Scourge: Book Two of the Starcrown Chronicles by Jon Gerrard

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  Admiral Saha sat back in his seat as the connection to the Valiant was cut. Throughout the ship the alert claxon began to blare as the immense carrier came to battle ready status. As the Gulliver’s captain went about preparing the vessel for combat, Admiral Saha brought up a tactical view of the system they had entered on his board. The asteroid field was so dense that it appeared as a single return on his screen at this range. And it was into the midst of that briar patch that he was going to be taking his battle group.

  Of the thousands of personnel in the battle group, Admiral Saha was the only one who actually knew what was at stake. He alone knew that the King of Gilead was aboard the ship they had been tasked with following, posing as the smuggler captain, Cordass Pell. When the chair of the Joint Chiefs had brought him into the loop about the King’s activities a little more than a week ago, he had been shocked to learn that his Highness would actually put himself at such risk. After giving it some thought however he realized that this was just the kind of thing that King Jason would do. He had gotten to know the King personally after he had rescued Saha’s crew six months ago following the pirate attack on his ship. Although at the time King Jason had lost all memory of his true identity, he still displayed the qualities that made him such an inspiring leader. Jason Raynor was the kind of man who put the welfare of his people above his own safety. That kind of thing was why so many were willing to put their lives on the line for him.

  As the battle group prepared to converge on the pirates’ base of operations, Admiral Saha forced himself to contain a growing feeling of excitement. Putting an end to the pirates had been the number one priority for every man and woman throughout the Fleet for the past several years. In the next few hours they might actually accomplish that goal. He tried not to feel overconfident, but he couldn’t envision anything that could withstand the combined firepower of his battle group. Unless the pirates had somehow miraculously managed to amass a fleet of warships with greater destructive power than he had under his command, he was going to reduce whatever base they had to slag.