by Saxon Andrew
Grant nodded, “Get the ships ready to go. We need to make sure no harm comes to Admiral Blake and Telee.”
Iggy and Slick began issuing instructions and the Animals began running to board shuttles coming down from the cruisers overhead. Iggy looked at Grant and Cinny, “You need to take our children to cover your ships as well. We also request that you do not take part in combat, the two of you are too important for us to lose.”
Grant looked at Iggy and pulled a combat knife out of his its scabbard on his belt. He put his hand down on the tree next to the fire pit and slammed the blade down on his little finger. He picked up the severed finger and handed it to Iggy, “Keep this in the event I don’t make it back.”
Cinny screamed when he cut his finger off but then she pulled her knife out and cut her little finger off, “Keep this with his.”
Iggy took the two fingers and shook his head, “I’d rather you not take any chances.”
“Everything we know is in those fingers. I don’t want to go into possible combat and be limited in what I can do. Remember, some of your children are on the planet and I will not stand by and watch them die.”
Iggy smiled and closed his claw over the fingers, “You are one of us. This proves it to me.”
Grant and Cinny held their hands and ran toward their scooters. Six Dragons and twelve Spiders ran with them. Slick looked at Iggy, “They are much more than I thought.”
Iggy nodded, “We’ll need their bravery.”
• • •
Admiral Blake’s Fleet moved in on the pulsing ships holding formation above Hegoth. The Main Battleships began moving into groups of threes and brought their main batteries around. The strange warships opened fire and the approaching battleships were rocked but their force fields held. “ADMIRAL, RECALL YOUR SHIPS!!”
“What?”
“Recall them immediately!”
“Why?”
“IF YOU WAIT MUCH LONGER, YOU’RE GOING TO LOSE YOUR FLEET!!”
Blake lifted his communicator, “All ships, break off the attack and return to formation, beak off the attack!” Blake looked up, “What’s going on, Telee?”
Blake’s fleet stopped their forward rush and turned away from the invader ships but ten of the giant Earth battleships closest to the pulsing invader ships were suddenly hit by intense, powerful, lasers. All ten were blown apart and then the pieces were obliterated by the green and yellow beams. Blake’s mouth fell open as he witnessed the loss of ten of his main battleships and heard Telee say in his mind, “Admiral, I heard the thoughts of one of their weapons leaders. They were firing their lasers at half power to draw your ships in. Once you were in range, they were going to hit your fleet with a massive broadside.”
Blake looked at Tofer, “Tell me about those beams!”
“Sir, our fields won’t stand up to them.”
“How far away do we have to be to survive them?”
“Sir, at least five miles and the fields will fail if it is continuously hit by them.”
Blake turned, “Cleve, how much will it take to break through a force twelve force field?”
“Sir, if our ships can’t get closer than five miles to attack them, it would take fifty main battleships firing all their main beams simultaneously at each of their ships.”
Blake stared at him and said, “Set it up.”
“Do what?”
“Set it up. Divide our fleet into sixty ship squadrons and have them roll in and open fire at one of those ships. After the first sixty take a shot, the next squadron will come in behind them as the first group withdraws to recharge their force fields.”
“What happens if they charge, Admiral?”
“Then they’ll lose the carriers they dropped on the planet. They may send some of their ships to disrupt our attacks and if they do, I want groups of sixty ready to move in and attack them from five miles away.” Cleve stared at Blake and the Admiral said, “Set it up! Now!”
Cleve turned and said, “Yes Sir.”
Blake turned to Captain Patel, “I want all of our cruisers in subspace between that fleet and our ships. If they send ships out to harass us, I want each cruiser to fire five Tridents at them from behind.”
Cleve shouted over his shoulder, “Now that’s a good idea, Admiral.”
Blake looked at Bobbi, “How many Tridents do we have?”
“Sir, the Trident is a brand new weapon system and we only have 4,000 of them scattered among our cruisers.”
“Tofur, can a Trident break through a force twelve?”
“Probably not alone, Sir. But five of them might do it.”
Blake listened to Cleve issuing orders to the fleet and said, “Tofur, what’s happening on the planet?”
“Sir, the carriers have delivered more than two divisions to the surface. As soon as they land they begin blasting everything around them.”
“What do you mean, ‘everything’?”
“They are burning every building in their path. They’re also firing on the civilians trying to flee from their approach. It appears they could care less about whether or not the ones they’re killing are military or civilian.”
“How are our troops holding up?”
“Sir, they’re outnumbered and outgunned.”
Blake looked at his wall monitor that been divided into four different views. The Invaders were walking through a fierce barrage of blaster beams and missiles. They only fell when hit by an overwhelming number of beams and missiles. “Notify the troops to fall back and to not allow the Invaders to surround them.”
“Sir! I have three hundred Scout Vessels appearing 30,000 miles out.”
Blake looked at his display and heard Telee say, “Sir, the Genetics have come to see what’s happening.”
• • •
Grant looked at his subspace screen and saw the three hundred ships around the nemesis. Suddenly, he heard Cinny in his mind, “Grant, Telah is hearing thoughts from that new civilization in subspace around Hegoth.”
Grant looked at his panel, “I don’t detect any ships in subspace around Hegoth.”
“It appears they are able to avoid being seen. However, these scouts are here to try and follow a ship back to Earth. That’s why they’ve initiated this attack.”
“They don’t know Earth’s location.”
“Telah says they don’t. It appears they’ve not made a concerted effort to find it before now.”
“I wonder why they just wouldn’t damage an Earth Battleship and take the database.”
“Grant, you know the ships will self-destruct before allowing an Enemy to take possession of it.”
Grant suddenly sat up straight, “WHERE DID THAT SCOUT JUMP TO WHEN THAT FLEET ARRIVED!?”
Cinny grabbed her throat as Telah said, “He’s out in the outer reaches of this system. He did not go back to our planet.”
“Thank God. Grant did you hear that?”
“I did. Telah, can you trace the source of these thoughts?”
“I believe I can. They’ll grow stronger as we move closer to them. I feel reasonably sure I can find them.”
Grant looked at his panel, “Normal Space in three, two, one…”
Chapter Eleven
The Group Watcher stared at the huge screen on his warship’s front wall and saw the ships move away from his formation. He stood up and yelled, “Open fire!” He watched ten of the enemy ships blow up and frowned. Losing ten ships wouldn’t make much difference. How did they know about his ambush? He sat down in his chair and pressed a button on his chair arm. He stared at the enemy and wondered what they were doing.
He wasn’t tall. He was about six feet and weighted a hundred and sixty pounds. His skin color was between olive and mint green. He breathed through his skin and also used it to hear and smell, his sense of smell was incredible. He could sense the presence of other beings a hundred yards behind him just by their odors. His face had two eyes, no nose, no ears, and a thin lipped mouth. Its teeth were a mixture of flat a
nd pointed with the top and bottom front teeth being incredibly sharp. Its head had long dark green hair that was normally tied back. His eyes were yellow with horizontal pupils that extended the entire width of the eyeball. His legs were small but extremely muscled. His species was fast and their reflexes were superior to humans. His uniform was dark green with a yellow collar indicating he was a high-ranking leader.
He stared at his monitor, “Have any of the enemy ships jumped away?”
“No, Watcher.”
“Be prepared to follow any that leave here.”
“We’ve detected more ships arriving, “Watcher.”
“What? How many?”
“Three hundred; however, none of them are the large Warships.”
“Where are they now?”
“They appear to be holding station several thousand miles out from the first group.”
The Watcher looked at his Eye Leader and he nodded. He now had them plotted on his system. He turned back to the large red warships and saw they were changing their formations. How did they know he had set up an ambush? He began to grow nervous about this enemy’s ability to scan his ships. Could they determine the power of his reactors behind his force fields? “Watcher, the large red ships are moving.”
He looked at the wall monitor and saw numerous small groups of ships were moving toward his formation. “Fire at will. Target each group as it moves into range.” He sat forward on his chair and wondered what they were doing. It didn’t take long for him to find out.
• • •
Sgt. Cashion moved his platoon out of the barracks and boarded his carrier. He looked up at the sky and shook his head. He’s moved from Lovely to Hegoth thinking he was getting away from the hot seat. Now Hegoth was being invaded by aliens and no one knew who they were or where they came from. His briefing showed that the invaders’ armor and weapons were superior to his own. His platoon was ordered to slow their advance through the eastern side of the city.
If that stupid Lieutenant hadn’t gone and got himself shot for refusing to follow the new Prime Minister’s orders…well, he would still be stuck in the middle of the invaders’ advance but he stood a better chance of surviving. He had watched the video on the enemy’s advance and knew trying to take them head on was suicide. The force field used by the invaders was too strong to penetrate with single blaster shots. He arrived at his assigned territory and had his platoon dig in. He looked up and down the street and knew they would be arriving soon. Suddenly, he noticed the sporting goods store across the street. He said, “Private Johns, come with me.”
Cashion ran to the store’s entrance and used his blaster to burn the lock off. He rushed inside and looked around the store. There! A huge sign read HUNTING in the Hegoth language. “Sarge, what are you doing?”
“Have you ever gone hunting for Megolith?”
“Do I look stupid?”
“I guess you have to be born here to appreciate it. However, the weapon they use to hunt it has tremendous penetrating power.”
“But Sarge, the invader’s armor is too strong. Our modern weapons won’t damage it.”
“Energy beams won’t pass through it. Metal won’t penetrate it. However, the force field might not stop non-ferrous objects. Those will have to be stopped by their armor.”
“You don’t think their armor would stop those small projectiles?”
“Have you’ve seen a megalith?”
“I have.”
“If these projectiles will penetrate that monster’s hide…Private, I don’t know if it’ll work. However, I do know what we have will get us killed if we solely depend on it. Come over here and help me load this cart.”
Cashion rolled the Dart Shooters out to his troops and passed them out. “I want all of you to take some shots with these hunting weapons. We’re going to turn off the electronic circuits in our armor and use these from ambush. If they don’t work, we’ll activate our armor and continue our ambush tactics. I want all of you to pair up and take out as many of the invaders as you can. The order of the day is stick and move.”
Cpl. Remey started shaking his head, “Sarge, do you seriously think this thing is going to work?”
Cashion looked at his troops and blew out a breath, “OK, Private Johns and I will go out and trial it against their advancing troops. If it works, I’ll notify you on our communications frequency.” Cashion picked up a Dart Shooter and said, “Come on, Private.”
Remey said, “Why are you doing this?”
“If this does work, they won’t be able to see where the darts are coming from. Our chances of survival will go up.”
A private said, “Yeah, from definitely getting killed to probably getting killed.”
Cashion smiled, “We’ll be back.”
• • •
Senior Captain Lance Grinstead said over his combat helmet, “Alright, you’ve got the ship we’re attacking designated on your panels. We will open fire with all of our main beams when we’re a quarter of a mile from the five-mile limit. We will fire as we start our turn away from their positions and continue until we’re moving directly away from them. You will go to full speed the moment we start our turn away. Make sure your computers have that ship targeted and keep firing.”
The sixty main battleships roared up and they began taking incoming fire six miles out from the Invaders’ formation. Lance looked at his panel and saw the force field was holding but was starting to climb into yellow. The Squadron slowed and opened fire on the center warship in the huge formation. All sixty ships fired their fifty main beams simultaneously and the Invader Warship began glowing brightly. As the sixty battleships screamed around and began moving away, the Invader ship exploded. Ten more squadrons were moving in behind the first and in less than two minutes, eleven Invader warships were destroyed.
The Watcher jumped out of his chair and yelled, “Send the front rank to attack those ships!”
• • •
Eight hundred pulsing warships accelerated toward the squadrons and they broke off their attack and fled from the advancing Invaders. The Watcher stared intently at his monitor and saw the Red Ships were maintaining their distance. His ships weren’t faster. That wasn’t good. Suddenly, the six hundred ships he sent out to attack the enemy began blowing up. He brought the view in closer on his monitor and saw small red ships were emerging into normal space behind his ships and firing missiles at them from the rear. The Invaders tried to turn and bring their main weapons to bear on the small ships but failed. The engines on the rear of their ships blinded them. The small ships were too close to the engine’s exhausts and weren’t detected in time to respond. The Cruisers left normal space immediately after firing the Trident Missiles.
Of the eight hundred Invader Warships sent to attack the Earth Fleet, only sixteen managed to jump into subspace and avoid being destroyed. The Watcher was past anger and he almost ordered his ships out in waves to attack the Earth Fleet. But he forced his energy gland to slow and he sat down in his chair. If he left the planet, he would leave his ground forces behind and open to bombardment from space. He punched his panel, “Have any of those ships jumped away?”
“No, Watcher.”
He slammed his hand down on his chair arm and said, “Order all ships to start weaving. Do not present a stationary target to those ships.”
• • •
Blake watched the ships start weaving and knew singling out a ship was going to be extremely difficult. Not impossible, but almost so.
“Admiral.”
“Yes Telee.”
“The Commander of that fleet is here to follow one of your ships to Earth. My sister tells me that they have undetectable ships in subspace waiting to follow any ship that jumps away from here.”
“What?”
“It appears they have not learned Earth’s location and they have scouts in subspace ordered to follow any ship that jumps away.”
Blake’s eyes went wide and he lifted his communicator, “Attention all
ships, attention all ships! No ship will jump to Earth under any circumstances. This new Invader has ships in subspace that will follow any ship that jumps away. If anyone violates this order, you will be executed!”
Cleve looked at Blake, “We don’t detect any ships in subspace.”
Telee thought to them, “I’ve just looked at my sister’s thoughts and she could hear numerous thoughts while they were in subspace coming here. There are ships there, Commodore. You’re just not able to detect them.”
“Telee, are they able to track ships that jump here?”
“Admiral, if you’ll take the Triton into subspace, I’ll see if I can’t find the answer to that question.”
Blake nodded at his Drive Officer and said over his communicator, “Captain Grinstead, you are in command until I come out of subspace.”
“Yes Sir.”
The Triton went into subspace and Blake waited. After ten minutes he looked around the Bridge, “Telee?”
“They are not able to track a ship that arrives. They are able to follow a ship that jumps away. It appears they are getting frustrated at the moment. This attack on Hegoth is being done to determine Earth’s location.”
“Can you determine how many ships they have in subspace?”
“At least six thousand.”
Blake fell back in his chair. He looked at Cleve who nodded. Bobbi said, “What?”
“If they have that many ships in subspace that tells me that they have a huge number of warships. They’re just not revealing them now.”
Bobbi looked at the warships above the planet on the monitor and said, “What’s going to happen with those ships if no one jumps away?”
“They’ll stay there until their ground forces kills everyone on the planet.”
“Is there any way we can support our troops?”
Blake shook his head, “Not without losing thousands of ships trying to break through their formations.”
“Why don’t they bombard the planet?”
“They would have to move into a lower orbit and that would leave them vulnerable to our attacks.”