Then, looking a bit flustered, he said. “The drones are in place, and my ship is ready.”
Harry paused then continued. “But, as I said before, synchronization is critical. If one of our drones attacks them too early, the other Crillon ships will fire on the cities and leg it out of there.”
“That goes without saying Harry,” Frank replied. He then tapped his pad for Javelin, noticing almost four minutes had already gone.
“OK. Barry?”
“Were ready Frank. Drones are deployed, and we have target assignment.”
“Good, said Frank. “Tony?”
“The same Frank. We're all ready for battle. Just waiting for the sync pulse.”
“Excellent,” Frank said.
“What will the Andromeda be doing?” Barry asked.
“Trying to be a fly in their ointment.”
“The Crillon ships above each city will indeed cause severe damage if they’re allowed to hit the ground,” Andromeda added, reminding them all of this.
“I’m afraid; we’ll have to do something about that, after the battle,” Frank finished.
They continued talking among themselves a little longer until Andromeda announced it was ten minutes to zero hour.
Frank tapped his pad, bringing up Susanna's face on all the ships screens.
“Susanna. Is SD 23 in place to give Brendereen and Acarea the five-minute warning to take cover?”
“Yes, it’s synced with Andromeda.”
“Good. Everything is on all your pads. Andromeda, recap the sequence of operations, please.”
“Certainly. The Andromeda will support City Marca. Illustrious will help City Velcray, and Turpin will support City Vicrea.
After the cities are safe, we will all join the high orbit battle. So, Derringer and Javelin, you must try to survive until we can reach you.”
“We’ve drawn the short straw,” Tony said with a wry smile.
“I’m afraid so,” Andromeda replied.
“All ships will coordinate with rescue pickups, and all crew members must wear survival suits so that they can make it to the holding bay if their ship is severely damaged. The force-crafts will then afford protection while you wait for pick-up. I think that’s all now,” she finished.
Then, almost immediately, said. ”The five-minute warning has now been sent to our contacts on the ground. Good Luck.”
“Thanks,” said Frank. As he sent his own “Good luck, everyone,” message over the crew transplants.
All the captains’ images disappeared. With Susanna blowing him a kiss, as hers went off the screen.
Eleven hundred hours and the execute command was sent to the ships and their stealth drones. Time corrected to take account of the distance varying time-lag between them. This being needed to achieve a synchronized attack.
Brendereen and Acarea, having received Susanna’s five-minute warning. Immediately signalled their newly made contacts in the three cities.
Then moved closer to city Marca. From where, probably some thirty to forty kilometres above them. They could just see the copper looking dot of the Crillon ship, glinting in the light amber morning sun. With its Antimatter weapon’s death muzzle pointing down to the city.
“Thirty seconds,” Bren said to Acarea as they both started to count down.
Commander Ajohno, of the Crillon Battleship CS 17. Looked down, through the narrow window of his control room.
His control room was in the centre of his ship, around the Antimatter weapon’s output port. The front of the vessel was tilted down, and below him he could see the city of Marca, just a dot on the landscape.
He longed to hit the firing button. To watch that City Marca vaporize in an instant. But he knew that he would have to wait for at least a couple of weeks more, of this planet’s time frame until the new warp-crystals were installed and operationally checked.
His second in command bleeped him.
“What is it Vanoff?”
“We keep picking up moments of,” he paused.
“Like a shimmering effect. One moment something registers, then it’s gone.”
“What does it look like?”
“I don't know Sir, but I am concerned.”
“Very well,” Ajohno said. “Do a deep scan now, just in case these creatures have something hidden from us.”
“Yes, Sir!”
Ajohno looked at the chronometer. Set at this planet's time, it read eleven o'clock, precisely.
He reached for his snuff-box but didn’t quite make it. As a fireball of destruction ripped through the centre of his ship, tearing it virtually apart.
Brendereen and Acarea watched the dot like Crillon ship high above them; it was surrounded by an expanding white aura, which rapidly shrank back. The ship then appeared as two small dots.
“It looks like it’s almost been blown in two!” Acarea gleefully said.
“Look, there! Something golden,” Bren shouted.
Andromeda swung in a long arc towards the Crillon ship which was now virtually in two parts and hung ominously over City Marca. Frank could see that almost the whole of the centre of the Crillon ship had disappeared.
Far away, two more flashes showed as the Illustrious and Turpin engaged the other two Crillon ships.
Then, unexpectedly, another explosion and flash as the Turpin hit its target ship again.
One of her torpedoes had misfired, hitting the aperture wall of the Crillons Antimatter weapon’s tube and detonating prematurely. So, they had been obliged to fire particle beams at the front section, to silence some weapons that were still active.
The Turpin and Illustrious then turned upwards to join the high orbital action.
The Andromeda continued her sweep, checking the drift of the three wrecks and saw that only City Vicrea's Crillon ship presented any risk at this moment.
Andromeda found and set the correct force-field frequency to resist a slow-moving object. Then increased the force-field to the maximum as she pushed the deadly wreck further up and to one side.
All the while fending off ineffective shots from the distant Crillons on the ground.
Andromeda then turned upwards to join the high orbit battle, knowing that the three cities would be safe for at least five days.
With the wrecks, now in low orbit, taking at least this amount of time to drop through the atmosphere before plunging towards the planet.
The high orbit battle hadn't started well. The four Crillon Battlecruisers, their sensors in full operation, spotted some of the stealth drones as shimmers and destroyed them before they could fire their torpedoes.
As Derringer and Javelin approached, under stealth mode. They could see that the entire area around the Crillon ships was crisscrossed with particle beams, and occasional single flashes as some of their own stealth drones flared into nothingness.
Both Derringer and Javelin lined up on two of the Crillon ships. Then each released a salvo of particle beams, followed by an Antimatter bolt.
The force-fields of the Crillon battlecruisers CS 11 and 14, suddenly flared up, then shrank again, as they tried to take up the incoming salvo of particle beams, which had seemed to come from nowhere.
As the CS 14 Crillon ship started to move. Javelin’s Barry Winston cursed. He had failed. His Antimatter bolt had curved through the Crillon's force-field, missing the vessel by twenty metres.
He cursed again, knowing that his weapon would take another five minutes to recharge.
At the same moment, Derringer's Tony Crisp also swore, as his Antimatter bolt hit a small object between his and the CS 11’s ship. He had hit one of their own invisible stealth drones by mistake.
Immediately, particle beams and solid projectiles shot from the two Crillon ships, stabbing out in the direction of the attacking ships. Both Derringer and Javelin’s force-fields flared as they struggled to survive. Both of their ships stealth skins, fried. Leaving the gold coloured ships in full view.
Ten kilometres away. The other two Crillon
battlecruisers began to swing in to help their ships already under attack.
CS 13 was the first ship to acquire a target, the Javelin. And when an Antimatter bolt erupted from the Crillon ship. Javelin's captain knew exactly where it was going.
“Emergency lockdown!” he screamed into the internal comms. Barry Winston felt his ship shudder like he'd never felt before. Then, all the lights went out.
Derringer’s captain swung his ship and acquired his next target, the Crillon CS 15. He fired, and the Crillon ship stopped dead.
Tony Crisp, then realigned the Derringer so that it was between the Javelin and the Crillon’s CS 13 ship.
He knew the Crillon ship wasn’t able to fire its Antimatter weapon at the moment. So, decided to pick up the Javelin’s four force-crafts as they left its wreck. Hopefully, with some crew members on board.
As Tony came close to the ship, he was flabbergasted to see the damage to Javelin. The rear third of it was virtually gone. With large objects floating out of the now exposed part of the ship. 'Well, at least our escape drill worked,' he thought.
The two Crillon battlecruisers, CS 11 and 14. No longer under attack, then turned towards the Derringer.
Tony Crisp had no illusions. He couldn’t fight them all. ‘Where the hell are the cavalry when you need them?' He wryly thought.
Tony could see that the Crillon’s ship CS 15 was still stationary. ‘But for how much longer?’ He wondered. ‘Not important,’ he then thought. ‘The other Crillon ships were here now.’
He could see that the Javelin’s four force-crafts were almost inside his open holding-bay door. When, suddenly he heard a familiar sound, from his comms. “All Drones, leave the combat zone, SD F D G H, Execute.”
The Crillon battlecruiser CS 11, vanished in a blinding flash of light, as two Antimatter bolts from the Illustrious and Turpin, scored a direct hit as they flashed through.
“Tony.” Derrick’s voice rattled over his comms. “Javelin's Antimatter weapon’s containment-sphere is almost on you. Get out of there!”
Tony saw the ‘sphere’ three hundred metres away and coming fast. “Ship,” he commanded. “Skip as soon as the force-crafts are in. Don’t worry about closing the door. Just get us out of here.”
The Crillon’s, CS 13 and 14, battlecruisers then veered off. Followed by a hail of particle beams and projectiles from Illustrious and Turpin.
Tony started to sweat. The containment sphere was gaining speed attracted to Derringer's mass and its Antimatter containment was crackling, slowly losing integrity.
The Derringer leapt forward, with only two seconds remaining before contact. The holding bay door was still open. But all of Javelin's survivors were safely aboard.
The Antimatter containment sphere, having nothing in its way, carried on towards CS 15 at an increasing speed.
The Andromeda, using the Skippa sub-light drive system, quickly moved to a seemingly empty area.
Then saw the lame Crillon ship CS 15, about two kilometres away, just hanging in space.
“Andromeda,” said Frank.
“Try to warn that Crillon ship to move, if it doesn't want to be vapourised.”
“OK. I think he has heard me,” she replied. “But the containment sphere is almost on top of the ship. It’s too dangerous; we must stay back!”
They watched in horror, as a wormhole started to form in front of the Crillon ship
“He must have lost his sub-light drive, Frank. Maybe he thinks that he has enough jump quota to create a wormhole to get him away from it in time?”
A large, swirling ring, with a jet-black centre, appeared. The wormhole had formed, and the Crillon ship CS 15 seemed to drift slowly into it. Five seconds later, the containment sphere followed it in.
“Grief, what a fool!” Frank exclaimed.
“Give our ships a warning Andromeda.
“Andromeda to All Ships do not use the warp. I repeat, do not use the jump engines!”
The wormhole almost closed, but not quite.
It rippled, and flashes of light flared from small rifts further out in space, and from around the wormhole itself.
For a radius of many light years, Space itself seemed to buckle under the force of the detonation’s pressure wave in the wormhole as it tore outward, bending the fabric of space and time.
Some twenty minutes later, when normality returned. The remaining two Crillon battlecruisers, CS 13 and 14, came to a halt. In front of them, and blocking their way, were the human’s four ships.
“Andromeda,” Frank said. “Can we get access to the Crillon ships computers?
We know their computer system’s operation and format.”
“I’ll try to generate a link. One moment.”
Frank waited. It seemed forever, but it was only two minutes before Andromeda came back.
“I have a link, it’s not very stable, but you would be able to send the language folder.”
“Good. Send the folder and install.”
“It's sent, with the auto-install set.”
“Now we wait,” he said.
”While we’re waiting, can you put together a report on our meeting with the Crillon Battleship Commander Arans, and Fleet Twelve’s commander Tarcan.
Including what we did for them.”
“If you’re going to try to talk to them, then Susanna and the ships captains should all be in the loop.”
“Agreed, set it up now. Then when you've finished getting your report together. Send it to the Crillons.
It should give them something to think about.”
A few minutes later, the images of Susanna and three of his captains appeared on his screen.
“Before we start Andromeda, please general broadcast this to all ships.”
He felt Andromeda's acknowledgement in his implant.
“Did we lose any of Javelin's crew?” He asked Andromeda.
“Surprisingly, no,” she replied. With her voice, also being heard by everyone.
“Everything in the front part of the ship, including the habitation cabins was left intact Saved by the double bulkhead. They were lucky.”
“They certainly were. Where are the crew?”
“They’re with us, Frank. On the Derringer,” Tony Crisp replied.
“Barry says he'll bow out of this meeting as he’s without a ship.”
“OK. Tony. Sort out with Barry how you want to allocate Javelin's twenty-five crew between the StarShips.
Remember, some will want to be together, and others may need to be in their usual departments.”
“We'll do our best to please them if we can.”
“Excellent. Now, the Turpin. Harry?”
“Yes, Captain.”
“We've got 24 Marines in total, haven’t we?”
“Yes. If we’re still counting Javelin's contingent?”
Tony turned his head and talked to someone out of the range of the camera. “The Marine captain says no problem.”
“My thanks to them. Now, Harry, I want you to reallocate them, so there are six on each ship. From which, four per ship are to be allocated for ground duty. Yes?”
“OK, Captain.”
“Call me Frank!” A slightly irritated Frank snapped.
Harry nodded agreement.
“I want your ship to go down to the planet, and drop off the force-crafts.
With four marines in each and one force-craft per industrial compound. OK?”
“Yes.”
“The compounds are located on the outskirts of each city. Start with Atreen’s compound. Although the city has been destroyed, that’s where our contacts Brendereen and Acarea are situated.
The Marine's orders are to locate and remove all Crillons, dead or alive,” he paused then continued.
“While they do that. I want your ship to push the three Crillon wrecks into a higher orbit.”
“Sounds simple enough,” Harry said with a smile.
“Will the strength of our force-field be sufficient?”
“Yes. Andromeda will send you the field level setting that we found worked well.”
“Right, that sounds great.”
“Okay. Our stealth drone 23 is down on the planet, and close to Brendereen and Acarea.
They’ll be able to help where needed.
After Susanna's talked to them, we’ll send them our force crafts transceiver location codes.”
‘Frank, a Crillon captain, is trying to contact us,' came Andromeda's voice in his implant.
“We seem to have a caller at last,” said Frank, with some relief. “Hold him a moment, please Andromeda.”
“Right, Harry. You’d better get started straight away. The other two ships and the rest of the drones are all back now. So, we should be strong enough to deal with these Crillons.”
“Will do. Oh, and if Tony's ready, we could bring some of Javelin's crew when we pick up the Marines.”
“If I've got them ready, then, yes, that'll be okay,”
Tony said.
“OK, Andromeda make the connection!”
Chapter 23
The Way Out.
In the top corner of Frank's screen, the live image of a Crillon commander appeared. He looked like any other Crillon but seemed really tense.
“I am Fleet Commander Tripicac, of the CS 14, Twelfth Fleet. My other ship is the CS 13, commanded by Commander Bovonivo,” he said, and suddenly looked more authoritative.
Frank remembered from speaking with Arans, that, Crillon ship Captains were called Commanders. Tripicac must have been their Fleet Commander. Like a Fleet Admiral would be called on Earth.
The Definitive SpaceFed Trilogy (SpaceFed StarShips Trilogy).: A thrilling, action-packed Sci-fi space adventure. (SpaceFed StarShips Series Book 8) Page 32
