by Saxon Andrew
Dorg pressed his com console and said, “Tresk, please invite Captain Mikado to join Kosiev and myself on board the Moscow at his earliest possible convenience.” Dorg released his com and said, “Until he gets here, have you decided how we should organize the ships we have here?”
“Yes I have,” Kosiev said, “but I’m not married to my plan and I am open to any of your suggestions.”
Recently promoted Commodore Lin Mikado stood on the bridge of the Zeus; it was like a homecoming. It had been a fast four weeks since the meeting with Kosiev and Dorg. He had been assigned a new Megaship for his command with Captain Kelly as his ship’s captain upon his return from this mission but he had to select the crews going with him to confront the Plants and train them on the tactics to be used. He had brought Kelly and members from his old crew with him for this assignment and his former Ultra ship felt like home. His five ships were now in the Pydres system watching the Plants as they continued to strip the planet they had invaded and destroyed. He thought about the meeting he had with the five ship commanders to make sure they understood their roles. “We will jump to the Galaxy we have designated gamma. We will then jump into the Pydres system on the line from that Galaxy on the chance they can read Star Drive direction. Once the mission is complete, we will jump back to gamma and then to delta, then to beta with no pause in our jumps. Make sure your jump officers have the coordinates preprogrammed into their jump drives before we exit the system. We will wait at the jump limit for them to come to us. If other ships jump into the system after we’re detected, we will jump forty five degrees around the limit. I don’t want to be surprised by what comes after us. Keep your jump drives hot throughout this exercise and avoid being hit with a beam weapon that would prevent your being able to jump. We will launch two stealth sensor buoys on our emergence into the system to record anything that happens on the off chance none of us make it back. One will jump back on a route that takes it thru eight other galaxies and the second will find a hiding place and send us a feed. Are there any questions? No. Good hunting.”
“Sir,” Captain Kelly said, “Sensors say than none of the ships at the planet are moving our way. Communications report that as soon as we emerged into normal space that the frequency we recorded from the attack on their scout started and it is still being broadcast.”
“They know we’re here.’ Mikado said. “They recognize that it would take the ships at the planet more than 18 hours to get out here so I think they’ll jump in on us. Attention all ships. Keep your jump drives hot and as soon as you detect a star drive field, immediately jump to the next assigned site.”
The Stars Realm ships waited and recorded what they saw taking place at the planet. After 30 minutes, Mikado thought that he might have to go in system and provoke a fight then suddenly Colson his sensor officer said, “Multiple star drives breaking into normal space.”
“Jump,” Kelly ordered.
Mikado’s ships emerged in normal space and saw more than 300 Algean ships where they had just been. “Record all those ships and keep the record running; also send a feed to Admiral Kosiev,” Mikado ordered. “Alright, split up and go out system with separation between your ships. Go no faster than one quarter speed.”
The Algean fleet turned and began moving to intercept the five SR ships. The large Plant Warships in front were seven miles long and bristled with weapon ports. They were long and triangular in shape and black in color. Their surfaces were irregular and were the function of being used to transport the food from the planets they raped. Their seven mile length made the 1,500 foot ultra ships look small and the 700 foot empire ships tiny. The Algeans began slowly gaining on the small ships and after a forty minute chase, one of the biggest ships more than seven miles long came into weapons range. Suddenly, the giant ship fired an energy beam at one of the Empire Battleships and launched thirty huge missiles. The Empire Class ship Tarpon Springs shrugged off the beam but its screen went from white to yellow. The huge ship fired again and the screen went into the red.
“Tarpon Springs bleed off some of that energy by firing your primary beam into that ship.” Mikado ordered.
The Empire ship fired its 700 foot wide primary beam at the nose of the oncoming behemoth. The Algean Battleship’s screens held for a moment and then failed completely as the second primary beam hit it. The nose of the giant ship was blasted more than 300 feet deep and it veered off course. As it fell away it turned broadside to the Empire ship and it fired twenty of those huge beams. The Tarpon Springs screen went rapidly from yellow to blue and was approaching overload when it fired its two primary beams continuously into the wounded battleship. The two beams ripped the battleship in two and then cut the two halves into eight parts. The reactors were hit and the resulting explosion blew all the wreckage away from the center of the explosion.
“Status of the enemy missiles,” Mikado asked.
“The six fired at us will impact us in 15 seconds, sir.”
“Let’s not wait for that to happen. Weapons, can you target those missiles with our needles? Use low energy without any hornets.”
Lt. Colson said, “Already tracking them, firing now.” The five SR ships destroyed all thirty missiles in less than two seconds with their needles. Suddenly, the 300 Algean ships launched 1,500 missiles at the five ships and followed them toward the Stars Realm Ships. “Sir, some of those incoming missiles are giving off a different reading. About twenty percent have that reading.”
“Hit one of them with a needle and see what happens.” A needle stabbed out and hit one of the missiles and the resulting explosion set off the other missiles close to it coming in. The blast wave was enormous and started a chain reaction of explosions among the 1,500 incoming missiles. The Ultra ships screen went into the red as the blast wave approached. The Tarpon Springs which was closest to the enemy ships had five of those strange missiles close to it and was blown into dust when the chain reaction set them off. As the chain reaction of explosions went thru the Algean missiles, ships in the front ranks of the Plant Fleet were destroyed. More than fifty Algean ships were blown apart by their own missiles.
“What in the Torg was that?” Mikado exclaimed!
Lt. Colson looked up from his screen and said, “Sir, it looks like the Plants have developed anti-matter warheads in their missiles. That is what was giving off the peculiar readings.”
“Were all their missiles destroyed in the blast?”
“No sir, there are still twenty coming at us and one of them is Anti-matter.”
Mikado thought for a long moment and then picked up his com and said over the ships intercom. “Gentlemen serving on the Zeus; our mission is to determine the capability of the Plant weapons. It appears that they have a missile with an antimatter warhead. We have to know if our screens can handle it. We are going to pick up speed to stay ahead of it until our screen recovers and we are then going to allow it to impact us. We will destroy all the standard missiles with our needles and just leave the anti-matter missile. All of our power will be directed into our screen but we have to know if our ships can survive in an environment with these weapons. I am ordering the Boston to record what happens and to then jump the remaining ships away. Brace yourselves and God Bless.” The Zeus picked up speed and and increase the distance from the Algean ships and stayed ahead of the faster incoming missile until its screen went from red to white. Zeus destroyed the standard missiles with needles and continued to run from the anti-matter missile. She fired her primary beam twenty times to bleed of excess energy and finally, Mikado said, “Slow the ship and prepare for impact.”
The display showed the missile seeming to pick up speed as the Zeus slowed and then it struck the screen of the Ultraship. On board the Boston they saw a tremendous flash in which everything disappeared. All the display screens overloaded but then came back on line. There in the middle of the screen was the Zeus with her screen almost blue in color. “Prepare to jump, Execute.” Mikado ordered. The four remaining SR ships disappeare
d into Star Drive.
On board one of the Algean battleships, the fleet leader asked his ship commander. “Who were those ships? I’ve never seen ships so fast that could survive our most powerful missile.”
“I’ve never seen any design like that and there is nothing in our records that is remotely close to them. It looks like they jumped out toward a galaxy away from the central arm.”
“Perhaps they come from a different galaxy and will stay away now,” the fleet leader said. “In the future, we should launch fewer of our power missiles further away from the food source so that our ships will not be endangered. They have some sort of energy beam that can be targeted on individual missiles. They hit one of the power missiles which led to a chain reaction of destruction. Only one of our power missiles got thru.”
“Fleet Leader, the ship it hit was easily outrunning the missile until it lost speed and was hit. Perhaps they can only go that fast for short periods or they could have been trying to avoid the explosion if they hit it with one of those small beams.”
“That beam weapon they used concerns me. It killed one of our Battleships. See what our scientists can determine about it. In the meantime harvest the dead from the damaged ships for food stores. It’s a shame we didn’t get to harvest those ships that escaped.” The Fleet Leader leaned back in his chair feeling his hunger.
“You did what!” Kosiev yelled at Mikado.
“Calm down,” Dorg said. “I’m sure he had a reason for endangering his ship and crew.”
“As a matter of fact, I did,” Mikado answered.
“Then explain yourself Commodore,” Kosiev ordered, “and it had better be good or I’ll have you in front of a board of inquiry so fast you’ll see your grump pass your face.”
“Admiral, when we fired a needle into one of those antimatter missiles and set off a chain reaction that detonated most of them we lost the Tarpon Springs. We could not determine if we lost her because of the multiple blasts since she was closest to the Plant fleet or if one missile destroyed her. I determined that we had to know before we confronted this weapon in actual combat. If I had waited then we would have found out at the expense of hundreds of ships instead of just one. We have to know how strong their missile is in order to plan effective strategy to counter them. When 10, 000 Plant ships fire 50,000 missiles at our ships, it’s too late then to hope we can survive the hit. My task was to determine the plants weapon capability. To leave without discovering the power of those missiles would have wasted an opportunity we may not have again.”
Kosiev and Dorg looked at Mikado and said nothing.
Mikado then said, “Sir, it was just like when you took on two ships both of which were ten times your size in order to save the next ship that might be attacked.”
Dorg looked at Kosiev and said, “That was you? You have got to tell me what you did. We never did find out the whole story.”
Kosiev looked at Dorg then looked at Commodore Mikado, his former sensor officer, and said, “It would have been a terrible waste of talent if your ship had been destroyed, not only you but Captain Kelly as well. You did survive and that is in your favor. Did you even think you had a chance to survive that blast?”
“Yes sir, I did. The Ultra’s screen is ten times stronger than the Empire’s but if we didn’t, then all of our ships would be in danger except for the Megaships. Now we know that any missile that reads anti-matter will have to be detonated long before they impact. I think that if they don’t directly impact our screens, then our ships should survive in a hostile environment. I found it interesting that they fired 1,500 missiles with 300 of them anti-matter at our five ships. If 300 ships will launch 1,500 then how many will a thousand ships launch; five thousand with 1,000 anti-matter warheads? We also know that there were 100,000 ships that attacked the Pydres. Sir, we had to know. We also had to learn if the screen around the planet was going to be strong enough to handle anti-matter hits.”
Kosiev leaned back in his chair and said, “Grab a bag of popcorn Commodore and tell me what you think will work against these kind of numbers.”
“Sir, the best tool in our tool box is the pulse penetrator. We can outrun them. We stayed ahead of their missiles at 1/3 speed. We need to see if the penetrator can actually penetrate their screens. It seems that their screen is tremendously strong against an initial hit but does not recover quickly. I doubt that one penetrator will break thru but two will. We will need to program them in pairs to lock on to any ship without a Coronado screen and to also prioritize a ship that already has one lock on. Shoot and let the Pulse Penetrators select their targets as we move away from their main fleet faster than their missiles can fly. Once they do their work we take out the missiles with our needles and then launch our penetrators again. Admiral, how many penetrators are on the Megaships and can the Ultras be modified to accept them?”
Dorg looked at Mikado with open admiration and said, “Kosiev, you have done an excellent job training this officer. I suggest you promote him immediately and put him in charge of the training of our new crews. To answer your question, the ultras can launch 300 penetrators if we modify their needle ports to accept them and the Megas can salvo 800.”
Kosiev looked at Dorg and then stood up and said, “Commodore Mikado, you are hereby promoted to the rank of Rear Admiral over the 190 Megaships here and you will select the other commander of the older ships in our fleet. Come up with tactics that will give us the best probability of surviving a fleet action against the Plants here in the Dremels’ system. Be prepared to cover us on your plans within ten days. I want your fleet ready for a possible Plant invasion here within ninety days. Plan to use five hundred megaships in the defense; we should have that many by then. I would suggest you train the ships commanding officers now and give them their ships as they arrive. Crews will begin arriving immediately from current Stars Realm members and their training will be ongoing.”
Mikado couldn’t believe his ears. “Thank you sir; I’ll do my best.”
“Congratulations now get out of here and go to work. We have to be prepared and let’s hope we have ninety days to get ready.”
“Sir, may I request that Captain Kelly be promoted to Commodore as my second in command and also promote Captain Smith to commodore over the Empires and Ultras”
“Is that the same Smith that was my helmsman on the first Moscow?”
“Yes sir.”
Kosiev shook his head and said, “Are they good, Admiral?”
“They learned from the best, sir.”
Kosiev looked at Dorg and said, “Do you have anyone you want to use in these positions?”
“Unfortunately, no one is as qualified as the ones recommended here; after all, you won the war against us. One thing is certain, these sailors have not lost. Let’s hope they continue their success.”
“Permission granted, Mikado. Call them in and we’ll issue the promotions. Now get to work.”
Dorg looked at Kosiev after Mikado left the room and said, “He makes a good point about the asteroids screens. Will it handle thousands of anti-matter hits?”
“Probably not over an extended period; we need to double up on the number and go to 16 instead of eight. I’ll get a rush order in and see if we can get them here quickly. We’ll also use the 70 foot power cells on them. They will have a much broader field of fire and perhaps most of the missiles will be detonated before they reach the planet.”
“Have you thought about arming those forts with Pulse Penetrators and needles?”
" That is an excellent idea. I’ll get Tag to send the engineers to convert the existing forts to that technology and we’ll build it into the new ones.”
“Those asteroids are huge. How many penetrators can they handle and what is the range of the Penetrators?”
Kosiev munched his popcorn and then said, “I don’t know. The penetrators were primarily developed as a fleet weapon but I think we can increase the range if we add energy. These forts have that in abundance. Perhaps the
plants will have great difficulty getting close enough to launch their missiles. I’ll get the engineers on it now.”
Chapter 7
Danielle was sitting in her office answering questions on a form about what her needs would be in her new home on Ross. Rose at nine months was standing and holding on to the wall of her play pen watching her mother with obvious curiosity. Danielle pushed her com and said, “Leila, I’m expecting an engineer from Ross to arrive shortly to pick up this form I’m working on; please show him in when he arrives.”
Leila replied, “Yes, Your Majesty.”
Danielle gave a heavy sign and left her com on so Leila could hear it. She wondered if she would ever get used to the honorifics that came with her office. She looked at Rose who immediately smiled and started bouncing up and down at her mother’s attention. Danielle smiled at her blond hair, green eyed child and put the form down. She walked over and picked Rose up and sat down with her in her lap and began singing. Rose gave a shreek and started laughing out loud. Danielle caught the mood and began laughing herself. How many mothers can make their child laugh so hard just by singing?
Her com buzzed and Leila said, “Mr. Ereckson from Ross is here to pick up the form.”
“Send him in, Leila.”
A distinguished looking man dressed professionally entered and came forward and bowed. Rose looked at him with wide eyes. “Please rise and say hello to my daughter, Mr. Ereckson,” Danielle said,
“Good morning your majesty and hello Rose,” he said and offered his hand to the little girl. Rose reached out and grabbed his index finger and smiled. He smiled and shook her little hand.
“Mr. Ereckson, I’ve put as much information as I can think of on this questionnaire but I really trust the building team to just use their own judgment,” Danielle said. “I do appreciate all the effort that is going into building our home on Ross.