Pooky replied, “Yes captain,’’ before ordering her crew aboard.
Pooky was now an acting commander in charge of one of the frigates. She had been made a lieutenant commander for volunteering for this mission and this was down to her knowledge of Earth. Pooky was the best Lusianian for the task in hand. The post of commander is only temporary and may or may not continue after this mission. After everyone had boarded our cargo freighter we set off. Alenna assigned the crews and the captain to their cabins, Pooky wanted to be in the cabin she would have been in should she not have left us; that was the cabin of my older daughters. She wanted to leave a message for them, a diary of the time she spent on our new cargo freighter. Yarkeli was in her element. She not only had her daughter aboard but nine other Lusianians. She spent her whole time during our journey to Earth entertaining them. Yarkeli had all of our Lusianian guests come to her cabin, where she held an exhibition of the art she had acquired from that frigate. A number of the wives and I were interested in finding out what the Lusianians would say about the art. Alenna, Jenna, River and I watched and listened from the corridor outside. Yareli’s cabin was not large enough to hold us as well. Jenna translated their conversations.
One of the crew said, “I know the artist personally, as I was stationed as a crew member on her frigate. The artist in question is captain Mira, she now has a new frigate and a new crew and she was always hanging art on the walls of the frigate that she was in command of.”
Another said, “You can see by this picture how the artist struggled between light and dark.’’ She then followed with, “This one is my favourites as it shows despair but at the same time adding a little hope.’’
I whispered to the wives, “Do you see any of that in these pictures? I definitely can’t see anything other than strange shapes, blobs and squiggles. If I could say they represent anything at all, it would be a nightmare’’
Alenna and Jenna shook their heads and River just shrugged her shoulders. We would never be able to understand Lusianian art and I think it will always be that way. Captain Porridy let me into some information about the Silka that was being withheld. The Silka now had developed shields. So that was the information being withheld. As shields go, you cannot fire a weapon through them and they do not cover your propulsion system. If you wish to fire a weapon you must at first droop your shields. This is when you become vulnerable. The problem is that you can raise shields within a second and getting your shot in-between is as much down to luck as skill. Yarkeli was over the moon of having Pooky on board with her, at the same time she was not at all easy at her for volunteering, in fact she was very worried indeed, though she tried to hide this worry. We had no idea what to expect to find on our arrival at Earth. Pooky had made history as being the youngest ever commander; the previous one was four years older than her. I liked to think it was all down to the way I had taught and instructed her, but who knows. Usually we all go to the bridge when it is time to come out of star drive only this time the Lusianian crews had boarded their frigates and were ready to depart the moment I said now. The last ten minutes until we exited stat drive was tense to say the least. Jenna counted down and when she said now I disengaged the star drive. I could at once detect two gigantic ships. These were the largest I had ever seen. At least a mile in length, they had muscled their way into the orbital position. There was debris from a battle all around. They had not obtained this orbital possession without a fight. One ship had sustained severe damaged but still was able to put up a formidable defence. I had my illusion field activated and I did not think they had detected my presence. There were no sign of Earths defences, only debris fields. At least six frigates had been destroyed. I at once contacted the base that I had originally delivered the frigates to. The reply was quite alarming. In fact eight of Earths frigates had been destroyed and the other Frigates were keeping their distance, well at least for now. The Silka had arrived more than a week ago and a stand-off prevailed for several days before they started a bombardment of Earth. Destroying first Paris then after a short lull during which they dealt with those eight frigates. They had now commenced their bombardment on a number of Asian cities. They were moving in orbit slowly ahead of the rotation of Earth. Destroying each city as they came into range; Bombay, Islamabad, Hong Kong then Shenzhen. Next would be a city in Japan then the US west coast. We had to do something. The two frigates exited our cargo bay and as they left the illusion field they drew the attention of the nearest Silka ship. Just then several bursts from plasma weapons hit the Silka ships. They had come into range of the Chinese and the Australian ground based plasma cannon. Up to now I had no idea if they had got them working. One shot got through the shields and severely damaged an area of one ship. At once the Silka retaliated with a barrage of return fire that was aimed at their locations. Four more shots from Earth before they lay silent. The Silka had made short work in eliminating their threat but is was not all in vain. One shot had hit a vital area on one of the Sika motherships and it was a lucky shot indeed. The Sika ship was now drifting from orbit and falling towards Earth. At the rate of descent and its angle it would hit the atmosphere in just a few minutes. Captain Porridy and Pooky’s frigate came under a shower of fire power from the other Sika ship. Thank goodness their shields held. Both fired two singularity torpedoes. The shields of the Sika ships were no defence against these and sections of the hulls were reduced to a tennis ball size, though you would not be able to lift this round ball shaped mass as it would weigh many tonnes. The other Sika ship, now unpowered was hitting the outer atmosphere. Then a swarm of small craft exited this mother ship as it headed towards Earth. The Sika ship was out of control entering Earth’s atmosphere and twisted and turned as it fell deeper into the atmosphere. The friction of air on the hull was too much for it to bear now; parts started breaking off. Deeper and faster it fell. Explosions within its hull also added to its destruction and demise. It was now descending into a ball of super-heated fire. It continued breaking apart, bits flying off in all directions; its fate was sealed. Finally the doomed ship hit the South China Sea in a spectacular fashion, creating a small tsunami. The sea seemed to boil before subsiding leaving the impact zone full of floating debris. The swarm of small space craft that had exited the mother ship were now headed towards Earth’s surface. They would face stiff opposition and were soon being intercepted by various aircraft. Earth was still out gunned by these small and highly manoeuvrable craft. They could turn round in such a short space. Their beam weapons could easily bring down the much slower jets. Even the most up to date designs could not keep out of their sights and were being shot down at an alarming rate. There was a glimmer of hope. Those interceptors that I had so recently supplied Earth with were more than a match and could out manoeuvre these small Silka craft. Between them they now made some headway in bringing them down. In the meantime the last Silka mother ship was gaining ground and had inflicted severe damage on Captain Porridy’s ship which made it difficult to steer and to add to that it was venting gasses. Both frigates had exhausted their complement of singularity torpedoes. The twelve remaining Earth controlled frigates took their chance and now joined in the bombardment. Attacking in mass, inflicting minor damage to the only parts unshielded, the Silka ships main engines, damaging two. For some reason or other the Sika mother ship turned and with her remaining eight main engines firing she made for a getaway. Up to now I had kept my distance, not getting involved with the fight and viewing everything from long range. The Silka ship was now accelerating hard and starting to leave all the frigates behind. The problem was that it was headed my way and I predicted it to pass close to our starboard bow and I was certain that it had still not detected our cargo freighter. I charged the plasma cannon. My chance had come. I was going to let her have both barrels from my plasma cannon. I was in luck, in that the Silka’s forward shields were down. All their power was being diverted towards the rear shields, the beam weapons from the friga
tes were still hitting the Sika ship only they now due to distance had less impact. I aimed my plasma cannon at what looked like a bridge. I could see movement on my long range scanner as it neared, and I kept my aim on this bridge.
Alenna said, “We should move, its coming straight at us!”
I replied with a snap, “Not now Alenna, I must not be distracted!”
Alenna concerned said, “Why, what are you doing?”
I did not answer her. My aim was my foremost concern and it was now or never. I fired both barrels. Two bolts left the cannon and they ran true and straight both impacting at the target area. They not only impacted the intended area but also penetrated deep into its interior of the ship. Explosions travelled along the path that the bolts had taken and could now be observed, blowing outwards from the hull as they proceeded on their tract within the hull of Silka ship. I had inflicted critical damage. The direction of the ship suddenly changed, as if there now wasn’t any Silka in control. Instead of the previous path to deep space it had now veered towards the inner part of the solar system, towards the sun.
Alenna now alarmed at what I done screamed at me, “I don’t believe what you just did, you are reckless Jake to say the least and you put us all in danger.’’
I tried to hide what I had done by saying, “No I didn’t, they could not see us, and anyway we did not want that ship making its way to rendezvous with the main invasion fleet. I have discovered a weakness in their defences which Earth and the alliance can take advantage of.’’
Alenna asked, “What weakness?’’
I replied, “They just can’t detect us when the illusion field is on. Our cargo ship to them was in stealth mode. We were stationary in space, so there was also no heat signature from the engines and finally as radar is not reflected back they were blind to our presence that way as well. Frigates and battle cruisers don’t have an illusion field as you can’t have both shields and illusion generators fitted. They just would not work together. You need a smooth hull for the illusion field to work. Due to the shield generators sticking out far too much from the hull, the illusion generator just won’t function. Remember neither system had been invented when those early frigates that I had acquired for Earth, were constructed.’’
What was needed were two types of frigates, one type with shields and the other with illusion generators. The latter could hide until they had a clear shot and ambush the enemy.
Just as you thought it could not get any worse, the Silka ship on a trajectory towards the inner solar system, launched an armada of the small craft. This armada was now heading back to Earth to wreak revenge. Alenna ordered me to keep out of the fight, so I reluctantly withdrew our cargo freighter to a safe distance. I was keen to observe what was about to happen and my glare was fixated towards the long range viewer. The remaining frigates formed a line of defence. Pooky had taken command as Captain Porridy’s frigate was now out of its energy supply as all the hydrogen had now leaked out from the ruptured fuel tank. The frigate was dead in space, slowly at first, drifting towards Earth and soon would be in danger of unpowered re-entry. The enemy now neared. The remaining frigates were outnumbered ten to one. The tactic the Silka had chosen was to attack in four waves, one behind the other.
Pooky’s voice could be heard barking orders at the other frigates, “Steady, hold your fire, target the enemy and wait until they are in range, wait… wait… Fire!!!’’
A barrage of beam weapon fire along with the plasma cannon from Pooky’s frigate, striking the small Silka ships. The advantage the frigates had over the smaller Silka ships was that their weapons were more powerful and they had more of them to boot, whereas the Silka had only two beam weapons apiece. I watched with despair in that I could not help. Yarkeli was in hysterics crying and screaming at the same time. Alenna and Jenna had their arms around Yarkeli, attempting to comfort her. The first wave was wiped out by the frigates, just as the second wave hit. Three frigate had been damaged, one seriously from the first wave. The number of frigates effectiveness was now depleting and it was harder to keep the Sika from surrounding the frigates. Soon the third and fourth wave had joined in. The frigates looked doomed.
I glanced at another monitor to check on the progress of the Silka mother ship that was on course towards the sun. I could not find it. Where was it? It could not have reached the sun yet. I turned back to the other monitor. Pooky’s ship was surrounded. Captain Porridy’s ship was now getting close to Earth’s atmosphere. I could not sit back any longer and do nothing. I just had to do something. I could defy Alenna and assist Pooky or in a more daring plan I could scoop up Captain Porridy’s ship before it hit the atmosphere, but I could not do both. I had only seconds to make my choice, a very hard choice and another thing, where had that Silka mother ship gone?
End of: The Chronicles of Jake -- Book 2
Acknowledgement
Cover illustrator: Melissa c/o www.theultimateebookcreator.com
Dear reader
May I take this opportunity to thank you for taking the time to read my second novel. I do hope you enjoyed it. If you did I would very much appreciate it if you could spare a few moments to consider leaving a rating and review of a line or two on Amazon. This would I hope encourage others to read the novel along with encouraging myself to write the final part of the story.
Many thanks
Peter
Chronicles of Jake 2: The Invasion Begins Page 18