Nowhere to Hide

by Saxon Andrew

  ***

  The Sovereign looked at the Pental Ruler on his display, “Get these diagrams out to every civilization and have them start constructing these missiles immediately.”

  “I’ll send them to the Negotiator and have him explain what they are and their importance. Please thank them for their gift.”

  “You also need to start installing the FTL Drives on your ships.”

  The Pental Ruler nodded and disappeared from the display. The Sovereign hoped there was enough time but his hopes were dashed; the first battle was fought two weeks later before the new technology could be used.

  ***

  The Senior Father watched the four transports jump away and hoped they were successful. The main invasion was delayed another four months due to three aggressive civilizations that fought them savagely…but Grandfather wanted information now.

  ***

  The ship that emerged into space above the planet was larger than the capital city on the surface that it parked in orbit above. It extended a force field more than eighty miles wide between it and the planet’s surface as thousands of large troop carriers began leaving its bay dropping toward the city below. Twenty thousand warships jumped in and began firing on the giant intruder but all of their most powerful beams were easily shrugged off. The defenders were not so fortunate. Massive beams began lancing out from the giant ship hitting scores of the defenders and most of those ships that were hit were vaporized. Thousands of additional warships started jumping in and the thousands of beams being fired at the intruder began targeting small areas on the intruder’s force field. The intruder was forced to reduce the size of its huge force field to prevent its hull from being hit. But it didn’t have to maintain the force field much longer. The troop transports would be in atmosphere shortly.

  ***

  The Sensor Nephew looked up from his panel, “Father, two small green ships have arrived and our beams are not getting through their force fields.”

  “Target them with multiple beams.”

  “We’re firing twenty at them now.”

  The Father changed his display from the transports to the small green ships and saw them flickering four hundred miles out. They accelerated and began moving in; he began to feel apprehension. “Target all our beams at those ships.”

  One of the small green ships was hit with a hundred beams and after twenty seconds exploded. The second leaped forward at an incredible speed.

  Five hundred beams began turning to fire on the small ship but never had the opportunity to lock on the small target. The Green Ship fired a twenty mile wide beam that blew through the force field as if it wasn’t there and the giant Invader transport blew up in a massive blast. The defending warships fell on the landers after the giant force field disappeared and, before they could make it into the planet’s atmosphere, the defender’s beams blew all of them into debris, which, along with the giant transport, became brilliant meteorite showers on the planet below.

  The Commander of the defenders looked for the Green Ship to offer thanks but it had disappeared. The city was lucky to have survived. Three other large cities that were targeted by the Families initial scouting mission weren’t. Millions of inhabitants were stunned and lifted off their planets to the giant ships hanging in orbit. They withdrew before they could be stopped. The survivors knew the invaders were coming back.

  ***

  Dee watched the recording and looked at Drey, it’s starting.”

  “Let’s hope they can get enough missiles built in time.”

  “Our ships can buy them enough time.”

  “Not if they start the major invasion.”

  “The destruction of that one ship will give them pause. They’ll send another small attack before the major invasion starts.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “That place in my mind is. Next time we need to make sure none of them survive the effort.”

  “The Theta that was destroyed?”

  “Was not one of the new ships; this attack will speed up missile production.”

  “You think?”

  Dee smiled, “They’ll be ready next time.”

  Drey nodded, “And so will we.”

  ***

  The Father looked at the recordings from the transports and ignored the three successful attacks and focused on the small green ship approaching the doomed transport. It was being hit at long distance by more than ten beams but was unharmed. Suddenly, the recording ended. He quickly pulled up every recording that had been done before the probes were eliminated and didn’t see that green ship in any one of them. Where did it come from? How many of them were in that galaxy? Could it breech a main warship’s force field? He shook his head and sent the recordings to his Grandfather. He waited and two days later his display activated, “This is disturbing.”

  “I’ve looked through all our prior recordings and none of them have that green ship on them.”

  “Is it possible we didn’t find the civilization that built it?”

  “It’s a huge galaxy, Grandfather.”

  “I notice that it didn’t arrive with the first defenders.” The Father twisted forward in agreement. “I want you to send a major warship to that planet.”

  “We’re still four months away from being able to start a major attack.”

  “I don’t care. We need to see more than what we have here. Send three warships to that planet to destroy it and I want a probe ejected as soon as they arrive.”

  “We will launch tomorrow.”

  “Don’t delay getting me the results.”

  “Will we be landing on the planet to remove inhabitants?”

  “No, we won’t be sending a transport to receive them; destroy it.”

  The display went dark and the Father notified the junior Fathers who would be sending a ship.

  ***

  Ian stared at the recordings as he held Violet in his arms and heard Moe say, “If Dee is right and there is going to be another attack.”

  “Yes?”

  “Then they will return to that planet.”

  “Are you certain about that?”

  “It’s the only one that failed. I also suspect they will be ejecting a probe to record what happens. I know we would.”

  Ian contacted Drey, “We need to eliminate any probes before we take on any ships.”

  “If we delay, the planet could be hit.”

  Ian thought a moment and said, “Get three Dreadnaughts there and have them disrupt space around the planet.”

  “Do we want to reveal that technology?”

  “We still have FTL to get in if needed. I don’t want them to learn anything.”

  Drey stared at Ian and nodded, “I have just the unit to take out the probes.”

  Ian nodded, “We’ll disrupt space when we see a wave in green space approaching the planet. You need to select the ships that will take on their ships.”

  “Dom and Becky will lead them. Here’s where we see what we’re up against. Do we allow the locals to attack first?”

  Ian paused, “I’ll contact the Sovereign and tell him what we think is going to happen. He’ll take them on first and we’ll only get involved if the planet is in jeopardy.”

  “I’ll send our Thetas to the planet and have them wait for the Invader’s arrival.”

  Chapter Four

  Ryan looked at his display and picked up his communicator, “You know what your assignments are. Find any probe and take it out. Notify me as soon as you detect any in your area of coverage. We have microprobes scattered around the planet and use them to find the probes they eject. We’ve got to do this quickly. Make the Union proud.”

  Ryan knew his squadron had worked hard for this chance. His pilots were well disciplined and actually enjoyed working together. He’d put them up against any unit in the Union’s Navy. Now was the time to prove it. The Freaks had earned the right to be a part of the first battle.

  ***

  The Senior Father looked at the thr
ee selected to attack and said, “You will each eject a probe upon your arrival at the target. Don’t waste time; get in and destroy that planet.”

  “If the recording was accurate, we should be able to handle those green ships.”

  “Do not take the time to go after them. Follow your orders; get in, destroy the planet, and get out!”

  “Yes Father.”

  ***

  Stregen waited in green space and had his disrupter set to discharge as soon as any approaching wave was detected. The three giant Dreadnaughts were placed in an isosceles triangle around the planet and were prepared to disrupt space out to two hundred thousand miles from the planet. Once space was disrupted, the three Dreadnaughts would all fly FTL to the side of the planet away from the approaching wave in green space to avoid detection. Suddenly, the giant disrupter cannon discharged and the giant ship flew under the planet in less than a second. Stregen saw the other two Dreadnaughts were holding station next to his ship and they hit their FTL drives simultaneously and flew away from the planet at double the speed of light. In less than a second they arrived in undisrupted space and jumped away. None of them were seen by the incoming invader warships which arrived in normal space after their jump.

  ***

  The Senior Father in the three ship group yelled, “What are you doing entering normal space this far from the planet?”

  The Drive Nephew looked at his panel and said, “There is some kind of energy field that will not allow us to jump closer.”

  The Senior Father looked at him and ordered, “Accelerate to the planet.” The three ships ejected a probe and moved at high speed toward the planet.

  ***

  Ryan watched his display and saw the three probes ejected. Twenty of his ships roared in on each of the probes and the first ship to arrive fired a single boson missile at each of the enemy probes. They exploded in a massive blast.

  “Father, the probes have been destroyed.” Before the Father could order more deployed his ship was rocked by massive blasts on his ship’s force field. He looked at his Weapons Niece and she shouted, “We’re down forty percent. A probe would never make it out of the field.”

  “Start firing on the attackers and prepare to hit the planet.”

  All three ships looked like they were on fire but their force fields were holding. It should be over momentarily.

  ***

  Dom looked at his display, “Becky, my wing is taking the lead ship. You and your wing take the other two.”

  “Count it down.”

  Dom said, “Three, two, one, and now!”

  Each of the approaching Invader Warships had six Theta ships rushing in on them at one third the speed of light. Only one ship in each of the three groups fired with the others holding their fire unless they were needed. Dom’s beam hit the giant onrushing ship and the force field instantly grew brighter but the ship continued forward unharmed. The ten beams fired by the other Thetas blew through the giant ship’s force field and it blew up into small fragments that exploded out from the giant blast. All three Invader Ships were vaporized.

  Dom watched them explode, “Dixie, what have you determined?”

  “It’s a good thing that force field had been weakened by the FTL missiles. I don’t think we would have penetrated it otherwise.”

  “Tell me what you mean.”

  “We weren’t hit by any of their beams. The beams on these ships were much stronger than the first ships that attacked. It would have taken multiple simultaneous hits on their force fields before we would have penetrated it.”

  Dom thought a moment, “What if we hit them with the new boson missiles?”

  “I’m not sure, Dom; that’s something we’ll have to try in combat conditions to see if it’s effective. Perhaps we were hasty and should have hit them with varying numbers to determine what we need to penetrate their force fields.”

  Dom nodded and hit his panel, “All ships, return to the planet to see if there’s a follow up attack.”

  ***

  The Father watched the feed from the attack and wanted to yell for the three ships to retreat and escape but knew they were sent there to be expendable. The missiles hitting the three ships were incredibly powerful and had not been used in the first sortie. Suddenly, the feed from all three ships stopped abruptly and he knew they had been destroyed. But what had done it. They were surviving the vicious attack and were killing the ships attacking them. He replayed the recording and slowed it down. The ships had been hit by something in front of their approach. He slowed the view down as much as possible but all he saw was the massive blast of the force field’s destruction. He tried numerous times but couldn’t determine what had fired on the three ships. The first blast had blinded the ship’s sensors to what was directly in front of them. Could it have been those green ships again? Whatever it was, it had appeared faster than the scanners could detect and killed the three warships. He sent the recording to his Grandfather and began to feel real fear for his family. Something in that galaxy was deadly. He also worried about the High Council’s response to the failure to destroy the planet. Grandfather had not contacted him since he sent the recordings and that could mean problems.

  ***

  The Ship Controller had lost eight ships attacking the three invaders. The other civilizations who had taken part in the defense also lost ships and he knew they were going to have to attack using FTL drives in the future. Fly in, fire missiles, and fly out as other ships attacked. Staying in normal space and firing on the enemy was suicide. He sent the information to the Sovereign and knew the urgency of updating their ships had just increased tenfold.

  ***

  Ian looked at Drey on his display, “I know; we made a mistake.”

  “We should have used an attack ship to see how effective it would have been against their ship’s force fields.”

  “We learn from our mistakes. Does Dee have an idea of what happens next?”

  “They didn’t learn much. I suspect another attack is in order. However, she senses that we will have some time before that happens.”

  “How much time?”

  “Between four to eight months.”

  “We need some time to build our number of ships.”

  Drey smiled, “Moe tells me that if the force field is weakened, an attack ship may be able to knock the force field down and hit their ships.”

  “Do we know how many boson beams would have to be used to weaken it to a point where the new boson missile will get through?”

  “Cole says the data indicates it will take between two to three hits of the boson beams for the new missiles to make that happen.”

  “Get that information out to Admiral Kregen and have him start training his pilots on how to do it.”

  “He called me a few minutes ago and told me the same information. He’s on it and his fleets should be ready before the next attack.”

  Ian shook his head, “This is not going to be easy with thousands of those ships attacking.”

  Drey shrugged, “You do what you have to do to survive.”

  “Plan to meet with the Sovereign and the other leaders of M87 to discuss what they can do more effectively.”

  Drey looked at his panel, “I have a message from him. I’ll contact him and let you know what he says.”

  “Thanks, Drey.” Drey nodded and the display went dark.

  ***

  The Father saw his Grandfather’s anger, “So they destroyed our probes, used some kind of energy field to prevent us jumping close to the planet, and then destroyed our ships and you don’t know how they did it?!?”

  The Father knew his Grandfather’s anger was misplaced but how to get him to see it without angering him more was not going to be easy. “Grandfather, we sent those ships to gather information. Should more have been sent?” The Grandfather stared at him. He continued, “We know that galaxy has been able to destroy our probes preventing us from learning what’s happening there. We’ve learned a great deal from thi
s attack and can make our future plans based on what we’ve seen. Did you anticipate our ships might be destroyed?”

  “The Council felt that three should have been able to destroy the planet.”

  “But that decision was made not knowing about the energy field, which requires a much longer flight to the target. We know our force fields were weakened considerably before the ships were destroyed. I suspect more ships would have broken through to the planet.” He saw his Grandfather thinking about what he said. Good, his anger was abating. “We did not see what eventually killed our ships but we now know that invading that galaxy is going to be fraught with danger and we will probably endure losses to take it.”

  The Grandfather swelled, “It’s been too long since we’ve encountered a galaxy that caused us harm. I’ll discuss this with the Council and get back to you on what to do next. How much longer will it be before your entire family is ready?”

  “Four months.”

  “I’m going to suggest that other families send their surplus of ships to you. You’ll need to work them into your ranks.”

  “Who will be in command?”

  “I’ll let you know.”

  “That is going to take some time to work them in and give them their assignments.”

  “I understand. I’ll give you the time you’ll need to get ready.”

  “Thank you for your kindness, Grandfather.” The display went dark and the Father hoped he would remain in command. He didn’t want to be considered a rival to a new commander but knew that was going to happen if someone else was chosen to lead. He thought about it and hoped the Grandfather’s wouldn’t put a new leader in whose forces were not as large as his own; it would cause too much resentment in the Family. He focused on the issue and decided that they would probably send an advisor who he would be forced to listen to. Whoever it was would have the council’s ear and that was actually worse than a new commander. Anything that went wrong would be placed on his back.

  He looked at his plans to attack the galaxy and swept them off the table. He couldn’t make any plans without the one chosen by the council’s input. He thought about it and decided that this would buy his family more time before they were forced to invade. On second thought, the council may insist his plans be followed to avoid further delay. He looked at the scattered plans on the floor and called in six children to pick them up and reorganize them. He would just have to wait and see what was going to happen. He smiled and decided to add ten thousand pages of support data to the document. That should tilt things his way; at the very least it would delay the attack.