Annihilation: Love Conquers All

by Andrew, Saxon;Chiodo, Derek

  Kosiev said, “Notify the transports following us that they are to hold position and wait for further instructions.”

  Tag said, “You might want to think that through, Admiral.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Let’s say when the groad hits the reactor and the leader of the Cainth ground forces sees his fleet being shot up around him, what do you think his options might be? Those transports cannot outrun a warship. He’ll know that there’s no way he can make it to the star drive limit. What would you do?”

  Kosiev thought for a moment and said, “I’d land my transports on the planet and take the population hostage against my safety.”

  “So would I.”

  “Cancel that order. The original plan stands.”

  It was an hour until impact, and Tag could see the ships on the end of their fleet start to come out of the psychic shadow. “Have the last twenty ships move up to just behind the comet, Admiral. They will be detected in less than a minute if they don’t.” The ships fired a brief thrust and moved close to the comet. Tag asked, “Is there any reaction from the Alliance?”

  “No sir. Saratoga says they’re maintaining position.” Mikado said. Time seemed to crawl. Finally Lieutenant Kelley said, “Eight minutes sir.”

  “The explosive device in the comet—is it strong enough to totally destroy it, Admiral?” Tag asked.

  “We’ll give it a push far enough out to gain separation. The fusion blast won’t leave pieces bigger than a marble. They’ll burn up in the atmosphere. Melbourne’s screen will shield us from the blast,” Kosiev answered.

  “Is her screen that strong?” Tag asked.

  “It could handle twenty of those simultaneously,” Mikado answered.

  Kosiev said, “On my command, order comet separation and destruction, have Saratoga disrupt their communications, and then move to assigned targets. Three minutes, two minutes, execute,” Kosiev ordered.

  On board the Cainth flag ship Armed War, the sensor operator said, “There’s something odd here, Admiral. That comet is emitting a low energy source.”

  “A what?” Admiral Ecsra asked.

  “It appears to be coming from behind the comet, but our sensors show an energy source there.”

  “Put that comet on visual,” Ecsra said as he stood up and looked closely at the comet on the screen, and suddenly the comet exploded in a nuclear blast, which overloaded his screen. When the screen reset he saw human warships closing on his position at incredible speed. “Sound battle stations, fully charge the screen. Evasive maneuvers, get us underway.”

  The Earth fleet tore into the Cainth fleet like a pack of wolves attacking a bear as their troop drop ships flew right through the Cainth fleet’s formation, unnoticed to the planet’s surface. Sixty destroyers paired off and attacked the Cainth cruisers. One would fly by and knock down a cruiser’s screen, and the second would follow and fire missiles and primary lasers into the exposed hull. Thirty cruisers were destroyed outright or badly damaged within the first minute of the conflict. Each pair of destroyers then turned and attacked their second target. On board the Clearwater, Captain Franklin looked at the cruiser she and her sister ship were about to engage and saw one of the dreadnoughts moving to give supporting fire. As she flashed by and fired on the cruiser, blowing its hull into two pieces, she saw her partner’s screen turn violet and explode. Then she saw the second dreadnought. They had both fired more than four hundred primary beams into the single Earth destroyer. Now her five screens were going from white to light blue as Captain Franklin turned and flew through the screen of the Los Angeles. The Clearwater emerged from the screen with the excess energy drained off and paired up with another destroyer that had lost its sister. They targeted another cruiser and moved in to attack.

  The Los Angeles moved in on the two dreadnoughts and began taking on the massive armaments of those two monstrous ships. Each of them was 3,300 feet long and housed 430 primary lasers and missile batteries that could launch ninety missiles per salvo. Beside them the Los Angeles looked tiny. The Earth ship’s screen glared from the missile and the laser beam attack being directed at it from the two dreadnoughts.

  “Screen status?” Captain Rubens of the Los Angeles asked.

  “Holding, sir. We aren’t into the red yet. If we wait for another of those monsters to join in, it could get dicey real quick.”

  “Let’s not keep them waiting then. Have we absorbed enough energy to supplement the primary beam?”

  “We’re at 90 percent.”

  “Then fire on the dreadnought on our port side, and then roll to use our starboard beam to finish the job.”

  On board the dreadnought, the commander could not believe what was happening. That small ship was taking the fire of two dreadnoughts, and its screen was not even in the red. That ended abruptly. The entire length of the port side of the Earth ship fired a beam into the dreadnought, ripping through its five screens and blowing a seven-hundred-foot hole through the center of the 3,300-foot-long warship. The missile magazines ignited and blew the ship into tiny fragments.

  “Belay that roll,” Rubens said. ”Fire the starboard beam at the second dreadnought.”

  The second dreadnought saw what happened to the other and turned to escape. They weren’t fast enough and the entire rear end of the dreadnought was blown away. It could no longer maneuver and it had lost screen integrity. It would have probably survived the battle, but it made the mistake of firing at the Los Angeles as it moved away. Two Earth cruisers moved in and launched ten strike missiles and blew the rest of the ship into rubble.

  “Sir,” Lieutenant Kelley said, “we’ve lost the Taj Mahal.”

  “What happened?” asked Kosiev.

  “Six dreadnoughts cornered it and overloaded its screen. Those six are now moving on the Melbourne, and her screen is moving into red. It can’t last much longer.”

  “Can we get there in time?” Kosiev asked.

  “Probably not, sir,” Lieutenant Kelley said.

  “Wouldn’t screen dumping work for the empire ships feeding our smaller ships?” Tag asked.

  Mikado, Kelley, and Kosiev all looked at Tag with blank expressions. Then Kosiev said, “Make it happen, Kelley, and Helmsman, move us alongside the Melbourne.”

  “Attention all ships close to the Melbourne,” Kosiev said over the general fleet frequency. “Switch your screens to charge and fly through the Melbourne’s screen. Melbourne, switch your screen to discharge mode.” They watched as two Earth cruisers flew through the Melbourne’s screen, entering and exiting it at the rear of the beleaguered ship where it was not the heaviest direct attack. Six more ships flew through so fast that the dreadnoughts didn’t have time to target them before they were out of range. Melbourne’s screen went from light blue to red and finally yellow. Now the ship could use the energy the enemy ships had poured into its screen. It had been using all its power to support its screen integrity during the attack, but now it could turn its attention to the attackers. It fired both of its primary beams into two of the six attacking dreadnoughts and both of them were cut in half. One of them drifted away and the other exploded. The remaining four dreadnoughts were joined by three others and continued to fire on the Melbourne.

  “Join on the Melbourne’s left flank and join screens,” Captain Mikado ordered. The Washington flew in and joined Melbourne at the center of the attack. Once the two screens touched, Melbourne’s screen turned yellow. Washington targeted two of the Alliance behemoths and Melbourne targeted two others. In less than thirty seconds there were four more dead hulks floating in space. The remaining three dreadnoughts turned to flee. Washington chased one and Melbourne the other. The third accelerated away from the planet toward the star drive limit to try to escape to warn the main fleet. Only four dreadnoughts remained of the twenty, and then there was only one, which was trying to escape.

  “Sir, we have one dreadnought making a break for the star drive limit,” Lieutenant Kelley said. “Should we use the b
locking force to stop it?”

  “How many Alliance ships remain?” Kosiev asked.

  “Forty-five, sir.”

  “What is the count of our remaining ships?”

  “We have eighty-nine remaining ships. We have lost one of our empire class battle ships, four cruisers, and six destroyers for a total of eleven ships lost against 155 of theirs.”

  “Assign two ships to each of the remaining Alliance ships and let’s complete this operation,” Kosiev ordered. “What happened to the Alliance troop transports?”

  “Just as you said, sir, they ran to the planet’s surface.”

  Kosiev looked at Tag and said, “I’m glad you were here to anticipate that. We probably need to start giving support to our marines. We can let the blocking force handle the escapee. They’ll feel like they’ve taken part in the action.”

  “I agree. Besides, didn’t you assign all of your ships to finish the Alliance presence in this system? Pick out the one you want and let’s finish this business.”

  Admiral Ecsra accelerated out of the Ross system toward the safety of the star drive limit, where he could jump to safety. He was in a state of shock at what had happened to his fleet. No one could have guessed that the Earth ships were capable of what he saw. They were things that inhabit an admiral’s nightmares. Ships that wouldn’t die no matter how much energy or missiles were fired at them. Nothing could withstand a dreadnought’s fire power except another dreadnought. That was a fact that had been proven in endless battles. Only he had seen one of their small battleships withstand the fire of six dreadnoughts for twenty minutes before it exploded. Then the next one handled that fire and destroyed two of them. Two of those small ships destroyed six dreadnoughts. The Alliance had to be warned. “Are they chasing us?” Admiral Ecsra asked.

  “No sir,” his sensor officer said. “One of those medium Earth battleships started to move our way, then turned around and attacked one of our remaining battleships.”

  Ecsra didn’t need to ask the outcome of that engagement. The Alliance battleship didn’t stand a chance against that demon ship.

  “Sir, all of our ships have been destroyed or severely damaged. We’re the only one to escape.”

  “How many ships attacked us?”

  “Sir, they only used one hundred ships.”

  “How many did we destroy?”

  “According to our sensor log, no more than fifteen were killed.”

  The Admiral was stunned speechless. “How many ships do they have?” he wondered. “Maybe all they have are those one hundred ships.”

  “Sir. Sir!”

  Admiral Ecsra looked at his sensor officer and saw in his face the fear he was starting to feel. “What?”

  “Sir, our sensors show more than 180 of those human warships powering up their screens on all sides of us. Twenty of those battleships are moving in to intercept us; what are your orders, sir?”

  Admiral Ecsra was beyond giving any orders. All he could do was stare at the screen and mumble over and over, “Why did we have to start this?”

  Chapter 28

  Lieutenant Colonel Richard Wiseman stood in front of his men in front of the Rossville concentration camp and could see their nervousness. He could hear his weapon floaters broadcasting to the civilian population to return to the camp so they could be protected. Most of them had left as soon as the Alliance ground troops evacuated, but fortunately they had not had time to go very far before Wiseman landed. His battalion was assigned to liberate the largest camp, which was just outside Rossville. There were over thirty thousand unarmed civilians that had been staying there in terrible conditions. Fortunately, most of them listened to the broadcast and were returning. His engineers had set up the small black hole reactor and the Coronado screen was already in place over the camp. The camp was located in the middle of a flat floodplain surrounded by high hills. The green valley was lush with plant life and farms that the colonists had been farming before the Cainth occupation. He saw that the Cainth would have to come down the middle of that plain to retake the concentration camp. “Now if our navy is successful up there, we might get out of this alive,” he thought. “We have to hold out until they can support us.” He looked at his troops in their shiny new armor and understood their fears.

  “Sir, all men present and accounted for, sir,” his sergeant major reported.

  “At ease, men.” He stood in front of them and said through his armored suit’s radio so every one of them could hear, “You all know why we’re here. That much of our mission is obvious. What I want to make sure of is that you know why we are here. How much do any of you know about ancient Earth marine traditions? A young man that rescued me from myself taught me some of the valuable lessons of our past. Before mankind laid down their weapons and embraced peace, it was the marines that were called on to handle the toughest combat roles. They lived by a code that made them stronger together than they were individually. Our history books tell us about their victories, defeats, and bravery. It all derived from their simple code, semper fidelis.” Wiseman could see a number of his men looking at each other. “It comes from a truly ancient language called Latin that was used by the earliest world power on Earth called Rome. It simply means ‘always faithful.’ The marines would not leave their wounded on a battlefield. They would endanger themselves to protect their brothers in arms, often causing their own death. The marines were a brotherhood that meant much more to them than simple words could explain. They knew to their core that their well-being was being watched over by all of their comrades. They also knew the importance of their mission and the importance of being faithful to the ones that sent them. Now we stand here today about to face an enemy that outnumbers us and probably outguns us as well. We are the new marines of mankind. We as a people have not engaged in combat for more than four hundred years, and yet here we are. Our ancient brothers established their reputation, their traditions, and their memories in blood on hundreds of battlefields. Today, you will have the rare honor of making our new traditions. Your future brothers in arms will look back at today and see the example you give them. We face an enemy that wants to exterminate our species. If we don’t send them a message here of what the cost will be to accomplish that, then we should be deeply ashamed of ourselves. Some of you wonder about why a criminal was made your commanding officer, and I must humbly respond to you, so do I. But this much I can promise you: I will always be faithful to you. I will not leave you cut off to die or leave you behind. If there is power in my armor, I will be at your back. I pledge to every one of you semper fidelis. Semper fi,” he yelled into his mike and heard all his men answer together, “Semper fi.”

  “Dismissed,” he said.

  “Attention!” Richard’s adjutant said. The marines came to attention and saluted their commander. They then turned to each other, and all of them could see in each other’s eyes that something was born here today that each of them would never forget. “Move to your positions, men. Fleet reports the Alliance transports are entering atmosphere.”

  The Alliance ground commander was frustrated and frightened. The fleet was being chewed up by ships one-third their size. He ordered his troop ships ground-side as soon as the dreadnought covering his transports was destroyed by three of the Earth cruisers. If things went bad up there, he had to capture the human colonists on the planet to negotiate for his safety, or to hold until the main fleet arrived. He ordered two regiments to retake the camp at Rossville since it was the largest.

  Richard had taken the fortifications of the Cainth invaders and added small Coronado screens to cover them. The screens had not been tested in battle but looked good during their earlier tests. Even the marines’ armor used a smaller version. The new power cell technology extended the time they could fight before having to recharge. The civilians were inside the main screen and his battalion was in place around its perimeter. “Sir, regiment reports that massive Alliance forces are heading our way, probably two regiments. We will be supported as soo
n as possible, but you must hold out until relief arrives.”

  “And so it begins,” he thought. “Perhaps now I can atone for my sins.”

  “Sir, the humans have landed ground forces and they have set up a defensive perimeter at the camps,” General Dorg’s communications leader said.

  “How strong are they at Rossville?” Dorg asked.

  “It looks like they have a full mechanized heavy weapon battalion dug in there,” the communications leader responded.

  “Only a battalion; two regiments should be plenty. Land our forces, then ask for their surrender. These humans haven’t fought a war. They’re basically pacifists and they should roll over without a fight.”