by Saxon Andrew
“ORDER THEM TO THE PORTALS; DO IT NOW!”
• • •
The giant globe was now twenty five thousand miles from the planet and the mission Leader was looking forward to blasting that cursed planet. His communicator looked up and said, “You have a directive from the Sector Leader.”
“What is it?”
“You’ve been ordered to immediately leave here and go and retake the portals we’ve lost.”
“What portals?”
“Almost half of them have been retaken by the enemy.”
“I’ll do it after I blast that planet.”
The Communicator stood and shot the Mission Leader through the head with a blaster. “It was as you predicted, Sector Leader. I will assume command.”
“GET IT DONE!!”
• • •
Dean saw the globe close in to within twenty two thousand miles and the explosions were still beyond belief. He shook his head and put his arm around Victoria, who had joined him in the control room. “I’m sorry, my love.”
Victoria started to respond when Tess yelled, “THEY’RE GONE!”
Dean whipped around and saw the space above the planet was empty. He shook his head and couldn’t figure out why they had left when they were just moments away from victory. Tess listened to her ear bud and smiled, “It appears our fleet has combined with the Five and have retaken about half of the portals from the Blue Ships. I guess they have bigger fish to fry than us.”
Dean jumped up and pulled Victoria with him, “This has to be Ping and Dahlia’s doing.”
As Dean hugged Vicky, Tess knew he was right. “Dean, how many missiles do we have remaining?”
“We’ve used about half of them.”
“So if we had to; we could do it again?”
Dean shook his head and smiled, “I really hope we don’t have to, Tess.”
“Aw come on; you know it was fun; get the production facilities building more Barges and missiles. I bet we could hold them off indefinitely if we had more Barges.”
“That was the limiting factor. I’ll get on it in a few minutes.” Dean ran out of the control room with Vicky .
“I bet you will.”
• • •
“Dahlia, the ships attacking your planet have jumped out.”
Dahlia jumped in Ping’s arms and kissed him. “Do we call off our attacks now?”
“No, let’s see how many portals we can liberate. That should slow them up some.”
“Can the Five afford to use that many ships?”
“That’s where the Blue Ships made a mistake. They’ve deliberately avoided destroying massive numbers of the Five’s inventory so there would be enough ships to go after the Realm. The Five has enough and this war has just kicked off the second half with the score tied. Let us hope the Gardners make good use of the time.”
Dahlia shook her head, “That’s something I have very mixed emotions about.”
“I can certainly understand why.”
• • •
The four Sector Leaders looked at each other and the Lower said, “We are going to have to pull all of our ships back to the portals. We have to retake them.”
The Upper shook his head, “We’ll lose all the ground we’ve taken.”
“I’ve sent a request to the Exalted Leader requesting more warships.”
The other three Leaders were shocked and after a long moment of silence, the Right said, “How did he receive the request?”
“Exactly like you would expect him to; he was very displeased.”
“Is that all?”
“No, but I sent the recordings and strategies we’ve used and I’ve told him I will submit to execution if he finds I’ve acted irresponsibly.”
“What did he say?”
“The verdict is still out. However, he has sent word that a new wave will be sent momentarily. He suggests we take control of the portals before they arrive to prevent further waste.”
The Left said, “If we move all our ships to the portals, the enemy will also send all of their ships to contest them.”
“Are you not going to do it? If so, tell me now so I can let him know your decision.”
“NO, NO! I’LL SEND MY SHIPS.”
The three Leaders were aware the Upper was the Exalted’s elder son. They knew he had his ear and they were little more than small pawns in the conflict. The conference ended and all of the Blue Ships were sent back to the portals. The ensuing battle was epic.
• • •
The Planters sent their fleets to the Rageon Domain and were barely able to hold on. Fifty thousand Mites were destroyed and ten thousand Major Battleships were killed or damaged beyond repair. The Blue Ships came out of the portal firing and, though they couldn’t see the Planter’s Ships, they managed to hit them by accident. But somehow, they held and, once again, the portals in the Rageon Domain were closed. The other four territories weren’t as fortunate and the invasion took on a new intensity. The Exalted’s son survived but the other three leaders were executed and replaced with new leadership. The new Leadership decided that they weren’t going to wait on the Five to develop a portal and the war raged with an intensity that was staggering.
The Blue Ships did not return to the Planter’s Planet to finish what they started. They knew the price that would have to be paid to destroy it and they weren’t willing to accept the price. It would be reserved for a later reckoning. That was fine with the Planters and they continued to resist the massive invasion wherever they could make a difference. It was clear that the end was not far away.
• • •
Tag looked up from his panel and heard Danielle say, “Alex, we need to make this connection simultaneously with the other two ships.”
“That is not going to be an issue. We’ve got the timing nailed.”
“So what’s bothering you?”
“The field doesn’t appear to be performing the way you’ve designed it.”
“What about the field is not working?”
“The field is as strong as you designed; however, it is not permeable from the outside.”
“I thought we had handled that issue.”
“You made it work at one tenth of full power; it fails dramatically when you go above fifty percent power.”
“Well, we need to connect the ships and take a look at what we have.”
“Just say when.”
“Grace, what do you see?”
“I see the same thing Alex does. The field solidifies once you pass fifty percent power.”
“Will it work at that level?”
“No.”
Danielle shook her head, looked at Tag, and nodded. Tag said, “We’re making connection in 5,4,3,2,1, NOW!”
A giant, bright blue field appeared around the three ships. Jixie looked at Sam, “Readings?”
Sam shook his head, “The field is impenetrable.”
Jixie hit her chair arm with her fist, “What are we missing?”
Sam shook his head slowly, “This field is beyond my capacity to understand. I see the pattern of how it works but I can’t see how to change it to function both ways.”
Pixie and Ken appeared on the wall display along with Tag and Danielle. Jixie shook her head, “I’m beginning to think we’ll just have to do it with what we have.”
Tag shook his head vigorously, “That would be a huge mistake.”
“Why is that?”
“I’ve taken a reading on them and there have been some substantial changes.”
“Such as?”
“They’re at half the size they were last time and have doubled the energy reading.”
Jixie stared at Tag, “How is that possible?”
“They could be killed if enough ships fired on them. I don’t believe that is possible now.”
“So if any were left behind…”
“You can see what would happen, Ken.”
“We could always come back and find them.”
�
�You’re assuming they won’t adapt and be immune to the field.”
“So you think they adapted to the last time?”
“Do you have a better answer?”
Danielle said, “This is an all or nothing project. Let’s get together on my ship and reexamine what we’ve done so far.”
“We don’t have much time!”
“Tell me something I don’t know, Pixie. We’re dead in the water right now.”
Pixie nodded, “I’m sorry, my nerves are fried; we’ll be there in a moment.”
• • •
The display went dark and Tag looked at Danielle, “We’re missing something.”
Tag shrugged, “Or it’s just not doable.”
“No, I can’t accept that?”
“Why not?”
“Because I have finally come around to believing that this project is needed.”
Tag sighed, “If you really believe that…”
“What?”
“Then the time has not yet come for it.”
Danielle stared at Tag, “I know that has to be right…so, why don’t I believe it?”
Tag shrugged, “Belief is most difficult thing for anyone to do. You have to act like you don’t believe, even when you do.”
Danielle stared at Tag, “Sometimes I wonder about you.”
“Hey, I’m just a simple warrior; warriors live with belief as a daily meal. Without it, we’d never go into combat. We have to believe we will live.”
The other four appeared and Tag walked over and sat in his command chair as the brains of the group started discussing small details and ended up yelling at each other. He typed a query into his panel and Alex sent him a feed from the other Creation. He softly sighed so as not to interrupt the others and knew the answer would arrive very soon. It could be in the form of millions of warships fleeing the Blue Invaders.
• • •
Dahlia watched the feeds coming into the control room and blew out a loud breath. Dean looked up, “What’s bothering you?”
“We have to find a way to slow them down.” Ping looked at her and she said, “I sense the Gardners aren’t ready. This will be over rather quickly if we don’t find a way to change the momentum.”
Dean looked at Dahlia, “The Invaders have taken back control of all the portals and ships are coming through at a normal pace again.”
Ping sat up in is chair, “What did you just say?”
“I said they’re coming in at a normal pace.”
Ping pressed his wrist unit, “Sprigly, can you come to the control room?” Sprigly appeared a moment later and Ping said, “How programmable is the Pulse Missile?”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Can their targeting be delayed and avoidance protocols inserted?”
“I guess.”
“Did you get a frequency reading on the Giant Harvesters?”
“Yes, I did.”
Dean looked at Ping, “What are you thinking?”
“Currently they have fifty thousand ships defending those portals. What if we forced them to triple the number needed to guard them?”
“Just how would we do that?”
“Aren’t the Barges invisible to their scanners?”
“Yes.”
“What would happen if you took a Barge a hundred miles out from their portals and released a thousand brackets of Pulse Missiles programed to avoid Invader ships and go through those portals? Once they’re through, their targeting programs activate and they go after the Invader’s Mother Ships.”
Sprigly leaned back, “You’d have to launch a really large number of missiles to get their attention. You saw how many of those ships they have.”
“Dahlia, do the Invaders put a higher premium on their largest ship?”
Dahlia thought for a moment and tilted her head, “I think it would be like asking do we put a higher premium on our planets. We most certainly do value them much higher than our fleets. That species lives on their ships, so I would think they value them highly.”
“So an attack on the Harvesters might generate an emotional response instead of a logical one?”
Dahlia shrugged, “I see truth in that statement but only because I’m using my own experiences to make the judgment. We have no idea of how the aliens think. There’s so many of them that they may not care.”
“Dean, how long would it take you to launch ten thousand pulse missiles at a hundred thousand portals?”
“If the missiles were preprogrammed and I had the coordinates of the launch points, the thirty thousand Barges could launch and teleport to the next launch coordinate in less than five seconds.”
Sprigly said, “A little over fifteen seconds.”
“Sprigly, how long will it take for you to provide a list of a hundred thousand clean launch coordinates”
“I could use the probes and have them in about an hour.”
“You’d need four for each Barge.”
“That’s a hundred and twenty thousand portals.”
Ping smiled, “We won’t argue about the extra.”
Tess leaned back, “Now hold on; who is going to defend the planet while they’re gone?”
“They’re invisible now, Tess. The Invaders will never know they’re gone and will have only thirty seconds to react once they figure it out.”
The control room was silent. Ping finally broke the silence, “Can we do it?”
Sprigly nodded, “Why not? Like Dahlia said, we need to slow them down.” Sprigly turned to Dean, “I’ll give you the programming for the missiles in an hour. An hour after that, I’ll send each Barge their target coordinates. Ten minutes later, the Barges teleport out and start their attacks.”
Ping tilted his head and everyone saw he was thinking. After a moment, he looked at Dean, “In the attacks in the Rageon Domain, didn’t the Main Battleships launch more than ten thousand missiles?”
“They can launch fifty thousand if needed.”
Then let’s do it this way; leave the Barges here. Send the 50,000 Battleships and have them hit three portals each. That way 150,000 portals will be hit and the time to complete the process will be the same.”
Dean was nervous but looked at Tess and Dahlia and saw them nod. He looked at Ping and smiled, “Well, let’s do this.”
• • •
Three hours later, the fifty thousand Battleships teleported away; less than a minute later, they all returned to their places in orbit. The group in the control room gathered around the displays showing the portals that were attacked; after ten minutes, they wondered if anything had changed. Ping ran his hand through his hair, “I really thought this would cause some kind of response.”
Dean shrugged, “Like Dahlia said, they may not care.”
Twenty minutes later, Ping stood up and sighed, “I really thought something would happen.” Dahlia stood and a moment later, every blue ship in the Planter’s Universe was gathered around their portals preventing anything from going through. Those ships also blocked any ships from exiting the portal.
Ping looked at Dahlia, “Is this what you were hoping for, my love?”
“You get a gold star in your high achiever crown. I wonder what happened to cause this response. This is beyond any of my expectations.”
Dean shook his head, “I suspect something major happened.”
Tess said, “Why do you say that?”
Dean looked at Tess, “They’re frozen. No one is making a decision. It looks like they’re anchored to the portals and afraid to move.”
Dahlia thought about Dean’s statement and smiled, “If I were directing an invasion, where would I want to be?” Everyone looked at her and then started laughing. Dahlia shook her head, “I think we got a lucky hit in.” Ping looked at her and there was a twinkle in his eye. Dahlia knew he didn’t think it was luck.
• • •
The Pulse Missile went through the blue portal along with the thousands of others fired by the fast moving Battleship. It b
arely missed hitting six Blue Warships transiting the portal from the other side and almost hit another Pulse Missile as the two dove below an incoming Blue Warship. It continued on the trajectory below the portal once it cleared the field and spread out with the other Pulse Missiles. They moved a hundred miles away from the portal and the huge mass of Blue Warships waiting there to go through; there they stopped for a moment.
The avoidance programming terminated and the target acquisition program activated. The single missile’s electronic brain started receiving the frequency of giant ships off in the distance. The missile’s computer selected a frequency, locked in its location, and fired the missile’s thrusters. It accelerated at an incredible speed. As it moved closer to its selected target, the computer detected a huge ship that was a slightly different color than all the others, although it was still a shade of blue. A living being might have described it as royal blue. The targeting program had a subroutine that made targets that were different a priority target. It was still far enough away to adjust its path slightly and it bore down on the giant ship with a slightly different hull color.
• • •
The giant Harvesters were conserving power and didn’t have their force fields activated. They had no idea they were in any danger and were caught with all of their defenses down. The Green Energy from the two Pulse Missiles that hit the Exalted’s Ship consumed the giant ship leaving nothing but drifting atoms in the place it was parked a few moments earlier. Of the ten thousand missiles fired through the portal, the only ship that had two missiles hit it was the Exalted’s Harvester.
The New Exalted was chosen quickly and he ordered every Blue Ship on the other side of the portals to block anything from getting through. His ship was in a different galaxy than his predecessor’s and he had no information on how the invasion was being conducted. He actually didn’t know it had started. He sent execution teams from his ship through the portals and killed every Leader in the invasion above the rank of Squadron Leader. He sent their replacements a week later. All of them were chosen from his family’s ships, which he placed a long distance from the portals. It took another four weeks to bring the new Sector and Fleet Leaders up to speed on what had happened. The previous leaders were all executed before they could be debriefed.