Joni smiled. "Still, I'll take that over a standard battle-suit any day."
Jack said, "Here we go again. Kergans are firing. That inhibitor field needs another thirty seconds to reach full strength."
The first of the distant particle beams struck the area of the transports, causing minor damage. The next two dozen missed just to the south. The inhibitor field quickly swelled to its full size, preventing the Kergan beams from reaching the ground around the compound. With their assault thwarted, the Kergan ships turned back to join the ongoing fight.
An image of Garrett popped up on the wall display. "Why don't we go out and assist in the big fight? We could freeze ships in place and take out shields."
Jack shook his head. "Even though we can fire from a set back position, we're still vulnerable to those particle beams. We'd be putting our transports at risk. They can't handle a strike."
Garrett replied, "Then we leave the transports here. Just take the cruisers. All I'm saying is that instead of sitting back here to defend, we could be in there making a difference, even if it's a small one."
I nodded. "We can always withdraw. Without the threat of the Grumar and Grotus, our people are safe under that inhibitor. Jack, pass the order on to the others. And select a good position to attack from that will allow a hasty retreat."
Jack gave the order. The Garmon streaked up through the sky and into the black void of space. In thirty-two minutes, we reached our firing point. Fifty Kergan warships turned our way and fifty Kergan warships saw their front shields knocked offline.
Jack said, "We have a problem."
I glanced over. "What's that?"
Jack used his holo-display to draw a line on the scene being displayed on the wall. "If we reach this line, which is required to have a shot at any other ships, we leave the back door open for the Kergan transports. If they want to move those troops to the planet's surface, we won't be able to stop them."
I thought for a moment. "We're well defended on the surface. Besides, any ship we can help take out up here is a ship we don't have to fight through when trying to get those transports off the planet."
Joni said, "I agree. Our fight depends on how well our fleets do out here. Those new Salton ships could be the big equalizer that lets us get away."
I looked over at Jack for a response.
Jack sighed. "OK. I guess we're crossing the line. I'll pass on the orders."
We moved our small fleet to a position that allowed us to safely take potshots at the shifting enemy warships. Twenty minutes into our assault, we had knocked down the forward shields of only sixteen ships.
Garrett said, "We can't be effective from this range. We need to move closer."
I replied, "I don't think we should risk it. Two of our ships have taken particle beam hits. While the damage was minor, we can't afford to lose anyone."
Joni pointed to the wall display. "There go the Kergan transports!"
Jack looked over. "We could have stopped them in high orbit. They'll be on the ground and emptied by the time we get there now."
I took a deep breath. "OK, take us back. We'll have to send Joni in to alert Grunta Command. Joni, you'll be in charge of my Talisan troops. I won't give them over to the Gruntas, they would just use them as frontline fodder. You'll have the advantage of being able to fly around the battlefield. Just keep in mind that if you blink in, you lose power and won't be able to blink out. If that happens, you lose protection of that suit and within forty-eight hours that bio-gel starts to become toxic. No power, no filter."
Joni nodded. "Got it. I guess I'll have to be screaming all the time for anyone to hear me."
I gestured toward the med lab. "You might want to have a talk with Go before we get there. He can tell you all the ins and outs of working within that inhibitor field. And he knows what's effective in combat."
Joni stood. "You know, the number of fighters on both sides is just astronomical. I mean, millions against millions? How do you even keep something like that coordinated?"
Jack smiled. "You just do what you can to kill as many of the other side as possible. You only know the outcome based on the land you hold when the other side retreats due to their losses. That could be your side retreating as well."
Garrett replied, "You just keep at it for as long as you can keep keeping at it. Has anyone seen what a Kergan soldier looks like?"
Joni nodded. "I've seen their ambassador. He was slightly taller than you, but much stockier. And it didn't look like fat, just bulk muscle."
Jack said, "Those transports are landing. I have a headcount for us now. Twenty-two million. Depending on their weapons and skills, this might be an even match."
Joni moved toward the bridge doorway. "I'll check in with Go for a few minutes, then I'll do a sweep over their transports, followed by reporting my findings to you and then to Grunta Command. I might be back here to go over strategies with you for the Talisans too."
I pointed toward the display wall. "Keep your camera feed open so we can see what you see. We'll lose it when you go inside the inhibitor, but any info we can garner from it before that will be useful."
As Joni walked out the door, an image of her camera feed showed on the wall display next to Garrett's image. Minutes later, Joni was away on her scouting trip. Garrett took the Jess toward the Kergan transports, but was quickly rebuffed with an onslaught of medium strength particle beams. The transports were armed.
Garrett said, "This creates a problem. We'll have to keep our ships on this side of the inhibitor. Should they knock it out we may have to move just over the horizon."
Jack added, "That means we can't make use of the grunts either. We could have formulated an attack where we turned off that field for a coordinated assault using those grunts. Looks like we are once again stuck with hand-to-hand."
I replied, "At least that's something we are both skilled and experienced at."
Jack shook his head. "We don't know what weapons they have either. We do know they outnumber us by about twelve million fighters. Not sure how we make up that difference."
The image from Joni's camera feed brought us the close look at the Kergans we had been missing. Their troops were muscular, highly organized, and equipped with oddly shaped spears.
Joni said. "I can't tell what that rack is for on the side of the spear. And there's some kind of handle or foot-pedal at the back end."
Garrett remarked, "That's not as much of a spear as it is a launcher. Looks like it might be a hydraulic bow of sorts. The rack on the side has six bolts. Jam down that lever with your foot and it's ready to fire. For close combat it's a spear or a pole. And check their backs. They each have three of those racks hanging on there. We might have ten thousand of those GPRs, but they have twenty-six million of those hydraulic spear guns. Hardly seems fair."
I pressed Joni. "Get that information to Grunta Command as fast as you can."
Joni replied, "Hang on. I'll give them something to keep them busy for a while."
Six of the Kergan transports exploded as Joni fired off tungsten rounds from her glove. The Kergans, with no idea of what they had been hit with, began firing their particle beams into the air blindly.
Joni took a near direct hit as she ducked into the inhibitor field. "OK, I now know what you mean by this suit having limits. The energy absorption just shot up to 76 percent. Had that been a direct hit, there would be nothing left of me but carbon dust."
The Kergan troops took up defensive positions. For the time being, our fight had been delayed.
Chapter 17
* * *
I transferred over to one of the Odenta carriers. The Mallox had a contingent of six hundred grunts, with eight hundred Odenta pilots ready and willing to fly them. I had a short meeting with the Odenta officers.
Captain Lura Zomm sat in a chair across from me. "Mr. Beutcher, these grunts are armored. Unless and until we try to confront the Kergan ships, we don't know if those particle beams will do damage or not."
I replied, "We ran some numbers. We think they would. Anyway, I'm not willing to risk any of your lives needlessly. I'd rather we spent our time figuring out how to defeat their weapons instead of flying into them. You have all the data we have, you have a complement of engineers on each of these carriers—put your heads together and come up with a solution."
The captain leaned forward. "We have a solution, Mr. Beutcher. A single fermium missile would take out the lot of them all at once. Including those troops."
I shook my head. "The problem with that is it would also take out all our remaining transports down there, stranding us here. We could move everyone into the bunkers for the blast, but the transports wouldn't survive."
The captain pursed his lips. "We've also talked about halo jumps into their camp once the soldiers move out, but we can't get overhead to drop anyone in."
I questioned, "Halo jumps?"
The captain pulled up a diagram on a holo-display. "High Altitude Low Open parachute jumps. We drop in, opening a parachute just before reaching the ground. You are familiar with parachutes, aren't you?"
I shook my head. "Not really."
The captain laughed. "Your people confuse me. You're so advanced in so many areas, and yet light-years behind in others."
I looked over the diagram, observing the video of a jump as it played.
"You have these parachutes?" I said.
The captain nodded. "Of course we do. We don't fly without them. That would be nuts!"
I pointed at the diagram. "Would one of those support someone the size of me?"
The captain looked me up and down. "I don't see why not. You are on the large side, but those chutes are made to carry extra. You might want to open a few hundred meters higher, but it should work."
I smiled. "Thank you, Captain. I think you just gave me a way to get to my people without the several hours of running I did last time. Garrett can drop me just above the inhibitor field. I would be on the ground where I want to be in just seconds."
The captain stood. "I can have a couple of my crewmen show you how it works and what to do. It's simple, just takes some nerves for a first-timer."
I soon transferred back to the Garmon with a dozen Odenta parachutes.
Jack looked at me suspiciously. "So let me get this straight, you plan to jump out of a perfectly good ship, and free-fall almost to the ground?"
I nodded. "The Odentas swear by them and claim to have used them for centuries. Captain Zomm says it's perfectly safe."
Jack frowned. "Look, I know your family is down there and you want to fight beside them and protect them, but you're taking an awful big risk. We could use you out here with us."
I put my hand on Jack's shoulder. "All of you did an excellent job out here without me last time. This won't be any different."
Jack looked up at the wall display filled with Kergan transports. "I wish we had a way to take those transport guns offline. You think there's any way we could sneak a force around behind them? Could you come out the back side of that valley and march around this ridge?"
I looked over the diagram. "What's the distance around to there?"
Jack swiped at his holo-display. "Fifty-two kilometers. We could stay under the protection of the inhibitor for all but the last two."
I scratched at my chin. "From this rise to the transports, that's at least a half kilometer of open. What's to keep the guns on those transports from mowing us down?"
Jack pointed at the wall display. "That little lady right there. There are eight transports with a line-of-sight toward that rise. If Joni can take them offline, you have your way in. They can't fire those guns in between those ships, only up or out."
I stood and paced the bridge floor. "I'm starting to like this idea. We take out those transports, drop that inhibitor, and let the grunts take to the skies. They could return to the carriers before any warships came this way and we could deal a devastating blow to the Kergan ground troops."
Jack remarked, "You do understand there will be fighting at their transports. They won't leave them unattended."
I nodded. "I would figure as much. If we decide to do this, I may take my entire Talisan force around for that assault."
Jack concurred, "I think you would need at least that. They have over five hundred ships carrying fifty thousand troops each. Now, you'll want to keep in mind that the transports are parked outside the inhibitor. When your Talisans go in, they go in with blasters. And they'll be fighting against whatever the Kergans have for their hand weapons, which is likely particle weapons."
"When do we expect Joni back?"
Joni blinked in. "I'm right here."
I replied, "What did you hear?"
Joni said, "The Talisans will have blasters and the Kergans have particle weapons."
I filled Joni in on our plan.
Garrett landed the Jess in the Garmon's docking bay and made his way to the bridge. "I've been listening in. Is there anything I can do?"
I nodded. "You can drop me over the inhibitor field. After that, stick with Jack and make sure those warships up there don't come back. If we manage to take out their transport guns, make it your priority to coordinate the shutdown of the inhibitor."
"What of the Gruntas while all of this is going on?" Garrett asked.
"They will be fighting hand-to-hand. I'll leave instruction for them to head back to the bunkers should the inhibitor shut down. We don't want them running around out there when we bring in the grunts."
Garrett looked up at the wall display. "Lot of moving parts in this plan."
I sat back in my chair. "Yes, but they are all in stages, and if a stage fails we aren't any worse off for it. If the Talisans can't take the transports, we retreat back into the inhibitor. If the inhibitor stays up, the grunts don't fly. And if the grunts do fly, the Gruntas seek the safety of the bunkers."
Joni crossed her arms. "When do we start?"
For the next hour we went back and forth over the plan in fine detail. We had the soldiers, we had the weapons, we had a plan. I joined Garrett on the Jess as Joni powered out to check on the status of the Kergans. As we lifted out of the Garmon's docking bay, I pulled the parachute pack over my shoulders and connected the harness.
Garrett gave me a look. "You sure you want to do this?"
I pulled the straps of the pack tight. "We need to put this in play while we have the chance. The clock is ticking on that fleet up above. If we can bring enough of the transports back online, we can fly everyone out of here. Let the warships fight for the warships."
Several minutes later we hovered over the valley of bunkers. The ramp-way of the Jess lowered.
Garrett looked back as I slowly walked down. "We're right at line of sight for those transports. You might want to make a quick exit."
I nodded, stepped down to the end of the ramp, took the ripcord in my hand, and hesitated. Two particle beam shots flew just above the Jess.
Garrett shook his head. "Go now or I make you go!"
Unsure as to why I was frozen in fear, Garrett took the initiative, turning off the inertial dampener and bumping the throttle forward. I fell out into the cold, high altitude air. Twenty kilometers now separated me from the ground. As I fell into the inhibitor field, my arm pad and comm shut down. Being in a free-fall was something I had never experienced. It was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.
My subconscious mind took over, guiding me through the simple steps I had been shown to enact a stable fall. The wind howled past my helmet and the occasional buffet of air jostled my stomach. I then had a sudden realization—I didn't have an altimeter: my arm pad was down, as was my helmet display. I watched in terror as the ground rose up toward me at a seemingly slow but still horrifying speed. Fifteen seconds into my drop I had reached terminal velocity.
My fall lasted for just over five minutes before I panicked and pulled the ripcord. The chute deployed, jerking slightly under my arms as it opened full. I had opened early, but was thril
led with the view from two kilometers high as the chute stabilized and I dropped gently toward the ground.
The valley walls rose up as sheer granite cliffs. A small but raging river flipped from clear to white as it bounced over rocks and boulders on its way down the valley. I had a sudden rush of pride as I realized I was looking down upon the beauty that was my ancestral home world. I landed in a grassy field, several hundred meters from my Talisan bunker headquarters. My heart continued to race as I removed the harness and chute pack. I was more than happy to be on the ground.
I made my way into the bunker, met with my Talisan commanders, and laid out the plan for them. They were eager to get into the fight, knowing I would be leading the way. If the Talisans were anything, it was loyal.
After leaving them to go over plans and organize troops, I walked over to the bunker that housed Grunta Command. General Abila met me in a conference room.
"General, the Kergans will be coming soon. I will have Joni keep you informed of their movements. You'll want to set up as many defensible positions as you can, always with a fallback that brings you back here. If we are successful at taking out those transport guns, we can bring in the grunts and shred their ranks."
The general replied, "We do not fear the Kergans. We will fight to the last Grunta if needed."
I threw my hands up. "That's exactly what I'm trying to prevent here, General. I know we are a proud people and we honor those who have just passed, giving their lives in battle. But why do that if we don't have to? Wouldn't it be preferred that we all live? I don't understand the death wish."
The general leaned in. "Mr. Beutcher, when we first arrived, our goal was to defeat the Grumar and Grotus. That has been accomplished. After much discussion, the Council has decided that we want to claim and hold this planet. This is our home. This is where we belong!"
I sat back, shaking my head. "OK, first off, the Grumar and Grotus are far from being defeated. What we faced here is probably only 10 percent of their numbers—10 percent! To think they are even close to defeat is insanity. Second, how is it you plan to defend this planet? You have no fleet! The Grotus or the Kergans could have another five thousand ships on their way here now. They might be here tomorrow. What are you going to defend yourselves with?"
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