“Ninja Master this is Ninja 3, we have target in sight.” Joshua watched the monitor. So did everyone else in the operations room.
“Repeat Ninja Master this is Ninja 3, we have target in sight. What are your orders?” Joshua felt the eyes of everyone in the control room turn to him. The view on the monitor showed a formation of four large spacecraft surround by dozens of diamond shaped fighters. It was the first Kan-ji formation to reach Earth, and they were flying over the Atlantic in the direction of New York City.
“Ninja 3, this is Ninja Master, hold position.” Joshua responded. He felt, more than heard a collective sigh of disappointment as the operations room returned to its activities.
“Looks like a destroyer and three cruisers.” Ernie said as dozens of images of Kan-ji ships scrolled by on the monitor to their left… images collected by their cloaked observation ships. “Along with forty of their fighters… I guess this would be an attack squadron. I wonder what their plan is.”
“Our orders haven’t changed; we are still to observe only.” Joshua sat at his desk. The monitors around the room began showing more and more formations. Similar requests came in from Ninja 5 and Ninja 12. Joshua gave them the same response. Requests soon came in from all their ‘observation’ ships… more than Joshua could respond to. He gave his standing orders to his operations crew, leaving them to handle the responses.
“Look!” Ernie pointed to the Ninja 3 monitor. A squadron of Earths fighters and bombers were engaging the Kan-ji formation. Ninja 3 moved up and away giving them a better view of the action. The Earth fighters had smarter weapons and better maneuverability, but the Kan-ji ships had more power… plus their pilots could handle more acceleration. As the battles wore on it became apparent that the Earth’s fighters had an advantage. Unfortunately, whenever a Kan-ji fighter went down, a replacement would almost magically appear; never to give the Earth’s forces a clean shot at the larger destroyers and cruisers.
“Sally, do we have any views of Earth from space?” Joshua asked one of the operators.
“Yep, screen eleven.” She pointed to a monitor or their right.
“Damn. Can you magnify?” Joshua asked. As the view of Earth grew, he could see thousands of ships in orbit. Not just circling the equator, but along all lines of latitude.
“That’s where their replacements are coming from. There must be a command ship somewhere.” Joshua wondered out loud.
“None that we see sir, but space is pretty big and we do have limited resources.” Sally said. She put her hand to her headset. “Sir, they’ve started... screen four.” She pointed.
The scene was devastating. The large destroyer ship was firing an array of white hot shafts of plasma at the ground. As the ship moved forward it left a miles wide path of total destruction.
“Ernie, do you have a map?” Joshua turned to the hulk of a man sitting at his side.
“Can do” Ernie typed into his keyboard. “Screen one… it’s a partial, but it’s a pretty good sample.”
“Wow.” Joshua stood. The plot showed only the formations over North America. There were hundreds, all moving laterally; some east to west, others moving west to east, but all laterally. Their starting points were scattered but it was obvious that once they were done, the entire North America continent would be destroyed in a systematic clean sweep.
“What about the rest of the planet.” Joshua asked.
“Same” Ernie said, he then looked pleadingly at Joshua. “I think it’s time we step in.”
Joshua looked at the monitors and saw nothing but destruction playing out.
“They sure are arrogant.” Ernie said. “There’s no strategy, they’re just leveling the planet. I wonder why? With that kind of power, why not just blow us up?”
Joshua agreed. “It’s as though they’re relishing it; like eating gourmet cheesecake at the end of a good meal.” They watched helplessly in silence.
“Sir!” Sally turned from her monitor. “We need to do something.”
“Contact Ninja 3… take out the destroyer.” Joshua told her.
“Eye sir.” She said excitedly turning to her console. After giving her orders she pointed to the screen. A view of the Kan-ji destroyer settled into its center. Still over the Atlantic, New York City could be seen a few miles in the background. Its energy beam was not yet active.
“Ninja 3, firing at power level 5.” The voice came over the radio. An elongated bolt of energy appeared from the bottom of the screen shooting towards the destroyer. It dropped from view as Ninja 3 quickly moved to a higher altitude and 90 degrees off to the side.
“Remember that he’s cloaked; that bolt just gave away his position.” Joshua said to a puzzled looking Ernie.
Ninja 3 still maintained its view of the Kan-ji destroyer. The bolt tore a hole through its center where it immediately exploded into an ultra bright white fireball. Pieces of the ship fell to the ocean while the fireball remained in place slowly shrinking in size until winking out.
The Kan-ji fighters scrambled like a disturbed bees nest, firing bolts and missiles at the spot from where the Ninja 3 fired its destructive bolt. The Earth fighters and bombers quickly engaged finishing off the Kan-ji fighters and battle ships in their confusion.
“I think we have plan of attack.” Joshua said. “We take out the larger battle ships, the Earth forces take out the rest. Sally, spread the word. Team you know what to do.”
“What about all those Kan-ji reinforcements?” Ernie asked.
“I bet it takes a heck of a lot more time to replace one of those bigger ships… and they have to run out of them sometimes, don’t they?” Joshua said picking up his phone. “It’s time I have a talk with Admiral Davies.”
Alec's Dream Page 64