syndicate one hell of a black eye. Our ships are faster and our general level of tech is better. But none of that will matter if you allow yourselves to be overwhelmed by their numbers. I want all ships of the fleet to engage in our preplanned Rabbit Hole Alpha formation .‘ Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee . ’ Micro-jump in, fire, micro-jump out. Use your rabbit holes to keep your people safe. All jumps are to be coordinated by interlinked shi p’ s AI using FTL bands. The Modos have nothing like it, so le t’ s keep them hopping. Good huntin g … Ruck out . ”
    The tall black man leaned back in his command chair. The grey of his temple had