The Wages of War

by Saxon Andrew

  Cami smiled, “Robert, you mentioned that you hoped we could at least be friends; I want that to happen. We’re going to be cooped up on this ship for months and we must learn to work together.”

  Robert smiled slightly, “I’ll try to make that happen.”

  “Good. Let’s get the data pulled up on what we ran into in Andromeda and plan on how we approach that civilization that detected my ship.”

  Cami pulled up the recordings of the twelve giant warships that detected the Red Rock. Robert listened to the recording and shook his head, “I find it hard to believe they detected the telepathic communications that far away.”

  “They clearly have a more advanced scanning system and their ship’s density is off the scale.”

  Robert nodded, “The hulls on those ships must be extremely thick. That would probably make launching missiles difficult.”

  “It wouldn’t make sense.”

  Robert turned to Cami, “Why do you say that?”

  “They went to all the trouble to construct a dense hull and they’d have to weaken it to install missile tubes through it. If they wanted missiles, wasting time on that dense of a hull would be wasted effort.”

  “You’re probably right about that. However…”

  “What?”

  “They have to have a way to board that ship which means that ship has a landing bay. It’s large enough to have small ships that can launch, and they could be carrying missiles.”

  “We only made a passive scan of that ship. We didn’t see a landing bay on its hull.”

  Robert enlarged the image of the ship and started at the bow and slowly worked his way back on the right side of the ship. Nothing turned up and he repeated the process on the left side of the ship. Two thirds of the way down the side he stopped the image. He brought the image in closer and saw a fine line on the hull. He traced it around the hull and discovered it made a huge square. He turned to Cami, “That bay is huge and the only reason to have one that large is to carry small attack ships.” He paused and added, “It could also have a missile battery behind it.” Robert turned the image and went back to the right side. He looked closely at the hull directly opposite the landing bay doors and stopped. He found another smaller line in the hull and he traced it. There were four rectangles stacked above each other on the hull and Robert sat back, “That is where the missile launchers are located.”

  “But they’re only on one side of the ship!”

  “Cami, you can launch missiles from anywhere on a warship and if they can track a target, it won’t matter. I suspect the missile’s scanners are just as good as the one that detected the Red Rock. I suspect they’ll launch small attack ships and missiles a long distance from a target and then close the ship up and attack with their blasters.”

  Cami shook her head slightly, “How were you able to find those?”

  “It comes from my time at New Britannia Tech. In order for a system to exist, there has to be evidence of it. I assumed that if they have a landing bay, they could have missile ports. I do have to say that the landing bay and missile ports are so tight on the hull that they don’t leave a weakness to exploit.”

  Cami nodded and sighed, “I want to go home and say goodbye to my family. You should do the same in the time remaining.” Robert nodded and followed Cami off the ship.

  • • •

  Sharon looked up from her console, “Linda, we have an issue.” Linda Pitrazzi turned to Sharon and she said, “The Leaders of the Stealth Civilization are planning to flee with their survivors out of Andromeda.”

  “Show me what you’re hearing.” Sharon linked her mind with Linda, and they heard, “We have no choice. It’s only a matter of time until all of our planets and ships are destroyed.”

  “How can we escape without being detected Prime?”

  “We’ll have most of our warships start a major offensive against their fleets. While that’s taking place, we’ll move the colony ships in from where we’ve stored them and have them start boarding all the survivors on the remaining eleven planets.”

  “That will take some time Prime.”

  “We’ll issue orders to the planets to start preparing to leave immediately. We’ll land on every planet simultaneously and give them three days to board the Colony Vessels. You’ll launch your attack immediately and we’ll have the colony ships leave on a course away from the site of the fighting and take a course outside the enemy’s scanning range.”

  “Where will we go?”

  “There is a small galaxy outside our former galaxy and that’s where we’ll attempt to find planets to conquer.”

  “There is a larger galaxy not far from that small galaxy Prime.”

  “Yes, but the humans have scouts in that one, we must avoid them at all costs.” The Prime Councilor paused and said, “This is our only chance at survival. Get your fleets ready to launch your attack.”

  I’ll launch the attack when the colony ships are ordered in.”

  “That is a good decision. Keep them occupied and away from our surviving planets.”

  “Yes Prime.”

  • • •

  “They’re going to the Small Magellanic Cloud.” Sharon nodded. “I’ve despised listening to those leaders but it’s a good thing we stayed with them and not at the front. Get a message out to Fleet and tell them what’s going on,” Linda ordered.

  Sharon turned to her console and began speaking into her communicator.

  • • •

  Cami was sitting at the dinner table with Grady and Taffy when Charlie suddenly appeared on Grady’s communicator. Grady connected with him and smiled, “What’s up?”

  “Grady, the scout we have following the Stealth Civilization’s Leaders just reported that they’re going to move the populations of their last eleven surviving planets to the Small Magellanic Cloud in about three days.”

  “Are they sure about this?!”

  “They are.”

  “This comes at the worse possible time!” Grady said harshly. “If they flee from Andromeda, the Triangulum forces there will be free to return home much sooner than we planned.”

  “I suspect the fighting will continue for several weeks,” Charlie surmised.

  “But we thought the war would last at least another six months.”

  “Are you going to allow the Stealth Civilization to escape?” Charlie asked.

  “If you had to guess, what do you think?”

  “I’d like to participate in the confrontation.”

  “Charlie, we’re up to our backsides in events here. I’m contacting the Colonies and have them handle the Stealth Civilization. They’re closer to the SMC and can get there in plenty of time to stop them.”

  “I would have thought you’d want to do the deed for what they did to New Britannia.”

  “Charlie, New Melbourne was also destroyed. They have just as much of a right to do this as we do.”

  Charlie shrugged, “I didn’t consider that. Do you want the scout to follow them out of Andromeda?”

  “Yes. Once they leave, the war with Triangulum will effectively be over.”

  “I’ll notify them.”

  • • •

  Grady ended the contact and Cami said, “You don’t have to tell me, we need to get our show on the road.”

  “Cami, contact Robert and leave tonight. I hate to rush you off, but time is getting shorter that we planned.”

  Taffy hugged Cami and forced a smile, “Stay safe Angel. I love you.”

  Cami contacted Robert and told him what was happening. He left for the ship immediately. Cami hugged her parents and left for the underground carts. Taffy watched her leave and blew out a long sigh. “I’m sorry Taffy but she needs to go.”

  “I know Grady. She’s the only one of our children still fighting. Britt and Linda Kay are raising their baby along with Sweets and Charlie waiting for theirs to be born. RJ and Candy have Rick to deal with, which only leaves Cami to go out and confront our enemies. I’m thankf
ul our other children are safe, for the moment, but I still worry about Cami.”

  “She’s going in the best warship we have.”

  “But is it still good enough to confront what’s in Andromeda?”

  Grady released a long slow breath before responding, “I have no way of knowing. But in this, we have no other options.”

  Taffy took Grady’s hand and said, “I know.”

  • • •

  Robert arrived ahead of Cami and she found him at his console talking with Fleet Operations. He turned around and said, “Our ship is being released into the Fleet and Fleet Operations wants its name to put in the ship registry.”

  “Do you have any suggestions, Robert?”

  “You’re the ranking officer on board; it’s your ship and you should name it.”

  Cami’s eyes narrowed slightly at his tone and she said, “Its name will be Heartbreaker.”

  Roberts head went back slightly, and he shook his head as he said over his communicator, “Sir, the ship’s name is Heartbreaker.”

  “Heartbreaker it is Captain.”

  “Why did you choose that name?”

  Cami smiled at Robert, “It’s a good name. Besides, isn’t that the way you see me?” Robert stared at her and Cami continued, “A few days ago we appeared to have resolved our differences, but you’ve been surly and curt with me since. What’s your problem?”

  “I’m sorry; you’re right. I’ll stop being so hard to live with.”

  “I’d appreciate it. Is the ship provisioned and fueled?”

  “It is.”

  “Then fire it up and let’s get moving. Our time to find out what we’re up against has been shortened.”

  Robert activated the gravity drives and said, “Heartbreaker ready for launch.”

  “You’re cleared for lift off, Captain. Good hunting and stay safe.”

  “Thank you Fleet.”

  The small warship flew out of its launch tube cut into the mountain and went to high speed. It arrived in orbit and Robert activated the stardrive. Andromeda was three days away.

  • • •

  Admiral Michael Tarangelo stared at his monitor and saw the ten Carriers and their support Garrions were in formation and he nodded to Jimmy. Jimmy activated the general fleet frequency and announced, “All ships will launch and move to the coordinates assigned to you. Once you arrive at your designated locations, start scanning for any Stealth Civilization Warships. Notify me immediately if any of you detect them.”

  The huge gathering of warships activated their stardrives and disappeared on a course toward the Small Magellanic Cloud. Richard pondered what was coming and felt his anger grow. Now they would pay for their actions. He anticipated finding them and paying them back.

  • • •

  Cami looked at Robert and saw him staring at a small display on his console. They had been flying at high-speed toward Andromeda for a day and he had been focused on his console during the hours he wasn’t resting. “What has you so fascinated?”

  Robert looked up, “I’m reading a book.”

  “What book is that?”

  “When I was a freshman at New Britannia Tech, I went on a trip to New Melbourne. While I was there, I stopped in the main library and looked around. I found a book titled ‘The History of Humanity’. I purchased it and downloaded it into my computer.”

  “How recent was it?”

  Robert shrugged, “The book was constantly updated, and it covered all the known history of humanity up until I purchased it. It doesn’t include the destruction of New Melbourne and New Britannia, but it is current up to that point.”

  “Why are you so interested in history?”

  “Cami, to know who you are, you have to know where you’ve been. Most people don’t know the history of Britannia and they don’t realize who we are or what we’ll do in the future.”

  “And you do?”

  Robert sat back in his chair and said, “Cami, do you know anything about the country on Earth that settled Britannia?”

  “Not really. Why don’t you educate me?”

  “Do you really want to know?”

  “If it has you glued to your console, I suppose I do.”

  “To understand the people that left Earth to settle Britannia, you must look at their history. Our ancestors originated on a small group of islands off the coast of a continent named Europe. It was settled early in man’s history and the inhabitants were farmers and gatherers. At one point, they were invaded by a warrior civilization known as Norsemen or Vikings. They would come to the islands and raid the settlements. They eventually built cities on the islands and assimilated into the two major tribes, Angles and Saxons.

  “While that was happening, the Roman Empire invaded the islands and held the southern section. The Romans built walls to keep the Angles and Saxons out of their conquered cities.”

  “Is this going somewhere?” Cami asked.

  “Do you want to know or not?”

  Cami shrugged, “Go on.”

  “Eventually, the Roman Empire fell into decay and the Romans left the islands. That led to the various tribes on the island attacking each other attempting to rule them. This continued for almost a century before all of them were united. However, the island was divided into several nations that agreed to join in a common defense but were left to rule themselves. The main Nation was named Britain and that is where Britannia got its name. The nations as a whole were called the British Empire. The point is that those small islands faced numerous would be conquerors and still survived against all comers. They were outnumbered numerous times and were forced to face incredible odds against them. The thing that saved them was that since they were an island country, they had a large navy and the only way for a conqueror to invade was to make it through their naval forces. None ever did.”

  “Ever?” Cami asked.

  “Ever!” Robert replied. “That navy made the British Empire the most powerful nation in the western world and they bragged that the sun never set on the British Empire. They faced extremely dangerous nations during their history from an emperor named Napoleon to a madman named Hitler. But their navy prevented them from being invaded. The British were bombed, endured missile attacks, and submarines attacking their warships. But they never surrendered or gave in to any threat.”

  Cami blinked and said, “I’ve never heard anything about his.”

  “That’s because the colony ship sent from Britain destroyed all of their historical records when it found a planet to colonize.”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “They wanted nothing in their data that had any information about Earth. They determined that none of their descendants would ever go out looking for Earth; it was too dangerous.” Cami stared at Robert and he continued, “I find it interesting that a nation that never backed off from any threat felt compelled to launch a colony ship to save some of its population. That ship was launched before the stardrive had been invented.”

  “Something must have severely frightened them.”

  “Something did. A powerful navy can’t stop a nuclear missile targeted on their cities. They saw a coming nuclear war and knew the only way to perpetuate its way of life was to send a colony out into the galaxy. I think they hoped that one day the colony would come back and defend their home nation. But the colonists chose to never go back to Earth. Another colony ship was launched from a country named Australia that eventually settled Melbourne. That colony immediately began building up defenses against the day that Earth would send out warships to find them. The United States also launched a colony ship and it settled America, which was invaded and enslaved by the Fagan early in its history.”

  “My parents went to Earth from Britannia,” Cami interrupted.

  Robert nodded, “They did. But they only went out to find Earth after the Core Aliens attacked and destroyed every city on Britannia’s surface. They managed to find Earth and hoped that it would come to save the survivors on Britannia
.”

  Cami nodded, “They barely escaped with their lives.”

  “Earth was ruled by a brutal dictator that had every person on Earth treated like slaves. They would have been tortured and killed if Earth had managed to capture them. They escaped and went searching for one of the other Colonies. They found Melbourne and were confronted and threatened by a Melbourne Warship.”

  “That was Rory Dunham who did that.”

  Robert nodded, “Grady and Taffy were accepted into Melbourne’s military and Melbourne sent freighters to Britannia to save the survivors before the Core Aliens returned to kill them. Those survivors settled on Melbourne. Melbourne also managed to save the populations on America from the Fagan, and they were also taken to Melbourne.”

  “Are you trying to make a point, Robert? If so, what is it?”

  “When Melbourne was threatened with destruction by the Core Aliens and Fagan, they started moving its populations to new uninhabited planets in the outer spiral arm. Grady decided that he would find a planet for the survivors of Britannia to settle and most of the survivors left with him. The Prime Minister insisted that Grady sign a declaration making his planet a voting member of the Colonies. He refused to join the Colonies. Cami, why did he do that?” Cami stared at him and started shaking her head not knowing how to answer. “The people of Britannia came from a nation that never accepted another nation as a master,” Robert added. “It was in Grady’s background that the survivors of Britannia would be independent of all outside forces. That was why he settled a planet a long distance from the Colonies and started building warships immediately. He knew they were needed to insure New Britannia’s independence.”

  “But…Britannia never knew its history.”

  “No, it didn’t but its people came from a warrior culture that survived against all threats. That was ingrained in them and it was passed on to their descendants. Most of the survivors from America also chose to migrate to New Britannia from Melbourne.” Robert paused and said, “It’s interesting that the two colonies that were attacked by the aliens chose to come together and leave the colonies. Why would they do that Cami?”