Admiral Dorg sat in his command chair on board the Alliance flagship War Weapon and watched as his fleet was totally destroying the humans’ ships. He heard his bridge crew cheering, but he couldn’t help thinking, “This is too easy. This fleet couldn’t have defeated our ships at the Human Colony World.” Then he said, “Communications, put a picture of one of those human ships that was just destroyed on my display.” A picture of a small ship suddenly appeared on his console. He looked at it for a minute and then pulled up a picture of the small human ship that had killed two heavy cruisers. He put it next to the ship that had just been destroyed; they looked nothing alike. His internal alarms went off at full blast; he stood and yelled, “Order the fleet back into formation!” His crew stopped cheering and looked at him like he was crazy. “Do it now. We’re being set up for a trap!” His crew hesitated for just a moment while looking at each other and then started issuing orders, but that small hesitation proved fatal; the human fleet ripped into the Alliance ships like a tsunami.
Kosiev received Captain Johnson’s report of the destruction of the recording cruisers and then opened his main fleet channel. “On my command, power up your screens, charge your weapons, and attack your assigned coordinates. Remember you are to hold your section of the front and destroy anything in it or anything that tries to move through it. Ready, execute!”
The seven squadrons were evenly spaced when they hit the Alliance fleet. Within five seconds of hitting the Alliance fleet’s front, 350 Alliance ships were destroyed. Five seconds later, 350 more had died. The Earth fleet then turned and began moving up and down the Alliance line, destroying any ship they encountered.
Captain Elizabeth Franklin on the Earth destroyer Yellow Stone had targeted a Cainth cruiser that she had seen attack and destroy one of the old destroyers. She accelerated straight at the cruiser and began taking fire from its primary beams and missiles. “Weapons, prepare two needles and fire when eight hundred yards out,” she commanded.
On board the Cainth cruiser ship, Leader Kerlt saw the Earth ship bearing down on him at an incredible speed. None of his weapons were having any effect, and he wasn’t fast enough to outrun it. He watched and thought, “Maybe we won’t get to the planet quite as fast as I thought.” The small human ship hit his ship with two small beams, and then he watched as his ship blew up around him.
The two needles went through the cruiser’s screen and shot four hundred hornets inside the screen. The four hundred hornets were each programmed to hit a section of the ship, starting at the front. Explosions walked the entire length of the cruiser, and the last one hit a fusion reactor and blew the remains of the ship into subatomic dust. By the time the explosion was over, the Yellow Stone had killed his partner cruiser and was moving in on a Cainth destroyer. Yellow Stone blew it up with its beams and didn’t waste a needle. Then two dreadnoughts hit the Yellow Stone with 1,200 primary beams and exploded the small ship, but not before it had shot four needles into the closer dreadnought. Sixteen hundred hornets walked explosions the length of the dreadnought, exploding the entire surface into rubble. Six hornets made it through the surface into the missile magazines and everything was blown away from the center of the explosion.
Admiral Dorg sat in his command chair and watched his worst nightmare become a reality. He lost half his fleet within ten minutes of contact with the Earth fleet. Now the battle had broken down into ship-to-ship fighting. Those small Earth ships had some kind of beam weapon that was devastating. He saw one of the Earth battleships explode when ten dreadnoughts surrounded it and attacked it together. Before it blew up, the Earth ship killed four of the dreadnoughts with those strange thin beams and those terrible seven-hundred-foot-wide primary beams. The power of those small ships was unbelievable. “Ten to one and we lose four,” Dorg thought. “Have the dreadnoughts target the larger human ships,” he ordered. “Hunt them with packs of fifteen dreadnoughts for each of their ships.” Then he thought, “Maybe we can recover and win this thing.”
“Sir, we’ve lost the Johannesburg,” Lieutenant Kelley said.
“Assign her escorts to another ship. Kelley, give me a ship count,” Kosiev said while looking at his display.
“We’ve lost forty, sir, eight of them empire class.”
“Keep me informed, Lieutenant.”
Captain Al Downing flew his destroyer out of the path of one of the Alliance dreadnoughts and was immediately hit by eighty of its primary beams. His screen went quickly into the red. Fifty missiles then started impacting his screens. He twisted and turned his ship but couldn’t escape the beams that were locked onto his ship. He saw an Earth cruiser directly ahead and diverted to go through its screen. His screen was approaching light blue when he went through the cruiser’s screen and emerged with his screen back in the yellow. He turned back on the dreadnought that had now started firing on the cruiser. As he passed the dreadnought he fired four needles into it. The dreadnought had reacquired the destroyer and had begun hitting it again with its primary beams. The four needles penetrated the dreadnought’s five screens, and two punctured all the way into its hull. Each needle contained four hundred hornets, and half of them had entered the punctured hull of the dreadnought and were destroying everything they touched. It blew up so quickly that one moment it was there firing its weapons, and the next there was nothing but a bright light and debris scattering in all directions. Captain Downing’s destroyer was then attacked by two Alliance cruisers that were firing every weapon at the small ship. Once again its screen moved into red. He turned to run through the cruisers’ screen again when the surviving Earth cruiser exploded in front of him. He fired his remaining four needles into the two Alliance cruisers just before his ship was blown out of existence. The needles punched into the two Alliance cruisers and the hornets blew them apart piecemeal. They each started exploding at the front, and the explosions walked the length of both ships. Everywhere, ships were dying.
The Washington was surrounded by five dreadnoughts. Kosiev sat in his command chair and watched Commodore Mikado fight his ship. The Washington’s screen was red, but before entered dangerous territory, Mikado fired his primary beams and needles until the excess energy was released. Two of the dreadnoughts were cut in half by the Washington’s primary beams, and the remaining three were punctured by two needles each. Two of the three had their surfaces blown apart by the little missiles and lost the ability to fight. The third dreadnought appeared to just stop in space and hang there, doing nothing. Its screens had failed and none of its weapons were firing. Then it started drifting. The Washington continued moving through the Alliance fleet, drawing Alliance dreadnoughts like a bright light attracting moths.
Admiral Dorg looked at his display and was sick. The Earth ships had destroyed 1,500 of his ships, and the remaining five hundred were going fast. According to his best count, he had only been able to kill 140 of the Earth ships. At the current rate, he would see his last ship destroyed in less than twenty minutes. He now knew that he was right to worry about this race. His ships were no match for theirs. He had seen enough, and knew that if he waited until the numbers of the Earth ships equaled his, then no one could escape. Their only chance was to scatter and run to the jump point. Some ships would escape. The Alliance and the clan leaders had to be warned about this race. “Order the fleet to scatter and run for the star drive limit. Spread out as much as possible and jump back to the Cainth system.”
Kosiev saw the Alliance fleet suddenly turn and accelerate toward the star drive limit. “Well, we hoped we could prevent anyone getting information of our capabilities,” he thought, but he looked at his display and knew there was no way his remaining 208 ships could chase down more than twice their number before some of them jumped to safety. “Order all ships to pick a target and destroy it before they can jump. Have the ten ships in the outer system jump into the limit and destroy whatever ships they can target.”
The ten Empire ships near Uranus powered up, jumped to Jupiter’s orbit, and wa
ited for the Alliance ships to come to them. Captain Johnson’s sensor officer looked up and reported, “Sir, an Alliance dreadnought just jumped in with six escorts in the outer system.”
“Well, we can’t have all the luck,” Captain Johnson replied. “They’re bound to have something eventually happen in their favor. Pick a target weapons and let’s go hunting. Let’s give them something to see back at good ole Cainth headquarters.”
The Dreadnought Mass Destruction jumped into the human system and began recording. It immediately saw the remaining Alliance ships fleeing and being chased by the remainder of the human fleet. The clan leaders on Cainth watched the feed and saw those small Earth ships chase down the fleeing Alliance ships and blow them apart. There was no cheering; the air was somber. They watched as one of those small battleships caught a Glod dreadnought and blew it in half with two hellish energy beams. The Glod were known for the superiority of their warships. That dreadnought didn’t have any effect on the ship that destroyed it. Then they saw several Alliance ships cross the star drive limit and jump to safety. Terl, watching his feed from the human system, saw Admiral Dorg’s ship approaching the star drive limit as one of those small battleships bore down on it. The Earth ship fired its energy beams, but the Admiral’s ship disappeared just as the beams tore through the space his ship had just occupied. Terl was numb. According to the sensors of Mass Destruction, only 178 ships had been able to jump to safety. The humans had destroyed 1,800 Alliance ships, including 40 percent of Cainth’s total warships. Terl thought, “Admiral Dorg was right about these humans; they are a race to be feared. Now we know what happened to our ships at the colony world.” Then a small thought wormed its way into his consciousness: “They know where we live.”
“That didn’t take long,” Atlas said.
Danielle and Tag had watched the destruction, horrified at the loss of life on both sides. Tag said to Atlas with a heavy heart, “So many killed; such a waste of potential. There’s got to be a way to avoid all this slaughter.”
Atlas said nothing for a minute and then spoke in a soft thought. “It is called growing pains. Sometimes a civilization dies, but those that weather the storm come out better and stronger for it. You must endure until the task is completed.”
“Well, at least Admiral Kosiev was right,” Tag said. Danielle looked at Tag with raised eyebrows. “This marks the end of the beginning. Atlas, can you get the admiral on a communication channel without revealing yourself?” Instantly Admiral Kosiev appeared on their screen.
“Admiral, congratulations on your victory,” Tag said.
“Thank you, Mr. Gardner. It was costly. We lost more than 150 ships and some of the Alliance fleet escaped.”
“How long will it take before your ships could be ready to fight again, Admiral?”
“We just need to resupply our stores of missiles and provisions. Probably forty-eight hours. Why do you ask?”
“I think it’s time we paid our Cainth neighbors a visit and welcomed them to the neighborhood.”
“We’d be violating the twenty-light-year limit if we did,” Kosiev said.
“That limit disappeared with the Alliance order to occupy our system, Admiral. We’re going to take this war to our enemies and see if we can fight it on their ground, not ours. We at the very least are going to declaw the cat that has been threatening us for two hundred years.”
Kosiev smiled at Tag and said, “It would be nice if I could repay them for the Moscow. I owe them.”
“Have the engineers found the asteroids for the fortresses, Admiral?”
“The first four have already been boosted out of orbit, and the mining engineers are already blasting the surface to install the layer of power cells. They should be hollowed out and environment controls and weapons installed by the time they make Earth orbit in three weeks. The second four are having the black hole generators and drives installed as we speak. They will arrive two weeks later. Incidentally, I’ve never seen power cells as large as the ones being installed. If we can charge them, they should pack quite a punch.”
“My understanding is that each of their Coronado shields should cover 15 percent of the Earth’s surface and overlap each other when fully installed. Every day in direct sunshine will add 18 percent to the charging load. They should reach full charge and start storage within eight days of coming online. Most of our ship-making capability has been delayed to produce the power cells in time for installation. When the Melbourne moved that comet, it led to the idea of their creation. If we can protect the planet, we should have enough ships released to take the war to the Alliance.”
“Prepare your ships, Admiral. I’ll talk with the director and general staff, but I think they will go along with my plan. Once the platforms are in orbit and functional, the rest of the fleet would be at our disposal. Now that they know our capabilities, I don’t see any reason to hold the prisoners on Europa. They should add to the fun, especially after watching their ship self-destruct with their lifeboats. Let’s just say we’re returning some of their citizens and oh, by the way, let us help you remove all your weapons of war. This has been a long time coming, Admiral. The fun is just starting.”
“What about the Alliance?”
“We’ll deal with them when we have to. It’s going to take time for them to organize another attack. By the end of the next month our shipyards will have two hundred ships to replace the 150 you lost. I don’t think they can produce the two thousand they lost quite as quickly. Ultimately, time is our best friend. Let’s hope the Alliance gives us enough. Either way, the Cainth are going to see us again, and this time we will decide their future.”
Kosiev smiled, looked out of his viewport at the unblinking stars, and knew for the first time that he was going to go and visit some of those outside of the limit. Tag was right: the fun was just beginning.
Excerpt from Annihilation, Book II—The Power of a Queen
“Admiral, how is the evacuation proceeding,” Terl asked as he boxed important documents to be shipped to the colonies? Some of these documents were important treaties agreed to by the Cainth Empire and other Alliance races. They would be important for the future, “If there is a future,” he thought.
“We’ve moved most of the Clan Leaders and their families aboard ships and they are just now leaving for the jump limit to go to our colonies. Some of the fleet has arrived from our closer colonies and our ship count is now 967 warships. We are getting some disturbing reports that some of our enemies in the Alliance are moving to occupy our colonies so we can’t pull all our ships.” Admiral Dorg looked at the types of ships he had for defense of the planet and knew it was not enough. “We can delay the humans but not for long. There is no hope of moving the general population and our troops have had to stay to maintain order so most of them will have to remain on the ground controlling the riots. The news got out that we were heavily defeated and that the home world is at risk of total destruction. I believe, Clan Leader, that the Alliance leadership leaked that news hoping for chaos and possible overthrow of our government.”
“You’re probably right, Admiral. Who would have thought we would be facing extinction from the humans. Let’s hope they give us enough time to save as many as we can.” Terl glanced at his display and saw thousands of Cainth civilians crowding the space port trying to get off the planet. The streets had numerous fires going and thousands of vehicles were lifting and flying to the side of the planet away from open space which was the direction where the humans would probably come.
Thirty drags later Terl was issuing orders to the military on how to handle the riots when Admiral Dorg came on his display, “It looks like our time has run out. Sensors have picked up approximately 200 star drives breaking into normal space in the outer system. Clan Leader, I’m sending a shuttle to pick you up.”
Terl decided that history didn’t matter if you had no future so he left the boxes of treaties and crowd control behind and ran to the lift to take him to the top of the building.
He was fighting to control his fear and he wondered if this is what the humans felt when his fleet had gone to destroy their home planet 290 cycles ago.
Annihilation Trilogy
Book One: Love Conquers All
Book Two: The Power of a Queen
Book Three: A Rose Grows in Weeds
About Saxon Andrew
Saxon Andrew has a BA and Masters Degree from Mercer University in Psychology and Education. He is a former social worker, high school teacher and coach, manager of several sales organizations, and business owner. He has loved science fiction since he first learned to read and his stories are the product of being exposed to the universes created by the great authors of the genre.
Saxon lives in Tampa, Florida with his wife and two dogs and he smiles at what the universe sends our way. The dogs smile when they get a treat or rubbed behind the ears. Dogs always get the best end of the deal.
Annihilation: Love Conquers All Page 32