Mike's War: Sequel to Jesse's Starship (19 page)

• • •

Jennings, Rizzo, and Bolton were in the back three carriers. They were the regiment’s best shots and they raised the barrels of their machine guns and estimated the elevation needed to drop their shells on the chasing aircraft. Dave had a flier feeding the belt and he raised the barrel at an impossible angle and fired a brief volley. The lead Beamship exploded as the shells hit the blaster it was firing. The flier looked at Dave, “That shot was impossible.”

“Tell me about it.” Dave fired another volley and another Beamship exploded. Dave shook his head. If those ships came within three miles, their blasters would take out the carriers. The carriers were moving at a steep angle and were now fifteen thousand feet above the ocean and their speed was increasing. Rizzo and Jennings had hit two of the chasers but most of their shots missed. At twenty thousand feet, the Beamships were almost three miles behind. Dave reached behind him and pulled a stinger up to his shoulder. He looked at the Flier, “Do you know how to use one of these?”

The Flier nodded, “Activate it and wait for the red light in the site to illuminate.”

“Take one and aim at the closest one on the right. I’ll take the one on the left. We’ll save the last one for the final run into orbit.” Dave pressed the activate button and saw the red light in the site start flashing. He pulled the trigger and the stinger shot out of the shoulder mount. Dave threw the mount over the side of the carrier to help reduce weight and the stinger flew into the Beamship and exploded on its force field. There was a momentary pause and Dave thought the missile wouldn’t work but then the Beamship exploded in a massive blast as the other Beamship beside it blew up.

The carriers were at sixty thousand feet and were able to maintain their distance from the chasers that were slightly more than four miles behind them. Dave knew they were going to make it but he took the last Stinger and smiled, “This one’s for Sparta.” The missile roared away and the lead Beamship blew up in another large explosion. The remaining chasers stopped and turned around. They were not equipped to go into space. Dave pressed his communicator and said, “The transport has just arrived and we’ve made it into orbit with no losses, Sir.”

Every warrior on Fippen and on Sparta cheered.

• • •

Adams said, “I have four Gracken Warships jumping in and are moving on the Transport.”

The ten Raptors had rearmed and had come back thirty minutes earlier and they jumped in on the four Gracken ships and opened fire with their 20 mm Gatling Guns. The Gracken ships were focused on the huge transports and saw the Raptors too late to respond. The four warships were hit with a hundred 20 mm sliver shells and they blew through their hulls and ignited fires on board. The two Q ships arrived a moment behind the Raptors and basted two of the warships with their 120 mm shells. The two ships broke apart and exploded piecemeal. The other two damaged warships managed to jump away before they were destroyed.

Mike saw the engagement and yelled, “Get those carriers on board now!!”

“We’ll have them in another ten minutes.”

“Adams, Jesse, I want you out of there. They’ll be sending an overwhelming force against you shortly.”

Adams looked at Mike on his display and said, “Jesse, you should go; Jeanette and I are not going to leave as long as our warriors are alive on the planet.”

“Adams, I’m giving you a direct order to get out of there!”

“Mike, what are the only assets we have to assist our troops on the ground?” Mike stared at Adams in silence. “I will not abandon them.”

“Elle and I are staying as well, Sir.”

Mike stared at the display and looked at Tilly, “How many Q ships have human crews?”

“Including us?”

“Yes.”

“Ten.”

“Call our ship, Tilly. Order the other ships to join us at that planet. Adams is right. Our warriors deserve the best we can do to protect them.”

“Sir, I strongly suggest you stay here.”

“Alex, if we don’t make it, you will be the new Commandant.”

“Mike, don’t do this. You’re too important!”

“Alex, no one is more important than those we send out to fight for us. The Q ships and Raptors are the only assets we have to use to help our ground forces. We are going to do everything we can to help them. I’ll not stand by and watch them bombarded from space.”

Tilly stood and smiled at Mike, “The ship is on the pad upstairs.”

Mike took Tilly’s hand and looked at Janet, “You will take Tilly’s place…”

“I know, I know; if you don’t make it. Just make sure you do!”

Mike smiled as he ran up the steps toward the landing pad on the roof.

• • •

The ten Q ships arrived above Fippen and Adams smiled, “How do you want to do this?”

Mike keyed the frequency, “Does everyone have the 120s installed?”

“We all do, Sir.”

“I want us to form a half globe above the planet where our ground forces are located. We will lock our computers into Jesse’s and it will direct the fire at any Gracken ships that come to attack our ground forces. Peter, will our overlapped fields increase their strength?”

“They will, Commandant. It will allow us to fire at them inside two miles.”

“Will our overlapping fire make it a problem for them to move inside that range?”

“I suspect we can hit them at four miles with a well-placed salvo.”

“Don’t waste our munitions.”

“I’ll make them count. I now detect more than fifty Gracken Warships have jumped in a hundred miles away.”

“Move that transport under our ships, now!”

The giant transport moved slowly under the Q ships and continued boarding the carriers. Only ten remained and they were moving quickly toward the huge landing bay.

“Six of them have jumped; load your cannons.”

Three Gracken ships broke into space two miles to each side of the transport. The cannons on the Q ships fired at their disturbance before they appeared and two 120 mm shells hit each of the six ships. The explosions blew the six ships into three pieces and they began burning as they began falling toward the planet.

Mike yelled at the Transport, “Crash those carriers into your landing bay and get out here; that’s an order!”

The last carrier accelerated into the landing bay and hit the far wall. The warriors on board still had their force fields on and weren’t hurt but the bulkhead had a huge dent in it. The transport’s jump field appeared and a moment later the giant vessel disappeared. Mike blew out a breath and pressed a button on his console, “General Daniels, your troops have jumped to safety.”

Derek looked up at the sky and smiled, “Thank you, Sir. I know I speak for all of us here that we greatly appreciate you taking care of them.”

Mike smiled and knew there wasn’t much he could do to help those trapped on the planet.”

T
he Gracken Planet Commander was watching the feed come in from his warships. He saw that the pacifiers had failed to destroy the force field complex and that the invaders had killed all of them. He saw that the force field was covering a much smaller area than before. It usually covered the entire city but now it only covered the beach just outside the city limits. He looked at his secondary panel and saw the field was much more powerful than before. He shrugged. Power increased with the square of distance.

He looked back at the view from space and saw that thousands of the city’s inhabitants were leaving and following the river north. “Do you want us to fire on the refugee’s, Commander?”

The Commander knew this support officer was going to have to go. He pulled his blaster and shot him through the head. The lifeless body fell to the floor. He looked around his command center and said, “Are any of you smart enough to answer the former Support Officer’s question?”

A female said, “If we kill the refugees, who are going to provide the food for those working in the mines?”

The Commander stared at the female and said, “You are now my Support Officer. I hope you don’t ask me a stupid question.”

“The dumbest question is the one you should ask but don’t, Commander.”

The Commander’s eyebrows lowered but he saw the female was not intimidated. “Very good. I hope you’re wise enough to know the difference.” The commander turned back to his panel and saw the strange beings had set up a formation to meet his forces. He had requested the fleet to bombard the force field in conjunction with his air assets but was told that eleven ships had been destroyed and two severely damaged by some kind of new weapon being used by the attackers. It appeared the force field would not stop what they were shooting. He wondered if that was also true of the weapons being used by the enemy forces at the beach. Whoever commanded them was pretty smart. The only way to get at his forces was to come down the four main streets that ran through the city. His forces would be congested and an easy target. He also couldn’t use his heavy blasters. They were too large to roll down the streets. He noticed that the enemy formation left an open area in front of the four streets so if the blasters fired, the beams would miss them. He did notice that one of their large mobile vehicles was in front of the approaching streets. They evidently thought it could stand up to a heavy blaster. It probably could if the blaster was firing from more than six miles away. That’s how far the western edge of the city was from the beach.

There was no way to get at them with his heavy weapons. He was going to have to send in his warriors and see if they could take them out…but not until that force field was removed.

• • •

An hour later, the Planetary Commander received bad news. The Commander of the Beamships appeared on his console, “Commander, we are at a standoff with the force field.”

“What do you mean?”

“The force field is close to failing but is able to recharge enough to withstand the beams we’re firing at it.”

“Well move in closer.”

“That’s the problem. If we move lower than four miles, those long weapons on the large mobile vehicles will shoot us down. If we lose any more ships, then we will not be able to bring the force field down. We need your assistance. It can’t take much more before it collapses. If you could fire your heavy beams at it, it might be enough.”

“I can’t move my heavy beams into the city; the streets are too narrow.”

“Then if you can get your warriors to fire enough of their shoulder weapons from close range that might make it happen.”

The Commander knew he had no choice. If he refused to send in his warriors, the Elders would execute him for cowardice. “How close do they need to be to cause it to fail?”

“Ten thousand at a hundred yards should do it.”

The Commander didn’t know the capability of the enemy’s weapons but huge numbers weren’t required to make it happen. He looked at his Support Officer, “Send the first Grip.”

The female lifted her communicator and began issuing orders.

• • •

“General Daniels.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Our scanners show more than thirty thousand Gracken Warriors are moving into the city on side streets. My ship’s computer tells me that your force field is holding against those aircraft. If they had one more in the air, it would have probably failed. The ones shot down by your escaping carriers are what has made the difference. I suspect they’re sending those warriors in to fire their weapons to bring it down.”

“Thank you, Sir. We’ll do what we can to prevent that happening.”

• • •

Derek pressed his communicator, “We have 30,000 Gracken Warriors saddling up to come riding in to our corral. There’s only four routes through the buildings so I want seven tanks assigned to each street. I want you to ripple fire your antipersonnel rounds and don’t slow down until they stop coming. I’m of the opinion that once those mahogany hulks start discharging their hormones they’ll not stop. I want every fire zone around those streets covered by the infantry’s shoulder blasters. I want levels of fire so that you cover every zone from four feet to twenty feet off the ground. Officers, notify me when you have your zones assigned.” Derek looked at Halley and pulled her into his arms and kissed her.

“What was that for?”

“I’ve been wanting to do that for a long time. I figured now was a good time.”

Halley shook her head, “You should have done this in training camp. We’ve wasted a lot of time.” Halley smiled and started walking to the right, “I’ll take Rizzo’s command.” Derek nodded and turned toward Jennings’ Battalion.

Romanov assigned his tanks and issued orders, “I want the ripple timed such that the first tank in each group is firing immediately after the last. We are going to have to keep them off the beach and force field complex. Load up and set your rounds to explode fifty yards from the street.”

• • •

“Mike, why aren’t those warships attacking?”

“I don’t know Jesse. I think we have them worried.”

Tilly thought a moment and said, “Hot Shot, can you tell which one of those ships is the command vessel?”

“Most of their communications are being sent by the large warship in the center of the formation.”

Adams heard the exchange and said, “Would it be possible to hit that ship from this range?”

Bowen entered the conversation, “Get real, Adams. They’re fifty miles away. That shot is impossible.”

Tuffy said, “It’s difficult, but not impossible.”

Everyone on the channel was silent. After a moment Tilly said, “I made the suggestion to pass some time. You don’t seriously think you could hit that ship, do you?”

“It’s not moving. There isn’t anything to cause the shot to deviate; we’re in zero gravity and there’s no atmosphere. Aiming will be the most difficult part. Of course, the shell will take twenty five seconds to get there which will allow it plenty of time to get out of the way.”

Mike thought about the idea and said, “Hot Shot, how far can you extend your force field?”

“My datacenter says the shield can be extended forty miles in space. Why do you ask?”

Mike’s eyebrows lowered, “What if you extend your force field as soon as we fire the shell. What do you think those ships would do?”