by Saxon Andrew
“I know you will.” He kissed Michael on the cheek as his son hugged his neck. “I’ll be back.”
Michael nodded and put his arms around Salud’s neck. Chris walked away and entered a ground car to go to the spaceport. His wrist communicator vibrated and he saw the Welken Royal on the display. He pressed the activate button and said, “Good morning, Great One.”
“I received a request from Admiral Jekins and I had a few questions about it. He said I should contact you.”
“What questions do you have?”
“You’ve only requested one fleet of Drop Ships. That leads to me to believe that you intend to only drop on one planet. Is that true.”
“It is.”
“What do you intend to do with the others?”
Chris stared at him with narrowed eyes, “I don’t intend to leave anything on them worth jumping on.”
“I thought as much. If that’s the case, you might think about using the new battleships to make that happen. It would take tens of thousands of beam strikes from your pods to accomplish what you want. The Battleships have sixty major disruptors and their beams are a thousand times wider than the pod’s beams. It will take entirely too long to do it with pods.”
Chris stared at the Royal, “What do you think about my intentions?”
“I’m Welken. What do you think I think about it? We can’t shy away from doing what needs to be done.”
“How many ships can you spare and still defend your planets.”
“I’ll send you a number equal to the number of Pods you’re taking.”
“A MILLION!?”
“I can spare more but that would mean having ships without pods to defend them. I suppose you’re planning to send a hundred pods to each of their planets?”
“That’s the idea.”
“Send ten battleships with them and you’ll finish your mission in one third of the time.”
“Thank you, Great One. Please send them to Earth for departure. How long will it take to provision them and get them here?”
“When do you plan to leave?”
“Tomorrow.”
“They’ll be there tomorrow.”
The display went dark and Chris lifted his communicator. The organization for the fleets was going to have to be changed. Admiral Simmons appeared on his wrist unit and he said, “Change of plans.”
“Oh?”
“The Allies are sending a million battleships to join our efforts. Work on getting the formations changed to use them in the initial attack and the following cleanup.”
“Yes Sir!” The display went dark and he wondered if Allison ever smiled. She was the consummate commander and her demeanor told anyone around her that she would not tolerate incompetence or stupidity. She was twenty-three but an old twenty-three. He shook his head. There were none better than her at planning and implementing attack plans. He needed her in the coming fight.
• • •
“Barbie, are you ready to go?”
“Are we taking anyone else with us?”
“No, we’re going alone this time.”
“I’m so sorry, Chris.”
“Thanks. Take us out to the fleet and let’s get this over with.” The small pod lifted and accelerated out of Earth’s atmosphere. Chris didn’t need the scanner to see the gathering fleets. The one hundred fleets of pods had a thirty-mile separation between their tight formations. The battleships started arriving three hours earlier and they were flying in at high speed and forming up behind the long line of Pods. Chris pressed his communicator, “How long before we’re ready to go?”
He saw Allison’s face appear on his display, “The Pods are ready now. I’ve received confirmation that the last battleships will arrive in thirty minutes.”
“I didn’t expect them to get here that fast. Have you decided what formation we’re going to use when we arrive?”
“I have, Sir. I completed it last night and sent the coordinates for each fleet. I sent the battleship’s coordinates to them this morning.”
“How do you manage to do it so quickly?”
Barbie mumbled, “She has two computers on her Pod.”
Chris’s head went back and he said, “Do you have two computers?”
“I do, Sir. During battle, one handles flying and evading the enemy while the other operates the weapons. I discovered early on that it’s impossible to keep track of what the big picture is if I have to fly or fight my pod. Having two computers on board also allows me to use them to develop formations and get the information out in a timely fashion. I don’t have a bodyguard like you do, Sir. I had to find a way to do my job without one.’
“As soon as this mission is completed, you will select four ships to defend your pod while you’re directing our fleets.”
“Sir, I can handle it.”
“I’m not suggesting you can’t. But four of our pilots can learn a lot from watching you. We’ll select those that are fast tracked for promotion.”
Allison was silent for a moment and said, “You’re right. I learned so much from those years I worked with you and the other senior officers.”
“Such as?”
“Jinks and Stoney are incredible in coming up with fleet formations. They taught me most of what I know about it.”
Chris was slightly ticked. He didn’t want to but, when she remained silent, he asked. “What did you learn while commanding my bodyguards?”
Allison smiled, “I learned that you should never make a full scan unless you’re prepared to run.”
Chris actually laughed, “I remember that little episode. I learned something from it as well. Notify me when the fleet is ready.”
“Yes Sir.”
• • •
“Sir, the fleets are ready to skip out.”
Chris activated the main frequency on his communicator. “This is what you’ve trained to do for years. I know you’re ready for this and I expect the best you have in the coming fight. We will be skipping out to our arrival coordinates in a moment and once we’re there, we will assume the best formation to meet any forces sent out to stop us. Five seconds prior to our departure, everyone, and I do mean everyone, will activate their armor and keep it on for the duration of this mission. The species we’re going to be fighting are telepaths and your armor will prevent them from hearing your thoughts. Keep your armor on until I order otherwise. The Pod Drop Fleet will remain in formation around my ship behind the main fleet. We will be skipping out in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five,” Chris activated his armor and it wrapped around him, “Four, three, two, one, Go!”
“The two million plus ships all disappeared at the same moment. Lukas watched the launch and shook his head, “Go with God, Chris.”
Chapter Six
The massive fleet of warships flew for three days and emerged into normal space just outside the edge of the giant lenticular galaxy. Chris stared at the giant and decided that the astronomer that described it as two Russian dolls dancing around a bright pole was pretty accurate. The brilliant jets shooting out of the central black hole were amazing. They weren’t as impressive as the hundreds of light years long plumes shooting out of M-87’s core, but they were impressive. Chris looked at the fleets in their formations in front of his pod and said, “Barbie, do you detect any scouts?”
“There are quite a few of them around us.”
“Too many to go after?”
“They’ll be hard to find, so you’ll have to send several thousand ships to take them out.”
“That’s not worth the effort. Are they reporting our presence?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe. I can’t understand what they’re saying, so many of them are yelling at the same time. Wait a moment!” Chris waited and watched the galaxy a hundred thousand miles away. “They’ve been ordered out. Their leaders don’t want them present when their warships arrive.”
“Good. That means we don’t have to go in looking for them.”
“Admiral Barber is ent
ering normal space.”
Chris looked above his ship and saw the Montana breaking into normal space directly above his line of Assault Pods. “I was wondering when you were going to arrive.”
“It’s taken longer than I anticipated to collect and correlate all the data collected from my fleet of scouts.”
Chris pressed a button on his panel and linked Allison in to the conversation. “Admiral Simmons, Admiral Barber has arrived with the maps of that species planet’s locations. Admiral, please send a download of your information to both of our computers.”
“Sending it now.”
Chris watched the lights on his data board and saw them move across the panel. After ten minutes the lights went out. “How many of their planets were you able to find?”
“It’s taken about six years to map this galaxy and the civilization you’re looking for is the dominant species here. They live on more than a hundred and thirty five thousand planets.”
“Do they have a planet with a central government?”
“They do. Just type in the key word ‘Leadership’ and its location will appear.”
“Allison, I was planning to assign targets after the battle against their fleets but it appears it’s going to take some time before they organize an attack. Take the data and assign two hundred Pods and Battleships to attack one of their planets. I want you to also assign their second and third targets as well, if you have the time.”
“I’ll start working on it immediately.”
“Allison.”
“Yes Sir?”
“I will handle the planet with their central government.”
Allison paused and said, “Yes Sir.” There was a pause and she said, “Once the fleet breaks up to attack their assigned targets, I will join you.”
Chris nodded, “That would be good. Jinks is also joining me once his fleets skip to their targets.” Chris turned back to Loree, “Are you certain you have them all?”
Loree shrugged, “When searching a galaxy, nothing is certain. However, if we missed any I’ll be greatly surprised, Sir.”
“That’s good enough for me. Thank you, Admiral.” The Montana’s drive field came on and the huge battleship disappeared from normal space. Chris looked at the display, “Barbie, have you detected any changes in that galaxy?” The view of the fleet changed to a closer view of M-84. Chris saw a grey colored cloud forming just outside the edge.
As he watched, the view moved in closer and he was able to distinguish massive numbers of large grey warships moving into formations. The cloud was visibly growing larger each minute. Chris leaned back in his chair and looked at the empty chair beside him. He shook his head. God! He missed her so much. He looked back out at the much larger cloud of Grey Ships and said, “It won’t be long now, Darling.”
“Why are we waiting on them? Let’s get this party started!”
“Patience, Sis.”
“Hey, she was my sister-in-law!”
“Eve, vengeance is something to be savored. Your time will come shortly.” Chris shook his head, Eve was something else.
• • •
Salud and Lukas resisted but she finally prevailed a year ago and they allowed Willow to convert her DNA to that of a twenty year old. She had excelled to the point where Fleet needed to promote her to command the first Assault Fleet but she was just too young. She was ranked the best pilot in the fleet and that wasn’t her greatest talent. She possessed the hybrid mind of the Welken and Humans. Her reflexes were incredibly fast and her speed was beyond any of those in her class. Her skills in the Assault Armor were unmatched. She was beyond incredible.
Lukas and Salud tried their best to convince her to just be a pilot and to forget the notion of dropping on an enemy planet. Their best efforts failed. Eve loved using her armor. Lukas finally told Salud that she needed to consider what would happen if a fish was told not to go into the water, it would never get around on land like it could in the ocean. It lived to swim. Salud finally gave in but Chris suspected she would have fought it to the bitter end if she didn’t have another child. Adam was still at home and she prayed her daughter wouldn’t be killed doing what she enjoyed most. She was starting to worry that Adam was going to develop telepathy and leave home but she put the fear aside and enjoyed every day with him. Eve was promoted to command the First Pod Assault Fleet. Her ships would be used to drop on the Grey Civilization’s central planet and soften it up for the heavy warriors. He remembered Salud questioning him about having to use her fleet to drop in first.
“Why would you drop the Pods in before the Heavy Warriors? They’re better protected than the Special Force Warriors.”
“Salud, that planet has thousands of ground based disruptors. Their warship’s beams are nowhere near as powerful as those heavy weapons on the planet’s surface.”
“You don’t seriously think one of them would damage one of our battleships?”
“Salud, the battleships will have to drop into the atmosphere to release the Heavies transports. I agree that one of those beams wouldn’t damage the new battleship but a thousand of them could. I’m also pretty certain that the transports would not survive on hit.”
“They can’t be taken out from space?”
“Those installations are protected by a force field over them. The field is powered by a huge array of reactors. The only way to get at them is to attack them from the ground.”
“I thought you said they were protected by a force field?”
“They are but the field is over them; it doesn’t reach the ground around them.”
“Why don’t you just destroy the planet from space and be done with it!”
Chris remembered his anger as he said, “That is what we’re going to do with all the others. I intend to go down to this planet and find the one that ordered that ship here.”
“So you’re willing to risk the life of your sister-in-law to extract your revenge?”
Lukas said, “That’s enough, Salud!!”
Chris looked at her in silence and finally said, “Even if I agreed that extracting my revenge isn’t a good enough reason to do it, I’d still order the attack.”
“WHY?!”
“Because we are going to have to ultimately drop on the planet in M-87 where those Legends are. Our warriors have to be used to determining if that is a viable possibility. This planet is a good place to find out and it won’t be as dangerous as the planet of the Legends. I will not send them in without them having experience on what to expect.”
Salud stared at him and then turned to Lukas. Lukas shrugged, “He’s right.”
“I’ll order her not to participate if that’s what you want but her command will make the drop!”
“She’d never forgive us if you did that.”
“I certainly won’t tell her.”
“Get real. You wouldn’t have to. She’s telepathic and she’d know.” Chris stared at her and she finally shook her head and closed her eyes, “I’ll stay out of this.”
“She’s the Fleet Commander. She’ll be directing their activities and shouldn’t be involved in the heavy fighting.” Salud looked at Chris and raised her left eyebrow. “I know, I know.”
• • •
Chris sighed. He knew that Salud knew that keeping Eve out of the fighting just wasn’t possible. It was her taking on the risks her warriors faced that made them love and respect her so much. He looked at the display again and saw the grey cloud outside the edge of the galaxy was huge. He looked at the Pod fleets and saw they were still in their normal formations. He started to say something but decided to wait and see what Allison was going to do.
• • •
Allison watched the monitor on her panel and saw the outer edge of the enemy fleet start moving toward them slowly as more ships skipped in. “Alley, what’s the width of that mass of ships leaving the galaxy?”
“They’re about ten thousand miles wider than our formations.”
Allison nodded, “And the height?”
“A thousand miles above and below our formations.”
Allison pressed her communicator, “All Pod fleets will move in Formation Gamma, now! All battleships will form up behind them in Formation Epsilon.”
• • •
Chris saw the hundred pod fleets move as one. Each fleet of ten thousand ships formed ten lines of a thousand ships. The lines were staggered above each other with five hundred yards of spacing between individual ships in each line. The fleet formed into ten incredibly long lines in less than two minutes. The battleships broke into two groups and formed fifteen lines above and below the pods with eight hundred yards between them. The lines were also staggered so that each line above was slightly behind the line under it. They looked like a set of steps.
Chris saw the huge mass of grey warships start picking up speed as it moved out from the galaxy. Chris watched the recordings of the fleet battles against the Invaders and he thought that the giant fleets looked like a single organism. He saw it again this time. It was like his fleets were a single creature that moved in a smooth organized manner to confront the beast moving toward them. The giant grey cloud also appeared to move like a single creature as it left the edge of the galaxy as it twisted and coiled. He waited until the attackers were twenty thousand miles away and he lifted his communicator, “Commence Attack!”
The ten lines of pods were too long to be seen visually. He had to depend on his scanners to reduce the view so he could see what was happening. Space battles of this magnitude were not easily controlled.
• • •
“I love you, Roy!”
“I love you, too, Lynn.”
“We should have resigned our commissions and gotten married.”
Roy sighed, “Lynn, if we did that, our warriors wouldn’t have had time to learn a new commander’s expectations. They would be put in more danger if we acted selfishly.”
“I know. It’s your fault!”
“What?”
“You shouldn’t have waited until the very last moment to ask me to marry you!”
“I was afraid you’d say no. I couldn’t muster up the courage to ask.”
“You had to know I’d say yes!?”