Nowhere to Hide

by Saxon Andrew

  “I’m sorry sir; when the Invader ship was rocked, several of their beams went into the area he had just entered. It was a freak occurrence.”

  Ryan shook his head, “Lt. Johnson, follow me in.”

  “Sir, you are too valuable to our efforts to send you in first. I’ll lead the way if that’s alright with you.”

  Ryan was constantly amazed by the bravery of the warriors under his command. He started to respond but heard, “Sir, I’ll go in with Johnson. You should direct our efforts and not be involved in the details. Are you ready, Johnson?”

  “In three, two, one, Now!”

  Ryan shook his head and saw the two pilots kill six battleships before both of them were blasted apart by a massive swarm of Invader beams fired by ships surrounding their target. Death walked the Invader formations and both sides were being introduced to it.

  ***

  “Admiral Martin?”

  “Yes Sir.”

  “Give me an update.”

  “It’s getting hard to break into their formations, Sir. The Invaders have started firing massive barrages by all the ships close our targets.”

  “I’m going to attempt a dive play up the middle.”

  “Sir?”

  “As soon as that fleet jumps again I want you to send the coordinates they jump to on the frequency I just sent to your panel. Send it right away and have your ships ready to go in.”

  “Yes Sir.” Mikki watched her pilots being chewed up by the Invader’s cross fire and she pounded her panel in frustration. Suddenly, the giant Invader fleet disappeared. “Get the coordinates out!”

  “Done.”

  Mikki jumped to the new location and saw two hundred thousand Green and Grey Civilization’s main battleships appear and launch a massive missile barrage at the Invaders. Eight hundred thousand neutron warhead missiles leaped out and went into the massive beams of the Invader fleet. They disappeared briefly, and then the massive covering fire fell apart like a sand castle in a huge wave. The strike fleet and three thousand attack ships followed the missiles in and the outer ranks of the Invader fleet started exploding in massive shock waves. The huge fleet immediately jumped away but sixteen thousand of the Invaders’ main battleships remained behind that were blasted by the Thetas and attack ships.

  The Green and Grey ships rushed in after the cleanup, collected all the neutron warheads, and jumped away before the Invaders could launch a fleet in retaliation. The Strike Fleet and supporting attack ships jumped after the escaping Invader Fleet.

  ***

  The Invader Fleet Father yelled, “If those Green or Grey ships appear again, jump away immediately! Do not hesitate! Go to the next coordinate without being ordered!”

  The Senior Grandfather was shaken by the ferocity of the attackers. They just kept coming in, no matter how many of them were killed. His fleet was totally defensive and coordinating a response was impossible. He looked at his Son, “Order more ships to rendezvous with our fleet.”

  “I’ve ordered four million more ships here, Grandfather.”

  “I want eight million here, NOW!”

  The Son turned back to his console and started sending orders. Two million arrived quickly but the others took hours to arrive. Every Family was under attack and none of them wanted to weaken their forces. The Son was finally forced to send direct orders to individual Invader Fleets to come immediately or face execution after the conflict ended. Only then did the numbers protecting the Senior Grandfather grow substantially.

  ***

  Chip jumped over to the huge Invader fleet Mikki’s strike fleet was attacking and saw the numbers had grown from four million ships in the original fleet to more than twenty million. He shook his head and said, “Hub.”

  “Yes Sir.”

  “This is a wasted effort without the Theta fleets.”

  “I agree, Sir. It would be good to get at their leadership but we don’t have enough ships to make it happen.”

  “Do you have the locations where all these ships were taken from?”

  “I do.”

  “Reassign our ships here to go to those locations and attack the fleets that have been weakened.” Chip looked at Mikki, “You and your sailors have done an outstanding job. Go to your new assignments.”

  Mikki looked out of her viewport and saw the giant Invader fleet in the distance and hated it with a passion. She didn’t want to leave; too many of her pilots had died in the effort…but… she knew they had to do it. “Yes Sir.”

  “Mikki, we’re not done with them; this is simply a delaying engagement.”

  Mikki nodded and recalled the survivors of her fleet.

  ***

  Max’s squadron appeared in normal space and roared in on an Invader Fleet in the process of attacking a planet. Invader battleships started exploding and the ships in orbit turned to face the incoming alliance attack force. A thousand Invader battleships were burning but the survivors of the initial attack turned and opened a devastating fire at the small ships jumping into their formations.

  ***

  Max micro-jumped over the top of an Invader battleship and fired a boson combo at it as he jumped toward the rear of the giant ship. He fired a three missiles barrage at the rear just as two battleships next to the ship he was attacking fired ten beams into his path. His ship flew through the beams just as he micro-jumped ahead of the enemy formation.

  “I’ve been hit, Max. Both of my jump drives are out and the Higgs force field is down. All I have is the reflective hull to protect us.”

  Max saw two battleships turning his way and he pushed the control wheel forward. The Theta dropped its nose and roared down into the planet’s atmosphere. “How long is it going to take you to repair the drives?”

  “At least six hours.”

  “That’s too long. We have to land and hope we can hold off the enemy on the planet until help arrives.”

  “I don’t know if we can survive a hit from space. Where do you want to go?”

  Max thought furiously and saw thousands of Invader transports dropping toward a huge city on the planet’s surface, “Head for that city; they won’t fire on their transports. Land us close to the inhabitant’s defenses and start your repairs. Break out my armor and blasters and start taking out the transports that are coming in close to our landing site.”

  ***

  The Defense Commander heard a sonic boom and saw a small ship with a large plume of smoke behind it roar in overhead and start hitting the large shuttles dropping out of the sky. He hit his communication panel, “Don’t fire on that small ship!” He watched the ship come in at an unbelievable velocity and suddenly stop and land in a public park among the tall buildings. He looked at ten warriors around him, “Come with me; Jax, you’re in command until I get back.” The large brown being nodded and the eleven Gralen warriors sprinted out toward the small ship.

  ***

  Max put on his armor and grabbed a heavy shoulder blaster as he opened the port and exited the damaged Theta. “Brad, you can’t allow them to capture you.”

  “I know. Just try to hold them off while my nanobots work on the drive.”

  Max leaped out of the port and saw eleven large creatures running toward his ship. He kept his blaster lowered, “Do you have the language deciphered yet?”

  “I’ve been listening to their transmissions but I don’t have much yet. Give me a few minutes.” Max heard a loud roar and saw an Invader Lander coming in. He turned and raised his shoulder blaster and hit it in the bow and the large lander exploded and veered off to the left and crashed into a building. The Commander saw the crafts destruction and yelled, “Hold your fire.” The Commander ran up until he was ten feet from the strange creature and stopped, “Who are you?”

  Max looked overhead and turned to the large brown colored being. It was biped, having two arms and legs, but its arms and legs were huge. The eleven had run the three hundred yards to his ship in an amazing time. He pointed to himself and said, “My name is Max
.” He pointed at the Commander, “Who are you?”

  The being stared at Max for a moment and then understood, “Lignen.”

  “Max the word for enemy is grond.”

  Max pointed at the Invader landers moving toward the planet and said, “grond.”

  The Commander looked up at the sky and then nodded. “Max, I think I have enough now. Say what you need and I’ll translate through your speaker.”

  Max looked at the Commander, “I can’t allow the enemy to take my ship. I must keep them away until it can repair itself.”

  “Why are you here?”

  “They’re attacking my civilization in another galaxy. We’ve brought the war here to slow them down. Their ships above your planet are being attacked by my fleet.”

  “Are you going to be able to stop them?”

  Max slowly shook his head, “Probably not. However, we will make them pay a price for what they’re doing here.”

  Max heard multiple explosions and saw Invader landers being blown out of the sky by Brad’s standard beams. “Max, I have Invader ground forces moving toward us from the west.”

  The Commander heard the comment and looked to his left and saw the Invader vehicles moving up the long thoroughfare. He smiled and looked at his ten warriors, “Fan out and lay down a covering fire.” Max joined Lignen as they sprinted toward the vehicles rushing toward them. They started firing up the street and the Invaders fired a barrage of projectiles and beams at their location. Max was spun around off his feet and his shoulder felt like it had been hit by a bowling ball at high velocity. He looked at his armor and saw that it had not lost its integrity but knew his shoulder was going to hurt for weeks. He scrambled back up and rolled out from the corner of the building and fired the shoulder blaster from his good shoulder. He quickly rolled back as a massive barrage of beams arrived.

  ***

  “Claire, Max has been shot down.”

  “WHAT!”

  “His ship was hit by ten beams and he was forced to crash land on a planet the Invaders are attacking.”

  Claire hit her panel, “Sir, I request permission to assist Admiral Leland.”

  Kregen looked at his panel and knew the attacks against the Invaders were going to be ended soon. He looked at the feed from the planet where Max had been shot down and decided it was time to do something to make a difference, “Admirals Fox and Newsome, take your ships and go see if you can stop an Invader invasion. I’ll be sending more ships as soon as they become available.” He looked at Claire, “Take your fleet and kick their butts.”

  “Thank you, Sir!” Claire punched her panel, “Liz, get the coordinates out to the fleet and have them start jumping in now!”

  ***

  Max leaned out and fired the heavy shoulder blaster up the wide street and blasted the first ten rows of close vehicles moving toward them. The Gralen Warriors had moved to the side streets and added their fire to the explosions taking place in the Invader’s ranks. Lignen pressed his communicator, “Move all our available warriors to my location. This is where the enemy is going to concentrate his forces.”

  The streets around the theta became a huge killing ground. The Invaders saw the ship on the surface from space and were determined to capture it to learn what technology it possessed. Thousands of Gralen warriors rushed in to take their anger out on the enemy that attacked their home. The air was full of beams and projectiles as the Invader ground forces began to pile on and rush into the fire fight.

  ***

  The Invasion Senior Father watched the fight from orbit and ordered landers from other cities to lift and join the fight to capture the enemy ship. The ten thousand Invader Battleships in orbit had gathered around the giant transports and were firing all their beams to prevent the small ships from breaking into their formations. He knew it was just a little bit longer before the defenders on the planet would be overwhelmed. Suddenly his ship was rocked by a violent blast and his ship was shoved into the force field of the ship next to his flagship. He jerked two eyestalks at the main display and saw thousands of small ships moving forward behind a massive missile barrage that had been launched by a fleet of large Green and Grey ships. That was his last view as his ship was hit by another neutron warhead and three missiles. It vanished in a huge blast.

  None of the ships in orbit fired at the small ship on the ground. The last order of the Senior Father was to not damage it and anyone that violated the order would be executed. The battle over the planet took on an intensity that was best described as vicious. The numbers of small ships jumping in grew by the thousands and the Invader fleet was caught between fleeing for their lives and leaving the millions of troops on the planet or staying to defend them. When the giant transports started exploding like a string of giant firecrackers, the only possible decision left was to flee. No ships were available for the Invaders on the planet to flee; the Senior Grandfather had ordered all available ships to go to his location.

  Less than three thousand Invader ships were able to jump away and avoid destruction. They had the misfortune to jump to the location of a fleet that was being attacked by Bang’s strike fleet and all three thousand were vaporized before they could organize and join their Family’s formations. The failure of the invasion went unreported.

  ***

  Lignen listened to his communicator and ran over to Max’s position, “It appears the enemy ships in orbit are getting the broag kicked out of them by small ships.”

  Max looked over with a furrowed brow, “Brad, what’s going on above the planet?”

  “It appears your fiancé is not going to allow you to miss your wedding. Her fleet and the Freaks arrived and it appears the fight overhead is going our way at the moment.”

  “See if you can get some air support in here.” There was a short delay and they heard, “The problem at the moment is that the attack ships don’t have a beam to use to attack the enemy on the surface and a boson missile would cause a nuclear explosion if it went off in the planet’s atmosphere. Claire has called for some Thetas but they haven’t arrived yet.”

  Max shook his head, “We have got to resolve that issue.”

  “This certainly adds weight to that proposition but for the moment, we can only do what we can.”

  ***

  Claire screamed into her communicator, “WE MUST HAVE SOME THETAS NOW!!”

  Marissa shook her head, “All the strike fleets are still tied down. We don’t have any available.”

  Claire pounded her chair arm as hundreds of thousands of Invader troops rushed toward the city where Max was pinned down. There was nothing she could do with her missiles without causing a massive nuclear blast in the city where Max was fighting to survive. She put her head in her hands and knew he would die in a few more moments.

  “Perhaps I can be of some assistance.”

  Claire looked up and saw Admiral Drey Montgomery on her display. She looked at her tactical display and saw eight thousand Thetas from his personal bodyguard roaring into the planet’s atmosphere. “Thank God, You’re here!”

  ***

  Max and Lignen couldn’t even lean out and fire a weapon at the oncoming Invader ground forces. The entire street ahead of them was one large beam that filled the street from side to side. Max looked to see if there was a route to retreat and saw all the streets leading to his location were filled with Invader beams. He shook his head and pressed his communicator, “Brad, don’t let them take you.”

  ***

  Suddenly, a huge sonic boom rocked the buildings and a Theta roared in overhead firing a standard energy beam into the street ahead of them. That beam was used to kill starships and it blasted through the mass of oncoming Invaders, vaporizing the force fields around their armored vehicles and burning everything in its path. Five more sonic booms blasted through the buildings as more Thetas joined the first and blasted every Invader around the park where the Alliance ship had landed. Max looked at Lignen and smiled, “It appears you might have more time than I thou
ght.”

  Max’s communicator activated, “Admiral, you should be able to make an exit in a few minutes.”

  “Thanks; what about the other cities on the planet?”

  “Admiral Montgomery’s Thetas are spreading out and supporting the local defenders. I suspect they will be able to defeat those forces remaining on the ground.”

  Lignen nodded, “We can handle them; the only thing that stopped us was being hit from space by their fleet in orbit.”

  Max extended his hand and, after a moment, Lignen took it in his and the two different species shook them. Both of them knew the meaning of that gesture and Lignen said, “We thank you.”

  “They might come back.”

  Lignen looked up at the sky and said, “At least we have today. “

  Max sighed and ran to his ship leaving the Commander to organize the attacks against the surviving Invader troops. “Brad, where are you in repairs?”

  “The Higgs field is operational and the FTL drive will be completed as soon as we exit atmosphere. The jump drive is going to need a full maintenance facility to get it back online.”

  “While you’re getting that done, I want some standard beams installed on the ships in my fleet.”

  “Don’t worry about that; I’ll make sure it’s done. I’ve already contacted the facilities on El Dorado using your authority to get ready to make it happen.”

  “How long before we can lift?”

  “My scanners still show enemy missile launchers at the edge of the city; I prefer to wait until they aren’t an issue.”

  Max leaned back and watched his sensor display showing the defenders systematically wiping out the Invader troops in the huge city. It was five minutes later that Claire appeared on his display in tears. “I thought I lost you.”

  “But you didn’t. I’ve been given a reprieve and we have a wedding to attend.”

  Claire forced a smile and said, “I’ll meet you after we clean up this mess on the planet. I love you, Max.”