A touch on his shoulder startled him. “Jack,” Nikola whispered softly. “We’ll beat them.”
He hoped so. Their star roaming was, by choice, far more dangerous than simple exploration. And ancient ships had been lost while transiting the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific oceans. Jack was determined that his fleet would not add to that ancient history!
CHAPTER SIX
Hours later Maureen pointed to a bipedal Alien AV image that filled most of the front screen and which was laser link shared with the other fleet ships. It showed a scene coming from the inner planet. Jack felt sick to his stomach at what he saw.
“The Krisot colony controls this southern hemisphere island, which is about the size of Australia on Earth,” Maureen said, her tone matter-of-fact. “While the island is forested and has a native population of tree-climbing furry bipeds, the primary population centers for the local Aliens are on two major continental masses similar in planetary location to North America and Eurasia.” She paused, using her Combat panel to overlay yellow spots on the adjacent planetary map. “Krisot individuals are scattered around this world at the yellow spots indicated. But tens of thousands of Krisot occupy this island continent. And this island is where they carry out the ‘culling’ of local populations that Menoma said was always pursued by star-traveling predator species.”
“Damn them!” Max cursed from behind him. “I think it will be awhile before I can eat a steak again.”
Elaine, Nikola and Denise all looked nauseated by the front screen imagery. Maureen seemed unaffected.
“Notice how the Krisot make limited releases of the furry bipeds from those holding corrals on the ground?” Maureen said in a tone that suggested a professor lecturing on the workings of an ancient internal combustion engine. “The bipeds run to the nearby tall trees, clearly seeking safety among the broad-leaved foliage. But the Krisot avians, who hover above the corral in small flocks, give the bipeds only enough time to begin climbing up the trunks before attacking. The preferred Krisot attack mode seems to be one of severing the neck from the spine with their beak, then catching the falling body with their feet talons. After which they land on a large branch and begin feeding.”
The red blood gushing from the necks of the green-furred bipeds made clear they, like every Alien ever met by Jack and his people, had hemoglobin rich blood. The yellow pupils in the purple eyes showed shock just the way a human eye does. The bipeds also had internal organs similar to the heart, lungs and digestive coils common to humans and other primates.
“Combat Commander Maureen,” called Captain Gareth from the top of the screen. “Why is this imagery being broadcast? Surely the local bipeds have no desire to torture their peoples with this kind of savage feeding.”
Their Irish grandmother sighed, her mood somber. “The bipeds may have no choice. They may have been ordered to broadcast this feeding, or culling as Menoma called it. It could be the Krisot broadcast these images to remind the two billion bipeds on the planet that they are subject peoples under the ruthless control of social carnivore predators who treat other thinking people as little more than meat protein sources. Maybe Technologist Matthias has some ideas. Or check with your Sociologist. She should be able to add some insight.”
“Denise,” called Elaine, her face flushed with emotion. “I gotta call these poor people something other than ‘bipeds’. Do they have a name for themselves? For their world?”
Jack had wondered the same thing. “ComChief, any headway on translating the bipedal talk-talk that comes with these transmissions?”
“A little,” Denise said, her own expression stricken as she watched living people being plucked out of the trees by giant eagle-lions. “Autonomous has used its algorithms to match bipedal imagery to bipedal Alien words. Their voices are high-pitched barks, screeches and howls, the kind of language that would carry through dense woods.”
“And?” prompted Elaine.
“They call their world Green,” Denise said. “They call themselves the People of the Trees. In their language, the word is Nuuthot. So we could call these . . . these people, the Nuuthot.”
Jack had seen enough. “Maureen, shut off that imagery feed. And the sound!” He would not listen to the death shrieks of the Nuuthot people one more second. “Where are the Krisot ships in this system? And any sign of a Krisot base beyond the planet Green?”
Maureen tapped her Combat panel, shutting off the gruesome imagery, then tapped again to call up an overhead plan view of the Epsilon star system, with planets identified and the positions of fusion drive ships marked in green while Krisot grav-pull ships were marked in yellow.
“This Tactical Display shows what matters for our Battle Plan,” Maureen said, her words sharp and distinct. “Of the twelve Krisot grav-pull ships, one is located here at the gas giant. A second one is located midways between the gas giant and the planet Green, on an inward vector aiming for the planet of the Nuuthot. It seems to be monitoring local space traffic as it passes by. The other ten Krisot ships are clustered above the small moon that circles the world Green. Neutrino emissions from the ship cluster indicate each Krisot ship is in powered-up mode. Uh, ummm . . .” Maureen’s matter of fact manner faltered, as if the culling imagery was finally hitting her. “But there is also an eleventh neutrino source that seems to be on the surface of the moon, at its north pole. Like the Alien bases we saw in the Kuiper Belt and Scattered Disk Objects.”
“Fuck!” Jack said, his anger at the imagery combining with his frustration at what Maureen’s Tactical Display showed. “We will have to split our forces to achieve surprise. One fleet ship for this local Krisot ship, a second fleet ship to take out the monitoring Krisot ship, and the remaining seven of us will take on the ten Krisot ships in orbit above their moon.” He looked at the front screen. “Hideyoshi, do you see any other option?”
The pudgy Asian whose black hair was thinning now grimaced, looked aside at his own ship’s duplicate image of the Tactical Display, then faced Jack. The man’s gaze fixed on him with an intensity Jack almost felt. “No. If we want total surprise in our Krisot fleet attack, then each human ship must activate its grav-pull drive at the same moment. So one group of Krisots cannot warn other Krisots by early detection of our grav pulses.” The man paused, looked aside as a crewperson dressed in Mars reds handed him a yellow datapad, then faced Jack. “Fleet Captain Jack Munroe, it seems we must repeat our tactics from the Second Sedna Battle. The two ships we drop off on our way inward to the moon of Green must stay stealthy silent, until they receive our laser tight-beam order to attack. If they stay covert, then the first time any Krisot ship will know there are other Aliens in this system is when our ships arrive on grav-pull and our antimatter beams strike their ship.”
Jack liked the way the Japanese battle veteran summarized their limited options. “Which means Gareth’s ship Dragon must stay with the moon fleet in case the Krisot possess gravity probes. Or has Archibald managed to convert another ship’s Battle Node to carry the Higgs Disruptor?”
Gareth spoke before Hideyoshi. “Agreed. And no, sadly. Archibald thinks he can convert another ship to carry a Higgs Disruptor by the time we leave this system for Omicron2 Eridani. With the help of Matthias. But the changes to the particle accelerator on a fleet ship are, he says, too complicated to carry out in a hurry.”
“Understood,” Jack said, looking at the other captain images. “The Uhuru, the Dragon and the Bismarck must be part of the fleet that attacks the Krisot moon cluster. Which leaves just six ships from which two must be chosen for these two outlying Krisot ships. Minna, Ignacio, Akemi, Júlia, Aashman and Kasun, do any of you wish to volunteer for this one-on-one battle? If the Krisot ship possesses gravity probes, it could be a tough fight.”
“Me! Choose the Badger,” yelled Ignacio, his black boina beret lying at a tilt on his black-haired head. “We Basques will storm any mountain, any pass, any enemy to win the battle!”
His sister Elaine winced.
“The Or
ca will take on the transiting Krisot ship,” Akemi said softly, her oval face looking somber yet confident. She held up a black scabbard holding her ancient katana sword. “My shogun, this ship, and this blade, can never be defeated!”
Jack nodded. “Thank you, Captains Akemi and Ignacio. Even if the Krisot ships possess gravity probes, your sudden arrival on grav-pull drive will be an unexpected surprise. You should be able to get off an antimatter beam before your target ship sends out any gravity probes. Aim for that central globe in the crescent. That has to be the people-occupied portion of the ship. And perhaps your HF lasers and railgun loads of ball bearings will impact before the Krisot ship can activate its own grav-pull drive.”
Each captain nodded their understanding and acceptance of the Battle Plan he’d laid out. But Denise coughed to interrupt.
“Captain Jack, recall that these Krisot are avian Aliens. While they no doubt have roosting residences on the planet, in space they will behave like birds. Their ships will cluster as a ‘flock’ that will move in unison.” She paused, tapping her left armrest to throw up another image on the front screen. “See these swallows? How they cluster, dive and rise as a group? The moon ship cluster will behave like that.”
“But Denise,” called Max, “I’ve never seen any group of eagles behave like a flock. Eagles and hawks and other predatory birds usually do solo attacks. Like other social carnivore predators.”
Denise blushed at being the focus of attention from everyone in the fleet and in the cabin. “Max, you are very correct. The Krisot and other Aliens are not pack hunters. Unlike humans, lions, wolves, killer whales, hyenas and hunting dogs, which do hunt in packs. Our pack hunter tradition is a major reason why we and our fleet allies have defeated these Aliens so far. But . . . we humans, and these Alien predators, are also the products of convergent evolution. Which means we each revert to ancestral behavior patterns. These Krisot will act like a flock when attacked. Recall the feeding imagery we just saw? There were three flocks, or groups of Krisot, swirling in the air above the Nuuthot biped corral. While these Alien carnivores are solitary hunters normally, they will cluster together in a group attack. Or in group defense. When forced to cluster,” she said, her tone insistent.
Jack nodded, recalling the way the Krisot at the Gathering Hall on Sedna had attacked as a group. He looked to his Belter veteran. “Maureen? Does all this fit your Tactical Display? Your Threat Assessment? Any changes needed . . . in your view?”
Maureen fixed her gaze on Jack, her narrow face and gray eyes unemotional. The fine wrinkles that crossed her rad-tanned face were not bunched up, as if she felt any stress. Finally she lifted one black eyebrow. “Yes, yes and . . . your Grandpa Ephraim and I could not do any better than what you have proposed. We stand a good chance of destroying all twelve Krisot ships in this system.”
“But?” Jack asked, hearing in her tone something unsaid.
Maureen glanced at the front screen and the other captains before facing back to him. “But after the Krisot ships are killed, we will have to figure out a way to kill forty or fifty thousand Krisots living on that island continent.” Her manner turned somber. “And being solitary avian hunters, like eagles and hawks, they are not likely to cluster in an easy to find group. But they must be exterminated. Or removed from this system, Elsewise, the Nuuthot people will always fear being reconquered.”
Jack swallowed hard, then became aware just how fast his heart was beating. He could put on a calm, confident exterior for the benefit of those who followed his lead. But he had no way of getting rid of a dry mouth, tiny shimmers in his fingers and the feeling that the universe held surprises for him and his people that he did not, could not anticipate. But that was also a definition of life.
He grinned. “Hey, Maureen! Just more flying targets for your revolvers!”
His crewmates and the captains on screen all smiled, some laughed and Max guffawed. But their Belfast veteran knew what it was like to be in deadly combat. The kind of combat where each encounter was unpredictable, challenging and never easy. Even if you had survived a hundred fights, the nerves were still there.
She gave him a hearty grin. “Righto, me boyo! So maybe I need to carry a few laser handguns with me as backup?”
Jack finally smiled, then shook his head at the guts, determination and courage of a woman who’d faced down the worst that the Unity Naval Command had thrown at her and her fellow veterans.
From the screen came Hideyoshi’s voice. “Madame Maureen, may I join you for a meal, some saké and the sharing of battle tales?”
Maureen looked away from Jack, her manner one of ease. The kind of ease that Jack was coming to learn came from being at death’s door all too many times.
“For sure, Hideyoshi! But leave the raw fish behind!”
Jack closed his eyes briefly, then turned to face Nikola of the long brown hair, pale blue eyes and true devotion. “Lover, let’s go fix some lunch for this crowd. We’ve got hours to go before we have to risk our lives for a bunch of Aliens we’ve never met!”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Thirty-five minutes after sending a laser tight-beam ‘Attack’ signal to Akemi’s and Ignacio’s ships, the seven ships of Jack’s fleet arrived within a hundred thousand kilometers of the small white moon that orbited the planet Green. The peel off of Ignacio’s ship Badger had occurred when the full fleet passed behind the gas giant and Ignacio used his ship’s fusion drive to decelerate into a parabolic orbit around the giant planet. An orbit that regularly brought his ship near to the Krisot ship that hung above the two Nuuthot space stations. Akemi made a similar decel move when a convoy of Nuuthot spaceships passed between her ship and the monitoring Krisot ship, at three AU out from the world of Green. She also managed to arrange her ship in a way so that her drive flare happened while the Orca was on a direct line from the Krisot ship to the orange star Epsilon Eridani, thus hiding her neutrino emissions in the glare of the local sun. Maureen got up and looked down at him.
“Time to check out my antimatter and particle beam emitters, young man. You’ll do fine. Just remember it is we humans who are the apex predators here!”
“Right.” The woman’s matter of fact manner reminded him greatly of the way his Grandpa Ephraim had shared battle tales with him during home visits. “Go to it!”
She nodded, turned away and headed back along the Spine to her Battle Module.
On the front screen Hideyoshi and the other five ship captains peered at Jack, awaiting the laser link time-lock that would allow all seven ships to grav-pull blip jump to within fifty kilometers of the Krisot ship cluster. Those ten ships were indeed gathered in what Denise called a flock, with their position lying between the moon and the planet Green, and just above what their ship scope said was a gray metal dome on the planet’s surface. Surprisingly, a giant ship that resembled the colony ships Jack had seen at Sedna also rested beside the surface dome. He shrugged. His fleet would take care of the moon base and big ship after killing the Krisot combat ships. Jack looked over to Elaine, whose brown curls seemed sweat-soaked.
“Sister, are we ready?”
“NavTrack vector for blip jump laid in,” Elaine announced to Jack, Max and the other six ships, all of whom were in laser link with each other and with Uhuru.
“Blipping,” Max sang out, his thick black eyebrows becoming one as he squinted up at the Main Drive module that had lowered down from the ceiling. “Pinch Mode! Ready to eject plasma on command!”
On screen, the white moon and rainbow starfield blurred once, blurred twice, then blurred in increasing frequency as Max ran the Uhuru and six fleet ships through a series of blip jumps that quickly moved them to the outside of the Krisot ship cluster. Hideyoshi’s and Maureen’s Battle Plan had the intention of cutting out one direction of escape, since the moon surface lay just two hundred kilometers below the Krisot ships’ orbital vector. The shimmering of moon features and starfield stopped as the grav-pull drive placed them at fifty kilometers out from the K
risot ships, whose flock cluster occupied a two hundred kilometer-wide sphere.
“All ships fire antimatter!” Jack ordered.
“Firing,” said Maureen from the holo above his Tech panel.
The Fire Control panel on his left armrest showed the Uhuru’s weapons status. One black antimatter beam shot out, aimed at a Krisot globe-in-crescent ship. A second beam of blue neutral particles shot out to impact on a second ship, the beam cutting through the ship’s central globe. His ship rocked as its dual railguns pumped several bucket loads of ball bearings aimed at the Krisot ship cluster, while the port and starboard HF laser pods emitted green laser beams at a third Krisot ship.
On the front screen black antimatter threads, green laser streaks and blue neutral particle beams struck out from the Uhuru and the other six ships of the fleet. He noted that the Bismarck had pointed its nose particle beam emitter at the leftmost Krisot ship, a ship whose position had placed its underbelly with black claw-feet facing toward the fleet’s arrival vector. While none of his seven ships was moving toward the Krisot fleet, they shared a common orbital vector above the white moon.
“Hit!” growled Maureen as her antimatter beam struck the central globe of one Krisot ship, burning through half the globe with a yellow-white fire ball. “Second ship dead!” she cried as her blue particle beam sliced through the second Krisot ship.
On screen a flurry of blue, black and green beams slashed through the Krisot ship cluster. Only one crescent ship, lying on the far side of the cluster and partly hidden by intervening Krisot ships, escaped damage. Its hull began shimmering.
“Júlia!” he called to the Caiman ship captain. “You have the topmost position! Kill that Krisot ship before it can blip jump away from here!”
Humans Vs. Aliens (Aliens Series Book 2) Page 7
