by Saxon Andrew
Lynn was shaking her head, “Some of their ships some how managed to survive but the crews are all burned to dust by the radiation that hit them.”
Adam touched his helmet, “All ships, scan them for any survivors!”
The huge fleet of Warscouts scanned the huge debris field and after another hour, no survivors were found.
“Fleets Six and Seven will remain here and make sure nothing comes out of the debris. All other fleets will turn and head toward the LMC now!”
The stealth ships were attempting to enter the Milky Way on the opposite side of the galaxy from the location of the LMC and there was a long flight across the Milky Way to arrive where the Terminators and Triples were fighting to survive. The Warscouts went to maximum speed and hoped they arrived in time.
• • •
Alex looked at the tactical monitor and shook his head, “They’ve really worked out the sequence of their missile barrages. When the one wave explodes, the second is arriving right behind it.” He turned to Jingle, “The Terminators are being killed by trying to move in and launch an attack.”
“What about the shuttles?”
“They’re attracting huge numbers of their missiles, but the following wave is moving in right behind them.”
“How many missiles can they possibly be carrying?”
Alex sighed, “A ship that size can carry more than ten thousand. They can keep firing missiles at this rate all the way to the Milky Way.”
“Isn’t there anyway you can at least slow them down in time for the Warscouts to arrive?”
Alex jerked his head to her and then his eyes narrowed. He touched his helmet and ordered, “All Triples, move in front of the alien fleet and launch a barrage of DD missiles now! If that fleet turns to go around them, fire another wave in front of them!”
• • •
Jingle looked at the tactical monitor on her helmet and a few minutes later, saw space explode into a blinding white light in front of the giant alien formations.
• • •
The Commander ordered his fleet to come to a stop and then ordered them to fly over the massive wall of white flame. His fleet was rocked by the passing shockwave, but the battleship’s force fields protected them from damage. “Can’t we fire a DD into their formations?”
Alex shook his head, “They won’t make it through the DD explosions or their missiles. We have to open a path into their formations to make that work.”
Jingle stared at Alex and then said, “Please tell me you’re not thinking what I know you are.”
Alex shook his head, “There’s only one ship that can survive going through those missiles and you’re sitting on it.”
Jingle closed her eyes and sighed; she knew he was right. Jingle took a deep breath, blew it out and turned to Alex, “Belle and Barry can take care of Michael Alexander.”
“I’ve been ordered not to do this.”
“I know, but you’re wrong about this being the only ship that can do it.”
“Oh?”
“Our fifteen escorts are also Terminator 2’s. Can’t they make it through as well?”
Alex’s eyes flew open and he touched his helmet, “Captain Lein. I am ordering all the Super Terminators to blast a path into the middle of the alien’s formation.”
“Sir, I’ve been given direct orders by Fleet Admiral Glennon to not allow you to place your ship in danger.”
“Captain, he can yell at us after we’re dead. This fleet is going to attack the planets we’re sworn to defend and we’re the only ones that can stop them. You can follow your orders, but I intend to give our ships a fighting chance. You can’t stop me from doing it.”
“Sir, what if I take my ships and you stay out of it.”
“Captain, it’s going to be a very difficult thing to break through and we need to use every ship to attempt the effort.”
Captain Lein shook his head and then looked at Alex, “How do you want to do this?”
Alex nodded, “Thank you, Captain. Have all your ships to launch their shuttles and program them to go in ahead of us. We’ll follow them in and ignore the missiles. If the scientists are right, our force fields can withstand them. Once we clear the missiles, start launching your defense missiles ahead of us. We’ll follow them in and start firing our blasters and keep firing them until we break through their ranks. If we manage to do that, we’ll fly across their formation and exit the other side. The center of their formation is basically hollow.”
Lein shrugged, “Perhaps a few DD’s left behind with delayed detonators might get their attention.”
Alex smiled, “If we don’t break out, we’ll probably die in the explosion.”
“It’s worth it for the other ships, Sir.”
Alex looked at Jingle and saw her nod. “Why are you agreeing to this?”
“Because the lives of our children are in danger. If this will save them, then I say do it.”
Alex leaned over and kissed her. He issued orders for all the surviving Terminators and Triples to move away from the giant formation when he started his attack and then said to Captain Lein, “Launch your shuttles and program them to fly into the alien missile barrage in fifteen minutes.”
“Yes Sir.”
“Thank you, Captain.”
“It’s a pleasure to serve with you, Sir.”
Chapter Twenty
Alex watched the eight-hundred shuttles on the monitor and they suddenly turned and accelerated to their full speed toward the huge alien formation. Alex turned the Rapids and ordered, “Spread out and follow them in. Start firing blasters when we move in range and launch your defense missiles to the sides of our approach!”
The sixteen-new Terminators moved in behind the shuttles and saw them going up in massive blasts as they were hit by missiles. The Terminators flew around the explosions and missiles began impacting their force fields. Alex gritted his teeth, but the missiles were having no effect on the ships. The Terminator’s force field was more powerful than the ones on the Warscouts and though hundreds of missiles were homing in, they didn’t faze the huge ships. What probably saved them from destruction was the defense missiles fired to the sides of their approach. Thousands of alien battleships started blowing up around their course and the Terminator’s blasters vaporized the battleships ahead of them. Jingle gripped the targeting control and moved it across the formation in front of the ship as she kept the firing button depressed.
Jangle piloted the ship; no human could react fast enough to avoid the huge ships blowing up in their path. All around them was chaos and destruction and then…there was nothing; they had broken through into the center of the formation. Every Terminator fired three DD missiles with a thirty-second delay. Jingle saw a single alien battleship in the center of the alien formation, and she launched two defense missiles at it. Then they were on the opposite side of the formation and she raked the battleships ahead of her with the Rapids’ fifty heavy blasters. She fired all of the remaining defense missiles to the side of their approach and then they were back into chaos and destruction.
Jangle told them later that the entire attack had only taken twenty-five seconds, but it seemed to take forever. Fourteen Super Terminators survived the attack; two had collided head-on with one of the giant battleships and died with them.
The survivors flew out the other side of the giant formation and went to full speed. A few moments later, space was illuminated by a brilliant white light that filled the monitors.
• • •
The alien battleships had quite powerful force fields and when the DD’s detonated, many of them on the outer edge of the formation were blown away with the shockwave and were tumbling end over end.
The Triples and Terminators rushed in and fired defense missiles at the alien’s ships just as the Warscouts came roaring in and picked targets to attack. Alex had to admit that he was stunned by how many of their warships had survived the DD’s detonations.
It was like shooting fish in
a barrel. The alien crews were stunned and shaken by the giant explosion and many of them died when their ships were sent tumbling out of their formation. But now the numbers were on the Union’s side. With the addition of the Warscouts, the aliens were outnumbered and out gunned. In less than a day, the last alien battleship was destroyed.
• • •
Alex sat on the Rapids and looked out of the viewport at the giant debris field that filled the view as far as he could see. Jingle looked out with him and said, “We made a huge mess here.” Alex started laughing releasing his tension and Jingle shrugged, “Hey! Take a look.” Alex doubled over laughing and Jingle just didn’t get what was so funny.
• • •
Adam Wolfe appeared on Alex’s monitor and said, “I mean no disrespect, sir, but that was a crazy move you made.”
“It won us the fight, Adam.”
“Yeah, but it took some huge…”
Lynn put her hand over his mouth, “Courage, Sir.” Jingle started laughing and Alex joined her.
After a few minutes, Adam asked, “What happens now, Sir?”
Alex raised his arms stretching them and answered, “Form up the Warscouts into their attack formations.”
“Yes Sir.”
Alex contacted Admiral Roland and Kennedy, and DeChirico, “Form your ships up into attack formations. We’re going to the LMC to end this.”
Alex took a deep breath and pressed Mikes frequency on his communicator. Mike appeared and Alex started talking, “Sir, we’ve destroyed the LMC fleet and are now forming up to take the war to their territory.”
“How did you manage to do that? I thought you were having great difficulty even slowing them down.”
“Strategic planning and skillful implementation of the plan, Sir,” Alex replied. Mike’s brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed. Alex quickly added, “The timely arrival of the Warscouts also made a huge difference.”
Mike sat back in his chair and nodded, “Good. Send me the recordings and keep me informed on what happens in the LMC.”
“Yes Sir.”
The monitor went dark and Alex quickly said, “Jangle, omit the part of us going into the alien’s formation from the recordings.”
Jingle shook her head, “Alex! He’s going to find out!”
“Better later than now. I bet we’ll be able to hear his roar all the way out on Bucket when he does.”
Jingle giggled and Jangle announced, “Sent the edited recordings.”
Alex watched the fleets forming up and after two hours, he announced, “We’re taking our time arriving at the LMC. We will remain in place here for twenty-four hours and all crews will take time to get some sleep and rest. We’ll arrive in two days. We go to battle stations when we’re six hours out.”
Jingle had to try twice to stand up. The stress of the battle had taken its toll and she was feeling very fatigued. She looked at Alex and shook her head, “I really didn’t expect to live.”
Alex smiled, “This new Terminator is something else, Love. I’ve been a huge fan of the Warscouts, but I believe I’m staying on this ship.”
Jingle yawned, “Always the warrior. I’m getting some sleep.”
“I need to clean up some issues and I’ll join you later.” Jingle nodded and walked off the bridge.
• • •
Belle looked at Barry on her monitor and commented, “That was an excellent idea on using the DD’s to take out the stealth ships.”
“Thank you. I’m still not sure how your parents managed to crack that fleet.”
“I’ve been talking to some of the graduates in our class and they tell me that my parents flew into the middle of the alien’s fleet with fifteen other new Terminators,” Belle responded.
“And they launched DD missiles while they were inside it?” Barry replied.
“That’s what I’m hearing happened.” Barry started shaking his head and Belle said, “What?”
“That was incredibly foolish, Belle. We arrived and would have helped take them on right after he did it. I wondered how they managed to get some DDs into that fleet’s formation.”
“According to my sources, even the Warscouts wouldn’t have been able to make it through their missile barrages.”
Barry stared at her and raised his shoulders, “Then your father used the best tool available to full effect. He’s something else.”
“Yes, he is.”
“Is your squadron ready for the LMC?”
“Yes. I think there’s not much left there to worry about; they shot their wad sending their ships out to attack us.”
“We’ll see. At least this is moving toward ending this war.”
Belle smiled, “That will give us more alone time.”
Barry chuckled, “Indeed it will.”
• • •
The Union Fleets began moving toward the LMC the next day and just before they arrived at the edge of the galaxy, Admiral Jensen appeared on Alex’s monitor. “Curtis, what’s going on?”
“Sir, I’ve been receiving data from the stealth probes still remaining in the LMC Alien’s territory and it appears the four civilizations surrounding it have launched a major attack against them.”
“I thought they made a treaty with the Kraken not to do that?”
“They did but it appears they aren’t keeping it.”
“What’s happening?”
“Sir, the four civilizations have combined their forces and have attacked and destroyed all remaining warships. They are now destroying the inhabited planets and are doing a rather thorough job of it.”
“Curtis, do you have the frequency being used by those four civilizations?” Jingle asked.
“I do.”
“Send it to me.”
“Sending now.”
“What are you thinking?” Alex asked.
“We came out here prepared to take on the LMC Aliens and the other civilizations surrounding it. I think we need to find out what exactly is taking place. The evidence appears to show those four civilizations are just as aggressive as the Kraken.”
Alex put on his combat helmet and touched the side of it, “All ships will go to battle stations. We are about to enter a warzone and all Fleet Admirals will set up their fleets to initiate an attack on my order. We’re moving just inside the outer edge of the Large Magellanic Cloud and hold our positions there.” Alex looked up, “Brooks, move the ship to just inside the LMC’s outer edge.”
“We can actually move in five light years and still be outside the area where the fighting is taking place.”
“Then move as close as you can, Brooks.” Alex turned to Jingle, “What are you going to do?”
Jingle shrugged, “Try to find out what’s going on and find out if those four civilizations need to be dealt with.”
The huge Union Fleet actually moved inside the LMC twenty light years. Warscouts leapt ahead of the fleet and began reporting numerous planets that had been bombarded from space and all the inhabitants killed. Alex shook his head, “Curtis was right; they’re leaving nothing behind.”
Jingle nodded as Brooks brought the ship, and fleet, to a stop. “Jangle, connect us to the frequency those civilizations are using to communicate?”
“You’re connected to the frequency but forget about finding who the leaders are in the mess taking place here. There are too many communications taking place to even start finding that out.”
“Can you broadcast our communication powerfully enough to override their communications?”
“I’ll devote one of our reactors to push it,” Brooks interrupted.
“Give me a moment,” Jingle ordered.
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m trying to decide whether to communicate like I did to the Kraken or use a softer tone.”
“If they’re aggressive civilizations, they’ll see softness as weakness!” Alex replied.
Jingle blew out a breath, “You’re right. Jangle, activate the frequency and Brooks, push it!”
“Frequency activated,” Jangle announced.
Jingle had her helmet off and she stared at the Monitor with a slight smile, “You are really making a mess of the place. However, I intended to do the same thing so I can’t really fault you for that.”
Every communication device in every alien warship was drowned out by her pronouncement. Where the frequency was filled with thousands of communications, now it was deadly silent. Jingle heard one voice ask, “Who are you?”
“I’m the one that just destroyed the Kraken’s fleets.”
“They haven’t been gone a week and you’ve destroyed them that quickly?”
“Not really. I did it in less time than that, but I took a few days off for my crews to take a break.”
“What about the fleets of small invisible warships?” another voice asked.
“I destroyed them first. I warned the former and new Kraken that if they violated my sovereign space I would destroy their fleets and then come here and remove them from existence. Now I arrive and find you have violated your treaty with the Kraken and are attacking his civilization.” Jingle shook her head, “I must say it’s causing me mixed emotions.”
“Why is that?” the first voice asked.
“You’re preventing me from carrying out my promise. I also came to eradicate your four civilizations as well. Now I don’t know if I should allow you to complete your destruction of the Kraken’s civilization or just go ahead and remove all of you. What’s a conqueror to do?”
