by Saxon Andrew
“Anytime you want to drive, just let me know. Hold on!” The Attack Pod flipped and reversed course as more disruptors began locking in on its force field. Windy saw her force field disappear as Pan banked 180 degrees away from the ship. The field came back on as Pan came around in a tight spiral and disruptor beams flashed behind it looking like a dotted line chasing it. Pan suddenly dove by the missiles port Windy had hit and Windy fired all three disruptors at the middle of the giant.
Pan went vertical but was hit six times before the huge Battleship blew up in a massive blast. Pan whipped away from two Myot Battleships that came at it from two different directions. The two fired at Pan but lost lock as it circled under the closest. Windy didn’t have time to fire on either ship. Pan was completely defensive struggling to avoid the thousands of ships moving around her in open space. Windy yelled, “Skip Out!”
Pan skipped away and turned back toward the massive space battle. “Pan, we can’t attack inside that formation. Those battleships are hitting each other and there’s no way to keep track of all of them.”
“You’re right. I should have skipped out earlier. I’ll designate one on the outer edge of their formation. Ready to go?”
“Skip us in.”
• • •
Pan suddenly appeared next to a half-mile long Myot Battleship and Windy saw an Attack Pod Explode above the giant. More than eighty disruptor beams hit it and Windy felt rage at the loss of the ship. She set the disruptors to fire continuously at the stern. In less than a second, nine disruptor beams blew into the rear of the ship detonating a magazine of nuclear missiles. Pan sensed the run-away nuclear reaction and skipped away an instant before the magazine went up in a huge nuclear blast. Two Myot Battleships were damaged by the shockwave that blew out close to light speed and were quickly dispatched by six Attack Pods.
Windy tried to catch her breath. She shook her head and said, “Get us back in the fight.”
“Your pulse rate says we should wait a moment.”
“If my heart slows down, I’ll not be reacting fast enough. Get us back in, now!” A moment later, Pan skipped back in. Windy destroyed four more ships before two disruptors blew apart and she had to withdraw. The repair crews found more than seven severely burned places on her Pod’s hull. She was fortunate the disruptors failed or she would have attacked the next target with a weakened force field.
• • •
“Trio, I think the ship I just designated is one of their Flagships.”
“It is being protected by ten others.”
“Can you get in close?”
“Hang on!” The Attack Pod spiraled over the top of the huge Myot Battleship and dove at an impossible angle.
Chad said, “Fire.” Three beams lanced out and hit the battleship directly over its engine reactors and the entire back third of the ship vaporized sending a huge blast of flames toward the front of the stricken ship. The superheated flames blew into the main reactor room and the giant disappeared in a giant blast. Trio skipped out and turned for another run. The Myot and Welken survivors were skipping away. “Trio, how many escaped?”
“About twenty thousand Myot and fifteen thousand Welken if my visuals were accurate.”
“Did we have any losses?”
“Three hundred Pods were hit by more than a hundred disruptors. All were disintegrated. We lost another fifty-seven that couldn’t avoid a battleship and were rammed. When the two fleets broke formation, there were too many moving from too many directions and that’s what caused those losses.”
“We need to come up with a plan on how to stop that.”
“I think you take the great Mohammed Ali’s advice.”
Chad smiled, “What is that?”
“Stick and move! Fire and skip out. There’s too many ships in a small area. Collisions are unavoidable if you’re among them. I think the possibility of our fleets and theirs arriving at the same location is remote. However, this is a lesson about sending too many ships into the middle of their formations.”
Chad sighed, “That means you can only attack one target at a time.”
“That’s how it must be until they spread out.”
“I have to agree.”
“Some of those damaged ships are still firing at us.”
Chad’s eyes narrowed and he said over his communicator, “All ships near those battleships still firing their weapons will move in and take them out.”
“What about the ones that are damaged and not firing?”
“Leave them. We’ll not risk our ships approaching them.” Chad pressed another frequency, “Good job, Sergy.”
“Thank you, Admiral. They made a mistake emerging in the middle of our formations. I don’t think they’ll make that mistake again.”
“We can only hope they do if we get the same results. However, the chances of that happening are small. Let’s wrap this up, turn off our force fields and skip back to the Moon.
“Yes Sir.”
Chad shook his head, This was too easy. Sergy was right, next time would be harder. He thought for a moment and said, “Trio, how would you skip in next time if you were in their place?”
“First thing I would do is mix the ships so that the Myot and Welken would be forced to work together. I’d also have them firing their disruptors continuously on emergence.”
“They would have to be spread out to do that?”
“Yes, but everything between their ships would be hit by hundreds of blasters between them and there would be limited approaches to the ones on the outer edges.”
“Have we determined how far out we can fire and still penetrate their force fields?”
“You’ll need to get the videos from the probes to analyze the recordings to see. I think all of our pilots have been trained to skip in close to attack.”
Chad shook his head and sent the request to Jinks and Stoney at Fleet headquarters. The disruptors on the Myot and Welken ships were much more powerful than the ones used by the Johan. Tactics were going to have to be changed if the next attack was done like Trio thought.
• • •
Trevor looked at the four sitting at the table with him and said, “We need to make a change in our disruptors.”
Lukas frowned and saw Salud enter the room. He waved her over and said, “Why would we do that?”
I’ve been running some simulations on what Chad said the attackers might do next time and it doesn’t look good.”
Jinks looked away from the panel and turned to Trevor, “Why do you say that?”
“We’ve scanned one of the damaged Myot Battleships and the size of the reactors on it are larger than I thought. They can emerge into normal space and fire their disruptors continuously until they arrive in orbit. Their fleets would be surrounded by a giant wall of disruptor beams. Getting through them would be…difficult.”
Lukas stared at the video as it started again showing a Myot Battleship firing all of its disruptors continuously. It managed to escape without being hit. It was a certainty that the Myot and Welken leaders would see what it did to escape. “So moving in against them even with our force fields down and being invisible wouldn’t work if they used this tactic?”
Trevor nodded, “It would be certain death to go in those beams without a force field operating.”
Stoney shook his head, “So what can we do about it?”
Trevor leaned back in his chair, “Either the force fields will have to be strengthened a lot more than they’re capable of right now.”
Salud said, “Or?”
“The disruptors would have to be three times more powerful to hit them from a longer distance.”
Lukas looked at Trevor, “Which option can be perfected before the next invasion?”
“I’m glad you said which; both aren’t possible to modify in the time before they come back. Strengthening the disruptors is the most likely option we can try.”
“How would we do that, Trevor?”
Trevor looked at Amanda
and she said, “We have to maximize the power available to them. Right now the power is split between the force fields and the disruptors. We’re going to have to have the power operate in a split fashion.”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
Amanda looked at Lukas, “When one of our Pods is close to their fleets, they will be hit by a wall of disruptor beams. Further out, the beams will start to separate as the individual beams start to break from their overlap. Our Pods can move in between the beam and fire their disruptors at the ship using all of the power available.”
“Can the disruptors handle that much power?”
Trevor shook his head, “They will not be able to fire more than one at a time. Each disruptor can fire a one second blast and then have to cool for two seconds.”
Lukas sighed, “So that means each Pod will be able to fire one shot every second?” Trevor nodded. “Will they be powerful enough to get through the wall of disruptor beams and hit their ships?”
Amanda said, “We’re going to change the power of the fuel in the Pod’s reactors.”
“What?”
“When Willow and I originally designed the reactors we built them with safety as the main consideration. We’ve found during the last battles that we can use a more powerful fuel and still be ok.”
“What do you mean by OK?”
Amanda looked at Salud, “So far, none of our reactors have exploded even when the Pod was hit and violently rocked. If a Pod is really rocked, the fusion reaction in the reactor’s containment walls might be shaken against the wall and melt it.”
Salud shook her head, “Our pilots will be in much more danger if you do this?” Amanda nodded.
Trevor shook his head, “This is the only way to produce a disruptor beam strong enough to break through their wall of beams and hit their ships.” Trevor saw the group’s reluctance and said, “Please keep in mind that the gravity compensators will also be using a much higher power level when the force field is active and it will reduce the shock when the pods are hit.”
Stoney started slowly shaking his head, “But how long will the force field be down to fire the disruptor?”
“The disruptor will fire and the field will only be down a thousandth of a second. The disruptor will not fire until the field drops.”
Lukas looked at the group, “Do we have a choice about doing this?” The five looked at him in silence and he said, “Once their ranks are thinned out, the wall of beams won’t be solid, will it?” Trevor shrugged and then shook his head. “Then we need a method to convert the pods back to their normal operation where they can move in on the attackers.”
Trevor nodded, “That is a software issue that can be programmed into the new process.”
“How long is it going to take to modify our ships?”
“The fuel is being produced by the converters now. Each Pilot will put on protective gear and put it into his ship. The programming will be done when they bring their pods in.”
Lukas looked at them and said, “Start bringing them in and have the Pods update their pilots on the new programing. Make sure the Fleet Commanders are the first ones updated so they can work on the strategy and tactics needed to make this work.”
Stoney looked at Trevor, “What about the Defense Pods?”
“This is going to make them extremely dangerous to approach. Their beams are going to be devastating and extend their range four times what it is now.”
“Does the one second between shots still apply?”
Amanda nodded, “It does but remember that they have two reactors and eight disruptors. They’ll be firing two beams every second.”
Stoney nodded and said, “Get the Attack Pods done first.”
Trevor smiled, “Actually, the facilities on Earth will make the conversion for the Defense Pods. You can start sending your Pods there now. The Attack Pods will be done here on the Moon.”
Lukas stood up, “Let’s get moving. We’ve got to make this happen quickly.” The group disbanded and left the room. Lukas looked at Salud and saw her anxiety, “This has to be done.”
“But it makes it so much more dangerous for our ships.”
“It was going to become more dangerous as soon and the Welken and Myot entered the equation. We’ll lose less this way and the planet would be hit for certain if we don’t do it.”
Salud nodded and looked at the monitor still playing the recording from the last battle, “How many do you expect to come next time?”
Lukas nodded at the monitor, “Those are just a drop in the bucket. Earth may still be hit.”
Salud nodded and stared at the monitor showing the thousands of Battleships. Lukas took her hand and pulled her out of the room. She couldn’t take her eyes off the monitor as he pulled her away.
• • •
Jinks looked at the wall monitor and saw the new leader of the United Nations, “We expect another attack soon. I think it would be a good idea to stay out of the major cities.”
The Leader nodded, “I’ve been asked what would happen if we just surrendered. Could we expect good treatment by the aliens if we did?”
Jinks shook his head, “The normal procedure of taking a planet is to kill every leader, or important person on the planet, and then kill sixty percent of the population. They would then round up the survivors and force them into labor camps to start building warships. They would exhaust the planet’s natural resources and this would continue for generations. By the time the natural resources were exhausted, the humans still surviving would continue to build warships and be forced to join the crews on their battleships.”
“That’s not a pretty picture, Admiral Jekins.”
“No and it’s not close to the real horror of their occupation.”
“I thought as much. I just needed to hear you say it so I could share it with all the people on Earth. I’ve ordered underground survival bunkers to be built around the planet. The machines you sent us to do that are a real Godsend.”
“How are you coming along with them?”
“We’re making real progress and the people using them are coming together in their willingness to take part in protecting each other. There are many that want to join you in the fight.”
“We’re going to need them. If there’s anything we can do to help, please let me know.”
“You do what you do best. We’ll do what we can on the planet.”
The monitor went dark and Jinks shook his head. It looked like mankind was coming together. There was nothing like a common enemy that to make humans realize how important they were to each other.
“Admiral?”
Jinks reached over and pressed the illuminated button on his panel, “Yes.”
“Three of the five fleets have been modified. The other two are being replaced and are moving in to the modification facilities.”
“Thank you, Julie.”
“Sir, have you thought about who is going to take command of the new fleet?”
“I’ve decided that Windy Davis will be the new Commander.”
“She’s an excellent choice, Sir. She’s our first Space Ace.”
“She deserves it. We’re lucky she survived.”
“That we are, Sir.”
“I’ll expect you and the other Admirals to send ten percent of your veterans to her and take ten percent of the new pilots.”
“Fleet has made the assignments. Many of our veterans don’t like being reassigned but I think they’ll be ok once they meet their new Admiral. Windy is a special person.”
“Have you come up with tactics to use the new disruptors?”
“Chad came up with the idea of taking out every other ship in the outer layer and firing through the gaps. The only way the ships inside their formations can fire at us is to run the risk of killing the remaining ships in the outer layer.”
“They can just move ships out into the gaps.”
“I suspect that no ship commander would be willing to move there without a direct
order. That will take a lot of time to move that many ships. In the meantime, we’ll be taking them out in the gaps.”
“Tell Chad good work.”
“I will, Sir. He is also a very special person.”
“You’re a little prejudiced, aren’t you?”
“More than a little, Sir. I’m so lucky he didn’t give up on me.”
“He got a good deal as well, Admiral. Keep up the great work.”
“Yes Sir.”
Jinks saw his panel illuminate again and he pressed the button, “Hey Boss.”
“It’s good to hear from you, Stoney. How are the mods coming?”
“We’re about done. What about you?”
“I still have two fleets. This is taking longer than I thought.”
“That’s why I called you; what’s taking the next attack so long?”
“Lukas is of the opinion that the Welken and Myot are having some infighting and that’s what’s causing the delay.”
“Do you agree?”
“It could be playing a role but if they’re bringing as many ships as I suspect, it takes time to plan that large of an attack.”
“It took months to plan a major attack in Iraq.”
“Yes it did and that was with units that wanted to work together. I don’t how long this is going to take but we’ll have ten minutes of warning when they’re coming. That’s enough time to get our forces in position.” Jinks paused, “Stoney, I know the Defense Pods aren’t nimble enough for combat in open space but have you trialed using one reactor to power the force field and the other to power the disruptors?”
“No, why would I do that?”
“What was the weapon that won the most land battles?”
“The Abrams.”
“That’s because their heavy armor allowed them to penetrate enemy positions to use their high velocity cannons to destroy their units. How much can your Defense Pods handle?”