Lisa sat, finding the chair remarkably comfortable. In front of her was a large viewscreen. She could imagine flying through space and the screen filled with stars. “I think I’m going to like this.”
Professor Wilkens smiled. “I believe you will. Now let’s get back to the lab. I have an experiment running I need you to help me with.”
Standing, Lisa looked one more time around the Command Center. Someday she would be going into space. She could hardly believe it.
-
General Mitchell was in President Hathaway’s office.
“They’re still just sitting there,” Katelyn said with a deep frown. “Why?”
“We’re not certain,” General Mitchell replied. “Some of our military strategists believe they’re trying to decide whether to simply destroy our world and go on or to continue the invasion.”
“Their troops are still on the ground though they’ve all pulled back to their bases,” added Colonel Fields, “ones that are heavily fortified.”
Katelyn looked thoughtful. “Can we destroy those bases?”
“Maybe,” General Mitchell replied. This was something that had been discussed in depth at several meetings with other members of the military. “However, there’s a Trellixian battlecruiser in low orbit above each. We believe if we launch an attack, the cruiser will come down and use its weaponry against us. The energy shields on our aircraft would not be able to resist such powerful weapons.”
“What if they decide to nuke us again?”
“It won’t work,” Colonel Fields replied. “We’ve set up enough secondary energy cannons around the world that we could shoot down most, if not all, of their missiles.”
“What if they hit the center of the oceans away from land?”
General Mitchell let out a deep sigh. “That is a concern. In another week we’ll begin deploying the Jelnoid primary energy cannons. They can cover the oceans as well as hit the Trellixian battlecruisers in orbit. In two more weeks we’ll be ready to launch our attack. If we can drive them away from Earth or into a much higher orbit, it would leave their bases open to attacks from our Air Forces.”
President Hathaway leaned back and briefly closed her eyes and then opened them, looking at General Mitchell. “Are you telling me in two more weeks this nightmare will finally be over?”
Mitchell nodded. “At least the first part. With the primary energy cannons we can keep the Trellixians away from our world. We’re also developing energy shields that can protect some of our smaller towns and cities. We can give our people back their lives.”
President Katelyn stood and walked toward the window looking out over the underground complex and city. While the city was beautiful and a wonderful refuge it wasn’t the same as living on the surface. “What about the future? What happens next?”
“We continue work on our spaceships,” General Mitchell replied. “When they’re done we drive the Trellixians from our solar system and put up a powerful defensive grid around Earth. Work is already progressing on building the defensive satellites. They’ll have both Jelnoid primary energy cannons as well as Jelnoid missiles. We know from the Jelnoid database what they used to protect their homeworld. When we’re done ours will be much stronger.”
President Hathaway turned around and gazed at General Mitchell. “You’ve given us all hope for the future. We must not fail in this endeavor.”
“We won’t,” promised Mitchell. “We just need two more weeks and the worst part of this will be over.”
President Hathaway nodded. She just hoped nothing went wrong.
-
Mark watched as the large energy cannon was installed in a clearing in the valley his troops were responsible for protecting. It was aimed upward toward space and a number of technicians were busy finishing up the work. A small building had been erected next to it with its own power source.
“What is it?” asked Captain Garcia. He had been asked to pull twenty of his Rangers off the skirmish line to defend the cannon.
“A primary energy cannon that’s supposed to hit the Trellixian battlecruisers in orbit,” Mark replied. “They’re putting these up all over the country.” Mark had been told by Colonel Branson that once these were fired the war here on Earth would be mostly over. Mark hoped it happened soon. He wanted to get back to Complex One to see his sister and eventually return to Houston to search for his parents. On his way to Houston he would stop at his aunt’s farm to see if they had made it there.
Garcia stared at the large energy cannon. The parts had been brought in by helicopter several days ago. “The advanced scouts are still reporting no signs of Trellixian troops nearby.”
Mark nodded. “That’s to be expected. Colonel Branson said they’ve all pulled back to their bases. We’ve armed enough people with pulse rifles that the Trellixians dare not venture into the countryside.”
“It’s hard to imagine this war might nearly be over,” said Garcia. He looked at Major Dolan. “What will we do then?”
“Rebuild,” Mark answered. He knew there was more to it than that. There were spaceships at Complex One and he suspected at other secret complexes around the world too. Someday they would be going into space to take the war to the Trellixians. Mark wanted to be a part of that.
A sad look crossed Garcia’s face. “For many of us there is no longer a home to go back to.”
Mark knew Garcia was right. The nukes the Trellixians dropped originally had destroyed the hearts of many cities. Their troops had damaged numerous homes and businesses across the country as they tried to exterminate the civilian population. It would be a different world when this was over.
-
Battle Commander Balforr was jubilant. The battlecruiser with the Malken missiles had arrived. The missiles had been unloaded and distributed to the ten battlecruisers which would fire them. Most of them would be targeting the largest Human military bases they could detect with their sensors. The debris from the explosions would put the planet into a nuclear winter for six to ten months. The debris and atmospheric conditions should prevent the Humans from deploying any of their aircraft. His troops still on the ground would begin systematic raids on the known Human military bases, eliminating them one by one. Balforr expected the much colder temperatures generated by the lack of sunlight would kill most of the remaining Human civilians. Then it would just be a matter of mopping up the few who survived.
“Missiles are ready to fire,” reported Second Officer Jaltor. “All battlecruisers are in position.”
Battle Commander Balforr gazed at the blue-white planet on the ship’s main viewscreen. That would soon change once the Malken missiles detonated. Each missile would detonate with one hundred megatons of explosive force. “Launch the missiles. Let us end this.”
-
From ten Trellixian battlecruisers black missiles dropped toward the planet below, each one targeted on a Human base. The devastation would be total.
-
In General Mitchell’s Command Center alarms sounded as soon as the missile launches were detected.
“What do we have?” asked Mitchell as his gaze was drawn to a screen showing ten red threat icons.
“We think they’re the same missiles used to take out our main base,” replied Colonel Fields as he studied some data on a sensor screen. “If we’re correct the Trellixians are trying to invoke a nuclear winter. They probably believe the cold will wipe out most of the surviving civilian population.”
“Will it?”
Fields nodded. “We’re not set up to deal with the type of cold such a catastrophe would bring.”
“Can we shoot down the missiles?”
“We can try,” Fields answered. “We have a lot of Jelnoid secondary energy cannons set up.”
“Then do it,” ordered General Mitchell, his focus on the screen showing the rapidly descending missiles. His gaze shifted to a viewscreen showing Battle Commander Balforr’s battlecruiser. Mitchell’s eyes narrowed. He wanted Balforr dead and in a few
days Mitchell intended to destroy that ship.
-
Across the world, secondary energy cannons activated. Beams of raw energy flashed upward, striking the descending missiles. First one, then two, and finally eight of the deadly missiles were vaporized. However, two of them continued to descend. One detonated over South Africa, destroying its only active military base. The second one exploded over the Philippines, destroying one of only two active bases in the country. Huge amounts of ash and smoke rose into the air, darkening the sky.
-
General Mitchell gazed at the viewscreens showing the two detonations. “Will that be enough to cause a nuclear winter?” He knew they were lucky more of the deadly missiles hadn’t struck Earth. South Africa and the Philippines didn’t have the number of secondary energy cannons as did other countries with larger surviving militaries. Even so, they should have been able to shoot down those two missiles. Mitchell didn’t know if they would ever know why they didn’t.
Colonel Fields shook his head. “Not a complete nuclear winter. It will darken the skies somewhat and cause the temperature to drop a few degrees. That’s a lot of debris and ash being added to the atmosphere. In another week we would have had enough secondary energy cannons deployed to better cover those regions.”
General Mitchell looked at another viewscreen showing Battle Commander Balforr’s ship. No way would Balforr have expected any of his missiles to be destroyed. Mitchell wondered what the Trellixian commander would do next. “I don’t think he will use nukes, not with so many Trellixian troops still on the ground.”
“No,” agreed General Briggs. “But he may pull out his troops so he can use nukes. It’s evident he wants to trigger a full-scale nuclear winter. He needs to drop nukes now to do that. He will try to saturate our defenses until enough get through.”
General Mitchell knew all their plans would be endangered if the Trellixians could trigger a nuclear winter. He took a deep breath as he gazed at the viewscreen showing Balforr’s command ship.
“We need to get more of our primary energy cannons operational. Increase the number of personnel involved even if we have to strip Complexes One and Two of qualified people. I want them installed in five days. That’s when we’ll attack the battlecruisers.” Mitchell wanted Balforr’s battlecruisers away from Earth.
“We’ll only have about half of what we planned,” warned General Briggs.
“I know,” Mitchell replied. “But if we allow those battlecruisers to remain in low orbit they’ll get some missiles through. If we can back them off we just might be able to shoot all of them down. We also must ensure every part of the world is protected by secondary energy cannons. If Balforr tries to nuke us we have to stop those missiles.”
Briggs nodded. “I’ll get to work on it.”
General Mitchell looked at the viewscreens on the front wall of the Command Center. A big part of South Africa and the central part of the Philippines were now hidden from view with rising clouds of debris and ash. Mitchell was determined someday he would make the Trellixians pay for what they had done to Earth.
-
Battle Commander Balforr stared at the viewscreens in disbelief. Eight of his ten Malken missiles had been destroyed. The Humans had deployed far more of the Jelnoid secondary energy cannons than he had believed possible.
“Computer simulations indicate the two Malken explosions are not sufficient to trigger a nuclear winter though they will decrease the average temperature across the planet by 5.2 degrees.”
“How long will it take us to evacuate our troops and their equipment?” If the troops were off the planet he could begin bombarding the surface with sufficient nuclear weapons to start a nuclear winter. He could also target the Human military bases in an attempt to destroy them.
“Ten days,” Second Officer Jaltor responded. “We have nearly 260,000 troops still on the surface, plus attack craft. We lost a number of shuttles in the recent offensive against the Humans so it’s going to take time to evacuate our soldiers.”
Balforr gazed at two viewscreens showing the parts of the planet the two Malken missiles had destroyed. “Order the evacuation immediately. As soon as it’s complete we’ll launch the nuclear attack.”
“Should we inform the High Command of our intentions?”
“No,” Balforr replied. “We should have nuked this planet into oblivion when we first arrived.” He was growing tired of these constant defeats by the Humans. It was time to end this. “I want this planet in a nuclear winter for at least two years.” Besides, the High Command had already made that suggestion; they just didn’t know Balforr now intended to carry it out.
Second Officer Jaltor looked at Balforr. “That will kill most of the animal life and plant life on the planet. Even parts of this planet’s oceans will become lifeless. It could delay colonization for a decade or more.”
“We can bring in animals and plants. We must end these Humans once and for all.” Rather than let this planet someday become a threat to the Empire it was best to destroy it now.
-
Mark examined the new primary energy cannon installed in the clearing. They were about a mile behind the skirmish line and close to one of the supply caches. For the last several hours the technicians had run tests to see if all the equipment functioned properly.
“That’s one hell of a cannon,” said Sergeant Anderson as he gazed at the towering weapon. “Do you think it can hit one of those alien battlecruisers and damage it?”
“Supposedly,” Mark replied. “The pulse rifles and the smaller pulse cannons worked well. I don’t see why this one won’t either.” Rumors were flying that sometime in the next seventy-two hours the cannon would be activated.
Sergeant Anderson stepped back so he could see the top of the cannon. “I can’t wait to see this cannon fired.”
Mark nodded. It would be a sight, indeed, to see the powerful energy beam fired toward space. “I’m going back to the base. I may try to contact Colonel Branson to see for sure what’s going on.”
Colonel Branson had returned to the main Ranger base and was coordinating the setup of better defenses around the civilian areas. Mark stood, looking at the cannon for another moment, before walking to a waiting ATV. He hoped the rumors were true. If they were preparing to attack the Trellixian battlecruisers then the war for Earth was coming to a close, at least this phase.
Colonel Branson had mentioned earlier Mark would shortly be assigned to one of the spacecraft being built at Complex One. With a deep sigh Mark knew this war still had a long ways to go.
-
General Mitchell gazed at a viewscreen showing Trellixian shuttles rising from Earth toward the waiting battlecruisers. For the last five days shuttle after shuttle had been going back and forth between the orbiting ships and the Trellixian bases on the ground. Mitchell was certain Battle Commander Balforr was evacuating the planet so he could nuke it.
“We’re nearly ready,” General Briggs announced. “Across the planet we have forty-two of the heavy energy cannons ready to fire. We committed a lot of resources getting them ready. We’ve added anther eighty secondary cannons as well.”
“There are fifty-eight battlecruisers in orbit plus the troop ships,” said General Mitchell as he gazed at a tactical display showing the location of all the enemy vessels. A few battlecruisers were very low in the atmosphere hovering above their bases. “All primary cannons are to target different battlecruisers. We want to cause as much damage as possible. Once the cannons fire their first shot, the second one is to be at the remaining battlecruisers. Then the cannons will continue to fire until the Trellixians have climbed into a higher orbit out of range or their ships have been destroyed. Don’t worry about the troop ships; we’ll let them go for now.”
“Twelve hundred miles,” Colonel Fields said. “Past that the cannons won’t cause any damage due to the power of the Trellixian energy shields.”
General Mitchell turned to Colonel Fields. “I expect them to pull back
farther. It takes a lot of energy to power an energy shield constantly. Even the ones we have around our bases are set to minimum power unless a threat is detected. I fully expect Battle Commander Balforr to retreat to at least two thousand miles so he won’t have to operate his shields continuously at full power.”
“All stations are reporting their cannons are now tracking their targets,” reported Colonel Steward from Communications.
“We can fire at any time,” said General Briggs, his eyes glowing with excitement. “Just give the order.”
General Mitchell took a deep breath. This had been a long time coming. Along with the firing of the primary cannons an all-out attack on the Trellixian bases would begin as well. All air assets were now equipped with energy cannons as well as protective energy shields.
“Fire!” Two cannons were targeting Balforr’s ship and Mitchell hoped they blew the hell out of it.
-
Battle Commander Balforr was in his quarters working on a report to the High Command, explaining his planned action to nuke the planet. He was about to begin his explanation when the ship shook violently, nearly knocking him to the floor. Alarms sounded and red lights flashed. Then the ship shook again even more violently. With deep concern he hurried out of his quarters, heading toward the Command Center. He passed several crewmembers running to their emergency stations. The ship shook several more times and Balforr knew these were internal explosions. His ship was under attack and he had a strong suspicion as to who had attacked it.
The Command Center was on the same level as his quarters and it only took him a few seconds to reach it. Going through the hatch he saw Second Officer Jaltor shouting orders.
“What hit us?”
Jaltor turned toward Balforr with fear in his eyes. “The entire fleet is being targeted from the planet. Sensors indicate we’re being hit by Jelnoid primary energy weapons. I’ve already ordered all ships to raise their energy shields and climb to a higher orbit.”
Earth Fall: Invasion : (Book One) Page 32