After the Fall- The Complete series Box Set

by Charlie Dalton

  A further giant cloud of locusts belched from the underside of the Bug spacecraft. Its shield flickered. Multiple visible holes and great damage had been caused by Lucy’s big gun plasma fire. The ship’s hull was on fire. They had laid themselves open, letting Lucy’s forces come in close, knowing they would use their secret drone against her the moment her drones swarmed too close.

  In one single move, the Mothership was doomed.

  60.

  THE IMAGE was as clear as they were going to get, like an 80s aerial transmission.

  “I think they took out the communication network block,” Dr. Beck said. “That’s why we can see what’s happening.”

  “How do they look?” Donald said. “It’s a real mess up there.”

  “It doesn’t look good,” Dr. Beck said. “Lucy has done a lot of damage to the enemy’s ship but it looks like the tide is turning. See here? The enemy’s ships are surrounding our mothership. That isn’t good.”

  “What are the Bugs doing now?” Donald said.

  “Tearing through our defenses, destroying the shield,” Dr. Beck said. “After that, nothing will stop them destroying the ship.”

  61.

  THE DECK shook violently as they took another blast of hideously powerful plasma.

  “Shield at twenty-six percent,” Computer said.

  “I know!” Lucy said. “You don’t have to keep telling me!”

  The enemy ship was beginning to close in. A shark savouring the meal to come. Its plasma cannon fire didn’t have to travel so far. So they could destroy the Mothership faster.

  “We can’t take much more of this,” Lucy said.

  “Can we run away?” Fatty said. “Fight another day?”

  “Not with them firing at us like this,” Lucy said. “They’ll destroy us before we get anywhere.”

  “Research complete,” Computer said.

  Isabelle’s Ping Pong idea. Now it was too late. Too many of their drones had been destroyed for them to create an effective barrier to reflect the giant balls of plasma back at the enemy. But perhaps they didn’t need to use it only for the large globules of plasma.

  “Computer, use the latest research to deflect enemy fire from our shields,” Lucy said.

  “Order confirmed,” Computer said.

  It took a moment for the update to be transferred to what remained of her devastated drone army and the Mothership’s shields.

  The enemy had pressed its drones hard, placing them as close to the Mothership’s shield perimeter as possible. The reason for this was simple: it would do more damage.

  “Shields critical,” Computer said. “Shields at nineteen percent.”

  “Engage reflectors,” Lucy said.

  The effect was immediate. The enemy’s fire bounced off and struck their own shields. It destroyed those already damaged but the others merely veered at an obtuse angle so their fire bounced off safely. The shields, using more energy, were now being depleted faster than before.

  “Cancel reflection shields,” Lucy said.

  “Confirmed,” Computer said.

  The shields were back to absorbing plasma fire, now at fifteen percent.

  Lucy looked at the others at their terminals, hard at work defending their stations. They were working to delay the inevitable. It was over.

  Lucy had failed.

  62.

  “WE NEED to help them,” Donald said. “We must be able to do something.”

  “Do something?” Dr. Beck said, in a daze.

  He was in shock. He’d planned for this event for two decades and he still couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Two alien species fighting a war of worlds, the humans engaging in a battle to defend their one and only planet.

  “Doctor!” Donald said, laying hands on his shoulders. “We need to do something. Think!”

  “Of course,” Dr. Beck said. “Of course.”

  He took out a handkerchief and dabbed his sweaty top lip. By the time he tucked it back in his pocket his lip was already wet again.

  “The cannon,” Donald said. “We can fire the cannon!”

  “The cannon isn’t meant to be fired until after the battle,” Dr. Beck said.

  “After we lose,” Donald said. “After my kids are killed.”

  “It’s protocol,” Dr. Beck said.

  “Forget protocol,” Donald said. “We’re fighting a battle up there! We need all the help we can get!”

  “Protocols are put in place to ensure no emotions get involved with our decision making,” Dr. Beck said.

  “We’re human,” Donald said. “Being emotional is part of the package. Look, if we—”

  Donald took a deep breath. It was no good. Dr. Beck wasn’t going to listen to emotional arguments. The only thing he cared about was logic. So he needed to come up with a logical argument that would convince the doctor to help him fire the giant cannon.

  “The cannon was meant as a backup weapon, right?” Donald said.

  “Yes,” Dr. Beck said. “Plan B.”

  “And you didn’t know if you would have time to fire a second shot because the Bugs might notice it and destroy you, correct?” Donald said.

  “That’s right,” Dr. Beck said. “We’d likely only get one shot.”

  “Then doesn’t it make sense to fire now while they’re distracted?” Donald said. “Two shots means twice the chance of destroying this thing.”

  Dr. Beck’s eyes moved to the side. His brow pulled down into a frown.

  “Fire now?” he said.

  “Their shields are weak,” Donald said. “This way, we’re attacking them on two sides at the same time. We provide backup for the Mothership and get to fire multiple shots. Win-win.”

  Dr. Beck processed the information, doing his utmost to ignore his human emotions and rely on the logical argument being put forward. Donald could see he wanted to fire right now as much as he did. He was trying to do the right thing, no matter what that was. Donald respected that.

  “The protocol says—” Dr. Beck said.

  “Forget what the protocol says!” Donald said. “Listen, I’ve made plans before in the past. Concrete, iron plans for what I expected to happen. For what I thought I ought to do in any given situation. Contingency plans. Even contingency plans for contingency plans. I was overthinking it. I needed to forget that stuff. I needed to look at what was happening right in front of me and make a decision. Look at that monitor. Our boys don’t look like they’re doing so well. Instead of losing the Mothership and maybe having a chance with the giant cannon, wouldn’t it make sense for us to use them in unison?”

  Dr. Beck stared at the monitors, at the attack formation. The Bugs were clearly more experienced at war, utilizing sweeping techniques and three-dimensional pincer attacks frequently. It was as much as Lucy could do to hold them back. If they didn’t help them soon they wouldn’t have a Mothership left to defend.

  63.

  “SHIELDS CRITICAL,” Computer said. “Shields at five percent.”

  Soon after their shield was destroyed, the plasma fire would strike the Mothership herself. And that really would be the end. If they were going to come up with a miracle, they needed to do it now.

  “Guys,” Lucy said.

  They looked up from their monitors. There was precious little they could do now anyway.

  “I’m sorry,” Lucy said.

  There were no words to express her sorrow. They all felt it. They were going to die and yet, they didn’t complain. Even Fatty. If they were still on the surface, far away from this nightmare, they would still be alive.

  “Shields at four percent,” Computer said.

  “I don’t regret being here,” Jamie said. “I would rather stand, fight and die than to die slowly on Earth.”

  Lucy smiled, not that any of them could see it.

  “Me too,” Donny said. “I always wanted to die fighting. And this was the biggest fight there is.”

  “Three percent,” Computer said.

  “I can’t
say I didn’t wish I was at home, reading comics about superheroes,” Fatty said. “But this time, I got a chance to be one. I think that’s pretty cool.”

  “I don’t see the point in living when we’re already doomed to fail,” Isabelle said. “I guess I have you guys to thank for that. I’m glad I’m here too. A few minutes up here fighting versus a lifetime down there dying. It’s a fair trade.”

  “Thank you,” Lucy said. “All of you. I haven’t been alive long but I’m grateful to have friends like you.”

  BOOM!

  A large plasma strike to the ship’s hull. The lights flashed and alarms wailed. None of it mattered.

  “Two percent,” Computer said.

  “You know, when the Reavers attacked our commune, they beat us because they had a guy on a motorbike wearing armour and carrying a bomb,” Donny said. “We shot at him but we couldn’t stop him. Finally, he got to our wall and destroyed us.”

  “What are you saying?” Jamie said.

  “Ram the other ship,” Donny said. “Crash into it and do as much damage as we can. Then, when we explode, we might just take them with us.”

  A suicide mission. But wasn’t what was this had been all along anyway? If they were destined to die, why not make it as expensive as possible?

  “What do you say?” Donny said. “Go down in a blaze of glory? We can still destroy these things.”

  “Let’s do it,” Jamie said.

  Nods all around. They were going to die. Might as well make the most of it.

  Lucy engaged the thrusters at full power. The Mothership lurched forward. Straight ahead. For the Bug ship.

  “Shields at one percent,” Computer said.

  Lucy turned the notifications off. She had a date with death. She didn’t need to be updated about it.

  64.

  THE THRUSTERS glowed an intense blue-white as the engines engaged and pushed the spacecraft forward. The Bug ship, no doubt seeing the ship move, did nothing to avoid being struck. It clearly felt comfortable they were out of range of any serious harm. And if they weren’t? Then they would simply move backward until they weren’t in danger.

  Even if Lucy failed to destroy the giant ship they might manage to take out most of its drones in the ensuing explosion. Every little helped.

  “Shield compromised,” Computer said.

  They felt the heavy thud thud thud of the drones’ plasma weapons as they struck the mothership’s hull. And the Bug vessel was already charging up its big gun turret to fire the shot that would likely be the last. With no shields in place, it would tear right through them.

  Lucy put all shield regenerating effort into fixing the shield immediately in front of the engines. It was the most likely target, the one that would ensure the Mothership was crippled, if not destroyed.

  The enemy turret shimmered with light, bright and shining. Beautiful, in a way. They’d done considerable damage to the enemy ship, close to destroying it. Their shields would be regenerating right then, the holes plastered over.

  The other guys gripped their seats and shared a look. They were afraid. So was Lucy. She didn’t want this to be the end. But there was little else they could do about it. They were trapped. They had lost.

  The giant plasma gun, now fully charged, shot, ejecting the bolt that would seal their fate.

  And then Lucy saw it.

  Another shot of plasma—even larger than the one heading directly for them—coming up from the Earth somewhere, racing through the atmosphere in the direction of the enemy ship’s underbelly.

  The enemy ship, picking up on the blast late, turned to avoid it. And it might do it. Lucy targeted the ship’s engines and fired. In the same instant, Lucy lit their thrusters and shunted them aside. She’d been fully prepared to take the blast full in the face—better to die immediately than in slow agony. But now there was a glimmer of hope. The giant tear-shaped ball of plasma headed directly for them.

  The enemy drones still fired mercilessly on them, causing massive amounts of damage. None of it mattered. What mattered was victory, no matter how it came.

  “Brace for impact!” Lucy said.

  The giant globule of plasma struck their own engine, scything through it like a hot knife through butter. It was only Lucy’s sudden change in direction that the core wasn’t struck.

  In the same instant, her own big guns had struck the enemy’s engine. It had diverted shields to its underside to protect against the impending plasma bolt.

  Its cannon no longer faced the Mothership, but what it deemed the greater threat: the giant cannon on Earth.

  But it was too late.

  The huge orb of plasma sliced through and disintegrated the enemy’s shields like they weren’t there, and tore through the middle section of the ship.

  From the Earth, already rising, was a second shot from the giant cannon. It sailed silently and inexorably toward the Bug ship and delivered a second devastating blow, tearing through the Bug vessel’s heart.

  The entire ship exploded, again silently. The enemy drones ceased firing as their controller and chief was no more.

  Victory had turned to total defeat in a mere matter of moments.

  65.

  THE GUYS had taken refuge under their desks. What use that would have done in an intergalactic war, Lucy didn’t know.

  “We’re still alive?” Fatty said, climbing out from under his desk. “We’re not dead? Or is this what death looks like?”

  “We’re not dead,” Jamie said. “How did this happen?”

  “You can thank the giant cannon on Earth,” Lucy said. “Without their backup, we really would be dead.”

  They were in shock, unable to process what was happening. They had been ready to die, to give their lives to the cause. And now they were still alive.

  “It’s over?” Jamie said. “It’s really over?”

  Yes, it was. The battle was over and the Bug occupation and subjugation of their species was at an end.

  66.

  “BULL’S EYE!” Donald said, pumping his fist.

  The first shot had gone slightly awry as the Bug ship had moved with greater nimbleness than Dr. Beck had expected. They’d been more than a little naive about the spacecraft’s agility. They’d gotten off a second shot and that had dealt the killing blow.

  They were getting a delayed response from the cameras but it didn’t matter. They hugged and danced a merry jig.

  “It’s over!” Donald said with tears in his eyes. “It’s really over!”

  It meant so much to him, and yet most people didn’t even know it was happening. If they but knew the sacrifices and hard work that had gone into it, Dr. Beck thought. But they likely would never know.

  To think it had almost come to a terrible end after a few short minutes. . . Donald had been right. Their Mothership would have been destroyed if they hadn’t fired the giant cannon. It hadn’t turned out to be Plan B after all, but Plan A—Part 2. They couldn’t have succeeded without it.

  The scientists had been right to put a human in charge of the main system. Protocols were one thing but they could not change their decision easily, and certainly not based on a powerful emotional argument, the kind that sensed something had to be done, even if it meant ignoring the rules.

  “What happens now?” Donald said. “Can the kids return to us? To Earth?”

  “Sure,” Dr. Beck said. “Why not? In the meantime, how about we enjoy a little celebration?”

  Donald grinned. He couldn’t think of anything he wanted more.

  67.

  LUCY ISSUED the relevant orders. First, salvage teams to scout and retrieve both fallen comrades as well as enemy drones. Their army size would increase exponentially with the newly-acquired hardware. They would melt the metal down to refashion it into their own drones to avoid any chance of a virus infecting the ship’s systems.

  Tests would be conducted on new and old forms of tech in a self-contained quarantine room independent from the main system, to pry apart the mach
ines and systems and backward engineer them.

  The shields were set to replenish themselves while their few remaining drones were sent to dock with engineering for repairs.

  Her final act was to eject herself from the system. It happened in reverse: the liquid was drained away, then the spikes came out of her bones. Then the snake connectors reformed into a single hose and retracted back into the platform base.

  Lucy struggled to breathe, her lungs still filled with the oxygenated liquid that had been pumped into her body. Unable to bear her own weight, she flopped to the floor like a boneless fish.

  “Lucy?” Jamie said, running to her side. “Lucy? Fatty, get a towel or a dressing gown or something. Quick!”

  Jamie took his jumper off and placed it over her body, shivering, cold and weak. Donny did the same. So did Isabelle.

  “Lucy?” Jamie said. “You’re going to be okay. We’ll take care of you, I promise.”

  Lucy’s smile was small and weak. It was about all she was capable of. The scientists had made the necessary plans to plug her into the system, little thought had been made on taking her out of it.

  68.

  “WHY ISN’T it working?” Donald said, tapping the computer with his fingernail.

  “Must be a problem with the satellites,” Dr. Beck said. “Some kind of interference.”

  He pressed more buttons on the console to activate the phone but there was the same engaged tone.

  “How come we can see them on the monitors but we can’t connect to them on the phones?” Donald said.

  “Your guess is as good as mine,” Dr. Beck said, getting to his feet. “I’ll try again later, all right? Don’t worry. I’m sure we’ll get through to them eventually. Let’s go raid the kitchens, eat a ton of food, and drink till we’re merry. What do you say?”