by Saxon Andrew
Chapter Six
“My, my, they’ve been busy while we’ve been gone.”
“Why do you say that, Amber?”
“I’m putting an image on your displays that we took of that planet more than three hundred years ago beside a current image.”
“There was a long moment of silence and Jill whistled, “It looks like they’ve built planetary disruptors around every city.”
“They’ve actually covered the planet’s surface with them. If you take a closer look inside any city you’ll see them intermingled with the buildings.”
“They won’t stop the nuclear missile.”
“No, the missile’s light drive will skip it instantly to within a half mile above the target where it will detonate. No disruptor can target it fast enough to stop it.”
“They may not have to target it.”
Rocky looked at Jill through his view port, “Why do you say that?”
“Amber, do an analysis of the coverage of those disruptors.”
They waited and heard, “You’re right, Jill. Those disruptors are placed so they can fire a barrage of beams that completely cover the cities. The missile would be vaporized as soon as it emerged into normal space.”
“How did you see that, Jill?”
“The pattern is obvious. I’m pretty certain that the moment one of their warships is attacked above the planet, the disruptors will then automatically open fire.”
“Amber, did either you or Willow see that pattern?”
“No, we did not.”
Jill shook her head, “Hey, I’ve always been fascinated by patterns and shapes. When you connect dots as many times as I did as a child, it’s not that hard to see how those disruptors are aimed.”
Rocky nodded and leaned back in his chair, “This changes things.”
“How?”
“We can’t use the nuclear missile.”
“Are you saying we should call this off?”
“I don’t want to do that. Amber, how much damage would a thousand of the light missiles do to a city?”
“It would pretty much devastate it.”
“What are you thinking, Rocky?”
“The light missiles will not be disturbed by nuclear material. We can gather the light signatures of targets on the surface and hit them simultaneously with a thousand light missiles.”
“No we can’t?”
“Why not, Amber?”
“Because we can’t launch them that fast. We have twenty launchers scattered around the hull and they take a half a second to reload a missile after launching. That’s about 2,400 a minute.”
“Actually, that’s not quite true.”
“You’re right, Jill; it would be slightly less when you factor in the slight delay in the belts moving through the channels.”
“That’s not what I meant. I’ve done some research and found that if you change a piece of the missile’s software, they can be fired on a continuous basis. The belts are programmed to make that pause for safety reasons.”
Rocky lowered his head, “What do you mean safety reasons?”
“The belts might jam. They won’t explode but they could catch on the belt notches. That’s the only reason why I thought this might work. Did any of you stop to consider that if we fired the missiles normally at 2,400 per minute, it would take about four minutes to take out ten thousand warships? I suspect that is long enough for more than fifty thousand to move into the space we’re attacking above the planet. We’re going to have to use the continuous fire process to pull this off.”
“I don’t see why we need to take out the warships if we’re just going to fire light missiles at the city.”
“Rocky, how is Amber going to collect light signatures to program the missiles fired at the city?”
“Amber?”
“She’s right, Rocky. There are so many warships in orbit above their cities that a direct line of sight to the planet is blocked. Have you also considered that once the disruptors start firing, they may take out the light missiles?”
“I don’t think that will be an issue.” Jill’s response was greeted with silence. “The Light missiles can be programed to arrive just ten feet above their targets. If the disruptors are firing that close to the surface, we won’t need to destroy the city, the disruptors will burn it to the ground.”
Rocky shook his head. Jill was far beyond his understanding of how the weapon systems worked. “Amber, how long would you need to gather a thousand light signatures on the surface?”
“About a second. However, did you consider that my vision would be blocked by the explosions of the ships we hit?”
Jill was startled by the question. “No, I didn’t think of that.”
“So let me make sure I understand what we’re up against.” Rocky paused and leaned back in his chair, “The nuclear missile option is off the table, right?” The two computers and Jill agreed that it was.”
“In order to hit one of their cities, we have to create a clear path for Amber to gather light signatures from the surface. If we blow a hole through the ranks of the warships above the planet, their explosions would also mask the surface from Amber, right?” Everyone agreed again. “Amber, do you have an estimate of how long it would take for the explosions to clear?”
“Between five and thirty minutes and I suspect it would be closer to thirty than five.”
“The Feeders would fill that gap faster than the explosions would clear.”
“You’re right, Jill.”
“Rocky, we should be just back out and call it a good effort.”
Rocky shook his head, “Willow, have they rebuilt that city we destroyed three hundred years ago?”
“Judging by the number of warships above that site, they have.”
“Do you still have the light signature of where the missile fired at the planet was sent?”
“Yes, but it won’t help us. We still don’t have the light signatures from the surface.”
“Was that signature below the ranks of the Feeder Warships?”
“Yes.”
“Then here’s how we’ll do it. We will skip the ship in to that coordinate and start rapid firing the missiles at the warships closest to us the moment we determine they’ve detected our presence. Amber will collect the light signatures from the surface and we’ll skip out the moment she’s done. We’ll program the light missiles and launch them from outside the ranks of the Feeder Warships above the planet.”
“Why don’t we just launch the nuclear missile?”
“Jill, the planetary defenses will detect the missile leaving our hull and will start firing. The first missile fired at that planet went in to that coordinate and used its thrusters to hit the city. The Feeders didn’t have disruptors at that time and even if the nuclear missile used its light drive, it won’t arrive before the disruptors have laid down a protective shield.”
“Jill, can we modify the missile to use its light drive to hit the surface?”
“No, Willow. Its light drive just isn’t good enough to make that happen. It’s shielded so much that it can’t make that adjustment. The half mile limit on it is a mechanical detonator, not digital.”
“We need to talk to Fleet about that when we return.”
“Don’t you mean if we return?”
“Call me a glass half full type of person. I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t think we had a chance of surviving. There are still the fleets we have to slow down and I wouldn’t take the risk if I didn’t think it was justified. Amber, how long will we have to stay above that planet?”
“Less than two seconds.”
“Rocky, two seconds is an eternity to a computer.”
“But someone will have to sense us first. If our minds are really what our scientists say they are, they won’t even know we’re there.”
“They probably won’t sense you but the scanners on the planet will see something blocking their view of the warships above them.”
“You make a
good point, Amber, but I suspect they haven’t really thought about that as a possibility and it will take some time for someone on the surface to make a decision that it’s a threat. If we try it again, I suspect the systems on the planet will automatically fire. But they should delay firing at their own ships in orbit the first time. Jill, start your targeting system collecting signatures of the closest ships the moment we enter normal space. DO NOT FIRE ON THEM UNLESS YOU SEE THEM REACTING TO OUR PRESENCE!”
“Yes Sir, oh Great Commander.”
“I’m serious, Jill.”
“I figured that out all on my own. You don’t have to worry about my being trigger happy.”
“I think she should launch before we leave.”
“What?”
“She could fire at all the ships directly above the city and really make them worry about how we did it.”
“I don’t want to reveal our light drives to them, Amber.”
“I think they’ll just believe that we flew through their ranks without being seen. That would give them great pause.”
Rocky stared at his panel and Jill said, “That would force them to tighten up their ranks which would require a huge number of additional warships.”
Rocky considered the idea and then nodded, “I agree. Jill, give ’em hell.”
“Oh, you know I will.”
“Willow, send me the coordinates.” Rocky saw the numbers appear on his panel and looked up, “Everyone get ready; I’m skipping in four seconds.”
Jill looked at her panel and took a deep breath. A moment later, the darkness of space was replaced by the bright glow of a huge city directly below her.
• • •
The Feeder Scanner Operator heard his panel alarm. He looked at it and saw something at the edge of the upper atmosphere was blocking the scanner’s beam. What was that dark shadow? He hesitated and then pressed the disruptor release button. That hesitation would prove to be fatal.
• • •
Rocky counted off in his mind, “One thousand, two thousand…”
“I’ve got them!”
Rocky felt the ship shudder as missiles flew out of the hull at an incredible rate as he pressed the light drive. An instant later, massive disruptor beams ripped through the place the ship just occupied destroying more than a thousand warships holding formation above the huge city. The explosions were gigantic and eight hundred more ships exploded adding their energy to the huge shock wave that blew out into the surrounding ships. The warships shrugged off the blast as it passed and began moving in on the center of the huge explosions. They found nothing.
The Prime Leader saw the image on the scanner’s display at the same moment as the operator. It quickly analyzed it and knew it was the size of a small star ship. The disruptors opened fire and it recognized that the operator had reacted faster than it could have through the linkage. How did that ship manage to get that close? It started to order the fleets above the planet to move in closer but heard…
“We told you not to venture toward our space. It appears you’ve not learned that we will prevent your violating our territory.”
“Who are you?”
“You know who I am. You spoke to one of us the first time you thought to ignore our warning. I will destroy your city again momentarily and I suggest you heed my words.”
“But…”
Rocky yelled, “FIRE THE MISSILES, JILL!”
A thousand light missiles shot out of the hull and the giant city on the surface began erupting in massive explosions. The Entity barely managed to survive disruption as the huge city erupted into a massive pyre of flame. The huge disruptors began cooking off in massive explosions that added to the city’s destruction.
“Get us out of here!”
The light ship skipped out and appeared at the missile transport. “What’s wrong?”
“Rocky, half of the missile belts have jammed. We have to go back and get them repaired. We’re entirely dependent on the disruptors to defend us.”
Rocky nodded and said, “Amber skip us to Earth.” Rocky saw the familiar giant construction building appear and he sighed. The ship just wasn’t ready for the magnitude of what they were going to face. He also knew he wasn’t ready to face Olivia.
“Sir, we didn’t expect you back this soon.”
“There’s an issue with the missile system you’re going to have to resolve. Plan to meet with me and my Weapon’s Officer.”
“Yes Sir, I’ll meet you in the conference room.”
“Amber, get the recordings of the attack out to Fleet Operations.”
“I’m getting them organized as we speak. They’ll have them in ten minutes.”
He saw that Jill was talking to someone on the ship’s frequency and he tapped a button to listen in. “…YOU WILL NOT!”
“Sis, this is something that has to be done and I’m the only one that can do it.”
“WHY DO YOU THINK I’M OUT HERE RISKING MY BUTT!? IT’S SO YOU WON’T BE KILLED. YOU WILL NOT DO THIS!”
Rocky pressed his communicator, “What’s going on commodore Axel?”
“My stupid, genius brother is going to a Feeder occupied planet to test his device! He’s not qualified to do it and will only get himself killed!”
“Is that true, Mr. Axel?”
“Yes, I am a genius.”
“Don’t get cute. Are you going to a Feeder planet?”
“I am.”
“And Fleet has authorized this mission?”
“They didn’t want to do it but recognize it has to be done to prevent the loss of lives that would happen if my device fails.”
“And you’re the only possible human being that can do this?”
“No one else understands how the frequencies used by the device operate. Jill, I am not the hero type; you know that. However, I have come to understand just how important this device is to the survival of our species and I must do it.”
“If that’s the case, my ship will go with you and defend you while you do what must be done.”
“Rocky, can you make that decision?”
“I just did. When are you leaving, Mr. Axel?”
“I’m waiting on my co-pilot. We plan to leave when she arrives.”
“You are going to have to delay your trip until I can get my ship repaired.”
“How long will that take?”
“Why don’t you come to the construction facility and join me in the meeting with the Commanding Officer.”
“Give me a moment to contact my co-pilot. Is it alright if she joins us?”
“Certainly. Who is your co-pilot?”
“Commodore Collins.”
Rocky’s head went back, “I’m not familiar with a Commodore Collins.”
“She was just promoted by her commanding officer.”
“What’s her first name?”
“Olivia.”
Rocky closed his eyes and Jill saw him through her cockpit’s window. He blew out a breath and, after a short pause, said, “We’ll meet you in the conference room at the main hangar.”
“I’ll see you there.”
“Oh, Rocky, I’m so sorry.”
“This is something I’m going to have to handle, Jill. However, we will not allow them to go out without our being there.”
“Thank you. I just hope Fleet allows us to go.”
“It won’t be the first time I’ve violated orders if they don’t.” Jill shook her head and felt her fear start growing. But she also felt something inside her for this glorious, brave man she was flying with. She owed him for this.
• • •
Rocky and Jill sat at the table with Commodore Nelson and three of his weapon designers. They paused when Jack and Olivia entered the conference room and Rocky said, “Please take a seat and we’ll discuss your current situation when we complete our discussion.”
Jack nodded as Olivia went to a chair, sat down, and stared at Rocky. Jill jumped out of her chair and ran over to Jack and hugged him tig
htly, “I’ve missed you so much!”
Jack held her tight and nodded, “We’ll catch up later.” Jill went back to her chair and Olivia shook her head slightly. This woman-child was incredibly pretty and her energy level was just like her brother’s.
Rocky turned to Nelson, “You have to find a way for our vessel to launch the missiles at a higher speed. The numbers we’re facing are beyond anything the four of you can imagine.”
One of the designers said, “Can you give us an idea of what numbers you’re referring to.”
Rocky looked at Jill, “Do you have the recording on your wrist unit?” Jill nodded. “Give your unit to Commodore Nelson.” Jill took it off and handed it to Nelson, who placed it in a small cradle on the main computer console on the conference table. The main wall monitor activated and an image of the Feeder’s Central Planet appeared. Everyone but Rocky and Jill gasped at what they saw. The recording began and the attendees in the room watched the recording of the battle. At the end, the room was silent. Jack and Olivia stared at Jill and Rocky and could only shake their heads at the bravery they displayed making the attack.
“Sir, I had no idea this is what we’re up against.”
Jill looked at the designer, “This is only the ships at the planet. There’s more than ten times that number we’re going to face when we go back.”
Jack looked at Jill, “You have a lot of nerve telling me not to carry out my mission. Do you have a death wish!?”
Rocky looked at Jack, “You can discuss that after the meeting. I want to keep the focus on getting my ship repaired and improved.”
“I’m sorry, Admiral. I’ll hold my comments.”
Rocky noticed Jill’s expression and saw her sadness. Jack was dead on about her having a death wish. He turned to Nelson, “The current missile system will only fire 2,400 missiles a minute. We need a faster way to do it and the ship needs to be able to carry a lot more than the current magazine holds.”
Nelson looked at one of the designers, “Andrea, do you see any way to make that happen?”
Andrea started shaking her head and Jill said, “One of the things you might consider is that under the current system, the missiles leave the magazine and are locked in the belts feeding the launchers. Why can’t the magazines have the missiles already locked in a belt that feeds directly to the launcher?” The three designers looked at her with blank expressions. You could also have the launcher send them out of the hull with a high-powered burst of compressed air. That would remove the current discharge of energy the Feeders could detect.”