“That’s just great. We might have to use our nukes anyway.”
“According to our allies, we shouldn’t. They reckon the enemy would detect any launch on our part and explode our weapons before the missiles leave the atmosphere.”
“That’s a chance we might have to take.”
“I know, sir, but according to our ‘friend’ up there reinforcements are less than ten minutes away. They should shift the balance of the battle.”
“I noticed the multiple conditionals in your phrasing: according, should…”
“At this point, sir, do we have any other choice but hope that it’s true?”
“I guess you’re right. Let’s hope the battle won’t be well finished by then.”
“That’s exactly my fear as well, sir. I also think we’ll need to use the anti-missile satellite if it’s not destroyed already.”
“Very well, General. What’s your ETA to the tactical bunker?”
“About three minutes, sir. I’ll keep you informed as soon as I have new information.”
“Thank you, General Adams. God help us all. Pentagon out.”
The transmission ended just as the chopper arrived at the base. A minute later, General Adams rushed towards the command bridge. Sensors and video feeds from the last remaining satellites were displaying on war theatre screens. The battle seemed frantic, with fewer allied ships showing on the screens with every passing minute. They seemed to be going towards the moon, using evasive maneuvers now. The biggest battle Earth had ever witnessed was going on full force just a few miles above the surface, and no humans were involved. Nor could they do a damn thing about it, even though their survival as a species was at stake.
They would just have to put their faith in their new “friends.”
And hope they turned out to be friends indeed…
Chapter VIII
Chase’s squadron was taking heavy fire while trying to escape towards the moon, or so Chase wanted the enemy to believe. He loaded another set of commands, called Gamble tactic seven, and suddenly his fighters stopped all evasive maneuvers and went towards the moon at maximum burn. The sudden change of speed and attitude took the enemy by surprise and shaved off seconds from their reaction time, but they soon started pursuit at maximum velocity as well. Fortunately, Chase’s fighters were a bit faster, and the pursuing force fell back out of firing range.
A few seconds later, Chase’s four remaining heavy fighters emerged from behind the moon and headed on a collision course with the incoming squadrons. Chase held his breath. If his calculations were off by even a small factor, this would be a catastrophe of epic proportions. Armageddon-like proportions. He pushed the thought from his mind. He couldn’t afford to second guess himself now. This tactic had to work and that was the end of it. But before he could end his current train of thought, a major explosion on his starboard side shook the ship and some sparks flew into his cockpit.
“Dammit!” he shouted. “Damage report!”
“Delta Six destroyed. Shields at forty-five percent. Lasers at eighty-eight percent. Inertial dampeners at fifty percent.”
“What? But that means...”
With his inertial dampeners only working at half capacity, he would not be able to sustain the next phase of his plan. He reacted quickly.
“Direct all weapons power and ninety percent of life support to inertial dampeners.”
“Transfer in progress.”
While the transfer was completing, he saw the heavy bombers opening fire as the rest of the squadron veered abruptly at ninety degrees. Unfortunately, now that Chase’s dampeners were only up to seventy-one percent, the force with which the squadron had broken from their initial trajectory caused a huge impact on his body. He felt queasy. His vision started to blur and was quickly replaced by a dark veil. Soon, clenching his teeth was all he could do to not lose consciousness. There were more explosions, this time from the tail of his ship, and a beeping on the console announced friendly casualties. For what felt like just a handful of seconds, Chase’s eyes closed.
The bombers had launched their remaining torpedoes while showering fire in their trajectory as cover. The bigger part of the enemy squadrons were obliterated, completely taken by surprise by the four bombers who were actively jamming the area to avoid disclosing their presence until the last moment. But some of the enemy ships reacted quickly and managed to destroy one of the bombers before succumbing to the wall of laser shower and torpedoes. Three ships had then broken formation to engage and pursue the squadron. Chase’s ship went straight while the other ships resumed a defensive position. Two of the enemy craft engaged the squadron, the third went after Chase.
The cockpit echoed with a transmission, but Chase was still unconscious.
“Lieutenant Athanatos, can hear me? Lieutenant, please respond! Oh god... Please, Lieutenant, if you’re still out there, respond in any manner you can. Lieutenant Athanatos!”
Chase tried opening his eyes. He was hearing something muffled that sounded almost like his own name. And suddenly, like a thunder stroke, everything became clearer. His hearing returned to him and his vision came back.
“Are you there, Lieutenant? Please respond!” The voice sounded extremely alarmed.
Chase’s thoughts quickly rearranged themselves and he remembered that he was in the middle of a giant battle. Another second and several hits on his dorsal shields did the trick. He shook his head vigorously and answered.
“Hang on, General, I’ve got a bogie on my tail.”
“Not just one, son, they’re all coming towards you now. I think you got them pissed.”
Chase checked his radar and realized the bombers were still jamming. He must have forgotten to script its cancellation. More hits from the back. He had to get rid of his pursuers before he could do anything else. He shouted a vocal command while entering pad commands to disable the jamming at the same time.
“Counter-attack command Zeta-one.”
The ship made a disorienting one-eighty degrees on the Z-axis and all lasers started firing in short bursts, showering and lowering the enemy craft’s shields. Then, one torpedo was fired to finish it off. It exploded in a fiery, white flash. Chase ended his pad commands and the radar came back online. The general wasn’t kidding. All the enemy ships, big or small, were changing course to intercept him; they had all stopped firing on Earth. The comm resonated again.
“I don’t know what you did, but they seem less interested in blasting us to kingdom come than they were a few minutes before.”
“So it would seem, General. I must have gotten their full attention. But that may not be a good thing just yet. We’re still seven minutes short of rescue and, from the looks of it, I don’t think I’ll last half that time with the entire armada converging on my position. I think it may be time for a little diversion about now.”
“The laser satellite is up and operational. All I need from you is a target. I’m broadcasting our sensor data to your frequency.”
The ship’s computer caught the signal but, before he could send the data back, the sky lit up as the nearest enemy ship entered firing range. Chase entered the coordinates and sent a tagged image of the ship currently firing on him.
“We’ve received your targeting information, commencing firing.”
A couple of seconds later, a powerful red laser hit the enemy ship’s engines and blew it out of space in a fiery display. Chase clicked the comm.
“Can you target another ship, General?”
“Yes, but unfortunately it takes one minute for the laser to cool down.”
“We don’t have a minute, General. The rest of the fleet will have a firing solution on me any second now.”
“I can try to fire again sooner, but it will probably destroy the satellite in the process, and it certainly won’t be a fully-powered shot.”
“That’s alright, I just need the distraction. Fire at any ship you can target.”
“Firing now!”
The satellite
fired a much less focused second laser shot to the tailing enemy ship. Most of the damage it did seemed to have been absorbed by the ship’s shields. The satellite stopped firing after only a second, but did not explode. Fortunately for Chase, half the remaining enemy ships saw these last two shots as enough of a threat to split their targeting priorities.
Exactly what Chase was hoping for. Divide and conquer.
He checked his radar again, and saw that three more of his auto-piloted ships had been destroyed in the meantime. That left only three fighters and two bombers, all heavily damaged. At that exact moment, an intense, blinding blue flash illuminated the war zone.
At first, Chase thought that the Destiny had finally arrived but, when he checked his radar, he realized that it was just a new enemy ship—much bigger than any of the ones Chase had already destroyed—accompanied by a host of frigates. The frigates headed directly towards Earth while the new ship changed course towards the satellite. The second it entered firing range, it destroyed the satellite with a single shot. Chase sighed. The jig was up. The enemy had probably thought it would be heavily shielded, which was why they split their numbers in half to deal with it. But now that it was destroyed, the new enemy ship changed course and started vectoring towards Chase.
As it approached, it started spewing attack fighters at an alarming rate. Some of them headed towards Earth, escorting the frigates, while others began converging on what was left of Chase’s squadron. Chase quickly checked his squadron’s status. All the torpedoes had been depleted, except the one on his own ship. The shielded torpedo. His last ace in the hole. Now was time to put it to good use.
“Computer, calculate firing solution to damage as many launching bays as possible on that massive ship.”
“Firing solution ready.”
“Fire!”
The torpedo fired straight for the newly arrived ship and, although the ship began immediately firing upon it, it was so fast that only a handful of shots made contact before it hit the shields near the middle of the launching bay. Flames spewed from the hull. Many of the fighters launching at that time were destroyed by the blast and some decks around the bays seemed to take heavy damage as well, spewing parts and debris into outer space. But it wasn’t enough to take the entire vessel down. Chase had hoped that secondary explosions could at least disable the ship partially. But no such luck.
A glance at his radar revealed that he had about forty enemy fighters on a direct intercept course, and the first ones had just entered firing range, spewing laser fire on what little was left of the squadron. The remaining bombers were dispatched almost instantly, as well as the last two of his own wing who soon succumbed to the impressive wall of laser fire coming their way. Even their pre-programmed evasive maneuvers didn’t help them survive longer than a few moments. There were simply too many bogies and not enough ships left to make even the slightest difference anymore.
That was it. Chase had done all he could and, while trying all the evasive maneuvers he could think of, his ship was now taking heavy damage as well. His shields were failing, engine power was fluctuating, and there was still four minutes on his already optimistic countdown. But just when he was about to give up all hope, he heard the voice again in his mind.
“Fear not, Chase, your destiny is just beginning.”
Suddenly, multiple blue flashes appeared in front of Chase’s fighter.
The fleet had arrived early!
“Are you still alive, you stupid fool?” a familiar voice on the comm immediately inquired as a large ship swooped between him and the oncoming fighters.
Chase’s breath caught in his throat. “Dan?”
“Who else? I was peacefully sleeping thanks to you, but then I woke up and learned what you did, you crazy bastard.”
Chase cracked a smile.
In seconds, multiple available fighters from the Destiny Battlegroup were out of the docks and into space, fending off the opposing squadron and obliterating the force currently converging towards Chase’s heavily damaged fighter. The Destiny had started opening fire with all batteries and there was a bright wall of torpedoes and heavy laser fire between them and the enemy ships.
“Boy am I glad to see you.” Chase sighed in exhaustion. “I don’t think I could have lasted another ten seconds.”
“Oh really?” Daniel asked with amused sarcasm. “May I suggest you stay out of sight now and let us take over?”
Despite his instinct to be a part of the fight until his dying breath, a quick glance at his power levels made Chase realize that he wouldn’t be any help to anyone anymore. He had fulfilled his mission and delayed the enemy fleet until reinforcements had arrived. He had managed just that, barely, but in the end what counted was the result.
Earth would survive.
“If that’s an order then by all means, Commander. I owe you one.”
“No, we’re actually square. But the planet below sure owes you more than just one.”
“Damn...the planet! Frigates escorted by fighters were sent down; we must intercept them before the ground troops do too much damage.”
“Alright, Chase, we’ll send a squadron to take care of them. Just come back on board the Destiny before you get yourself blown out of the sky.”
“Yes, Wing Commander. Good to have you back.”
“It’s good to be back. See you in a while.”
Chase docked his ship in the landing bay and quickly went to the bridge to follow the rest of the battle. By the time he arrived, it was almost over. The last of the enemy ships had just burst into flames and the sky was filled with their smoldering debris. Soon, the sky darkened, as the last of the lasers was spent. What was once a blinding fight to the death had dimmed as suddenly as it had begun, and the remaining fighters joined the others on the surface to fend off the enemy invasion party.
The battle had been won, but a quick glance at the bridge’s main tactical war screen showed that the Destiny Battlegroup had taken some damage during the fight and would need days if not weeks for repairs. A few fighters had been destroyed as well. Shaking his head in relief, Chase approached the captain.
“Welcome back, Lieutenant, and congratulations! I don’t know how you managed to keep such a huge fleet at bay and minimize the damage to the planet, but you did it. And from what our sensor log shows, you did it right up until you were about to get blown out of space. That’s an excellent job, Chase!”
Chase grinned. “Thank you, Captain. I really thought my number was up, but fortunately you arrived early.”
“We damaged the jump engine to the point where it will take days until we can jump again, but I guessed every second counted to pull off this crazy maneuver of yours, so I decided to overtax the drives to their absolute limits.”
“Well I’m glad you did, Captain, thank you. What’s our status?”
“The remaining ships have been destroyed, but we have even more damage to the battlegroup and we must now take the time to make repairs. We’re hoping the humans of Earth can assist us in this task.”
“Have we heard from Earth since the battle ended?”
“Yes. I’ve spoken with a General Adams, who inquired if you survived the battle and wanted to thank us for assisting when we did. He also wanted to thank us for the lives lost protecting Earth. He seemed quite surprised when I explained to him that you were actually alone here at first.”
“I thought it best not to divulge any information regarding my plans. I figured they had enough on their minds without worrying about the fate of their planet resting in one man’s hands. I know it would have made me uncomfortable if the situation was reversed.”
“I can understand that. Nevertheless, General Adams seemed relieved you had survived the battle, and he said he looks forward to meeting you soon.”
Chase frowned. “Will we meet?”
“Indeed you will. It’s good you came to the bridge. The people of Earth have asked that we land on the surface so they can properly thank us. They want to discuss
what just happened and what comes next.”
“I imagine they must have lots of questions.”
“I would imagine so. We are to leave in an hour. You’re coming since you were instrumental in saving their planet. Heck, you convinced me at gunpoint to do so…a fact we will not share with them if you don’t mind. Nonetheless, Earth is safe for now and that’s thanks to your bold plan and even bolder execution. I want you with me down there.”
“Of course, and thank you, Captain. I’m really sorry again it came to…that. You have my word that it will never happen again.”
“Lieutenant Athanatos, you apologized for that already. And off the record, I have to admit that you did exactly what needed to be done under the circumstances. If it wasn’t for you, the Zarlacks would have destroyed Earth and, from where I stand, your actions today may have very well ensured us a future ally. We are outgunned, outnumbered, and in a part of space we know nothing about. We need help repairing, we need a place to stay, and we need to think about how we will survive. At least now, we might have a place to start doing all of that—Earth. Let’s pray it’s a welcoming sanctuary; our last sanctuary, dare I say.”
“I agree, sir. We need to rebuild our forces, and I’m hoping with the help of the humans, we might actually have a chance to achieve that.”
“I hope so, Lieutenant. But I’m not so sure about what they can do for us, at least technologically speaking.”
“Maybe we can help them help us.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, if we share ancestry with these people, we could bring them up to speed, technologically speaking.”
“First contact protocol dictates that we don’t give technological advantage to primitive races; history has shown that it usually leads to their own destruction. Give too much power to an unprepared civilization and the results could be catastrophic. That’s why we have the protocol in place.”
Earth Last Sanctuary (Universe in Flames Book 1) Page 9
