by Saxon Andrew
“Essay, I’m not that much smarter than you are.”
Essay looked at Erica, “You must be out of your mind to even suggest that. You’re number one at the Academy and I can tell you that I’m not in the top ten.”
“You’re number eleven. I’m good at putting things together that others miss but I’m no smarter than you.” Essay shook his head and turned around.
Kamela watched him and smiled, “She’s right.” Essay looked at Kamela with his eyebrows lowered and she said before he could speak, “Processing information is one form of intelligence. Looking at the world around you and knowing what to do with that information is something else and that is where you excel.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
“You will…eventually. However, you will remain the commander.”
Essay looked at Erica, “I sensed that you chose this mission because of me. Would you care to tell me why?”
“I’d prefer to keep that to myself.”
Essay wondered why but turned to Kamela, “Are we going with the Fleets?”
“I’d like to arrive ahead of them.”
Essay nodded and activated the stardrive, “Poul, you need to take the ship. My thrusters don’t move it as fast as you did coming back.”
“That’s because I have to keep tight control of the systems to prevent an overload in the reactors. We’re leaving now.” Essay heard the pitch of the engines again as it went to a much higher frequency. They were in Andromeda in less than a minute and moving through the jet six seconds later. Erica sent the passive scan she took of the Darkness Defenses gathered around the black hole to Admiral Eagle before they crossed the event horizon.
Gabe received the message and shook his head in amazement. Jock looked at him and Gabe said, “There is no ship in creation like the Prophet’s Eyes. Take the scan they sent us and assign the approach coordinates for each Fleet.”
Jock looked at his panel and smiled. The Eyes was already there. That vessel was incredible.
• • •
Levi sat in the main conference room and was weary. He thought about the betrayal of the Humans and knew that of all the things he had done, that one act bothered him the most. He tried to discuss it with them but they refused to communicate with him. He didn’t really blame them. After the fact, it was clear there had been plenty of time to close the black hole without forcing it on them. But hindsight is always clearer. “Supreme Leader, our towers have detected an anomaly in the upper jet.”
“What sort of anomaly?”
“It suddenly flared for twenty seconds and then went back to normal.”
“Has that ever happened before?”
“We’ve detected surges over the years since it was closed but nothing as strong as this flare.”
“Did you detect anything coming out of it?”
“No, Great Leader.”
Levi thought about it and was going to call his forces to General Battle Readiness but took in a breath and fell back in his chair. Everything that happened caused him fear. This was probably a surge from the black hole spitting a large object out. “Keep me informed.” He sat back and felt the familiar melancholy grip his soul.
• • •
The Prophet’s Eyes came out of the black hole in the Builder’s Galaxy and Essay smiled, “They left the damaged launcher behind.”
Kamela listened intently and said, “Destroy it.”
“Are you sure about that? Will we be detected?”
“The Azura Motherships are at the edge of the galaxy landing on planets to gather their stores. The black hole will mask the destruction.”
Essay lowered his combat visor and activated the aiming program. He placed targeting dots on the launcher and the spinning tail section and engine. He pressed the trigger on the thruster handle and three blaster beams shot out and vaporized the three pieces. “I’m really surprised the Builders left this behind.”
Kamela smiled, “I suspect someone made a mistake.”
Erica looked up from her panel, “I wouldn’t want to be the one that did.”
Essay nodded and looked at his panel, “We’re going out to the edge of the galaxy to find one of the Azura’s Motherships. They don’t appear anywhere near the black hole so the fleet should be able to enter without resistance.” Essay looked at Kamela, “Are you going to make suggestions to Admiral Eagle about how to attack them?”
“By the Prophet, no. What do I know about fighting a space battle? I don’t even know how to fly this ship much less a miles long warship.”
Essay smiled, “Just Checking.”
• • •
The Builder Leader was doing an analysis of the tools he had to use against the giant Black Warships and was thankful they didn’t have the technology to pursue them through a black hole. He immediately thought about how he would penetrate the black hole in the galaxy they were headed toward and he made an inquiry. “The Launcher is in World 78.”
He nodded and then looked at how many defense satellites were available. He absently thought that having another launcher would be a good thing and then his mind froze. He forced himself not to think and asked, “Provide me a list of all the items we’ve brought with us.” The list appeared in front of him and he began scrolling down it. After a few minutes he said, “Give me a list of all the constructs that were destroyed.” A list replaced the first one and he scrolled through it. He stared at the list twice and saw that nowhere on the list did a launcher appear. This could get him killed. He was the one that ordered it moved to the black hole and modified. It had not been destroyed. The launcher would give the Black Ships everything they’d need to develop Black Hole Technology. He looked up and said, “Disconnect Link.”
The millions of bits of information that poured into his mind each second disappeared. What to do? What to do? Sending a force back to destroy it would never make it through the pursuing fleets of Black Ships. He fought his fear and shrugged as he realized there was nothing he could do. He turned his focus into his mind and erased all memory of the broken launcher. He immediately activated his link and wondered why he had turned it off. He thought about it and then went back to analyzing his assets.
Chapter Eleven
The Fleets came through the black hole and formed up in tight formations as Gabe watched them and pressed his command channel, “Admiral Holiday, I want to accomplish several goals while we’re here. One of them is to see how your Carriers handle an assault from one of the Motherships. In order to make that happen, you are going to have to make your presence known to them.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“I also want to gather intelligence that our other ships can use to attack them.”
“What do you have in mind, Sir?”
“I want you to launch a squadron of Attack Fighters to approach one of those giant vessels and do a full, active scan of it. That will get their attention and I suspect cause them to launch their small Attack Ships. I want that scan immediately sent out to every ship here so they can see what they’re up against.”
“Is that all you want us to do, Sir?”
“No, I want you to do that first before any of us join the battle. I also need to determine if your vessels are capable of actually destroying those monsters. Since this is a warm up for the big show in the Milky Way, you may attack one of them with more than one Carrier if you want to see what the best tactics are against them. I would suggest you pay close attention to the scan you take of one of those giants to choose your targets.”
“Yes, Sir. We’re moving out to the galaxy’s edge to pick a fight.”
“Hit ‘Em in the nose, Admiral.”
“I’m going to aim lower than that, Sir.”
The monitor went dark and Gabe laughed out loud. That was a great comeback he’d have to remember.
• • •
Cam turned to Lt. Daniels, “The Prophet’s Eyes has reported one of the Azura’s Main Battleship’s location. Move the ship three hundred thou
sand miles out from those coordinates.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Cam lowered his visor and toggled the command frequency, “Admiral O’Hara. You will move your ship to the reported location of the Mothership and launch your Attack Fighters. It is my understanding that they will remain invisible until they’re inside a hundred miles. Assign one of them to make an active scan and get out. We need that information disseminated to the rest of the fleet the moment it’s made. You may attack that vessel in whatever pattern you think appropriate.”
“Sir, I could use some help here.”
Cam smiled, “Lyla, once the real war kicks off, you will have to stand on your own, alone. However, the Tombstone and Stockholm will launch our full inventory of Attack Fighters and have them standing by to assist you if needed. I need your initial squadron to allow the Mothership to follow them back to your position to determine if your defenses are capable of holding one off.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Cam looked at his communication panel, “Jenny, did you copy that?”
“Yes, Sir, I did.”
“And what do you do the moment you launch?”
Jenny smiled, “Jump out, Sir.”
“Exactly right. That Azura Battleship may call in another vessel to support it.”
“And if it does?”
“That’s why you’re launching your fighters and moving out of detection range. I’ll be doing the same.”
“Sir, what is the Homosassa and Georgia going to do?”
“They’re going to pick a fight with another Mothership.”
“Yes, Sir.”
• • •
Lyla activated the alarms and saw the flashing orange lights start strobing and heard the klaxons wailing. She turned off the sound and spoke into her microphone, “We will be launching ships in ten minutes. Commodore Mitchel, send your first squadron out to run an active scan of the Azura Main Ship and then have them fire on before it launches its small fighters. We’ve been ordered to see if our defenses are capable of holding one of those vessels off us and I’m going to depend on my Attack Wings to do the damage necessary to stop that ship. We’ve practiced for this now make it happen!”
Lyla changed frequency and said, “Commodore Wilkens, are your blaster crews ready?”
“Yes, Sir. We’ve locked in our coverage areas and the blasters are at full charge.”
“Commodore Woodall, I’m depending on your missiles to keep any ships that break through off us.”
“Tubes are manned and locked in on their scanners, Sir.”
Lyla turned to Captain Kosmarov, “If anything gets close, jump us out of here immediately!!”
“I have my panel’s scanner set to activate the moment anything comes closer than forty miles, Sir.”
“Will it activate fast enough at combat speeds.”
“Da, Admiral.”
Lyla sat back in her chair and saw the large blip on the main tactical monitor. She knew the vessel she was attacking was gigantic. Now the Carrier would prove whether or not it was a good platform. She struggled to keep her face neutral; that blip really looked huge and was getting larger by the moment.
• • •
Julie Crow led her Squadron out of the Georgia and turned toward the Azura Mothership and went to full speed, “Ajax, make the scan and get out of there. Don’t stop to fire, don’t stop to admire the scenery, just make the scan and transmit it on the General Fleet Frequency!”
“You know me.”
“That’s why I’m telling you this. If you get yourself killed I’ll never forgive you.”
“Why Commander, I didn’t know you cared.”
“I don’t. It’s just not good luck to have the first one to approach and enemy ship in my Squadron get themselves killed, so get in and get out! Got it!?”
“Yes, Sir.”
Julie looked over her shoulder and saw her thousand Attack Fighters lined up behind her ship, “Alright, I expect that giant piece of crap to start launching their small ships as soon as Ajax makes his pass. If we get there before they leave the nest, take a shot at the Mothership and turn away with me. If they launch before we arrive, take out a few small ships and run toward the Georgia.”
Julie saw the giant vessel appear in the distance and checked the distance. Holy Spumoni, it was still more than four hundred miles away and it was huge. She followed Ajax in and arrived three seconds after he made a scan and went to stardrive. So far, none of the small ships had appeared so she lined up on the giant vessel and locked on her targeting program. She pressed the thruster trigger and saw a massive explosion on the Mothership’s hull just above the centerline.
Hundreds of other explosions appeared as she turned her Attack Fighter. The beams coming at her squadron were enormous. She pulled back hard on the thruster handle and whipped her Fighter in a tight turn away from the giant. A moment later, thousands of small black ships came out of the Mothership in hundreds of places. She accelerated and jinked her Attack Fighter left and right to avoid being targeted by the massive blaster beams. She poured on the speed and then slowed down. Her squadron matched her speed and she shouted over the squadron’s frequency, “We don’t want to lose them.” She stared at the monitor on the front wall and said to her ship’s computer, “Caw, what’s going on with that Mothership?”
The Computer replied, “It’s burning where we hit it with our blasters but we didn’t appear to cause it critical damage. It’s picking up speed and continuing to launch small ships.”
“What about its force field?”
“Still active and according to my scanner, thousands of giant blasters are being charged on the hull.”
Julie shook her head, “Attacking that thing is like trying to destroy a planet. It’s just too large to cause major damage.”
The computer paused and then said, “Ajax’s scan just came in and it appears there are some vulnerable places. The small ships moving toward us use nuclear missiles and the armor that houses them on the Mothership is located under a huge cluster of blasters.”
“Kinda makes it tough to get at, doesn’t it?”
“Yes, but there appears to be more than eight thousand places were their weapons are stored. We need to look at this scan and develop a strategy to go after it.”
Julie exhaled sharply, “I can tell you it’s going to take more than a squadron.”
“My scanners show that more than a hundred thousand small black ships are pursuing us.”
“May I assume you’re sending the scan to Admiral O’Hara?”
Caw replied, “Every Fighter in your squadron is sending the feed. I hope the rest of the Space Wings are out and ready to support us.”
“Check the tactical. They’re there and set up to receive unwanted guests.”
“One thing I can say for certain, Julie, is that those launching tubes on that vessel’s hull need to be an initial primary target so they can’t get all their fighters launched.”
“Send that idea to the Admiral. Get ready to fly by the Georgia.”
“I’m activating missile control for our sweep back into them.”
“You know the drill. I’ll blast them, you harass them.”
“I do hope to do more than that.” Julie laughed and pulled back on the thruster handle as she passed the Georgia at high speed.
• • •
The Drone commanding the pursuit of the attackers stared at its display. The ships that fired on the Depot had flown into the edge of a gaseous nebula. He lost contact with them and ordered his forces to spread out and follow the scanner images into the nebula. He tried hard to see the enemy vessels but was unable to do so. His scanner had fuzzy images of hundreds of them fleeing ahead of his ships but he was unable to see anything visually. His ships came rushing up on the outer edge of the nebula and he leaned closer to his display. A huge swath in front of the nebula was very fuzzy. What… was…going…on?
• • •
Lyla looked up, “Brett, how far behind is t
he Mothership?”
“It will arrive twenty minutes after its small ships. It put out the fires before it started moving our way. It is actually faster than the small ships.”
Lyla nodded at the information the ship’s computer provided and saw a massive purple wave moving toward her flagship on the tactical monitor. She stared at the wave and said, “Commodore Mitchell.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“You will prevent any of those ships from moving around to the sides of the Georgia.”
“We’re set up outside your fire zone and ready to hit any of them that turn away.”
“Make me proud.”
“You know I will, Sir.”
Lyla was glad that Mitchell had been given his previous rank back. He deserved it. Lyla turned back to her monitor and called out over the ship’s intercom, “Hit them at ninety miles. Get ready…FIRE!!”
• • •
The huge formations of Black Fighters came roaring in toward the edge of the nebula and rushed headlong into a massive wall of blaster beams being fired by the giant carrier. The Georgia was ten miles long and had eight evenly distributed rows of two hundred major blasters around its hull. Four of them could focus on each side of the giant ship depending on what directions the attackers were coming in on. The Black Ships were moving head on to eight hundred major blasters and more than a thousand missile launchers. Each of the major blasters were powered by three black matter reactors which made their beams so tightly packed that the particles almost formed a solid as it left the barrel.
• • •
The Drone Commander saw the first ten miles of his formations obliterated and blasted into atoms. “EVADE!! EVADE!!! EVADE!!!”
The surviving attackers went vertical or dove under the blaster barrage but the wall of brilliant beams moved with them. The ones at the back of the formations began moving left and right to move out of the path of whatever was killing them.
• • •
Commander Roy Willingham sat in his command chair on the attack fighter and heard his Wing Commander announce, “Stay out of each other’s way and pick a target. Do not enter the Georgia’s fire zone or it won’t be a good day for you and your crew.”