by Saxon Andrew
“What is what, Sir.”
“That small spark in front of those seven-warships.”
Lisa turned her controls and the images grew larger. Finally, a tiny red and gold flashing ship appeared. Rory said, “Put it in motion.” The recording started moving and Rory watched the tiny ship go vertical and disappear. Rory shook his head and turned around, “They were lead to us by that ship.”
“Why?” Meredith asked.
Rory blew out a snort and said, “Perhaps because we’ve attacked them at least two-times that I’m aware of. It appears they don’t approve of our actions.”
“What does this mean?”
Rory looked at Meredith, “I don’t suppose you’ve ever been involved in a school yard fight with an imposing bully, have you?”
“No, Sir.”
“I didn’t think so. But I’ve seen where a bully was later confronted by a bigger threat that was hired by the one he was picking on. Those Aliens are being used to pay us back for our bullying tactics.”
The bridge crew was silent until Lisa asked, “What does this mean?”
“The smart thing to do, if we can handle this bigger threat, is to leave those small ships alone. Who knows what they might send our way next time.”
Meredith snorted, “Do you think we’re going to do that?”
Rory sighed, “I really hope so. But you’ve already figured out that we can do it but just don’t have the capacity to do it.”
Meredith nodded.
Chapter Six
“It looks like that Human is pretty smart.”
“We almost got away with it.”
“At least they won’t be bothering the Elders anytime soon, Lise.”
“The Brax do have their attention.” Lissell paused, “Who do you want to win this fight?”
Kerry shrugged, “Both of them are Apex Predators. It seems the universe creates both prey and predators and they normally aren’t a big issue. These two are.”
“There you go using the Human’s language again. And, by-the-way, that is not an answer.”
Kerry shrugged, “Well, the Brax are carnivores and if I had to choose which one I’d not want to face, it would be them; but they don’t attack new planets very often. They only do it when their prey numbers fall too low to support their population on one of their planets. Then they send out ships to find a new world to settle and that usually only happens once in a thousand-years or so. The Humans go out and attack anything that moves. I would hope that maybe both of them end up destroying each other.”
“And if you had to choose one to win this conflict, who would it be?”
“The Brax, of course.”
“Why?”
“The Humans are the ones upsetting the Elders.”
Lissell smiled, “You’re right; I forgot that little tid-bit. Do you want to go home for a while? This is going to take some time for them to resolve.”
Kerry sighed, “I don’t know about that. What if the Elders sanction us for leading these two monsters together?”
“Hey, it was a chance encounter.”
“Tell that to someone who believes it, Lise.”
Lise sighed, “We could very likely end up back in the Academy.”
“Exactly right. Watching these two bang heads is more entertaining than writing papers.”
“You make a good point, Kerry. Let’s go see what happens next. By-the-way, what’s that smell coming from the galley?”
“While we were at the Human’s Home World, one of my scans turned up something called popcorn. I had the computer replicate some for us while we’re enjoying the show.”
It smells wonderful.”
“The Brax wouldn’t like it but I’m looking forward to trying it.”
• • •
Rory looked at Kuchen on his console’s monitor, “Do you see a way out of launching an attack?”
“Nyet. Thorpe will say we needed to trial our new Power Spikes and order our executions.”
“But half of our Fleet is pretty much useless against them. The Attack Sleds are little more than target practice for them and the Destroyers are only good for making Dart Clouds.”
“Have we determined if our Battleships are faster?”
Rory thought a moment and shrugged, “The Scout that warned us of the coming twenty-warships was significantly faster; it increased the distance between it and them.”
“That mean’s our Battleships are faster.”
“What are you getting at, Kuchen?”
“Well, our Techs learned those tridents they fired at us will also penetrate their hulls. That should be something we can use.”
Rory shrugged, “Da.”
“Don’t be cute, Admiral.”
“If you can do it, so can I.”
Kuchen shrugged, “Also, they always turn broadside to fire at our ships. I think that’s because they don’t have a large defensive array protecting their bows.”
Rory thought about what Kuchen was suggesting and said, “The Battleships have dart launchers. However, they move out of their clouds as they move forward, exposing their bows to attack.”
Kuchen smiled, “So you’re going to have to have at least one Destroyer to provide a dart cloud at their bows.” Kuchen paused, “I’m also of the opinion that their communication range is nowhere near what ours is.”
Rory smiled, “That’s true. They sent two-ships away to take information to one of their fleets.”
Meredith said, “Admiral, the scout has just sent a message probe. There is only one Alien Planet in the Perseus Arm. At least only one within detection range. It also has thirty-warships in that system we detected.”
Rory looked at Kuchen, “I need to have a discussion with my Ship Commanders. I’ll get back to you on how I want to employ the Attack Sleds.”
“Da, Admiral.”
Rory smiled and turned to Lisa, “Get my two-Admirals on my panel.”
• • •
Logan didn’t like what he was being ordered to do but he had to accept that former Admiral Bentley brought it on his command. Fifteen of his Battleships were moving ahead of the fleet toward the planet the Aliens were defending. He hoped Admiral Mankin was right in his assessment of what would happen but nothing was certain in catfights and space battles. These ships knew their capabilities and it didn’t bode well that the Admiral’s assumption of his ships being faster had not been proven. Maybe he’d share the risk in the next attack. “Status?”
“We’ve not been detected, Sir.”
Logan nodded and kept his advancing warships behind the giant planet as they moved into the star system. They’d see his Battleships shortly; they had to come out from behind the planet in another fifteen-minutes.
• • •
“Admiral, we’ll be visible in two-minutes.”
Logan lifted pressed his communicator, “Once the Aliens start moving, spread out and do not change course. You have your assigned courses.” The Battleships came over the top of the giant planet and the Alien Warships immediately powered up their engines and turned toward his vessels. Two-Alien Warships remained close to the inhabited planet and the remaining twenty-eight-warships turned and picked up speed as the two lines approached each other. He pressed his panel and said, “Hong Kong, back off and hold your position.”
The Battleship on the left end of the advancing line, dropped back as the other fourteen advanced. The Alien vessels continued moving forward in a long line and Logan wondered if this was going to work. His Battleships spread out and moved to meet the Alien Line with one Battleship headed between two of their vessels. The Aliens appeared to see what they were doing and they spread out. It was obvious they wanted to have one of their warships on each side of the approaching Battleships. Now it was a matter of whether or not they followed the same attack procedure they used in the first fight.
• • •
“Sir, the two Alien Ships we’re headed toward are moving further apart.”
“How f
ar?”
“All the ships in their line are moving apart fifteen-miles. It looks like the Admiral was right about them holding their line together.”
Captain Park didn’t like this plan. He was moving between the two-giant warships and he wasn’t going to fire any darts to protect his ship. He looked at Lt. Chung and the pilot said, “I’ve got the bow thrusters firing at maximum to keep us from moving too fast.”
“What about the main-engines?”
“They’re at seventy-percent, Sir.”
Park looked at Lt. Smallwood, “The exact moment you detect their missile doors opening, you will notify my pilot, immediately!” Christy nodded and kept her eyes on her scanner-monitor. The Peking moved in the gap between the two-warships it was assigned and Park felt his brow start to sweat.
• • •
Harry Barnes was holding position behind the giant planet with his Attack Sled Wing. He hated with a passion being promoted to command a Wing. It was easier to stay alive fighting alone. But Command saw his attack on one of the Alien Warships led to its destruction and he wasn’t given a choice in the matter. He was assigned the Peking’s defence and wished he had been assigned to Admiral Mankin’s former Squadron. It appeared the Admiral was going to make the new Squadron shoulder the burden of softening up the enemy ships. IT WASN’T FAIR! Oh, well. “Hold your positions until I order you in,” Harry said to his pilots over the ship-to-ship frequency. He’d soon know what kind of cluster this was going to be.
• • •
Captain Park felt the Peking slow its forward progress and looked at his panel. He pulled up the engine readout and saw Chung had begun using the side-thrusters to point ahead of the ship to slow it further. The main-engines were now at eighty-percent. He changed the monitor to tactical and saw the Alien Warships were slowing down as well. The closing speed was dropping rapidly. He imagined the Aliens were salivating at the prospect of having his ship move slowly between them. “Captain, one minute until our line arrives between them.” Park nodded.
The countdown reached ten-seconds and Park said, “Chung, I want you in the middle of them! Do not move closer to one of them!” Lt. Chung nodded and kept his eyes on the proximity-detectors. He listened closely for Christy’s warning.
• • •
The fourteen-Battleships moved between the twenty-eight Alien Warships and both sides opened fire with massive disruptor barrages. The Battleships had their deflector-fields at maximum power and the Alien’s barrages were deflected above and below the Battleships. The Alien Warships just shrugged off the barrage hitting their vessels, it wasn’t powerful enough to have any impact on their armored hulls. The Battleships arrived between the two-Alien Warships they were assigned to attack and the giant warships fired a massive barrage of tridents from both sides of the passing vessels.
“NOW!!” Christy screamed.
Chung shut down the front and side thrusters as he pushed the main-engine controller fully forward. The Peking accelerated like a Cheetah after a gazelle. Both of the Alien Warships fired a massive Trident barrage at the Peking but it was no longer between them. The tridents were traveling at eight-miles per second and the two-massive waves passed each other. Many of the tridents hit each other but the vast majority flew across the space between the two-giants and hit their hulls causing massive explosions from their disruptor cannons and missile ports. One-side of each Alien Warship had all of its defensive weapons destroyed.
• • •
Logan stared at the huge tactical-monitor on the wall and saw twelve-battleships move out of the enemy’s formation. The Bogota and Quebec weren’t fast enough and both of their sterns were it by a mass of enemy tridents. The Bogota went up in an explosion as the main-engines and their fuel lines caught fire. The Quebec lost one-engine and was fighting to save the ship. Fires were burning out of control in the rear-third of the huge Battleship. But the four-enemy warships they attacked were hit by their own tridents and most of their hull defenses were out of commission. He kept his eyes on the Alien Vessels and saw them move closer together until they had less than three-hundred yards between them. They would use the sides that weren’t damaged to take on their attackers. The space between them was too small for a battleship to move in. The twenty-eight giant warships spread out in fourteen-two-ship groupings. They were still incredibly dangerous.
• • •
Rory watched the enemy ships turn to pursue the surviving Battleships and he said, “Launch the Attack Sleds.”
• • •
Harry heard the order and said, “You know your jobs. Keep those ships from rolling their weapon sides. Stay with me!”
• • •
The Attack Sleds flew in at high-speed and lined up on the bows of the Alien Ships. The Aliens tried to maneuver to deliver a broadside of disruptor beams from their undamaged sides but the Attack Sleds were too fast and agile. The space between the warships was small but the Attack Sleds flew into them easily. There were a few surviving disruptor cannons but they were taken out quickly as the Sleds launched nuclear-missiles as they flew between the behemoths. The Attack Sleds suddenly found themselves in danger as the two-giant warships moved toward each other intending to crush the sleds between them.
• • •
Donovan said, “Move in.”
• • •
Twenty-Battleships moved in at high speed across the bows of the damaged Alien vessels and launched a huge barrage of power spikes. The hardened balls flew into the bows of the enemy vessels and blew through the armor that was weakened by the numerous tridents sticking out of their hulls. The first thing to explode was the bridge on the Alien Ships and then the balls flew through the gaps in the hulls and ricocheted off the walls as they blew through the walls and rooms inside the giant warships. Some of them flew out of the weakened hulls and hit the ship next to it.
• • •
Rory kept his eye on the monitor that had a view of the planet and he saw the two-Alien Warships powering up their main-engines, “Logan, get moving!”
“Yes, Sir.” Logan was leading his surviving Battleships toward the planet and changed course. He moved between the two-warships at the planet and the direct line to the Norma Spiral Arm. He cut them off and six-Battleships moved in on each of the two-fleeing Alien Vessels. It was a vicious fight and he lost three of his Battleships before the last Alien Vessel was blasted into rubble. Those two ships weren’t weakened and they were pure trouble.
• • •
Rory pressed a button and said, “Captain Hamlin, I want your wing to go and take images of the planet. I want to know what’s going on there before I remove it.”
“Yes, Sir. Launching now.”
Rory looked at Lt. Cambridge, “I want images of those enemy ships played on my console.”
“Yes, Sir.” Rory stared at the images looking for the right one.
• • •
Harry launched a nuclear-missile and saw the two giant vessels he was flying between suddenly start moving toward each other. “GET OUT OF HERE!!! NOW!!!” He hit the engine control and went to maximum speed. He saw the two-giant grey walls moving in on him and almost went vertical but he saw five of his Attack Sleds attempting to escape over top of the enemy ships blasted into vapor by the still working disruptors on the top of the giants. He gripped the steering controls and gritted his teeth as the two giants rushed toward each other.
He screamed as the two ships slammed into each other but he barely made it even with their rear-engines that were slightly indented in the stern of the two-ships. He flew out and exhaled the breath he had been holding for what felt like an hour. He pressed his communicator and no one responded. Every one of the Attack Sleds in his wing had died in the impact between the two-giant warships. He realized that if he hadn’t led the attack, he would be dead. He might be dead anyway for losing his wing. But for the moment, he was still breathing, even if it was at a high rate.
• • •
Megan and Anton
io were flying between two of the Alien Warships when they began moving toward each other. Megan screamed, “FOLLOW ME, ANTONIO!” She flew higher up as the two-walls came crashing together and turned her Attack Sled sideways just below the top of the giants. The Alien Ships were shaped like giant cylinders and there was a small space close to the top where the two-hulls moved away from each other. She flew at maximum speed and moved out behind the two warships. She looked in her rear-monitor and saw Antonio had also managed to survive. She heard him say over her ship-to-ship frequency, “THAT WAS TOO CLOSE!!”
Megan blew out hard breath and said, “Follow me back to the Troy. We need to be assigned to another wing; it looks like ours didn’t make it.”
“I’ll follow you. I’m having to clean out my pressure suit.” Megan chuckled and then both of them started laughing. They arrived at the Troy and were ordered to stand down. All the wings were out and Intelligence wanted to look at their battle-recordings.
• • •
Rory found what he was searching for and said, “Admiral Donovan. I want the Alien Warship closest to the planet to be scanned to see if there are any survivors on board.”
“Yes, Sir. I’m sending the Regan to make the scan.”
Rory looked at Lisa, “Order all the Destroyers to comb this system and destroy any power spikes that didn’t hit those ships.”
“Yes, Sir.” Suddenly, eight of the giant warships went up in massive explosions. Rory shook his head and pressed the general frequency button, “Looks like they’re setting off their self-destruct circuits. All ships move away from them.”
“Sir, the Regan reports there are no lifeforms still alive on that vessel.”
“Stay away from it and see if their self-destruct mechanisms are timed or if they have to be manually set off.”
“Yes, Sir. Notifying the Regan now.”
Meredith looked at Rory and said, “Sir, it appears the species that we’re fighting are carnivores. The first images from Captain Hamlin’s scouts are arriving and some of them were caught in the act eating some of the locals.” Rory stared at her and Megan shrugged, “They’re equal opportunity meat eaters, Sir. They also consume the local animals as well.”