by Saxon Andrew
“Sir, one of my scouts intercepted a communication from the Cyrens to the Crayen Commander. I’m sending you the recording now. Another scout has just reported that two Cyren Warships have just left their territory at high-speed and appear to be headed toward the Brotherhood planets.”
Tal felt a moment of fear and said, “Thanks, Drum. Keep me informed on what’s happening.” Tal pressed a button on his communicator, “Greg!”
“Admiral, it’s good to hear from you.”
“How many alphas do you have at the colonies?”
“What’s going on, Tal.”
“The Cyrens have discovered the Brotherhood has been eliminated and I expect them to launch an attack on the new colonies quickly.”
“I have thirty alphas assigned to each of the colonies, Tal. There’s a total of a little over three-thousand.”
“I’m headed to your flagship, Greg. I’m rearming my fleets and we need to come up with a strategy to take them on.”
“I’ll be waiting for you, Admiral.”
Tal saw the fear on Ka’s face as they ran toward a shuttle to take them to the Zak’s Jil. The cat was out of the bag and things were going to get dangerous quickly.
• • •
Jee looked at Rachael on a monitor, “It appears the Cyrens are getting back into action. This isn’t good.”
“Our warships can get some licks in but if they come out with their fleet…” Rachael sighed, “I don’t know if we can prevent them from attacking the new colonies. We’re heavily outnumbered, Jee.”
“There’s three thousand of the new alphas in the colonies, Rachael; we won’t be taking them on alone.”
“Jee, you’ve seen their ships.”
“I know, Rachael, but the new Alphas were constructed to take them on. Let’s hope they can deliver.”
“I just don’t see anything being able to confront those giant monsters.”
“Well, we’ve been ordered to provision our ships. Let’s get that done and see what Tal and Greg are able to come up with.” Rachael nodded and disappeared from the monitor. Jee didn’t want to agree with her but, those Cyren warships were frightening.
• • •
The Zak’s Jil arrived in orbit above New Americas and Greg appeared on Tal’s console, “Land your ship in the landing bay, Admiral.” Tal saw the giant alpha appear ahead of his ship and he was staggered by the size of it. The Zak’s Jil wasn’t small and it wouldn’t fit in the freighter’s landing bays, but this new alpha made the freighters appear small. Tal’s ship landed in the alpha’s landing bay with plenty of room to spare. Tal turned to Kerry, “Captain, you have the ship.”
Tal left the bridge with Ka and she was shaking her head, “This thing is huge!”
“It’s all relative, Ka. This alpha is still one-tenth the size of a Cyren warship and I didn’t see any blasters on the hull.”
“Let’s wait and see what Greg has to say before we really panic, ok?” Tal chuckled and nodded.
• • •
It took fifteen minutes to take a high-speed cart from the landing bay to the bridge of the alpha, where they found Greg waiting for their arrival. “It’s good to see you, Tal. It’s been a while.”
Tal shook Greg’s hand and Greg smiled, “Let’s go discuss this in my office.” Greg led them to a huge room with numerous monitors on the walls. He sat down in front of a large console as Tal and Ka sat in plush chairs in front of him. Greg turned his chair toward Tal, “Fleet Admiral Montana has made it clear that you are in overall command of our forces defending the colonies.”
“I don’t know if I agree with that, Greg. My fleets are no match for the Cyren warships. I’m really hoping the alphas can take them on. You should be in command.”
“I’ve not been out here and you’ve seen the Cyren warships. You should make the decisions on how we confront them.”
“Before I can even think about that, I need to know if the alphas can stand up to them, Greg. I didn’t see any blasters on the hull of this alpha when we landed in it.”
Greg touched a button on his console and one of the wall monitors activated showing an image of an alpha warship. Tal and Ka looked up at it as it started rotating on the monitor. The ship was huge and Greg stopped it rotating when the bow appeared. Four giant openings appeared on the bow that appeared to be covered with a clear cover. Greg turned to them, “The alphas only have four blasters and they are located at the bow. The clear coverings you see over them are the lenses that focus the blasters’ beams.”
Tal slowly started shaking his head, “Greg, the Cyren Warships have more than three hundred giant blasters on their hulls protected by a powerful rotating energy field.”
“The designers of the alphas knew that, Tal. The sheer numbers of blasters on their hulls limits their power.”
“What do you mean?” Tal responded. “Those blasters can fire a massive beam more than a hundred miles out from their ships.”
Greg smiled, “Tal, each of the blasters on the bow of an alpha can fire a blaster beam more than two hundred miles ahead of the ship and it will be more powerful at that distance than the Cyren beams are at fifty miles. We can hit them from outside the range of their blasters.”
“But they won’t penetrate their energy field, Greg!”
“The four blasters are computer controlled, Tal. They can be targeted on the gap between the rotating energy fields and will hold the target until it’s released by the operators. If two alphas target two of the gaps between the three rotating energy fields, they can be knocked out.”
Tal stared at Greg for a moment and said, “Really?”
“Really.”
“So, we have nothing to worry about, right?”
“Well, our beams could be blocked if the Cyrens fire a continuous barrage of blaster beams between our ships preventing our beams from getting through,” Greg responded.
“How do we prevent that?”
“I think if your fleets can launch a massive missile barrage at their ships, they will have to fend it off with their blasters.”
“I don’t know if we have enough missiles to make that happen,” Ka interjected.”
“You won’t be firing them alone, Ka. The alphas can fire more than ten thousand missiles in one volley. They will move in on the Cyren warship from directly ahead while your ships hit them from the sides.” Tal thought about the idea and Greg added, “We have thirty alphas at every colony and if your scouts are right about them only having eighteen hundred warships, they’ll only be able to send eighteen ships to attack each of the colonies. We’ll have them out numbered.”
Tal turned from the monitor to Greg, “It won’t happen that way, Greg. They’ll keep their attack fleet together and go from one colony to another.”
“Are you sure about that, Tal.”
“No, but I hope you’re not planning to wait for them to arrive at the colonies before we meet them. One mistake and a colony will be nuked before our ships could stop it. We need to confront them out from the colonies when they’re moving this way.” Greg was silent as he thought about Tal’s plan and Ka asked, “I don’t understand how the alpha’s blasters are more powerful than theirs.”
Greg was still thinking about Tal’s suggestion and he absently replied, “The Cyren have three hundred blasters on their hulls. That means the power their ships have must be divided among those hundreds of blasters. They’re powerful, but not nearly as powerful as the four blasters on the alphas that divide the power to only four of them. Also, keep in mind that it takes a huge amount of power just to operate the systems on that giant warship. Our scientists determined from the scouts’ recordings when the Brotherhood destroyed seven of the Cyren Warships that they have about four hundred nuclear reactors on board. The alphas have two hundred and fifty fusion reactors powering them and each of our reactors provide more than five times the power of the Cyren reactors.” Greg turned from Ka to Tal, “I think you’re right about meeting them out from the colonies. I’m st
arting to believe that they wouldn’t divide their forces to attack the colonies.”
Tal nodded, “They don’t know what they’d be up against. They’ve stayed inside their territory and haven’t seen our new Ste Class Warships; they’ll stay together until they make sure we don’t pose a threat to them.”
Greg shrugged, “Duncan was right, you should be in overall command.”
Tal sat back and shrugged, “I don’t know how much help my ships are going to be. The Cyrens can just ignore the missiles I launch; they won’t be able to penetrate their energy fields.”
Greg smiled, “I brought you a present. The weapon development team has constructed a new nuclear missile that has the capability to home in on the gaps between the three energy fields. The Cyrens will not be able to ignore those missiles.”
Tal tilted his head, “Do tell!”
“Your fleets are replacing the old missiles on board with the new missiles,” Greg responded.
Ka looked at them and asked, “Am I right in that our images of their warships also show missile ports?”
Greg turned to her, “They’ve never used missiles.”
“That doesn’t mean they don’t have them,” Ka quickly replied. “The Brotherhood Berserkers hit them too fast for them to launch them. I’d highly recommend you don’t remove all the Killer-Tees.”
They stared at her and Tal lifted his communicator, “Admiral Sager.”
“Yes, Admiral Talent.”
“I understand you are changing the missile inventory on my warships.”
“We are currently loading the new missiles, Sir.”
“Do not remove the Killer-Tees.”
“Sir, are you sure about that?”
“I am!”
“We’ll start getting them put back on the ships that had them removed.”
“Thank you, Admiral.”
Tal turned to Greg, “I think you should also have the tees on your ships as well.”
“Tal, we can easily outrun their ships.”
“But can you outrun their missiles, Greg?”
Greg stared at Tal and then nodded, “I’ll get six missile tubes on each alpha loaded with them.”
“Tal, Duncan wanted me to ask you if there was a possibility we could talk the Cyrens out of this attack. Perhaps if we manage to destroy some of their ships, they’ll back off.”
Ka immediately spoke up, “We made this mistake once, we shouldn’t do it again.” They turned to her and she continued, “We allowed the Brotherhood to survive and look where it got us. If we allow this aggressive, nasty species time, they will develop the weapons to kill us. They’ll know what they’ll be facing and the next time they attack the colonies, there will be no stopping them. I suspect they will then go to the Milky Way to finish the job and, unlike the Brotherhood, their scanners will allow them to find Earth and the colonies. This ends here! One way or another!”
Greg looked at Tal and raised his shoulders, “It’s your decision.”
Ka turned to Tal, “You heard how that Cyren spoke to the Order Giver! He was arrogant, mean, and threatened to destroy his civilization if he didn’t follow his commands. We did as they asked in fighting against the Brotherhood and now they’re coming to kill us anyway! The time for second-chances is over!” Ka paused and said, “Besides, killing them won’t be that hard.” Tal and Greg were shocked by her statement. Killing them was a very iffy thing at best and would not be easily done. Ka saw their expressions and shook her head, “Both of you know that the Cyrens live on just one planet because they’ve not found another that meets their physical requirements; destroy that planet and you’ll destroy the crews in those warships.”
Tal glanced at Greg and saw he was just as surprised by Ka’s observation as he was. Tal went in front of Ka’s chair and planted a huge kiss on her lips. Ka started giggling as Tal broke the kiss. “I should have seen that, Ka.”
“You would have…eventually. Any good assassin would have figured it out,” Ka replied.
“I suspect that planet is heavily defended, Admiral,” Greg stated.
Tal nodded, “That requires that we reduce the defenses around it. Destroying that planet is our objective, Admiral Ward, and we’re going to do what’s necessary to bring their forces out to meet us.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Fleet Controller stared at the Command Controller going with the fleet to attack the planets recently settled by the species flying the black ships, “You are going to be out of range of my communications on the other side of the galaxy, do not take any risks.”
“Do you honestly think there will be a risk, Controller? You’ve seen their ships and they represent no threat to us.”
“We’ve not seen their ships in more than a year. And we’ve not been to those planets in more than two years. Keep your fleet together until you make a determination of what you’re up against.”
“Controller, they defeated the Invaders with a biologic weapon, they didn’t do it with their warships. That says they aren’t any further advanced than they were a year ago. Besides, how much could they advance in just a year.”
The Fleet Controller didn’t want to agree with the Command Controller, but did. “Just be careful. Once we complete the destruction of the black ships and their planets, we’re going to have to straighten out the aliens that we used to attack the Brotherhood. Galactic conquest is finally within our reach and everyone is celebrating our good fortune.”
“I will follow your orders, Fleet Controller.” The Fleet Controller watched the four hundred warships on his monitor start moving away from the planet. The Leaders thought he was overreacting by sending that many warships out but they were too intoxicated by the defeat of the Invaders. Surly those tiny black warships wouldn’t pose a threat. He tried to put his worries aside but couldn’t manage to do it. They had defeated the Invaders and no one had been capable of doing that for hundreds of years, and that included his civilization. He watched the giant ships activate their phase fields and disappear. It shouldn’t take long for them to return.
• • •
One of the new scouts sent a pulse message to another scout that relayed it across the galaxy. The Cyrens were coming with four hundred warships.
• • •
Tal watched the feed coming in from the scout trailing the Cyren fleet and touched his console as it arrived even with the central black hole in Andromeda.
• • •
“Controller, there is a small black warship directly ahead of us broadcasting on one of our frequencies.”
“Connect me with it!” The Controller saw a human appear on his panel and said, “What do you want?”
“We complied with your orders and attacked the Invaders. Why are you moving toward our planets with such a large fleet?”
The Controller found the situation humorous and laughed, “I intend to remove them. What other reason would there be?”
“But we beg you to have mercy. We represent no threat to you.”
The Controller’s smile grew larger as his fleet moved in closer to the black ship, “That’s why you’re going to die.” The controller turned and ordered, “Power a blaster and shut that ship up.” A giant blaster beam lanced out and vaporized the small black warship. He was right, this civilization was no threat to the Domain. “Order all ships to go to their assigned targets; there is nothing to fear here.”
The four hundred Cyren warships moved out of their formation and formed up into a hundred four-ship units. They began moving away from each other as they headed toward the hundred new colonies.
• • •
Tal glanced at Ka, “You’re right; they are rather nasty.”
“It’s a good thing we still had a Sha Class Warship around to waste,” Ka replied. “You guessed right that they would divide their forces to attack all the colonies at once.”
“It really wasn’t a guess, Ka. They want to hit all the colonies at once so very few could escape before they arrive. Is ever
yone in place?”
“They are.” Tal nodded and turned to watch his monitor.
• • •
The Command Controller saw the distant planet assigned to the four ships he was traveling with and smiled. This shouldn’t take long. The five giant warships changed course slightly to move above an asteroid belt and his navigator suddenly shouted, “I HAVE THIRTY LARGE WARSHIPS MOVING OUT OF THE ASTEROIDS AT HIGH-SPEED!”
The Controller jerked his eyes to the monitor and saw that the warships would be on his ship in seconds. Suddenly, massive blaster beams leapt out from the approaching ships knocking their phase fields out. “OPEN FIRE!!”
Each of the giant Cyren Warships had six of the large warships move in and fire massive blaster beams at them from two hundred miles away. “MISSILES ARE COMING IN, CONTROLLER!!”
“IGNORE THEM AND FOUCUS ON THE SHIPS!!” The controller yelled.
The Alphas stayed outside the blaster range of the Cyren ships and poured fire into the gaps between the rotating energy fields. The Controller saw one of the energy fields disappear and was shocked. The weapon controller screamed, “THE MISSILES ARE TARGETED ON THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN THE FIELDS!”
Too late, the Cyren Blasters turned to target the missiles but huge explosions erupted out of the gaps and demolished the giant ships protective fields. The alphas poured fire into the giant vessel’s unprotected hull and burned all the way into the center of the ship. It went up in a massive blast and the alphas and Ste warships joined in the attacks on the other four ships. All of them went up in massive explosions leaving an expanding shockwave and a giant field of debris and vapor.
The Cyren ships were overwhelmed. If they had sent their entire inventory of warships, the alphas would have had less than two alphas for each of their ships, that was not enough to stop them. But the Cyren ships had eight alphas for each of them and it was more than they could handle. Between the massive blasters from the alphas and the missiles being launched from Tal’s fleets, they were destroyed with no survivors.
• • •
Greg appeared on Tal’s console and Tal immediately asked, “Casualties?”
