by Saxon Andrew
• • •
Amet arrived back at Bristone sixteen hours later and sent a contact request to Jon. “Welcome back, did you accomplish anything?”
“Yes and no.”
“Tell me what you mean.”
“We are now able to release the energy we captured from the star such that it completely surrounds the ships. That will prevent any Dremor from gaining entry.”
Jon said, “But…”
“We can’t use any of our weapons or force fields while that energy is being released; that means we will be susceptible to the Megat warship’s beams.”
Jon thought a moment and said, “You will be a Dremor Killer extraordinaire.”
“I’m not sure I follow you, Sir.”
“What do you think the Dremor will do if we’re able to take out Megat Ships by teleporting in and firing from outside the Dremor cloud?”
“They will probably have the Megat Fleets move into a smaller formation.”
“That means the Megat beams will be a long way from the outer edge of the Dremor cloud. Our ships could fly through that cloud and make life miserable for the Dremor.”
Amet thought about it and said, “We could possibly clear a path through the cloud so that the Algeans can move close enough to launch on the Megat Fleet.”
“Talk with Sprigly about that possibility. I do expect you will now have a part in the coming confrontation. Just be careful.”
Amet nodded absently and looked for Sprigly’s frequency.
• • •
The Megat Ruler said, “The ships from those two planets can jump into our ranks, fire, and then jump away faster than you can imagine. Are you certain you can protect my ships?”
“All of your ships will be completely surrounded by five of our fleets. If a ship appears in our ranks, it will be killed faster than they could ever fire on you. They will have to emerge on top of my warriors and no ship can respond fast enough to target and fire their weapons.” The Supreme Spirit looked at the huge fleet, “How many of the beam ships are you taking?”
“Everyone in our inventory in this universe; fifty will be used to destroy the installations above the two planets.”
“I sense you’re nervous. What is bothering you?”
The Megat said, “I’m going to depend on you to keep their ships away from the Dreadnaughts. I’m having them use all of their power in the main beam. The secondary beams that normally defend them from the sides and rear will not be operational.”
“You need not worry about your ships. They will be defended. How much longer before you’re ready to move your ships?”
“We’ll be in formation in twelve more hours. The last twelve Dreadnaughts will arrive ten hours from now.”
“We will leave prior to your ships and be waiting for them to arrive. Make sure you come to the designated location.”
“We will be at that exact coordinate.”
“Then you will arrive and be protected by my fleets.”
The Megat saw the communicator turn dark and he leaned back in his chair. He almost wished the Dremor would not survive the coming battle. But that was wishful thinking. He knew his species were now slaves to their demands.
The final Dreadnaughts arrived and recharged their reactors. Two hours later the giant fleet jumped and arrived in the outer system of a type-G star. The Megat Fleets were surrounded by a grey colored cloud that extended sixty miles beyond their ships. The Fleet Commander looked at his panel and said, “Start moving forward.”
The giant grey colored mass began moving toward the star and began picking up speed.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Admiral Mandel came on every display and said, “The Dremor have arrived and I expect the Megat ships momentarily. All Realm Forces will go to general quarters and start the plan to defend the planet.”
Leaves thought to the engineers, “Teleport the Jump Penetrators to their assigned location. Algean pilots, prepare your ships for the high speed run into the enemy formations. All Asteroid Forts are now weapons free. Go active with the force field when the incoming fleets arrive at Mars orbit.”
Jon punched the general frequency, “Move to your positions and conserve power until the force field is breeched. You know what you have to do. Make the Realm proud.” Jon looked at his display and hoped Molly was going to be ok. He started to teleport to his command position and briefly wondered why Molly came to his mind and not Juliette. He tried not to but he remembered Molly’s last hug. He put it out of his mind and disappeared.
The Life Warriors teleported to their assigned positions in and around the castle, they deactivated their armor, and waited, hoping they were not going to be needed.
• • •
Leaves looked at the three thousand Jump Penetrators and checked the diagnostic signal coming from their computers. All but two of them were showing green and he removed the two from the mix. The missiles were located more than sixty light years from Bristone and Leaves watched the feed being sent from the forts. He saw the hundred Algean Attack Ships arrive and he checked their teleport coordinates against the Jump Penetrator’s jump drives. The penetrators were going to have to use null space drives to arrive at the battle scene and there was a slight difference in arrival times between the two groups using different drives that had to be factored in.
Leaves saw the jumps and teleports matched and he thought to the Algean Pilots, “We will jump the penetrators in and start their runs fifty seconds out from the Dreadnaughts. You will follow the main body of missiles into the enemy fleet. The second wave of penetrators will be jumped in twenty seconds from the Dreadnaughts and start their run from that location. They will arrive slightly ahead of the enemy scan of the main body of missiles and we hope their scan will cause the enemy ships to lose their scan of the main body of incoming penetrators. Stay behind the missiles and you should be safe until they impact. You’ll only have an instant to fire on the Dreadnaughts before the Dremor can attack. Hit them and get out. Don’t be stupid and linger; that means certain death. You have your target. Hit it and run.”
Leaves turned back to his display and watched the feed. He was thankful that Algeans were plants and had incredible reaction time. The pilots were going to need that ability shortly. He watched the feed and waited for the Dreadnaughts to move to the front of the incoming fleets and assume a stationary firing position. It wasn’t going to be much longer. He watched the pilots move in behind the penetrators and he hoped they survived. He looked at his board showing the three hundred penetrators of the second group that were located ten miles behind the main group. He saw the engineer send the green signal that they were ready. He set the launch time in the board and it automatically set the countdown to start the moment the first group jumped. From this point on, everything was going to be automatically controlled by computer. Leaves leaned back and waited. His only remaining task was to press a single button. He placed one of his branches on it and looked back at the display. He hoped the team at Ross was ready. He put that thought out of his mind and continued to stare at his display.
• • •
The Megat fleet arrived two hundred miles from the forts and stopped. The fifty Dreadnaughts moved forward and formed a line in front of the massive fleet. Thousands of warships moved to each side of the Dreadnaughts to fire on any missiles that were launched at them from the planet. The Dremor between the Dreadnaughts and the planet moved aside as the giant ships prepared to fire on the forts. That’s when things started happening too fast to follow.
• • •
Leaves saw the Dreadnaughts move forward and come to a stop. He waited until the forts launched a massive missile barrage at the huge fleet. He saw the Megat warships start firing at the missiles and he pressed the button and watched his display. The main group of penetrators disappeared and twenty five seconds later the second group of penetrators disappeared. Leaves saw them emerge into normal space on his display and accelerate at an unbelievable speed toward the gi
ant ships directly below them. The thousands of warships on each side of the Dreadnaughts had all their beams targeted toward the planet and were killing a massive missile barrage that was moving in on the Dreadnaughts. Their scanners began alarming but there was no time to fire on the incoming missiles coming over the top of the formation. The Dremor rushed toward the three hundred missiles but did not arrive in time to support the Dremor in the path of the incoming missiles. The Dremor saw that these incoming projectiles did not have a life form, so they could do nothing but watch them come roaring in. They found out at that moment that the force field surrounding the huge missiles was the same as the one around the planet. The Dremor are the fastest moving species ever encountered by the Realm; but they weren’t fast enough to move out of the path of the incoming missiles and a hundred thousand of them died. The Dreadnaughts could do nothing; all of their secondary weapons were inactive. The first wave of penetrators hit the Dreadnaughts and staggered them, but did not penetrate their powerful force fields. As soon as the blast cleared the sensor officers on them saw the next wave and only had enough time to stare at them before it hit.
The Dremor in front of the second wave had watched their warriors die that were in the path of the first wave. The second wave was more than three miles wide when it hit the cloud of Dremor surrounding the Megat Fleet and millions died as it blew through their ranks at half the speed of light. Millions of Dremor flew from the incoming wave as fast as they could. None of them could move back in on the Algean Attack Craft flying close behind the second wave. Some of the Dremor at the edge of the giant grey cloud attempted to fall in behind the penetrators as they passed, but they could not come close to matching the speed of the huge missiles.
• • •
Every Dreadnaught had fifty Jump Penetrators target on it and the first thirty six to hit the force field demolished it. The Algeans arrived to find the giant ships burning and exploding. They fired their main beams into the giant ships and teleported away just as the Dremor from below the Dreadnaughts came rushing around. The fifty Dreadnaughts were hit in their reactors and the resulting explosion destroyed more than fifteen thousand Megat Warships that were holding position next to them. The shock wave blew out and scattered thousands of Megat ships like leaves in a hurricane and killed millions of Dremor in its path.
• • •
Jon watched the destruction and pressed his com, “Amet, I don’t want you hitting their transports.”
“Why not, Sir? We can take them out.”
“And if we happen to win, the survivors will scatter out in Bristone’s system and no ship will ever be safe. We need them to leave.”
Amet said, “That’s why you get paid the big credits.”
Jon looked at Amet with a puzzled expression and said, “Do you mean we get paid for this?”
Amet laughed and said, “You need to check your fleet account.” Amet disappeared from Jon’s display.
The Megat Fleet Commander yelled into his panel, “You said you could defend us?”
“Those were unmanned vessels. Move the remainder of your fleet forward and start firing on the forts.”
“We need to get out of here.”
“You will do as I command or we will kill every one of you. Now start firing at those rocks.”
The Commander nodded to his Communications Officer and the remaining seventy five thousand ships began moving toward the planet.
• • •
Molly watched the survivors of the Jump Penetrators start moving closer to Ross. They weren’t going to give up. She hoped the forts could hold out, but she knew the probability wasn’t good. Without ships coming to take on the Megat Fleet, it was a matter of time before the forts ran out of power. She looked up at the sky and knew death was not far overhead.
• • •
Amet set the coordinates for the three ships and they spread out. He looked at his display and saw that the Dremor Transports were at the back of the Grey Cloud furthest from the planet. He locked in the other two ships to his stardrive and expanded the burning force field to twenty miles. The sister ships joined him and the sixty mile wide bright force field grew in intensity as more power was added. Amet saw that most of the Megat ships were close to the front of the grey cloud surrounding them and he targeted the back of the Dremor Cloud. “Here we go lads.”
The Dremor watched as the forts were being hit by thousands of beams from the Megat fleet. Suddenly three large ships blew through their ranks moving at high speed. None of the Dremor in their path could move fast enough to escape the sixty mile wide path of destruction. More than ten million Dremor died in the two seconds it took for the three ships to fly through their ranks. The Superior Spirit watched the force fields around the forts grow dimmer, but would they fail before most of his warriors were killed?
• • •
Molly watched the force fields around the forts grow dimmer and she knew the Dremor were going to get through. One of her warriors walked up and said, “Sir, can you tell me what’s causing my diagnostic system to send an error message.”
Molly said, “Can’t you see I’m busy!?”
“I’m sorry, Sir. I just wanted to be ready.”
Molly turned and said, “I’m sorry, private. Come back here and let’s have a look.” Molly looked at his armor and said, “It appears your atmosphere relay on the old armor is sticking open.” She paused and said, “There is also an issue with one of your old armor’s suit jets. Run a cleaner rod up the thruster on your left leg.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
Molly turned back to her display and said, “It’s just like cleaning out a ship’s thrusters.” Suddenly she jumped out of her chair and punched her communicator. She couldn’t get through the static at Bristone. She checked and Jon wasn’t linked with his bothers. Come on, Jon. Link!!! She waited and watched the forts grow dimmer and she shouted her frustration, “Greesht, Jon. LINK!!!!”
“Molly, what do you want?”
Molly was shocked. Jon wasn’t linked but he heard her, “Jon, our old armor is made to fight in a vacuum and zero gravity. It has jets to propel it.”
“Yeah, so what?”
“Jon, will a mini-penetrator destroy a Megat Warship?”
Jon was puzzled for a moment and then he understood. He punched his com, “Admiral Mandel, will a mini-penetrator kill a Megat Warship?”
“Only if it’s fired from close range.”
“How close?”
“Half a mile is best.”
“Molly, half a mile or closer.”
“Got it.”
Jon hit his general frequency, “Activate your armor and teleport out into the ranks of the Megat fleet. Use your old armor’s jets to move and fire a mini-penetrator from closer than half a mile at the enemy’s ships. Turn control over to your melody and prepare to jump in ten seconds.”
The two thousand six hundred Life Warriors activated their armor and focused on their armor. Suddenly, they were in the close ranks of the Megat Fleet.”
The Superior Spirit saw the small beings appear in the ranks of Megat ships and watched as his warriors moved in to attack the intruders. He looked closer and saw thousands of his forces die when they hit the bright force field around the white beings. He then saw more than two thousand Megat ships explode in blasts that were so hot that many of the Dremor around them died in the shock wave. It felt horror as more than two thousand Megat ships were exploding every second. It looked around and saw the three large ships come rushing in from the bottom of the massive grey cloud and three million more Dremor died. It looked back at the forts and saw that they were growing brighter. Their power sources were recharging.
• • •
Cpl. Jill Jenson teleported in next to a Megat Main Battleship and launched a mini-penetrator out her chest armor. The small missile ignited and flew at the giant ship at incredible speed, slamming through the force field and hitting the ship in one of its major munitions room. Jill had already jumped away wh
en the massive explosion roared out from the giant ship’s destruction. The blast hadn’t moved further than the large ship’s force field before Jill had killed another ship. Jill listened to the music and chose the next ship that could be killed without harming any of the Life Warriors. It blew up faster than the others and Jill focused a little more intently on her armor’s music. This was like picking berries off bushes. She hummed and three more battleships were killed before she finished the tune and started another. Everywhere around her, ships were dying.
• • •
Teg teleported in and fired three mini-penetrators in less than half a second as he teleported to his next target. The three ships exploded as he arrived between two ships and pulled his swords that grew to blades that were two miles long. He cut the two ships in half and moved away. The four pieces hung in space for a moment until one of the reactors went critical and blew the other three pieces into rubble.
• • •
Dern arrived in a ten ship squadron that was closely packed. He fired four mini-penetrators and pulled his swords and cut six ships in half. He moved above the damaged ships and launched a mini-penetrator at the missile storage in a main battle ship located in the center of the ten ships. The resulting blast set off chain reaction explosions in the other ships and the final blast killed six more Megat ships that were close by.
• • •
Jongel arrived next to a Megat troop carrier and he launched a penetrator at it. A main battleship was able to fire one of its main beams at Jongel and he died instantly. He had lost his focus when he felt bad for killing so many onboard the troop carrier. The Life Warriors that maintained their focus lived. The two hundred and twenty six that didn’t died.