The Struggle for Empire/Chapter 15
Chapter XV
The End of the War
As soon as the invaders were prostrated, the Anglo-Saxons began to make preparations for revenge. New dockyards were erected among the heaps of blackened ruins, and thousands of men worked day and night building new interstellar war-ships. The enemy's ships that had been thrown to the ground by James Tarrant's Electro-Ednogen apparatus were taken possession of. The dead were cleared out, and such hulls as were still serviceable were repaired and refitted. Besides these, several ships were collected together from the planets, and new ones were being daily turned out at the dockyards, so the Anglo-Saxons very soon had a formidable fleet at their disposal. Every ship was fitted with the new Electro-Ednogen apparatus, so that when near a planet or other attracting body they were practically invincible.
Hardly any of the ships belonging to the people of Kairet had been able to escape beyond the radius of the moon; and those that did manage to get away were so battered about and their energies so exhausted that their progress through space was necessarily very slow. Hence the Sirians remained for a long time in complete ignorance of the catastrophe that had overtaken their fleet. But the avenging enemy was making vast preparations to invade their system, and soon a huge fleet consisting of battleships, cruisers, torpedo-boats, and transports filled with soldiers was in readiness to start.
The scene was very different to that which had witnessed the departure of the first fleet for space. Beneath the crowd of vessels were the heaped-up ruins of the great capital of the Universe, while all around as far as the eye could reach were strewn uprooted trees, ruined buildings, and the wrecks of battleships. But the scorched and burnt ground was covered with an enthusiastic crowd of men and women, who cheered frantically when the Union Jack was displayed as the signal for departure. Then James Tarrant arrived, accompanied by the Admiral-in-Chief, and was received with frantic cheers and saluted as the saviour of his country. A moment later they were on board the flag-ship. Handkerchiefs and cocked hats were waved in the air, swords glistened in the sunlight, and the mighty fleet swept away into space.
Nothing of any importance occurred on the voyage. They did not meet with a single hostile war-ship all the way. The moon was soon passed and left far away in the distance. The orbits of Mars and Saturn were passed in quick succession, and finally that of Neptune, at the end of the first month. Then they rushed into the darkness of space, every ship's head being turned in the direction of Sirius, while the sun gradually diminished and faded away like a star. Months rolled by while they dashed along through those dark unknown depths, with no difference between night and day, and nothing to break the dull monotony of the voyage. The propellers flew round and the machinery whirled and sparkled incessantly. And so they dashed on and on, eager to fulfil their mission of vengeance, the gunners lounging round their guns impatient at the delay, and the officers restlessly pacing the decks. Forward and forward they dashed towards the distant star that was growing ever brighter and larger.
'Vengeance! vengeance!' was the cry in the officers' quarters and between the decks, while the soldiers on the transports clashed their arms together in their impatience.
At last they approached Nanius, the outside planet of Sirius. The cruisers were sent on in front to find out the whereabouts of the enemy's ships, but they went forward without any opposition; they did not even encounter a single war-ship. The fact of the matter was that the Sirians had been so elated by their victories that they had sent the fleet which had been previously stationed in these regions to help in conquering the earth. Besides this, the few of their ships that had escaped from the earth had only as yet performed half of their journey, so the people of Kairet were still quite in ignorance of the sudden reversal that had taken place in their fortunes.
So the Anglo-Saxon fleets passed the orbit of Nanius without striking a single blow. The next planet whose orbit they passed was on the further side of Sirius, so they advanced some distance into the Sirian system without their presence being noticed, or even suspected. But they found a fleet of war-ships close to the next planet, and preparations were made for an engagement. The Anglo-Saxons manœuvred so that they enticed their adversaries quite near to the planet before they came to close quarters. Then the fight commenced in real earnest, but the Electro-Ednogen apparatus was turned on, and ship after ship was hurled down to the planet. In vain the Sirian commanders fired their enormous guns and used all the weapons with which science had provided them; they found themselves slowly drifting towards the ground, then faster and faster, until they fell with a crash that dislocated their machinery and killed all their men. Nothing could check the unseen force that hurled them to destruction; for each war-ship was armed with dozens of the great cone-shaped reflectors, so that if one were damaged by a cannon-shot, the rest could still destroy. Some of the Anglo-Saxon vessels were torpedoed and otherwise shot about, but they were very few; for all the captains used such tactics as kept them well away from the enemy's ships, so that they could use their destroying apparatus without receiving much damage themselves.
In a few hours the Sirian fleet was destroyed, only a few ships escaping. Then the Anglo-Saxon ships made straight for Kairet, but the news of their arrival had already preceded them, and a fleet was being concentrated close to that planet to oppose them. In a few days they arrived at Kairet, and a furious battle commenced, in which the Anglo-Saxons suffered heavily. The Sirian ships fought with obstinate bravery, and pierced their assailants in many places before they were hurled to the ground. But, in spite of their bravery, they could not withstand the terrible Electro-Ednogen apparatus, and their fleet gradually dwindled away, until its remains were dispersed and chased all over the planet by the cruisers. Then the Anglo-Saxon fleet formed into line with exultation, and the order was given to bombard the capital of Kairet. What followed was but a counterpart of what had previously happened at London. Drawn up in long lines, the ships hovered among the clouds, and crossed and recrossed over the terrified city, raining down death and destruction, while the lightning flashed and the thunder rolled through the air. It lasted for hours, and then the fleets withdrew from the smoking ruins and sent an envoy to demand the surrender of all the fortresses, dockyards, and important cities, and informing the Government of what had happened to their own fleet at the earth. The Government, after a short deliberation, refused to surrender. Thereupon the fleet sailed away and began to wreck the other cities. The Government was powerless to do anything to save the planet, for its fleets were all destroyed, and its energies and resources prostrated by the incredible exertions it had been making during the war. The forts kept up a desultory fire, but they could do little damage to the fleets that floated in the air far above their heads. Almost invisible, the ships went hither and thither, and, whenever they saw a group of inhabitants or buildings, a shell was hurled down into the midst of them. But the people soon had enough of the slaughter and destruction, which they had no means whatever of preventing, for they had been taken totally unawares, and so the Government sent envoys demanding conditions of surrender. The Admiral-in-Chief replied that they must surrender unconditionally. This demand was complied with after much debating.
The Anglo-Saxon fleets now descended to the ground, and the soldiers were disembarked from the transports, accompanied by all the panoply of war, to take possession of the cities and forts. Meanwhile the commanders and diplomatists of both sides met to discuss the question of peace. The Anglo-Saxons demanded the evacuation of the planet that had been the original cause of the war, the surrender of another planet called Maikat, that belonged to the Sirian system, the payment of a huge war indemnity, and the limitation of the Sirian war-ships for the future to their own planetary system. The principal forts were to be occupied by the Anglo-Saxon troops until the indemnity had been paid. These conditions were hard, but, as the people of Kairet lay at the mercy of their conquerors, they were at last accepted, and peace was signed between the two great Powers of the Universe more than six years after the commencement of the war.