Jesse's Starship 3: Joshua's Walls

by Saxon Andrew

  Colonel Yokawo nodded, “If it’s possible, I think they’re over trained, Sir.”

  Josh tilted his head as he slightly closed his eyes and said, “We needed to keep them busy so they wouldn’t have time to worry, Colonel.”

  Jackie smiled, “I think they still made time to do that, Sir.”

  Josh looked at his chronometer on his panel and said, “We’ll be lifting into orbit in twenty minutes. Set the proximity detectors and keep your carriers in formation.”

  Both of them nodded and the display went dark. Josh looked at the twenty-foot tall tripod in the middle of his carrier and glanced at the large box on top of it. The legs of the tripod extended down the sides of his carrier and would extend an additional six feet once his carrier touched ground. The carrier would then move out from under the tripod and then boost into orbit. The giant transports would arrive seconds after the carriers dropped and the magnets on their hulls would snatch them off the planet seven miles before the like charges on the transport’s hulls would bring them to a stop. There they would wait for Josh to activate the recall circuit.

  Josh was having second thoughts about pushing this drop to take place. He knew the Spartan and Gracken Warriors were depending on their leaders to make good decisions. He pushed the doubt out of his mind and remembered what he heard a Gracken Commander say to Mike just before he attacked that Beamship on top of the skyscraper, “It’s a good day to fight.”

  He pulled his faceplate down and looked at the feed coming in from the infested planet. The weather above his drop was clear. He smiled and said, “It really is a good day to fight.”

  The alarm sounded and the two hundred carriers began lifting from the field. Josh watched his pilot activate the thrusters and his carrier moved into the middle of the giant square as it began picking up speed and moving higher into Sparta’s atmosphere. Destiny awaited and he shook his head at the power being carried into orbit. He looked up and saw the full moon getting brighter over the horizon. Sparta’s smaller moon wasn’t visible yet. There was a possibility that he would die in the coming battle and knowing this might be the last time he saw the moon, it was the most beautiful thing he had seen over the last six months. He stared at it until the square was two thousand miles above Sparta’s atmosphere. His pilot said, “Sir?”

  Josh smiled at the moon and said, “Send a twenty second countdown.”

  “Yes Sir.” He was still smiling when the two hundred transports disappeared, reappeared, and screamed down to the surface of the Weg infested planet.

  • • •

  Josh felt a calmness touch his soul and he jumped over the side of his carrier as ten technicians anchored the legs of the tripod. It rose six feet and Josh’s carrier moved out from under it. It disappeared and created a loud thunderclap followed by a loud sonic boom high overhead. The warriors barely heard them. Their armor protected their hearing as they ran into formation. Master Sergeant Dundee ran over and pulled a telescoping pole off his armor. He jammed it into the ground and twisted it. The flat blades shot out of the base as he pulled the pole to chest level. He pulled the large screen off his back and slid it down on the pole. Josh waited until Dundee stepped back and said, “Thank You, Sergeant.” Dundee nodded and sprinted away to join the long line of warriors to the north.

  Josh entered a code on the keypad below the screen and it immediately illuminated. The feeds from the orbiting warships began immediately appearing but Josh ignored them as he lifted a cover from a bright yellow switch. He glanced at the huge box on top of the tripod and after a moment, the yellow switch illuminated. Josh threw it and pulled the cover back over it. A bright flash illuminated the warriors standing in ranks and their helmet visors briefly dimmed. The box extended a force field over the four sides of the square formed by the twenty thousand warriors. It extended thirty feet beyond their lines and ended twenty feet above them. Once it reached full power, it started spinning. Josh was amazed at how a square force field could spin and yet the corners did not move. He shook his head and knew the Weg were going to have to come in under the force field to get at them. He looked overhead and saw the sharp blades start appearing on the field’s surface.

  He looked at the three foot wide display in front of him and saw an image being sent from Fleet; a dark cloud was rushing toward him from all four directions. He pressed his communicator, “We have a large group of party crashers coming in twenty six miles out.”

  The Brigade Commanders yelled over their combat frequency, “You will launch slivers when your sensors have them six miles out. You know your zones. Don’t deviate without direct orders.”

  The Gracken Warriors smiled at the dark cloud as it rose over the horizon and the Spartans got behind their heavy sliver rifles and activated the squares in their sights they were going to have to keep clear. The Weg rushed in and the twenty thousand warriors opened fire.

  • • •

  Rumel watched what appeared to be a dark green cloud rush over the planet’s surface toward the Alliance position. Each side of the huge square facing the Weg was eight miles long. The close up view of the formation looked like a huge blue square with a massive white cloud blowing out of the four sides. He knew the view didn’t really give a good picture of what was actually taking place on the ground.

  • • •

  Cantwell stood behind the two hundred warriors he was directing and he focused on the tactical display on his Combat Helmet’s visor. The feed from Fleet showed a massive cloud of Weg building on all sides of the formation and rolling in like a tsunami. It didn’t take the Weg long to figure out that coming over the top of them was an exercise in futility. It they came too close to the spinning force field they were shredded into small pieces by the force field’s sharp blades. If they flew along the top and tried to fly in under the edges of the force field they were cut to ribbons by the clouds of slivers being fired under the field. They would also hit other Weg flying in knocking both of them out of the air. The Weg came in a thirty-foot high wave rolling in on the four sides. Cantwell saw that the northern ranks were getting the worst of the rush. He entered instructions into his helmet and sent them to his company. He hoped they wouldn’t be needed but a quick glance to the north showed him trouble was rolling in.

  • • •

  Lt. Yung fired his heavy sliver rifle and felt the last clip feed into the chamber. He hit the release button on his trigger and the empty clip magazine fell to the ground. He snatched another magazine off his shoulder pack and slammed it home into the receiver. He saw the last clip fly over his shoulder as the new magazine sent a new clip into the chamber to be fired. The Weg were two hundred yards out from his position but they were steadily surging forward. He shook his head at the mound of dead Weg growing in front of him.

  The sliver had come a long way in its development. It could be set to go after any species and it was a shoot and forget round. It was the size of a large icepick blade and it carried enough explosive to blow a hole through two-inch armor. When they hit a Weg, there wasn’t much left. The Weg didn’t appear to care. They came in and pushed the ones in front of them toward the invaders they were dying to kill.

  Josh watched the four lines firing a massive cloud of slivers into the screaming mass of Weg Flyers. He looked at the tactical screen and saw that a huge bulge of Weg were flying in toward the north line. He shook his head as the giant mass hit and pushed the entire wall of Weg up to the edge of the force field.

  • • •

  Cantwell yelled over his combat frequency, “YUNG, GO, GO, GO!”

  Yung pulled his heavy sliver gun up and threw it over his shoulder as every odd numbered Spartan Warrior in his company rushed out of their formation and ran across the clearing behind them toward the northern line. Their armor got them there just as hundreds of Weg pushed through the line knocking Gracken and Spartan warriors off their feet. The fifty Spartans fired their slivers and the Weg on top of the fallen warriors were exploded. The fallen warriors jumped to their f
eet and rushed back into their line. More than a hundred remained on the ground.

  The Weg saw that victory could be had by overwhelming the invader’s lines with sheer numbers. Many of the Weg flying above the force field flew toward the battle far below. LaFyete saw the numbers shrinking above the formation and pressed his communicator, “It looks like you can’t wait any longer. Launch in ten seconds.”

  Bart looked at Kim and shrugged. He pulled down his visor and activated the force field. He put a mouthpiece in and gripped the arms of the chair he was in. A moment later, he shot out of the transport and flew toward the planet at an incredible speed.

  Josh looked at his panel and saw the flashing purple light on his panel and looked up. He heard the two large magnets slam down on the ground on each side of the tripod and a moment later a giant vehicle on each of them. Josh hadn’t seen the mobile blaster the Alliance had built for this operation. He saw images but they didn’t do the real thing justice. One of the vehicles started whining and a stack of six huge barrels rose out of the front of the vehicle and aimed over the top of the struggling warriors. The Weg were now under the edge of the force field and would soon break in and be able to attack their lines from the rear.

  • • •

  Bart hit the reactor button and the coils behind the six barrels started glowing blue. He aimed them at the eastern corner of the north line and pressed the trigger on his grips. The beams that shot out of the six barrels were brilliant and the warrior’s visors dimmed. Bart swept the beams to the west and they burned everything in their path out to a mile from the line. He continued down the west line to the southern point and then reversed and tracked the beams back to the north. He saw on his display that Kim was shooting over the East and southern lines. The mobile blasters were set to fire above the tallest Gracken Warrior, the warriors concentrated all their fire into a nine foot window in front of them.

  Josh watched the two Special Forces Warriors work the beams like a surgeon. They would spin their turrets and fire at any large concentration of Weg and sweep around to hit another site. Each of the six blasters had a third of the power of a Q ship’s main beam. The mound of dead and dying Weg in front of the four lines was growing by the second but the two vehicles disintegrated anything higher than nine feet. In a matter of minutes, the Weg couldn’t make it through the mound of dead and they slowly stopped firing as the two huge vehicles wreaked havoc on the Weg.

  • • •

  No one knew for certain how the Weg communicated. Some believed they were telepathic. However they did it, a message was sent and every Flying Weg attacking the formation took to the sky above the formation. There they waited to take down the invaders when they tried to escape to their ships far overhead.

  • • •

  “Send the diggers, now!”

  “It will take them time to arrive there.”

  “SEND THE DIGGERS NOW!!!”

  • • •

  “General Adams!”

  “Yes.”

  “Seismic says that a huge mass of activity is moving your way underground. They’ll arrive in twenty minutes.”

  Josh pressed a button on his console, “Diggers incoming in twenty minutes. You need to get moving now!”

  Bart and Kim grabbed the driving controls and spun their two huge vehicles around to the south until they were side by side. They hit the barrel controls and the six barrels on the front of their vehicles began moving toward each other. In ten seconds they formed a circle with all six blasters touching each other. The huge high strength bracket they were held in moved until all twelve barrels were next to each other between the two vehicles.

  “Move them just a little more forward, Bart.”

  “I see it.”

  “I think I cracked some teeth on that landing.”

  “You should have worn a mouth piece.”

  Kim slid her vehicle slightly forward until the twelve barrels locked together and a green light illuminated on her panel, “Mouth piece?”

  “Yeah. I put mine in before leaving the transport.”

  Kim connected the barrels aiming system to the data coming in from the seismic probes and the twelve barrels began tilting toward the ground. “You didn’t mention anything about using a mouth piece!”

  “I have one that my dentist makes me use at night to keep from grinding my teeth. Do you have one?”

  “Bart, I’m going to slap you silly. I’ve got the blasters lined up.”

  Bart pressed a button and a large missile rose up out of the back of his vehicle and oriented down the line the blasters were pointed. Kim stared at her display, “Come on! Come on!” She glanced at her display and saw the diggers coming fast and would be there in less than a minute. “COME ON, DAMN YOU!” The barrels stopped moving and Kim pressed both triggers on her steering wheel. The beams shot out and the warriors on the south line had their visors go black. The beams fired for ten seconds and then went out.

  Bart and Kim slammed their turrets back and jumped up on top of the giant Mobile Blasters. The large missile’s thruster fired and it disappeared down the hole the twelve barrels had burned into the ground. Josh saw the missile leave its rack and he pressed the recall button on his panel. All twenty thousand warriors disappeared as the ground under them collapsed into a billion Weg Diggers. A moment later, the portable force field, the armor of the Warriors that had been killed during the Weg breakthrough, and the two giant mobile blasters self-destructed. The blasts of the force field projector and armor was huge but nothing compared to the two mobile blasters going up. The nuclear cloud that rose over the battle site was huge.

  • • •

  The Queen watched the activity that was taking place on the surface through the eyes of a Flyer Leader. She knew those two monstrous creations under it were doing something. She had the leader fly closer to the force field and he could see the barrels on it were pointed toward the ground. She forced herself to focus and saw that it was pointed in her direction. She screamed, “DIG A PATH OUT OF HERE!!”

  • • •

  The diggers did a remarkable job in the short time they were given before beams fired and the missile launched. The Queen was three miles away from her Birth Chamber when the beam arrived. The entire three miles was covered in a thick layer of eggs she dropped as she ran from the huge chamber. The twelve beams burned a channel into the Queen’s Chamber and she would have died except for her quick exit. However, the missile arrived a minute later and three miles was not far enough to escape what it brought underground. This Ground Seeker Missile was larger, faster, and more powerful than the one used to close the starship tunnels. Truth be told, fifty miles wouldn’t have saved her.

  • • •

  The Third Spartan Division’s trip to their carriers didn’t take but three seconds. Three seconds from the ground to the arms on their carriers doesn’t seem like it’s long enough to do much damage. Ten warriors didn’t make it; their armor exploded on the long fall to the planet. They didn’t fall alone.

  When the spinning force fields hit the massive cloud of Weg between the planet and the carriers, it looked like a gigantic blender was making Weg smoothies. Pieces of Weg began falling and the pieces filled the sky under the waiting carriers. The Weg that had not managed to grab one of the Spartan Warriors as it spun by were hit by the solid wall of Weg pieces falling toward the planet. They struggled to get out of the mixture but only picked up speed as the cloud rushed toward the ground. The Carriers fired into their ranks for a few moments but then boosted away for orbit. The massive mushroom cloud was rising with the shockwave of the two Mobile Blasters’ self-destruction. The huge cloud of Weg body parts was vaporized by the rising cloud as the nuclear shock wave blew through it.

  • • •

  Josh rushed over to a monitor in the transport’s landing bay. The Gracken Commander saluted Josh, “May I assist you?”

  “I want the tactical feed of what’s happening on the planet.”

  The Commander
pushed a button and a view of the continent appeared. Josh stared at it and shook his head, “What happened to the Weg after we killed the Queen?”

  The Commander rewound the recording and started it as the two giant Mobile Blasters fired their beams into the ground. Josh could see the brilliant flash on the surface far below and focused on the massive clouds of Flying Weg above his troops. He watched as his forces moved through the giant concentration of Weg flying between the Warriors and their carriers. He said, “Slow it down!”

  The Commander turned a dial and Josh saw the horrific damage being done to the Weg by his warrior’s spinning force fields. From high above, it looked like the giant black cloud above the planet suddenly collapsed in on itself as millions of Weg were sliced into pieces that fell toward the planet below. The flash from the destruction of the Mobile Blasters dimmed the display momentarily but then cleared as Josh saw the shockwave and mushroom cloud shoot into the atmosphere. He turned his gaze away from the nuclear explosion and watched the Weg that weren’t in the blast zone. They weren’t acting normal. They turned toward the ground and flew toward the planet without continuing to find his troops. Fleet opened fire but most of them managed to reach safety as they dug into the soil.

  Josh pressed his communicator, “Commander Rumel.”

  “Go ahead, General.”

  “What are the Weg doing on the planet?”

  “We’re not getting a good return on the seismic probes.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “That Ground Seeker pretty much vaporized a sixty mile circle around the Queen’s Chamber. The magnitude of the blast pretty much damaged every probe we have within a hundred miles of the explosion. We’re not detecting any major activity at the moment.” Josh remained silent and Rumel said, “What are you thinking, General?”