by Saxon Andrew
“I’d like to take a look at a mothership’s hull where the force field comes together,” Janie replied as she stared at her monitor.
“We’ll have to get closer than we’ve ever been to do that.”
“I know, Sir. But if there’s a weakness, it will have to be there.”
Eddie nodded and asked, “Bong, can you get close enough to take a look?”
“I’ll give it a go.”
“Remember to…”
“Keep the same density as the dark energy around the mothership,” Bong interrupted.
“Bong, keep in mind that the mothership’s force field will disrupt the dark energy around it.”
Bong hesitated and thought, “Thanks for telling me. I would have missed that.”
“Just be very careful.” Bong disappeared and thirty-minutes later, Eddie saw a giant mothership appear on his telepathic monitor. “Get out of there, Bong.”
Janie’s eyes narrowed, “What’s going on?”
Eddie shook his head, “The force fields on the motherships are different than the warships. They don’t come together in a common point but overlap.”
Janie’s eyes closed, “They don’t have the vulnerability of their warships.”
“No, they don’t. I suspect I know why.” Janie opened her eyes and looked at Eddie. “The force field on the warships can’t be so powerful that the OA warriors couldn’t move through them. The motherships are too large to land on a planet and they can make them as powerful as they choose.”
“So, if we eliminate all of their warships, they won’t be able to invade a planet,” Janie pointed out.
“They could launch those drop ships.”
“Not without lowering their force field, Sir.”
Eddie thought for a moment and then, shook his head, “They could reduce the power to a level where they could make it through.”
“If they did that, they’d be vulnerable.”
“You’re probably right, Captain Roberts.” Janie stared at Eddie and he turned back to his display, “If you choose to keep using our ranks in our conversations, I can do the same.” Bong appeared on the bridge and Eddie announced, “Jumping out.” Janie’s lips were tight, and Eddie smiled to himself; she didn’t like that. She could just be so cold and indifferent to him; he wondered what he did to cause it.
• • •
Eddie and Janie sat in a small conference room in Castle Gardner and Rose asked him, “Thirty-thousand-motherships?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“And this is just one of their fleets?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know how many fleets they have?” JP asked.
“We’ve intercepted a huge number of their transmissions and it appears they have ten-fleets.”
Rose’s eyes widened slightly, “Only ten-fleets?”
Eddie smiled slightly, “Your Majesty, it takes a huge number of ships to attack a universe. It’s that small number that makes them only attack universes with an abundance of life; they don’t want to waste using them on sparsely populated universes.”
JP looked at Rose, “That means they have three-hundred-thousand-motherships. That is not a small number!”
“I know that?”
“But you said, ’Only ten-fleets’. I want to make sure you understand that they outnumber us with those fleets.”
Rose sighed, “I expected more fleets, but you’re right, JP. Ten is more than we can handle.”
Sprigly spoke up, “I suspect when we attack that fleet, the others will be called in.” Everyone turned to Sprigly. “The OAs never encounter resistance they can’t handle. This will be something new for them.”
“That’s not good news,” Annie Powel interjected into the conversation. Everyone turned to her. “If we only had to deal with thirty-thousand-motherships, our warships could jump out and escape. Three-hundred-thousand-motherships makes that a lot more difficult.”
Rose stared at Annie, before saying, “No one will be running if there is the smallest possibility of them being pursued.” Annie nodded and leaned back in her chair. Rose turned to Admiral Higginson, “How are the transports coming along?”
“Most are done. The size and number of Mag-Cannons on them are larger than any in the fleet. They’ll be able to handle the OA warships.”
Marc looked at Higginson, “That will make them a prime target for the motherships.”
Higginson nodded, “I know that, Sir. We’ve programed a series of teleports to keep them on the move if they’re being pursued.”
“It probably won’t be enough, Admiral,” JP interjected.
Higginson shrugged, “We can only do what we can. My pilots are being trained on evasive maneuvers and we should give them a good run.”
Admiral Thompson looked at Rose and asked, “Your Majesty, my place is with the fleet, will you please allow me to go with them?”
“No, I will not, Admiral. You will command the ships we leave behind to defend the Realm.”
“But why me? Admiral Powel can do just as good a job.”
Rose’s eyes narrowed, “Admiral Powel is not royalty. You are and will have to shoulder the tough task of defending the Realm.”
“Your Majesty, please consider that if we lose that fight, no number of ships will be capable of defending the Realm.”
“You and Cassie are in the Royal Succession and you will do as you’re ordered.”
“Your Majesty, Jimmy and Lola are ahead of me in the succession and they’re going?”
Rose smiled, “Admiral Thompson, are you capable of commanding a psychic-warship?”
Marc started shaking his head, “No, Your Majesty. Cassie and I aren’t psychic.”
“When you are, come back and we’ll discuss it.”
Marc fell back in his chair, “Yes, Your Majesty.”
Rose looked at the senior admirals, “Admiral Shan, you will command the Realm’s Primes, the Bear Commander will command his fleets, Sprigly, you will command the Algean Warships, my parents will command the Psychic-ships, and Admiral Higginson, you will command the transports. You have two-months to get them ready. Don’t let me down.” Rose turned to Marc, “You need to promote the officers you’ll need to control the fleets under your command. You need to focus on doing that now! Is that clear?!”
Marc sat up, “Yes, Your Majesty.”
Rose looked around, “Get moving. You don’t have much time left.”
The senior admirals teleported out and JP turned to Rose, “You were a little tough on Admiral Thompson.”
“He’s too freaking brave!”
“What’s the real reason you’re not allowing him to go?” Rose looked at JP. “You have another reason, I can see it.”
“Cassie is expecting.”
JP sighed loudly. “She didn’t ask me, but I will not send their baby’s father out to die before it’s born.”
“You expect him to die if he goes?”
“JP, I expect we won’t have any survivors. If all ten-OA-Fleets join the fight, we don’t stand a chance. The fleets will fight and die, and it will only be a matter of time until they find the Realm. I hope Cassie’s baby is born before that happens.”
“And if they die, what happens then?”
“I’ll be ordering everyone with a ship that has universal drive capability to fee the Realm and find another universe to rebuild.”
“Does that include us?”
“No, JP. That’s the weight of wearing the crown.”
“I figured as much. Let’s make the most of the time we have remaining.” Rose smiled and opened her arms.
• • •
A month later, Rose was having trouble getting to sleep. She rolled over and heard, “Hello, my love. I see you’re still awake.”
“DAD!” she thought.
“I want to discuss something with you.”
“What is that?”
Danielle and I were discussing the coming attack on the OAs and she asked me a question I could
n’t answer.”
“What was that?”
“She asked why we were going to wait for the OAs to enter the unconquered universe to attack. That is when we plan to hit them, and Danielle wondered why we didn’t just hit them before they left the universe they’ve completed conquering.”
“I really didn’t think about that. Why should we do it then?” Rose asked.
She could hear Tag’s smile in his thought, “Because we have half-a-billion Red Warriors with nothing to do.”
“I’m not sure where you’re going with this?”
“There will be thousands of planets with OA warriors on them completing their destruction. The more of them we can kill there, the fewer they will have to use against the Realm if we lose.”
“Dad, you need to tell me what you’ve come up with. I don’t see any advantage in sending our warriors to fight in that universe.”
Tag chuckled, “Think about it this way. If we send our transports to those thousands of planets, where will the OA fleet go when they learn their warriors are being attacked?”
“They’ll go to those planets.”
“Where our fleets can prepare for their arrival. Instead of fighting across an entire universe, the fight will be in fixed places. That will give us a lot of room to teleport into to regroup and attack again.”
“They will leave warships behind to support their troops,” Rose thought.
“Warships we can handle.”
Rose thought about it and then asked, “What about the Red Warriors we send in? Will we just leave them there?”
“They have the new Mag-Guns and the OAs will do everything possible to remove them before going to another universe. If we manage to destroy all of their warships, they’ll have no way of getting down to the planets to make that happen. It will delay them until they can build new warships and give us more time to try and find a means of defeating their motherships.”
Rose thought about it and knew he was right, “How do we get them there?”
“They will be loaded on the transports and delivered while the OA fleet is organizing to attack in the next universe. The Transports will join the fleet once they’ve dropped the Red Warriors and prepare for the OAs to return.”
“DAD! WE DON’T HAVE MUCH TIME!”
“Order the Nightmare into that universe. Have it carry enough DECs to scout the best planets to drop on and get that information back to start assigning our warriors?”
“I will not send all of our warriors, Dad!”
“I don’t expect you to, Rose; about half should do the trick.”
“You and Mom should be doing this!!”
“No, you’re perfect for the job. Besides, we have time to sit and think about this without being interrupted by extraneous interruptions. We’re best suited to be on the sidelines.”
“I love you, Dad.”
“I love you, too, Rose.”
Rose jumped up and rushed out of the bedroom to her communicator, “Sprigly!”
“What?”
“I need you to make something happen!”
“You should be asleep!”
“Shut up and listen.” Sprigly’s leaves jerked; no one had ever told him to shut up. He listened and decided someone should have done it numerous times in the past; he could get long-winded.
• • •
Eddie was leaning back in his chair as he waited for the DECs to arrive. He and his crew had been jerked out of sleep and issued orders at two-AM ship’s time. He jumped the Nightmare to the Algean galaxy and he waited as the DECs began arriving. Thank creation the Nightmare was a lot larger than the Dark Knight. The entire ship was filled with more than a thousand DECs, before the last ones arrived. He opened his eyes as he heard Bong’s thought, “We’re ready, Ed.”
“What’s going on, Bong?”
“We’re going to scout the universe the OAs are currently attacking for planets they’ve recently invaded.”
“Why?”
“The Queen is dropping Red Warriors on them to force the OA fleet to come back to defend them.”
Janie looked up, “You have got to be kidding me!”
Just how are we going to do this?” Eddie quickly asked.
“The DECs will go out and find planets to report to me. I’ll send the planet’s coordinates to the telepathy recorder. Once we have enough, we’ll leave and take the coordinates to Fleet.”
Eddie sighed and pressed the PA, “All hands to Battlestations. We’re jumping out in thirty-seconds.”
Bobby answered, “I’ll need longer than that to pry my eyes open!”
“Use a crowbar, Bobby. Jump in twenty-five-seconds!”
Eddie glanced at Janie and saw she was focused on what was happening. She looked up at him and smiled slightly, “This might just be a good idea.”
Eddie activated the drive system and said, “You can tell me about it when I wake up.” He hit the drive button and the Nightmare jumped out. They arrived in the universe being attacked and the DECs exited the ship. Bong said, “Ed, hold this position. This will be the zero point and all the coordinates will be fixed on where we are now.”
“How many planets are going to be sent to us?”
“Twenty-thousand.”
“HOLY CRAP!” Eddie shouted.
Eddie heard the telepathy recorder start humming and saw hundreds-of-coordinates start coming in. The small trickle turned into a flood an hour later and he turned to Janie, “Why is this a good idea?”
“It forces the OAs to attack specific targets instead of spreading out in the new universe. They will bring all their warships to those planets where we can remove them from the playing field.”
“Why is that a good thing?”
“Because without warships, they can’t land on a planet.”
“They could drop their warriors in those entry vehicles.”
“And our warriors will be waiting for them to land.”
Eddie thought about it and nodded, “Only their warships have blasters. If they’re removed, the Motherships can’t do anything to remove our warriors.”
Janie smiled, “Not without building more warships.”
“And what happens if all ten-OA-fleets come in.”
“They’ll be forced to go to one of those planets, which means they will have to divide up their fleets. Our mission is to take out the warships and avoid the motherships. This will make it easier to accomplish.”
“There’s less than four-weeks before this fleet starts leaving for the new universe. Can fleet get this organized in time?” Eddie asked.
“It’s my understanding that the Red Warriors are always prepared to go into combat.” Janie answered. “They have enough provisions and ammunition stored in the skin of their armor for an extended campaign. They wouldn’t be doing this if they weren’t able to pull it off.”
Eddie looked up, “Bong, when will the DECs start returning?”
“They won’t be going back, Ed. They will remain here and maintain contact with their twins.”
Eddie looked at the recorder and saw that eighteen-thousand-coordinates had been entered in the database. Won’t be much longer. Twenty-thousand-coordinates appeared, and the recorder stopped. He paused and then entered the coordinates the Nightmare occupied and jumped away. Janie snorted, “I’m really glad you remembered to do that. Those coordinates would be worthless without our location.”
“I’m not that dumb.”
Janie shook her head, “You’re far from being dumb but I didn’t think of it.”
“Thank you. That’s the first nice thing you’ve said to me in quite a while.”
Janie turned to her console, “Don’t get used to it.” Eddie rolled his eyes and jumped in to the Defense Facility.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Major-General Thomas Crandon stood on a tall tower looking out at the vast desert before him. The planet was airless, but it was the only place the Red Warriors could assemble to receive their orders before boarding their transpo
rts. He looked out toward the horizon and saw the twenty-thousand-divisions standing in ranks disappear over the horizon. It was an incredible sight. Each of the divisions had twenty-five-thousand Red Warriors in formation with a giant transport hovering over them.
Tom activated the general frequency in his helmet and began speaking, “You are being sent to buy the Realm time to come up with something to defeat the OA motherships. The longer you can survive, the longer the Realm will have to make that happen. I’m not going to tell you that you’ll survive this mission, that would be dishonest. Our odds aren’t good, but I’d rather die fighting this enemy than sitting around doing nothing to defend our families. You are the best-of-the-best and we all knew when we joined the army that a day like this could come. Today is that day. In a moment you will teleport to your transports and be taken to your assigned target planet. I want to tell each and every one of you that I am proud to be here leading you and that I know you are going to do your duty.”
Tom paused and continued, “Your task is to kill every OA on the planet you’re dropped on and keep killing them until there’s no more to kill or all of us die in the effort. Everyone one we remove will be one less to attack your family and loved ones.” Tom was silent for a moment and then announced, “Generals, start your warriors teleporting to their transports!”
Tom stared out at the giant assembly and was proud to see that it only took ten-minutes for all of them to disappear. He teleported to his transport and joined his warriors.
• • •
Tag activated the general telepathy frequency and began speaking, “Alright, everyone listen-up. We will be jumping in with the fleets but will remain in a central location. If one of the planets has an overwhelming number of OA warships arrive, you will receive the coordinate and immediately jump to that planet and remove as many as possible before jumping out. You will return to the gathering coordinates to be given another target. However, if a mothership starts pursuing you, good luck and do all you can to evade it. It won’t be easy but do the best you can. I suspect they’ll be sending their warships ahead of the motherships, so I hope we can take out our share of this pie. Good-luck, and stay alive.”
Tag ended the communication and Danielle turned to him, “Who will be sending us our targets?”