The fighter to the right angled too far from the beam, coming down ahead of them and the next beam came down, clipping its wing. The fighter was torn from the air. It fell into the energy beam and exploded.
Then they were through.
The leader checked his sensors; they had only lost the one fighter.
---
As soon as their weapon was set up, Dolton positioned himself in front of the firing controls. The zinging sound was much closer now. Another man began winding the elevation crank, raising the weapon up about four feet. Another plugged in a power cell.
Dolton ripped away the protective cover from the targeting goggles and looked through them. He could see nothing through the smoke. He switched on radar and infrared enhancement. The scene was confusing. He rotated the weapon, searching, and then he saw it.
Heat plumes were shooting out from an unseen central location about half a mile away. It was a staple ship.
Other laser and maser cannons began firing at it. He checked the readouts, ensuring the weapon was ready. From behind, another sound came—jet fighters—their air support was approaching. He began firing.
He saw air-to-ground missiles ramming into the staple ship. He could not believe how much fire the alien was taking, and, so far, to no effect.
The staple ship passed their position and Dolton turned and kept firing, striking the ship on the downward protrusion facing him. The alien was firing back. Two of the green sheets of energy had come their way—both of them had passed over their heads.
The staple ship was about to pass a hill taking it out of Dolton’s view when it happened.
The downward protrusion facing him was being hit in roughly the same spot by at least six maser and laser cannons. Two fighter missiles hit the same approximate area and the lower part of the wing broke away. The alien ship fell, passing out of view.
The hill saved their lives.
The world went white and Dolton felt himself flying through the air. As the white faded, he hit the rubble and bounced across it, jarring to a stop. Except for a high-pitched ringing in his ears, it was completely silent. He was lying on his stomach. He tried to raise himself, but pain shot through one arm and he toppled back down. He looked at the arm, but after-images burned into his eyes from the explosion made it hard to see. He could, however, make out that his arm was bent where it shouldn’t be. He turned his head and looked the other way.
The steady squealing in his ears and the complete silence beyond made everything seem surreal. Sweat was running into his eyes making them burn, but he could see well enough.
Beyond the hill, a bright mushroom cloud rose into the sky.
---
Evelyn and a dozen of her top people stood in the central control station at the Hideaway Shipyards. Cinder was just coming out from the far side of Iceis and although the depressing news of the war had been coming in steadily, they had not been able to get a direct image of Amular since the battle had started. They all stared at the display waiting for their home world to come into view—all dreading what they’d see.
The ground attack had been going on for 19 hours now. It would be about noontime now where the attack had started and, from the planet’s position, they’d have a straight on view of the dayside.
The image appeared and gasps rebounded around the room.
“Oh my God,” someone said.
Crying followed. Someone in a choked up voice asked if they were sure they were looking at Amular.
Their once beautiful purplish-blue and green planet was a uniform ash gray circle. To the right, the Larger Moon was far too close to the planet. The Blackship was too small to see, however, from the moon, a barely visible haze fanned out to where a bright arc almost circled one entire side from pole to pole. Green flashes lit the gray clouds below the yellow arc but the energy beams themselves were hidden from view.
There were some small breaks in the ash gray cloud cover near that edge of the planet. They’d not been noticed at first because what they revealed also looked dull and gray.
Evelyn thought of Brandon and asked, “How long until we have line of sight to the star cannon?”
“About six hours,” came the answer.
All they could do was sit there and worry. She hated it.
---
Leewood landed his fighter at the base of Dark Mountain. The landing area was filled with activity. Ships were taking off and landing and people were rushing around loading equipment and luggage and boarding various craft.
The control tower came on the radio, “Admiral Leewood, I have the President for you.”
“Put him through.”
Wicker’s voice came through “Admiral Leewood, I’m hearing that your ride is faster and more heavily armed than mine…think you can give me a lift?”
Leewood laughed, “Sir, it would be my pleasure. I just need to top off my tanks and we can be underway.”
“Excellent. You’ll, of course, have the Escort-One fighters accompanying us.”
“Definitely a welcome addition, sir.”
“Where are you?”
Leewood told him and got the refueling started.
---
He saw his wife’s arm coming from the impossibly small crack in the hard cold marble.
He screamed out, “Grace!”
Isabella’s hair lined the same thin crack. It was matted with blood.
“Isabella!”
He clawed at the crack trying to get to them.
Light exploded all around him. His head hurt like hell. Arms grabbed him. He struggled against them.
“Grace!”
Something fell over and broke. His head throbbed.
A voice said, “Nurse, quickly. We need to sedate him.”
Another voice, “Admiral, please…please…”
Something stuck his arm.
He struggled. He had to get to Grace and Isabella.
He heard a buzzing sound. It grew louder.
“Nero!”
The buzzing became a vibration and then the blackness took him.
---
Whitehall had lied about his orders to avoid the oncoming battlefront, telling his officers that they were to circle the planet to help aid the devastated cities behind the front.
The green curtain sweeping the planet and the staple ships that followed had terrified Whitehall and at that time he still believed the Loud were conning Amular into fighting their war.
Now so much had changed.
He had helped people back when he had been De Bella, but that had always been for political gain and he had never paid much attention to it. However, once they had raced around Amular and actually started getting the injured to the medical facilities that still existed, the outpouring of gratitude started to affect him.
It had been suggested that he begin organizing evacuations of cities still ahead of the battlefront to areas already hit and he had jumped on it.
Then Whitehall had learned that his commanding officer had been killed just after issuing the orders for Whitehall’s division to attack—the ones Whitehall had blatantly disobeyed. Now, no one knew or would ever know that he had disobeyed orders. Moreover, suddenly ‘he’ was being called a hero.
Quite unexpectedly, he found that he liked it.
However, Amular was changing. Volcanos were erupting around the planet and huge clouds of ash were spreading everywhere. Just moving people around was no longer good enough. The air was becoming unbreathable.
He would have to start taking survivors off-planet. There were only two possibilities—the smaller ‘farm’ moon and the Anderson Shipyards. So far, both had either been overlooked or ignored by the alien. Best of all, the Smaller Moon was on the other side of the planet away from the alien.
---
The name of Leewood’s advanced fighter had been Bad Bird, but it automatically changed to Amular-One when President Wicker adopted it as his ‘ride’.
Amular-One with its six-fighter escorts rocketed wes
t away from the oncoming battlefront. The planet was now 80 percent covered by clouds, smoke and ash. They soon plunged into it. Visibility was non-existent. However, when they reached the area where the Slayers’ attack had started, it cleared up for a while.
The devastation was unreal. The energy beams alternated by 2.5 miles so that one line of strikes would hit with five miles between them, the next would move up half that distance and strike again five miles apart. Devastation radiated from the strike zones for over a mile so that there was little area left untouched and those areas were hit by the staple ships. Casualties were in the billions.
Lava had erupted from many places, creating volcanos, which only added to the destruction.
For hours, they sped over the devastation. Fortunately, 90 percent of the time, visibility was blocked by the smoke and ash.
Finally, they broke into a clear area and could see the battlefront ahead. Dark Mountain had already been overrun. In the distance, they could see fighters engaging the staple ships.
“God, they’re wiping us out,” Wicker exclaimed. “Can we…”
He was cut off by Leewood, “Bandits at ten o’clock! Squad, break right! Run!”
As the fighters swung right and went to full power, Wicker asked, “What’s going on?”
“Two of the staple ships have broken off from the engagement and are coming our way.” Leewood answered. “Shit,” he keyed his headset, “Evasive action!”
They watched as three sheets of energy from the aliens came at them—two of the shots found their mark and two escort fighters were hit and blew up. The third shot narrowly missed them.
“Split up and hit the deck,” Leewood ordered and the fighters dove.
More sheets of energy were being fired at them—another of the escort fighters was hit and went down.
Leewood thought desperately then remembered something. The Glass Canyons were close. Leewood ordered the remainder of the squad to head toward them.
---
Adamarus awoke. He was in a hospital room. The lights in the room were turned off, the door closed, but the large window let in light from the hallway where he could see doctors and nurses rushing by.
He decided not to ring for the nurse.
He slowly got out of bed. He was in a hospital gown. He disconnected the IV and a monitor stuck to his chest, then made his way to the only cabinet in the room, opened it and was relieved to see his flight suit and helmet. He had just gotten it on and zipped up when the door opened and the lights went on.
“Whoa, chief, where do you think you’re going?”
Adamarus looked at the doctor and said nothing.
A nurse came in after the doctor, put her hands on her hips and gave Adamarus a stern look.
The doctor was holding a com unit. He lifted it to his mouth and said, “General, yes, the Admiral is absolutely still here and he’s also awake.” He listened for a second and then handed the com unit to Adamarus.
“Maximus here,” he said.
“Admiral, I’d heard you were there,” General Burnwall said. “I just wanted to confirm that report. I heard what happened. I’m sorry about…your family.”
Dizziness washed over Adamarus. It was as if the act of someone stating that Grace, Isabella and Nero were gone somehow made it more real. He found he couldn’t speak.
The General continued, “You have a concussion and you’re banged up. I want you to stay right there and just get yourself recovered because…we’re going to need you functioning, understand?”
Adamarus said nothing.
“That’s a direct order. Admiral…do you understand me?”
Adamarus realized that a response was required, “Yes, sir.”
“I’m in route to Trinity. We had to evacuate the Dark Mountain HQ. We had some of those staple ships on our ass, but I think we lost them. I’ve got to go. We’ll talk later.”
“Yes, sir,” Adamarus said and disconnected. He looked up at the doctor, “I’ve got to go.”
The doctor narrowed his eyes, “How many fingers am I holding up?” he asked.
“Three,” Adamarus said. He’d been in and out of consciousness for 25 hours. He still had a slight headache, but the nausea and dizziness were gone.
The doctor yanked a chart from the end of the bed and started scribbling in it. “Okay, Admiral, I’m signing your release papers. You seem fine and I can understand that you’re needed.”
Adamarus said, “Thank you,” and picked up his helmet and walked out of the room and down the hallway. That’s when it came to him…
That’s a direct order.
He shook his head. He'd been on autopilot since waking up. Only now did he realize that he had just disobeyed a direct order…the last time he had heard that said…he had also disobeyed. He had disobeyed so he could help the trainee pilots who had been with him and who had been dragged into a situation well over their heads. He had saved five of them.
That’s a direct order.
However, in disobeying that order, he had let an enemy bomber get away and because of this, over a thousand civilians had died.
He passed several windows, but it was dark and he could not see out. He could only see his own reflection.
That’s a direct order.
Over 1,000 men, women and children—he should have been court-martialed, but instead…they had made him a hero. He had had to act the part with all that blood and guilt on his hands. It had not worked out. He had cracked. It had taken decades to learn to live with that.
He needed to check in again but somewhere along the way, he’d lost his com unit. He tried to find a com unit or landline he could use, but he soon found out that all communications had been spotty and had just dropped out again.
Following the exit signs, he passed through three doors reinforced with plastic sheets that had been taped up. He gave it no thought and never noticed the increasing amount of ash. Then he passed through the final sheets of plastic and the double doors and was outside in the dark.
One breath of the noxious air and Adamarus was coughing and choking uncontrollably. He staggered back against the door and managed to get the suit’s helmet in place, and when at last he had finally stopped coughing and his head had quit spinning…he continued leaning against the door, listening through his helmet’s audio amp to the wind. It was softly whistling and howling.
As he stood there, it hit him full force. His son Nero dying during the first engagement; his wife and daughter crushed seconds before he could reach them. The tears came and he found a ledge outside the door and sat down. After a time, he got it under control. He felt numb and empty.
He heard voices. In front of the entrance, four men in flight suits like his stood talking, their boots hidden by the thick ash blowing across the ground. He opened the general communication channel but found he couldn’t speak so he idly listened to them as he surveyed the barren landscape.
Everything was gray and everywhere he looked ash swirled in the air with thick streams blowing along the ground, hiding the streets and sidewalks.
When he heard one of the men say that the staple ships were returning to their main ship, he struggled to his feet and walked up behind the four.
All of them were looking up at the dark gray clouds lit here and there by fires below. A strong wind was blowing and the clouds were racing by. Then the cloud cover broke and Adamarus could see patches of stars. Within seconds, the clouds blew away and the sky cleared. Stars emerged then, the grossly swollen Larger Moon appeared. It was far too big, far too smooth. The alien was no longer attached to it. As the clouds raced away to the horizon, the Blackship was revealed. It was near the horizon and far enough away from the planet that the sun was illuminating it as well as a strange cloud crawling up toward it—hundreds of thousands of the alien staple ships.
“Now they’ll attack our sun,” Adamarus heard himself say, surprised he had spoken.
The four men turned toward him and stared at him.
Adamarus turn
ed toward a low roar to the south. The four men followed his stare. Hundreds of miles away, a colossal column of lava shot high into the heavens. The base of the column was beyond the horizon. The energy beams had cut too deep in places.
He turned back toward the four, gestured toward the Blackship, “We cannot let them do that. We have to stop them.”
One of the men barked an ugly laugh, “Oh, okay. And how do you propose we do that?”
Adamarus didn’t know. However, when he looked at the Larger Moon something…something…he blinked and shook his head. It was on the tip of his tongue but…he just couldn’t bring it to mind.
His gaze shifted back to the Blackship.
Adamarus looked at the smooth blackish ball. Thin tentacles emerged from it, slowly waving to and fro. Tiny black specks—like nates—flew around it. Warm air seemed to brush his face and briefly he caught the scent of popcorn and cotton candy. Then the smells were gone. A bead of sweat emerged from his hairline and ran down his forehead.
The others had continued talking.
One asked, “How did you feel when you first learned that…well, that the alien was on its way here?”
“Scared. Really scared. Like your chest compresses, your gut becomes hollow and the skin on your head feels like it’s being pulled back,” another said.
That odd feeling of déjà vu swept over Adamarus. He blinked and felt that this, or some part of this, had all happened before.
From seemingly nowhere, the thought of Howard Dawn saying, “It makes no sense what they do…destroying the planet, then its sun…which, would destroy the planet anyway.”
Then he remembered Howard dying in his arms…speaking his last words…saying, “Paladin”—which remained meaningless—and then dying, or so it had appeared, but then Howard had seemingly forced himself back…back to life…to say…
“Honey Sucker.”
The strange animal they had seen at the zoo. The animal that had to kill every bee before it could eat the honey because when it ate the honey, it became…vulnerable.
And…Adamarus knew. The shock of understanding almost made him lose his balance. Howard Dawn had not been saying just random words as his brain cells died—not at all. Howard had figured it out. At the very end…he’d worked out one of the things that made no sense.
Countdown Amageddon (The Spiral Slayers Book 2) Page 42
