Ashes of the Realm: Book 04 - The Return of the Realm

by Saxon Andrew

  The First snarled into his screen, “No one will leave before I give the word. Is that clear?”

  Everyone nodded but knew he would be the first to run. His title was also a sarcastic joke among the Demons.

  • • •

  “Trey, there is a huge power surge in the Demon Dimension.”

  Trey looked and sent the message, “The Demons are coming. Everyone take their stations and prepare for invasion.”

  Jingo and Grang joined the Empire’s Fleets and the Algeans teleported to their assigned ships. The Algean Galaxy shimmered and disappeared. Those civilians that had delayed in leaving were no longer given a choice. They would live or die with the outcome of the battle. Most of them had coordinates of planets that were uninhabited and gave no signs of technology. Most would teleport to those planets with a supply of food and await the outcome of the battle.

  • • •

  Kline and Gina were holding each other and Gina said, “I guess this is what we’ve worked so hard to do.”

  “Yes, the Regiment has been assigned their most advanced ships. You be as careful as you can and I’ll see you after the storm.”

  Gina hugged him tightly, “I love you so much.”

  “Let’s go repay a debt, my Love.”

  Gina stepped back, activated her armor, and teleported away. Kline took a deep breath and teleported to his ship. Every warrior in the regiment had their own ship now that the teleporting hornets had been developed. The ten thousand Life Warriors were now a deadly force to reckon with. He looked at his pilot and smiled, “Ready to make history.”

  “More that you know, Sir. I’m linked to the other pilots and waiting for the first scan to arrive.”

  “Notify the fleet which ships we are assigned as soon as the Demon Fleet arrives.

  The Pilot sent the message and the hundred Algeans linked at Fleet Control decided to assign ships that were inside the outer layer of ships to the warriors. They could work their way out as the battle progressed.

  Kline checked his control system and saw that the Regiment was linked in. He watched his display and waited for what he knew was coming.

  • • •

  The First called the Council together and said, “How do we want to organize our forces?” He was greeted with silence. “None of you have any ideas?”

  The Second said, “We normally divide up our forces to attack in multiple locations; attacking an enemy in one mass is something I’m unfamiliar with.”

  The Controller waited for someone else to speak and said, “Perhaps we should attempt to split the enemy’s forces.”

  “Go on.”

  “We send our fleets to the outer edge of that galaxy in five groups that are spread out. Perhaps those five ships will move to support their fleets and we’ll jump in and attack one of them reducing their number by twenty percent. Once we jump in, we’ll send our fleets into the galaxy to destroy their planets. We’ll remain together outside the galaxy to take on the other four ships.”

  The First looked at the other three and said, “Do you agree with this strategy?”

  The Fourth said, “It does sound reasonable.”

  The Second asked, “Do we mix our fleets with different ship types or keep them together?”

  The Third said, “If we intermix the fleets, they will be using different technologies and may interfere with each other. If we’re going to do it this way I would recommend keeping the fleets in their current structure with their commanders who know their capabilities.”

  The First thought a moment and sat back, “I agree. We’ll leave their organizations as they are. Controller, assign the coordinates to each fleet and get them ready for launch. Our ships should be ready quickly.”

  “How do you want me to organize our ships?”

  “The Council will be in the rear third with the most junior members in front. You will also be with us to direct our fleets.”

  The Controller lowered his head and turned to his board. The attack would launch in another rotation.

  • • •

  Trey watched the Demon Dimension and saw huge numbers of ships leaving to organize into five groups. He notified fleet and sent a thought, “We will be jumping out to the edge of our galaxy momentarily. No matter what happens around us, we will not separate our five ships. Our Fleets will have to handle the Demon’s Fleets. We only have one target and it is the Demon’s personal ships. Make sure your crews are ready and top off the power grids now. If the Black Ships are moving into formation, the Demons will not be far behind.”

  The five couples made contact and watched their power meters go up. Jake looked at Valerie, “I’m worried about this, Val.”

  “I know; however, we have had a wonderful life and I have no regrets no matter what happens.”

  “I just want to build that house on Gambia.”

  “We will do exactly that after this is over.”

  “Promise!”

  “I do, my Love.”

  • • •

  Tag said, “This won’t be like the last fight. We have no room to maneuver and will be forced to hold our position. We won’t be able to use the psychic shadows to avoid their weapons.”

  “That comes with only having five ships instead of five hundred, Tag. No matter what happens, you know I’ll always love you.”

  “I do know that. However, when this battle gets underway, you and I will not be directing the ship.”

  “No, why not?”

  “The issue is going to be determined by who runs out of power first. We need to stay in constant contact and allow our bodies to do what is necessary. Our crew is trained and they can handle themselves. Since there will be no moving around, we can best help our chances of survival by feeding the ship power.”

  Danielle thought about it and after a long pause, nodded, “What does your sense of danger tell you?”

  “It’s slightly lower following that path.”

  “How high will it be if we do that?”

  “The highest I’ve ever seen.”

  Danielle sighed and watched her display for the orange ships.

  • • •

  Kline hit his general communication frequency, “Alright Warriors, listen up. The Demons are helping us out. They have kept all of their newest ships in one fleet. I suspect they will fight us initially but if we start to get the better of them, they will jump away to attack our member planets. You must take out as many as possible, as quickly as possible, before they run. Don’t waste time on one ship. We’re jumping out to the edge of the Milky Way. We will not wait for our fleet to attack but will jump in the instant that fleet appears. Follow your links and Semper fi.”

  Kline nodded and the pilot led ten thousand, small, heavily shielded ships out to the galactic edge.

  • • •

  Jingo commed Grang, “You have the first generation Black Ships. “I’m going after the next one that was developed. The Searchers and Algeans are taking on the other three fleets. Use your Algeans to link and be safe, my brother.”

  “I will.”

  “You don’t have anything else to say?”

  “I don’t need to; you already know.”

  Jingo smiled and said to himself, “Yes, I do.” He looked out of the view port at the stars glowing brilliantly against the blackness of open space and said, “This is for you, Scotty.” The two fleets jumped out to join the five Psychic Ships waiting for the enemy to arrive at the galactic edge.

  The Empire’s Searchers and Algeans that were flying the advanced ships stayed at the Milky Way’s central regions in orbit around thousands of planets. The linked fleets waited for the Black Ships to arrive before jumping out to the edge. They didn’t want the Demons to know just how many ships the Empire had to use against them.

  The Demons were sending twenty million ships to destroy the galaxy of their enemy. What they didn’t know was that the enemy had twenty three million ships waiting for them and all of them were coated in reflective hulls and were
linked by the combined intelligence of the Algeans. The Demon Fleets only saw a million ships waiting for them. The handle was being turned on the Jack-in-the-Box and the clown was about to spring out. The Algeans would have every Black Ship targeted and assigned to a warship or a Life Warrior in less than ten seconds. The coming battle was one that was made to be told over the ages. If any survived to tell it.

  • • •

  The Controller saw the million white ships waiting at the Galaxy’s edge and scanned into the large spiral galaxy. There were large numbers of ships at the planets but he couldn’t determine if they were warships or not. If they were warships, they should be supporting the five large ships and they weren’t. It didn’t really matter; the fleets were just a distraction to get the five ships separated. The real power was their orange ships. Nothing could stand up to the dimensional energy weapons. He looked at his board and saw all the rest of the orange ships had arrived. He pushed a key and the largest space battle ever witnessed began. Twenty million ships jumped out of the Demon Dimension and out to the edge of the troublesome galaxy.

  • • •

  The Algean Elder thought, “Alert, alert, jump to your targets upon receipt of its coordinates.”

  The twenty million plus ships started disappearing in huge numbers within two seconds. The Demon fleets that were moving in on the million ships in front of them were staggered by the wave front of ships blowing into their front ranks.

  Jingo said, “Take us to the early model Black Ships.” Jingo and Grang’s fleets arrived at the two older Demon fleets and blew into them like a tornado into a cornfield. Blasted Black Ships were blown apart and scattered in the wake of the attacking white ships. Jingo watched as the Madeline Robbins moved between two giant Black Ships and blew thousand yard holes through them with its main beams. It looped around and took out two more that were attempting to escape another Empire Ship. None of the white ships stayed in one place long enough to be targeted by multiple Black Ships.

  • • •

  Kline appeared on the bridge of an advanced Black Ship. He swung both his arms out firing a high intensity laser around the room and watched as every orange being on board was cut in half. The teleport hornet left his chest and accelerated across the room as the teleport field expanded at a three hundred yards a second. As soon as it flew across the room, Kline teleported out and was taken to another ship by his pilot.

  The Advanced Black Ships detected the small ships arrival outside their force fields but were unable to fire on them. The small ships went into their flicker mode where they teleported around the giant ship in random micro-teleports. They moved so fast that they were only a flicker. The giant ships beams couldn’t lock on them because of their lightning changes in location. Once the hornet destroyed the ship, the Algean Pilot would stop long enough to pick up the Life Warrior and continue to another ship.

  • • •

  The entire middle of the Black Ship Kline hit disappeared and was teleported into the center of the Milky Way to just over the event horizon of the massive black hole located there. The orange crewmembers, that were still alive, had only a moment to wonder what was happening before they were sucked into the massive gravity well. Within seconds their bodies were stretched into a ten thousand mile long strand, only one atom thick. As tens of thousands of teleported Black Ships arrived and were sucked into the singularity, a massive explosion of gamma rays exploded out the top and bottom of the black hole, as the matter that made them was destroyed and compressed. The blast grew larger as a hundred thousand ships entered the inescapable gravity well.

  The gutted, hollowed out hull of the Black Ship that had been left behind, floated in space for a moment and then the package Kline dropped on the bridge detonated and blew the ships remains into fragments. The explosions of thousands of Black Ships looked like an unending fireworks display in the center of the Demon Fleet.

  The Controller watched his display waiting for the five large white ships to move to support their fleets but they remained in place. Why were they not moving? He changed his scan and saw the battle taking place with their fleets and was shocked. Half of the ships sent were already destroyed. He punched his communicator and yelled, “Jump into the Galaxy and start attacking planets! Move now!!!”

  The surviving ten million Black Ships jumped away from the ships that were killing them. The Algeans assigned a ship for each of them, but knew that some would make it to a planet before they were caught. Suddenly the Elder heard, “Don’t worry, we’ve got this.”

  The Elder smiled, “Newton, what are you doing here?”

  “We’ve sent ten of our ships to every inhabited planet. We’ll do what we can to protect the Empire.”

  • • •

  The first Black Ship to arrive at a planet saw ten small green ships accelerate toward them at high velocity. Beams were fired at the incoming green ships but had no effect on them. The green ships went through their force fields like they didn’t exist and the small ships teleported a package into the weapon storage and reactor rooms on the giant ship. The ten explosions blew the ship apart so fast, that one moment it was moving through space and the next it was an expanding cloud of gas and debris.

  Some of the Black Ships were warned of what was happening and broke off their attack and attempted to escape but they were followed by an Algean ship with advanced sensors and there was nowhere in Creation where they could hide. Ten hours later the last Black Ship was destroyed.

  • • •

  The Controller said, “I’ve sent our ships into the galaxy to destroy planets; we need to attack the five ships now!”

  The First saw the destruction taking place in his fleets and worried about what he was jumping into. He said, “Start the attack.” He reached over and set the escape coordinates on his board. Now all it would take would be a quick touch to run. The three million orange ships jumped together and arrive in front of the five glowing white ships.

  • • •

  The four hundred crew members on the Psychic Ships were at their weapons and were locked in on their zone. There was nervousness and stress, but they were ready to make sure they held up their responsibility. The five Psychic Couples were linked and feeding their view to their ships computers which then assigned tasks to the crew. They did not watch the battle taking place between the millions of ships, but focused on the arrival of the Orange Ships…then the Demons appeared a mile in front of them.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Jingo watched his scanner and saw the giant fleet of Orange Ships appear in front of Trey’s ships. He began ordering his fleet to go to support the Psychic Ships, but was stopped by the Elder Algean, “You will remain where you are and not go out to participate in that battle.”

  “Why not!?! They’re outnumbered by millions.”

  The Algean sent a thought to every ship and warrior that had survived the battle with the Demon’s Fleets, “The only ships that can take on the Orange Ship’s beams are the five ships facing them. All of you will be disintegrated before you could get within a thousand miles of them. None of you can survive if you attack; it would be suicide and it’s foolish to waste your lives when Creation needs you.”

  Grang snarled, “Then what would you have us do?”

  “Witness the bravery of the warriors fighting for life. If they are killed, you will teleport to the White Warriors fleet and continue the battle against evil. If our Rulers die today, we cannot save this galaxy. However, we can help other civilizations live until another answer to the Demons appears. These orders come from the Emperor and I expect you to follow them.”

  The sixteen million ships waited and watched the battle that would determine their future. In a clearing on El Prado the Cats had their eyes closed and watched. Pride said, “Please help them, Mother.” He waited, but did not hear an answer.

  • • •

  The Demons broke into space a mile in front of the psychic ships and the massive blue beams reached out and blew the
front ranks of the huge fleet away, leaving the remainder of the Orange ships three hundred miles away. More than two hundred thousand Orange Ships were destroyed but the giant orange wave moved forward gaining ground slowly on the massive fire coming from the Psychic Ships. Another hundred thousand Orange Ships died, but the Demons were now two hundred miles away.

  The Controller yelled, “We’ll lose half our fleet at this rate of destruction.”

  The First snarled back, “I don’t care if we lose two thirds. This ends today.” The First really didn’t care if two thirds of the Common was killed as long as he was in the third that survived. He was uncertain of a victory, but now saw that it was possible to win. He said over the communications channel, “Continue the attack.” He looked at his panel and saw his ships were now a hundred miles out.

  Danielle looked at the power readings and said, “We’re at sixty percent power. At our current rate of loss, our weapons will go off line as soon as we drop below twenty five percent.”

  Tag continued to focus on the incoming ships and shrugged, “No matter what happens, you know I have always loved you.”

  Danielle felt her love for the wonderful man that meant so much to her. She joined him and selected the targets for the crew.

  Trey also saw the power was dropping and knew that what was left would not be enough. Suddenly, a hundred thousand Orange Ships broke through their psychic field on the right side of the formation and surged toward the two center ships.

  “Paul!”

  “I’m on it.”

  The Bristone jumped out into the middle of the ships that had broken through and fired blue beams at an unbelievable rate. All hundred thousand ships were destroyed but another eighty thousand got close enough to fire on the White Ship together. The Bristone exploded in a giant Orange and Blue flash that took the Demon Ships with it.

  The Blue Shield strengthened and the remaining four ships continued firing at the surging orange wave. The Demon’s heavy battleships arrived at the front of the formation and blasted the blue field. The field retreated in front of them as they pushed forward in the bulge created. Valerie saw Jake set the jump controls and smiled. She reached over and took his hand as the Gambia jumped directly at the incoming giant Orange Ships and released all of the ships energy into a massive blue beam that blew the bulge out of the shield. The last Demon ship managed to fire on the Bristone just before the Kosiev destroyed it. The Bristone blew up and nothing remained.