Escape to Earth 3: Defending Holy Ground (4 page)

“I know, Gerome. We’re going to have to fire the DM Missiles from much further out and run immediately. We can’t attack that close again.”

“We did slow them down.”

“That’s the only good thing about this attack. We should jump to the next attack coordinates.”

“On our way. I’ll see you there.”

Windy sighed. Losing Sergy and John was a huge problem. Gunny and Gerome were getting up to speed but they weren’t seeing the big picture…yet. She looked at her tactical and saw Gunny was already in position waiting for the new path of the Invader Armada. She smiled, perhaps they were learning faster than she thought. She missed having Chad directing the attacks but understood why. There was more than a year of fighting ahead of them and she prayed she could make it take longer. The Fellowship was sending new battleships to replace those lost but the new crews weren’t experienced and it was showing. She hoped Jinks would help get them ready. Ninety percent of the losses today were to new battleships that recently joined their ranks. “Skip to the next attack coordinates.”

“Yes Sir.”

C
had’s fleet of Battleships skipped in to the new planet and found a layered defense of Attack Pods surrounding the planet. He wondered why they were in a defensive formation and his Electronics Officer looked up, “Sir, Commodore Graham is on the frequency.”

“Put him on my panel.”

Brandon Graham appeared on Chad’s display, “Sir, it’s good to see you.”

“What’s going on BG?”

“A warship showed up yesterday and fired on one of our pods, Sir. The pod was destroyed and the ship skipped out before we could fire on it.”

“Do you have a recording?”

“Yes Sir. I’ll send it to your panel.”

“My fleet will move in around the planet. Move your pods into an outer layer as soon as we move into position.”

“Yes Sir.”

Chad looked at Audrey Allen, “Get orders out to move into defensive formation above the planet.”

“Yes Sir.”

Chad said, “Trio, play this recording on the main wall monitor.” The wall monitor flashed on and Chad leaned forward. A shiny silver warship came out of the void close to one of the attack pods and opened fire with a brilliant red energy beam. The pod glowed brightly and then exploded. “Trio, how was that pod configured?”

“It only had one reactor powering the force field. It had the other three reactors powering the thrusters.”

Chad pushed a button on his panel, “All pods, go to Alpha Energy Profile. I want all your rotary cannons disabled and disruptors powered by one reactor. Use the other three for your force field.” Chad ended the call and said, “Trio, that pod’s force field held up for a while?”

“Yes it did. If the readings are correct, that beam wouldn’t have penetrated a two reactor force field.”

Chad pressed his communicator again, “All battleships will use two reactors for thrusters and evenly divid the other two between force field and disruptors.” He ended the call and stared at the image on the wall monitor.

Jason Goddard said, “Sir, we’re not going to use our Dark Matter Weapons?”

“It appears that ship doesn’t have a magnetic field. The only way the DM weapons will work is if we can get extremely close to it and fire using our sights.” Chad looked at Audrey, “Did that ship leave a skip trail?”

“It did, Sir.”

Chad thought for a moment and said, “We aren’t going to follow it.”

Jason looked up from his weapon’s panel, “Why not, Sir?”

“Because technically, we are the invaders and I’m not going to run a risk of starting an all-out war with the locals. I think that ship may have left a skip trail to bait us into a trap. We’ll wait for them to show up again.”

“And then what?”

“Let them take another shot. We need to see their capabilities.” Chad looked at his panel, “Trio, have any void probes been put out?”

“No, they haven’t.”

Chad shook his head, “Audrey, contact Commodore Kay and tell him to get a line of probes out in the void.”

“Yes Sir.”

Chad glanced at his panel and saw fifty battleships break ranks and start moving toward the planet’s gravity well. A few moments later, they left normal space and skipped away. He leaned back in his command chair and waited for Julie’s fleet to arrive. He pressed his panel again and saw BG, “Commodore, I want five thousand of your pods detached. Assign a hundred of them to each of our colony ships. They will fly defensive cover for them from this moment forward.”

“Yes Sir”

Chad turned to his Electronics Officer, “Audrey, I want five hundred battleships moved from Commodore Adams group to assist with the defense of the colony ships.” Audrey turned to her console and began pressing buttons. Chad looked at the main tactical monitor and saw the thousands of glowing battleships moving into formation around the planet. Their disruptors were pulsating, powered up and ready to fire. He shook his head and pressed the general frequency again, “No one will fire their weapons without my approval. If you are attacked, you have free weapons, however, you will not fire unless your ship is being fired upon!” Chad thought for another moment and sighed. He pressed his panel and Commodore Graham appeared, “Admiral, how long have your ships been in orbit?”

“Three days, Sir.”

“Order half of them to go to Moon Base and take 24 hours to get some rest. When they return, send the other half. Tell those leaving for the moon that they are on active standby and to be prepared for an instant recall if we’re attacked.”

“Yes Sir. And thank you, Sir.”

Chad nodded and pressed the fleet general frequency, “Group A will go to the moon and take 24 hours of rest. They will be followed by group B, then C, and then D. If nothing happens, group A will go back in.”

Chad watched the tactical monitor and saw a quarter of his ships move out toward the closest moon. The other three Attack Groups spread out and filled in the gap caused by Group A’s departure. That ship hadn’t returned in three days. The probes would give him enough warning to get all his ships back in formation. The crews wouldn’t be at their best if their energy was sapped by the constant stress of sitting in orbit waiting for an attack. He needed them at their best.

“Second Fleet is arriving, Sir.”

Chad looked up and saw Julie’s fleet entering normal space. Good, now the coverage would be greatly enhanced, he thought. He’d decided to wait for Julie to move inside the gravity limit as he began issuing orders to his crew.

An hour later he heard, “Trio sent me a recording of what happened and the orders you’ve issued so far. I assume you want my fleet to move into defensive formations?”

“I do. If you’ll take the sun side of the planet and send a third of your ships to the moon to move in and take a break for 24 hours, I’ll send a corresponding number of ships to join them.”

“What do you think is going on?”

“It appears we are being scouted by a local civilization. They attacked a pod and left. I suspect they’ll be back and will be surprised by the arrival of our fleets.”

“Are we going to war so quickly?”

“I’m hoping we can avoid it. This may not be a planet we can stay on.”

“But we’ve put so much time and resources getting it ready.”

“We’re the invaders here. Let’s see what happens.”

“The Sentinels said this was a good place.”

“My belief that they are infallible is not as strong as most. We’ll have to wait and see what happens. Did your parents come earlier to be with you?”

“They’re on board now.”

“You may want to send them down to the surface with Summer. I suspect you’ll need to remain on duty until this situation is resolved.”

“I’ll leave a Defense Pod with them.”

“That’s a good idea. Make sure they understand that if they’re ordered off the planet to just leave everything behind and get out.”

“They know. I’ll get back in touch once my fleet is set up and organized.”

“That will be good. Set your reactor pattern to Able.”

“Will do.”

• • •

Ten days later, Audrey looked up from her panel, “I have multiple skip trails moving through the void toward the planet.”

Chad reached forward and pressed a blue button on his panel. On every battleship and pod the klaxons began blaring and a voice loudly announced, “ALL SHIPS TO BATTLESTATONS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! ALL SHIPS TO BATTLESTATIONS!”

Chad watched his tactical monitor and saw thousands of Battleships and Attack Pods start blasting off the moon’s surface and start boosting for the gravity limit. Chad stared at the monitor and smiled; the fleets were very well trained. He looked at Audrey and she said, “The incoming ships will arrive in another fifteen minutes.”

Chad nodded and put on his combat helmet. He activated the general frequency and said, “No one will fire unless I or Admiral Mitchell orders it!” He pulled up the probe’s feed and put it on his combat visor. The incoming ships weren’t moving at their full speed. The energy being used wasn’t near what they had demonstrated during the first attack. He looked at the main monitor and saw there were fifty skip trails moving toward the planet. Finally, they arrived three thousand miles out from the gravity limit and entered normal space. They stopped and remained in a tight formation. Chad looked at Audrey, “Find out what frequency they’re using to communicate.”

Audrey began pressing buttons on her panel and Chad looked at the Silver Ships hanging in formation. He knew they had to be communicating with each other. He looked at Audrey and she shook her head, “Sir, I don’t detect any frequency being used by those ships.” Chad looked back at the monitor and raised his eyebrows. They had to be communicating. It was confirmed a moment later when one of the Silver Ships moved out of the formation and began accelerating toward his formations. He looked at Audrey and she raised her hands and shrugged, “If they’re using a frequency, it’s not one I can detect.”

Chad saw the single Silver ship approaching and he shook his head. If they weren’t using a frequency to communicate, how were they… Chad looked up and focused his thoughts, “If you’re sending your ship to test us, I would highly recommend against it. We have no desire to fire on your vessel.” The single Silver Ship slowed and stopped. Chad took a breath and thought, “Why are you attacking my ships?”

Everyone in the human fleets heard mentally, “To determine if you’re worthy of communication.”

“Exactly how do you make that determination?”

“If we are unable to destroy your ships, you are worthy of communication.”

“I would think that the ones you couldn’t destroy would be a bigger danger to you. Why would you destroy those who can’t harm you?”

“To prevent them from becoming a danger.”

Chad had to admit he saw the logic of the statement but didn’t like where it was headed. “And what happens if you can’t destroy my ships?”

“We’ll open communication with you to allow you the opportunity to leave our domain.”

“Is there any way for me to negotiate a settlement that would allow us to stay?”

“No!”

“I want to make sure I understand what you’re saying. If my ships can defeat your vessels, how would you force us to leave?”

“We would call on our partners to combine against you.”

“And if we volunteer to leave, would you allow us to go in peace?”

“No, you must be punished for violating our space.”

“Is this planet that important to you? Are your planets over populated?”

“We do not live on planets. We live in our ships.”

“Then why would you want to stop us from using this one?”

“You represent a current or future danger to us; you must be removed.”

Chad looked around his bridge and shook his head, “I know where this is going.” He pressed his panel and said, “Greg, I don’t want to do this but I want you to take the Clearwater out to meet that ship. Use all of your reactors on the force field. I don’t want you to fire on that ship if you can avoid it.”

“It doesn’t sound like they’re going to give me a choice, Admiral.”

“There’s too much at stake here to make a mistake. Move your ship now!”

Chad looked at the tactical monitor and thought, “I’m sending one of my ships out for you to make the determination if we’re worthy of communication.”

“That would be good.”

The Clearwater moved outside the gravity limit and accelerated toward the silver vessel hanging in space. As it approached to within ten miles, the Silver Ship fired a massive red energy beam at the Clearwater. The beam struck the force field and splashed off. Chad looked at Audrey, “What do the sensors indicate?”

“The red beam is not nearly strong enough to overcome the force field, Sir.”

Chad turned back to the monitor as the Clearwater continued to move slowly in on the Silver Ship. It stopped less than half a mile from it and hung in space while the red beam continued to splash off its force field. “Why have you not returned our fire?”

“I have no desire to harm you.”

“Part of the determination is to see if you can.”

“I would prefer that we just assume we can and leave it at that. We do not believe in attacking those that are weaker than ourselves. We also don’t believe in attacking those that are stronger either; for more than the obvious reason. My species is not aggressive.”

“You will fire on that vessel or it will be ordered to your planet to attack those on the surface.”

Chad shook his head, “Why must it always come to a show of force where lives are lost?”

The Silver Ship ignited its thrusters and the Clearwater activated one of its disruptors and fired on the ship’s rear fins. The two top fins were vaporized and the thrusters shut down. “Sir, I know you ordered not to fire on that ship but I was close enough to hit it and possibly not harm the crew.”

Chad smiled, “That’s why I sent you out there, Greg.”

Two Silver Ships skipped in next to the damaged ship and extended a long arm that locked on each side of the wounded vessel. A moment later, all three ships skipped away. “You have qualified for communication. We demand that you leave our space immediately.”

“That will take some time. We’re fleeing a civilization that is attacking our home galaxy. We must find another place to move to.”