Nu Trilogy 1: The Esss Advance (33 page)

The three torpedoes struck the black pyramid only seconds apart, ripping large holes in it just below the water’s surface. Again, the oily slick extending out from the pyramid caught fire and spread northward until it ran out of fuel when the substance was too widely dispersed by the ocean waves. The submarines were already racing away in deep dives to avoid the oncoming holocaust from their countries’ first live combat nuclear missile launch.

Twelve minutes from the start of the attack, the pyramid started firing its lasers at the incoming missile, but they had no effect. Three seconds later, the pyramid was consumed in a thermonuclear explosion that lit up the skies for many kilometers around the blast zone. Even though the blast was half a kilometer offshore, no building remained standing on Babuyan Island, because it was well within the lethal blast zone of a one-megaton nuclear explosion.

Everything was recorded by satellite, with live feeds to both
Invincible
and the Council of Eight orbital platform, where cheers arose from around the council chamber. The aliens were not invincible after all! The cheering, however, was short-lived.

The master chronicler noted that module five had stopped transmitting even before the ship had come about completely. It sent a message to the master engineer to prepare another of the planetary re-engineering modules to replace module five.

There was little doubt in its mind that the locals had destroyed number five. Severe retaliation was now in order to stop these pests.

“Find me the point of origin of the missile that destroyed module five,” the master chronicler ordered.

This time, the master navigator was ready. It plugged the coordinates into the navigation system, and the ship veered northward to an area well inland and quite a distance away from the destroyed module.

As they neared the coordinates, the exterior camera’s view was displayed in the main projection tank, and the master chronicler saw the missile launch vehicle clearly. It was located in a thinly-populated area, so the master chronicler ordered a small strike to destroy the launcher and any locals in the immediate area.

“Now, bring us back to a course that matches the course of that missile. I want every major population center between the missile launcher and module five wiped out.”

As soon as the ship was on its new course, the carnage began. The ship released three missiles at each population center on its new heading, and there were many population centers in this area, as evidenced by the dense infrastructure of buildings and travel ways.

A few missiles rose from the surface and intercepted a small percentage of the total rained down upon the Chinese mainland. The launch point for every one of those antimissiles was also noted, and two salvos of three missiles each was sent to destroy those launch sites.

“This should send a clear message to the locals not to interfere with our re-engineering efforts,” the master chronicler trilled for the bridge recorder.

AlvaResh called the Nu advisory group together at their base well below the lunar surface on the far side of the moon. Their surroundings were Spartan, but they took no notice. Each Nu extended an appendage to connect with its compatriot on what the humans called their “right hand side.” Once all of the connections were made around the circle of individuals, the governor directed their thoughts to the predicament faced by the human race.

Every member of the team reported the sum total of its knowledge to the rest of the group so that all members were brought up to speed on the humans’ plans to combat the Esss. Then the question was posed. Were these humans capable of defending their system?

After heated discussions, it was decided that the humans needed to be given more time to demonstrate their innate aggressiveness and their cunning capabilities. It was agreed that the humans were far from being defeated. The Nu would watch developments closely over the next several months. If necessary, small interventions would be planned and executed to assist the humans. They also agreed it was still too soon to reveal themselves to humanity.

Governor AlvaResh ended the meeting after detailing assignments to each individual. AlbuTang was directed to return to his Space Navy duty station, where he had direct access to all of the intelligence the humans gathered. AlbuTang had been preparing for this moment for almost 10,000 years. He certainly hoped that all of the work the Nu had accomplished since the formation of this world would pay off.

END OF BOOK 1