"Engage your targets, Jack."
"I'm on it, Major."
Jack reached the edge of the city and blasted two big tanks that stood right in the path of the Kilken. One of the turrets targeted him, cutting into his shields, and Jack dropped a Gel-pack on it. It fired on but didn't seem to be aimed at anything--Jack knew he killed the gunner. Jack ordered, "Watch for the turrets. Kill them instead of the tanks!"
Jack blasted a turret with one of his main cannons, cutting a nicely sized hole in it, and it too stopped firing. Then he blasted another big tank in the Kilken's way. The Kilken took care of their share of infantry. Jack flew ahead to the next batch of big tanks, and a turret started firing at him even though he flew just a few feet off the ground. It seriously cut into his shield. Jack blasted it with his fifties.
He faced more infantry using Humans as shields. Jack didn't hesitate. He dropped a Gel-pack and punched holes in the big tanks. The Kilken, in his rearview display, made short work of any surviving Lithor.
Jack blasted the last two big tanks in the path of the Kilken, and a turret cut down his shield to nothing and started carving on the side of his hover. He slammed his left control stick to the right to slide the tank away from the fire. He heard his computer, "Fuel tank rupture."
Jack spoke, "Computer, engage secondary fuel tank."
"Secondary fuel tank engaged."
"We just lost a hover, sector 15, Rodriguez," Wilson said. "Check it out, Jack."
Jack checked his map readout and barreled to sector 15. He saw the downed hover tank, and Lithor infantry surrounded it with laser rifles pointed at it. Jack swept left and right, cutting them down with his fifties. Jack radioed, "Rodriguez?"
"I'm hit bad. I don't think I can make it out of my hover, let alone make a run for it."
"You can wait for the powered suits to get this far. They'll help you."
"Sure, boss, sure…"
Rodriguez seemed to be gulping for air. "Should be painkillers in these tanks."
"Glovebox," Jack said.
Rodriguez howled. "A third liter of Scotch. Who knew?"
"You can thank me, later," Wilson said.
Jack could see the cluster of Lithor that had cut down Rodriguez. He steered for them and punched the gas. He used his main cannons on the turrets and dropped Gel-packs on the infantry.
The soldiers in powered suits learned the hard way that those turrets made Swiss cheese out of their armor. They lost at least sixty men and only covered between five and ten percent of the city. Wilson pondered whether or not it would be prudent to withdraw…
Another hover tank down, this time in section eight, then another and another, both in section 12. The Kilken fared well, and they had made it to the "pens" and released Humans left and right. More hovers went down, and more armored infantry died to the turrets.
Jack's computer spoke up, "Secondary fuel tank ruptured."
There is no tertiary fuel tank. Jack didn't even have enough power to land gracefully. He knew he had no time to waste. The Lithor would surround his tank, and he'd be captured for sure. He grabbed the blast rifle that came with the tank and a belt of ammo clips. He climbed out, looking left and right.
* * *
Kai heard the call on his headset, "All units, withdraw. All units fall back. Immediately."
He turned his back on Humans right in their pens. Kai radioed to his squad, "Form back into assault teams and evacuate."
His troop consisted of five assault teams which should have been near each other already. Each team had its own route to take through the city to get back to the ships. Kai's team had the longest path to follow to get back out. Once they regrouped, they started running. They heard on the radio, "There are tanks and turrets on seventh street… Argh!" then silence.
"More on fifth and sixth street!" then silence…
Kai's team turned a corner, and a tank opened fire at them with its cannon. A turret opened up as well. One of Kai's team shrieked and fell to the ground, dead. Kai ordered them, "Back up, we'll take that other side street."
Kai led them to the side street. He poked his head around the corner, another big tank and a turret placement awaited them. Kai radioed, "All units, is there a clear path? Major Wilson, is there a path on your scanner?"
Three Kilken spoke back, "No."
"They seem to have you cut off, Kai," Wilson said. "I'm sorry…"
Kai looked at the other three Kilken surrounding him. All three carried a multi-barrel blast rifle, not very cheap on ammo. They tended to fire in bursts of at least three.
"We make a stand here, or we go up against a tank head on," Kai said. "A well placed blast rifle might hit its munitions."
"I say tank."
"I agree, tank."
"We can make a stand later, let's kill the tank."
"On my mark…" Kai said. "Mark!"
All four Kilken dove headfirst into the street with the big tank, turret, and a few infantry. All four aimed for the seam separating the top of the big tank and the body of the armor. The tank went boom! But one of the Kilken fell to laser fire. Kai and the two other Kilken aimed for the turret next, cutting gaping holes in it. Then they cut into the Lithor infantry, making short work of them. They raced down the now clear street, heading towards the outskirts of town. They ran almost headlong into another big tank with infantry around it. Kai targeted the big tank and shouted, "Kill the infantry!"
After about twenty rounds from Kai's blast rifle the tank went boom, another Kilken fell. Kai helped finish off the rest of the infantry, "Ammo check."
His only companion said, "40."
"Damn-it, I'm down to 25 myself."
"Let's try running again."
They ran again for the outskirts of town. Another big tank moved directly into their path. They burned the last of their ammo trying to destroy the big tank. The Lithor shot and killed the warrior with Kai. He reached to the hilt of a sword he carried and drew it, eyeing the Lithor with bloody intent.
A Lithor spoke to him, "Come on, little guy. Put the knife down…"
"Come and take it, Lithor," Kai yelled.
The Lithor, he seemed to be of some rank, spoke, "Well, get him, boys!"
The Lithor rushed Kai, who jumped straight up in the air and spun, lashing out at the first Lithor's neck with the sword, cleanly cutting off his head. He landed on solid footing and slashed at the next Lithor's stomach, spilling intestines on the sidewalk. The rest of the Lithors slowed their approach and started to actually back away. Kai turned and looked behind him to see if he could run. He couldn't. Lithor marched down the street towards him.
One of the Lithor reached inside the big tank and pulled some kind of projectile weapon out of it. Kai saw it aim at him, but he didn't dodge in time. It fired something at him that knocked him to the ground, a bag of something. He lost the sword. It almost knocked him unconscious. Kai sat up and leapt to his feet, and four of the Lithor encroached upon him. One lined up nicely for Kai to jump kick, and he threw as much force into the kick as he knew how, snapping the Lithor's neck.
The other Lithor grabbed him when he landed, one on each arm and one ankle. Kai grabbed the arms of the one on his right and threw him to the ground. He threw his free hand into an uppercut at the one on his left's jaw, sending him sprawling. The one holding his ankle looked up at Kai who jerked his foot free and then slammed it down on the Lithor's face until blood spurted.
"Tackle him, grab him in the mid-section!"
A Lithor immediately grabbed Kai from behind along the midsection and picked him up. Kai hit at the Lithor's hands and arms to no avail. They chained Kai's feet together, then held him aloft upside down and chained his arms behind his back.
The Lithor that seemed to have rank said, "You'll make a nice souvenir…"
* * *
The Fleet armada waited as long as it could for stragglers and then lifted off to return to Orion. They faced utter defeat at Amber, only four hover tanks made it back, 35 men in powered suits, and three Kilken, She
ila among them. Major Wilson had calls to make--every dead soldier's families and all the missing in action families had to be called. He did it in an orderly fashion, alphabetically. He made about eighty calls when he dialed Lexi Grean up. He worked on his courage with Scotch.
"Hello, Mrs. Grean."
"Hello, Major Wilson, how did the battle go?"
Wilson took a slug from his liquor. "I'm afraid we lost, Mrs. Grean."
"What do you mean you lost? Where's Jack?"
"Jack's MIA."
"You son of a bitch, Wilson!" Lexi threw a glass of water against the video phone shattering the glass.
The water painted streaks across Wilson's view screen. "You should see a professional counselor, Lexi. Fleet isn't going to abandon you. You can still live on base housing and send your kids to Fleet schools."
"Wilson, you go back, and you find my husband."
"We can't do that, Mrs. Grean. You know we can't."
Chapter 26
A.D. 2133
The Attrition…
The Attrition slowed on approach to its second target, and their long range sensors picked up four Demon class Lithorian warships in orbit over the target planet. 'So be it,' thought her captain, Steve Creech. He ordered, "Battle Stations!"
The computer spoke, "All stations secure."
"Helm to my console."
Steve's chief pilot flipped a switch and said, "All yours, Captain."
"Batteries forward, fire all weapons on my mark."
Steve aimed the nose of the Corvette to point at the second Demon in the line and shouted, "Fire!"
The chief gunner pushed four buttons on his console, and four gunners crewing the batteries all held down their firing buttons. The Demon didn't have its shields powered, and The Attrition's weapons cut gaping holes in its hull. It started to spin out of control.
The chief engineer directed all power to recharging The Attrition's weapons, and Steve aimed the nose of his ship at the next Demon in line. The Lithor ships started accelerating and presumably powered shields. The computer chirped, "Weapons ready."
Steve shouted, "Fire!"
He caught the nose of the Demon, and its shields fell, but the energy weapons didn't have enough punch left in them to penetrate the ship's hull. Steve shouted, "Recharge!" and kept the nose of The Attrition pointed at the wounded Demon. Steve assumed that the Demons couldn't pick up his ship on their radar yet--The Attrition came equipped with about twice the sensor capability as those dated Lithorian warships.
The computer chirped, "Weapons ready." Steve stayed on target. He ordered, "Fire!" The weapons ripped holes in the hull of the Demon this time, hitting some type of munitions and causing secondary explosions from within the vessel.
The two remaining Demons cut a beeline towards The Attrition. They must either have been tracking it on radar or guessing its location based on the energy bolts. Steve started giving the ship a little gas, accelerating towards the Demons. He steered the nose of his ship directly towards the left enemy. When the computer bleeped, he ordered, "Fire!" again. Another direct hit, but the shields just barely caved, and the hull stayed in one piece. Steve instinctively dodged to the right, just before both Demons fired their weapons. They caught about half of one Demon's weapons on their shields. Julie called out, "Shields at 92%!"
Steve aimed for the left Demon again, the one with damaged shields. He fired on it, ripping a great hole in its side. Steve didn't like to miss. The fourth Demon turned to flee. Steve chased it down. They cut down its shield and then ripped into its hull.
They scouted in system closer to the Lithor planet, and it had one large population center. Steve called out, "Ready two atomics."
The chief gunner said, "Two atomics ready, Captain!"
Steve said, "Let them go at 10km altitude."
He steered the ship downward towards the population center. Energy pulses started to fire up at them from the city below. Steve ditched left and right trying to avoid them. Julie called out, "Shields at 90%."
At 20km altitude, Julie called out, "Shields at 80%."
Steve jerked the ship left and right as hard as the controls would let him. At 10km, the shields fell to 65%. Steve ordered, "Let loose with those atomics!"
Onboard computers would fly the nukes down, trying to steer them clear of energy pulses. Turret gunners watched as the missiles flew home. Steve pulled up hard on the control stick for The Attrition and punched the throttle all the way down. One turret gunner cursed, then the other one cursed, neither atomic detonated.
Steve called out, "How long 'til our shields are fully recharged?"
"Almost there now," Julie said. "Another sixty seconds, tops."
"Prepare four atomics. We'll drop them at 7.5km this time."
One of the turret gunners cried out, "We'll be killed!"
"If that's the order given," Julie said, "then it's a good day to die."
"Engineering," Steve said. "On my mark, when we release the atomics, drop shields and give me everything you've got on the engines, understood?"
"Aye, drop shields and give you max power."
"Boys and girls, this is going to be a rough ride, check your restraints."
Steve paused for a minute. Then he punched the control stick down and pushed the throttle all the way to max. Julie called out their shield percentages again. At 7.5km, Steve ordered, "Launch missiles, all power to engines!"
Four atomic missiles launched from The Attrition, and she pulled up at full force. The hull made creaking noises from the strain. One by one, the turret gunners watching atomic missiles called out, "Missile destroyed." All but the last one, and he seemed bent on taking his missile home. It detonated at 1km altitude. The blast rocked The Attrition but didn't breach her hull.
Steve activated the FTL communications to Fleet, "Target destroyed, down to two deployable atomics, please advise."
"Return to Orion for ordnance and new target list."
Chapter 27
A.D. 2116
The Lithor dark side…
The Lithor started constructing starships and power plants within a matter of days from the start of the treaty. Some of the poorer nations lagged behind. Some of them didn't have electrical grids, so a new kind of power plant didn't do them much good. As Humans and Kilken predicted, the Lithor believed in armed military ships. Sure, they built research ships and colonists ships as well, but their main shipbuilding efforts seemed to be warships.
Fleet spent years studying a planet before colonization started. The Lithor approved planets within a matter of months, sometimes weeks; they didn't follow standard quarantine procedure for things like bacteria and viruses. They wiped out species by the score on each planet that they even surveyed.
This didn't impress the Humans or Kilken, who took great care with untouched worlds, especially looking for intelligent life forms. The Lithor surveyed a world then started shipping hundreds of thousands of Lithor to that world, mostly to grow food for the rich nations of their planet.
It started simply. A Lithorian science vessel, if they could be called that, crossed the border into Human space to a planet of interest to the Humans. The Lithorian ship flew in on the dark side of the planet for the Fleet outpost, and they didn't notice the craft. Within a few weeks the birds died in large numbers. Humans did a flyby of the globe to see if the birds died in other regions. They noticed the Lithor presence.
"Lithor craft, identify yourself."
"Science Station C-1131."
"You're in Human space. Lithor craft, did you suffer a malfunction?"
The Lithor held his gray skinned hands up palm towards the video screen. "No, we're just collecting specimens from this planet."
The Human captain clenched his fists and resisted the urge to use profanity. "You have contaminated this planet. Species of birds are being wiped out!"
"Sorry for the inconvenience. If there is a problem, we shall leave."
"There's a problem Science Station C-1131. Leave Human space imm
ediately!"
"Affirmative," the Lithor said.
Thirteen known species of bird had been wiped out, two amphibian species, one that they thought might be intelligent. They grew two meters in length from toes to nose and built stone pyramids. A kind of tree started developing a fungus that only grew on the Lithorian homeworld until now. Fleet scrapped their efforts on that planet.
Chapter 28
A.D. 2133
Jack survives…
Jack hit the ground running. Before he crashed, he looked at his tactical display, and there appeared to be an unguarded path out of the city. He'd be heading north and west. He ran on. When he could see a clump of Lithor surrounding a big tank, he dodged into an alleyway heading west. The north road seemed blocked again, and he ran across the street through the alley. He turned north, and as far as he could see, the street looked good. He used the sights on his blast rifle to see to the street's end, and Lithor waited there.
Jack ran right for them anyhow. He knew he needed to make tracks. After four blocks, he could discern the Lithor in his path. He turned to the left again and ran to the next street. He looked right and left. On his left side, Lithor stood in front of him practically, and the right side, the direction he wanted to go in seemed clear. He turned right and ran for it, hoping the Lithor wouldn't give chase. Laser blasts hit the ground by his feet--they must be aiming for his legs, he thought.
He zagged through another alleyway and turned right again, and the edge of the city was in the distance. He ran as fast as his feet would push on the ground. His heart started to thump in his chest; he slowed down just a tiny bit, waiting for his second wind. Then a Lithor stepped directly into his path. Without even thinking, Jack put the blast rifle to his shoulder and cut down his enemy.
He stopped cold in the middle of the street and zoomed with his blast rifle sights. He didn't see any signs of life, and he started running again for the edge of town. He ran and ran. With about three blocks left to reach the wheat field, the laser blasts started hitting the ground around him. He spun around, and two Lithor were aiming laser rifles at him. He cut them down with precision and then turned to run for the wheat field.
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