Target: Earth (Extinction Wars Book 5)

by Vaughn Heppner

  That’s exactly what Orcus had planned to do to us. He wouldn’t have done it through clever tactical maneuvering like Hannibal, but by having the OT Fleet hang back as Earth Force ships went into battle against the Plutonian invaders. Then, the Plutonians would have continued attacking while the OT Fleet hit us from behind, having neatly sandwiched our ships in the killing ground.

  It had been a great plan disrupted thanks to yours truly. Now, we had to tear an advantage from our advanced warning of the current Plutonian attack. There was only one problem.

  In the same general region as last time, a dimensional portal opened. Three Plutonian ships—cruiser-sized and with their exotic hull armor—zipped out of the bizarre opening, one right after the other. There was a pause. Then, practically nose to tail, the next trio zoomed out.

  Ella, Rollo and I were already in our captured Lokhar Light Cruiser Thistle Down, with the GEV in its main cargo hold. General Briggs had charged upstairs into CLP Battlejumper America, there to lead his space marines if the chance came. Admiral Sparhawk had overall command of the fleet.

  Diana and Spencer had remained behind on Earth.

  Even as we hurried up to our respective warships, the Police Proconsul, on the Prime Minister’s orders, had instructed the various battlejumper captains about Ella’s idea concerning PDD missiles. Thus, munitions officers on the various monster warships hurriedly tried to find the few missiles of that type and get them ready to launch.

  Diana had chosen not to tell the people of Luna Command about the plan. They were too near the enemy, for one thing. For another, Luna Command only had newly built missiles—and none of those had been PDDs. There was a third reason. The Plutonians might intercept such a message and take whatever countermeasures they could against PDD missiles. Besides, we didn’t want to hit the Plutonians with the PDD missiles until exactly the right moment.

  It was possible this wasn’t the right battlefield to attempt the PDD tactic. One of the biggest problems militaries had with new inventions—or old inventions used in new ways—was using the tactic piecemeal the first time and giving the enemy time to adjust to it.

  We didn’t want to give the Plutonians time to study our new tactic. However, the Plutonians had always attacked in these endeavors, never trying to get back home through the dimensional portal. So maybe we wouldn’t have to worry about that aspect of the missile assault.

  As the first battlejumpers of Earth Force began accelerating out of Earth orbit, the third and last set of Plutonian vessels popped out of the dimensional portal. These were not cruiser-sized vessels. These were larger, battleships, possibly three times the size of the cruiser-type Plutonian ships. That still made them much smaller than our battlejumpers.

  Nine highly advanced enemy vessels had come through the dimensional portal before it closed. If this had been nine regular ships against our massed battlejumpers that would have been no big deal. But these were nine technologically superior ships against fifty-three battlejumpers, two captured light cruisers and a hidden GEV.

  The Starkien Fleet was far too late to help us. Earth was on its own, again, and the odds were heavily stacked against us.

  -52-

  The Plutonian ships weren’t Lokhar vessels upgraded with a few fancy techs. The Plutonian ships represented old school adversaries that had fought against the First Ones and held their own for a time. That made the Plutonian warships uniquely dangerous.

  Yeah, we had the numerical and tonnage advantage, but that could easily fall before technical dominance several factors higher than ours.

  Three Plutonian vessels wouldn’t have been such a big deal. I figured we could have easily handled them. Nine Plutonian ships, three of them ugly-looking bastards from the dawn age, oh yeah, we were in trouble.

  The essence of my PDD missile assault plan was killing Plutonian ships as fast as possible. How would that help us capture one? Very easily; we could concentrate on the last mother while I dismantled the detonator from the inside.

  But what would it profit humanity if we gained a Plutonian ship but no longer possessed an Earth Force of any size? Nothing. Then the Lokhars could swoop in and finish us with ease. The game would be up. We had two vicious enemies, one always willing to take up the slack of the other.

  Well, damned if you do and damned if you don’t. If that’s the case, do what you want. That was pretty much my life rule.

  Luna Command did not have much in the way of missiles. We could thank Orcus and the OT Fleet for that. LC used the light-cruiser drone, peeking around the Moon at the Plutonian flotilla.

  Particle beams flashed at the drone.

  Luna Command launched several missiles from the handful they had left. The missiles circled the Moon and shot out, racing at the enemy from various directions.

  Particle beams swiftly disintegrated them.

  There was more peek-a-boo with the light-cruiser drone until three Plutonian ships peeled off from the others, heading for the Moon to take care of the problem.

  I had to give Luna Command this: collectively, they had big brass balls and a group heart that refused to count the odds. Were they going to run away to save their skins? No. They were going to die if those Plutonian ships raked the surface installations, which was what Luna Command had been goading the enemy to do to so the enemy would not be one united mass when they hit our fleet.

  Earth Force battlejumpers moved into formation as they broke from planetary orbit. Light Cruiser Thistle Down kept behind them, waiting for our opportunity.

  Our battlejumpers were patterned off the old Jelk models. Our first ship had been a battlejumper, the one we assault troopers had torn out of Shah Claath’s red grip. A battlejumper was huge, much bigger than a city-block-sized Starkien beamship. During my mercenary dog days for the Jelk Corporation, one battlejumper could launch hundreds of assault boats. The heavy lasers could fire with killing power up to ten million kilometers. That was much farther than a Starkien beamship’s measly one million kilometer range.

  Of course, that meant the enemy ships were already in range, as the Moon was between four hundred and five hundred thousand kilometers from Earth.

  The heavy cannons targeted the larger Plutonian ships first. Then, lasers stabbed through the stellar darkness.

  Some lasers hit.

  Why not all, you ask? For a simple reason. Each side used electronic jamming, ghost decoys and other defensive systems. The Plutonian defensive systems were much better than ours. That meant our hit percentage was lower than theirs. We used missiles, as well. The Plutonians launched none.

  In many ways, that was the essence of space battle. Two sides slugging it out as hard, fast and as heavy as they could.

  Of course, one could just as easily say that that was the essence of old-style naval combat. Vessels from two sides floated relatively nearby and duked it out by means of guns, screaming jets, cruise missiles and submarine-launched torpedoes.

  Anyone who has studied the great naval battles of Earth knows it never quite worked out like that. There was maneuvering, superior gunnery, hitting with a fast strike or a heavy strike, or pecking strikes that came in driblets. There was the use of smoke, fog at the Battle of Jutland, great amounts of empty space at the Battle of Midway, fantastic seamanship at the Battle of Trafalgar and Greek cunning at the Battle of Salamis.

  The three Plutonian ships raced toward the Moon. Clearly, the Plutonian commander did not want the Moon on one side of his flotilla and Earth Force on the other. Thus, he was taking out Luna Command fast.

  “We have to do something to help them,” Ella said on the bridge of Thistle Down.

  I shook my head. “There’s nothing you can do.”

  “So you’re just going to sacrifice Luna Command?”

  “One,” I said. “That is not my decision to make, as I am not in overall command. Two. Even if I could, this is a battle in which our extinction is more than possible. A commander has to make calculated choices if he’s going to win and save most of the
people.”

  “That doesn’t mean I have to like such sacrifices,” Ella said.

  “True.”

  “Oh-oh,” said Rollo, who’d kept his eyes glued to the main screen.

  I joined him before it.

  The three Plutonian ships slowed down, bombarding the Moon’s surface. In moments, masses of debris blew outward from one terrific explosion after another from the Moon.

  At that moment, the Luna Command light-cruiser drone raced into view, accelerating at the enemy vessels, all cannons blazing.

  It made no difference. As if swatting a pesky fly, the Plutonian ships opened up on the drone, disintegrating it with contemptuous ease.

  At the same time, the main Plutonian flotilla headed straight into the teeth of massed heavy laser fire. It was galling to watch. The smaller three ships hid behind the larger three. Their inhibiter generators must have been more powerful, as they seemed to shrug off the combined laser fire.

  “Missiles,” I said. “Earth has to launch its missiles.”

  Someone on our side must have been thinking like me. I saw missiles launching from the planet. Soon, they rose up into space like swarms of bees, heading for the enemy.

  “The missiles are never going to run that gauntlet all the way to the Plutonians,” Rollo said.

  Even as he said the magic words hordes of missiles began vanishing. Seconds later, they popped into existence in front of the Plutonian ships. Our own beams destroyed some of those appearing T-missiles. Plutonian reactions also proved to be astonishingly fast. They used the particle beams to destroy one T-missile after another.

  Still, a few got through, using nuclear and antimatter detonations. Those explosions weakened as they struck the inhibiter field before washing against the enemy’s exotic hull armor.

  All the while, the enemy vessels spewed their deadly particle beams. This part of the battle proved to be a war of attrition. We pounded them. They pounded us.

  A forward battlejumper exploded as entire hull pieces shed off the main bulk. Then, the ship died a fiery death, wounding many of its sister ships with its shrapnel-like debris.

  The attrition continued, with two more battlejumpers dying from the savage particle beams.

  At that point, the Plutonian vessels began to move away from each other. I knew why, and it gave me hope. If one of those enemy ships took too much damage, the interior self-destruct explosive would ignite the vessel, making it a deadly weapon against the other ships.

  The “expansion” maneuver exposed the smaller cruiser-sized vessels. Our side took the bait, concentrating on a smaller vessel, almost immediately doing damage to its hull.

  Now it appeared to be a matter of speed and who could pour out the greatest firepower in the shortest amount of time.

  Two more battlejumpers went spinning as they exploded with intense multi-colors. Tens of thousands of personnel died in those detonations. It was sickening to contemplate, and I had to compartmentalize it.

  Finally, though, a combination of massed laser fire and more T-missiles caused a spectacular explosion as one of the cruiser-sized Plutonian ships exploded violently. Fortunately for their side, that vessel had maneuvered far enough away from its own kind that it didn’t hurt any others.

  The three that had bombarded the Moon raced to join the rest of the flotilla that attacked Earth Force.

  “If we’re going to capture one of them…” Rollo told me.

  “I still don’t like the idea of risking all of you in this,” I said.

  “Phht,” Rollo said. “What risk? We’re the Lucky Thirteen.”

  “The few survivors from the last mission,” I said. “How many are going to survive today’s mission?”

  “Wrong question,” Rollo said. “How many of the Plutonians are going to survive?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “You’re right. It’s time to get started.”

  -53-

  I’m sure a few of you are wondering why I didn’t simply use the GEV and take remote control of the enemy vessels. The easy answer was that I couldn’t. Their tech was too good for me to pull a fast one like that.

  That meant we had to do this the hard way, risking our own blood to defend what we loved.

  The Lucky Thirteen, which included me, piled into the GEV. I launched us from the Thistle Down’s cargo bay and went into the darkest stealth mode possible. Then, I began to accelerate toward the incoming enemy.

  There was a real danger that our own people would inadvertently shoot us down. We were essentially invisible to any sensors. Thus, a stray laser or particle beam or speeding missile could collide with us and wreak whatever damage it was capable of wreaking against my superior hull armor.

  That danger was moderated to some extent by the extreme openness or emptiness of space. Even between the Earth and Luna there was a lot of space. Still, bad luck happened, and it could happen to us. It was simply another risk we had to endure if we wanted to keep on living free.

  The ranges closed as the two sides headed at each other. The Plutonians were suicidal fighters, and Earth Force couldn’t afford to let them reach orbital space. They might bombard the other continents and wipe out human life before the battle ended.

  I gave Ella the piloting chair and left to get my phase suit. I would not take the metallic loops along this time, as I would not live through another hyper-speeded state right now. I did take Abaddon’s old force axe, though. If one wanted to destroy something immediately, it was the weapon of choice.

  I wondered if the Plutonians had been this suicidal during their war against the First Ones. I rather doubted it. What made them so kamikaze-like now?

  The best answer I could come up with was Jennifer. Had she taken on Abaddon’s worst characteristics? I believed that was likely. She lacked the First One’s former power and ability. Maybe racing to the Plutonians had been one of her ways to fix that.

  Ella used shift-speed to get us close to the Plutonians. Then, all while in deepest stealth mode, I had her decelerate and then accelerate so she followed close behind the enemy flotilla.

  The Plutonians definitely had the better tech compared to Earth Force. The ancient slime bastards did not, however, possess better tech than the Galactic Effectuator.

  Now, I had Ella accelerate even more.

  Earth Force knew which Plutonian craft I wanted. They would target it last.

  “It’s time, Creed,” Ella said over a comm.

  “Got it,” I said. “Wait for my signal.”

  “Don’t get killed,” she added.

  “Good luck to you too, darling,” I said.

  With that, I began to run, going out of phase as I did. I ran through the GEV bulkheads until I reached the outer hull. Once through, I gave myself thruster power.

  This thruster pack was smaller than before, and it contained a lot less fuel. Even though I was out of phase, I had the velocity of the GEV. Even now, Ella was supposed to be decelerating enough so the stealth craft didn’t reach the enemy ships too soon.

  I did not ghost up to see where I was going. I was dealing with Plutonians. I expected them to have something to sense ghosting. Thus, I used dead reckoning to tell where I was.

  The AI had made the computations before I’d left. Now, I was risking everything on those computations working. That included not having the Plutonian ship jink or juke out of my path.

  Time passed. It was lonely out of phase. I could hear myself breathe. Out there, I knew, we were slaughtering the slugs and they were slaughtering us in return, just as they had butchered Luna Command.

  How many thousands of soldiers had died through no fault of their own? They had done exactly what they were supposed to do, but somewhere else, someone on their side made a mistake. Or the enemy did something really smart. Then, ten thousand soldiers marched upon one hundred holding a fort. Those one hundred died with hardly a murmur because they were totally out of position. That was what had happened to the people of Luna Command. Its occurrence was inevitable. How did one make su
re he wasn’t in that crowd?

  Luck? Good sense? An act of God?

  I don’t have the answer to that one, just a lot of questions.

  In any case, my time out of phase neared its end. This would be dead reckoning phase movement.

  I put the chronometer up on my visor. I had a decision to make. Should I ghost up just a little and take a look, and then use the thruster pack while out of phase again? Or should I decelerate now and trust to dumb luck that nothing bad would happen to me?

  It was a hard decision. Obviously, as a friend of mine used to say, I should do the prudent thing. But this wasn’t so obvious here. What if the Plutonians—?

  I decelerated while out of phase, trusting to the AI’s computations, trusting to some divine justice for our side and crossing my fingers.

  I saved just a squirt in the pack, and felt gravity take hold, as I no longer floated.

  I let out a giant sigh of relief. I was in a place with gravity. That implied I’d reached the target.

  Even so, I did something a few of you might think stupid. I shed the thruster pack from me, held onto it with one hand and got out the force-axe handle with the other. I took several deep breaths. Then, I released the thruster pack. For a second, it remained out of phase with me. A second later, it disappeared from my sight, heading in-phase the hard way.

  I took several steps back, readied the force axe—but did not make the red power glow yet—and let myself phase into the present reality…

  -54-

  I phased in as two big Orcus-looking dudes used a special, weird-sounding type of gun, blasting the thruster pack that had materialized in their midst.

  The sight of them shocked me. Luckily, I was so pumped up that the surprise did not cause any hesitation. My fingers blurred over the buttons in the correct sequence. As the saying goes, I could have done that in my sleep. The red force axe sizzled into being even as I chopped at one of the Abaddon clones.