by Terry Frost
Sensors showed no activity near three of the planets in the system but when they came within 50,000 kilometers of the fourth planet, Agar’s thoroughness paid off once again as it had many times in the past.
Located near the center of the planet, and orbiting in space, were two large Mantis ships that resembled an inverted pointed shovel. The ships were slightly smaller versions, in size of the Human Starship Colossus. As Agar’s team observed they saw hundreds of what Agar assumed to be single piloted ships heading down into the planet as they left the bays of their host ships.
Agar ordered his two Avengers to change course and follow him to an area one-hundred kilometers away from the scene taking place near their observed planet. When Agar’s Beeker got to the desired distance from the presently infested planet he immediately decloaked so he could call Grand Admiral Bagnor for instructions.
Agar knew his finding the Mantis only one system away from his home star of Galic would infuriate his superior. He sent the video transmission and while waiting for it to reach Bagnor, had to remain uncloaked, which made him nervous. If they were discovered by the Mantis there was no way his small team could win a battle against the numbers the Mantis had on their side.
When the transmission arrived his monitor showed Bagnor’s face but the video’s clarity was of poor quality and the Grand Admiral’s voice difficult to hear, but he could hear Bagnor ask, “High Colonel, why are you contacting me at this time? Are you having problems? There is no way you have had time to reach Ceptor.”
“No, sir, I’m not experiencing any problems and you are correct about my location. I am in the Coba System.”
“Why are you in Coba, High Colonel? We know the Humans scanned that system prior to arriving in Galic.”
“Yes, that is what they said, but I call stopping to make sure the system was cleared by us, a good commander’s initiative, sir, I made the call to stop and give the system a spacial scan before continuing on to the Ceptor.”
“So, did you make the right call, High Colonel?”
“It was at that, Grand Admiral. There are Mantis located at these coordinates.” Agar read the coordinates to Bagnor, then told him the size of the Mantis’s Armada and asked for his orders.
“Do you have the Mantis insight of your ships?”
“No, sir, I’ve moved out 100,000 thousand kilometers so I could decloak to make this transmission.”
“I will be leaving with a sizable attack force immediately. Give me the coordinates of where you will be when I arrive.” Agar gave the coordinates to Bagnor, signed off and cloaked his ship, then they moved back to the area they were at when they first saw the Mantis Armada.
Agar’s Beaker couldn’t scan the planet being scoured by the Mantis because he would have had to decloak to perform such a task. But that didn’t stop him from wondering why the Mantis was looking at that particular planet because the Humans reported they hadn’t discovered any life in the Coba System.
Agar’s most troubling thought was they know our system is only one system away because of the magnificent victory we enjoyed over them when they decided to visit our home some three-hundred years ago. Surely they aren’t going to try to build a base so they will have it to launch a surprise attack on Phar again.
The Vagan High Colonel’s thought about a base was spot on. He couldn’t have known prior but the Mantis in the Coba System was doing exactly what Agar had asked himself. They were looking for a world near the Galic System for the purpose of a major invasion of the Vagan Empire. Neither did he know the Ceptor System was the long-held homeworld of the vicious flesh-eating insectoids and they had grown to such a number that they could easily wipe out the Hive, even when the Hive’s numbers were at their greatest.
Nearly six nervous hours later the Grand Admiral’s Armada reached the waiting High Colonel’s position. Bagnor had brought with him three Beakers and ten Avengers, more than enough to take out the Mantis.
But Bagnor’s plan wasn’t to totally destroy the Mantis all at once because he wanted to capture one of their flagships. He thought it vital for them to capture the ship so they could look for clues as to where they came from in hopes of finding their homeworld’s location.
When the Vagan began the attack the first order given by Bagnor was to hit his targeted ship for capture with an overwhelming number of disruptor charges to completely cause the ship to lose all of its capability to defend itself.
Once the Grand Admiral was convinced the Mantis ship was totally disabled he ordered his men to fire a photon torpedo into the aft section of the ship, causing it to vent all life support out into space. Within thirty minutes every insectoid on the ship had died from losing their life-sustaining atmosphere. By the time it was determined it was safe to board the Mantis ship the rest of Bagnor’s Armada had destroyed all remaining presence of Mantis.
Before boarding the Mantis ship, Bagnor waited for his High Colonel to teleport to his ship so he could be a part of the investigative team. The two commanders and a dozen of their finest soldiers boarded a shuttle and flew into the open hangar bay of the huge ship.
When it entered the belly of the ship the shuttle literally landed on top of several dead Mantis. But the adult mantis was a small number compared to the hundreds and hundreds of Mantis larvae splayed all over the bay area.
When Bagnor stepped out of the shuttle he looked up and saw a railing nearly forty feet high that ran the length of the bay. Hanging partially over the rail were several adult mantis that died when they ran out of air.
Bagnor motioned to Agar to follow him up a stairwell that went up to the first level above the bay floor. As he walked towards Bagnor his handheld sensor detected movement on the third level of the ship.
“Sir, I have movement on the third level. There was probably a few of them that managed to get to bio-suits after the initial venting.”
“Send the soldiers up weapons hot and do it quick. We don’t know if they are trying to scuttle the ship or not. But if they are we don’t want to be on the damn thing. You and I will take the first level then move on to the second level when finished with the first. Make sure they know to kill all they find still alive and report back.”
Agar ordered the soldiers to go up to the third floor because it was the only level showing a small number of live mantis. Barely any time had passed when they heard several shots firing above their heads. One of the Mantis that got shot was trying to escape and ran when it was hit in the back. It stumbled and fell over the railing and Bagnor saw it fall.
A few seconds later Agar received the all-clear from his lead soldier and he asked Agar to come to his location. When Bagnor and Agar got to their soldier’s position they saw they were standing on the ship’s bridge.
The soldier motioned for them to come to a station he was standing by. Bagnor knew immediately the station was a star chart. He quickly deduced the red squares on the chart had to be locations of Mantis nearest to the present location of the Coba System. What he saw alarmed him greatly.
There were several small clusters in systems all the way to the Ceptor System and a few beyond. Bagnor knew he had found the possible location of the Mantis’s homeworld as there were hundreds of clusters in the Ceptor System.
While Bagnor was looking at the star chart, Agar went over to the communication station and called his superior to come to the station. When Bagnor walked over, Agar said, “Look at this, Grand Admiral. If I’m correct in my assumption it looks by the time stamp on this station, one of their own managed to send a communication out to the Ceptor System. We need to scuttle this ship and get away from here immediately.”
“I agree. Have the soldiers place charges on their way back to the shuttle and do it quickly.”
Done in just over ten minutes, the charges were set for fifteen minutes and the group boarded the shuttle and left the Mantis ship. As the Vagan Armada pulled back to a safe distance, the Mantis ship blew into a thousand shards of flying metal and flames.
Bagnor ord
ered his Armada to jump back to Planet Phar. He had to inform Emperor Gaul that he had found the homeworld of the Mantis and needed to begin the task of readying the Vagan Empire of a possible attack on their world.
In his and High Colonel Agar’s meeting with Emperor Gaul, he gave his Emperor his thoughts on what they should do if the attack came and if it didn’t, his thoughts on taking the attack to them, in the Ceptor system.
“I agree with your thoughts on protection for Phar and Trev, but from the number of red squares you said showed to be in the Ceptor System, they would greatly outnumber our Navy. Do you think it wise to attempt an attack on their homeworld?”
“I agree with your assessment, Your Grace. Mayhap we should make plans to attack and evade until we have greatly reduced their numbers. If we do not attack in one way or another those creatures will be in our area sooner or later.”
“Make your plans with your subordinates and bring me the plan for my approval.”
Chapter 45
Jak managed to sleep for six hours before waking up. He took a quick shower and got dressed then headed up to the bridge to see Admiral Allen. Just as he entered the bridge, Jak heard Allen tell the Battlecruisers to head back to Colossus. The planet they had been scanning showed a dry, arid planet with very little water resources and its average daytime temperature stayed near a 100 degrees. Another one marked off the list of many, that didn’t make the grade.
Allen felt the presence of someone just off his left shoulder and turned to see a refreshed Colonel Hammer. “Well, good to see you back with the living, Colonel. How are you feeling today?”
“Much better, sir, thank you for asking. I heard you say you're calling back the exploration team. Another dud, huh?”
“Correct, another dud. By the way, I received a message from Abor about two hours ago. I thought the contents of the message could wait until you woke. It seems your intuition was correct. Empress Katin is close to giving birth and requested that I allow you to return to Abor until which time she has your offspring.
“She sent Tage Doni to retrieve you three or four days behind the time she sent the message. Once the exploration teams are back and ready to jump, we will move on to the next planet. Seems it won’t be for another few days before the Tage gets here, do you feel up to doing some exploring?”
“Yes, sir. Chomping at the bit, Admiral.”
“Great. We should arrive at the next planet in about eight hours from now. Use that time to pack for your upcoming trip, Colonel.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” Jak said, then left the bridge.
Over the next few days, another planet would be scanned and Jak would board Tage Doni’s Raptor on their way back to Planet Abor and the birth of his only child. The Vagans would begin their mission of attacking small groups of Mantis between the Coba and Ceptor systems. Not all would go as planned and a great number of Vagan would die along with many more Mantis.
For Kimberly
Acknowledgments: Once again I wish to thank Tatiana Vila of Vila Designs for her excellent artistry in the design of this book’s cover. I also wish to thank Rosemary Stoll for her efforts in regard to punctuational editing.
Author’s note: I sincerely hope you enjoyed Colossus A New Menace Book 3 of the Colossus series. Be sure to watch for my fourth book on the series coming out near the end of 2018. If you would like to contact me you can reach me in two different ways. One being at [email protected] or at facebook/newmadridfanclub.
