by Saxon Andrew
• • •
The Great Grengen was furious at the explosions of warships in the advancing line and stood up as he heard his brother order, “Stop all ships. Fire every beam in front of our line where they are attacking now! Right wing and left wing, swing around and force the other ships toward each other!”
The Great Grengen sat down and looked at the tactical monitor. The twenty fleets were changing shape. At first they looked like a curve with the ends moving toward the enemy ships. In a few moments, it looked like a huge letter C and then a giant U. The Spearan and Langloh warships were trapped between the two legs of the U and then the legs moved through the enemy ships and passed each other. When they moved through, there was nothing left behind them. There wasn’t a trace of matter and all that remained was a giant cloud of expanding gas and vapor. The Great Grengen looked over his shoulder, “Losses?”
“Eight thousand ships, Great Grengen.”
“That’s all?!”
“Yes, Great Grengen.”
This was an overwhelming victory. Except for the suicide runs, he hadn’t lost a ship. Eight thousand was less than one percent of his forces. And none of the enemy warships escaped. He was exuberant as his brother appeared on the monitor, “Should we move into the Spearan and Langloh Galaxies and remove their remaining ships?”
“No, I want the majority of the forces in all three galaxies removed and we’ll move in and exterminate the others once that’s done. Assemble the fleet back into formation and start moving toward the Teelen Galaxy.”
“Yes, Great Grengen.”
Just one more galaxy and he could release the twenty fleets to go in and exterminate the former slaves. He watched the fleets moving into formation and was giddy with anticipation at the coming victory.
• • •
Zengar pressed the button on his console and saw Begrin appear, “You were right about not joining the Spearan and Langloh. However, they didn’t do much to reduce the numbers of warships moving this way.”
Begrin shrugged, “One could only hope. It does appear that hope will not make an appearance today.”
“So how do we do this?”
“We’ll remain behind the grid and fire from this side and hope the grid is powerful enough to damage their ships.”
“I thought you said hope wasn’t going to make an appearance.”
“One can only hope.”
Zengar laughed and began sending out orders. Begrin stared at the small monitor on his console and saw the image of a colony ship lifting off his home world. He prayed his mate and children would survive. He didn’t give himself much…hope. He smiled. To drang with it, he refused to stop hoping! Hope was what made him join the military in the first place. No matter what happened, there was always hope. As the Sovereign Fleet moved inside his scanning range he began to have second thoughts about being hopeful.
“Hope is what makes us go out against impossible odds and ultimately prevail.”
Begrin’s head jerked up, “Who said that?”
Begrin heard another thought, “Will you turn off the grid in front of your forces and move your ships away?”
“Who are you?!”
“You can say that we’re the ones you hoped for. Please comply with my request.”
Begrin’s eyes widened and he lifted his communicator, “SHUTDOWN THE GRID!!”
“ARE YOU INSANE!?!” Zengar yelled.
“Zengar, if you trust me, you will do this now!”
Zengar was shaking all over as the massive line of distant warships moved toward them. “ZENGAR!!! DO IT NOW!!”
Zengar shook his head and pressed the orange colored button on his panel. The probes that made up the grid started shutting down as Begrin yelled, “ALL SHIPS MOVE AWAY FROM THE GRID! BACK AWAY FROM THE GRID!!!”
“Begrin, what is going on?”
Hope, my closest friend, hope!”
• • •
Admiral Wheatley, you and Alexandra have the right wing with your fifteen ships. Timmy, you and Gabe have the middle of their line with your twenty ships. Admiral Hart and I will take the left wing with the remaining fifteen. Start launching your carriers now and have them form up above and below your positions. Once they’re in position, have them start launching the Frigates. Do not open fire until Poul gives the go ahead.”
“Yes, Sir.”
• • •
Poul watched the approaching line of Flasher Warships and he had to admit they were quite beautiful. Kamela watched the monitor and turned to Essay and Erica, “It’s good to have the family back together.”
Erica nodded as she rubbed Penny, “I’ve really missed this. What do you think they’re going to do, Kamela?”
“They’re confused about the grid being turned off. The Grinch leading the Fleets has ordered the Fleet to come to a stop. I don’t expect that to last long.”
• • •
The Great Grengen saw the long line slowing and then coming to a stop. He hit his panel and said, “What are you doing!?!”
“The Teelen have shut down their defense grid and are backing away. That doesn’t make sense.”
“Have they attempted to communicate?”
“They have not and this reeks of some kind of trap.”
“What do you intend to do?”
“I’m not sure.”
“You will start your attack immediately. They probably had to shut it down to fire their blasters at us.”
“Great Grengen, they have fired through that grid at our ships numerous times in the past. They are quite capable of firing their blasters through that defense grid.”
“Move close enough to fire our blasters at the probes that make up that grid.”
“Yes, Great Grengen.”
• • •
Steve saw the massive line of flashing warships start moving forward and then stop a hundred miles out. This is where it would be determined if their technology would hold up against the Flasher beams. If the force fields started to fail, the fifty massive battleships would jump away. He leaned forward in his chair and waited for what he knew was coming.
The Defense Grengen lifted his communicator and said, “Open fire on the defense probes.”
“Grengen, we can no longer detect the probes.”
“What, standby.” The Grengen moved forward and stared at the huge wall monitor. The probes were no longer visible. Instead there was an immense blackness in front of where they had been.”
“Why haven’t you opened fire?”
“Great Grengen, the probes no long appear on our scanners.”
“Where did they go?”
“I don’t know. There is a vast darkness covering the area they were formerly located.”
“Well, fire at that. Perhaps you’ll be able to see them afterwards.”
“All ships, open fire.” Millions of giant beams stabbed out from the assembled Flashing Warships and disappeared into the blackness in front of their formations. The beams didn’t hit anything but just stopped and vanished when they hit the black space. “Cease Fire.” The millions of beams stopped and the probes could still not be seen.”
• • •
“Begrin, what’s going on outside the Grid? I can no longer see the Sovereign Warships.”
“There’s something between them and the grid, Zengar.”
“What is it?”
“I have no idea but would you rather be able to see them?”
“No, I’ll be perfectly happy being kept in the dark.” Suddenly, they both heard in their minds:
• • •
“I think we’ve seen enough.”
The Great Grengen heard the thought in his mind and said, “Who said that?”
“Actually, I was speaking to my forces telepathically to let them know that we’ve collected enough data to go ahead with our plans.”
The Great Grengen said, “Who are you and what exactly are you planning?”
“We’re going to destroy every warship you brough
t to this galaxy along with the hundred you left at each of your planets in your home galaxy.”
The Great Grengen began to get a very sick feeling. “Do you think you’re capable of doing that?”
“We’ll have to give it a go and see. We should have killed you when you came to our galaxy to investigate the destruction of those two ships but we missed the opportunity. That’s not going to happen here.”
“I’ve ordered our forces to never go back to your galaxies!”
“We’re aware of that. However, that order only stands as long as you’re alive and in control. And besides, you threatened us when we destroyed your colony vessels; we take threats very seriously. We did consider leaving you to your own devices but bringing your fleets here to attack these two civilizations that have not attacked you pretty much shows us that you are nothing more than a predator civilization that poses a threat to all it touches. You’ve also killed some of the creatures that live in open space and they pose no threat to you. That will end today.”
• • •
“Begrin!”
“Shut up, Zengar; I’m listening to this!”
• • •
“You’re the ones that destroyed fifty of my warships several years ago.”
“Actually, we didn’t destroy them. We captured them and took them home to convert to our technology. They’re in front of you at this moment and it’s only right that they will be the main tools that will remove you from existence.”
The Great Grengen’s head went back, “Fifty of my warships are going to stop my assembled fleets?”
“Yes. They’ll do the bulk of the heavy lifting and our smaller ships will handle the rest.”
The Great Grengen stood up and yelled, “ATTACK THAT DARK AREA IN FRONT OF US NOW!!”
• • •
Poul thought to the fleets, “Open fire when they are fifty miles out.”
• • •
Steve lifted his communicator, “All carriers will attack any Flasher Warship that attempts to go over or below our location. The Harts will open fire on any Flasher Warship that attempts to turn and run. Weapons are free. I repeat, all weapons are free to hit targets of opportunity.”
“Sir, the Flashers are launching their small ships.”
Steve nodded to his scanning officer, “Carriers, the swallows are migrating.”
“Got them covered, Sir.”
• • •
One hundred Carriers were stationed above and another hundred below the Flasher Fleets. No one really knew how many small ships were launched from the hundreds of thousands of Flasher Warships because as they were destroyed, nothing was left to count.”
• • •
Jenny watched the massive cloud of small ships launching out of the Flasher Warships and calmly said, “Sweep the coverage.”
Giant invisible dark energy beams were fired from above the Flasher Fleets and swept from one end of their formations to the other. The small ships were disintegrated before they could move away from the ships launching them. Each of the giant carriers had more than two thousand of the giant DE Blasters and each one was adjusted to a width of sixty miles. They were too weak to penetrate the Giant Flasher Warship’s force fields but they burned the small ships into an expanding gas cloud.
• • •
“Grengen, none of our small ships have made it out of the force field.”
“What!?”
“The moment they move outside our force fields they are burned out of existence. Whatever is killing them does not penetrate our force field but it disintegrates our small ships.”
“Order all ships to stop launching their fighters!”
“Yes, Grengen.”
• • •
The twenty Flasher Fleets had forty thousand warships in each of them. The individual fleets were arranged in forty lines with a thousand warships in each line. Each of the modified Human Battleships facing them were equally spaced in front of the advancing Flasher line. The modified ships began slowly rotating when the Flashers arrived sixty miles out from their line. At fifty miles out, the ten thousand DE Major Blasters on the battleship’s hulls opened fire and continued to fire until the ship rotated them around to the back of the giant warship. The Other Space Scoops were pulling Dark Energy Plaque into the lines feeding the blasters and as they rotated back to the front of the ship, they opened fire with a full charge in their reservoirs. Each of those beams were firing a beam a hundred miles wide and they were not reduced in power; this was the normal setting for full efficiency. When those beams reached out and hit the oncoming wall of Flasher Warships, the first ten rows in each fleet was blown into vapor. The radiation from their destruction burned all the of the crew members on the next six rows and almost a third of the Flasher Warships were destroyed in the first thirty seconds of the beams being fired.
• • •
“Begrin, I want to see what’s happening. I’m going to move my ship above the grid and take a look around.”
They heard a thought say, “I would really think about not doing that. The only thing that’s preventing all of you from being burned by lethal radiation is that our force fields are stopping it. If we’re force to move, all of you would be dead in less than a minute. If anything, I’d suggest you move another ten thousand miles away from this location.”
“You’re the one that came here before. I recognize your thoughts.”
“I am.”
Begrin lifted his communicator, “All ships, accelerate away from the grid at maximum speed. Stop and move into formation twenty thousand miles away from our current location.”
“Begrin, he said ten thousand miles.”
“It never hurts to be too safe, Zengar.”
“You should listen to him, Zengar.”
“Begrin, it knows who I am.”
“Oh boy! We’ll never hear the end of this.”
Essay sat on the Eyes and burst out laughing.
• • •
The Flasher Fleets lost fifty percent of their ships in less than ten minutes and at that point, some of them had seen enough. They began breaking out of formation and accelerating away from the terrible carnage taking place.”
Admiral Jones sat on the Jamaica and continued to sweep the Flasher Fleets to prevent the launch of their fighters. He lifted his Communicator and calmly said, “We have some rats abandoning ship.” Sol had taken command of the giant carrier two years earlier and his Frigate Pilots were the best in Fleet. He smiled as they fell on the giant flashing warships attempting to escape.
• • •
Hite looked at his tactical monitor and said, “Do not focus on any ship you fire on!! This is just like training.” Hite looked at the monitor and heard a missile operator say, “Launch two, targeting another. Launch two, targeting a third.”
Hite smiled, the operator was doing it just like she was trained.
• • •
The DE Major Missiles had changed dramatically over the last four years. They now had their own computers and the missiles actually communicated with each other. They were fired in pairs and one of them decided which one would hit the target first. The second would move on a different attack profile and if the first one managed to hit the target, the second would move to a different target. These missiles were twice as devastating as the originals. The operators would fire the pair of missiles and forget them. If both of them were taken out but a target’s blasters, a missile from another pair would change course and home in on the target. Thousands of Flasher Warships were being blown into vapor as they tried to run.
• • •
The Great Grengen saw quickly that he had made a fatal mistake ordering this attack. When fifty percent of his warships were destroyed he ordered his Escorts to turn and flee from behind the lines of his fleets. His fear threatened to overwhelm him but he forced himself to calmness like he did long ago when he had to face the Council. He looked at his giant wall monitor and saw the ships in his escort being blas
ted around him. He said, “What do you have to say now?”
The Computer paused and replied, “We should have stayed home and used the new ships to defend us. But, you have to admit it has been a fun ride for the last few years. By the way, your brother’s ship just blew up. Your father died in the first thirty seconds.”
“At least he was brave and didn’t run.”
The Ship’s Computer couldn’t bring itself to tell the Grengen that his father had run the moment the first ship in his front line exploded. It was better he not know before he… The Great Grengen’s ship went up in a massive blast and the computer didn’t finish the thought.
Three hours later, the battle was over. Not one Flasher Warship survived even though some were not physically damaged; the crews died from radiation. The only loss in the human fleet was a frigate that had a malfunctioning missile detonate in the launch tube. Steve surveyed the space around the site of the battle and saw the vast debris field but there was nowhere near enough of it for the numbers of warships that had been destroyed. Steve pushed his other space communicator, “Admiral O’Hara, status.”
“We’re destroyed all the Flasher Warships left behind to defend their planets. While we were at it we blasted the new building used to house the Council and took out all the Councilors left behind. They’re pretty much leaderless now and rebellions are breaking out on the subject planets.
“Good Job, Lyla. I’ll contact you when we wrap up here.”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Gabe, I want all of the Battleships to lock on one of the Flasher Warships that was killed by radiation. I want them towed back to the colonies for future use.”