America One: War of the Worlds (41 page)

“So they weren’t coming to have tea, and I never heard one word telepathically spoken in Matt,”
stated VIN.

“Me neither,”
replied Mars shaking his head, still not believing he was still alive.

“OK, guys, here is how it is going to play out,”
replied VIN once the men had checked themselves for any damage.
“Mars, I think the Matts have figured out a way to keep you and me out of their conversation. I’m sure Fob told them all about us. Three destroyed enemy decreases the odds. Max, crew I want you to stay there. I doubt they will be back until our shuttles appear. Once the shuttles have been refueled, I’m sending them back down. As far as I’m concerned, there can’t be many enemy fighters left, they only have one exit hole we believe, and the three shuttles with us above them should be enough to end this once and for all. Check to see what damage has been done. These Matts are now desperate, and I can’t see a way they can ever return to this part of their base. So I think they are trying to destroy everything down there before heading out to Ceres or Europa, and I’m really worried that they might try and destroy Mattville as well. I’m sure they have thought that we might already be where their water supply is, and want to destroy that as well. So, I’m ending this war on Mars once and for all. Keep one shield up for yourselves to survive in, close any others down. Get all the black boxes you can find with you so they can’t light them up. And we’ll be down tomorrow to pick you up. Out.”

Fifteen hours later, and several hours before dusk at Mattville, the three shuttles undocked from
America Two
and headed down towards the red planet.

Ryan was a mess. He was in his apartment being looked after by Kathy. The loss of four of his astronauts, his best friends was a shock to his system, and like the first attack at the Retreat decades earlier, he couldn’t take it. Some people were meant to be soldiers, and some weren’t.

Gary Darwin had replaced Mars. Saturn got her left seat back as Captain of
SB-IV
, and was glad to have Gary as laser gunner and co-pilot.

“Pilots, you are fully fueled and rested,”
stated VIN, still in command of
America Two
. He had been decreasing the mother ship’s altitude down while the crew had rested. The ship was already passing through 240 miles above the surface of Mars.
“Remember our fallen. These guys certainly don’t know how to negotiate, so we now take all their ships out. I don’t want to see one enemy spacecraft flying over the Martian surface ever again. Our decrease in altitude will halve your decent and ascent time, and our lasers will be at point blank range for the battle. America Two will now be in the firefight, and my team of gunners will defend the ship. Jonesy, Saturn, Lunar, you guys back each other up, but remember one of you has to close down that third base, like Michael and Penny did if our new robot misses. Please don’t commit to its destruction like SB-I did, Igor and Boris will destroy it. There might be more Matt bases on Mars, but with the gigantic size of this establishment, I don’t think so. I will continue to decrease altitude down to 120 miles, the lowest we can orbit. This time we are giving them everything we have.”

“You head down as far as you want, partner, but make sure we have a mother ship to go home in. Remember I have a decade or so of good fishing time ahead of me,”
replied Jonesy
. “And Igor kept that drone away from me.”

Igor and Boris were now flying
Asterspace Three
. The mining ship had been docked on the mother ship as an escape pod, or could have had its cargo hold filled with treasure and flown independently to an Earth orbit if need be. Instead, and on VIN’s orders after seeing the third base entrance, and the destruction of
SB-I
, VIN had gone back to military tactics, and had made a drone out of the unarmed mining ship.

The drones high above him when he had fought as a Marine in Iraq had given him the idea to use the mining ship as a weapon instead of a piloted shuttle. Also they were low on numbers so he had ordered Igor and Boris to setup the ship’s external cameras for drone flight.

It had taken a team of spacewalkers a couple of hours to change the cameras on the mining ship, take out the emergency supplies, and add all the explosives they had on board
America Two.
VIN’s idea was for a shuttle to take out the blue shield from a distance when the door was open, and if the door was closed, plough the mining ship into the closed door at full power.

Asterspace III
had detached itself an hour before the shuttles and was well on her way down to the surface.

Since the mother ship had still to orbit the red plant, they couldn’t see arrivals or departures from the Matt base at all times. VIN had wanted to leave one of the shuttles orbiting the planet to keep eyes on the area the whole time, but hadn’t given the order as even the superior
Matt
forces had to rest and refuel.

He was confident in his own ship’s twelve lasers for defense, and it would actually help them if some of the enemy spacecraft tried to climb high enough to attack the ship. It would split their forces. VIN kept the forward speed of
America Two
far higher than its usual orbital speed, which decreased blind time, but unfortunately also decreased time over the target.

It was five minutes after Jonesy had replied to him, and seconds before the three shuttles headed over the horizon of the planet far ahead of the mother ship when eight bogeys came around the opposite horizon, behind him climbing up to the 150-mile altitude line.

“VIN to Jonesy, Eight bogeys rising directly behind mother ship. Distance 17,000 miles, 49,900 knots at 140 miles altitude. ETA 21 minutes. You need to come around behind them, over.”

“Copy that, partner. Can’t you do anything without me,”
smiled Jonesy calmly. This maneuver from the enemy had been anticipated, and VIN had wondered why they had taken so long. There was no place to hide at such high altitude.
“Shuttles 97 percent power, decrease altitude to 220 miles, we have bogeys 29,000 miles ahead,”
Jonesy’s voice continued over the intercom
and the three refueled shuttles accelerated forward at 97 percent burn.

“VIN, eight more bogeys just emerging out of the horizon haze behind us: distance 17,870 miles, twelve degrees below and directly to Port of the first group,” stated Pluto Kathrine manning her three laser cameras.

Each set of three laser cameras were searching different parts of space, and the vast horizon of the red planet. “These guys are really moving, lower than the first group but climbing near vertical at 99 miles. Forward speed 50,000 knots. ETA 13 minutes. Gee, I nearly missed them, sorry.”

“A good maneuver on their part,” replied VIN also smiling. “They wanted us to focus on the first group. Gunners, keep your cameras peeled on the area below us, even above us, and monitor your whole section of space. It looks like we are about to have the mother of all battles.”

“
Asterspace Three
still alone and coming over the horizon behind us for her second orbit, 17,000 miles behind at 200 miles altitude,” stated Igor.

“How far from the bogeys?” VIN asked.

“Six thousand miles, on their portside, incoming enemy have already passed underneath the mining ship,” Igor replied. “They couldn’t have climbed high enough to attack it. I’m sure they will on their next orbit.”

“Take
Asterspace Three
down at full power,” VIN ordered. “We have to take out one of her orbits Igor. I want her ready on her next pass by. Speed unimportant. Pluto Katherine lock onto your group of bogeys. The rest of you scan the skies. We need to find any more formations before we let them know, we know they are there.”

It would be several minutes before their own shuttles would reappear around the horizon, and there was nothing to do but let the enemy think they hadn’t been seen. The hunter was now becoming the hunted.

“I see a third group!” shouted Penny Burgos, Gunner Four.

“So do I!” stated her older sister Jane manning the third set of guns.

“Why are you guys searching the same area?” VIN asked surprised.

“We are not. I’m in my Starboard sector. Eight bogeys rising up vertically over the horizon, altitude 160 miles, incoming directly at us at 49,900 knots. ETA 17 minutes, over.”

“I have seven bogeys exiting horizon at 60 miles altitude, close to vertical at 49,000 knots on our Port side ETA 25 minutes, over.”

Where the hell are all these extra ships coming from?” VIN asked.

“VIN, I have radar footage from our mining ship coming in. Both the last groups seemed to have launched from their third door,” replied Boris. “Footage shows launches in sets of three, 210 seconds apart. They grouped up and headed upwards as the radar went off line from the base on the last orbit. They are launching while we are out of view.”

“Boris I want that door taken out on the next pass. Set her up for a direct trajectory into the door,” ordered VIN.

VIN waited a full minute, then got the latest flight info from all his gunners and radar operators. It had taken several seconds, but the incoming enemy, all 31 of them were now high enough over the horizon to be continuously monitored on radar.

America Two
was continuously going over the round horizon of Mars at 23,000 knots, and the radar blips kept coming and going until all the aircraft were high enough, close enough, and permanently on everybody’s radar screens.

“Radar, keep eyes glued to the front in case they surprise us even more with more ships. I hope Jonesy and team are at speed. This is certainly going to be close.”

“Closest bogeys, 11,000 miles behind us, 79 miles lower,” stated the tracker on the close-system radar system from somewhere in the ship, three minutes later.

“Igor, what range do you reckon the bogeys are accurate at?” VIN asked.

“They took out
America One
easily at 3,350 miles from where the dogfight was taking place, but they aimed at the energy of the blue shield. We actually don’t know, but I would guess semi-accurate at 5,000 miles, maybe within 3,000 miles for higher accuracy.” VIN thought for a couple of minutes while his gunners and the radar crew continued to scan the extremely large area of space all around the mother ship.

Two minutes later they prepared to come over the horizon, and he would be able to see the enemy base for the first time in 14 minutes.

VIN needed to stage a correct attack time. He needed to coincide the blowing up of the door, with Jonesy and his team giving at least covering fire for the unmanned mining ship as it went in, as well as coincide
America Two
to be over the battle area.

It was near impossible. The enemy had played their hand early and the mother ship would be forced to fight her battle, and destroy the enemy, all within the next 11 minutes, before she went over the horizon again. His computers told him that Jonesy would take at least three more minutes to catch up and enter the battle behind them.

VIN’s laser range was better than the Matt masers. He had twelve lasers and four gunners to play with. They, like Jonesy’s shuttle had one each, and he was sure that the re-fire times were much the same. All VIN really had as an advantage was his further range of the lasers. He would have to fire first, or otherwise Astermine and its boss weren’t returning to Earth.

Time began to slow as it always does when adrenalin began to flow through the crew’s veins. It seemed to take forever before radar control barked out their next report. By this time the gunners were ready to lock onto targets.

“Closest enemy, group one: seven bogeys 6,200 miles, 23 miles below us, 50,100 knots. ETA within semi-accurate range 110 seconds. Group two: eight bogeys at 7,200 miles, 17 miles below us, 50,900 knots. Both will reach within a 5,000-mile range at the same time. Group Three: eight bogeys at 9,300 miles 49 miles below us 49,900 knots. Group Four: again eight bogeys at 9,700 miles, 39 miles below us 50,400 knots, over.”

“Our current altitude 207 miles, 22,650 knots forward speed at 95 percent full power, over.” Added Igor in charge of actually flying the mother ship.

All VIN could do was wait. He waited another minute which felt like a whole year before he barked out orders.

“Gunner Two, lock onto Group One, lock your lasers together for an individual target. Lock onto outer starboard aircraft first, mid-power bursts. Fire on my command. Gunner Three, second group, same scenario outer starboard target. Gunner Four, lock onto Group One’s outer portside aircraft, work inwards to Gunner One, then everybody lock onto port spacecraft of second group. Wait for my command.”

VIN was Gunner One, and he locked onto the third group. He wondered if the ships would scatter once they were fired upon, and he would continue to fire at the further ships, until somebody got through.

The first maser must have erupted from one of their ships.

“An electrical pulse passed us two miles out on our port beam. It was noticed on the sensitive electronic surveillance equipment,” stated the engineer on the Bridge. “How come we didn’t see it?” VIN asked.

“I believe because we are above the weak Martian atmosphere,” stated Igor looking at VIN.

“They must be checking and calibrating their firepower, hoping for a miracle hit. Like artillery, they will get more accurate as they fire,” stated VIN. “I wonder if they can see their shots, or are they as blind as we are?”

“I’m sure they can see them,” Igor replied. “We certainly can’t.”

VIN had fought them before and knew how they played the game. He wondered how many of these
Matt
astronauts, many fresh from Europa via Ceres, had been in the first or second attacks. There couldn’t be many as most of their ships had been destroyed in the fire fights.

A second, then a third electrical pulse was registered as they passed much closer to the mother ship, less than a mile off the starboard beam this time. The fourth pulse was even closer and only about a half mile out, and again on the starboard side. Still VIN didn’t command his crew to fire.