by Saxon Andrew
“And who has the authority to stop him, Grady? He outranks you now.”
Grady’s eyes widened and he said after a slight pause, “He could stop us from going out.”
“Beat him to the punch, Grady. Tell him you’re taking Abby and Rory’s Tenth Fleet out to clean up anything left behind by the Britannia Aliens. Tell him we’ll only move in after the Britannia Aliens have left. You might even invite him to join us.”
Grady reflected on the suggestion for a moment and smiled, “You’ve given some thought to this, haven’t you?” Taffy shrugged and then nodded. “I’m sending him a message informing him that I’m taking Tenth Fleet out and he’s welcome to come along if he likes. I don’t think he’ll stop me.”
“Grady, if I were out there, would you stay away? He’ll be thankful we’re going and will probably stay behind and work. If we don’t go, I’m certain he would go out.”
Grady got up and went to the computer table. He sent the message and waited for a moment. Ten seconds later, the computer chimed, and Grady smiled, “He thinks it’s a great idea. Says he might go out and join us after the war kicks off.”
Taffy smiled, turned to her plate, and took a bite. After a moment she said without looking up, “You know we have the night free.” Grady started chuckling and Taffy started laughing. It was a wonderful evening.
• • •
RJ woke up and saw Candy wasn’t beside him. He put on a robe and went to the living room. He found her packing her duffle bag and she smiled, “Good morning.”
“I didn’t hear you get up.”
“I was going to wake you before I leave. You need the rest.”
RJ hugged her and said in a soft voice, “Our parents are going to have a duck when they learn that we got married.”
“We’ll have a wedding after this is over. I couldn’t wait any longer, Mr. Dunhan.”
“I’m glad we did too, Mrs. Dunhan.” Candy kissed him tenderly and a few hours later, left for the Defender. RJ felt an emptiness in his heart with her absence but wouldn’t trade anything for the time he had with Candy during her liberty.
• • •
Candy arrived on the Defender and felt fully alive for the first time in her life. She looked at Todd and he said, “We’ll be ready to launch in five hours, Sir.”
“Notify me when the fleet is formed up.”
“Yes Sir.”
• • •
Four hours later, the two-thousand warships went to maximum speed and flew directly to the Perseus Spiral Arm where they stopped above Melbourne. The black clouds had disappeared from the planet and they saw some plant life starting to return. She sent an image to Grady and he shared it with Maranda and Abby. The planet was starting the long healing process from being blasted by their enemies. The ships in Candy’s fleet stared at the wounded planet and felt something inside them start to grow. It wasn’t rage, but it was close to it.”
Candy received updates from Admiral Horton’s scouts and saw she alien fleets would be leaving soon. She turned to Todd and ordered, “Form the fleet up and prepare to move toward the Fagan Spiral Arm. Four hours later, the fleet left the remains of Melbourne behind. The Britannia Aliens were coming, and Candy wanted her ships close to Fagan space to launch when the war started. The large formation stopped far out from Fagan territory and Candy turned to Todd, “Any message from Admiral Horton on the alien’s status?”
“They’ve started forming up the last formations from over the core and the first formations have moved out from their lines of defense, Sir. They’re moving at a slow pace waiting for the other fleets to join them. Connie believes they’ll arrive in Fagan Territory in eight days.”
“How many ships are they sending?”
“Sir, she estimates two-million plus.”
Candy pulled up the most recent scout’s report on the Fagan’s forces and her eyes narrowed slightly, “According to the most recent estimate of Fagan strength, they have an equal number of warships.”
“They aren’t as advanced as the Planet Killers moving their way, Admiral.”
“That’s true, Todd, but the Fagan will be fighting for their survival. Attacking a cornered enemy is a very dangerous proposition.” Todd shrugged and then nodded.
Chapter Eighteen
The Fagan High Leader rushed into his office and heard the alarms going off at full blast and the yellow lights flashing indicating a dangerous situation was evolving. He ran to his console and saw the Fleet Leader on the main wall monitor, “WHAT’S GOING ON?”
“High Leader, our forward scouts have detected a giant formation of warships moving out from the core on a course directly toward us.”
“How many warships?”
“Initial estimates are close to two-million, High Leader.” The High Leader collapsed into his chair and the Fleet Leader continued, “They’ve also detected that the giant warships being sent are fifty-percent larger than the ones used to attack the White Ship Civilization and their blasters are twice as large.”
“Where did they get those ships? We’ve not detected any of them in the past.”
“I don’t know, High Leader. But they appear to have much larger armaments than any we’ve seen.”
The High Leader’s fear threatened to overwhelm him as he asked, “What are you doing about this?”
“High Leader, I’ve ordered every warship in our inventory to move to the side of the spiral arm they’re approaching and will meet them before they can enter our territory.” The Fleet Leader paused and then added, “Supremacy, I recommend you go to the colony ships and launch immediately and head toward the next spiral arm prior to their arrival.”
“How many colony ships do we have ready for launch?”
“Six, High Leader. If we win this confrontation, you can turn around and come back. We barely have enough time to get the colonists boarded and launched before they arrive.”
“How long?!” the High Leader demanded.
“Seven days.”
“Will they be able to detect the colony ships?”
“Not if they leave in five days, High Leader.”
The High Leader stared at the Fleet Leader and took a deep breath before saying, “I will send my son and his family to command the colony ships. I will remain here.”
“But High Leader…”
The High Leader interrupted the Fleet Leader, “If our forces learn I’ve fled it will cause our forces’ morale to fail in the coming fight. I will remain here!”
The Fleet Leader was shocked by the High Leader’s announcement. He always thought the High Leader was a consummate coward but now at the last moment, he discovered there was more to him than he thought. “Your bravery could make a huge difference in the outcome, High Leader. I will impress upon our warriors that we are fighting for our families and their survival.”
The High Leader saw the monitor go dark and he knew that retirement was no longer an issue. He contacted his son and ordered him to take his family and join the six colony ships.
• • •
Candy watched her large tactical monitor and suddenly saw a change taking place. All the icons showing Fagan forces on the side of their spiral arm closest to the Perseus Spiral Arm, started moving at high speed toward the other side of Fagan space. She looked at Todd and he said, “They’ll arrive on the other side of their spiral arm in three days.”
“Order our ships to move in high above Fagan space and be prepared to move to their target planets in two days,” Candy ordered. They will remain hidden until the two forces attack each other. They will then carry out their missions.”
“Yes Sir.”
• • •
Candy slept in her command chair when she could and was amazed at the numbers of warships moving across Fagan territory. She saw them moving close to the outer edge of the spiral arm on the tactical monitor and ordered her fleet in to the slave planets. She sat on the Defender and two days before the Britannia Aliens arrived a scout appeared on Candy’s console, “Admiral,
I’ve detected six huge ships moving out of Fagan space and headed toward the Perseus Spiral Arm.”
“What kind of ships, Lieutenant?”
“Sir, they appear to be colony ships. There are no warships moving with them.”
Todd looked at Candy, “Sir, we must stop them!”
Candy shook her head, “My duty is to the ships in my fleet and saving the Slave planets. I will not abandon them during this mission.” She looked at the scout on her monitor and said, “Notify Fleet Operations. They are going to have to handle this problem.”
“Yes Sir.”
• • •
The Troke arrived and joined Grady and the Tenth Fleet far out from the Fagan Spiral Arm. The scout’s report came in and RJ appeared on Grady’s monitor, “Those colony ships are defenseless. It would be little more than murder to attack them.”
Suddenly, Abby and Rory appeared on the monitor and Abby replied with venom in her voice, “I will take a squadron and destroy them, Fleet Admiral Henricks.” RJ’s eyes narrowed and Abby glared at him with an expression filled with rage, “Did they hesitate to kill everyone on Melbourne? They defeated our defenses and burned Melbourne to the ground. This species is a cancer and if they are allowed to escape, they’ll just rebuild and come back in the future to attack our children. If you’re not up to doing this, perhaps you should resign, War Admiral!! This is a war to the death!!”
RJ stared at his mother and said, “We’re becoming just like them.”
“No, we’re not!” Rory replied. “We are going to be worse than they are, Junior.”
RJ turned to Grady, “Do you agree with this, Fleet Admiral?”
Grady saw Taffy’s expression and he took a deep breath before responding, “I told the Alien Fleet Leader that burned Britannia to the ground years ago that I would be coming back to kill every living creature in their civilization. This is just the start of the end-game RJ. This is just six colony ships and we’re going to destroy more than three-thousand inhabited planets in the Alien’s space if we can. We will not allow either of these aggressive civilizations to survive.”
RJ paused and added, “Earth is also an aggressive civilization.”
Grady sat up straight in his chair, “And if we can’t pull their fangs, we will destroy them as well, RJ. I will not allow another one of our planets to die at the hands of these civilizations now or in the future. Abby, take your ships and destroy those colony ships when they’re outside the range of the Fagan’s scanners.”
RJ ended the contact and started shaking his head. He turned to Angel, “I should resign. I don’t know that I can sell my soul to do this.” Suddenly, the main wall monitors activated, and RJ looked up to see the recording of the attack on Melbourne. He heard the Fagan High Leader order everything on the planet destroyed and the surface burned. He watched the planet go up in massive nuclear flames and the planet rendered uninhabitable. He finally sat back in his chair and Angel said softly, “None of us have had to see our home destroyed like our parents. Do you think for a moment that if the Fagan had managed to find the Colonies and New Britannia, they would have hesitated to kill every living being on them?” RJ stared at Angel and she demanded, “DO YOU?!” RJ lowered his head and shook it. “And the Britannia Aliens are worse. Abby is right; this is a fight to the death.” Angel hesitated and then added, “Do you want your sister and your descendants to have to face those butchers in the future?”
RJ looked up at his crew and saw they were watching him closely. He pressed his communicator and said, “Mom, do it quickly.”
“They don’t deserve to die quickly but that is how we are different from them,” Abby replied sternly.
A moment later, Taffy appeared on RJ’s monitor, “These enemies won’t be the only ones we’re going to have to face. But you and I both know this must be done, even if it goes against everything that is moral.” RJ nodded and the display went dark.
RJ looked around at his crew, “The Troke knows this is our lot in life. We’ll just have to learn to live with it. You reap what you sow.”
• • •
Rory flew the Roo Hare ahead of the six giant Fagan colony ships and waited as they approached. Abby announced over the squadron’s frequency, “I will launch the missiles. This is for Melbourne.”
• • •
The six colony ships were moving through space at their maximum speed and in an instant, the hundreds of thousands of escaping Fagan colonists went up in three horrific nuclear blasts as three heavy missiles hit each of the huge ships. Rory looked at Abby and said, “One missile would have done it.”
Abby glared at the explosions on the monitor and snarled, “This was for Melbourne!” Rory nodded and sighed. Abby was responsible for Melbourne’s defense and she took its destruction personally. Abby continued to glare at the monitor and said under her breath, “I hope that High Leader of theirs was on one of them.”
• • •
The Fagan Fleet Leader watched the inexorable advance of the alien formations and said over the main frequency, “Remember that every warship you destroy is one less to attack your loved ones back at home. We will not wait for them to move in and attack our line. On my command, every warship will accelerate at maximum speed into their ranks and open fire. Forget formations, forget surviving, do what must be done to defend the Empire. In three…two…one…ATTACK!!!”
• • •
Candy was staring at the tactical monitor and saw the two giant fleets confronting each other and estimated that it would be another twelve hours before hostilities began. She was shocked by the Fagan warships sudden launch and she immediately yelled into her helmet’s communicator, “ALL SHIPS, ALL SHIPS, CARRY OUT YOUR MISSION NOW!!”
• • •
Captain Jenna Lawrence heard Candy and immediately ordered, “Broadcast the collar frequency immediately and take out the collection building!” There was a freighter approaching the slave planet several days earlier, but it had reversed course and left the planetary system at maximum speed. The collection building was hit by ten cutters and it went up in a massive explosion. All of the slaves on the planet suddenly saw their collars fall off and they were stunned not knowing what to do. They didn’t attack the Fagan Overlords initially but one of the Fagan made the mistake of firing his blaster at one of the slaves. That precipitated an instant response as the slaves turned on their masters with hand tools and massacred them. In less than a day, every Fagan on the planet was torn apart and their blasters smashed. The six King Hare Warships turned and fled out of Fagan territory before the war moved inside the spiral arm.
Candy began receiving reports from the four-hundred-slave planets and saw that the plan, for the most part, was a success. On three of the planets, the populations had been enslaved so long, they didn’t attack their Overlords. They simply stood around in shock and the Fagan didn’t make the mistake of firing on them. At two of the planets the King Hare Warships fired from space at some of the Fagan and that kicked off the inhabitants to attack the Fagan. But at the third planet, even that didn’t prompt the inhabitants to attack their masters. Time ran out and the Hares were forced to leave.
• • •
Candy looked at her display and said, “Don’t blame yourself, Captain Johns. You did all you could to get them to fight. I notice on your scans that every Fagan on the planet is male. If the Britannia Aliens do a good job removing the Fagan, those surviving on the slave planet will eventually die of old age.”
“What if the aliens detect their blasters, Sir?”
“Then that’s fate and we’ve done what we can.”
“Yes Sir.”
Candy waited and after eight hours, all of her ships were back in formation. She glanced at the tactical monitor and saw the horrific battle taking place outside the spiral arm and shook her head before ordering, “All ships maintain formation and launch for New Britannia in thirty seconds.” A few moments later, the two-thousand warships disappeared.
• • •
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Grady, Taffy, and RJ all sighed at the same moment; Candy was out safely. RJ appeared on Grady’s monitor and asked, “What is your plan, Admiral Henricks?”
“I’ll stay here with Tenth Fleet and wait until this is over. Once the aliens depart, we’ll move in and make sure there are no survivors.”
“That could take some time.”
“Time is what we have at the moment. We’ll be practicing firing in unison while we’re waiting, and I want to see what happens.”
RJ nodded, “Please keep me informed if you see anything unusual.”
“You’ll be the first to know, War Admiral.”
RJ disappeared from the monitor and Taffy leaned over and asked, “What do you intend to do?”
“If the aliens don’t destroy that slave planet with surviving Fagan on it, we may have to do it.”
“But…”
“Taffy! We can’t take any chances!”
“But there are more than a billion slaves on it!”
“AND MORE THAN THREE MILLION SURVIVING FAGAN WARRIORS!!” Grady replied. Taffy stared at Grady and he blew out a hard breath before saying, “Those Fagan know their technology. They can force the population to assist them in building a ship to escape. We can’t allow that to happen.”
Taffy lowered her eyes and then looked up, “Grady, you know the Fagan can’t eat the food being produced by the slaves. They have to send it to their production planet to get it transformed into food they can consume.”
Grady stared at her and then said, “You think they’ll starve before they can build a ship?”
“Those billion slaves deserve the opportunity to see if I’m right. There are no tools for them to build advanced technology, much less mine the metals needed to build a ship.”
“Ok. If the aliens don’t destroy the planet, I’ll assign a scout to keep an eye on it. If they give the slightest inkling of being able to consume their food, then I’m ordering the planet destroyed. Will that make you happy?” Taffy nodded and turned to the wall monitor. Grady sat back and Taffy hoped Grady’s soul wasn’t lost in this war. This would haunt him if he was forced to destroy that planet. She turned to Grady and saw his determined expression. She knew her husband, maybe better than he knew himself. She suddenly realized that Grady was strong enough to bear the atrocities that happen during war. He would do what was necessary and nothing more. He could live with whatever happened and survive with his soul intact. Once again, she realized how blessed she was to have him in her life. She depended on him to keep her grounded and he would destroy that planet because of the danger it represented. If the inhabitants wouldn’t do it, then he would. She turned back to the tactical monitor and smiled; it appeared the Britannia Aliens had bitten off a lot more than they expected.