Annihilation: The Power of a Queen

by Andrew, Saxon;Chiodo, Derek

  Headman Dgzh looked at his console and said, “Almost 6,000, State Leader.”

  Stein looked at him stunned. “That’s almost 50% of the ships we have assembled. How many ships did the Humans use?”

  Dgzh looked at his console again and said, “They only used 600 and fifty four of them escaped.”

  The wall screen changed to the face of the Vgrig Warleader who said, “We’ve destroyed over 500 of their ships.”

  Stein looked at the Warleader like he was a crazy man and said, “How can you say that in a tone that sounds like this was a victory.”

  “Don’t you see State Leader? They only had 640 ships at the end of the last battle. Our sensors show that most of the ships we were able to identify before we destroyed them were among the survivors of the last battle. We lost a lot of ships but they are down to less than 100 ships to defend their system. That many we can destroy easily.”

  Stein looked out at the wrecked and destroyed ships and turned to Dgzh and said, “I don’t care what he thinks. I want an additional 6,000 ships called up from the reserve. We planned to invade with 17,000 ships and that’s how many we will use. Use the authorization that the Ten gave us.”

  “Yes, State Leader, it will be done.”

  Stein turned and looked at the Warleader and said, “You better make sure these Humans are destroyed. You can leave their planet and jump straight to the home planet of the Glod Union and destroy it too. I’ll be notifying them of our impending arrival momentarily. I’ll also be contacting the Cainth Empire to inform them that we will be occupying their worlds as soon as we finish with the Glod.”

  Kosiev waited aboard the Zeus just outside of Ross’s Planet and wondered just how Tag would arrive. There was no way The Washington would escape that deathtrap. So he sat and waited. Then he heard Tag say over the internal com, “Admiral, will you open the landing bay?”

  Kosiev looked at Kelly and said, “Do we have a ship on our sensors?” Kelly shook his head and looked puzzled.

  “Landing Bay, open the outside doors and prepare to receive boarders.”

  Tag was right next to the landing bay in Atlas’ main cabin. He thought, “Atlas, you’re right next to another ship named for a Greek god. We have made it the flagship of all our fleets. Your name is a noble one for my people.”

  “Thanks, when are you going to allow me to be seen?”

  “I probably need you to reveal yourself to their sensors as you drop me off in the landing bay to prevent a panic. I’m going to tell them that a friend provided transportation and leave it at that so don’t linger too long.”

  “Good luck and call me if you need me, Atlas said.

  Kelly was watching his screen when he jumped up and said, “Holy groad. There’s a ship right next to our hull. How did it get thru our screen?”

  Kosiev rushed over and saw the small silver ship extend a tube into the landing bay and then retract it. Suddenly the ship flew away so fast that it vanished from view instantly. “What was that Mr. Kelly?”

  “I don’t know sir but our sensors said it left at a physical speed faster than light.”

  Kosiev looked at the midshipman along with Captain Mikado that had come over to observe the proceedings. “That’s not possible,” Mikado said.

  Kelly looked at them and said, “Hey, I didn’t make these reading, I just announce them.”

  Tag walked into the Bridge whistling and said, “Ok we can go now.”

  The three of them looked at Tag and Kosiev said, “I don’t suppose you’re going to tell us about how you arrived here are you?”

  “And take all the fun out of your guessing, no way. I just hitched a ride with a friend.”

  Tag could hear Atlas laughing inside his head. “Sorry, I had to show off a little.”

  Kosiev said, “Captain, take us back to Earth.” He thought to himself, “I think I’m going to start drinking.”

  Chapter 12

  Tag and Admiral Kosiev sat in their chairs on the Zeus’s bridge watching the feed from the passive sensor in the Central Alliance system. Tag took a drink of his tea and said, “They just keep on coming. What’s the count up to now?”

  Kosiev was leaning back in his chair and had to straighten up to see his console. He took a look and leaned back again, “Right at 15,000.”

  Tag whistled and said, “They’re still not forming up so they must be expecting more.”

  Kosiev yawned and looked up at the ceiling and said, “Yep, they must be bringing more than I would care to manage.” Then Kosiev sat up and said, “Things have changed over the last two battles. If they had brought this many the first time; how do you think we’d be acting right now?”

  “We would be freaked out of our mind,” Tag said. “We’ve learned what we can do in the last two battles. We have averaged killing ten ships for every one of ours. They would have to bring 60,000 at that ratio to break even with us. This battle will be the most we’ve had so far.”

  “How do you see it breaking down?”

  Tag thought a minute and said, “They must think we only have about 100 warships left. If they jump into the system with that many ships, I’m not going to waste any more. We’ll station 94 ships around Mars and when their fleet approaches Earth we’ll have them fly to the planet’s surface and turn on the screen. I don’t see anything else they can do but come in and begin their campaign against the planet.”

  “Do you think they will bring all their ships in immediately?”

  “Probably not; you wouldn’t either; I would have the ships spread out thru the system and search for any unpowered ships lying in ambush. What do you think they’ll do?”

  Kosiev thought and said, “I agree. They will come in from all points of the compass and do a full scan of all the space from the star drive limit in to Earth orbit. That’s probably why they’re bringing so many ships. They should just englobe our system and move in together. If everything checks out, then they will bring all ships in and turn them facing away from the planet to make sure they aren’t interrupted while they attempt to drain our planetary screen.”

  “Admiral, I honestly don’t know what they are going to do. I would recommend that you have the new Ultra Battleships completely out of the system programmed with multiple jump points around Earth. Since they can jump in close to the planet, they won’t have to be hidden like all the other ships. By the way, I understand that we are only building the Ultra’s now. Since they are faster than a destroyer and cruiser, it doesn’t make much sense to continue building those small ships.”

  “That’s right. We’re up to 575 as we speak and their crews are training on multiple jump attack.”

  Tag furrowed his brow and said, “Multiple jump what?”

  Kosiev laughed and said, “You got us started thinking about it with your fleet of remote controlled ships. We jump 50 Ultra’s into the middle of the Alliance formations and they fire every weapon at any available target. Then as they start to be fired on they jump away to safety to only jump right back in behind the ships that were attacking them. Multiply that by ten and you can imagine the affect on the enemy.”

  “Wow”, Tag said shaking his head. “I wish I knew what the Alliance fleet is going to do. Are our ships on the moon ready for action?”

  “Yes, we have eighty launch tubes with five ships each ready for instant launch. The first four hundred ships will launch followed by 400 more every ten seconds. We’ve raised the number we’re going to have in the cavern to 4000 so all of them will be launched in about ninety seconds.” Kosiev then rubbed his chin and said, “How do we hide the other 3,000 ships if as we believe the Alliance fleet goes looking for them?”

  “We can’t. What about this. What if we have the 3,000 ships not housed on the moon parked on the planet. If as we suspect the Alliance starts draining our screen and we are able to draw them in closer; then just as we go to full power on the screen, we launch 2000 ships straight out from the Asteroid Fortresses. The forts will fire their five mile wide beam a
nd our ships will follow that beam right thru the Alliance ranks. I feel pretty certain that when that beam is fired every Alliance ship in the vicinity will be moving away from it. It should open a path beyond their ranks. Two shots and all three thousand are thru. What do you think?”

  ‘Sounds good, but what if the Alliance fleet doesn’t come into range of the fort’s weapons?”

  “Then we launch the ships on one side of the planet and pin the fleet there between those coming from the moon, the Ultra’s jumping in and the one’s coming from the planet. It will be a work in progress. We have to let the Alliance fleet dictate what happens this time.”

  “Kosiev sat up and said, “Leisure time is over. To plan those three possible maneuvers is going to take a lot of work so that every ship knows where it’s supposed to be. I’ll see you later.”

  Tag waved as Kosiev called a meeting of all his admirals as he left the room. He then looked back at his consoles monitor and saw more ships jump into the Alliance system. “Ummmm, 15,800 and they’re still not forming up.” He shook his head and said to Ensign Kelly, “I’m going to grab an Ultra and jump out to Glod to see Danielle. Contact me the moment those ships start forming up into squadrons.”

  “Yes sir,” Kelly said.

  State Leader Sten and Headman Dgzh were sitting at a conference table with the former Ambassador to the Glod Union. The Ambassador said, “When I delivered your message to the Glod royalty about your plans to destroy their planet, they prepared to execute me but that Human Female they named Queen intervened and stopped them. She told them that if they executed everyone that told them bad news then they would never hear the important things that were critical to survival. She actually said, “You should thank the Ambassador for giving you advanced warning.” They let me and all my staff leave peacefully and assisted us in boarding our ships.”

  Sten and Dgzh looked at each other and Stein said, “For such ferocious fighters, these Humans are incredibly hard to understand. I would have executed you and every other Alliance citizen in a public square.”

  “That’s another thing, Leader. They broadcast over their world net that the Alliance was coming to destroy their world and any Alliance citizen that would like to leave would be given passage to the nearest Alliance base aboard civilian ships. Very few chose to leave. They don’t appear to be afraid at all. One other thing I saw on my way from the planet, they appear to have big rocks orbiting the planet in a belt around the middle.”

  Sten and Dgzh both jumped out of their seats and Dgzh yelled, “They have what?”

  The Ambassador looked shaken and started mumbling, “I don’t know what they were. They looked like huge rocks circling the planet.”

  Dgzh grabbed his remote to his console and pushed several button on it until a picture appeared on the wall screen of the Earth with its asteroid forts circling at the equator. “Did they look like that?”

  The Ambassador looked at the picture and nodded, “Exactly like that.” Stein and Dgzh looked at each other and said nothing. The Ambassador said, “What’s so serious about those rocks?”

  “Ambassador, those are a Human defense system designed to put a shield around a planet. We have designed a system to drain the shield but it has never been tried in actual field conditions. I find it extraordinary that the Humans could install that system as quickly as they did. Do you happen to know when the asteroids were first put in place?”

  The Ambassador searched his memory and appeared to draw a blank but then his face lit up, “I remember right after our assault of their planet thirty five rotations ago that I was standing outside and suddenly a big shadow crossed over me on a cloudless day. I couldn’t figure out what caused it but it had to be one of those things.”

  Sten looked at Dgzh and asked, “Do you know how many warships the Glod have in their inventory?”

  “More than 3,000, State Leader but they are standard Alliance ship types.”

  “Order 6,000 of our ships to jump into the Glod system and see how many ships come out to defend the planet. Once we get a count have our ships jump back.”

  Tag was in the Glod system holding his wife’s hand while they looked down on a pond where reptilian frogs were jumping ten feet in the air to catch what looked like giant gnats. “Things sure look different here,” Tag said. Danielle just smiled. Suddenly Tag’s com buzzed. Kosiev was on it and Tag heard him say, “Mr. Gardner, more than 5,000 Alliance ships are forming up in an area away from the rest of the fleet. We still have ships jumping in and the count is up to 16,300. Do you think they intend to attack us piecemeal?”

  “That wouldn’t make sense. Keep an eye on those ships and let me know if they start turning on their star drives.” Kosiev nodded and signed off.

  “What’s going on?” Danielle asked.

  “The Alliance Fleet has 5,000 of their ships forming up away from the main body of the fleet. I just can’t believe they would jump to Earth ahead of the main body.”

  Danielle thought a minute and said, “Maybe they’re not jumping to Earth. We sent the Alliance Ambassador packing three days ago. Perhaps he told them about the Asteroids and they’re coming to check it out.”

  Tag thought furiously and said, “Danielle, there wouldn’t be any reason to check out the asteroids with 5,000 ships. Either they attack with the entire fleet or stay where they are.” Then it struck him, “Maybe they are trying to see if we are going to use the Glod Navy to defend the Earth. If it’s not here then this may be their first attack. He lifted his com and said, “Tgon-Gee, respond immediately!”

  Tgon-Gee came on his com and said, “Yes Mr. Tag, how can I help you?”

  “How many of your ships are here?”

  “About 2,800; we have 800 ships being converted at your building facilities. Why do you ask?”

  “Bear with me a minute, how many of the 2,800 have been converted?”

  “About half of them have the new technology.”

  ‘I’m expecting the Alliance to jump in more than 5,000 ships to see how many ships you answer with. Can you get your ships out and have the new ships placed behind the old ones with their screens shut off. They should still look like standard Alliance warships.”

  Tgon-Gee nodded and disappeared from Tag’s com. “I hope we have enough time to get this done,” Tag said. “Kosiev,” he said into his com. “How close is that group of ships to being sorted out for jump?”

  “They’re encountering some difficulty, they just had 400 ships jump into the area they were assembling and they all scattered probably thinking that it was another one of our attacks. It will take them at least another hour and a half to reorganize.”

  “Thanks, Admiral.” Then Tag called Tgon-Gee, “Excellency, it looks like we will have about, what’s the Alliance word for minute, on yeah, dreg, ninety dregs before they jump. Can you organize your fleet that quickly?”

  “It’s being done right now. We were already in formations around the planet so it shouldn’t take more than thirty or forty dregs.”

  “I might be wrong about this but I have to leave and get that Ultra Battleship out of your system; there is no way to explain that. I’m going to leave my wife and your Queen here for you to take care of.”

  “It will be our honor.”

  Danielle hugged Tag and kissed him, “Are we always going to be saying good-bye?”

  Tag smiled and said, “That’s what makes the hellos so great. I’ll see you after the battle.”

  “See that you do,” Danielle said to him as he ran from the room.

  Tag’s ship jumped out of the system thirty minutes before the Alliance fleet jumped in. They formed ranks and began moving in system. Shipven Vi looked at his sensors and asked his sensor officer, “How many ships do you register on your instruments. Some of them are behind those in front but it looks like at least 3,000 or so.”

  “Do you see anything unusual about their ships?”

  “We’re a long way out from the planet but they look like standard ships.” />
  Vi turned on his com and said, “State Leader, they have approximately 3,000 ships here. They all look like standard ship types.”

  Sten looked at Dgzh and said, “Jump back into our system immediately.”

  The Alliance fleet disappeared from the Glod system.

  Sten said, “How many ships did you say they had?”

  “At their last inventory they had about 4,400 but we have on record 800 of their ships being destroyed by the Humans. That leaves 3,600. I suspect that they have those other 600 scattered among their colony worlds. Either way, the majority of their fleet is in the Glod system.”

  “Then we continue as planned. If their ships were in the Human system, we would attack Glod first to try our new draining device. There’s no good reason to fight 3,000 ships when the humans only have a hundred. How long until the fleet is ready?” he asked Dgzh.