by Saxon Andrew
Gomez said, “Sir, from that far out, our beams will do little more than energize that ship’s force field. I’m sure they won’t penetrate.”
“We are not going there to trial our beams against that ship. We’re there to trial the penetrators. If all of you fire simultaneously, the force field will go to full power and there should be a moment before their scanners can adapt to the energy change. The Saturn will jump in and launch a penetrator barrage immediately after you fire. We will be jumping in level with the center of the enemy ship and it will take them a short time to deflect their blasters and lock on us. The Saturn will jump out as soon as the penetrators are launched.” Shane stared at the pilots and saw they wanted to take the ship on. “Gentlemen, we are jumping into the most heavily defended planet in the Grillen Empire. What do you think they are going to be doing while we go after that ship?”
Gomez knew Shane was right. Then he had a thought, “Do you think that ship might fire on our jump signature before we emerge into normal space? We could emerge into a huge blast area.”
“That’s why you’re making your formation the size of a Grillen Battleship. I don’t believe that ship has access to the Grillen communication frequencies and will hold their fire until they determine if your two groups are possible allies of theirs. The Grillen will hesitate to fire on the two jump points because they won’t know if the two could be more ships from that civilization. This provides us a unique opportunity to get in, take a shot, and get out before we’re fired on. This much I can tell you; you will be chased. So get out and jump to your assigned coordinates.” Shane looked at his wrist unit, “You have an hour to get your two groups formed up and we’ll be jumping immediately after. The Saturn will jump into the Grillen Home World a tenth of a second after your departure. This is going to happen fast so make sure your Wings know their responsibilities.”
“Sir, what do we do when we jump to the second assembly coordinates?”
Shane looked at Captain Jennings and knew this pilot was ready for promotion. He saw it when the others didn’t. “We were conducting flight trials when this interrupted us. What better way to trial our Ship than to do it against live targets? You’ve been working on this for weeks; now we’ll see what you’ve learned.”
Captain Wisecup, the gunnery commander, raised his hand. Shane nodded to him, “Yes Captain.”
“What will the gunnery crews be doing?”
Shane smiled, “You’re going to be firing arrows at the savages attacking us. Your teams know the drill.”
Wisecup smiled and the commanders laughed. Shane picked up the folder he had brought in with him and Kelli shouted, “Attenhut.” Shane walked out of the room and Kelli said, “You’re the best in the fleet. Make the Admiral proud.”
The Pilots shouted, “Yes Sir!”
“Dismissed!”
Kelli watched the commanders exit the room and was amazed at the plan Shane had developed. As a tactical expert she saw the nuances of the attack and knew she should have thought of them as well. She had learned a lot. Her fear was gone. She knew she could follow her commander into battle and not worry about losing her life. Everything that could be done to prevent that happening was done. She smiled and left for the bridge.
• • •
Gem took the Triton out of Space Dock for initial trials when Admiral Gibbons appeared on her display, “Commodore, is you ship armed and combat ready?”
“Our Rovers are not armed and their beams are set for training level. The ship has all its weapons on board.”
“I need you to prepare your ship for combat immediately. I may be sending you into a war zone.”
“Sir?”
“Read the download; once you complete it, get back to me and let me know if you can get ready in time.”
Gem saw the message that was sent to Shane and then the attack profile he was going to use. Her heart went into her throat and she activated the ship’s alarms. She stood up and her face took on an expression that was a combination of fear and determination. The Triton was going to be ready or heads would roll. The urgency of the Triton’s crew matched the ship’s Commander. The Rovers were being armed and prepared for combat as the gunnery crews armed their weapons. Penetrators were loaded into the belts and began moving into the launchers. Gem watched her display and saw she only had twenty minutes left before she would have to jump. If she couldn’t get ready in time, she was ordered to remain at Space Dock. She watched her panel and there were still numerous lights showing red. She looked at Captain McCagg and yelled, “GO TO THE PENETRATOR TEAMS AND GET THEM MOVING!!!”
McCagg ran off the bridge for the tubes, jumped in a cart, and accelerated toward the center of the mile long ship. He arrived and found one of the penetrator belts had jammed against the side of a channel. He saw the teams moving the belt back and forth attempting to get it to move without success. He ran to the wall and pulled a heavy hammer out of its mount and ran to the frozen belt. It moved forward and he hit the side of the channel with the heavy hammer with all his strength. There was a loud pop and the belt hesitated…and then moved forward. The other twenty belts sensed the movement and began moving in unison. The penetrator team leader looked at Matt with shock on his face and Matt said, “Sometimes…not very often…nothing works like a hammer.” The team leader smiled and the penetrator tubes on the port side of the Triton began receiving their payloads.
Gem saw she was down to less than thirty seconds when her panel turned entirely green. She shouted to the ceiling, “Thank you, God!” She activated the main communication channel and said, “JUMP IN FIFTEEN SECONDS. ROVERS WILL LAUNCH ON EMERGENCE INTO NORMAL SPACE. GUN CREWS WILL COMMENCE FIRING IMMEDIATELY AFTER EMERGENCE. GIVE THEM HELL.”
Gem grabbed the ship’s control paddles and smiled. McCagg arrived just in time to see the Triton jump into green space.
• • •
“Lord, we have two ships arriving close to our position.”
“How close?”
The Servant looked at his panel, “One will appear seventy five miles above us and the other seventy five miles below us. Should I fire on them?”
“How large are they?”
“About the size of our Ally’s Major Battleship.”
“Hold your fire. Target them but don’t fire until I order you to do so. They’re far enough out to pose no danger.”
“Yes Lord.”
• • •
“Admiral, I have two ships jumping in above and below the Servant Warship.”
“Hold your fire. It might be more of their ships and I don’t want to cause an incident.” The Admiral stared at the jump signatures and an instant later ordered the defense fleet to attack. He was two seconds too late. The four hundred Rovers emerged and fired on the giant bronze colored ship.
No one knew the number of beams and missiles that ripped through the space where the two groups of Rovers arrived…but the magnitude of the attack was off the scale. The Rovers disappeared before any of them could be hit. An instant later, the Servant ship was hit with twenty main penetrators.
• • •
Shane saw normal space appear with the giant bronze warship eighty miles away. He pressed the launch button on his panel and twenty penetrators shot out of their tubes and accelerated away at their maximum speed. It took them less than a tenth of a second to arrive at the Servant Ship that had been momentarily blinded by the increased energy of its force field. The Servant’s force field held for less than a second and the giant ship exploded into a giant fireball that blew out a shock wave into the defending Grillen Ships. The Saturn recorded the destruction of the giant ship and jumped away before the defenders could close in.
The Grillen Admiral screamed into his communicator, “FOLLOW THOSE SHIPS AND DESTROY THEM!!”
Thousands of Grillen ships began jumping out after the fleeing Union Warships.
• • •
The King looked at the Servant standing in front of his throne and said, “It appears yo
ur means of transportation has been eliminated.” The Servant stood there in stunned silence. The King smiled, “We’ll make your stay as comfortable as possible until another ship comes.”
The Servant’s speech was jerky, “That wou..would.. be…..good.”
The King knew the Servant was shocked at what had happened. He decided to use the time to find out all he could from the being standing in front of him.
• • •
The Saturn jumped into normal space and ten seconds later the four hundred Rovers arrived and took their positions around it. Shane counted to four and said over the communication channel, “Start firing guns.” Millions of hardened plastic shards left the Saturn’s hull at a tremendous velocity just as the Grillen Ships jumped in on her. The Rovers were scattered just above the Saturn’s hull, between the gun turrets, and watched the shards accelerate away; the first wave of shards left, followed by the second. The Rovers followed the second wave out with the third wave of shards launched directly behind them.
• • •
The first Grillen ships to arrive were the Grey Ships that entered normal space four miles from the Saturn in the middle of the first wave of shards. They were all shattered into fragments. Eighty Grey Ships were destroyed by the first wave. The following Grey Ships jumped in beyond the expanding cloud of shards and looked for a way to attack the giant White Ship. The Grillen standard warships began emerging and the Rovers spread out in the cloud of shards and began their attacks. The Grillen ships began exploding at an increasing rate.
At that point the main body of the Grillen Fleet arrived and the Saturn began jumping to avoid being overwhelmed. Shane saw the thousands of ships accelerating toward him and jumped the Saturn to places where their numbers were lower. He couldn’t run and leave the Rovers behind to face the surviving Grey Ships alone. They were so scattered that they could not get back to the coverage of the Saturn’s guns. He saw his position was hopeless and reached for the jump button as Kelli yelled, “THE TRITON IS HERE!”
Shane looked at his display and saw the Jukebox Battleship blow through the ranks of the Grillen ships surrounding the Saturn. He saw his Rovers join the pilots from the Triton and the destruction of the Grillen fleet took on a higher level of intensity. “It’s good to see you.”
“Sorry I’m late; may I join this dance?”
“Only if I lead.”
“I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
The two giant White Ships began jumping through the ranks of Grillen Ships and massive destruction was left in their wake. Kelli watched Shane move the ship and the Triton was right on his port side at every jump. She was amazed how the two ship commanders were able to work together without communicating. Gem would jump to the Saturn’s starboard side to help fight off Grillen ships and Shane would jump under her to prevent her from being overwhelmed from below. Kelli decided that it was like watching a dance and she began to see the patterns of enemy ships and the pattern Shane was using to escape.
• • •
Captain Jennings whipped his ship around to the port side and fired a wave of shards. He maintained his course and the Grey Ship pursuing him turned to line up a shot, as it was hit by the high velocity plastic shards. Lee added full power to the forward bow thrusters and the Rover went vertical at maximum speed. He fired his dark matter blaster at two Grillen destroyers chasing a Rover and watched them explode and fall away. He checked his scanner and instantly dove as a Grey Ship fired at him from head on. Lee fired his bow gun leaving a long trail of shards as he accelerated down from the Grey Ship that followed his dive. The Grey Ship locked on its blaster but didn’t have time to fire; the line of shards blew through the small ship, shattering it.
• • •
Captain Jennings was the best shooter on the Saturn. He ignored all the standard Grillen Ships and hoped his dark matter force field would hold up long enough for him to evade if he was hit. He focused on finding the Grey Ships and he was exacting a heavy toll on them. He would fire a short burst with his guns and he seldom missed. It didn’t take long before the Grillen determined that he was going to have to be eliminated. Lee saw on his scanner that twenty Grey Ships had changed course and were moving toward his location on the Saturn. He thought about jumping away but his smile turned to a grimace, “Bring it on!”
The oncoming Grillen ships saw the Rover stop and do a spin that was extraordinary; it looked like a high speed gyroscope turning in multiple directions while hanging in one place. What they didn’t see was the shards Gary was firing from his bow and thruster guns. A cloud of shards moved out from his ship and the Grillen accelerating in on him were hit before they knew they were in danger. Only eight Grey Ships survived the shards and moved close enough to fire on the single Rover. Seven standard Grillen attack ships had joined the Grey Ships and all of them arrived five miles from Gary and opened fire. Gary had set his jump control to jump away the moment an enemy ship moved closer than five miles. Gary disappeared but six Rovers charged in on the attacking Grillen Ships and blew ten of them into dust.
• • •
Everywhere ships were dying and the Grillen were not alone. The Grey Ships were also taking a toll on the Rovers…and one of them got off a shot at the Saturn.
• • •
The Saturn was rocked and Shane hit his communicator, “Ship Status!?!”
“Sir, we’ve been hit with a grey beam on top of the hull, two thirds back from the bow.”
“Damage?”
“Three levels were disintegrated but we’ve sealed off the area and rerouted power to the field emitters. We’re still capable of combat but we have a space above us that’s vulnerable.”
Shane watched the Triton move in over the top of his ship and smiled. The dance wasn’t quite over…yet.
• • •
After thirty more minutes, Shane announced, “All ships will escape on my command…JUMP AWAY…JUMP AWAY…JUMP AWAY!”
One moment, the pitched space battle was happening at a ferocious pace; the next there was nothing but Grillen Ships flying around like angry bees. The Grillen commanding officer saw the hundreds of jump tracks and knew there was no way to organize a chase. He shook his head at the power shown by the new enemy battleship. He had not seen one of them before and he knew they were going to be a real problem if the Union had many of them to use. He looked out at the hundreds of burning hulks of battleships, attack ships and Grey Ships. He also saw the glow of the ninety plus Rovers that had been killed; there was nothing left of them. They self-destructed once they were damaged and unable to escape. He shook his head, “Start rescue operations. Get the survivors to a medical facility.” He knew the King was not going to be happy about this.
• • •
Kelli leaned back in her command chair and blew out a deep breath she had been holding. The Saturn had survived but not without taking a hit on the rear hull. She set the coordinates of the Space Dock into the ship’s system after twenty jumps, to make sure they weren’t followed; she jumped the ship to the dock. She looked at Shane directing repairs and shook her head. She knew she had been wrong about him. He was right where he should be; firing arrows at an enemy. She stood up and said, “Permission to go lead the repair crews, Sir.”
Shane smiled; something had changed in his second officer. “Permission granted.” Kelli sprinted off the bridge and Shane knew she would have never done that before; running was beneath her dignity. Gem appeared on his display, “Are you ok?”
“We have three levels blown away; thank you for covering us.”
“It’s the logical thing to do, Admiral.” Shane saw Gem pause before she said, “We could have used two more ships to fill in the gaps in our defense.”
Shane nodded, “I know; I saw that as well. It appears I am going to have to request them if we’re going to continue this type of operation.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“You know I don’t want to do it…however, fighting with you has made me
see that it’s not as bad as I thought. I can still fight my ship, if the others know what to do without instructions. I’ve missed you, Gem.”
Gem smiled, “I’m headed back to Space Dock to complete the Triton’s initial trials. Perhaps you would like to join me while your ship is undergoing repairs.”
Shane’s smile was huge.
• • •
Arvolo looked at the recordings of the bronze ship’s destruction and the ensuing space battle. “Gibbs, those two Jukeboxes were incredibly effective.”
“Yes Sir. They are probably my best two officers. Admiral Matthews has requested two more Jukeboxes to be modified.”
Arvolo smiled, “It looks like your plan is working.”
“He’s a long way from commanding a fleet, but things are moving in the right direction.” Gibbs paused, “Did we learn anything about that ship, Sir?”
“It was a good thing you had the Rovers fire and immediately jump away. The beams fired at them are effective out to ninety miles.”
“That was Admiral Matthew’s plan; he made a best guess at how to attack.”
“Well…he was lucky. If his ships had remained a moment longer, he would have lost them. We have got to find a defense against that Grey Blaster.” Arvolo paused, “We also recorded the ship firing their missile launchers at the Rovers. They were destroyed by the beams that were targeted on the Rovers by the Grillen but we learned that they are as powerful as the beams and have a much longer range.”
Gibbs shrugged, “The penetrators are also as powerful as our main beams and have a much longer range as well.”
“That may be true; but our beams are not effective at ninety miles.” Gibbs tilted his head and nodded. “We were planning to put a tracker dot on that ship and follow it to their home worlds. That failed with the destruction of the ship.”
“They should be sending another ship.”
“We have trackers scattered throughout the planetary system waiting to be activated. We’ll have to see if another ship shows up.”