by Saxon Andrew
“I can’t move my heavy beams into the city; the streets are too narrow.”
“Then if you can get your warriors to fire enough of their shoulder weapons from close range that might make it happen.”
The Commander knew he had no choice. If he refused to send in his warriors, the Elders would execute him for cowardice. “How close do they need to be to cause it to fail?”
“Ten thousand at a hundred yards should do it.”
The Commander didn’t know the capability of the enemy’s weapons but huge numbers weren’t required to make it happen. He looked at his Support Officer, “Send the first Grip.”
The female lifted her communicator and began issuing orders.
• • •
“General Daniels.”
“Yes Sir.”
“Our scanners show more than thirty thousand Gracken Warriors are moving into the city on side streets. My ship’s computer tells me that your force field is holding against those aircraft. If they had one more in the air, it would have probably failed. The ones shot down by your escaping carriers are what has made the difference. I suspect they’re sending those warriors in to fire their weapons to bring it down.”
“Thank you, Sir. We’ll do what we can to prevent that happening.”
• • •
Derek pressed his communicator, “We have 30,000 Gracken Warriors saddling up to come riding in to our corral. There’s only four routes through the buildings so I want seven tanks assigned to each street. I want you to ripple fire your antipersonnel rounds and don’t slow down until they stop coming. I’m of the opinion that once those mahogany hulks start discharging their hormones they’ll not stop. I want every fire zone around those streets covered by the infantry’s shoulder blasters. I want levels of fire so that you cover every zone from four feet to twenty feet off the ground. Officers, notify me when you have your zones assigned.” Derek looked at Halley and pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
“What was that for?”
“I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time. I figured now was a good time.”
Halley shook her head, “You should have done this in training camp. We’ve wasted a lot of time.” Halley smiled and started walking to the right, “I’ll take Rizzo’s command.” Derek nodded and turned toward Jennings’ Battalion.
Romanov assigned his tanks and issued orders, “I want the ripple timed such that the first tank in each group is firing immediately after the last. We are going to have to keep them off the beach and force field complex. Load up and set your rounds to explode fifty yards from the street.”
• • •
“Mike, why aren’t those warships attacking?”
“I don’t know Jesse. I think we have them worried.”
Tilly thought a moment and said, “Hot Shot, can you tell which one of those ships is the command vessel?”
“Most of their communications are being sent by the large warship in the center of the formation.”
Adams heard the exchange and said, “Would it be possible to hit that ship from this range?”
Bowen entered the conversation, “Get real, Adams. They’re fifty miles away. That shot is impossible.”
Tuffy said, “It’s difficult, but not impossible.”
Everyone on the channel was silent. After a moment Tilly said, “I made the suggestion to pass some time. You don’t seriously think you could hit that ship, do you?”
“It’s not moving. There isn’t anything to cause the shot to deviate; we’re in zero gravity and there’s no atmosphere. Aiming will be the most difficult part. Of course, the shell will take twenty five seconds to get there which will allow it plenty of time to get out of the way.”
Mike thought about the idea and said, “Hot Shot, how far can you extend your force field?”
“My datacenter says the shield can be extended forty miles in space. Why do you ask?”
Mike’s eyebrows lowered, “What if you extend your force field as soon as we fire the shell. What do you think those ships would do?”
“I have absolutely no idea.”
Adams looked at Jeanette and then said, “What about this? Each ship will extend their field for twenty seconds and then pull it back in. We’ll start this process and see what happens. If they move, we’ll keep it up until they ignore it. Now I have to ask, why would we do this?”
Tilly said, “Well, if they can’t detect the shell that’s been fired behind our force field, then it will arrive ten miles from their location as it breaks through. At two miles a second, it would arrive at that flagship in five seconds.”
“They would still have time to move out of the way.”
Tilly shook her head, “I’m not so sure about that, Peter.”
“I could get out of the way in half a second.”
“You aren’t them, Pete. Are their ships flown by computer?” None one spoke. “Well, are they?”
After a moment, Pete said, “I’ve just reviewed all the footage we have of their warships in action and it doesn’t appear they are.”
Tilly smiled, “If they’re not. The usual command structure on a starship is to have a pilot that flies the ship and another individual that operates the scanners; or am I wrong about that?”
Pete said, “No, that’s too much for an individual to perform.”
Tilly nodded and said, “Pete, as soon as you hear the first word in what I’m about to say, start timing my words.”
“Ready.”
“Sir, I have something coming straight at us. Get us underway, now!” Tilly stopped.
Pete said, “4.86 seconds.”
Tilly leaned back in her chair, “Can they move out of the way in twelve hundreds of a second?”
Tuffy said, “If the shell is fired at the front third of the ship, there’s no way it can move fast enough.”
Hot shot blurted, “I think it’s impossible to even hit it from this distance much less the front third.”
Mike smiled, “Tuffy was the first ship to have the cannons installed and has a lot more time firing them. If any of us can do it, it will be Tuffy.”
“Thank you, Commandant. I also have one small advantage.”
“What is that?”
“When the guns were originally installed they were bore sighted with lasers. Those lasers are still mounted on the rear of four cannons. I’ll just pop open the barrel and fire the laser through it. Once it hits that ship’s force field, the cannon is aimed.”
“They’ll see the laser.”
“It’s a sighting laser. It’s so weak, I doubt they’ll respond to it.”
Pete said, “They’ll probably think it’s a scanning beam.”
The group grew silent and finally Mike said, “This is worth trying.”
Jeanette sighed, “What happens if we miss? They’ll have one of our 120’s to catch and examine.”
“No they won’t.”
“Why not, Bowen.”
“What happens to a sliver round when it detects deceleration?”
Adams said, “It goes boom.”
Mike looked at Tilly and smiled, “Let’s do this. I want all ships to start expanding their force fields at varying distances; ten miles for five seconds, twenty miles for ten seconds, forty miles for twenty seconds, thirty miles for fifteen seconds. Let’s see if they respond to it.”
Hot Shot said, “If you have two or more ships do it at the same time, they’ll probably stay where they are to see what’s going on. Once they determine that it’s no danger, they’ll stay.”
Pete said, “How do you know that?”
“You have to make them curious. They’ll delay moving to see what’s going on.”
Pete said, “We should learn from this.”
“We have. Now we know. Move first; ask questions later.”
• • •
“Mike, the Gracken attack on the planet looks like it’s about to kick off.”
“Thanks, Hot Shot.” The ten Q ships had been flexing the
ir force fields for thirty minutes and the Gracken Warships had not changed position. Mike said over the main frequency, “Alright Tuffy; have you got your cannon aimed?”
“I have, Commandant. Adams and Jeanette put the round in by hand and closed the breech manually. We were careful but we’ll know if we changed the aim loading the cannon after we fire.”
“On my mark, Hot Shot will extend his field forty miles. You should fire on the same mark.”
“Count it down.”
Mike took a breath, “Five, four, three, two, one, Mark!”
• • •
Adams and Jeanette felt the small vibration as the 120 mm Sliver round left the ship. Jeanette punched a stop watch and said, “Twenty-five seconds to impact…if there is an impact.”
• • •
The Gracken Fleet Commander knew he was going to be forced to attack the ten enemy ships when the ground attack kicked off. He had viewed the destruction of the six ships that attacked the transport and knew he was going to lose ships if he attacked. However, the Elders would not understand restraint. He wondered what those ships were doing expanding their force fields and his officers had no suggestions as to what was going on.
He looked over his shoulder at his Sensor Leader, “Do you have those ships targeted?”
The Sensor Officer looked up from his panel and said, “I do.”
That momentary look away from his panel made the difference between life and death. He looked back at his panel and saw an object had come out of the expanded force field and was coming at high speed toward them. “We’ve been fired on!!”
The Fleet Commander was surprised by the shout and flinched. “Get us out…” was his last words. The 120 mm shell hit right behind the bridge and the two thousand slivers burst out and exploded a fifty yard wide swath of destruction cutting the huge ship into two pieces. The reactors were at full power activating the thrusters and their coolant lines were cut by the slivers. They instantly went critical and the six reactors exploded into a nuclear explosion blowing out a shock wave into the Gracken Ships surrounding the Flagship. Their force fields held but they were blown away like bubbles in a hurricane. Many of them were tumbling end over end and all were struggling to regain their equilibrium.
Mike saw the blast and the resulting nuclear explosion. “All ships, jump into your formation and open fire!”
The ten Q ships were in on the Gracken fleet in an instant and began firing at the tumbling ships. Many of the crewmembers on the Gracken ships were severely injured or dead from the sudden shock of their ships being blown away. Twenty of the tumbling ships were destroyed before they could stabilize enough to return fire. The Senior Gracken Commander yelled, “Run! All ships jump away!”
One moment a fierce space battle was taking place and then a moment later, space was empty except for the ten Q ships.
Tilly looked at Mike, “Now that was interesting.”
“Do tell. I love you, Tilly. Where do you come up with these ideas?”
Tilly shrugged and tilted her head to the right, “I guess this one came from taking shots at rattlesnakes two hundred yards out from our front porch back on Earth.”
“You were pretty good at hitting them.”
“Flattery really does work with me but fifty miles is an entirely different order of magnitude. I’m genuinely surprised Tuffy was able to hit that ship.”
“Luck and opportunity are companions that need a chance to meet.” Mike pressed his communicator, “Pete, would it be possible to hit those ships above our forces?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“First of all, the rounds would burn up entering the atmosphere but beyond that, gravity and atmosphere would affect them. We’d be blown away by their beams if we moved close enough to take a good shot. There’s just too many of them.”
Mike sighed and looked at his wall display and said, “The Gracken attack has started.” The crews on the ten ships turned and watched the horror of a Gracken Warrior charge. Mike knew the armories didn’t adequately prepare the regiment trapped on the planet for the real world speed and power of a Gracken Warrior.
• • •
The Gracken Unit Commander looked at the city and remembered when his unit had taken it. He was bored at not having a challenge back then but now…there was a challenge. He took a deep breath and shook his head; be careful what you ask for. These invaders had killed all the pacifiers in the city and, though they weren’t up to the abilities of his warriors, they weren’t all that bad. He sensed the stress building in his ten thousand warriors and he turned and looked at them, “You will not release yourselves until I order it.” The warriors were on edge. When that happened, warriors released their hormones to prepare them for fight or flight. Actually, it was fight. Once the warriors were high on their hormones, they couldn’t be stopped. The Commander looked at the other units on each side of his and saw that they were allowing their warriors to release themselves. The Commander shook his head. It was too early to allow that to happen.
He turned and looked at his sub-unit leaders and said, “Lead your units through the city until you arrive at the last line of buildings from the beach. Get there at your best speed but do not release until I order it.”
The three, ten thousand Gracken units rushed forward toward the end of the buildings next to the beach. Two of the units rushed down the through fare as the third moved quickly but deliberately among the buildings. The two units rushing down the streets began being bombarded by mortars and Gracken Warriors began falling as slivers blew them apart. They were still four miles from the beach and the blasts were killing them in large numbers. When the Gracken were two miles from the beach, one of invader’s mobile units fired some kind of projectile up the two streets they were using. The projectile exploded fifty yards from their advancing warriors and hundreds of small pieces of metal blew into the advancing Gracken. More than a hundred were killed on both streets. The Unit Commanders ordered their warriors into the buildings on each side of the streets they were advancing and their progress was slowed. The Commander who had started moving through the buildings from the beginning saw that many of the warriors in the other two units were going to start slowing; they had released themselves too soon. He shook his head and continued his advance.
• • •
The Planetary Commander watched the advance of the three units and grew angry. Only one of the three Commanders had used good judgment moving into the city. The weapons used to slow their advance concerned him. Whatever they were, they penetrated his forces’ force fields. He stared at his display and knew the final charge would have to be delayed to allow two of the units to recover and release their hormones again. He looked at his Support Officer and she said, “I’ve sent orders to delay the final charge until all units are fully released.”
The Commander smiled.
• • •
Derek watched the Gracken advance and saw that one of the units had not presented an opportunity to take a shot at them. He walked over to Halley and saw she was watching the advance on her visor as well. “If you were in their place, what would you do?”
Halley tilted her head and shrugged, “It appears two of their units don’t exhibit much patience. Coming down the streets was rather foolhardy.”
“Give them some love; they’ve never seen projectile weapons before.”
“Even so; that’s not good tactics. However, that middle unit has shown remarkable restraint. I suspect that unit will present us with the largest challenge.”
“You haven’t answered my question.”
“I think the two outside units will come charging through the streets.”
“And the third.”
“He won’t do that.”
“That’s how I see it as well.”
“There’s only one other option open to him.”
Derek smiled and lifted his communicator to his mouth, “Major Romanov.”
“Yes Sir.”
“I believe that immediately before the Gracken charge our position, they will take a moment to release whatever hormones they use to increase their speed and power. It will be at that moment that their forces will move into position to charge.”
“Yes Sir; what do you want me to do?”
“I’ll issue the command but I want all of your tanks to target the buildings directly in front of our positions. I want you to see if you can blow away the lower floors. If you could collapse the buildings that would be even better.”
“The antipersonnel rounds should do the job, Sir.”
“Are they powerful enough?”
“You know the power of a single sliver. Those shells have more than seven hundred in them. They’ll take out a sixty yard piece of the walls. Are you thinking they might come through the buildings’ walls to attack us?”
“I do. I want your tanks reassigned to cover that approach along with the two outside streets leading to the beach.”
“We’ll go ahead and load our rounds and be ready to fire on the buildings. If you’ll send a pulse on the frequency I’m sending you now, our tanks will fire automatically and then go to their areas of coverage.”
Derek saw the frequency and downloaded it into his software. He designated a trigger icon on it and put it in the top right of his combat visor. “Thank you, Major. You and your unit are doing an outstanding job.”
“Thank you, Sir. I’ll pass that on to the others.”
Derek looked back at the view of the Gracken advance and saw them stop behind the last row of buildings. The two outside units sat down and many of the Gracken fell back on the ground. He looked at the middle unit and saw them start entering the buildings in front of them. It looked like there was going to be a slight delay. He ordered his troops to take it easy. They were all watching the same feed Derek had in his visor and they got off their feet and started going over their fire zones again.
• • •
Back on Sparta, the warriors watching the coming attack rushed out of the armories to grab a quick lunch. They had been spellbound by the events taking place and refused to leave as long as things were happening. The meals were waiting on them and they grabbed a bag and rushed back to the armories. The attack they were most interested in was about to happen. Now they would see how they matched up to the Gracken charge.