The Forbidden Wilds: Crossing the Styx

by Saxon Andrew

  The warships assigned to fly through the territory of the attacked hives, would remain behind waiting for any warships that showed up afterwards. That was Jingle’s idea and it was a good one. Many alien warships appeared several days after the hives destruction and had to be taken out before they would leave to spawn on another planet. The stealth probes were a huge help in tracking any warships that were missed.

  The pilots that survived the initial attacks on the space hives, learned how to fight against large numbers of enemy ships. They stayed out of their formations and launched their missiles at the outer ships in the alien formation. The aliens learned to spread out, but it didn’t matter; that made it easier for the Union warships to flash in, launch a missile, and get out before other ships could move in to attack them.

  Another ingenious tactic Jingle came up with was to have the ten-ship units moving through the other hives to move in with all ten warships leaving a giant wake. The attacking fleets lined up behind ten warships leading them with eight ships in each row behind them making it look like only ten warships were moving in. It was close to impossible to determine if the hives were being attacked by the ten ship formations or the attack fleets. The Royals at the space hives wouldn’t run the risk of assisting the other hives when their space structure might be the one being attacked. But they quickly figured out that their time was running out after more than three-hundred hives were destroyed.

  • • •

  Alex was staring at the giant structure and saw Jangle arrive next to his ship. Jingle had left to replace the DD missiles she had used in previous attacks. The nine-thousand Union Warships rushed ahead to take on the defenders when Alex suddenly heard over his wall speakers, “ADMIRAL BERRINGER, ALL OF MY UNITS ARE REPORTING A MASSIVE WAVE OF WARSHIPS LEAVING EVERY SURVIVING HIVE. THEY ARE HEADED DIRECTLY TOWARD YOUR ATTACK!!”

  Alex jerked his head to the tactical monitor and realized this was happening at the worst possible time. The fleets were attacking a hive in the center of the nebula and ships were moving in from all directions. “Admiral Roland, move your fleet in and join up with the fleet attacking the hive; there’s no way for you to get out of the nebula in time to avoid what’s coming.”

  “On my way, Admiral!”

  “Admiral Kennedy, have you started moving in to the nebula?”

  “Yes Sir. I’m not far from Admiral Roland’s fleet.”

  “Go to maximum speed and join up with us at the hive we’re attacking.”

  “Going to maximum speed, Sir.”

  • • •

  The eighteen-thousand warships came flashing in and the hive was destroyed quickly along with every alien warship defending it. “Brooks, tap into the stealth probes and tell me what’s moving our way.”

  Alex saw the tactical monitor instantly change and he fell back in his chair as he stared at the monitor. A giant globe of enemy warships was moving across the nebula and their formations were already surrounding his three fleets.”

  “Alex!”

  “Jingle, there’s no way we can run without the entire globe rushing in on us. We’re going to be forced to take them on here.”

  “Can we survive what’s coming?”

  Alex looked at Jingle on the monitor and shook his head. “Jingle, if all those ships launch their missiles at us…”

  “What about using our DD missiles to thin the herd?”

  “Jingle, we’re going to be forced to use the DD’s to put a barrier between our fleets and the incoming missiles. It will delay them moving in but not for a long time.” Alex lifted his communicator, “ALL SHIPS! FORM UP IN A GLOBE FORMATION AND MOVE OUT TO CONFRONT THE INCOMING ALIEN WARSHIPS! THE MOMENT THEY LAUNCH A MISSILE BARRAGE, FIRE YOUR DD MISSILES IN THE PATH OF THEIR APPROACH AND FALL BACK. WE’LL CONTINUE TO USE THE DD’S UNTIL WE RUN OUT. GET MOVING NOW!!”

  Glennon appeared on Alex’s monitor, “Admiral, you need to get your ships out of there!!”

  “Sir, there’s no possible way to do that. The aliens have caught us with our pants down and there is a giant globe of their warships moving in on us from all directions. The moment we move to break through their lines the entire globe will collapse on us firing millions of missiles at us. The stealth probes show more than twenty-million warships moving in on us from the surviving 420 hives.” Glennon shook his head in amazement at the number. “Each of those ships can fire a thousand of their missiles and they can saturate my formations with them. We’re going to have to prepare to take them on here.”

  “But there’s no way you can survive against those numbers, Alex!”

  “Then we’ll reduce their numbers so that you can win this war afterwards. I don’t see any other option open to us, Sir.”

  “Stay alive, Alex!!”

  Glennon disappeared from the monitor and Jingle appeared, “I really hate we didn’t have more time before this, honey.”

  “Me too, Jingle. But this mission is really more important than either of us.”

  “Alex, you’ve said that about every mission you’ve been on!!”

  “But I really mean it this time!”

  Jingle giggled and blew out a hard breath. “So, what do we do?”

  “The fleets have formed a large globe formation and we’ve moved out two-hundred-thousand miles. We can’t move any further out or we won’t be able to surround our formation with an overlapping DD barrage. Jangle has contacted the ships that will be firing the first barrage along with the other ships firing the succeeding barrages. We’ll fire a barrage and fall back twenty-thousand miles the moment we launch the DD’s. We’ll keep it up until we run out of DD missiles.”

  “Alex, are you serious about using the barrages to take out their missiles and not their ships?”

  “Jingle, the aliens aren’t dumb. They’ll launch missile barrages so large that they’ll fill the space in front of us. Our ships can survive more than a hundred of them hitting the force fields, but we’ll have more than a thousand moving in on every one of our warships. We have no option but to use the DD’s to knock out their missiles.”

  “If I’m going to die here, I wish I was with you.”

  “Would you leave Jangle to do that?”

  Jingle sighed, “No, I guess not. He deserves to have me with him.”

  “I’ll be fine, you go and board Alex’s ship, Jingle.”

  “No, it’s during moments like this where you find out who your true friends are, Jangle. I’d only distract Alex if I was on his ship.”

  “I understand, Jingle,” Alex said softly. “Let’s make them pay for this.”

  “I’m looking forward to it.”

  • • •

  Six hours later, the long-range scanners detected a wake that filled the nebula moving toward them. Alex ordered, “All ships firing the first DD barrage, have them programmed to detonate in the middle of the incoming missile barrage. The blasts will remove the missiles closest to us. When our first barrage is launched, all ships will immediately fall back twenty-thousand miles and reform our formation. Those ships firing the second barrage will prepare to launch when the next aliens’ missile barrage moves inside the DD’s range.”

  • • •

  The alien formation could now be detected on the long-range scanners and every alien warship had formed a giant globe one-ship thick. That freed every one of their ships to fire their weapons without fear of hitting their ships. Alex watched them and heard Brooks announce, “They’ll enter firing range of their missiles in ten seconds.”

  Alex counted it down in his head and the giant alien formation disappeared behind a cloud of their missiles. “FIRE NOW AND FALL BACK!!” Alex stared at the rear-tactical monitor at the millions of incoming missiles and then the monitor flashed and went dark.

  The twenty-seven-thousand Union Warships turned and moved away from the incoming missile barrage as gigantic white explosions rushed out into them.

  Alex was amazed that thousands of alien missiles made it through the DD’s explosions. They we
re easily handled by the fleet’s blasters and the ships firing the second barrage prepared to launch.

  “The aliens made a huge mistake,” Jangle said over the link.

  “What is that?” Alex asked.

  “They were too close to the DD’s explosions. Every one of their ships was hit with a heavy dose of hard radiation.”

  “Jangle, the hides on those aliens are incredibly hard and they can handle the extreme radiation of open space,” Jingle replied.

  “Jingle, their hides would have to be made of hardened space armor five feet thick to survive the radiation that just saturated their ships. I firmly believe that every alien on those ships are little more than the walking dead.”

  Alex quickly asked, “What about our crews?”

  “Our ships fled before the missiles went off and were far enough away that their force fields will protect them from the radiation. Our force fields are far stronger than the fields being used by the aliens. The strength of the radiation is reduced by the square of distance. Those aliens remained in place, which wasn’t wise on their part.”

  “Then even if we die, we’ve won!” Jingle said softly. “We’ve removed every one of their warship crews that could leave and start a new colony.”

  • • •

  The huge alien globe was forced to come to a halt and wait until the giant overlapping explosions diminished to a safe level to pass through. They moved forward and launched another giant missile barrage from a further distance than before. Jingle smiled, “It appears they’ve learned about their mistake.”

  “It’s still too late for them!” Jangle responded.

  The DD’s were launched immediately, and the incoming missiles went up in giant overlapping explosions. The Union Fleets had instantly turned and fled twenty-thousand miles. Jangle commented, “They still received another heavy dose of radiation. I expect them to fire and run on their next barrage.” It happened exactly as Jangle predicted.

  It took three hours for each DD barrage to disperse allowing the alien ships to move forward. Five DD barrages had been fired and the Union Fleets globe had shrunk to the point where using the DDs would not be an option in two more launches. It really didn’t matter, they would be out of DD missiles in two more barrages. After the sixth DD barrage, Alex ordered, “All ships not participating in the final missile barrage will fall back now and form a globe. Have your computers link to each other and align your blasters such that they overlap each other. The ships firing the final barrage will move quickly into the formation and link with the other computers. We’ll attempt to take out the next alien missile barrage with our blasters and be prepared to launch half of your defense missiles on my command! Make sure that they are targeted on just one alien warship.”

  Jingle looked at Alex on her monitor as they waited for the DD barrage to disperse, “Alex, have you thought about having a family before this?”

  “I have, Jingle.”

  “Have you thought of any names?”

  “If it’s a girl, I’d like to name her Belle.”

  Jingle’s head tilted, “Belle?”

  Alex shrugged, “You know, Jingle Belle.” Jingle burst out laughing and Alex said, “You don’t like it?”

  “I absolutely love it! I’ve had to come up with a name for your computer and ship, but you nailed the name of our daughter.”

  Alex smiled, “I’m at a loss on what to name a boy.”

  “I was thinking about Michael.”

  “Michael?”

  “After Admiral Glennon. I’ve come to love and respect the old grouch, Alex.”

  Alex smiled, “Michael is a good name.”

  “They’re moving in!” Brooks announced.

  Alex activated his helmet’s communicator, “Start firing your blasters the moment a missile barrage is detected. Be ready to fire on the first missile launch on my command. Use half of your defense missiles on the initial barrage!”

  • • •

  The aliens moved in tightening their ranks and launched another missile barrage…but…it was a ghost of the former barrages. The blasters knocked them out easily and Alex shouted, “Launch now! Prepare to fire all remaining defense missiles on my command!”

  The union ships launched more than four-million missiles at the incoming alien formation and thousands of their warships began exploding with many of them damaging the ships closest to them. Alex saw it wasn’t going to be enough. “LAUNCH ALL REMAINING MISSILES!!”

  The alien formation surrounding the Union Fleets looked like it was on fire, but Alex knew he had shot his last wad. The surviving alien warships would swarm his formation and there was no escape.

  “I’m detecting explosions at the rear of the alien formation!!” Jangle announced. Alex jerked his eyes to the tactical display in his combat helmet and saw the huge alien formation had clouds of missiles moving in from every direction. Jangle said loudly, “I’m detecting more than five-million warships attacking the aliens; none of them are stealth ships.”

  Alex’s brow furrowed, “Who are they Brooks?”

  “Some of them are the warships built on Barrow, Alex. I don’t recognize the others. However, there are missiles being launched from stealth ships as well!”

  The alien formation fell apart and Alex ordered, “Move out and attack them now!”

  The Union formation seemed to explode as warships screamed away in all directions. Alex looked up and saw Admiral Glennon on the monitor, “It’s good to see you’re still alive.”

  “Sir?”

  “I ordered every warship in our defensive lines in to attack this formation. I also had Barrow’s former Executive to ask every planet in the Wilds if they would join in on the attack. I’ve been changing out their old missiles for the defense missiles on Bucket. There’s no reason to have a defensive line if they’re all here. Stay safe and I’ll talk with you after this is over.”

  Alex saw Jingle appear on the monitor smiling, “Definitely Michael!” Alex laughed and nodded.

  • • •

  The alien formation fell apart as the millions of warships tried to flee back to their home hives; not very many of them managed to escape. The ones that did were ignored and were later found drifting in space with all of their crew’s dead from radiation poisoning.

  The 7,000 advanced warships being used in the ten-ship units rejoined the fleet and Admiral Glennon appeared on every ship’s monitor.

  “The aliens kept 10,000 warships at their hives for defense and sent all the others to this attack. I programmed my computer with the hives your ship is being assigned to attack. Eighty of the Union’s most advanced warships will be going to each of the surviving space hives along with sixty-five thousands of the Wilds and Union warships. You are charged with destroying those hives and leave nothing behind.” Glennon pressed a button on his panel, “I’ve just sent you the coordinates you are assigned along with the officer commanding your fleets. Get moving now! We can’t give them time to launch colony ships.”

  • • •

  The huge gathering of warships activated their stardrives and began moving toward their targets. Out of what appeared to be bedlam, order appeared and in less than six hours, the Nebula Aliens ceased to exist.

  • • •

  Jingle sat on the Clapper and stared at her console’s display. She looked up at Alex and shook her head, “Admiral Glennon has reported that the surviving hives did not attempt to launch any colony ships. I wonder why that is?”

  Alex looked up and looked at Jingle on his console, “I suspect every one of them sent warships out with orders to flee the nebula and start a new colony somewhere else in the Milky Way. Those ships had all they needed to start over.”

  Jingle nodded, “But they never counted on all of the ships they sent receiving a lethal dose of radiation.”

  “Their destruction is due to a series of bad decisions, Jingle. We were fortunate…this time.”

  “You’re referring to the aliens in the LMC?”

&nb
sp; “I am. We managed to remove the Nebula Aliens in less than six months. That gives us over a year to get ready.”

  “Can I count on us not being sucked up into that?”

  “No, I’m sure Admiral Glennon will be calling us in after he scouts the LMC to determine what we’re up against. But we will have some time before that happens. I’ve requested he find someone else to lead that effort.”

  “And?”

  “He had the never to actually laugh at me.” Jingle started giggling and then started laughing. Alex smiled and joined her.

  Epilogue

  Alex walked into the Watering Hole and joined Jingle and Dolly sitting at the bar. He looked at Joesen and said, “The usual.” He leaned over and kissed Jingle on the cheek and Dolly smiled, “I understand you’ve been named the Commander of all Union forces on Bucket.”

  Alex smiled, “Yes. We’re building a state-of-the-art space port here that will be the headquarters of more than fifty-thousand of the new Terminator Class of Warships just coming on line. Bucket has become one of the Union’s most powerful planets.”

  “Well, congratulations, Admiral. That would appear to resolve the issue of you and Jingle living on Bucket,” Dolly said as she high-fived Jingle.

  Alex nodded, “Jingle is my second in command.”

  Dolly turned to Jingle, “You didn’t tell me that.”

  Jingle waved a hand, “It’s really a reduction in rank; we commanded far more warships than that during the Nebula War.”

  “Even so!” Dolly lifted her glass and Jingle toasted with her. Alex watched them and saw Jingle was drinking a soft-drink. He stared at them and then asked, “Jingle, why did you bring up the subject of baby names at the moment where we knew we were going to die?”

  Jingle turned around from Dolly and shrugged, “It was something that just entered my mind at the time.”

  “Why?” Jingle stared at Alex and he pressed her, “I know how your mind works Jingle and you’re not drinking your usual drink. What’s going on?”