by Saxon Andrew
• • •
Aman saw thousands of ships jumping in front of their ship and said, “Pulses are being launched.”
“I see them.”
“More ships are arriving to the side of our approach and are launching pulses.”
“How many are following us?”
“About twenty thousand at the moment, but the number is growing rather rapidly. We’ll be running into a veritable wall of them in less than twenty seconds.”
Gretchen grimly smiled and said, “Were you ever into rock climbing?”
“No, I’m afraid of heights.”
Gretchen did a double take without taking her eyes of the scanner, “You have got to be kidding me!”
“Nope; flying around space is not the same thing as looking down from a high place.”
“Well, you’re about to get your first lesson. Keep your hands on the weapons board. We might have to use it.”
Earth’s Fury approached the wall of energy pulses and Gretchen went to three quarter speed. She turned the ship vertically and flew over the top of the incoming pulses before they could change direction. She flew over the line of Violet Ships that had launched the barrage was by them before they could respond. The small ship left the pursuing energy pulsed behind.
“What are those pulses doing that we passed?”
“They’ve turned and are now pursuing us.” Aman looked at his board, “They are losing ground on us.” Aman looked up from his panel and said, “More ships are jumping in.”
“Where are they coming from?”
“It’s like you suspected. They’re being moved from above the space port.” Aman paused, “Why are you so intent on hitting the space port?”
“That’s where they’re building their new ships. The view taken by the Jukebox shows thousands of them on the ground. I want hit them where it hurts. It also appears the port is their largest city as well.”
“The next line is firing more energy pulses at us and they have now added three more lines above and below their original ships. I suspect rock climbing just got a tad more difficult.”
“Did you ever go caving, Aman?”
“Nope, I’m claustrophobic as well.”
“Get out of here! How did you ever make it into the service?”
“Must be my charming personality and outstanding good looks. How do you intend to make it through that barrage moving at us?”
“I’m going to use a striker.”
“That will only leave us three to hit the planet.”
“Actually it will leave us four.”
Aman looked at Gretchen with a furrowed brow and then realized what she was saying. He smiled and said, “You’re right. I miscounted.” Gretchen slowed the ship slightly to allow the eighty thousand energy pulses chasing them to move closer. She matched their speed and launched a heavy striker at the middle of the incoming mass of energy pulses. Aman said, “I hope they’re right about the force field.”
“We have to give it a moment to hit and expand before we hit it. If we arrive too early it’s all over.” Gretchen increased speed and followed the striker. She dimmed their panels as the striker hit.
The Fleet Controller watched the small ship go over the first wave of energy pulses and ordered more ships to confront the speeding white ship. It was faster than any ship in his fleet and it changed direction as if it had no mass. That scared him and he watched as four lines of ships launched a massive cone of energy pulses. That ship was already inside the upper and lower walls of the cone, so it wouldn’t be able to go over or below it. This should end this threat. Then his display turned white from a gigantic blast.
• • •
The energy pulse the striker hit exploded in a ball twenty times larger than it would normally make and started a chain reaction of explosions in the energy pulses, forming the giant cone. The blast built on itself as the pulses chasing the small ship ran into the growing explosion and sent a massive shock wave out.
The explosion was big enough to eventually be seen a hundred light years away and most planets that saw it thought a star had gone nova. The small white ship punched through the place where the striker hit and raced away faster than the shock wave behind it. The white ship blew by the four lines of ships which activated their drives to jump in front of it again, but before they could move, the shock wave hit their lines and blew them away like leaves in a hurricane. The ships weren’t damaged inside their force fields, but the entire line was rocked end-to-end as the shock wave passed.
The Scanner Controller watched the massive explosion and saw that the four lines were not going to be able to jump in front of the ship and ordered every ship in the fleet to move in front of the intruder. He no longer doubted that the small ship was fully capable of destroying his ships. If just one could do this much he knew that more than a thousand would be devastating. He ordered the four lines to replace the ships he had moved from the southern side of the planet, but then he saw his worst nightmare take place. Before they could jump, the White Ship jumped to the southern side of the planet and accelerated at a speed that was impossible. It would arrive in less than sixty micro-measures and he immediately ordered the ships back to defend the Hive City.
The Fleet Controller watched the White Ship jump to the southern side of the planet and knew that it was going to be a very close thing to cut it off before it arrived. He stood and stared at the display, unable to take his eyes off what was happening. Just before the White Ship arrived, the huge fleet appeared in front of them. He sat back down and took a deep breath.
• • •
“Gretchen, they’ve managed to get the fleet back to the space port.”
“I see them.”
Aman watched as the fleet grew larger in his display and saw thousands of energy pulses moving toward them. “You’ve got to clear the way.”
Gretchen took her eyes off her panel for a moment and looked at Aman, “Thank you for helping me do this. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. We knew the risk and now we need to do what must be done.”
Gretchen turned back to her panel as Aman launched the three remaining strikers with eight second separation between them. Gretchen watched the first one hit and blow away the energy pulses. She followed the two remaining strikers through the blast and saw the lines of Violet Ships approaching. The strikers hit the middle line and blew a massive section into a huge explosion and then expanded up the open ends of the line’s force fields blowing every ship into dust. As the blast expanded, Gretchen raised the force field to maximum and went to full speed and blew through the last line of ships. Her last act was to return the ships mass back to normal and the hundred ton ship hit the Home Hive at ninety percent light speed. The two million energy pulses that were stored at the main ship building facility added to the ensuing explosion, but were hard to distinguish from the total blast. One third of the planet blew away as the rest of it melted from the core that covered everything that remained.
The Fleet Controller didn’t stand back up as he watched his planet blown apart. He was speechless and all the ships in the fleet that survived the blast which destroyed three of the lines above the site of the explosion were shocked beyond measure. The Hive had been hurt in ways that would soon be felt, but no one thought about that. That one ship had defeated everything they did to stop it and now their civilization saw what they had visited on so many others and they were stunned into immobility.
The Fleet Controller watched and knew that the Hive Controller and all of the chosen successors died with the planet. There was no structure to choose another and he knew there was a leadership void that could lead to their destruction, if something wasn’t done. He looked at his Drive Controller and said, “Take us to our defensive lines. We must make sure the horde doesn’t exploit this.” The ship jumped away and soon, the other surviving ships joined him at the defensive line to fight off a new attack by the Yellow Ships. There was no longer a need to make sure if the small ships were the
ones that destroyed their fleet. Now there was no doubt. The detection system that was used to see outside their galaxy was destroyed in the blast. For the foreseeable future, the Violet Civilization was blind to ships that came from open space.
• • •
Arvolo watched the feed being sent from Earth’s Fury and took a deep breath when the display went to static. He knew that Aman and Gretchen would probably be forced to use their ship to hit the planet and he hated himself for sending them to die. George looked over at him and knew what was going to happen. “We have been given time to build, RV. Those two wouldn’t have wanted this any other way.” George looked at the planet and said, “Do you have the present?”
“We do.”
“Would you be so kind and deliver it?”
Cyanna spoke into her com.
• • •
RV looked at George and nodded but remained silent. George and the rest of the bridge crew honored his silence and waited for him to act. After ten minutes he looked at Cyanna and said, “Jump the ships.”
Cyanna saw his anguish and wished she could do something to comfort him, but knew that now wasn’t the time. She turned to her board and said, “Jump alert; we’ll be jumping to the Moet planet in three minutes. All hands to battle stations and pilots man your ships. You will be weapons free on arrival.”
Kenny and Bob had also watched the sacrifice of the two brave sailors and they felt a steely resolve to deal with the ones that had caused their death. The Moet were going to learn what their treachery brought home to them in just a few short moments. The three main battleships powered their weapons and the attack craft prepared to do battle with the ones that caused Earth’s destruction. No one had to be told that there would be no prisoners taken in the coming battle.
• • •
Tenah and the Baron had also been sent a feed of what happened at the Home Hive and now they saw the three ships were preparing to go to the Royal Family’s location. Tenah said, “Do you want to watch this?”
“I owe it to them to see it to the end.”
“What will your planets say about this?”
“I’ve already shared what the Royal Family did to the White Ship’s planet. They were shocked at the revelation and they know there will be a response to their betrayal.”
“How do you feel about this?”
The Baron remained silent for a long moment and then said, “I’m disappointed that the only way we could have discovered the benefit of working with other species was to have it forced on us. Now I see what we’ve been and I feel so much remorse at what we’ve done over our long history.” The Baron turned two of his eyestalks toward the display with Tenah on it and said, “If the White Ships don’t remove the ones responsible for making us what we’ve been then we would have to do it ourselves.” The Moet looked back at the display with the three ships on it and said, “They deserve what they’re getting and you and I both know it.”
“Have you thought about asking our friends to allow us to enter the fight with them?”
“I have, but you know that before they would ever allow us to do that we will have to earn their trust and that is going to take time.”
Tenah nodded and turned to his display showing the feed from the three ships that just jumped to the Moet’s Royal Family.
Chapter Nine
The High Master sat in her quarters having a meal while she questioned the Fleet Master and prince about their preparations to go back to their home worlds. “Is the fleet ready for departure?”
The Fleet Master pushed his two pods forward and said, “They are and out transports are ready with the warriors to land and punish the traitors.”
“Excellent! I want that Baron brought here for my personal attention.” She turned to the Prince and said, “What’s bothering you, son? You don’t appear to be happy with our success.”
The Prince said, “I don’t feel good about this deal we made with the Violet Civilization. You know their word is meaningless.”
“We’ll see about that. I’m sure they will like having an agent working for them in our galaxy. We just have to prove our value. If the Alliance gives us trouble, we’ll just notify them and the problem will be solved.” She continued to watch her son and saw that his mood didn’t change. “Say what you have to say. I won’t punish you for your thoughts on this glorious day.”
The prince paused and said, “What if we didn’t get all of those White Ships? We don’t know if they had ships at another location. We also don’t know if the Blue Ships will now honor their agreement and not invade.”
The High Master threw her eye stalks back and laughed, “The Violet Civilization would love to have the Blue Ships show up. That would prove our value to them and any remaining White Ships will never tie us to their planet’s destruction.”
The prince said, “How did they know we were evacuating? How did they know about our ancient history with the Jenze? They seem to know things and we don’t have a clue as to how they uncovered that information. I’m just not certain about what will come from this act we’ve done.”
The High Master’s display illuminated and she saw the Highest Watcher say, “Three of the White Battle Ships have appeared and are launching small ships. They are attacking our fleet.”
The High Master turned white so fast the prince and Fleet Master never saw her color change. The three looked at the display, watching the video being sent by the Watcher. The Prince knew that there would be no further lessons being taught to him by his mother. He glanced at her and saw she realized it as well.
• • •
The three Earth ships appeared above the Moet planet and moved in on the huge fleet of dreadnaughts and medium battleships. Right behind them a huge round ship arrived and more than ten thousand tiny vessels launched along with four thousand small ships. The three large battle ships moved into the Moet formations and hundreds of dreadnaughts began exploding. Right behind their advance, the tiny ships arrived and the destruction was beyond belief. Hundreds of Ship Masters contacted the Master and asked permission to escape, but were denied. “The Royal Family is on the planet; we cannot leave them.” The Moet ships were forced to stay and face what was happening. Their bravery was monumental, but also futile.
• • •
Arvolo watched Cyanna fight the Havana and decided that he was not needed in this attack. The Moet Ships were no match for the ships killing them. He watched as some of the dreadnaughts that were damaged but still flying were hit again. Beams and mini-strikers were as thick as drops in a heavy shower.
• • •
Kate Diamond banked her Needle around toward six dreadnaughts that were lining up to hit an attack craft will all of their beams. She hit the first three with a min-striker each and used her beam to cut the remaining three in half. She reversed course to finish off the ships that were hit with her beam but saw four other Needles finish the job. She blew past the dead ships and lined up two more dreadnaughts. She didn’t realize she had an expression of rage but she felt joy at killing the beings that had caused her brother’s death on Earth.
She exhausted her inventory of weapons and discovered something by accident. Her power for her main beam was down to three percent as the dreadnaught was powering up its drive field to escape. She felt her rage and stopping that ship from escaping consumed her. She screamed and flew her Needle directly at the dreadnaught, hitting it amidships. She had closed her eyes anticipating her death and was startled to discover she had flown her Needle through the huge ship and had emerged on the other side undamaged. Her force field was at full strength and prevented her small ship from being damaged. Six of her wing watched her hit the dreadnaught and they turned off their weapons and began ramming every ship they could find.
The tactic spread through the fleet and Arvolo watched the carnage taking place and said, “I want the pilot that started this ramming process brought to me when we arrive back at Dundee.”
Cyanna nodded and shook her he
ad at the damage being done when the Needles blew through a dreadnaught. The passage of the small ship through the dreadnaught’s hulls set off all of their munitions and the resulting explosion left very little behind. After an hour there were no ships left to kill.
Arvolo looked at his display and saw the ships involved in the attack were hanging in space above the Moet planet waiting for orders. The transport arrived and signaled retrieval but none of the ships moved from orbit above the planet. The Transport Commander began issuing commands for his ships to return and Arvolo cut him off, “They will stay where they are. They will be allowed to witness what happens and I’ll not deny them that right.”
Commander Calhoun said, “You will wait until the mission is complete before you are retrieved.” He leaned back in his chair and waited with the thousands of ships above the Moet Planet.
Arvolo looked at George and said, “I believe you should take it from here, Sir. I know that’s how Dolly and Jeff would want it.”
George looked at Arvolo and then activated his communication panel.
• • •
The High Master, Fleet Master, and prince were all bright white in color. The main display in the High Master’s quarters illuminated as the Watcher fed the incoming transmission to her console. They saw a strange looking creature looking at them. It said in the language used by the Alliance, “I’m really tempted to just finish, this but I can’t resist the urge to show you what you’ve done.”
The Watcher sent a feed of the conversation to the other planets of Moet Colonists. They should hear what was being said.
“Before I do that, I’m going to share a few videos with you.”
The three Moet watched recordings of their conversation with the Violet Civilization, the scouting of Earth to see if it was destroyed, and finally the destruction of the Violet Civilization’s home planet. The High Master looked at the prince and he showed his disgust by looking at her without lowering a single eye stalk.