Escape to Earth-Living Legends (4 page)

“All of the wings that have been practicing for the assault are being assembled as we speak. The six Heavies are being armed with their rounds and should be ready to go within four hours.”

“What about the Sentinels?” Michael focused and thought, “Pat!”

“I’ve contacted nine of my brothers and they are being taken there on Silver Ships. Piper is coming to pick me up and we’ll be ready to go before the Heavies are loaded.”

“Thanks Pat. Averel, how did we miss this?”

“It’s not Jeeren’s fault, Commander. He did everything by the book but the Legend did not issue any orders to install the reactors. The builders just followed a blue print without being issued orders.”

“Then how did we find out about this?”

Averel sighed mentally, “Hengel showed up to relieve him and none of us are as good as he is at seeing things. He ignored the Legend and focused on the ones building that ship. He listened for complaints about having to work in heavy, bulky radiation suits. He found them and learned they’re going to complete the installation in six days. The ship will then be fully operational.”

“Hengel will not be scouting anymore!”

“But Commander! He didn’t make this mistake.”

“He will come here and teach scouts how to do what he does! We can’t depend on him to do it all. He has to teach others what he knows.”

“Did you say come here?”

“I did.”

“Oh, by all means he should be made a teacher.”

“Averel, are you being selfish?”

“I already miss him. Having him here will be a dream come true.”

“Who’s in command of the assault ships?”

“Audrey has selected the top pilots from her fleets to participate. Laney will be in direct command of the assault.”

“Then I know they’ll be up to the task. I’m skipping out to take a look at what’s going on.”

“I’ll notify Admiral Stone of your departure.”

“Have she and Laney contact me when everyone is ready to go.”

“Yes Sir.”

• • •

Michael took the elevator to the top of the building and saw Angelo hovering three feet of the landing pad. He sprinted into the open port and it slammed shut behind him. He ran to the bridge and went to the command chair, “Get us to that planet!” The Two hundred yard long Battle Pod shot off the top of the building and moved through the atmosphere at slightly less than the speed of sound. It went into the barrier while still in the atmosphere and the sound of air rushing into the place it disappeared from caused a massive thunderclap. Michael looked at the monitor and saw the Virgo Cluster pass in an instant. In another twenty seconds, the glowing ship slowed and stopped half a million miles from the Legends’ Planet where the monster ship was being built. “Show me what you’ve got, Angelo.”

An image of the planet appeared on the tactical monitor and it was still too far away to see details…but…it was easy to see the millions of Black ships around the planet even from that distance. “Do you have the status of the assault force?”

“The ships are completing their formations now. We still have a few hours before the Heavies are armed.”

“Michael!”

“Yes Luke.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m at the Legends’ Planet.”

“Alone?”

“The others will arrive in a few hours.”

“I can’t order you to do anything now but I am going to insist that you assign a bodyguard to your ship before any other attack. I’m asking you to do this because I love you.” Michael sighed. “Your father didn’t want one either but you know accepting one turned out to be one of the best things he did. Please do this for me.”

“I’ll talk with you about it when I get back.”

“But…”

“I’m not saying no. I just want to discuss it, ok?”

“Plan to see me as quick as you get back.”

“Luke, there’ll be some things I have to do after the smoke clears on this operation but I promise I’ll meet with you before I go out again.”

“That’s good enough.”

“Commander.”

“Fleet Admiral, are your warships ready to launch?”

“They are. The Heavies are having their cannons loaded and will be ready to go shortly.”

“Audrey, we have got to develop a faster way to get them ready!”

“The only safe place to do it is out in open space beyond the Solar System. Those rounds are temperamental and it’s a slow process getting them into the barrels.”

“I know, but if we intend to use them, we need to have them ready.”

“Perhaps we should just assign he ships to the munitions center and keep some of them loaded. We can always skip the crews in.”

Michael thought about it and sighed, “Then we’d have to leave a heavy guard to prevent them being taken by an invader. Have we not developed another round that would do the trick?”

“Not yet. There’s also something I’ve just been told by Hengel that causes me some concern.”

“What is that?”

“He’s heard some of the Black Ship commanders talking about the portable force field that’s been placed around that ship. He’s of the opinion that if one of the heavy rounds doesn’t penetrate the force field, the ship may not be harmed because of the blast the heavy round will cause around it.”

Michael didn’t like hearing that. “That means the heavies will have to have a clear shot at it.”

“It does.”

“So six groups with one heavy in each group will attack the ship?”

“Yes Sir.”

“I really hope that Legend sends the bulk of its fleets out to the Sentinels.”

“I agree. Otherwise, we’ll have to fight our way in close.”

“Does Laney know about the force field?”

“She does and she’ll be informing the assault fleets that they must get a clear shot in from at least one of the heavies.”

“If they fire and the round hits a Black Ship…”

“The blast from it will prevent the other rounds from making it to the ship.”

“We shouldn’t have waited. They didn’t have that force field earlier.”

“It is what it is, Commander. We have a good team going in.”

“I hope you’re right.”

• • •

“Sir, the six assault fleets along with their heavies are skipping in and will be waiting in the barrier for the Sentinels to make an appearance.”

Michael thought, “Pat, the fleets will be here in a minute. Are you ready?”

“Piper is in contact with Admiral Blaine and will wait on her to tell us when to go.”

“Thanks, Pat. Put on a good show.”

“We’ll make a face at him.”

“If you had a tongue I’d tell you to stick it out at him.”

“Oh, I think we can get his attention.”

“I imagine you can!”

• • •

Michael looked at his tactical monitor and said, “Angelo, I want to hear any orders issued by the Elder.”

“I’ll send them to you. I’ll skip in closer once the attack begins so you will have a better view of what happens.”

“That would be good.”

“Laney has just sent the order to the Sentinels, they’re on their way in.”

Michael listened and discovered he didn’t need Angelo to send the thoughts; he could hear them. The ten Silver Ships came out of the barrier on the opposite side of the planet from the giant black warship and the Sentinels moved out of them. Pat yelled, “Hey, are you planning a party for my arrival!”

The other Sentinels added their thoughts and he heard the Legend Elder scream, “ALL FLEETS MEET THOSE BEINGS AND FIRE ON THEM!!”

Angelo skipped in closer but stayed in the barrier. Michael saw millions of Black Ships move toward the Sentinels’ location at their fastest speed. He ignored them and stayed focused on the giant black ship in orbit above the planet. Most of the ships around it flashed away but the inner wall stayed in place. He shook his head. Those ships must have been given standing orders to go nowhere without a direct order from the Elder and he was too frightened to issue any orders except to go and kill the Sentinels. They stayed in place. The Battle Pods were going to have to fight their way through their ranks. The explosions started immediately.

Michael had seen everything in his father’s mind during the battles that raged in the Virgo Cluster and the Local Group. He saw the first invasion in Chris’s memory along with the destruction of all human life on Earth. He actually saw the videos of the battles his father participated in and he never lost one. The attack on the Goran scared his father in a way that he would never forget. The destruction of the Legends’ Planet in M-87 was actually anti-climactic to that attack. He saw what his father saw and during his years in the Fleet Academy, he pulled the files and recordings of all the fleet actions and knew most of them from memory. Luke was right about one thing, he was a warrior at heart and he always tried to find a better way to have fought those initial battles.

But now, he could only standby and watch the Alliance Forces move in and attack. There wasn’t going to be anything subtle about it. The use of the Sentinels was the one subterfuge and it failed to get all the fleets surrounding the Elder’s vessel to leave it undefended. He tried to follow the action around the giant ship but the swarming fleets of ships were impossible to follow. One thing he knew for certain, if the giant ship wasn’t destroyed quickly, it probably wouldn’t be destroyed at all. The ships that went out after the Sentinels would arrive and find them gone. They would immediately return to defend the huge warship. He knew the six fleets would attack simultaneously from six different directions. Four would move in from the four sides of the giant while the other two would come in from above and below. So far, the heavies had not fired their massive rounds.

• • •

Watching a space battle from a distance was simultaneously beautiful and agonizing. The brilliant explosions as warships died was beautiful, if you could divorce yourself from the loss of life each blast represented. In a battle this large, it looked like the finale of a giant fireworks show that never seemed to end. The brilliant reds, blues, whites, and yellows produced by the various systems used by a warship when it died were incredible to see. The flashes around the giant Legend vessel were too numerous to count.

Suddenly, the Alliance Battle Pods disappeared an instant before a giant explosion erupted above the planet. The blast was one of the largest he had ever seen, if not the largest. None of those he remembered studying in the Academy matched the gigantic flash. The blast ripped into the Black Ships still around the giant vessel, blew through the planet’s atmosphere, and hit the surface. The Fleet’s attack was successful; the giant black vessel was vaporized by the heavy’s round. He yelled, “Get us out of here!!” He saw some of the Black Ships that had gone out after the Sentinels were fleeing from the shockwave the giant explosion created and were moving in his direction. He was out of the Legends’ galaxy in an instant and headed back to Earth.

• • •

“Pat, it appears every defensive structure on that continent where the Legend is located has been obliterated. The Legends’ residence is still intact but the ground disruptors are gone.”

“The force field around the residence is incredible to withstand that blast, Piper.”

“I don’t see anything near the planet to stop you from going in.”

Pat slid out of Piper’s hull and took a quick look at the planet below them. Piper was right. “I’ll be gone for just a few moments; I’ll contact you for pickup shortly.” Pat moved down to the planet’s surface in an instant. He went through the force field and arrived inside the Elder’s main chamber a second later. He saw the Legend Elder at his control boards and smiled, “Hey, take a break!”

The Elder screamed as Pat extended his field and shocked it. The Elder collapsed to the floor. The Elder’s fear was paralyzing and Pat thought to it, “Will you shut up with the screaming. I’m not going to kill you if you shut the hell up!” The Legends’ screams abruptly ended. It lay on the floor quivering. Pat decided killing him wasn’t worth it. This Elder’s mind was frozen by its fear. He mentally shrugged and thought, “It has been brought to my attention that you have been planning to come to my domain without permission. I came here to let you know that is not something you, or any of those like you, should do. I’ll let you live this time but next time I will kill you. If I see you building another ship to invade, it will be the last thing you do.” The Legend continued to shake on the floor and Pat left the giant chamber and called in Piper. Piper flashed in and Pat moved inside the silver ship’s hull as it flashed back into the barrier and disappeared.

“Did you kill it?”

“No, killing it would waste him. I believe his fear will do more benefit than just ending its life.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Pat, if you have an enemy by the throat, you should remove it. Especially a species like this one.”

“If this doesn’t work out, I’ll kill the next one.”

• • •

Michael pressed a button on his console, “Averel.”

“Yes Sir.”

“I want the recordings of this battle collected and have Fleet Intelligence prepared to deliver a presentation of what happened in my office in the morning. Ask Luke if he’ll lead the presentation.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Do we have an estimate of casualties?”

“We lost a little more than six thousand ships, Sir.”

Michael shook his head, “That many?”

“Sir, we were outnumbered twenty to one. Most of the losses happened at the point of each fleet’s attack. Blowing a path through that many ships proved to be much more difficult than we anticipated. Unfortunately, all of our damaged ships that weren’t able to escape into the barrier were destroyed when the target went up.”

“What about enemy ship losses?”

“Twenty thousand in the fight to break through and another half of a million when the target exploded. The blast killed far more of the Legend’s warships than our ships.”

“I want the Senior Admirals there in the morning to view the presentation.”

“Yes Sir. I’ll notify them now.”

“Where to Michael?”

“Angelo, take me to my quarters. I need some down time.” He thought about Hawaii but knew he should stay near Operations in the event Intelligence needed him. He sighed and shook his head at the loss of freedom with his new position. The waves would have to wait for this to war to end before he could feel the freedom of riding a really large wave.