by Terry Frost
As soon as the Striker and Perseus were on Colossus, Admiral Allen ordered Captain Koslov, Captain Slain, Commodore Jeeves, Colonel Hammer, and Major Hoser to come to Room Forward for an emergency meeting.
When all had arrived they found Admiral Allen and General Dubois waiting on them. Vice Admiral Petrov was commanding the ship and asking for constant updates on the ship’s repairs. Allen asked the men to take a seat at the conference table.
“Gentlemen, I believe you all would agree that we found the Hive homeworld. And if we didn’t, then this part of the galaxy is in deep shit. Commodore, I want you to send a long-range message to Daakie Burseq Maalik and inform him that we stumbled onto what we believe to be the Hive homeworld.
“Inform him to not engage them as there are at least fifty and maybe more Hive nests at their location. Tell him we barely escaped with our lives and that I will be contacting him in the near future to see if together we might formulate a plan to attack them.”
“Yes sir, Admiral,” Jeeves said.
“Admiral, even with the Daakie, and with our help, there would be a slim to none chance that we could defeat such overwhelming odds,” General Dubois said.
“I realize, that at the moment you might be spot on, General. But you saw what one shot with the Annihilator Beam did against their docking structure.”
“Yes I did, sir, and it almost cost us our ship during those precious few seconds it took for us to get the shot off. The whole affair was akin to flying in the dead center of a hornet’s nest, Admiral.”
“Gentlemen, if I may?” Colonel Hammer said.
Allen said, “Go ahead, Colonel.”
“We lure them. We lure them out and try to catch one or two of their nests at a time. Surely with the Daakie forces and ours, we can eliminate a nest or two at a time, Admiral.”
“That would be one plan, Colonel. But we are just guessing at their total strength in this galaxy. There is the possibility we didn’t find their homeworld. Maybe it was just a station, one of many throughout this galaxy.”
“I’m sure of one thing, Admiral. We need to think about engaging the Hive every chance we get. I, for one, don’t want to entertain the thought of building a new world for our people just to have it constantly attacked by those fucking ant-like aliens,” Dubois said.
“Amen to that, General. I’ve always believed to take it to the enemy is a much better approach than to sit back on our asses and wait for them to come to us,” Hammer said.
“That is an admirable strategy, Colonel. But this is more like trying to pop a pimple on a gorilla’s ass,” Allen said.
“Colonel Hammer has popped a lot of pimples, Admiral,” Dubois said.
The admiral didn’t immediately reply to the general’s comment and sat still, looking down at the table in front of him, before speaking again. After a long minute of silence in the room, Allen spoke.
“It’s really ironic that we are sitting here discussing combining our forces with those of a group of aliens, to destroy another group of aliens. And besides that, we have discovered a possible new intelligent race on Planet Ogre and they don’t seem to be friendly either.
“If I stood up in front of the USC back on Mars and suggested we would find a minimum of five intelligent races and not even make it out of the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, they would have had me committed.”
“You made reference to five intelligent races, Admiral. I’m only able to come up with four. Who is the fifth, sir?” Major Hoser asked.
“I’m guessing the one you're not counting is the Venic, Major. It would be easy to forget that, as we only met the young Venic, Junal, once.
“We’ve still got several hours, maybe days to complete our repairs. During that time we should be hearing something back from our message we sent to the Daakie homeworld. If we receive a response from them that they are interested in engaging the Hive we just might do as you suggested Colonel. But for now, let’s see what we can do to help our engineers in their efforts to fix our ship. I will let you know when we’ve heard from the Daakie.”
Chapter 5
Back on Planet Daak, and standing in front of King Gaakin was Science Officer Faadin, Commander of the Daakie military, Caid Tikit, and Battle Imperial Burseq Maalik. King Gaakin was the first to speak.
“What is this important message you’ve received from the Humans, Burseq?”
“Your Grace, the message says the Humans have found what they think to be the Hive homeworld.”
The king stood up from his throne and said, “The Hive homeworld. Does the message continue to say anything else?”
“Supreme Admiral Allen said they barely escaped with their lives. He goes on to say all three of their ships took some damage, but their Colossus took the most damage of the three. But before the admiral was able to jump out, he managed to get one shot with the Colossus’s Annihilator weapon at what he says might have been their central command center destroying at least a quarter of the command center along with four Hive nests.”
“Your Grace, the Humans are asking if we would be interested in formulating a plan of attack against the so-called Hive homeworld,” said Caid Tikit.
“What do you think, Faadin?” Gaakin asked of his science officer.
“I don’t see how we can possibly pass up an opportunity to degrade the Hive’s attack forces, Your Grace. But we must ask for more information about size and strength of the Hive homeworld. We need to know how many Hive nests were in close proximity to the command center.
“Admiral Allen made mention the Colossus laid waste to four Hive nests and that makes me wonder how many of them are there in that location. Burseq Maalik, if you remember it took two of our Zurguts to eliminate just one of those damn nests.”
“That is true, Science Officer Faadin. But during that engagement, we didn’t use our gamma-ray weapon, and we need to attack the Hive at every opportunity and since we will have the advantage of knowing their location and with the help of the Humans I don’t see how we could possibly ignore the opportunity,” Maalik said.
“Faadin, send a message to Supreme Admiral Allen requesting their jump coordinates. Inform him we will gather eight of our Zurguts and will meet them at their location. I will send only eight instead of our whole fleet as we must always be at battle strength here on Daak.”
Faadin sent the message to Admiral Allen requesting the jump coordinates to their location. It would take at least a week flying FTL to reach Colossus. That would be enough time to repair the Human fleet while they waited on the Daakie Armada.
****
Chief Engineer McManus had located the problem with the contaminated water used for irrigating the crops in the biodome. He was extremely relieved to find the problem was not in the main water tanks but instead with two of the irrigation pipes. It seems the problem was those responsible for scrubbing the pipes forgot to do their job, which allowed a harmful bacteria to form in the pipes. Standard procedure called for the pipes to be scrubbed once a month by auto-bots. Gavin knew Kuda Black would be relieved, as he was, that the problem was only with two of the irrigation pipes, but knew heads were going to roll when he reported his findings to the agronomist.
****
The Humans battle plan had been laid out and everyone was waiting for the Daakie forces to show up, which should be about anytime. Petrov, Dubois, and Hammer were talking to Commodore Jeeves about his mission just prior to the attack near the Hive homeworld. Admiral Allen was sitting in his command chair waiting for the Daakie to appear at their location.
The plan was to hopefully lure a few of the Hive nests away from the central command structure by having them chase Jeeves in one of two extremely fast Darts. Darts were single seated reconnaissance spacecraft. The Darts only weapons were two nose-mounted ion cannons and that was the Dart’s only firepower as weight was an issue for the small ship to be able to reach its top speed, which is just short of FTL.
“Remember, Commodore, you are only to vector into the gene
ral area of the Hive homeworld. Just close enough for them to see you on their sensors. Since the Dart doesn’t have the capability to jump, we are hoping you will be able to lead them right to our waiting attack force,” Vice Admiral Petrov said.
“It is possible with the Dart being such a small ship, it isn’t out of the realm of reason that they might just ignore you, so you may have to use your cannons to fire upon one of the Hive nests to get their attention,” Colonel Hammer said.
“I will have the Perseus and Striker out in front in case any of the Hive nests get too close to you before you can make it back to the ambush zone. They will be monitoring the distance between you and the Hive nest or nests chasing you, and if need be will come to your aid,” General Dubois added.
“Are you positive you don’t want me to handle the bait ship mission, Commodore?” asked Hammer.
“Positive, Colonel. If I were to take a critical hit in the Dart and end up having to eject, you need to remember I don’t breathe air, so I will survive until I can be picked up. You, on the other hand, would resemble a blown up marshmallow within ten minutes.”
“Thanks for the visual, Commodore,” Hammer said.
“You are very welcome, Colonel.”
“Gentlemen, if you please. It is my estimation the nests will not have their shields up when you arrive. So it is critical that you fire your cannons at the one nearest you and immediately head to our location. Since they won’t have their shield up, that means they can send their fighters after you very quickly,” Dubois said.
The reason they were sending Commodore Jeeves was his ability to collect data with lightning speed, such as, how many nests are in the area and any other military objects in close proximity to their central command structure. His neuro-processor collects information one hundred times faster than any human brain.
“One last item about the bait mission, gentlemen. Captain Sokolov, in the Perseus, will take the Commodore to an area he has computed, will be one -hundred-fifty miles from the Hive’s sensors. At that point, the Dart will fly from the Perseus hangar bay and make his way to the Hive homeworld. The Striker and the Perseus will wait at the drop-off point to aid the Commodore in case he needs their support to get back to that point.
Colossus, plus the Daakie Armada, will be positioned ten miles further back from the Dart’s drop off point. Our hope is that the Commodore can make it safely back to the waiting ambush and bring along a Hive nest or two with him. That is all,” Vice Admiral Petrov said.
Twenty minutes passed since bait mission discussion with Commodore Jeeves ended. Petrov, Dubois, and Hammer went to Command Central and were waiting for the Daakie to arrive. Admiral Allen was becoming anxious, as he thought they should have arrived by now. But he didn’t have to wait much longer as he heard the voice of his helmsman, Lieutenant Gordo McManus speak.
“Admiral, I have eight Daakie Zurguts that have just come out of hyperspace and are three miles from our position and headed straight for us.”
“Thank you, Lieutenant. Hail the command ship, Gordo.”
“Aye, aye, sir. On screen now, Admiral.”
Allen saw Daakie Military Commander Caid Tikit, and standing next to him was Burseq Maalik, Admiral Allen’s favorite Daakie. “Good to see you Commander Tikit and Burseq Maalik. I just wish we were meeting under more desirable circumstances.”
“Good to see you too, Admiral Allen, and we wish the same. The good Burseq and I would like permission to teleport to your bridge so we can discuss our battle plan,” Tikit requested.
When the two Daakie commanders had appeared on the bridge, Allen asked them to follow him to Room Forward where he had a hologram waiting of the ambush area. Lieutenant McManus sat in the admiral’s chair until the admirals had finished discussing the battle plan with the Daakie. All other executive personnel went into Room Forward also.
With the hologram projection centered in the middle of the room, everyone stood in a circle looking at it. Allen was the first to speak.
Pointing at an area of the hologram, Allen said, “This is the direction the Hive nests should be coming from. It is my opinion that when the Hive gets within sensor range they will do one of two things. First they will continue to the ambush area, as I feel they are an arrogant race, and second, they will immediately call for help.
“I would like to hear your idea of setting up the ambush formation, Caid Tikit.”
Tikit walked most of the way around the hologram and stopped next to Admiral Allen, then said, “I think it wise for my Zurguts to position themselves in a U-shaped formation. That way will be able to attack from all sides with the exception of their flank. Do you agree with my assessment, Burseg?”
“Yes, sir. If you will agree, Admiral, I would like to have your two Battlecruiser’s stationed at both ends of the U-shaped formation so they can quickly retreat from the direction they entered the ambush area.”
“Yes, I agree, Burseq. It is a sound tactic, but my only concern is whether the small Dart can poke them enough to send one or more of their nests after such a small target. I guess we will have to wait and see. If not, we will at least have a great estimate of how many Hive nests are still at their Command Central Depot and within close proximity of said depot.”
“Excuse me, Admiral, but where will Colossus be positioned,” Colonel Hammer asked.
“I would like to give my opinion on the answer to that question if I might,” Burseq Maalik said.
“Please do, Burseq,” Hammer said.
“I, as well as our Caid, have had several encounters with the Hive for many years in the past. The one thing I think we both agree on is they hardly ever do what we think they will do. This is conjecture of course, but let’s say they send more than one nest and maybe as many as a dozen or so.
“If the latter is the case then we may need an exit strategy as well before we send Commodore Jeeves out to sting the Hive. But more to the question of Colossus’s position, if they do send a large number out to us, it is critical that Colossus does not get destroyed.
“As important as this task is to all our world’s future, if the Colossus is destroyed there will be no future world for your kind, at least not for many years to come. So I suggest we change our U-shape with a small deviation and that would be to spread the center of the U just enough for Colossus to be in the middle with a Zurgut on either side. If the mission goes bad for us then the Zurguts can move in front of Colossus allowing you time to jump out.”
Admiral Allen was most appreciative of the general's concern for the continuing mission of his people, but being the commander of the USC Navy flagship, he could not allow himself to run without everyone else running with him.
“I have the utmost respect for you and your consideration of my people, Burseq, but know this. We will fight right by your side until the point where I recognize we are in danger of losing and then, and only then, will we jump out along with the rest of the brave Daakie.”
“Most admirable, Admiral. I suggest we fix our coordinates for the proposed jump, if we must, then let’s begin killing some Hive,” Caid Tikit said.
Colonel Hammer, General Dubois, and Vice Admiral Petrov all yelled “hoorah” simultaneously. The two Daakie knew that had to be a Human battle cry and only smiled if you could call their facial expressions a smile.
Chapter 6
The Daakie commanders transported back to their respective Zurguts and within fifteen minutes the ambush was in place. Admiral Allen communicated to all Daakie ships that he just gave the order for Captain Sokolov, on the USC Perseus, to take Commodore Jeeves to the drop point and release the Dart.
The release of the Dart only took a few short minutes, then Captain Sokolov informed Allen the Dart was on its way. Then he headed back to a position next to Captain Slain and the USC Striker.
It was Colonel Hammer’s personality to be frustrated, to be stuck on Colossus, when his desire was to be in the middle of the action from the get-go. He was standing by his general and weapon
s officer, Masato, waiting for the return of Commodore Jeeves.
“Shouldn’t we have a squadron of hornets out there to support the Striker and Perseus, General?”
“Negative, Colonel. Should a couple thousand Hive fighters show up, the Battlecruisers can withstand a lot more hits than the hornets. We can’t afford to lose any of those tactical flyers.” Jak knew the general’s answer to his question before he asked but he had to try.
Commodore Jeeves flew within the Hive’s sensor range, almost immediately he saw a multitude of signatures on his radar. He had the Dart at its top speed, as he flew within five miles of the huge round shaped Hive central command structure.
Jeeves noticed the count of Hive nests were considerably less than the first time Colossus had encountered the command structure. There were nine in total and four of the nests were docked to the structure and seemed to be inactive, as they were not spinning and there were only a few areas lit up, with most of the nests remaining dark.
Suddenly he saw the nest nearest to him turn in his direction, but it remained stationary and was spinning like they normally do when moving forward. That indicated to Jeeves that it would be his first target.
He knew the massive nest didn’t have its shield up, which in a way was a good thing, but in a bad way meant the nest could launch fighters at any second. No time like the present he thought, then called Colossus.
“Admiral, located nine nests, with four of them docked to the command structure and they seem to be inactive. No fighters present but I’m about to change that. Beginning my attack run, sir.”
Jeeves came to within 1200 feet of the huge nest and fired ten ion bursts at the center of the nest, then flew above the nest and went out 3000 feet before turning back toward the nest. By the time he got the Dart turned back around, he quickly knew he had their attention, as a dozen fighters came out of the nest and headed in his direction.
The Dart was too fast for the Hive fighters and flew right past them while seeing three of them disappear off his screen as he blasted his cannons when he went through their attack formation. He turned the Dart back and headed at the same nest, and out of his peripheral, he saw a nest to the east of the nest he attacked, turn in his direction and begin to accelerate.
