by Saxon Andrew
“One of the Algean DECs are at every planet and they have our frequencies. They’ll organize our response.”
“When will the fleets be launching?”
“Danielle, they will be jumping in after we’ve taken out the OA probes in that universe.”
“Who’s going to do that?”
“Admiral Taylor has all of them plotted and he will do that just before the transports jump in.”
“How many are there?”
“The OAs never leave many probes behind. Six is all he’ll have to remove. He assures me that he can do it quickly.”
Danielle shook her head, “It will take some time for the Mag-Cannons to do that.”
“He’s had a psychic-container installed on his ship and Jimmy and Lola charged it for him.”
“Do tell!”
“He’s a very smart man, Danielle. The two-psychic-blasters on his ship will do it nicely.”
“How long do we have?”
“The OA fleet left for the next universe ten-hours ago. Eddie will start the show by taking out the probes in an hour. The fleets and transports will jump in the moment he gives the all clear.”
Danielle’s brow furrowed, “Just how is he going to communicate?”
“The DEC he’s united with will contact a DEC and it will notify its twin to start the invasion.”
“Clever.”
“Are you ready?” Danielle nodded. Tag looked up, “Alex, what about you and Grace?”
“We’re raring to go!”
Tag chuckled, “Power up the dimensional drive and prepare to launch.”
• • •
Eddie looked at the countdown and saw there was ten-minutes before launch. He glanced at Janie and saw her focused on her weapon display. He started to speak, but closed his mouth. He thought about looking at her thoughts but decided against it, his conscience wouldn’t allow him to do it. He struggled for the remainder of the countdown and then sighed, before saying, “You’ll have two-seconds at each probe; make the shots count Captain Roberts.” Janie nodded but didn’t look up from her console. “Jumping to first probe…NOW!”
The first probe appeared, and a blue colored psychic beam leapt out from the Nightmare and it disappeared. The next five-probes were all hit dead center and Eddie looked up, “BONG, LET THEM KNOW!”
Bong made telepathic contact with Sprigly’s twin and it sent the all clear message back to the Dark Dimension. Sprigly hit the general frequency and shouted, “LAUNCH! ALL SHIPS LAUNCH!! THE PROBES HAVE BEEN REMOVED!!”
• • •
Eddie yelled over his shoulder, as he whipped the Nightmare around in a high-gravity turn, “GREAT SHOOTING, CAPTAIN.”
Janie gripped the arms of her chair and tightened her seat harness, “Where are we going?!”
I’m jumping to one of the planets we’re going to attack. I need to see how the transports do against the OA warships left behind.”
“This should be interesting, Sir!” Eddie nodded and hit the teleport drive.
• • •
The last planets the OAs invaded had between two-to-four-warships left behind to support their attacks. Once all intelligent life was removed, the warships would transport the OA warriors off the planet to the new universe being attacked. Before the Red Warriors could drop, those warships had to be removed.
The Nightmare arrived at a civilized planet just as the transport came out of its dimensional drive. There were three-OA-warships in orbit above the planet and they activated their thrusters and accelerated at maximum-speed toward the giant transport. They opened fire with their blasters, but the new circular force field shrugged off the hits.
Captain Belle Higginson stared at the giant wall monitor and said over the ship’s PA, “Hold your fire until all of them are in range.” She saw the other two-OA-warships flash in beside the first-one to arrive and she calmly said, “Weapons free, commence firing.” Belle watched the first Mag-Cannons open fire on the incoming OA warships. The Mag-Cannons on the transports were gigantic, with barrels two-hundred-feet-long. They fired a compressed dark matter projectile that weighed more than two-tons. The transport had more than three-hundred of the huge cannons on its hull, but only the ones selected by the ship’s computer opened fire. Five-DM Projectiles hit the closest warship and they flew through the warship’s force field and crushed the hull where they impacted. The three-warships went up in huge blasts as all the energy systems on the ship were ripped off their anchors and slammed into the hull. The OA crews survived but when they emerged from their destroyed warships, more than seven-hundred computer-guided Mag-Guns targeted them and killed them. Belle saw the OAs were hit and shoved away at high speed. She looked at the short-range monitor and saw that all of the OAs hit by the small projectiles had huge depressions in their outer layer. She glanced at the tactical monitor and saw the First-Division had already started teleporting down to the planet.
“Let me know when they’re gone,” Belle said to her Second-in-Command.”
“They’ll be out in ten-more minutes. It took the computer longer than we thought to assign them their drop points.”
Belle turned to Commander Blake, “What’s the problem?”
“The OAs had spread out and there were more than five-thousand targets to be prioritized, Sir.” Belle nodded and turned back to the main monitor. She needed to move her transport away from the planet to join the Primes gathering in high orbit. “Sir, some of the OA crews have used a small transport to make a rush for the planet.”
“Let them go; the Red Warriors will have to handle them when they arrive at the surface.”
“The last warriors have teleported out, Sir.”
“Did Major-General Crandon go with them?”
“Yes, he did, Sir.”
Belle shook her head. Crandon should have stayed on board to keep track of his warriors on all the planets being invaded. He didn’t feel the same.
“Captain, we’ve delivered every warrior I command to a planet. We don’t have a reserve to send in to help those in trouble and once the fleet actions start, I won’t have anything to organize. My warriors know that they are stuck where they are, and no help will be coming. I will not sit safely on your ship while my warriors are fighting; I will fight with them.”
Belle knew he was right…but…she just didn’t like putting their senior officers in jeopardy. She gave up the idea when Crandon asked, her, “Besides, Captain. Will it be safer on your ship or fighting them on the planet?”
Belle sighed and wondered if she could teleport down and join them if things got really bad. But that wasn’t possible. Once the fleet action kicked off, there would be no escaping. She looked across the huge bridge and saw her husband listening to the reports coming in from the other transports. At least they would live or die together. Admiral Higginson saw her staring at him and he raised his hands and shook his head; the OAs had not shown up…yet.
Janie stared at the monitor and started shaking her head, “Why haven’t they shown up yet?”
Eddie turned from the monitor toward Janie, “I’ve been wondering about that before. I’m of the opinion that their warships don’t possess extra-universe communications.”
Janie’s head went back slightly, “That doesn’t make sense.”
“Captain Roberts, all of their warships are assigned to a mothership. Where the mothership goes, so do their smaller warships. They really don’t require a communication system capable of transmitting to other universes. And if you take into consideration the size of their probes, which are huge, it’s almost a certainty they’re not going to take that much space in a warship to install it. Their probes are capable of communicating between universes, but we took them out so quickly, that they didn’t have time to communicate they were under attack.”
“But the fleet that just left here would see they stopped transmitting.”
Eddie smiled, “They don’t transmit unless they detect something unusual. I also suspect those probes do not trans
mit to that fleet that left here; they transmit to a central location.”
Janie started nodding, “So, someone at the central location will have to see those probes are no longer active and the warships weren’t able to send out a warning.”
“That’s right, Captain. It could be a while before any of them show up.”
“Isn’t that a bad thing?” Janie asked.
“Not really. If they start their attacks and are in the middle of their invasion before they discover the probes are out of action, what sort of response do you think they’ll send to see what happened?”
“They’ll send a small number to check out the probes,” Janie suggested.
“And we’ll be waiting for them to come, where we’ll take out the ships they send before they can report back.”
“How will we know which probe to go to first?”
Eddie looked up, “Bong?”
“There’s a DEC at each site of the destroyed probes. I’ll let you know where to start your attack.”
“Sir, do you honestly think we’ll have enough time to take six-warships out of action?”
“Janie, I mean Captain, nothing remains of those probes. When the warships show up to check up on them, what are they going to do?” Janie stared at him in silence. “They’ll start running scans for them attempting to find them, thus, giving us enough time to take them out.”
“You want me to use the psychic beams again?”
“I do. The longer they take to show up, the longer our fleets can support our Red Warriors.” Eddie thought about it and said, “Computer, send this conversation to the Fleet Commanders to make sure they’re ok with us going after the ships sent to check on the probes.”
“Ed, “I’ve sent this conversation to Sprigly’s twin and he says Sprigly thinks it’s an excellent idea.”
“Computer, belay that communication.” Eddie turned on the PA, “We’re going into action again shortly. We will remain at Battlestations until further notice.”
Janie stood up and ran to the bathroom just off the bridge. She was quickly back, and she looked at Eddie, “Perhaps you should go now.”
“I’m ok.”
Janie shook her head, “You must have a bladder the size of a blimp.” Eddie smiled, and Janie lowered her eyes, “What are you not telling me?”
“Janie, we’re wearing our red armor, except for the helmets. It’s designed to take care of issues like that.”
Janie stared at him for a long moment, then looked up, and rolled her eyes, “I keep forgetting you’re smarter than most people I know. Why haven’t you mentioned this to me before now?”
“Captain, you appear to want to have as little to do with me as possible. I don’t know what I’ve done to cause you to hate me so much, but I try to leave you alone as much as I can, given our positions on this ship.”
Janie stared at him, “I don’t hate you, Sir.”
“Then what is it?”
“I’d rather not discuss it, but I don’t hate or dislike you.”
Eddie sighed and turned to his console. He set the drive system, so he could instantly teleport to any of the six-locations where the probes were destroyed and saw Janie had turned back to her panel and was activating her weapon panel. He started to call her out and tell her a thing or two…but he backed down; her sister was killed under his care. He didn’t really need to know anything else. “Ed, an OA warship has just appeared at the third probe’s location,” Bong announced. Eddie hit the teleport system and the Nightmare teleported out.
• • •
The Nightmare arrived and found an OA warship actively scanning the site of the destroyed probe. He flew in at the warship bow first, allowing Janie to use both psychic blasters to open fire. Eddie increased the size of the image on his monitor and saw that the warship was moving another probe out of its landing bay. The two psychic beams hit the warship and swept it from bow to stern. The warship seemed to flicker slightly and then disappear; nothing remained behind, not even a vapor cloud.
Eddie looked up, “BONG?”
“No other ships have shown up, Ed.”
Eddie thought about it and teleported the Nightmare to the site of their first attack. He removed the coordinates of the third attack and kept his hand poised above the teleport system, “Excellent shooting again, Captain.”
“OK!”
Eddie’s head went back in surprise, “OK what?”
“Call me Janie and I’ll call you Eddie. Satisfied?”
Eddie shrugged, “I don’t want to force you to do something you don’t want to do.”
Janie sighed, “It makes it easier to communicate. I suspect the warship we just destroyed wasn’t sent by the Fleet that left here.”
Eddie face showed no expression as he thought about it. “You’re probably right. I’m willing to wager that those six-probes are being handled by six-different locations. I’m headed back to the third-location.”
Eddie teleported back and waited. Thirty-minutes later, two-warships arrived, and Janie took both of them out. “Eddie, I need you to maintain at least eight-miles separation between the Nightmare and any ship we’re attacking.”
“Why is that?”
“Any closer and the beam won’t cover the entire ship. It was fine the first time because I had two-psychic-blasters to take out one ship. I had to sweep the beams to destroy the last two-warships.”
“I’ll make it ten-miles.”
“That would work,” Janie replied.
An hour later, warships began appearing at all six-locations. The Nightmare teleported in, destroyed the OA warships, and teleported to another site. Fifty-OA-warships were destroyed before they stopped appearing. Eddie glanced at Janie, “It appears the ones handling the probes are getting together.”
Janie nodded, and her expression turned grim, “I suspect the next ones to show up will be coming from that fleet.”
Eddie powered up the drive system and teleported away from the last site they attacked, “We aren’t equipped to take on the numbers I think will be coming.” Eddie looked up, “Bong, notify Sprigly that I’m anticipating a large response.”
“I’ve been feeding his twin everything that’s been happening. He’s sending four-thousand-Primes to each of the six-sites. He wants to prevent them launching more probes and seeing the planets we’re attacking.”
Eddie lifted the PA, “If you need a quick break, take it now! We’ll remain at active weapons but will avoid further combat for the near future.”
Eddie heard George say over the PA, “Great shooting, Janie!”
Bobby quickly added, “Amen to that, George. We’ll have to call her Janie Oakley.”
Janie’s face turned red and she smiled, “Thank you. You’ll have your turn before this is over.”
“I’m perfectly fine if you just handle everything,” Dottie added to the conversation. Eddie knew Janie was probably right. It was only a matter of time until the Nightmare entered the fray.
• • •
“Senior.”
The highest-ranking OA turned to his ship’s Monitor, “Yes.”
“I’ve received a report from Central Monitoring that all of the Probes we left in the Universe we just left have stopped reporting.”
“Have them send a ship to see what the problem is.”
“They’ve sent fifty-warships and none of them have reported in.”
The Senior stared at the monitor and asked, “How many probes stopped reporting?”
“Six.”
“Send one-thousand-warships to each location and have them report to me as soon as they find out what happened to them.” The Monitor nodded and began issuing orders.”
• • •
Sprigly sent Algean Primes to the six-sites. He thought to the pilots, “You must hit every warship that appears instantly to prevent it jumping out and warning their fleet of our presence. They must be hit and damaged where they can’t jump out!”
“We’re on it, Commander!” Al repli
ed. What made the difference was the six-transports that joined the Algean Primes. Their Mag-Cannons hit more than fifty-percent of the OA warships within ten-seconds of their arrival. None survived to warn the OA fleet.
• • •
The Senior OA watched the initial attacks launch and sat down. He thought for a moment and turned to the Monitor, “Have you heard anything from the ships sent to check on the probes?”
“No, none have reported in.”
“How long have they been gone?”
“Two-hours.”
The Senior turned a darker shade of green, “Launch three-thousand warships to those locations and order them to get back to inform me on what’s happening.”
The 18,000 OA warships jumped away and, after, another two-hours, none had reported in. Sprigly had sent another fifty-thousand-Primes to the probe sites and the OAs were overwhelmed the moment they appeared in normal space. At that point, the Senior called off the initial attacks and ordered the fleet back to the former universe.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Senior-Sargent Roy Gibbons looked at his squad of ten-Red-Warriors, “Alright, listen up. It appears the platters have gotten the message that we’ve arrived to crash their party.”
“Sargent, they’re called OAs.”
“If I want your opinion, Makayla, I’ll ask for it. They look like giant upside down serving platters, as far as I’m concerned. Private Wilkes did us the favor of showing that if one of them grabs you, it’s all over.” Makayla raised her hand. Gibbs rolled his eyes and said, “Yes, Makayla?”
“We can avoid that, Sargent.”
“Do tell! What wisdom do you have to impart to us?” Gibbs replied sarcastically.
“If we keep our teleporter active and put the bite control in our teeth, we can teleport away before they can get to us.”
Gibbons stared at Makayla and sighed, “Out of the mouths of babes, and I mean young children not good-looking women, comes infinite wisdom. Set your teleporters to move you a hundred-yards and use the bite control to activate it: Makayla is right. Delay, and you’re dead!”
“Sargent, they’ve stopped coming out of the cities,” Mark Carter stated.