by Saxon Andrew
He switched his visor to tactical and the images from the probes were fed directly to his visor. The massive explosion that ripped out of the Legends’ formation was really something to see in full color. Hundreds of ships in the outer layer around the Monsters were hit by the massive debris of the exploded ships in the third layer as the formation flew past them. Jinks said, “Ship Loss.” He looked at the column and saw that another four thousand ships had been lost. But more than a million Legend Warships were destroyed. Bear’s pattern worked.
• • •
Jinks thought about what the Commander of the Legend Fleet must be thinking after the last attack. He smiled and issued orders to the probes. It took more than an hour to gather the light codes but finally, every ship had one glowing on their panel.
Jinks smiled and said, “Now this is going to be tricky. I don’t know how the computer prioritizes your inputs but I’m going to assume that the escape button won’t function as long as you’re at the place where it would take you. You now all have a code of a ship in the innermost layer. On my mark, you will push the blue button and pull the escape trigger at the exact same moment. Forget the orange button. Forget about everything except those two buttons, if you take the time to fire, you’re dead.”
• • •
The Telepath was in a rage, “WHERE ARE THOSE SHIPS COMING FROM?”
“Commander, we’ve detonated explosions in the narrow band above the void and the void is disrupted. There is no possible way for them to be doing this!”
“MAYBE YOU SHOULD STEP OUT THERE AND TELL THEM!”
The Weapons Controller said, “Commander.” The telepath looked at him with a snarl showing his fangs. “Those ships just jumped between two layers of our ships. What if they can jump inside the inner layer?”
The Telepath’s eyes flew wide open and he yelled, “RELEASE THE DISRUPTORS!”
The navigator said, “But our ships…”
The Telepath consumed his brain in an instant. The Navigator fell out of its chair and the Telepath looked at the Second-Navigator, “NEVER QUESTION MY ORDERS!!” The Navigator lowered its head and focused on its monitor.
• • •
“Michael, what is Admiral Jekins doing?”
Michael smiled, “He’s a genius. Watch this.”
• • •
“On my mark, remember, simultaneously; three, two, one, MARK!”
Jinks watched the hundreds of thousands of Battle Pods all disappear and suddenly reappear. It happened so fast, it was difficult to see they had skipped. It was little more than a flicker. But the computers that directed the giant disruptors on the Monsters could detect that flicker and they opened fire with hundreds of thousands of massive barrages into the ranks of the Mini-monsters flying in formation around them. The core of the giant Legend formation continued moving toward the third planet but the millions of ships around that core were decimated. Less than seven thousand Mini’s survived the barrage and half of them suffered sufficient damage to be useless.
• • •
The Elder Legend screamed, “YOU IMBECILE. YOU JUST DESTROYED ALL YOUR ESCORTS!”
“Those enemy ships skipped inside the inner layer. Would you rather I allow them to destroy our major ships?” The Elder Legend realized he was not safe from those ships. He turned and fled with his personal fleet of ships. The Telepath sneered at the image of the fleeting Elder. How could his species ever allow themselves to be allied to these sniveling cowards? What to do now? He was inside the orbit of the fourth planet and the third was less than ten hours away. He had no doubt that he could turn and run and endure the continued attacks of those small ships if he continuously fired the disruptors. But then he would have wasted the millions of Mini’s. “Order all disruptors to fire continuously and continue toward the planet.”
“Yes, Commander.”
• • •
“Admiral Jekins.”
“Yes Sir.”
“You’ve completed your mission. Your ships aren’t going to be able to stand up to the Monsters. Take your ships and report in to Talel in M-87 and offer your assistance.”
“Yes Sir.”
“Jinks.”
“Yes.”
“Thank you.”
“It’s been my pleasure, Michael.” The hundreds of thousands of Battle Pods remained in place briefly and then disappeared.
Michael looked at his visor and said, “Katy, it’s ShowTime.”
“Waiting on Audrey’s command to launch, Sir.”
Jan looked at Michael, “Why are they letting them get so close to Earth?”
“That’s how I’d do it. They can’t run if they’re penned in between the planet and the fleets. This time there will be no quarter.”
“And there was before?”
“Well, maybe you’re right.”
• • •
The ten thousand Monsters roared toward Earth and just as they arrived in orbit above the force field, a hundred of them exploded. The Telepath looked at his scanner, “How were those ships killed?”
“A different ship moved in close to their hulls and fired some kind of missile!”
“Order all ships to start firing across each other. I want every disruptor fired to create a crossfire covering every ship from anything moving toward them.”
• • •
Admiral Jacobs looked at the devastating crossfire and pressed his communicator, “Admiral Greenwall, we’ve got to do something to break up the crossfire to get my ships in.”
Katy said, “Stand by!” Katy pressed her panel, “Admiral, we need to do something to break up the crossfire. Admiral Jacob’s ships can’t get through it to their hulls.”
“Give us a few more minutes. Have him hold off until we open fire.”
Katy sighed and saw the ten thousand Monsters form up above Earth and prepare to open fire.
Audrey looked at Stoney, “We can’t wait!”
“Give it a minute. We can’t let this opportunity get away. The other fifty satellites will be in position in thirty seconds.”
Audrey pressed her panel, “Katy, rush them and break away!”
The ten thousand Monsters prepared to fire on the planet but were suddenly distracted by more than a million silver colored warships that flashed in, fired, and withdrew. The Commander felt fear when they appeared but after a few moments saw their beams weren’t making it through his disruptor’s beams. He turned back to order his ships to fire on the planet under the force field and saw huge numbers of giant satellites that weren’t there a moment earlier.
• • •
Stoney nodded and Audrey pressed the red button on her console. Each defense satellite was a giant more than three miles long. All of them had loaded their missile tubes with the Heavy Missiles and the huge weapons rested on their magnetic rails. When Audrey pressed the button on her panel, every missile accelerated out of its tube at an incredible velocity. Every Monster was targeted with a missile and as the missiles left their tubes, another one rolled off the rack, into the tube, and launched less than a second later. The disruptors on the Monsters facing the planet were not firing. The sensors detected the incoming missiles and the giant disruptors swiveled to fire but the missiles were too close. The satellites were only two miles away from the Monsters and the missiles hit before the disruptors could swivel to target them.
Audrey looked at Stoney, “I hope this force field is as good as it’s been advertised.” Stoney didn’t have time to respond before the force field went dark from the violent blast just outside it. It started to brighten but then another blast darkened it to pitch black.
• • •
Katy watched the blast as the shockwave rolled out at her ships. “SKIP OUT!” The massive fleet of Attackships disappeared and Katy watched the event on her visor as the probes recorded the shockwave rolling toward them until they melted and their feeds ended. Katy switched her visor to a probe above the planet and saw the shockwave was going to be blocked by the c
urvature of the force field. The atomic fire above Earth was too brilliant to look at directly and the probe’s filters had to darken to allow the explosions to be seen. Katy looked at the shockwave moving away from Earth and said, “What have we here? Omny, do you see that?”
“I’m on it, Sir.”
• • •
The Telepath saw the hundred satellites under his ships and knew he had been led into an ambush. He hit his panel instantly and the huge ship blasted out of formation at full power. It began accelerating at a prodigious pace and was fifty miles away when the first explosion went up. It was now fleeing just ahead of the shockwave and picking up speed. In a matter of moments, it was leaving the destructive wave behind as it accelerated at its highest speed.
Omny skipped out to the Asteroid Belt with five ships and waited for the Monster to arrive where he could scan it with his light scanner. He watched it on his visor and saw a code appear in the top right corner. He sent the code and said, “Captain Anderson, will you do the honors?”
“Yes Sir.” Ken looked at the code and locked it into his Light Drive. The Light Scanners used by the Attackships focused on the disruptor towers and locked in the frequency of only one tower. Ken pressed the blue button and the drive waited until the targeted disruptor stopped firing to recharge. In an instant, the attack ship was just above the top of the disruptor and ten feet inside it. Ken dropped the ship as the disruptor swiveled and fired where it had been a moment before. Ken pressed the orange button and pulled the escape trigger.
• • •
The Telepath saw the silver colored ship on his monitor and started to order it fired on but saw it was a waste of time as the small silver colored ship disappeared. It felt the giant warship shudder as the heavy round blew through the hull and it shook its head. It knew his species had finally encountered a civilization that represented a real danger. It closed its eyes as the world around it went up in flames.
• • •
Katy saw the Monster explode and shook her head, “Well that wasn’t very much fun. All these years of training for this?”
“Admiral Greenwall. Be careful what you ask for; take your fleet and report to Talel in M-87. He needs your help now!”
“Yes Sir.”
Michael watched the huge fleet of Attackships hanging in space a moment and then it was gone. Jan walked across the bridge and sat on his lap, “Please don’t tell me you expected it to be this easy.”
“I didn’t. I expected it to be much worse.”
“But this was easy. Our losses were nowhere near as bad as I thought they would be.”
“It wasn’t easy because of our technology, Jan.”
“Sure it was.”
Michael shook his head, “Think about it. What if our ships didn’t discover they could move between the layers of the Mini-monsters? What would have happened? And what if Stoney hadn’t forced Audrey to wait until all the satellites were in place?” Jan stared at him and Michael shook his head, “It was people who did this. The technologies weren’t that different. Jinks and Stoney made the difference along with that pattern one of our pilots discovered.”
Michael looked at Earth and saw the atomic fire above the planet was still burning the debris field. He sighed and tilted his head, “My father had a team around him who were incredible people. They’ve proven it again today. I suspect Jinks is proving it again in M87 as we speak.”
“You’re the one that put the plan together and chose the ones to lead it.”
“I know and this time I’ll be given all the praise and admiration. But make no doubt about it, it was those two old timers that won this. How many times did I have to intervene?” Jan stared at him and blinked. “It always comes down to the right person in the right place at the right time. That’s what won the day.”
“Are we going to M-87?”
“In a few minutes. I want Talel to do this without me.”
“Why?”
“You know why. Ready to go?”
Jan kissed him, stood up and went to her chair, “Lead the way. You know I’ll always be there with you.” Michael smiled and said, “Jay, are you ready to go?”
“That was some show! Lead the way, Commander.” Michael pressed the blue button.
Chapter Twenty-One
Michael arrived beside Talel’s ship, “Have I missed much?”
“I can use your help!”
“What’s going on?”
“We didn’t have the option of disrupting space around most of the important Audon Planets and the Legends have access to the void.”
“Why not?”
“Most of the ships here weren’t converted to Light Drives. If we disrupted space, I’d lose being able to use those ships in other places where they’re needed.”
“That’s something we’ll have to rectify later on.”
“I agree. Your Admiral Jekins divided his fleets up and sent them to the worse places and they are making a huge difference with the Mini’s.”
“Don’t beat yourself up, Talel. You had four times the number of warships come here. How are the Silver Ships doing against them?”
“I’ve not used them.”
“What are you waiting for!?”
Talel sighed, “I’m waiting for them to get us right where we want them.”
Michael looked at his visor and started paging through the tactical screens at each of the ten planets that were under attack. It didn’t look good.
• • •
Katy had Fifth and Eight Fleets in the fight around an Audon Planet and they were barely holding on. The thousands of Monsters were fighting their way in closer to the planet and she was directing her squadrons on specific fronts. Suddenly, a giant Monster emerged out of the void and opened fire from five miles away. Katy’s Attackship withstood the fire of a hundred disruptors but a hundred more fired an instant later and her Attackship blew up.
“WE’VE LOST ADMIRAL GREENWALL!”
Michael toggled his helmet’s communicator, “Admiral Jacobs, you are now in command of Fifth and Eighth Fleets.”
Scott Skipped in and took in what was happening. Admiral Greenwall’s death energized Fifth Fleet like nothing else possible. The pilots disregarded their own safety and tore into the Giant Legend Warships. They began exploding in massive numbers and the attack on the planet fell apart as the Monsters fled to another planet with Fifth and Eighth Fleets in hot pursuit. None of the Monsters made it out of the void to their next target. All of them left massive void disruptions where they died and the survivors of Fifth and Eighth Fleets joined First and Tenth Fleets at the Audon’s major ship building planet. Katy’s death passed through the fleets of Attack Ships and the killing took on a frenzy that was uncontrollable. Orders were issued but were ignored by the Attackships as they tore into the Monsters. Talel and Michael watched the battle and soon all the Monsters in M-87 came roaring in to join in the attack. Every Attackship arrived right behind them as the Monsters fought to get to the planet.
Talel toggled his communicator and said “NOW! All Attackships, skip out to your point of origin. Skip out now.”
None of them were listening. Michael toggled his communicator, “THIS IS FIRST COMMANDER STONE! YOU WILL FOLLOW YOUR ORDERS! SKIP OUT NOW!! DON’T DISHONOR KATY THIS WAY!”
The fighting continued for a few moments and then every Attackship disappeared. The millions of Monsters saw all the enemy ships around them disappear and wondered what was happening. They only wondered for a moment as a billion Silver Ships blew into their formations. The Monsters fought hard but the Silver Ships were so fast they could fly between the disruptor beams without being hit. Their thicker hulls allowed them to withstand a hundred simultaneous hits and most of them weren’t being hit more than five times.
Michael smiled, “I guess they got you right where you wanted them.”
Talel nodded and said, “Thank you.”
“They’ll listen next time, Talel.”
“There won’t be a next t
ime.”
“If you say so. Would you mind if I issue an order to the Attackships.”
Talel’s head tilted, “Go right ahead.”
“I didn’t know if I’d be able to do this but it appears the opportunity has presented itself.” Michael toggled his communicator, “Attention all Attackships. You were all given a coordinate in the Pandora Cluster before the battle and you will skip to those locations and await the arrival of the Legends that are fleeing. Let them know we don’t appreciate their coming here uninvited. Organize into formations when you arrive at your assigned coordinate.”
Talel looked at Michael on his panel, “Where are they going?”
“I’ve assigned a fleet to each of their planets.”
Talel smiled, “I guess this is your way of getting them right where you want them?”
“Something like that and I’m hoping they stay true to their character. The closest ten Legends’ Galaxies have three fleets assigned to them.”
Talel thought about it and started laughing.
• • •
The first six Legends to arrive in their galaxies died screaming that enemy ships were waiting at their planets. The Senior Elder arrived ahead of the others and was the first to die. The other Legends panicked, turned their fleets, and fled out of the Pandora Cluster toward their home galaxy in the Bullet Cluster. Twenty five hundred galaxies in the Pandora Cluster found that they were now free of the Legends and civil war erupted in many of them. But others rejoiced and came together to make a civilization that would embrace peace. They vowed to never be slaves again.
• • •
The Alliance celebrated the victory and the heroes of the war. The Fleet Academy was named Greenwall Academy and a statue of Katy standing and looking up at the stars was erected in the park at the Academy’s entrance. A plaque on it read, “Beloved Admiral, Who Set the Example of Whom We Should All Strive to Be!”
