“The energy beams are going right through our shields,” reported the sensor officer.
“Numerous ships are reporting damage,” added the communications officer.
The ship suddenly shook again, even worse than before. A control console exploded in a shower of sparks seriously burning the Trellixian operating it who collapsed to the deck. The lights flickered, went off, and then came back on. On the damage control console numerous red lights appeared indicating serious damage to the battlecruiser.
“We have four battlecruisers with serious damage to Engineering. All four were above our troop bases. They cannot reach a higher orbit,” Jaltor reported grimly. “Other ships are reporting increasing damage.”
A sudden bright light filled one of the viewscreens.
“What was that?” demanded Balforr.
“The Conquest. It blew up,” reported the sensor officer.
“We have more ships reporting engine failures,” the communications officer informed Balforr. “The Humans are targeting the engineering sections of our ships.”
Balforr stood frozen, unsure as to what to do. Never in his long years as a battle commander had his fleet ever suffered this type of damage. The ship shook again and suddenly keeled over to one side. The artificial gravity failed and then came back on.
“An internal explosion put a huge hole in the side of the ship,” reported Jaltor, his expression revealing his growing panic. “It’s forty meters across and nearly thirty deep. Fires are out of control on numerous decks. We’re operating on secondary power.”
“What’s our altitude?”
“Eight hundred kilometers and climbing,” reported the Trellixian in front of Navigation.
Balforr looked at a viewscreen focused on one of his battlecruisers under attack. White energy beams speared the ship time after time, blasting out huge holes in the hull and hurling glowing debris into space. Suddenly a series of explosions wracked the ship and it blew apart, sending debris in all directions.
“That was the Durra,” reported the sensor officer. “We’ve lost seven battlecruisers so far. We have twelve more that have lost power to their engines and cannot escape the enemy’s energy beams.”
“Fire all our nuclear missiles at the planet,” ordered Balforr, his eyes glowing red. “Maybe that will take some of the pressure off our ships. Use tractor beams to tow the damaged vessels into a safe orbit.”
Jaltor looked stunned. “What about our troops on the surface? If we bombard the planet we’ll be killing them as well.”
“They’re already dead,” Balforr said coldly. “Do you think the Humans will let them live?”
Jaltor hesitated for a long moment and then hurried away to carry out the orders.
-
General Mitchell watched the screens as energy weapons fire pummeled the Trellixian fleet. He felt jubilant every time a Trellixian battlecruiser was blown apart.
“We’ve taken out seven of their battlecruisers,” reported Colonel Fields in elation. “It appears the Trellixians are attempting to rescue some of their battlecruisers with engine problems. They’re using some sort of tractor beam.”
“Switch our targeting to those damaged ships,” ordered General Mitchell. “I don’t want them getting away.”
“All fighters and helicopters have been launched,” reported Major Thomas. “We have squadrons of F-35s, F-22s and Apaches inbound toward Trellixian troop concentrations. Other countries around the world have launched their attacks as well.”
On one of the huge sensor screens using Jelnoid technology alarms sounded. Hundreds of red threat icons appeared.
“What are those?”
“Nukes,” replied Colonel Fields. “The Trellixian battlecruisers are launching hundreds of nukes.”
General Mitchell looked alarmed. “Can we shoot them down?”
Colonel Fields spent a few moments consulting with several other officers. “Most of them. However some are coming down over the oceans and we don’t have the capability of hitting them with our secondary energy cannons.”
“What about the primary ones?”
“They could.”
“Then switch half of our primary cannons to shooting down those nukes,” ordered General Mitchell. He hated doing that as it took some of the pressure off the Trellixian battlecruisers but he couldn’t let all those missiles detonate.
-
All across the planet primary and secondary energy cannons targeted the descending nuclear weapons. Hundreds of energy beams flashed upward, annihilating the descending weapons of mass destruction. The Trellixian battlecruisers kept launching, emptying their missile tubes and supplies of nuclear missiles. In all over 1,200 were launched toward the planet.
Space lit up from the destruction of the missiles. They came closer and closer to the planet as the energy beams continued to seek them out, destroying them. Deeper into the atmosphere they descended as more of them died fiery deaths. Then a few of them began impacting the surface. Across the world, nuclear fire erupted. Mushroom clouds rose into the air. More cities were leveled and raging fires spread. Most of the missiles had been aimed at the landmasses at no particular target. Eighty-seven twenty-kiloton nuclear missiles detonated on land, throwing debris and ash high into the atmosphere. Forty-two more struck the oceans, vaporizing millions of tons of ocean water.
-
Battle Commander Balforr shook with anger. The nuclear attack had been far less successful than he had expected. It seemed as if everything he tried, the Humans managed to thwart.
“We’re out of range of their energy beams,” announced Second Officer Jaltor with relief in his voice, “but our ship is heavily damaged. We’ll have to go to a repair yard. We can’t do the repairs ourselves.”
“Twenty-seven battlecruisers confirmed destroyed,” added the sensor officer. “Sixteen others report moderate-to-heavy damage.”
“Our own ship is heavily damaged,” reported Jaltor. “We were fortunate to escape the Humans’ weapons fire. It will take at least a day to repair the damage so we can enter hyperspace.”
Balforr eyes glowed red with rage. How could this happen? “Pull all of our ships back to Earth’s moon.”
“Battle Commander,” interrupted the communications officer. “I have confirmed reports Battle Commander Jabale’s ship has been destroyed. There were no survivors. Also reports are coming in from the surface of Human aircraft attacking our bases. Heavy casualties are being reported.”
Balforr felt as if his world was crashing in on him. For several long minutes he gazed at the viewscreens showing the planet beneath his shattered fleet. “Inform all ship commanders we will leave shortly for the nearest repair yard. We’ll rendezvous with the troop transports, make what repairs we can, and then leave this system.”
“What about our troops on the ground?” asked Jaltor. “We can send our remaining shuttles to evacuate more of them.”
“No,” Balforr replied in a defeated voice. “The Humans will only shoot them down. We will return to the Empire and I will recommend the planet be cordoned off. The nuclear weapons detonated should be enough to cause a short nuclear winter. That will cause more deaths among the Human civilians. We can put a small fleet in orbit to keep this world under observation. At some time in the future the High Command may decide to send another invasion fleet to this world.”
Perhaps by then this planet’s civilization will have collapsed and a second invasion won’t be necessary. Balforr doubted once the nuclear winter was over if there would be enough Humans left to maintain a technological civilization for long.
Jaltor stood, gazing at the viewscreen. They were abandoning over two hundred thousand Trellixian troops. “As you command,” he said, making his way to the communications console.
Balforr left the smoke filled Command Center to return to his quarters. There was no doubt in his mind that once the High Command received the report of this defeat they would remove him as a battle commander. His career in the Trellixia
n military was over and it was all because of the Humans.
-
Lieutenant Scott pulled up from his last attack run over the ruins of the Trellixian base. Smoke and raging fires hid most of the base from view. As he watched several Apache attack helicopters fired more Hellfire missiles at the few hover tanks still putting up resistance. Massive explosions obliterated them, leaving shattered burning hulks behind. Scott knew all six surviving squadrons of F-35 Lightnings and the ten squadrons of F-22 Raptors were flying attack missions. All Apaches were involved as well.
Even as Scott watched several larger helicopters landed and troops armed with pulse rifles swarmed out. The troops would go in now to make sure all the Trellixian forces had been annihilated. A few Apaches would remain on the scene in case any heavy resistance was encountered.
“Let’s head to our secondary target,” ordered the Captain Presley. “This isn’t quite over yet.”
Scott knew the squadron commander was right. It wasn’t over yet but it soon would be.
-
General Mitchell leaned back in his command chair, mentally exhausted. He could scarcely believe this day had arrived. They finally had victory over the Trellixians!
“It’s confirmed. The Trellixian fleet is heading for the Moon,” reported Colonel Fields.
“How bad did those nukes hurt us?” Mitchell had witnessed their detonations on the Command Center’s viewscreens. Each one had sent a cold chill down his back.
“It will be a considerably colder this winter but they were small nukes with limited radiation. Our atmosphere should return to near normal in eight to twelve months. We’re right on the borderline of a nuclear winter. It’s too soon to tell if we’re going over the threshold.”
“Our air units?”
“Encountering very little resistance,” reported Major Thomas. “The Trellixians don’t have anything that can penetrate a Jelnoid energy shield. We’re landing troops to finish the mopping up. Our commanders in the field estimate another eight to ten hours and this will be over.”
“We won!” said General Briggs with a huge smile. “It’s actually over.”
“For now,” replied General Mitchell, as he focused on his second in command. “I doubt if we’ve seen the last of the Trellixians. Next time we’ll be ready for them. Colonel Steward, get me the president. It’s time to tell her the good news. The war, for now, is over!”
Epilogue
Two months had passed since the victory over the Trellixians. President Hathaway, Secretary of State Maggie Rayne, General Mitchell, and Colonel Fields were all in Complex One, sitting in the president’s office.
“What’s the final census of American survivors?” asked Katelyn. That was one of the first things she had ordered. She wanted to know how many Americans had survived.
“We’re looking at between twenty and twenty-two million survivors,” Colonel Fields answered. “That does not include the people in the underground facilities. We’ve gotten most of the survivors to smaller cities and towns where we’ve restored power and basic utilities. Our new fusion reactors are a godsend. We’re also using weak energy shields to protect them from the worst of the cold and bad weather caused by the last nukes the Trellixians dropped on us.”
“What about worldwide?” Katelyn knew there were numerous survivors in other countries.
“Around 190 million survivors. There may be others yet who we haven’t reached or made contact with.”
Katelyn let out a deep breath. The Trellixians had eliminated nearly 97 percent of the world’s population. “A lot of people died. I guess we’re lucky any survived at all since the Trellixians were trying to kill all of us.”
“We’ve been talking to some of the other governments,” said General Mitchell, folding his arms across his chest. “In some countries where only small groups of survivors exist, we may try to bring them to countries with larger population groups. We’ll need to get some industry going if we want to take this war to the Trellixians.”
“Do we have to?” asked Katelyn. She was tired of this war. So much had been lost. “It seems as if the smart thing to do would be to rebuild our population and our world.”
Mitchell shook his head. “I don’t believe the Trellixians will allow us to do that. We’ve already detected four of their battlecruisers in orbit around the Moon. They’ve obviously been put there to keep us under observation. A few of their shuttles have approached within five thousand miles of the surface. They’re being careful to stay outside of our weapons range.”
“Are they a threat?” asked Katelyn with concern in her voice. She hadn’t known about the battlecruisers until now.
“No,” answered Colonel Fields. “We have 127 primary Jelnoid energy cannons deployed as well as nearly five hundred secondary cannons. We can keep them away from Earth.”
“There’s a lot of snow this year,” Secretary of State Rayne commented. “Several park rangers in my complex have mentioned it’s the most they’ve ever seen.”
“We’ll have big snowfalls for the next year or two until the atmosphere returns to normal,” explained Colonel Fields. “A lot of dust and ash are in the atmosphere. Some of the precipitation which would normally fall as rain is coming down as snow due to lower temperatures across the world. It’s going to play hell with crop growth this next year but we’ll get by.”
President Hathaway looked at the others. “I guess we’re the lucky ones. At least we survived.” She looked at General Mitchell. “So, what do we do now?”
“Finish establishing the surviving civilians in more of the smaller towns and cities. Get our industries running again and finish the spaceships. We have a large industrial base already in the two complexes, much of it automated. There are other complexes in other countries around the world. We have a lot of rebuilding and organizing to do over the next few years.”
Katelyn nodded. She realized General Mitchell was right. Her eyes narrowed slightly. “So, in two years we launch our ships and drive the Trellixians out of our solar system?”
“Yes,” Mitchell replied. “Our spaceships have Jelnoid technology. We’ve already seen what Jelnoid weapons can do to Trellixian battlecruisers. We drive them out of our solar system and eventually take the war to them.”
“All by ourselves?”
“Maybe not,” answered Colonel Fields, looking thoughtful. “We’ll send out a few ships on exploration missions. Somewhere out there another race must exist which can help us with the war. We need to find that race.”
“Allies,” said Katelyn, nodding her head in approval. She knew at least one thing that made her feel good. It was obvious now she was not going to be the last president of the United States; there would be others after her. “Let’s hope we find some.”
-
Professor Wilkens, Lisa, Brenda, and Brett were on board the Vengeance. They were spending more of their time on the ship every day. The professor was currently explaining the function of everything in the Command Center.
Brett sat at the tactical console which controlled all the ship’s weapons. “It’s hard to believe we’ll be going into space in another few years.”
Professor Wilkens smiled. “Maybe sooner than that. We’ll have a number of the ships ready sometime next year. The Vengeance will be ready in about four more months.”
Lisa looked at the professor. “Will you be coming into space with us?”
“No,” replied Wilkens, shaking his head. “Space is for the young. I’ll stay here and continue with my research.”
Brenda sat next to Lisa at the science station. “I heard a rumor that several of our ships may go out on exploration missions. That sounds exciting.”
Wilkens nodded. He stood by the commander’s chair. “Yes, we have discussed that though nothing official has been decided.”
“I would like to go out exploring,” Lisa said softly. “I always dreamed as a child about going into space and finding new worlds.”
“Me too,” said Brett. “It w
ould be great to go on an exploration mission.”
“Maybe we can all go together,” suggested Brenda, her eyes lit with excitement.
Lisa looked at the professor. “What do you think?”
Professor Wilkens laughed. He had never been able to tell Lisa no. “I’ll see what I can arrange. I won’t promise anything but we’ll see.”
Lisa looked at her friends. They had become very close since coming to the complex. “Ad astra,” she said with a smile. “We’re going to the stars.”
The others nodded. They knew they had more exciting adventures in store for them in the future.
-
Sergeant Tucker stepped out onto the porch of the cabin. Many of the civilians had gone to Evergreen. The military had restored power there and about six thousand civilians were now living in the town. Lacy stepped onto the porch with him. As far as he could see everything was covered in deep snow. The military had brought them several more generators and enough fuel to get through the winter. All three cabins and the large tents now had plenty of power to keep them warm and comfortable.
Corporal Owens trudged up the steps to the porch, carrying some firewood to add to the stack by the door. “The snow must be three feet deep in places,” he complained.
“I’m just glad we put in the fireplaces,” Lacy said with a pleased smile.
“What will we do in the spring once the snow melts?” asked Owens as he put down the firewood.
Most of the people who had originally come with Sergeant Tucker were still here.
“We go home,” Tucker replied. “We go home and start our lives over again.”
Matt came out the door, wearing a heavy coat and gloves. “I want to play in the snow.”
Lacy laughed. “It’s too cold outside today. Let’s go into the back room and play some games.”
Tucker watched as his wife and son went back inside.
“I talked to one of the Rangers yesterday on the radio,” Owens said. “Most of them are leaving the valley next to us. All the civilians have been taken to smaller towns or cities. A few Rangers will remain as there’s a large energy cannon over there.”
Earth Fall: Invasion : (Book One) Page 33