by Charles Lamb
“What we are proposing is to have Kola and Alice-3 vacate the solar system, remaining just far enough away to be undetectable. Once the armada enters the gravity well, preventing them from going to FTL, they will be recalled. Meanwhile, here on earth we will dispatch the eight destroyers Kola is delivering later today, in the company of four more Lanai Patrol ships. All will host fighters to be launched when in range. We now have them in a modified pincer movement. For this, their only option is to scatter, where we can pick them off.”
“I am unclear on why this is relevant?’ Ivan asked, “All this achieves is dispersing the ships, making them harder to catch and destroy.”
“I can answer that,” Jake replied, “their successes against our shields comes from combined firepower. If they attack in overwhelming numbers, they overload the shields, causing them to fail. By breaking up their formations, we dilute their strength and force them to play to ours.”
“Exactly, and it’s the Battleship and Carrier that will create the panic that causes them to disperse,” Patti replied.
“Why is that?” Banks asked.
“The strength of those two ships is their combined firepower. Both vessels will launch the fighters and patrol ships, currently in their hangars. These will act as screening vessels protecting the two from angular attacks. This will permit the two to focus their guns forward. By concentrating their fire into the center of the formation, they will cause the others to take evasive action or be consumed in the barrage of fire,” April added.
“We cannot fight a battle of attrition, their numbers are too great, and we have limited resources. We have to hit them hard and traumatize them, creating panic. Remember, these races haven’t fought any serious battles since the NeHaw conquered them ages ago.”
Jake scanned the room, looking at the faces of those involved in the planning of this battle. He was gratified to see confidence in their demeanor.
“Patti, there will be seven not eight destroyers, I need one.”
“Ok,” Patti replied, unsure of what he was talking about, but thankfully keeping any questions to herself.
At that point, Jake looked at April as well, who gave him the slightest nod of understanding.
----*----
Brian and Kola arrived right on time, delivering the eight destroyers fully shielded and ready for rail gun installation. They were very proud, and rightly so, of the fact that they had turned around a five-day operation in just two, while underway.
Once devoid of the destroyers, they began preparations with ALICE-3 for departing the solar system and gearing up for a fight. While loading additional crew and supplies, they had also received a peculiar request from Jake. On their way out of the system, they were to escort a single destroyer to the half way point. They were not to attempt to close on the ship, leaving a considerable distance between them and the ship. They were absolutely not to take it on board for any reason.
Chalking it up to another of Jake’s experimental weapons, they acknowledged the orders and prepared to depart the next day.
Chapter 37
HeBak was most irritated to discover the human Jake was not in residence and unavailable to speak with him. He had completed the recount of his gold bars, finding all was in order just as the humans had promised.
He had also performed a flight check of his ship, in the event he was allowed to leave. Unfortunately, his ship was not yet space worthy, as some of the systems the humans had removed for analysis had not yet been replaced.
With nothing else to do but wait, he went back to the cargo hold to gaze upon his treasure once more. As he did so, he wondered if the information he had was of more value to him than it was to the humans.
----*----
ALICE-3 was matching course and speed with Kola, as the pair exited earth orbit and headed to the edge of the solar system. As the smaller and more nimble of the two, she felt it her obligation to allow Kola to set the pace.
As they traveled, the two sisters exchanged information, in a similar fashion to their former life, but in a much more interesting environment. ALICE-3 could sense a change in Kola from when she was earthbound, a difference that worried her somewhat.
Only slightly older than Kola, ALICE-3 felt her younger sister had a trace of recklessness in her now. The stunt she had pulled to gain her new body underscored the risks she was willing to take to get her way. She hoped, in time, she would come to see the dangers in such behavior. Until then she vowed to do all she could to watch over her and her humans.
----*----
Sitting behind his desk in Nevada, Jake had one monitor set up to track the lone destroyer, trailing the two capital ships. Every now and then, he would check its location and distance from the two ALICE ships and their crews, insuring they maintained the necessary separation.
Suddenly a loud mass of humanity entered his office, spreading out in front of him and all talking at the same time.
“What?” he bellowed.
“We must be allowed to assist,” Ivan started as the others began again.
“Hey!” Jake shouted again.
“Let me,” Patti interrupted before anyone else could, “We only have a need for about one hundred crew for the ships in orbit. We have over one thousand volunteers,” she finished.
“How many are trained?” Jake asked, afraid he already knew the answer.
“Twelve,” came the reply.
Doing some quick math in his head, he looked at the group, spotting at least one representative from each region.
“I want 20 each from the Aussie’s, English, Chinese, and Russians.”
“Jake with our twelve, that 92?”
“Ask Chris if he has even seen the stars up close?” Jake asked, referring to the LA compound leader. On more than one occasion, they had asked for a chance to go to space. Why not now, Jake thought. Manning a gun station was pretty easy to learn,
----*----
Jake was in the Nevada command center when the alert sounded. He had been checking on the progress of ALICE-3 and Kola, as they made their way out of the solar system. From the tracking display, he could see the two large ships nearing the halfway point, heading out of the solar system, and his lone destroyer a short distance behind.
He had continued to deflect questions as to the nature of the lone vessel. His only reply was consistent, it was there just in case.
“Colonel, we have a massive number of ships dropping out of FTL.”
With the announcement, the hologram in the center of the command center came to life. In it ship after ship appeared, all of varying shapes and origins.
“Crap,” Jake replied as he watched the empty space at the edge of the solar system fill with ships, as they appeared in groups.
“We count one hundred and seventy eight ships entering the solar system,” Jake heard from one of the analysts after several minutes.
“Someone please tell April it’s time.” he asked no one in particular.
“And tell Patti, it’s time to go to plan B.” he added as an afterthought.
With that declaration, he checked to see that the destroyer had stopped and was well clear of any local celestial bodies. Once he was certain it was well placed, he verified that both Kola and ALICE-3 were still en route to intercept the armada.
As all ships were reduced to repulser power, it would be a day before the forces met. Any attempts at exchanging fire now would be useless at those distances.
----*----
It was approximately 12 hours later that the alerts started going off again.
“Colonel, we are getting more ships dropping out of FTL.”
“These I’m expecting,” he replied with a smile.
As he watched the display, several cruisers and a few destroyers appeared at the edge of the solar system, not hesitating as they pursued the armada 12 hours ahead of them.
“Sir, they are ours?” one of the command center staff called out.
As she spoke, the IFF indicators lit up with Def
iance, Revenge, and Independence II as well as several destroyer indicators.
“These ships are supposed to be on convoy duty?” someone observed.
“You can thank April,” Jake offered in reply.
“I noticed we were seeing the same NeHaw destroyers at different planets. When we would show up they would just jump to another solar system, giving the impression they were covering all the planets at the same time,” April announced with pride, having entered the room earlier.
“We pulled video from every planet we covered and were able to establish a pattern in their movements. These ships were supposed to join Kola and ALICE-3 at the mustering location, hitting the armada from behind, but I think we can make this work,” Jake added, while pointing to Patti to verify the change in plan. Privately, he verified his single destroyer had stopped, holding to a position midway between the projected intercept point and earth.
With hours of waiting yet, he left the others to their work and went to grab a little shuteye.
----*----
Kola was preparing fighters to launch, as she coordinated with ALICE-3 on their target selections. With all her guns facing forward, she wanted to be sure she was ready to strike. The two had agreed that a massive concentrated burst targeting the larger ships at the center of the formation, would give them the desired chaos Jake requested. Even a NeHaw battleship wouldn’t be able to withstand that much concentrated fire. It would burn a hole right through the ship’s hull.
As they closed on the mass of alien ships, Kola could hear ALICE-3 cautioning her about rash actions. As a veteran of the Klinan battle, she had felt the sting of a damaged hull and dying crewmembers.
She remained silent, but Kola had been there when ALICE-3 returned with barely a scratch to her hull. The only crew she had lost was those that had transferred to the destroyers and cruisers that fell victim to the NeHaw surprise attack.
She attributed the advice to her older sisters more cautious nature. That was all well and good, but this was the exact reason she had chosen to risk her life in the first place. She believed the humans called it an adrenaline rush!
----*----
Patti had seen to it that the last of the destroyers and patrol ships that were earth’s last line of defense were in position. She had no idea what that lone destroyer was, and why Jake had placed it in the middle of nowhere, but she could not rely on something she didn’t understand in her planning.
The 20 volunteers from each group had been split up and paired with the trained crews they had on hand. Some of the patrol ship crew was transferred to destroyers, as the ship's controls were similar enough to allow the move safely.
All the volunteers had been immersed in crash courses for weapons and tactical stations, as well as anything but pilot or navigator. She had to hope the ALICE’s could keep them from shooting each other, should any of the alien fleet get past the capital ships.
With everyone in the air, Colonel’s Chao and Banks were in the command center. Ivan and an Aussie she had not been introduced to, were there as well assisting in any issues that arose. It was almost disturbing, in that the one cultural commonality they shared was the ability to fight.
----*----
Nigel was sitting with Jacob and Gemma, watching the activity from Jake’s office. They had chosen the location to keep out of the way of the others and still have complete access to the visuals. Leftenant Atkins had elected to assist Patti, and with his combat education, he was well suited to the task.
Although the thought had crossed his mind that Helen was still in Alaska, he was only now considering the fact that the earth could be in mortal danger. It was one thing to discuss the alien fleet coming to threaten them. It was something else entirely to see it in 3D.
He was starting to appreciate all the Jake had achieved without the assistance of the entire planet until now. It also gave him confidence to think of what they will do together in the future.
----*----
Even though Sara was Jake’s second in command, and had every right to be in the command center by his side, he chafed at the thought of the stress the situation was placing on her. Always over protective of the women in his life, particularly when pregnant, he knew he wasn’t going to have a chance in hell of getting her out of there.
As he entered the command center, with the battle no more than an hour away, he first checked on his destroyer. It was still exactly where he wanted it. He then verified the distance from the lead element of the armada to Kola and ALICE-3, noting they would soon be in range of one another.
Finally, he checked the trailing ships, the ones recalled from convoy duty and surely stressing the bajesus out of the aliens, as they were closing in. Apparently, the aliens had slowed slightly to form up in anticipation of those ahead. That gave the trailing ships an opportunity to close and join the fight.
“Tell Kola and ALICE-3 not to fire until the rail guns are in effective range. Put all forward shields on full.”
----*----
Kola got the order and complied. While she was anxious to prove she had made the right decision for everyone, she wasn’t going to betray the trust they had placed in her. Even with ALICE-3 whispering in her ear, she had started to rein in her own desires. For the first time, she gave thought to the possibility that she could perish this day if she were foolish. That realization was sobering.
She decided to double check the positions of the screening vessels, released from both her and ALICE-3 earlier to protect their vulnerable approaches.
----*----
Everyone in the command center watched as the first volleys were fired from the alien ships, lancing through space, only to splash harmlessly against the forward shields of the two capital ships. Jake continued to monitor the distances between the three groups of ships, willing the trailing craft to catch up. When he could wait no more he gave the sign.
“Turn em loose.”
The order hadn’t even been relayed before the two massive earth ships lit up space with streams of fire and depleted uranium. The concentrated blast from the two cut a hole all the way through the clustered ships, creating secondary explosions as several of the larger ships erupted in white light.
It was then that the trailing ships reached the extreme edge of their weapons range and joined the fray, removing trailing vessels possibly thought to be safe by their occupants. The first blast was followed by a second and then a third, each removing clusters of vessels at a time.
It was then Jake could see some of the alien ships turning to face the trailing antagonists, hoping for a better chance with them. Reports started coming in of damage from two of the destroyers, while the cruisers moved to cover their comrades.
Watching the armada close on the two capital ships, Jake could see where they would not be able to stop them all. As the armada expanded in diameter, the outer vessels were going to easily pass beyond the two ALICE ships without incident.
“Patti, alert the ships in orbit to be ready. Its looking like we are getting visitors.”
With a nod, she turned to several analysts, silently signaling them to begin preparations. While she handled that, Jake went to his display, looking to move his destroyer to a more effective location than its current position. For it to work, he needed it at a point where the ships would re-converge before their run on earth.
Then, as quickly as it started, the alien ships ceased firing.
“Colonel, we are receiving transmissions from several of the treaty planets at once!” the communications officer proclaimed.
“We are getting word that there is a coup attempt in progress on the NeHaw home world,” ALICE-1 announced in the command center.
“What?” Jake asked as they watched the armada ships scatter even more after the initial blasts from the combined forward batteries of Kola and ALICE-3.
“April was right that there was something funny going on. These were ships skimmed off the blockade, and are under the command of some coalition. They have used tho
se ships to attack the NeHaw High Command headquarters and are currently searching for the Head of the High Council.”
“That’s why the blockade was coming up short!” April announced, looking justified in her recommendation to Jake and Patti.
“Jake, the armada is dispersing, they must have heard the news as well,” Patti said as she pointed to the holograph.
In the display in the center of the room, they could see the mass of ships scattering in all directions, as they attempted to distance themselves from the fighting. Occasionally, they would see one explode, as it came under fire from one of the earth ships it had the misfortune to come too close to.
At several locations, they watched as ships stopped, singularly and in small groups.
“Colonel, we are being hailed. They want to surrender.”
“Call them off,” Jake said, indicating the earth ships still firing at the retreating aliens. Within seconds, all ships ceased firing and started to retreat from the scene of the battle.
“We are being asked for asylum?” the communication’s tech stated.
“Now how are we going to do that?” Patti asked no one in particular.
----*----
Jake had all the ships remain in orbit until the defenders returned and the aliens had departed the solar system for good. While he doubted they were in much danger, it was good for the volunteers to feel needed.
He also had the lone destroyer returned separately from Kola and ALICE-3, asking it be parked outside the moon and to remain there, in isolation, until he recalled it. It was then he asked Patti to start working on the NeHaw rebellion and its ramifications to earth.
----*----
HeBak had been monitoring the activity in space from his ship. He had known about the possible overthrow of the High Council, which was the information he had withheld. The possible change in power at home had left him in an unsure state. He could return now, but to what reception, he was unable to predict.
