by Saxon Andrew
“You are the one in Command and I will follow your orders. Who is going to command the forces in your galaxy?”
“That will fall to me.”
“You should allow your Fleet Commanders to do that, Leader.”
“I will as much as possible. Admiral Greenwall will be in command of the new Attackships and Admiral Stone will command the defenses above the planet.”
“What about the Battle Pods?”
“I’m calling in some help.”
“Who?”
“Admiral Jekins.”
“He’s in intelligence. He hasn’t commanded a fleet.”
“No, but his father has.”
Talel smiled, “I’ll not worry about what’s happening there. I can see you will do what has to be done.”
“You’ll have more than you can handle on your end. I’m sending Josh with the ships I’m sending to you. He’ll command them however you need them.”
“Thank you, Commander. I’ll keep you up to date on our strategy.”
“Give ’em hell, Talel.”
The display went dark and Jan said, “I wasn’t around to see the last war. How many ships will be coming here?”
Michael pressed a button on his panel and an image of the first ships that came in the very first invasion appeared. Jan’s eye went wide. “About four times that number.” Jan looked at him and couldn’t speak. Michael looked at the image and he smiled a wicked grin, “This time we have more than ten thousand times the number of ships we had then.”
“But you’ll still be outnumbered by more than a hundred to one.”
Michael looked at her, “It’s not the quantity that counts, it’s the quality of the ships we now have.”
“So, you think we’ll win?”
“That’s something that we’ll just have to see when it’s over. But they will regret coming to our Holy Ground again.”
“Would it be inappropriate to send our Children to Eden?”
“That is something you should do now.”
Jan left the room and knew there was reason to fear what was coming. The outcome was not a certainty either way.
Chapter Nineteen
“Commander?”
“Who is this?”
“I’m sorry for interrupting your planning for the coming fight but I thought I should tell you something.”
“Who…is…this?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. My name is Hensel.”
“You’re Averel’s son.”
“Yes, Commander, I am.”
“How are you able to communicate with me telepathically when I’m wearing a thought blocker?”
“Those don’t work with me.”
“Well I really hope you aren’t as nosey as your mother.”
“Actually, I’m probably worse than she is. Both of my parents have tried their hardest to stop my prying into others thoughts and haven’t been successful. I try not to do it but it’s just so hard.”
“Why have you contacted me?”
“There is something I think you should know and I don’t want to have to tell my Mother and upset her again.”
Michael felt the young Goran’s sorrow at disappointing his mother and smiled, “I won’t tell her.”
“Thank you so much, Commander.”
“What is it?”
“The ones that are coming here are not bringing what they call tools.”
“WHAT?”
“Their uhhhh, tools can’t move through the void fast enough to keep up with them. They’re sending them to M-87 with the other fleets. They’re only bringing the black colored ships with them here.” Michael went to his chair from the monitor he was staring at and sat down. “The tools for all those bad creatures were sent out more than eight days ago so they will arrive at the same time as the black ships.”
“Hensel.”
“Yes, Commander.”
“If you see anything else that you think I might need to know, do not hesitate to contact me in the future.”
“Do you mean it?”
“I insist on it.”
“Thank you, thank you.”
“I’ll keep this just between the two of us.”
“That will help a lot.”
The contact ended and Michael picked up his communicator. “Katy, I want all of our Battle Pods skipped out to M-87 immediately.”
“WHAT?”
“The Legends are not bringing their tools here. Order them out now and notify Josh that they will be joining his fleets immediately.”
“Yes Sir?”
Michael heard the concern in her voice but he ignored it and contacted Talel. He told him what was happening and ordered him to send every ship he had to go out and meet the tools that were moving toward M-87.
“Piper.”
“Hello, Michael.”
“The Legends have already launched their tools toward M-87 ten days ago. I’ve ordered Talel to send every ship he has to meet them before they arrive and try to remove them from the coming battle. Can you contact Talel and get your forces moving with his.”
“I’ll make the contact now.”
• • •
The Audon High Leader looked at Talel on his monitor, “What do you mean you’re sending all our ships out. What will remain to defend us?”
“We have information that the Legends have sent all of their tools ahead of them so they’ll arrive together. We’re going to attack the tools before the Legends can arrive.”
“How good was the source of this information?”
“It was a seven year old Goran child.”
“You must be crazy!”
“High Leader, we’ve sent the scouts out and they’ve confirmed the incoming wave of ships. The information is accurate.”
“How many are there?”
“Too many to count. If we can stop them before they arrive, thousands of planets in your galaxy won’t be attacked.”
“Do what you have to do but get back here before the Legends arrive.”
“That’s the plan, High Leader.” The Audon put his communicator down and hoped Talel stuck to it. With space battles, one could never know what would happen.
• • •
Talel looked at the images coming in from the scouts and tried not to be overwhelmed but wasn’t very successful. The void was packed with warships beyond the range of his most powerful scanners. “Piper, do you have any suggestions?”
“This is your show, Talel. Call it.”
Talel shook his head and lifted his communicator, “All Alliance Warships from the Audon Galaxy will form up in ranks in front of the oncoming enemy ships. The Alliance ships from my galaxy will form up on the right flank of the enemy formation and the ships from Earth’s galaxy will take the left flank. On my command, we will attack and fight our way through their formations. This enemy formation does not contain the really dangerous warships but keep in mind that one sting will hurt you but a thousand will kill you. Fire and break away from any crossfire you may be caught in. This is not something we can do quickly. The more of these ships we kill out here in the void, the fewer there will be to be sent out to destroy our planets. If the Legends show up before we can finish this operation, leave immediately and return to your preassigned positions. Commence the attack…NOW!”
• • •
The barrier wasn’t disrupted out in the vast void between the Pandora and Virgo Clusters and the massive Alliance fleets were hidden from the oncoming Legend fleets. They erupted out of the barrier and the void exploded in massive disruptions. The scope of the attack was beyond any possibility of tracking and Talel watched the incredible destruction taking place every second. The blackness of the void framed the deaths of thousands of warships that blew up in blasts that strobed the darkness with brilliant flashes of multi-colored light. The void looked like a drug induced nightmare of riotous colors washing across the vast Legend formations. Talel shook his head at what was moving toward M-87. He would often go into the pitch-black void to
think without being interrupted by the thoughts of others. The vast emptiness soothed his mind and allowed him to focus. Now there were so many warships at war that there was little darkness to see. The disruptions in the void were growing at an incredible speed.
Josh watched the Battle Pods and older Barrier Pods rip into the right flank of the enemy warships. The last time a fleet this large attacked M-87, they ran without firing a shot. That wasn’t happening this time. The tools didn’t have Dark Energy beams that could be fired in the void but they did have void missiles and billions of them were launched at the Alliance Warships.
• • •
Sam Shepard twisted his ship hard left and flew between two giant grey ships that fired six more missiles at him to join the twenty that were chasing him through the maze of enemy ships. He twisted hard left around the stern of another huge warship and none of the missiles could make the turn with him. They lost lock and went after another Alliance Warship. Sam came over the top of the warship he used to lose the missiles and used his top disruptors to blow the ship under him apart as his front disruptors fired on the missiles now chasing another Pod. The disruptors swept across the missiles leaving another large disruption in the void. Sam dove under a ship coming at him head on as eight more missiles locked on his tail.
He killed six more ships as he blew through the ships ahead of him; one of them blew up when the missiles chasing him couldn’t turn fast enough and hit the huge warship’s hull. The warship went up in a massive blast and another disruption filled the void. He turned toward another ship and saw a hundred missiles bearing down on him from straight ahead. He ducked into the barrier for an instant and they blew past him. He came out of the barrier and turned between six brown colored ships and his six disruptors locked on one each and cut them in half.
A missile hit his force field from the rear and he cursed as he entered the barrier. He shook his head and was thankful it was only one missile. He fought to slow his heart rate and then came out of the barrier behind an Attack Pod and shot the ten missiles into dust that were about to hit it from the rear. The disruptors swiveled at high speed and killed four more warships and Sam shook his head seeing on his tactical visor that the Alliance Fleets had barely worked their way inside the edge of the giant Legend formation. He winced as a Battle Pod exploded a mile to his left when fifty missiles managed to hit it. He whipped his ship around and went after the Legend ships that had killed the pod and saw a hundred missiles fail to make the turn with him. This was insane. There was no way to track everything. “Wolfie, start firing every disruptor around the ship. Keep them firing and aim for missiles first, ships second.”
“If the disruptors are fired continuously, there won’t be any aiming.”
“I don’t care. Start firing!” Sam saw the disruptors start swiveling and firing. He forgot about missiles and just flew his ship into the giant enemy formation and enemy ships began exploding on every side as he twisted and dodged among them. Soon, others saw him and began following his example. The destruction took on an unbelievable intensity and soon, the void disruption was so large, a huge section of the battle was forced out of the void and into normal space.
• • •
Talel watched massive numbers of Legend Tools being forced out of the void and he spoke calmly into his communicator, “All even numbered fleets will enter normal space and destroy enemy ships. Odd numbered ships will continue the attack in the void.”
Talel looked at the action taking place inside the giant enemy formation and saw Sam’s ship moving through the enemy ships continuously firing his disruptors. They shot down the missiles moving in on him and cut the ships apart along his path. Talel shook his head and said, “All ships in the void will move out of the enemy formation and reform.” The Alliance Ships entered the barrier and moved back into formation outside edges of the enemy formation. “All ships will continuously fire their forward disruptors as you move forward together. Use your rear disruptors to fire at any ships or missiles that move in behind you. Talel gave the fleets time for individual ships to move apart so that there were no gaps in their disruptor’s coverage but still slightly overlapped. The tight ranks of the oncoming enemy formation was now surrounded by a huge globe composed of billions of evenly spaced Alliance Warships. Talel stared at the formation and said, “Commence attack now!”
The huge sphere of Alliance Warships began moving forward and the destruction was incredible. Soon, there was no way for the Alliance Warships to get through the massive void disruption that surround the enemy ships in front of them. The massive disruption extended beyond scanner range and it completely enclosed the Legends’ Tools. The surviving enemy ships were trapped inside a massive disruption in the void and had no way to break out of it. They were completely surrounded and no matter which direction they tried to escape, the disruption threw them back into the center. Even turning off their stardrives would force their ships into the walls of the disruption and the ships would explode.
Talel shook his head. He quickly yelled, “All ships still in the void, move into normal space and attack any enemy ships you encounter!”
The Tools that were thrown out of the void by the massive disruptions in it couldn’t use their stardrives. The void under them was too disrupted for them to operate. They were trapped in normal space and now massive numbers of enemy ships came roaring out of the void and began attacking. The battle could have gone on for weeks but Talel saw a massive wave of silver colored ships moving toward him along a massive front. More than a billion Silver Ships rushed into the surviving enemy warships and washed over them. After it passed, there was nothing left behind it but a massive debris field.
“That was an incredible idea to lock those ships up inside a void disruption.”
“Actually, that was something that I didn’t anticipate, Piper. Besides, the disruption will eventually fade and they’ll be free.”
There was a long pause and Talel heard Piper say, “You don’t know very much about void disruptions, do you?”
“I’m not sure what you mean?”
“With the power of the explosions that formed it, that disruption will be there six years from now. The crews on those ships will resort to cannibalism long before that disruption fades.”
“That’s a terrible way to die.”
“I don’t disagree and there’s nothing we can do about it now. They are beyond our help. I suspect that most of them will just crash their ships into the walls of the disruption eventually.”
Talel shook his head, “No warrior should have to face that.”
“You can’t blame yourself. How many ships did you lose before you walled them in?”
“More than a hundred thousand.”
“You saved more than ten times that number by doing it. Be thankful and move on.”
Talel lifted his communicator, “All ships return to their assigned positions. All ships return to their assigned positions.” Talel watched the massive number of fleets start disappearing as they skipped out. He remained just outside the giant disruption and said a prayer for the doomed sailors. They were forced to follow the will of their masters, who weren’t there to defend them when they needed it most. He looked at the disruption and shook his head, “May you find peace.” He activated the light drive and arrived at the Goran’s Capital an instant later. He went to the High Leader and begged for forgiveness for what he had inadvertently done to his enemies.
“You will carry this weight and know that it had to be done, Warrior. You saved your own and for that, you need not ask for forgiveness. It gladdens my heart to know that yours is not hard.”
Talel lowered his head and the High Leader blessed him.
• • •
Katy’s fleets came skipping in and she was finally able to relax. She had lost more than ten thousand ships but the attack had to be seen as a victory. She worked for a week getting the numbers rebalanced and sent them to be rearmed and provisioned. The next order left her speechless.
“You want me to do what?”
“Take your fleets into the void and I want it disrupted around our Solar System.”
“That will make it unusable for a years.”
“Katy, we no longer need it; we have the Light Drive.”
“But…”
“Katy, we have to meet them out from the planet and kill as many as possible. Where are our weapons most effective? Besides, you know we’ll disrupt it anyway fighting them as they approach. This will allow us to delay their arrival.”
Katy nodded and knew Michael was right. “I’ll send the Attackships into the void and detonate nuclear missiles.”
“Get it done quickly. The Legends will arrive shortly.”
“Yes Sir.”
• • •
Jinks and Stoney entered Michael’s office and Michael rose to greet them, “It’s really good to see both of you; I can use your help.”
Jinks smiled and shook Michael’s hand, “You look so much like your father, Michael. How’s he doing?”
“He’s on a beach somewhere in Andromeda.”
Jinks’ brow furrowed, “He would be a much better choice to do this than me. I only followed his orders when I served.”
Stoney slapped him on the shoulder, “Now, who’s blowing smoke? You did much more than that and you know it.”
Jinks tilted his head, “Stoney, you’ve always been my best friend and you’ve picked me up when I needed it. But you know it was Chris that made the difference. Without him, we would have failed.” Stoney stared at Jinks and after a moment, sighed, and then nodded. Jinks looked at Michael, “How do you want to handle this?”
“I’m placing you in command of the Battle Pods. I originally thought you would have to take on the tools that the Legends were bringing with them but we’ve already met them and eliminated them.”
Jinks’ eyes widened, “How many?”
“About double or triple the size of the one you faced twenty years ago.” Jinks looked at Stoney and both of them shook their heads. “I discovered that the Legends coming here weren’t bringing their tools; they decided the trip was too long to have to wait on them. So your ships will be facing off against the Monster and Mini-monster warships.”