First Admiral 02 The Burning Sun (21 page)

The third Display Screen, on his right, was the most important of the three. This gave Billy a graphic representation of the super-heated plasma as it streamed towards his position. He could rapidly switch the graphic image from a top to a side view of the advancing plasma streams, giving him a form of three-dimensional image that would allow him to anticipate where the hottest and heaviest concentrations were. He could then divert additional power from one sector to another as rapidly as possible to deflect the incoming plasma away from the Earth.

It all sounded so simple and straightforward in theory. The reality, however, was very much unknown territory. There were so many things that could potentially go wrong, Billy considered, as he waited for clearance from one of the huge Hangar Decks of the Aquarius. One of the generators could malfunction, the engineers might have miscalculated on the field strength required or the distance to deflect the material away from the planet or he might just be that fraction of a second too slow in dealing with a burst of plasma that would overwhelm the whole mechanism.

There were just too many unknown variables; but yet, here he was about to risk his life on the longest of long shots he had experienced to date. The part of his mind that was Teg Portan recoiled in horror from what he was about to attempt. The cold, hard-headed logic of Garmauria’s last Supreme Military Commander knew that the odds were just too heavily stacked against him, and that the sensible and correct choice was to walk away from the situation. He could evacuate his parents and family plus a few hundred thousand others, and, perhaps, a few token species of wildlife, domesticated animals, and plants. But, in his heart of hearts, Billy knew that he could not walk away from this. He had to try to save his home, his family and all of the other people on the Earth. If he did not, he knew that he would never be able to face himself in the mirror ever again. For that and for his home and family, he was ready to risk his life. He did not feel particularly heroic or noble in his actions. He was, he convinced himself, simply doing what hundreds, maybe thousands of generations of people had done before him.

In fact, he felt quite calm about the whole episode. This was mainly due to the effects of the Personal Environment Suit. Under normal circumstances he would be scared to death. But, the tens of thousands of microscopic machines in the PES, being attuned to his bodily functions, had detected the massive increase in blood pressure and hormonal activity. Having been designed to keep the body of the wearer at optimal performance levels, the PES had flooded his body with chemicals and radiation to counter-act these effects. So, even though he knew he was frightened, Billy did not experience the adverse physiological and psychological effects of his own fear. This would allow him to remain calm and focussed, able to perform to the very best of his abilities when normally he would be dissolving in terror. However, more important than the technological support of the PES, Billy also had the wisdom and experience of Teg Portan in is armoury. The decades of experience of the now-dead Garmaurian were more important to Billy than all of the vessels in the Alliance Fleet. Portan had been in more than a few dangerous situations in his long and illustrious career. And, Billy knew that he could rely on those instincts and memories in a crisis.

“Spearhead One, Spearhead One,” the voice of the Flight Controller broke into his consciousness, “you are cleared for launch.”

“Acknowledged,” Billy gave the simple one word response and activated the two Thrust-Engines that propelled the Black Rose when she was not using the Trion Drive. Gently, the Black Rose lifted about a metre from the grey metal deck and began to drift towards the great gaping maw of the Hangar Deck Access Door. This is it, Billy thought, no going back now. Taking a deep breath, he gently exhaled a long slow controlled breath and eased the Black Rose forward with his Thought Commands.

“Good luck, and, God Speed, Spearhead One,” the Flight Controller’s voice pushed Billy out into the cold hostile darkness of space.

Chapter 28

The Praxos System

Turthus Chulling, Second Admiral and Commander of the Universal Alliance’s Second Fleet paced confidently around the War Room of the Star-Cruiser Memphis. The emergence of the Star-Cruiser Caractacus from the Trionic Web now gave Chulling a formidable fighting force. In the short space of time since he had spoken to First Admiral Caudwell, his original rag-tag flotilla of five Star-Cruisers had mushroomed to a healthy two Fleet Carriers, the New Thexxia and the Leonidas, with a further fifteen Star-Cruisers to bolster the ranks.

For Chulling this was a force that could more than match the Bardomil invasion fleet that was approaching. After all, First Admiral Caudwell had eliminated a full Bardomil Imperial Fleet with two Star-Cruisers and six Explorers. And, although Chulling did not consider himself to be the tactical or strategic equal of First Admiral Caudwell, twenty Star-Cruisers and two Fleet Carriers could surely hold off four Bardomil Imperial Fleets. Looking at the arithmetic, certainly the Alliance was going to be outnumbered, but that seemed to be par for the course. The advantage of the Alliance’s force-shielding would surely make the coming battle a foregone conclusion.

Once more, Chulling worked the numbers in his mind and reached the same conclusion; that it was going to be a turkey-shoot. The four Imperial Fleets would bring almost forty Imperial Fighter Carriers each with around one hundred and fifty of the single-seat Harpoon fighters and fifty of the dangerous Flying Devil gunships. Of all the vessels the Bardomil could field, Chulling really wished that the Alliance had something that could match the Flying Devil. But, wishing didn’t win any battles, Chulling knew as he tallied up close to eight thousand Bardomil fighter craft. The protective screen for the vulnerable Imperial Fighter Carriers would bring around one hundred of the gull-winged M-Cruisers to the battle. But, given their primary function, Chulling suspected that they would play a very minor role in the contest. Once again, it would be a defensive battle where the Alliance could hunker down behind the force-shielding and annihilate the waves of Bardomil fighters that would be thrown at them.

With the two Alliance Fleet Carriers each bringing one thousand of the single-seat Eagle fighters plus each Star-Cruiser bringing sixty Eagle fighters, they were going to be outnumbered slightly more than two to one. But, with the Harpoons and Flying Devils eliminated, the Eagles and Star-Cruisers could harry and pursue the M-Cruisers and Imperial Fighter Carriers back to the main invasion force and then start killing an awful lot more of the Bardomil. And, as a Thexxian, Chulling had a lot of scores to settle with the Bardomil.

Setting aside his thoughts on the impending battle, Chulling turned his attention to the War Room of the Memphis. The six Staff Officers of Second Fleet were all present and correct around the War Table. They seemed quietly confident and quite relaxed given the situation. Most of them he had known for many years, sharing the hardships and troubles of the Thexxian Exodus. They too were eager to kill large numbers of Bardomil, and they waited expectantly for his orders to allow them to do just that. In the War Room itself, expectations were high amongst the personnel who populated the consoles that fed the information into this battle centre, with an edge of quiet confidence that lay over the usual pre-battle anxieties.

Turthus Chulling was just nodding his personal satisfaction to himself when a voice called out from the consoles that flanked the War Table.

“The enemy are now within long range video scanner capability, sir!” the Scanner Technician reported.

“Excellent,” Chulling replied, “let’s have a look at our guests, activate War Table please.”

A moment later, the entire War Room was plunged into darkness with only the harsh lighting of the War Table to allow Chulling and his staff to see the tiniest detail on the projected image as the battle progressed. Above the War Table, a large image flickered for a few moments and then cleared to show a three-dimensional representation of the approaching Bardomil force.

Chulling saw exactly what he had expected to see in the approaching Bardomil dispositions. Two large groups of space vessels were approaching the Praxos system. The first group would be the strike force, Chulling considered, whilst the second, much larger, group would be the actual invasion forces with their supplies in tow. Lifting the Manipulator control in his right hand, Chulling focussed his attention on the strike force. A straggling cordon of Flying Devil scout vessels led the fighting armada followed by more Flying Devils in a long ‘V’ formation to protect the main strike force. It was a classic Bardomil tactical advance. Behind the ‘V’ of Flying Devils, the M-Cruisers formed a circular pattern around a rectangular block of Imperial Fighter Carriers, whilst a line of Flying Devils brought up the rear.

So far, so good, Chulling considered and switched the War Table image to scrutinise the larger body. Four, long straggling columns of vessels made up the Bardomil invasion force. Thousands upon thousands of troop transport and supply ships were snaking their way towards the frontier. Each column, tens of thousands of kilometres long, consisted of two lines of troop transports flanked on each side by two lines of supply vessels.

Staggered by the sheer size of the invasion force, Chulling stepped back from the War Table to take in the sheer scale of the invasion.

“Looks like they’re planning to stay a while, sir?” one of his staff Officers quipped, still awed by the scale of what was unfolding before them, as the others laughed politely.

“When we’re through with them, they’ll be staying permanently, as part of the scenery,” another Officer quipped, drawing louder laughter.

“Scanners, do we have numbers for their troop transports?” Chulling asked, still smiling.

“Initial estimate indicates close to two hundred thousand,” a Scanner Officer replied nervously.

For a moment the whole War Room seemed to draw an astonished breath as Chulling did the mental arithmetic.

“That’ll be close to five million troops!” one of the staff Officers beat Chulling to the total.

Suddenly, the mood around the War Table changed as the magnitude of this support force sank into their minds. The quips immediately stopped as each of them marvelled at the enormity of it.

“They’re not just planning to strike the five systems are they, sir?” a more nervous junior staff Officer asked.

“No, they’re not,” Chulling replied anxiously, his previous optimism rapidly receding.

“Do you think they’ll go after New Thexxia?” the Officer asked.

“No, don’t be stupid, the planetary defences are far too powerful,” another Officer replied.

“But, the colonies aren’t,” a third voice chimed up reminding them all of the vulnerability of the four fledgling colonies that the Thexxians had established since the founding of the Alliance.

“They can bottle us up on New Thexxia and just keep chipping away until they find a way through,” another commented gloomily.

“The five systems will be just the start,” another Officer speculated amidst anxious murmuring.

“Right, gentlemen, that’s enough!” Chulling stamped down ruthlessly on the spreading pessimism, “when we’ve all stopped wetting ourselves about the big bad bogey-man eating our heads, let’s get ready to kick their backsides” he snapped and held the Officers to silence for a long moment as they shuffled anxiously.

“What’s their convoy support looking like Scanners?” Chulling asked trying to sound business-like.

“Large numbers of Flying Devils, M-Cruisers, and Imperial Fighter Carriers,” the Scanner Officer replied from the darkness of a now tense War Room.

“How many Fighter Carriers?” Chulling asked.

“About twenty, sir,” the Scanner Officer replied.

“So, another two Imperial Fleets,” Chulling speculated absent-mindedly, “Comms, get a message off to Aquarius with the size and dispositions of the enemy”

“Yes, sir,” a female voice called from the darkness.

“Scanners, how long to contact?” Chulling asked.

“About six minutes, sir,” the Scanner Officer replied

“Well, gentlemen,” Chulling took hold of the situation, “we’re expecting visitors; I suggest we give them a warm welcome.”

“Sir!” the staff Officers snapped to attention.

“Let’s roll out a very special welcome mat for them. Let’s get the Star-Cruisers into position with Fleet Carriers to the rear,” Chulling began and set down the War Table Manipulator.

“Do we launch Eagles, sir?” one of the staff Officers piped up.

“Not yet,” Chulling instructed, “put the pilots on stand-by and have their machines ready for immediate launch; now go!”

“Sir,” the staff Officers responded and scattered like chaff in the wind to carry out their instructions.

Turning back to the War Table image, Chulling once again marvelled at the sheer size of the Bardomil force. And, as he scrutinised the images before him he remembered a well-worn phrase often used by the First Admiral.

The bigger they come, the harder they fall.

Chapter 29

The Terran System

Out in front of the rapidly-advancing waves of plasma, Billy Caudwell drew the Black Rose to her designated position. To his right, Billy could view the dull orange orb of Mercury. Behind him, to his left, had he chosen to look in that direction, the deeper red of Venus would have been visible. However, one hundred and fifty kilometres behind him, the five, two-kilometre wide, octagonal Star-Destroyers that formed the base of the protective umbrella, were preparing for the forthcoming action. The crews had been briefed and everyone knew what was expected of them. The atmosphere aboard all of the Alliance vessels was tense, but calm. Arranged at their stations, in their pentagonal formation, the five huge Star-Destroyers, Colossus, Titan, Atlas, Hercules and Zeus, looked like an impenetrable wall. But, Billy and every single crew member aboard the huge slab-sided planet-killers knew that they were facing powerful forces that could sweep them away as easily as a child scattering twigs.