“Firing!” called the black-skinned image of Júlia.
The Caiman fired both its blue particle beam and its black antimatter beam at the distant ship, the two beams seeming to instantly traverse the two hundred kilometer distance to the only Krisot ship to escape damage or death from the first barrage. That ship split into two parts, then exploded in an yellow-white ball of flame as the antimatter beam hit the onboard fusion reactor that lay within the central globe.
“Hold fire!” Jack called to the fleet. “Leave some ship debris for grav-pull salvage. Maybe we can grab some drives for the Nuuthot people.”
“There’s not much left that isn’t vaporized,” Elaine said, nodding toward the true-light images on the front screen. “I count five ships totally vaporized by antimatter impact on their fusion reactors. Two ships are just small airless fragments. While three ships are cut in half, with the central globe mostly intact.” She paused, tapping her NavTrack panel to cause the front screen scope image to focus in on a group of Krisot ships. “If you don’t count the scores of punctures from the ball bearings shot by us and the fleet ships. Maybe the two ships targeted by Akemi and Ignacio will be partly intact.”
Maureen grinned in the holo above Jack’s Tech panel. “Thirty-three seconds! Battle over in less than a minute,” she yelled, sounding like a mother wolf who had taken out a group of coyotes threatening her pups.
Jack shared Maureen’s satisfaction. But there was one more task to do. “Minna! Fire three geo-penetrators down at that dome on the moon. Don’t want any FTL probe being launched from there.”
On the front screen the Finn nodded abruptly, her two yellow braids swinging. “Alaric is launching them! They will hit within seconds!”
Jack watched as three silvery torps shot away from the Wolverine, heading downward at planetary escape velocity thanks to powerful solid fuel engines. The silvery metal dome that was the size of an ancient city block shone brightly in the orange light of Epsilon Eridani. Then three black holes pierced the dome, followed by yellow flame shooting out from the warheads fitted to the three torps. He had ordered every geo-penetrator in the fleet to replace its solid titanium nose cone with a five hundred pound impact plastic explosive warhead. Warheads that now caused the dome metal to fragment, break apart into several segments, then settle down to lie atop interior equipment and structures. White air and shiny water globules fountained out from the dome, thinning as their material spread outward and away from the penetrator impacts. He looked back to Elaine.
“Any neutrino activity coming from that giant ship next to the dome?”
“Only a small amount,” Elaine said, tapping her Sensor panel. “The neutrino output matches that emitted by a fusion reactor on standby status. You want more info on the ship?”
“Yes,” Jack said, knowing they still had a half hour to wait until they heard the results of Akemi’s and Ignacio’s attack on the two outer Krisot ships. Tight-beam laser comlinks are fine, but it still takes light eight minutes plus to cover one AU. And Ignacio’s ship lay 4.5 AU from their moon position.
Elaine squinted at her armrest panel. “Synthetic aperture millimeter radar says the ship measures a kilometer in length. Filter spectrophotomery says the ships is made of a steel alloy. Fourier spectroscopy says the steel alloy is titanium-steel, with traces of tungsten, molybdenum, niobium, rhenium and tantalum. In short, the ship hull is tough and intended to support a massive internal weight.”
Jack nodded. He had a plan for that colony ship that required it be intact. For the moment. He looked back to Denise. “What’s happening with the AV stations and radio on planet Green? And can you isolate any transmissions from the Krisot colony island?”
Denise squinted at her Comlink panel, then bit her lower lip. “Plenty of broadcast activity. But the AV signal from the Krisot island has shut down. Gone silent.” She looked up at him, her expression puzzled. “The Krisot colony surely is aware of the destruction of their fleet and the moon base. Maybe we can raise a reaction if we blip jump to Green. It’s only a hundred fifty thousand klicks away from this orbital vector.”
On screen Hideyoshi leaned forward. “Captain Jack, what does your astronomer detect with her scope re anything in orbit about planet Green? Any Nuuthot ships? Anything that emits graviton pulses?”
Behind Jack his lifemate grunted, her tone distracted. “Admiral, there’s a single wheel-shaped space station in orbit above Green. With two of the long spearhead spaceships of the Nuuthot in parking orbit beside the station. Our gravitomagnetic sensor is mostly silent. Nothing with gravitons coming from Green. Though I do detect two grav pulses coming in from the direction of the gas giant. Likely those are the Badger and the Orca.”
Glancing at the screen image that showed the three Krisot ships cut in half, with their hull remnants bleeding white air through dozens of ball bearing punctures, he made his decision.
“Admiral Hideyoshi Minamoto, please eject a spysat to maintain watch over those three ship fragments. I want to know if anyone alive on board tries to make them go somewhere.” He looked back to stocky, muscular Max, who for once looked pleasantly relaxed. “Drive Engineer, keep our fusion Main Drive at Pinch Mode. But send out a grav-pull blip jump order over Denise’s Come-Back laser link. It’s time this fleet had some chat-chat with the local Aliens for whom we risked our lives.”
Max grinned, clearly happy to have a chance to play with one of his ship drives. “Surely. Uh, any chance I can name this little moon after my hometown of Lodz?”
Jack grinned, heard Nikola’s chuckle at an idea not in keeping with standard astronomical convention, then answered his buddy. “My friend, you can call that little moon kielbasa for all I care. Though I suspect these Nuuthot people already have a name for it.”
“They do,” Denise said eagerly. “They call it—”
“Enough!” Jack interrupted. “Let Max have his fun. But Denise, get your translator gear online. And activate that neutrino comlink pedestal beside you. We are going to have to talk to two different groups of Aliens. And one group is sure to be pissed off!”
Maureen smiled from her holo above Jack’s panel. “I like pissed off Aliens! Gives me more targets for my beam toys. And anyway, we now control this system. It’s time both the Nuuthot and the surviving Krisot learned that.”
Jack nodded to his combat vet. “That is exactly what I plan to do. Shortly.” He looked up at the ship captain images. “All ships! Blip jump in unison with us!”
♦ ♦ ♦
Jack peered at the front screen image of the Krisot colony island, wondering at how such a green and brown landscape with scattered lakes, rivers and a central massif had become the center of predator hunting horrors like what they had watched in the earlier broadcast. Above the screen glowed the images of six captains. Ignacio and Akemi had confirmed by laser tight-beam that they had killed their Krisot ship targets, with no appearance of gravity probes. The two captains would join the fleet within fifteen minutes, thanks to the eighty percent of lightspeed thrust which the grav-pull drive gave every ship of the fleet. Meanwhile, he, Maureen, Denise, Elaine, Nikola and Max watched the landscape below, on alert for any offensive action.
“Elaine, any sign of crescent ships down there, at that large population center on the massif?”
“No my brother, uh, captain,” she murmured as she looked down at her armrest Sensor panel. “No graviton emissions. There are four neutrino emission sources, but they are the type associated with fusion reactors. The sources are associated with urban areas scattered across the island. One source is below, in the urbus on the massif.”
“And the status of the two Nuuthot ships parked beside their space station?”
Elaine gestured at the front screen. “They are the same as earlier, parked beside the station and following its orbital vector. No change in ship status. I’m putting up an inset image on the right.”
Jack focused on the image, which showed two long spearhead spaceships that gleamed like silver
darts in the light of Epsilon Eridani. “Nikola, can your scope enlarge that image? I want to see if either ship carries pulse laser pods, railguns or other energy weapon mounts.”
“Enlarging,” she said from behind Jack.
“Maureen,” he called to the woman who had rejoined them after the moon battle. “Do you see any weaponry mounts?”
Their Irish veteran, who had been watching silently the planet images, pulled up a holo in front of her that seemed to be a Tactical Display with true-light imagery. It featured the station and two ships, with their fleet showing as it followed behind the eastward orbital vector of the Nuuthot ships. “No. But they could have interior torpedo launchers, like we do for our spysats and for our thermonukes. I’m ready to take them on, if needed.”
Jack looked up at Hideyoshi, who was looking aside at his own duplicate of Jack’s front screen images. “Admiral, my action plan is to defeat the Krisot colony one way or another, then later talk with the Nuuthot planetary leader. If they have one.”
“They don’t!” interjected Denise eagerly. “They have a three-person ruling group which they call Pack Central.”
He smiled at the redhead’s eagerness to offer data to him, Maureen and Hideyoshi. In a way he was glad the Charon refugee was taking the lead in analysis of Green planet AV broadcasts. But first things first. “Hideyoshi, if we take out the massif’s fusion reactor plant with a geo-penetrator, that should shut down power briefly, until their grid replaces it. Which event should wake them up to their exposure to total destruction from orbit. By us. Your thoughts on this?”
The Asian turned away from the Bismarck’s imagery screen to face him. “Fleet Captain Jack, I agree that we should dispose of the Krisots first. Otherwise we are unlikely to make any progress with the Nuuthot leaders, who might fear retribution. And I support the elimination of their fusion reactor.” A young woman in Mars reds came up to Hideyoshi with a yellow datapad. He took it, glanced at it, then grimaced. “However, my ship’s Schmidt scope says the landing field at the massif urbus is guarded by four ground-to-space laser mounts. They might take out the geo-penetrator before it hits the target.”
Jack swallowed. Why hadn’t Nikola spotted the lasers? Then again, he had forced her scope attention onto the space station and ships. “Damn! Do you have any suggestions on how to deal with those lasers?”
Maureen hummed to his right, clearly wishing to enter the discussion, even as she updated her Tactical holo to include the massif laser mounts with a blinking yellow question mark beside them.
“We do,” Hideyoshi said, glancing to Jack’s right to include Maureen. “Your Combat Commander likely has a similar option in mind. My Bridge Weapons officer suggests that we launch a thermonuke torp for an orbital explosion above the massif. Followed by the Uhuru firing the geo-penetrator. Our blast will generate an electromagnetic pulse that should kill the Krisot targeting electronics. Which will allow your rocket to arrive on target without laser interference.”
Jack glanced at Maureen. “Combat Commander, what is your view of that attack option?”
“It is exactly what I would have suggested. If asked.” The woman looked impatiently to Hideyoshi. “Admiral of the Mars fleet, your Bridge Weapons officer may wish to inspect the Nuuthot population centers for similar laser mount weaponry. Just because they are a ‘subject people’ does not mean they have no energy weapons. If other ship landing fields in Nuuthot urbus locations do have laser mounts, those lasers could be controlled by the Krisot avians. In order to control exactly what resources and ships land on this world. We have no idea how long the Krisot have controlled this system, this world and these people. But if I were treating the natives the way they treat them, I would have plenty of ground lasers, ICBMs, cruise missiles, even orbital mine fields as part of my control net.”
Jack swallowed hard. Orbital mine fields were not something he had thought about. Let alone automated laser forts in orbit to act as spatial traffic control. “Commander Maureen, Admiral Hideyoshi, let us do as you say. But at the same time let’s eject spysats to look for orbital mine fields and automated orbital forts. Do you wish to cover the polar orbital vectors with Bismarck, while we handle the equatorial vectors with Uhuru?”
“Nice that you’re listening to your elders,” muttered Maureen.
Hideyoshi nodded abruptly, his gaze including both Jack and Maureen. “Excellent tactical addition, Combat Commander. We will launch a spysat into polar orbit, then follow up with our thermonuke torp two minutes later. Captain Jack, you will control the launch of your spysat and your geo-penetrator.”
“Captain,” called Elaine, “the Badger and the Wolverine have arrived in our orbital vector. They are just above us.”
Jack looked up at the formerly light-delayed images of Ignacio and Minna. “Welcome, captains! You’ve heard our tactical planning. Will you two hold position above us and act as an outer guard against any Krisot ship suddenly blip jumping in on us?”
“As you wish, my captain,” said Minna, her tone somber. “On Krisot matters, the ship we attacked was totally vaporized by our dual beams. Nothing remains to be salvaged.”
Ignacio grinned on screen. “We Basque never let anything go to waste! Our neutral particle beam did a fine job of slicing the weapons wings off of our Krisot ship, while our HF lasers took out their particle beam mount. We ventilated their central globe with ball bearings, but it is mostly intact. There is likely a salvageable grav-pull drive inside.”
Jack smiled at his clan brother, then looked over his shoulder to Max. “Drive Engineer, please take care of our two launchings. The spysat first on an equatorial vector parallel to our current vector, followed by the geo-penetrator after Hideyoshi’s EMP blast, all right?”
Max gave him a sardonic look, hummed low, then tapped at the launcher controls on his left armrest. “Two ejections set up as you wish, my Captain. The spysat is launching now.” A slight tremble of the cabin’s metal floor told Jack that their nose sat launcher had done an automatic launching of one of their spysats. “The geo-penetrator is loading now and will launch one minute after the Bismarck’s thermonuke torp goes EMP.”
Jack reached over to touch the slim arm of Maureen, who was dressed in a black leotard like everyone else. She blinked as if surprised, then moved her attention from her tactical holo to Jack. Gray eyes fixed on him. “Yes?”
“I’ve come up with a plan for getting all Krisot out of this system. Without us having to chase down every single one of them. But how would you accomplish their removal? I’m always ready to adjust my plan,” he said, showing with his face that he was serious in his offer.
Maureen lifted one black eyebrow, then gave him a quirked lip smile. “You’ve been doing very well so far, Captain Jack. Neither your Grandpa Ephraim nor I could have done better than you did in the Second Sedna Battle. Nor in our Lodz moon battle,” she said, pausing to give Max time to react to her use of his moon name. “In Sol system and here, we attacked without warning. A surprise attack. Your Denise can tell you that social predators on Earth often try a surprise pack attack when they outnumber the enemy, or when they wish to claim new hunt territory. Forget the Laws of War. Surprise attacks work. And with the survival of humanity, and subject Alien peoples, at stake, I vote that we never give the social carnivore Aliens an even break!”
“Nicely put,” Elaine said, her tone thoughtful.
Max nodded firm approval while Denise looked grim. “Just what Grandma Maureen said is what we have to do.”
Nikola kicked the back of his Tech station seat. “Just cause I’m out of your sight does not mean I’ve disappeared. Me too!”
Jack looked to the front screen and the images of Hideyoshi and the other ship captains. They were all nodding agreement with Maureen’s statement. He looked back to her. “Maureen, of course I agree. But what would you do with this Krisot colony?”
“Kill them all,” she said bluntly, her slim fingers held above her Combat panel. “The prevailing winds are from the
northwest. I’d detonate three thermonukes with supplemental cobalt jacketing at a few miles above their northwest coast, then let the radioactive fallout poison the air they have to breathe. At the same time I would launch thermonuke torps against the six population centers we can see on this island. They are all inhabited solely or mainly by Krisot, based on scope imagery from Captain Gareth’s ship Dragon. Any survivors can be taken out by Landers outfitted with carbon dioxide lasers. They work a bit better in atmosphere than our HF lasers.”
“Effective,” Hideyoshi murmured from the front screen. “However, there are thousands of Nuuthot natives scattered across the island. And all native animals and most plants would not survive this radioactive dusting.”
Maureen shrugged in her Combat station seat. “You asked. I don’t believe in half answers to deadly problems.”
Jack felt surprise at how close Maureen’s tactic was to his first plan. However, he still felt his second version was a better answer, especially for the native Nuuthots.
“Thank you Combat Commander. I will keep your plan in reserve in case my approach does not work,” he said, looking to Hideyoshi. “Admiral, launch your thermonuke torp. It’s time to get this removal started!”
One minute later Denise shook everyone out of their fixation on the yellow-white globe of Hideyoshi’s thermonuke as it expanded in vacuum, its deadly neutron and x-ray radiation having swept over the island seconds earlier. Their geo-penetrator had hit the fusion reactor three minutes ago, with no interference from the massif laser mounts.
“Neutrino AV signal!” she yelled.
“Put it up on the screen. In split-screen mode,” Jack said.
A Krisot avian took form before them. Red and black feathered wings rose above the muscular lion body of the two-footed Alien. A short stubby tail rose from behind while two chest-arms reached out toward him with black-clawed fingers. As if they wished to rake the flesh from his bones. Two red eyes fixed on him as its yellow beak opened.
“You are Humans. Our flock companions have told us about their battles with you in your home system,” the Krisot said in harsh, rasping English. “Why do you attack our Hunt territory?”
Humans Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series Book 2) Page 8