Blood Sabers

by Burbaugh, MF;

  I received Earth’s try at keeping part of the A-Humans alive. A DNA fix that would allow the coupling of a normal human male with an alien female egg and it was thought it might be viable. Likewise the A-Human male and a human female. If both worked the children could take either as viable partners, however, after three or four generations a genetic breakdown of the A-Humans would show. If all the mating was on the human side the A-Human DNA would slowly disappear and they would be normal humans.

  I mentioned this to Mi-LL and her mate, Doc tested his seed—it was weak and died quickly but if Linda used her abilities they could, maybe, get a Mi-LL egg to mate with his seed in Linda and then transfer it to Mi-LL, if she could stand the thought of having a half & half unknown baby. They talked it over and after being assured it could mate with humans if born, she agreed.

  Linda walked behind them both, did her thing and I saw Mi-LL jump a little.

  Linda came around and patted her tummy. “Grats, mommy.” She shook his hand, “Grats, daddy, she’s pregnant.”

  They looked at each other and beamed.

  Doc told them it will be a rough one, and high risk all the way. It may work or not, but we would help to make it possible.

  Tri-lee was also with child. Their normal pregnancy period was six to seven months.

  Mi-LL’s was unknown.

  They were both moved to reserves and given a factory job.

  Preparations For War

  Earth was rebuilding a form of GC ship, it was more a round sort of saucer and it would be filled with a twenty-person crew and modified ballistic space-to-ground air burst neutron warhead missiles. Both sides would open outwards and the missiles were on racks. Rams pushed them out to a stop and they were fired electrically, wave after wave could be sent. Each had a small programmable warhead. In their nose was the current rendition of pulsed lasers, I think they said ruby chemical.

  Plans were set. Four GCs could blanket a fourth of a planet with overlapped neutrons so sixteen were built for each of the four planets. Camelot built many of the missiles but the rack systems were farmed to Jebedalous.

  New Earth made many of the parts for the guidance and also was assisting us in finishing and testing our eight man Destroyers. We were at full production of four Destroyers per month for many months now. They would go to New Earth after space tests and fitting out, and our crews or Earth crews or a few New Earth would move four at a time to new guard locations.

  All the GCs were spaced and brought to an empty area for racking and loading just to be safe. When all was ready we just needed a stinking fourth planet location.

  We knew the third Blood Saber planet that had the last ship was sending probes someplace, but our searchers couldn’t get near the fold without being destroyed.

  Earth had enough extra GCs so we had them deploy some near all the planets, each could hold 10,000 troops and equipment.

  Camelot had enough on hand to haul 150,000 Amazons to battle. We wanted to double them; time would be the final deciding factor.

  I held a pow-wow with two EMM generals who earned their way up and one from each of the other troop-providing planets. Also The General and our Southern Ruler and Big Guy. We hashed out how to find their fourth damn planet. We went through a million scenarios and Queastra was listening in one day and said, “Use bows.” Simple as you please.

  Big Guy said, “Explain, please?”

  Queastra’s look was a ‘you all dunces?’ “Use big boomers to draw the missiles they use against our searches. Saturate them with boomer arrows as a shield and send a few fast searchers behind them to jump the fold. One jumps back, fires off the sky chart by laser to us because it will most likely be destroyed, the other goes on to find planet x and roundabouts back. Simple I think, no?”

  We all had instant follow-ups and add-ons.

  I finally remembered, and went and kissed her. “Wise beyond your years, my lovely, so simple, so damn simple.”

  “New eyes, new thoughts,” she said.

  Three Destroyers were sent to the third planet. Four of our latest hyper speed searchers were ready to go. All three ships fired rack after rack of boomers at the fold area and missiles started coming at them. The searchers were timed to fire so they arrived at the fold area just as the last wave of boomers went past. It went perfect. All four searchers disappeared through the fold, one popped back and got off a partial laser sky chart before a little missile came through the fold and got it. We hadn’t thought of it, but it was logical, they had defenses on both sides of that fold.

  Rodel puddle jumped the third of a star map that got through to Earth and Camelot, and we waited.

  The Missing Found,

  Kill Them All!

  Two weeks later we had a match. We knew where the area on the other side was and it was a long way.

  Another week and an almost destroyed searcher, burned and holed, managed to reach Jebedalous. It had found the fourth planet; it discovered that the area was well defended too.

  We spent several weeks going over plans and figures. Rodel pointed out what became obvious.

  The Creator bitch this time used more cunning. She knew she was going to the father and it was her last shot. She made three planets fairly close. They would eventually engage and hopefully destroy many humans but would, she knew, be destroyed. Way off in the galactic boonies so to speak, she had her secret weapon. Fully aware, intelligent, and motivated Blood Sabers with computers stuffed with massive amounts of data.

  On our side, we don’t think she meant for them to find each other. After we destroyed the three we would become lax, we always did. They would strike without warning when ready. No, this last group weren’t head cutters, they were planet destroyers.

  The longer we waited the better they got.

  Attack dates were set such that all four planets would be hit around the same time. Fold jumps and movements made it hard—you couldn’t sit and wait, you jumped in as close as you could, moved to the attack, attacked, and hoped all the rest did too.

  Each force had a general in an eight-man Destroyer ship from Earth. A second ship had one from Camelot. The General took the third planet, My Captain took the second, and Big Guy took the first.

  Task forces varied a bit. All had sixteen GC missile carriers that made the last jump behind at least one GC full of rack after rack of Boomer arrow launchers. It was accompanied by eight Destroyers with Seekers and Jammers.

  We went to the one we knew would be the hardest, number four. We had two GCs with boomers, and each carried a hundred Seekers. I had eight Destroyers with four Seekers and two Puddle Jumpers each. The sixteen GCs brought up the rear.

  We followed the third planet group since the fold was located there. Fifty Seekers were to be deployed to take out anything by the fold going directly to the third planet area and we would drop fifty inside this final fold to the fourth planet. I had ten delivered to cover the outside before we jumped in.

  I had a meeting of the captains, gave all the latest info from jumpers. We would have to cover a full day’s travel to be in range so we needed to ensure we took out all opposition from the fourth planet until the Missile GCs could launch. I had, for the first time, brought along a non-essential person. Latwasa said she has died so many times never seeing the enemy, never seeing any of her things work, she demanded to go. What could I do? Good luck to us all.

  The time came, they took down the third planet’s defenses and we closed on the fold to the fourth planet. We jumped and fired two Seekers inward. If unopposed they would lock on the planet and find a target on their own.

  We deployed the nail guns and locked them in, we armed the loaded arrow launchers and turned it all over to our computer. Quick laser links to the other ships showed exactly the same thing on the other Destroyers. The two boomer GCs were just behind us and below, and had open fields of fire to their fronts. They were each flanked by two Destroyers on a side.

  We slowed a bit and soon we were all in line and moving toward the planet.
Followed behind by sixteen planet busting missile launcher GCs.

  Rodel said we were scanned as soon as we entered the jump. The six little asteroids floating around were artificial and were armed with small nukes. Targeting data was sent. Two Seekers from the last Destroyer in line went to take out the furthest two asteroids and all the rest were hit with little darts. The nail guns worked quite well.

  About five hours from the launch point they started showing their wares. Small missiles from satellites near the planet started showing up. The nail guns got every one. They were testing our defenses, I was sure.

  The next wave was thirty minutes later and appeared to be highly maneuverable, computer-controlled missiles. The nail guns wall of slivers still got all but one, which did some minor damage to one Destroyer.

  Four more waves depleted most of the on board stock of ammo and the rate of fire was way down as more were being made.

  It was going to be mathematics—who ran out first.

  Two more waves, a lot of them started getting by us, but still the hulls held. One nail gun was destroyed and minor equipment failures were reported on a couple of the Destroyers.

  Big missiles and ships were now detected upping from the planet, hundreds of them. When Rodel had figured for maximum effect, the two big GCs fired all their boomers. We followed those with the Destroyers’ remaining Seekers and we waited for them all to meet. One Hour until launch point. Rodel had the GCs fire the remaining fifty Seekers in a fan pattern and had those GCs start their slow turn back toward the fold. Their job was done. We closed the gaps and were now eight Destroyers abreast, nail guns were all off line and refilling rather than running at the slowest rate of fire.

  I discussed a slower cyclic rate of fire that would give a longer duration with Latwasa.

  The space between the planet and us started lighting up, like looking at the sun on a bright day without glasses on. Explosion after explosion; seems it went on for many minutes.

  Rodel said thousands were destroyed but more were still coming. All the nail guns came on line. We were in launch range but the GCs were still minutes behind us.

  “Full auto attack mode, all Destroyers!” An Earth general said.

  We loosed all our boomer arrows in four separate volleys. I knew the others did too. We waited for them to get away and had the guns start auto targeting in short bursts at anything getting through.

  Daylight was closer and longer this time. The nail guns chattered and halted and chattered and went into slow constant firing. We saw the GCs’ missiles go by us, hundreds of them. Some were destroyed but we brought far to many. The big GCs started their swing for home as we tried to cover them, but they were being hit. Linda bubbled the Destroyer next to us and Rodel did us when the ammo ran out and we had them get behind a GC. We also made the same maneuver to try to act as shields against the incoming Blood Saber missiles. Linda went outside and was farting around on her lion, popping incoming missiles where she could until the swords got low on power.

  Blood Saber ships were closing slowly as we tried to get our GCs back to the fold we came through. I saw some of our Destroyers start to go poof, GCs disappear in nuclear novae. Rodel had our missile data coming back from the planet attack. We were zig zagging all over, trying to hit missiles before they got to the GC we followed, nail guns occasionally sputtering.

  Finally we were in range of the Seekers we left by the gate, they came on like gangbusters and soon there were no more Blood Saber ships chasing us—those that survived turned back.

  Final count was three of our eight Destroyers wiped, no survivors, seven of the GCs wiped, a Destroyer picked up one crew and another GC picked up a second crew. Three of the remaining Destroyers were unable to jump due to damage, so crews were picked up and we destroyed one ship. The other two were loaded, one each, into the now empty missile GCs. Eleven Seekers remained behind to guard our rear and we jumped.

  Two of the ten Seekers were missing on the other side. Vid showed a small Blood Saber ship had tried to slip back through our fold, maybe their version of our searchers. It didn’t get far.

  We sat on the other side while Rodel sent Jumpers back through. One would stay by the fold and the other would go to the planet to access damage and stream it back. Two Seekers went ahead of it with auto targeting, just to help keep it company.

  The Puddle Jumper was a mini Rodel, they were all mini Rodel’s really, and the Jumpers could transmit.

  The Blood Sabers launched a few more missiles; they were jammed and missed all the targets. A couple big missiles were boosted and a ship upped too. The Seekers went active and took off. The Puddle Jumper caught it on video. The Seekers ran into an invisible wall and poof, exploded. The Puddle Jumper by the gate stored all the video on relay. It knew all three were now destroyed and it jumped back to us.

  Rodel seemed agonizingly slow on analyzing the data.

  I had Linda running around, ship-to-ship, healing wounded and treating some for radiation sickness.

  “One minute, one minute please,” Rodel finally said.

  We had all remaining ships laser-linked together.

  “First the bad news,” he said. “We did not do a single bit of ground target damage with all the GCs missiles or any of the boomers that hit.”

  I told everyone to wait.

  He continued, “They have a force field or energy field of some type that encapsulates the entire planet. Watch the screens.” He rolled the video he took. You could see all the missiles going off, the patterns were all correct but were well above the surface of the planet. Next he played the jumper videos. You saw the ship from the planet lift and our Seekers take off after it but there was a splash of green or green/blue as the Seekers went off, then it dissipated. You could see parts of the seeker fall toward the planet. The jumper video crackled and disappeared.

  “Any good news?” I asked.

  “Yes, they don’t have much left to throw at us. The neutrons wiped almost everything on the space side of that field and with what we already took out, they are hurting for any type of space defense. At least that is my analysis,” he said.

  “What good is that if we can’t get through their shield?” one of the GC commanders asked.

  Rodel said, “Watch closely again.” He replayed the last few seconds of the Seekers blowing up and the falling pieces.

  A young Destroyer captain from Earth caught it. “The falling junk!” she shouted.

  “Bingo!” Rodel said. “The remains fell through the field. It is some sort of electronics field. It isn’t solid.”

  “We can’t fly through it or send missiles, how does that help?” someone asked.

  Latwasa’s mind was in full tilt. “Heat shield filled with ancient dumb bombs. Impact detonators. Disperse in atmosphere blow on impact, totally inaccurate. It will take billions of them but then, when ready, we send in troops the same way. They free fall behind shields in big carriers, nothing but air holders, and then parachute. It can be done. Any form of electronic gear would be useless,” she said.

  “Okay, nothing we can do here then. Leave a volunteer crew in a Destroyer on station with the Seekers and we will send a relief crew as soon as we get back. Anything we have left for Seekers and jumpers, stays as well. I know I have none. All go back to your home planets for repairs and rearms and we will meet on Camelot with the other task forces and see where we stand overall. We lost a lot of good crews, don’t forget to mourn and honor them, or else!”

  We broke up, the GCs headed to Earth after some crews were shuffled and those of us heading to Camelot got at least two, some three, extra passengers from the Destroyer crews, and we had a couple crewing the GCs too.

  When we hit Camelot everyone was celebrating. I guessed the other forces had better luck than we did.

  We landed and were greeted by everybody. Finally we had a semblance of order and the following two days were declared a rest period.

  Two days of sleep work wonders for the nerves after battle frenzy.


  Our first day at court was spent honoring our dead crews. We had lost three Destroyers against the third planet and a single GC that had a failure of some sort and blew up in space on the return from the first planet.

  Added to our fourth planet total, over 80 Cameloteans had died, but millions of Blood Sabers had as well. Even now all but the fourth planet were being carefully checked for survivors. This was a 100% genocide mission. I did understand a few of our ground force warriors got to blood their swords often. Earth troops were taking no chances—everybody they found got a bullet to the head. Millions of them, and they all were burned.

  The two girls’ home planet, Under Big Guy, I understood, did very well with the darts they used, as well as what we did with bows. He said he was quite proud of them.

  We worked over ideas, plans and specs. Earth geared up to make, literally, billions of 500 lb. bombs and Camelot and New Earth started making detonators and rack tubes. We did several tests and found we could coat each bomb with shielding materials faster than to build shields to hold them through reentry. We dropped several from the fringes of space, dummies of course, and tracked them to destruction or impact. A few changes in compounds and thicknesses and we had our bombs designed. Even the hard ceramic made wonderful shrapnel. Arming actually was easier than I thought. Latwasa added a simple propeller on the back of each one. It was attached to a flyweight thing that grabbed a drum at a certain RPM and the drum wound a wire around it, which removed a safety pin from the detonator.

  Other GCs were to be filled with 100-man shielded drop pods, all would free-fall down to a point were air pressure would pop panels, and drag chutes would stabilize the pods. At 12,000 feet they would pop open and fold away as 100 troops went into free fall. That pop was tested until we had 999 successes per 1000 drops. If it didn’t pop apart they could still do manual exits if they were fast. As crews came on line from all over the coalition, they were drilled in it. Normally you would open chutes as close as 250 feet but we were dropping from space—the pods would enter on rough trajectories to ensure they went over land. The last 10,000 feet the troops made sure they all landed near enough to form their types of battle units. The chutes were like basic paragliders, high maneuverability.