“Captain Yamaguchi, you heard about our anti-pod missile launches?”
“I did,” his wife said in a calm, almost conversational tone. “Firing on the incoming pods was part of our Stage Two strategy, but Hawaii is heavily populated. I’m also wondering at the survivability of the two ships involved.”
The Air Force general blinked quickly. “We are wondering too. And we figured firing off an ASAT from Barking Sands would not hurt and might help. After all, if these Aliens are going after our space launch sites, we might as well use them before we lose them.”
Bill felt his pulse race. He’d often heard the Use It Or Lose It rationale from senior Navy officers, usually coming from people safely bedded inside the concrete walls of the Pentagon or inside Cheyenne Mountain when it was on active status. That NORAD work had been moved to Building Two at Peterson, just across the street from the Building One that housed the Space Command and the spacious room where the Joint Chiefs had gathered a few days ago. That room looked as busy now as earlier, with two dozen airmen and a few officers working orbital displays and communications modules. A man wearing the eagle shoulder tab of a colonel hurried over to Poindexter, bent down and whispered in her ear. The woman winced.
“Bad news,” she said. “Two of the Collector ships fired lasers at Hawaii. The buildings at Barking Sands are gone as is the launch tower. And the Navy people at Pearl say a powerful green beam hit the middle of the Port Royal, breaking her in half. Search and rescue inflatables are heading to her remains.”
Jane winced. “And the Zumwalt?”
Poindexter shook her head. “The Navy says it moved away from its firing location. A green laser beam hit that spot. Boiled a lot of water. Nothing hit the Zumwalt. It’s moving out to sea to conduct more anti-pod missile launches.”
Bill felt a chill at the news of the death of 340 enlisted folks, 27 petty officers and 33 officers. Hopefully less depending on whether any part of the hull was still floating and was watertight. He knew those numbers thanks to a SEAL team mission that had involved them riding on and then off-shipping from the Port Royal off the eastern coast of North Korea. Two of the ship’s petty officers had treated his team to a keg of iced beer upon their return from a successful mission.
“Sorry for the loss,” Jane said, her manner calm and thoughtful. “You’ve heard our ship-to-ship com chatter during our missile launches and our strafing run. We’ve lost a few folks on the two subs, but they are operational. We are moving to join them now.”
The black woman nodded acceptance. “Sounds sensible. No point in risking more lives until we know the results of the boarding pod infiltration. Uh, NORAD’s radar reports your six pods are putting out their IFF transponder signals. They are now crossing over Kansas. When will they go up to orbit?”
“After a few dozen pods have entered American air space and landed, they’ll go up,” Jane said. “Our spysats are monitoring each enemy pod. Shoot down whatever pods you can kill. But there are 144 heading out across the world. I’m sure plenty of them will survive.”
“You’re probably right,” Poindexter said, looking aside as an airwoman showed her a smartphone screen. “Our F-22 Raptors have launched from Hawaii but aren’t fast enough to catch a pod. But those jets are stealthy and will fire on any pod they can get within missile range.”
Jane shrugged. “Maybe your F-35 Lightnings will have a better chance as the pods hit CONUS.”
“Maybe,” Poindexter said, looking down at her desk display. “Damn! We just lost Vandenberg, Edwards, Kodiak Launch Complex, Mojave Space Port, Point Mugu and Eglin on the west coast. Looks like your Aliens are serious about killing our space launch sites.”
Jane frowned. “Our sensors are reporting the same. Canada can expect to lose its sites too. Hope you’ve got people evacuated or in bunkers.”
“We do. Anyone at our launch sites is a combat veteran who volunteered,” Poindexter said. The colonel came over a second time and spoke to her. She winced again. “Bad news from the Pacific. The Russians have lost a Borei-class missile sub while the Chinese have lost three missile destroyers, two Luda-class and one Luhu-class.”
“Damn,” muttered Jane. “It’s getting costly to take on these collector pods.”
Poindexter nodded, then looked at the smartphone in her hand. “Uh, the President will be announcing a state of war now exists between the United States and the Collector Aliens. In three minutes. I expect the Congress will vote a formal declaration.”
Bill felt another chill. America was at war again, after the wrap-up of the long long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He and Jane knew they were not the cause of Collector ships attacking Earth. Collectors had been coming and kidnapping people ever since the end of World War II. Still, they had hoped their destruction of the Kepler 443 Collector ship factory, its Market world Traffic Control station and four Collector ships would have taught the Aliens to stay away from Sol and Earth. Whatever happened with the ship boardings, he wondered if the Blue Sky should return to the nearest Market World and knock out its slave buying sites. HD 128311 was just two days away by Alcubierre modulus stardrive. Would that protect Earth from future Collector attacks? He didn’t know. But Jane had given America and the JCS chiefs the specs and designs for FTL stardrives, artificial gravity plates, the Magfield spacedrives and plenty of other Alien high tech. Earth could soon build its own versions of Collector ships, even if the ship boarding teams failed to capture the six enemy ships. Though it seemed America would possess at least one enemy ship when Alicia’s team arrived at the Dark Cloud starship. The immobility of the ship as the other Collectors moved out across Earth said its crew were either dead or unconscious from rad exposure. The ship’s launching of collector pods was likely an action the ship’s AI took knowing it was needed to camouflage the arrival of Alicia’s pod.
“Understood,” Jane told the Air Force chief. “My ship and the subs will work on making repairs while we wait at L4 for the results of the pod boardings. I will advise you what we hear from the team leaders.”
“Very good,” Poindexter said, her tone distracted as two other airmen came up to her shoulder, showing smartphone images and whispering to her. The woman’s face brightened. “Yes!” She looked at Jane. “Captain, 39 pods have entered North American air space. My team tells me our Lightnings have shot down 12 of them by use of AMRAAMs and Sidewinders.”
A new airman joined the two near the general. She spoke urgently. The black woman grimaced. “Six of our Lightnings have gone done from green laser strikes. Damn!” She looked down at her table vid display, then up, her expression command serious. “More launch sites killed. The Collectors have laser zapped Resolute Bay and Fort Churchill in Canada. We’ve lost Nellis, White Sands, Holloman and Tonopah. Those Collector ships are crossing over the Southwest and heading towards the Midwest.”
Bill had seen that development on his own true space holo of Earth with its close-up of the Hawaii to St. Louis area. Bright yellow dots marked the sites of laser strikes on American space launch sites. Jane of course was seeing the same spysat and ship sensor readouts on her own true space holo. His wife’s manner had also gone to command serious from her earlier casual tone. “Please extend my sympathies to the families of the pilots of those Lightnings. And to any Air Force ground staff who died at Nellis and Holloman. I liked Holloman. Spent a half year there on detached duty.”
“I know,” replied the woman who commanded the Air Force. “My son is the flight operations officer there. I’m hoping his control tower survived the laser attack.”
Jane stiffened at the news shared by a woman who may have lost more than some. “General! I do hope your son survived. Holloman’s tower was upgraded recently with concrete baffles. Perhaps that sheltered him and the other tower rats.”
Poindexter gave a brief smile at Jane’s use of an archaic term for people who manned guard towers in America and in Europe. “He’s ten years in service so far. I just hope his wife and my grandson, who live in base housin
g, were not targeted.”
Jane made a reassuring gesture. “The lasers we use are coherent. While very powerful, when they hit there is no collateral damage. Structures are either vaporized or knocked down from the loss of structural elements. I expect the base’s fuel tanks to be gone, but lots else should survive.”
The Air Force general nodded. “That is encouraging info. Thank you. Anyway, we are at war. You are doing your best to subvert the enemy. Those thermonuke barrages really shook up the TV talking heads. They could be seen all across the Pacific.” The woman turned formal. “Carry out Stage Two of your plan and I hope you soon have good news for us.”
Jane saluted the woman. “General Poindexter, this ship and its allies will continue fighting so long as we have weapons, air and the ability to move on the enemy!” She looked to Bill. “Weapons Chief, let me know the moment any of our pods makes entry to a Collector ship!”
Bill saluted her back. “Yes ma’am! Vice Admiral Richardson and I are monitoring the arrival of pods in North America. Once some of them begin returning to the Collector ships above NORAM, I will send our pods up to orbit.”
“I know that,” Jane said with a sigh as the image of Poindexter vanished from the comlink holo, to be replaced with the images of their fellow ship captains. Baraka, Leonard, Learned and Builder had all heard the exchange between Jane and Poindexter. “But that threat from the cockroach worries me. Using an antimatter beam on Chicago or New York City would be way more disastrous than laser strikes! Think of a medium-sized nuke going off in the center of town. Lots would die.”
Bill could almost imagine that. His memory from a prior space battle of a Collector ship half-dissolved by his antimatter beam had impressed him with the deadliness of his ship’s weapons. Plasma fire balls, thermonukes, gas lasers and antimatter beams were far more deadly than mortar rounds,.50 caliber machine guns and sub torpedoes. At least in space they did not have to deal with poison gas and anthrax spores, the other wings of WMD. Thermonukes and antimatter were good enough to get the job done. Well, at least they knew which Collector ship held the cockroach. It was one of the three moving into Asia, thanks to the brown icon identifier their AI had affixed, based on the last neutrino comlink transmission. He would make sure that ship got proper boarding attention.
♦ ♦ ♦
An hour later, as all four Earth ships hovered in the L4 orbital parking lot, Bill watched his true space holo. It showed the American East Coast, the Atlantic and Europe as far as the Ural Mountains. The two Collector ships that had begun crossing California earlier were now above Maryland after having laser zapped the launch sites of Wallops Island, Fort Greely, Fort Sherman, Gibson Butte, Fort Wingate and Sheboygan in America. Fortunately the Florida launch sites were beyond direct line of sight lasering. Canada had lost minor launch sites at Red Lake, Primrose Lake, Gillam and Cold Lake. Over Eurasia, Japan had lost launch sites at Tanegashima, Uchinoura and Ryori, while China had lost all four of its rocket launch facilities. In Russia the sites of Yasny Cosmodrome, Okhotsk, Svobodny Cosmodrome, Kapustin Yar, Plesetsk and Baikonur were blasted landscapes. India had lost Sriharikota, Vikram, Satish Dhawan and Balasore, while Pakistan lost its sites at Tilla and Sonmiani. The three Collector ships on that side of Earth were now hovering above the Ukraine as collector pods began returning with humans captured from Eurasia. Five minutes earlier nine pods had lifted from the Great Basin states in the western US and were now moving eastward and up to orbital rendezvous with the ships above America. Now, he watched as ten more pods lifted from various parts of NORAM and headed upward. Time to act. He touched his pillar’s comlink to change helmet comlink frequencies.
“Alicia, Frank, Stefano, Janice, Mack and Jake, I’m sending your pods up to orbit. Good luck to all of you and I’ll treat you all to ribeye steaks once you capture those ships!”
Chuckles came over his helmet frequency. “Sounds good,” called Jake from his pod. “Add some Bacardi rum to that steak and we will be the first to reach L4!”
The five other boarding team leaders made similar comments. Bill looked over his shoulder to Jane, who looked tired as she sat in her seat atop the command pedestal. “They are on their way up to orbit,” he said, knowing Jane and everyone else on the bridge had heard his words. The ship AI had converted the pod comlink frequency to the standard vacsuit frequency, which all had heard at their duty station. Bright Sparkle’s bare skin showed a rainbow of colors that he knew indicated happiness even before her shoulder speaker/vidcam unit spoke her words. Wind Swift at Life Support turned her horse-like head his way and gave him a silver-scaled hand gesture that was her attempt at a thumbs-up. Time Marker the walking snake hissed his pleasure, while Long Walker the giant worm groaned his encouragement. At Navigation, Lofty Flyer chittered excitedly.
“Soon we will have neighbors!”
Jane looked pleased. “Good to hear, Weapons Chief. Just wish the hull breaches in the subs were fully sealed.”
Bill had listened over the last hour as vacsuited machinist mates on the Minnesota had used parts of disassembled cabinets to close up the hull opening above their topside maneuvering room. Welding in vacuum had not been easy. Now the sub was airtight. But the breach of the hull above auxiliary machinery room two on the Louisiana was much bigger than the Minnesota opening. It required laying roof cross-beams to support new hull plating. Its machinist mates were doing amazing work as they hovered in space above the sub’s gaping wound. But it had required the sending of a Blue Sky collector pod with its grappling arms loaded with hull plates for that sub’s repairs to make progress. They still had a half hour to go before all of Louisiana would be airtight. Bill nodded agreement.
“Captain, me too. But using the collector pod to help out like we used it at the fuel globes above that gas giant in HD 128311 has made the difference,” he said, his gaze moving back to the true space holo image of North America. “The Louisiana will be hull tight soon. Meanwhile, it looks like Jake’s pod is going to be the first to rejoin a Collector ship. It’s entering the hull of one of the two ships above Maryland.”
Jane’s holo image leaned forward, showing anxious interest. “What’s the status of the other boarding pods?”
“Well, Frank’s pod is getting close to the second East Coast ship. Alicia’s pod is most of the way to the Dark Cloud above Hawaii.” He checked the true space holo for the green dots of his boarding pods. “The pods of Stefano, Janice and Mack are halfway across the Atlantic, on their way to the three ships above the Ukraine.”
The woman who had been captured in the Rockies while fishing for trout tapped her comlink control pillar. “General Poindexter, I believe you heard that pod status report. We’ll hear soon from Jake Slowzenski.” She paused, licking her lips behind the clear plastic of her helmet. “Any word on your son and his family?”
The Air Force general’s face came live in Bill’s comlink holo. Her table at Peterson was surrounded by three of her fellow chiefs, two colonels, two majors and four captains, all of whom fell silent as she replied. “Good news on the pods. Regarding my family members, all are safe. The flight control tower at Holloman was scorched on one side as the green lasers took out the hangars and other buildings. No residential areas were hit, thank God!”
Jean smiled big, looking the happiest he’d seen her look in the days since they’d returned home to Sol and Earth. “Excellent news. I hope there were also many survivors from the sinking of the Port Royal.”
“There were,” the woman said, looking aside to a rear admiral who was filling in for the absent CNO. “My friend tells me half the ship’s crew are alive. And our CONUS air defense has taken down five more pods with no loss of Lightnings. Our pilots decided to go to close terrain following after firing on the pods. That tactic seems to confuse the laser targeting of the ships above CONUS.”
“Good to hear,” Jane said. “We hope—”
“Wait!” yelled Bill as his helmet comlink speaker hummed as it switched frequencies.
“Jake reporting,” came the MacDill SEAL’s bass voice. “It’s going like clockwork. We taser zapped some kind of bat-like Alien when it came to our pod. Got its red cube. Alonzo is sealing the Weapons Chamber door with his laser while Francis and I have opened the hatch to the hallway that leads to the Command Bridge. We’re just outside this ship’s Greenery Chamber. The hallway curves ahead of us.”
Bill felt his heart speed up and his mouth go dry as he visualized the team’s position on the duplicate of the Blue Sky. “Excellent. Move out quickly. The ship’s captain and crew have surely heard your report. Were you able to see a ship holo to show you where the rest of the crew are located?”
“We have our holo,” Jake said, his voice sounding a bit hurried as the man resumed running down the hallway of the enemy ship. “Four bioforms are all clustered in the Command Bridge. You know who is helping us locate them.”
Bill gave thanks his fellow SEAL had not mentioned the enemy ship’s AI as the source of that holo. No need to motivate the Alien ship captain to start giving contrary orders, the way Diligent did when he and Jane had neared the bridge. “Stay alert for the repair robots! And consider blasting entries to the bridge in two spots using your demolition balls. That might be faster than going in by the hallway door.”
“Understood!” the man said loudly. “Out for now!”
Brief seconds passed in the silence. Bill saw Frank’s pod making contact with the hull of the second enemy ship above Maryland. He held up a hand to forestall questions from anyone on the bridge. Crackling came over his helmet’s speaker.
“We’re out!” called Frank as the former Marine reported. “Chris taser zapped a black-furred bear Alien the size of a Kodiak! Joe and I are moving through the chamber’s airlock to the hallway. We’ll be wrapping things up soon.”
Escape 2: Fight the Aliens Page 13