Escape to Earth 3: Defending Holy Ground

by Saxon Andrew

  “Who is he?”

  “He’s the one Willow used to make the change. Once the pods are modified, you can start sending those done to Earth. I’ve notified Joey to send half of our building contractors to Earth to expedite the construction of the spaceport and the munitions factory. I’ve already sent half of the Dark Matter Converters back to the Magnetar in the Milky Way.”

  Jinks smiled, “Salud, you are really something else.”

  “Thanks, Jinks. By the way, how many of the New Battleships do we have?”

  “Ten and we’re not building anymore at the moment.”

  “I’ve ordered Pod Construction to go to full speed. It appears they are now the ships we’ll be depending on to defend us.”

  “That’s the smart thing to do. We can build thousands of them in the time it takes to build one battleship. We’ll start production on them again once we get a handle on defending Earth from attack.”

  “I’ve ordered the existing new battleships to be coated at the central black hole and the new conduits installed. I’ll wait on Lukas to decide what he wants done with them. In the meantime, I’m sending them to Earth to assist in its defense.”

  “I’ll be going to Earth as well. Sarah’s fleet of Defense Pods will be done once Chad’s Fleet is completed and she’ll join me there.”

  “What about Julie?”

  “Her fleet will remain here to defend Eden. She agrees that Summer is getting to the age where she can’t leave her.”

  Salud nodded and shook her head slowly, “It feels like we’re about to go back into the fire again.”

  Jinks nodded, “Perhaps we won’t be the ones burned this time.”

  “I pray you’re right.”

  • • •

  “Willow, I don’t see why the Orange Ships were selected over these?.”

  “These new Invaders’ ships are more powerful…but you’re missing one thing.”

  “What is that?”

  “They don’t depend on missiles, they have a beam that works in the void and it’s more effective.”

  “But they don’t use the Dark Matter Cloud to hide them.”

  Lukas sat back in his chair. He slowly shook his head and took a deep breath. He blew it out slowly and said, “Which would allow the Orange Warships to move in close to their targets without being seen and fire from close range.”

  “That coupled with their higher speed gives them a decided advantage over the Green Warships.”

  “Why didn’t they use it when they invaded?”

  “The cloud will be blow away when they’re traveling at full speed. It’s only good in space battles or when sneaking up on an opponent. They were forced to fly at their maximum speed to arrive at the Milky Way. Their new ships are a vast improvement over the New Invaders.”

  “Do you think the Leaders in M-87 know about these new developments?”

  “I tend to doubt it.”

  “I do, too. If they knew about them, they wouldn’t have made the change or they would have made them give them to Green Ships.”

  “That’s how I see it.”

  “I think we’ve seen enough here. This galaxy is going to be trouble for a long time. We should go to M-87 and take a look at what we’re up against in numbers.”

  “I’d like to take a look at what the Orange Beings are doing first.”

  “Why? They won’t be coming next time.”

  “We don’t know if both of them might be sent. I believe the real danger to us is the Orange Civilization. I’d like to see if we really know their capabilities.”

  “We just saw their newest ships.”

  “Lukas, humor me.”

  Lukas laughed, “I’ve learned not to question an escape pod on issues involving survival. I’m with you Willow. Let’s go see what’s going on.”

  “Leaving it to the professionals again?”

  “Absolutely. Lead the way.” Willow dropped out of normal space and went to full speed. She listened to the thoughts in M-87 as they moved closer and she focused her search for key thoughts; new engines, thrusters, beams, missiles, reactors, and keeping something secret. Before they arrived at the giant galaxy, she had five places to search.

  • • •

  “Chad, I don’t like this.”

  “You know I have to go, Julie. Gunny, Kitch, Indura, Windy, and all the others deserve my best effort.”

  “But Summer deserves to have her father.”

  “So did all the children killed on Earth. I’ve done my duty at making sure Eden was protected. Now it’s time I did my duty.”

  “I should be going with you.”

  “Eden still needs you here…and so does Summer.”

  Julie wrapped her arms around Chad, “I already miss you!”

  “I’m only several hours away. I’ll be coming home to make sure you don’t have to miss me too much.”

  “See that you do!”

  “You know I will.” Chad kissed his wife and daughter and climbed into his pod.

  Julie shouted, “Take care of him Trio!”

  “You know I will.”

  Julie watched Chad’s Attack Pod lift off the Space Port’s concrete pad and move slowly into the sky. Summer waved and Julie waved with her. She had to marry a warrior. She felt her tears but knew she couldn’t hold him back any longer. She wiped her tears and took Summer to her pod. Her fleet of pods was being updated and she knew she had more than she could do…but…she missed him so much. She wiped her tears again and prayed for his safety.

  • • •

  “Trio, notify the fleet to fall in and initiate their drives for the initial skip.”

  “Done.”

  “Let’s go home.”

  Chad moved to the front of the ten thousand Attack Pods and disappeared from normal space. He looked at the white splotch in the void far ahead, the Milky Way. This time, the invaders were going to pay for their actions. He was back in a Pod and he never felt so alive. He pressed a button and Born Free blared out over his speakers. His pilots heard the familiar music and felt their hearts beat faster. It was back to war and they were ready for whatever came their way. The other thirty thousand Attack Pods would be joining them over the next few weeks. Earth was coming alive again and humans were back on its surface. Chad hoped the invaders wouldn’t keep him waiting.

  • • •

  “Lukas, I’m not sure about going to that next site.”

  “Why not?”

  “I’ve detected thousands of small disturbances in the void.”

  “Probes?”

  “That’s what I think they are and I’ve got to believe that they can detect the dark cloud around us.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “This is the domain of the Orange Civilization and they intend to keep this area secret, even from their own civilization. They would have to be able to detect Dark Matter.”

  “This is where they’re doing most of their development.”

  “I know. I think we’ve learned that they’ve developed a new reactor and their ships will be even faster than the ones they sent to Earth. If we’re going in, we shouldn’t go alone.”

  “You think it’s that dangerous?”

  “I do.” Lukas was silent and Willow waited for him to respond. When he didn’t, Willow said, “We can’t detect ships that are stationary with a Dark Matter Cloud around them. I can hear thoughts from more ships than I can count and they’re close. This is not something we should do.”

  • • •

  Chris looked at Hawk, “Fire up the engines. Lukas might be doing something stupid.” Chris looked at Audrey, “How many disrupters have conduits?”

  “Forty. What’s going on?”

  “I hope nothing. Sound battle stations.”

  • • •

  “Willow, we need this information.”

  “Not at the moment. We still haven’t looked at what we’re going to have to face from the other side of this galaxy. If we enter that space, we’ll be surr
ounded in less time than you can imagine. I’m telling you that there are thousands of Invader Ships there and they will see us.”

  “If I order you to do it, will you?”

  “I really hope you don’t put me in that position Lukas. I made a promise to Salud and you did too. You’re going to break that promise if you go.” Chris raised his arm and held it over his head. Hawk watched him closely with his hand over the thruster controls. “What do you think Salud would tell me if she were here?”

  Lukas sighed, “You know what she would say. Eden needs the information we’ve collected about the Green Civilization. That will be lost if we’re destroyed.” Lukas stared at the display and said, “We could send a probe back with all the information we’ve uncovered.”

  “But no one there will know how to use it like you.” Willow could hear his thoughts and he fired his last round, “Would you allow her to go in if she were here?”

  “Willow, that’s not fair!”

  “Would you?!”

  Lukas sighed and slowly shook his head. He gritted his teeth and said, “Take us out of here.”

  • • •

  Chris fell back in his chair and shook his head at Hawk. He lowered his arm slowly and sighed. His father was so much more than he knew. He felt a sense of pride of being Lukas’ son. He knew keeping a promise was something he would never forget from what he just witnessed.

  • • •

  Willow backed away and activated his thrusters. As she flew away more than a thousand missiles were launched behind her. Lukas saw the missiles appear out of nowhere and they were gaining on Willow until she reached her top speed. She ran away from them and abruptly changed course as another salvo was launched ahead of them. “It appears you were right.”

  “I hate being right about this.”

  “Can you avoid them?”

  “I can probably destroy them with the DE Disruptor beams but I don’t want to reveal that weapon. This isn’t a great deal different from fleeing the Myot and Welken fleets. I’m not going to maximum speed. I’m going to allow them to chase me out into open space. Once we’re out of scanner range, I’ll go to maximum speed.”

  “Thanks, Willow.”

  “For what?”

  “For not playing fair. If we were caught in the middle of those ships, we wouldn’t have been able to avoid being hit.”

  “We will eventually have to allow one of those missiles to hit a ship to determine their capabilities.”

  “I think we could handle one.”

  “I do, too; however, now is not the time.”

  “Were you able to scan those missiles?”

  “They are force field protected and four times faster than the old ones.”

  “You were right. This species is the one that’s the biggest danger. But for the moment, we have to deal with the others.”

  “Let’s go see what that entails, shall we?”

  “By all means; lead the way.”

  • • •

  The Fleet Supal leaped out of its tub and screamed, “YOU SHOULD HAVE FIRED SOONER!”

  “You ordered us to wait until we had them surrounded.”

  The Supal went into a tall column and then splashed into his tub. “What can you tell me about that vessel?”

  “It was surrounded by a Dark Matter Cloud. We couldn’t see any details.”

  “Was it one of ours?”

  “Not moving at that speed. We aren’t capable of moving that fast.”

  “Could it have been a ship sent by the Legends?”

  “I have no way of knowing. I’m certain a Legend wasn’t on board or it would have seen what was going on without using a ship.”

  The Supal sat in its tub and after a moment sent the recording of the contact to the Greatest Leader.

  • • •

  The Leaders gathered around the table argued about where the ship came from and eventually the Eighth ended the argument when he stated, “It appears it came from the spiral galaxy.” Everyone grew silent and stared at him. He looked around and raised an eyestalk, “We did send our most advanced ships to scout them. It only makes sense that they returned the favor.”

  The Greatest lowered himself into his tub in agreement, “You must be right.” He looked around and said, “How can we use this?”

  The Second lifted an ear, “What? How can we possibly use this without giving away our new weapons?”

  The Greatest smiled, lifted an appendage out of the tub, and pressed a button. “What do you want!?”

  “We’ve just destroyed a strange vessel that entered our space. We’re of the opinion that is was a scout from that galaxy we invaded.”

  “Why would they come here?”

  “We think they were either scouting our fleets or…”

  “Or what?”

  “They were looking for you.”

  “SEND US THE DATA ON THAT SHIP!”

  “Yes, Legend. I’ll send it momentarily.”

  The other leaders looked at the Greatest with their color changing to show their fear. The Greatest looked at the Eighth, “You said that you collected all the recordings of our ships that were destroyed. In all of those recordings, did you have one showing one of the Spiral Galaxy’s ships being destroyed?”

  “I have thousands of them.”

  “Send the legends one where a single ship was destroyed in open space.” The Eighth lowered in agreement and began looking through his records. The Greatest smiled and said, “Let’s see how long it takes before the Legends send the Others to that galaxy.” The leaders gathered around the table were silent for a moment and then began cheering the Greatest. This was incredible thinking on his part. They knew the Legends would never tolerate a danger to them.

  • • •

  “UHHH OHHH!”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I just heard the thoughts of the Movers and Shakers and it appears we’re being used by the Orange Leaders.”

  “What?”

  “The ones calling the shot here were told that the Orange Beings destroyed one of our ships scouting this galaxy. They even sent an image of a ship being destroyed.”

  “But we weren’t…”

  “Do you not think they have images galore of our ships being killed? They sent one and the real Leaders suggested that we were looking for them.”

  “OH MY GOD! They’ve ordered an immediate invasion, haven’t they?”

  “They have. They’ve given the Greenies two months to gather their forces and, in their thoughts, to go to that spiral galaxy to teach them a lesson they’ll never forget. Of course it will be hard to forget anything if no one’s alive to remember.”

  “That’s true.”

  “You don’t sound worried.”

  “Better them than the Orange Meanies. This may force the Orange beings into the fight before they have time to convert all of their warships to their new technology.”

  “It will take the Greenies a year to arrive.”

  “Not if we meet them halfway.”

  “Why not closer?”

  “I don’t want them to get reinforcements if they need them.”

  “You make a good point. We still need to go see what we’re facing.”

  “Not really.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because they’re going to gather their forces at the edge of the galaxy. Our probes will pretty much see what’s coming.”

  “You never cease to amaze me, Lukas.”

  “Hey, that’s my line.”

  Willow laughed out loud, turned vertical, and flew above M-87 at an incredible speed. It moved out into empty space and turned toward Andromeda. “Salud will be glad to see you.”

  “She’s not alone, Willow. We have a lot to do in very little time.”

  “At least we have time.”

  “There is that.”

  • • •

  Chris looked at Hawk and then at Audrey, “We’re back at war. Hawk, take us back to Andromeda at maximum speed. I suspect
Lukas will be there first but we need to prepare for the next invasion.”

  “What happened?”

  “I’ll fill all of you in but we need to get moving if we want to take part in the planning.”

  Hawk hit the steering thrusters and the Montana whipped around and he went to full thrusters. Hawk flew the ship and listened as Chris filled them in on what had taken place.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chris walked in on the meeting that was already in full swing. He saw Admiral Barber shaking her head and pointing her finger at Jinks, “What do you mean, take all the crews off the battleships and put them in Pods!?”

  Lukas looked up and smiled, “It’s good you could make it. Where have you been?”

  “Out checking on a few things. What is this about taking all the crews off the battleships?”

  Lukas shrugged, “Most of the veterans on the battleships are former Pod Pilots. Jinks and Stoney are of the opinion that we would be better served by putting them back in one of the new Pods.”

  “But we have more than two hundred thousand battleships that could make a difference in the coming invasion. They’ll just be wasted if we remove the crews.”

  Lukas looked at Chris, “What do you think about this?”

  Everyone in the room turned and looked at Chris as he and Audrey sat down at the table. “I’ve had the opportunity to see what the Pods can do in combat. Admiral, have you seen them?” Loree’s expression revealed her anger but she shook her head. “Admiral, the new Pods can run circles around our battleships and one of them can destroy a battleship faster than you can imagine. They’re faster, more maneuverable, and can take a much higher level of enemy fire. That’s not to say the battleships won’t hold their own with the coming enemy ships, but the pods are a better ship at the moment.”

  “What do you mean, at the moment?”

  Chris turned to Salud, “The New Battleships are more powerful than the pods by several orders of magnitude. They’re not quite as fast but they can withstand a tremendous amount of enemy firepower that would destroy the pods.”

  Jinks shook his head, “But we only have ten of them completed and we can build more than ten thousand pods in the time it takes to construct one of those new ships. Could one of those ships defeat ten thousand of the new pods?”