by Saxon Andrew
“Why?”
“It involves your invasion plans and your Capital.”
“My Capital?”
The Ruler watched his terminal light turn blue indicating that an incoming message had been received. He looked away from his communicator display and played the intercepted message. He immediately felt fear. “When did you get this?”
“Two days ago. Evidently they are able to see the fleet you’re assembling to use against them.”
“Why did you give me this?”
“I would hope you wouldn’t have to ask that question. We may not like each other but we are together in this galaxy and they are outsiders. You should know our first loyalty is to this galaxy.”
It hurt to say it but the Ruler said, “Thank you for your concern.”
“One more thing.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sending you the frequency we used to intercept that message. I would really pay attention to it once you start your invasion.”
The Ruler stared at the Sovereign and was confused at his gift, “Once again, thank you.” His screen went dark. He thought about the ramifications of the message and he called in his Fleet Admiral, “There’s a change of plans.” The Admiral’s expression said it all about changing plans so far into the mission. “We are going to attack all of their planets in the initial phase.”
“I thought you were against that?”
“I’ve discovered that they are not going to use their ships to defend them. We only have to deal with those platforms and if there aren’t any ships involved, we can handle them.”
“How sure are you about the source of this information?”
“If any ships are found at the planets, have the ships jump to their major group and we’ll continue with the first plan. I want you to also notify every ship in the fleet that I may issue an order to jump back to their home planets. The Aliens may attempt to attack us in our galaxy. Have them preset their jump drives to make it happen if we need to do it.”
“Yes, Sire. I need to get on this immediately.” The Ruler nodded and watched the Admiral rush out of his chamber.
• • •
“Ian, it looks like they took the bait.”
“What’s going on?”
“The Invasion Fleet is reorganizing into fifty thousand ship groups.”
“Drey, have any additional platforms been moved to those planets?”
“Yes, why do you ask?”
“We need to make sure only the number that survived the first attack remain. We need to save all the others for any future incursion.”
“I’ll get on it.”
• • •
“Dom.”
“Yes Sir.”
“I need you and Rizzo to move your fleets to the Kilper Planets. Your fleets have been updated and I want ships at all of their new worlds.”
“That will only be two or three ships per planet.”
“I understand that. They will be used to delay an Invader attack until you can jump in more ships. I don’t expect them to start scouting for other planets but I don’t want to take the chance. Coordinate with Moe and Hub and call in as many ships as you need from the unmodified ships. They will be holding station, awaiting any requests the two of you might have.”
“I’ll let Admiral Rizzo know and we’ll start moving now.”
“That would be good.”
• • •
Moe watched the Invasion Fleet and after four weeks he sent a message, “Ian, I am issuing an invasion alert. The enemy fleet is moving and will be outside the edge of that galaxy in less than ten hours.”
“Moe, do you have the message to broadcast?”
“Dee gave it to me a week ago and the frequency to use to send it.”
“Wait until every planet is burning.”
“If we’re not using the fleet, that won’t take very long.”
• • •
“Sire, our anticipated jump time is nine hours.”
“Which fleet are we going with?”
“The largest.”
“That would be good. Keep me informed.”
“Yes Sire.”
The Ruler looked at his Communications Officer and said, “You know what to look for?”
The Officer nodded and focused on his panel.
• • •
The largest fleet of warships ever assembled in M87’s long history began moving out of the galaxy’s edge and it was unbelievable. Two hundred million warships moved as one giant creature. Only a computer could have analyzed the formation and see that there were more than fifty thousand sub-fleets in the formations. Ships of all sizes and colors moved resolutely forward while maintaining their spacing. This fleet was organized and working as a unit. All of them had one thing in common, they were deadly. They all knew the first invasion had ended in catastrophe. They were determined to not let that happen again.
• • •
Drey sat in his chair watching his display and he changed position about every five seconds. Dee watched him and finally said, “Relax; you aren’t going to take part in this.”
Drey took a deep breath and blew it out, “I just…just…”
“Want to be in the middle of it.”
Drey turned to Dee and sighed, “I just miss not being involved.”
“It’s so fun, right?”
Drey smiled, “You have no idea how much I enjoy the stress of combat.”
“Oh, I might have an idea. Remember, we’re connected mentally during combat operations. I can see how much you enjoy it.”
Drey stared at Dee, “And you don’t?”
Dee smiled, “More than you.”
“So how are you so calm?”
“I have a wedding to take care of before I get locked into prolonged combat.”
Drey pushed his lips together and said, “Good answer.”
Dee smiled, “I thought you’d like it.”
• • •
Dom looked at his display and had a thought, “Moe.”
“Yes Dom.”
“I need to know if any ships in that fleet are not jumping to one of the main planets.”
“Why?”
“If I were leading that fleet, I would want to know if there were any other planets to worry about. This would be a good time to get some scouts in to look around our galaxy.”
Dom waited for ten minutes and heard, “Dom, there are five thousand ships at the rear of the formation that don’t appear to be associated with any of the other groups.”
Dom sat up straight in his command chair, “Do we have a scanner available to transmit their jump tracks?”
“I’ll have to take some away from ten of their groups to do that.”
“Let’s assume the other groups are going to a main planet. All of them have scanners, right?”
“They do.”
“Make the change and I want you to send those coordinates to my ships. I want three ships to arrive with those ships at their exit points into normal space.”
“I’ve selected three ships for each of those in that group. I’ll send the coordinates less than one second after they jump.”
Dom turned in his command chair, “Becky, notify the selected ships what we need them to do.”
Becky lowered her faceplate and linked with B. Thirty minutes later, the fifteen thousand ships moved out of Dom’s fleet and gathered in open space. Dom contacted Rizzo and let him know what was going on. Rizzo immediately ordered fifteen thousand ships from the reserve to replace the ships being moved. Dom watched his face plate and slowly shook his head, “I should have thought of that. That Rizzo knows his stuff.”
• • •
Ian pushed the general frequency, “Jump alert, jump alert, the Invaders have started jumping. Go to battle stations and maintain your positions.”
The massive fleet on Ian’s display was moving forward one instant and the next it was gone. Ian changed his feed from the scanners at the invading fleet’s location to
those at the Kilper Main Planets. Some of them were already burning.
Forty thousand Invader ships arrived at each of the Main Planets and the orbital platforms began killing their ships. Thousands of ships died but the platforms were overwhelmed by the sheer number of beams being fired at them. The first phase of the battle was over in less than fifteen minutes. The second phase involved the invading ships hitting the planet with nuclear missiles and massive beams. Thousands of the invaders took their ships into the atmosphere and fired at the surface from point blank range. The massive cities were burned down to bedrock. The destruction was complete and none of the thousands of planets survived the attack.
• • •
Kregen and two other ships arrived in normal space next to a large black ship. Marissa fired on the ship a moment before the other two got off a shot and the black ship exploded in a nuclear blast. It had only been in normal space three seconds and wasn’t able to scan anything. Ten seconds later it would have seen Santa Rosa. All five thousand scouts were hit and killed. None of them transmitted any information to M87.
Kregen looked at Marissa, “That was good work.”
“I’m glad you like it, Sir.”
“You are the best!” Marissa smiled and the three ships jumped away.
• • •
Moe watched the progress of the invaders and when all of the planets were burning he said, “Attention all ships. Attention all ships, you have your assignments. Jump to them and destroy them in two minutes. Show no mercy.”
• • •
“Sire, an attack order has just been given on that frequency.”
The Pental Ruler leaned forward and pressed his communicator, “All ships, jump back to your home worlds to defend them from attack! Jump now!” The Ruler looked at the Navigator and nodded. His ship left normal space and appeared at his home planet just as a small green ship appeared. His support squadron rushed out at the ship and it turned and fled. The Ruler heard on his wall speaker, “Escape, escape, there are too many ships at the targets. Wait until a better opportunity presents itself.” The ship then accelerated away at an incredible speed.
More than ten thousand civilizations saw a green ship appear and flee. All of them worried about what could have happened. The Pental Ruler stared at his panel; the Sovereign was right. They were going to be attacked. He smiled and felt relief that he had saved thousands of planets. His relief disappeared and changed to anger when he learned that none of the scouts sent to the Spiral Galaxy survived and that all of the civilizations were not going to send more ships there until the real danger of attack was removed. His chance at leading another invasion was over. He couldn’t get anyone to agree to participate.
• • •
The Admiral looked at the First and nodded. The First activated his communicator and said, “My fellow citizens. We have suffered a horrific defeat. Most of our populations and planets have been destroyed by an invading fleet. No one on the main planets survived and they are all nothing more than radioactive ruins. Pray for those that died today. I will discuss future plans with you after I can deal with this tragedy.”
The message was sent on a frequency that no one in the Kilper Civilization used so no one heard it…but the Family Probe did and promptly sent it and recordings of the destroyed planets to another galaxy.
• • •
The First sat in his chamber with the Admiral and poured him a drink. He held up his glass to the display showing their former words burning in nuclear fire. The Admiral held up his glass as well and they took a sip. Both of them grimaced. The Admiral shook his head, “Why do we drink this stuff. It’s awful.”
The First looked away from the monitor and said, “You know, you have to be a strong person to do it and all that other garbage.”
“I promise you I won’t mind if you change to another. I know how strong you are and you have nothing to prove to me.”
The First stared at the Admiral, reached into his desk and pulled out a bottle of Union Scotch. He poured two glasses and handed one to the Admiral, held his up, saw the Admiral join him and took another sip. He watched the Admiral close his eyes anticipating something awful. Suddenly one of his eyes opened and then the other, “This is pretty good. What is it?”
“Union Whiskey.”
“I’ve got to get me some of this.”
“I’ve bought the import rights to it.”
“Do you need a partner?”
The First stared at the Admiral and sighed, “How can we discuss business when our planets are burning?”
The Admiral smiled, “You act like this is bad news.”
“It is!”
“Not really.”
The First stared at the Admiral and said, “If you can prove to me it isn’t, I’ll make you a partner. Those worlds represent thousands of years of our history. Now they’re gone.”
The Admiral shook his head, “You are aware that your popularity with our citizens has now skyrocketed as a result of this?” The First narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “The Hub has seen huge celebrations on our planets, where the citizens are praising your foresight in having them moved to the new worlds. Now that the old planets are destroyed, the movement to return to them is over before it could pick up speed. Even the ones leading that movement agree that they were terribly wrong to have suggested it. They are singing your praises as well and are thankful you didn’t allow them to return.”
“I didn’t know that.”
The Admiral sat down on the couch and extended his glass forward. The First brought the bottle around and sat down with him. The Admiral took another drink and sighed. After a moment he said, “How long would it have taken us to clear the cities from the main planets where they could become self-supporting.”
The First thought a moment and said, “I don’t know if we could have done it.”
“We couldn’t. Those cities extended down to the bedrock and nothing short of a nuclear blast would have cleared them.”
The First stared at the Admiral, “They just had a nuclear blast.”
The Admiral smiled, “And our scans show that the cities were burned off the surface. In fifty years, plants will start growing. In a hundred years, we can move animals back to them. In less than two hundred years we’ll have fifty thousand planets to expand to and we will never overbuild on them again. This is the best thing that could have happened.”
The First stared at the Admiral and slowly shook his head, “This is why you supported using them as a target?”
“Absolutely! By offering them as a target, the Union is now indebted to us and I suspect if you point that fact out to them you should get great pricing on your; what do you call it?”
“Scotch.”
“Yeah, Scotch.”
The First stared at the Admiral and smiled, “Have you ever heard of a cigar?”
“A what?”
The First went to his desk and took out to brown cylinders. He cut the ends off and handed one to the Admiral, “Now don’t inhale this into your lungs. Just hold it in your mouth.” He lit his and demonstrated. He lit the Admiral’s and watched him have a coughing fit. “I told you not to inhale it.”
The Admiral sucked some of the smoke into his mouth and after a moment blew it out. After a few minutes the Admiral said, “Wow! This thing has a kick.”
“Do you think we could sell it here?”
The Admiral stared at the First and said, “Will you make a public appearance inhaling one?”
“It’s called smoking and yes, I guess I could.”
“If you do that everyone in the Union is going to want one.”
The First refilled their glasses and held his up, “If you will give me your word that you will never, and I do mean never, become a competitor; I will make you an equal partner in this little enterprise.”
“Don’t we need a contract?”
“You never lie. Your promise is all I need.”
The Admiral clinked his glass on the Firs
t’s and said, “I give you my promise.”
They sat back and enjoyed their cigars and scotch as they watched the planets burn. After a few moments the Admiral said, “Have you thought of a name for the cigars?” The First shook his head. “Call them burning planets to honor what’s happened.”
The First shook his head and said, “You know this is going to make us wealthy.”
“Who cares; this is going to be fun.”
“By the way, you’ve never told me you name.”
“I had it legally changed to Admiral.”
The First started laughing and said, “We’ll name the scotch Admiral’s Finest.”
“Now that is an excellent idea.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ian looked at Drey sitting on a beach chair on Euclid. The Invasion Fleet had jumped away and they jumped to meet with Cole and found he was busy. They walked out of the Science Center and went to the lake next to the large space port. They found two beach chairs and settled in. Drey, do you feel any guilt at this subterfuge?”
“What do you mean?”
“This is going to probably send whoever is watching us to M87 first.”
“Better there than here; we have nowhere to run.”
“Neither do they.”
Drey turned to Ian, “Our duty is to this galaxy. You’ve seen what they’re like in M87. Everyone has borders that can’t be violated. They all work against each other. They do not make good neighbors.”
“The Sovereign is coming around.”
“Would he have done that if we didn’t catch him in the act throwing us in front of a heavy hauler?”
Ian shook his head, “I don’t know.”
“Did either of you know that the Grey Civilization had sent notice that they were abrogating their agreement with the Greens because of that betrayal?”
Drey and Ian turned around and saw Dee and Violet standing behind them. Drey said, “They did.”
“The only thing that prevented it was the abdication of the Sovereign. It appears his son told their representative before the meeting what he had been ordered to do and expressed great shame in having to carry out his orders. His rise to the position and his plan to assist us is the only thing that kept the alliance together.”