Sullivan Saga 3: Sullivan's Watch (13 page)

Ives peeked back out and saw the three aliens Gail had been firing at. She had felled them all without a single shot wasted. He swung his head around as the sound of energy weapons continued. The two men across the street were exchanging constant fire with the other three aliens.

Ives watched as one of the men fell, the side of his torso blown away.

Gail redirected her fire toward the other group of aliens and began firing. One of the aliens dropped, and the other two ducked into an alley.

“They were pretty bold, coming at us like that,” Gail said.

“They didn’t expect us to have these weapons. I hate to say it, but I don’t think they’ve faced much resistance from civilians so far.”

“They thought we’d be easy targets.”

Ives nodded. “But we have to finish those two. We can’t give them a chance to call for reinforcements.”

Ives ran across the street and checked for a pulse from the fallen man. He was dead. Ives picked up the alien weapon the man had been carrying and signaled back to Gail to move out of the doorway. “What’s your name again?” he asked the other man who’d gone across the street.

“Carl.”

“Follow me, Carl. Stay behind me.”

As Ives and Carl moved toward the alley, Gail kept pace with them on the opposite side of the street. When Gail reached a large tree, Ives signaled for her to stop and stay behind it. From her position, he guessed that Gail could just see partway into the alley but would be out of sight of the deeper recesses, where he suspected the aliens to be positioned.

Ives reached the side of the alley and halted. He gestured for Carl to stay put, took a deep breath then sprinted across to the side of the next building. He heard an energy weapon go off and felt the heat of the shot as it passed behind him.

He pressed his back against the building and glanced across the street to Gail. He could see in her body language that his plan was working. She was tense, the weapon raised, and she was tracking something. At least one of the aliens was trying to sneak up to the corner to ambush Ives.

Gail fired, and Ives heard the alien fall against the side of the building then to the ground. He swung around and aimed his weapon into the alley and began firing. The first few shots hit a dumpster, but the other alien was ready for the attack. It slipped behind the dumpster and remained hidden, waiting for Ives to make the next move.

Ives gestured for Carl to cover him then dropped to the ground and crawled forward a foot. He paused to watch and listen then kept moving forward toward the dumpster.

The alien poked its head out, but Carl fired, sending it back into cover. Ives used the opportunity to spring up, dash forward and round the side of the dumpster, his gun at the ready. He fired, but the alien pushed him back, sending the shot into the side of the building. Concrete dust rained down on Ives as he dropped to a knee and rammed the barrel of the gun into the alien’s torso. The alien began to fall, and Ives fired again, gouging a clean hole through its body.

Ives got to his feet and kicked the gun away from the alien’s hands. Gail ran up behind him and looked down, making sure it was dead.

Ives let out a breath. “Good work. Let’s hide the bodies in this dumpster. We don’t want any more of them to know there’s a resistance in this area.”

“Don’t you think they’re all in communication? They might already know we’re here,” Gail said.

“Possibly. If that’s the case, though, we now have six more of their weapons to use against them. Now we can make a stand.”

Gail smiled. “I like the way you think, Agent Ives.”

“It’s Jeff.” He held her gaze for a moment before turning back to the dead alien. “Let’s get to work.”

ADMIRAL RYAN LONG gave the order, and the large screen on the bridge of the
Vigilant
came on. An audible gasp spread throughout the bridge as the crew realized what they were seeing.

“It’s at least fifty percent larger than the other ship we faced, sir.”

Long rubbed his chin. “So I see. But the size of the ship doesn’t matter. The plan is still the same, ladies and gentlemen. Let’s get into low orbit so Earth’s defenses can get into the action.”

The bridge erupted in activity as the
Vigilant
prepared for battle.

“I want the
Izumo
and the
Oberon
to fly wide and flank that ship. If they can draw some of their fire, it’ll give us a chance to punch through.”

The
Vigilant
moved toward the Earth, away from the alien ship. As Long had hoped, it followed. He carefully monitored the alien ship’s altitude, waiting for it to come within range of the orbital defense stations. The previous battle had taken place too far out for them to be of any use. Moving this battle so close to the Earth meant there would be a significant amount of debris raining down on the planet, but if it defeated the threat, any damage or loss of life on the ground would be a small price to pay.

Long looked down at the small monitor in front of him. The
Izumo
and the
Oberon
were moving into position without drawing any attention from the alien vessel. It didn’t seem concerned with the smaller ships. Long didn’t yet know if this was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Enemy is within range of orbital defense stations, sir.”

“Good. Order them to fire everything they have.”

On the large screen, explosions began erupting around the alien ship. The orbital defense stations were armed with the same missiles that were aboard the
Vigilant
. Long knew the missiles hadn’t penetrated the last ship’s shield, but there was always a chance they were weakening it, bit by bit. He hoped the increased firepower from the defense stations would make a difference. The alien ship’s shield seemed to hold, however, and it appeared unaffected.

“Let’s turn up the heat,” Long said. “Fire all missiles. Order the
Izumo
and the
Oberon
to do the same.”

The screen went white as the missiles from the ships joined those of the defense stations. The barrage lasted nearly a full minute. When the picture came back, the alien ship was unmarred. It continued toward the
Vigilant
as though nothing had happened.

Long frowned. “Get me Commander Pickett.”

“Ready, sir,” said the communications officer.

“Commander?”

“Yes, Admiral.”

“That’s all we can do with the missiles. We need to get through that shield. Watch for them to launch their missiles or fighters. That might give you a way in.”

“Understood, sir. We’ll do everything we can. Pickett out.”

Pickett checked his instruments as the launch countdown began. He took several deep breaths and glanced at Lieutenant Kern in the fighter next to him. Kern flashed a thumbs up, and Pickett smiled, returning it.

“Here we go,” he said as the countdown clock reached zero.

His F-66 was launched from the
Vigilant
, and he quickly banked toward the enemy. As if in response, the alien ship launched its own fighters.

“We’re not flatfooted this time,” he said into his microphone. “We know how these things move; we know the range and power of their weapons. Let’s stay calm and keep it tight.”

“Bringing the
Vigilant
to a full stop,” he heard Admiral Long say in his headset.

“Yes, sir,” Pickett said. “You give ’em a nice juicy target, and we’ll go in for the kill when they take the bait.”

Pickett’s squadron engaged the first of the alien fighters. He fired his thirty-millimeter cannons, trying to save his missiles for the assault on the mothership. He quickly took out one enemy fighter and, after a short chase, a second.

He checked his display and saw that the rest of his squadron had come out of the skirmish as well.

“Well done. If we keep doing that, we’ll be home in time for dinner.”

Pickett glanced up through his cockpit canopy and saw another wave of alien fighters launch from the mothership. “Fire missiles at the main enemy ship!”

His squadron let loose their missiles then banked away from the enemy vessel. On his screen, Pickett watched the missiles approach the enemy ship and continue on past the shield. The blips indicating the missiles disappeared as they met the hull of the alien ship.

“Looks like a hit,” Pickett said.

“We can confirm that, Commander,” Admiral Long said over the headset. “Visible damage to alien ship.”

A brief cheer erupted over Pickett’s headset.

“Settle down and listen,” he said. “The missiles got through because they dropped their shield to let their fighters out. That confirms the theory that the shield has to go down completely for anything to get through. Watch for those hatches to open up, and fire when you see that happen. But right now there are two dozen more fighters heading our way. Let’s take care of them quickly so we can focus on the main ship.”

Half the alien fighters broke off toward another squadron, and the other half went in pursuit of Pickett’s. Over the next several minutes, Pickett saw three of the F-66s in his squadron destroyed, but not before they took out the same number of enemy fighters. Pickett himself brought down three more, and the rest of his squadron mopped up the rest.

During the dogfight, Pickett was aware, at the periphery of his attention, that the front of the alien mothership had opened up. He also heard Admiral Long urging him to attack, but he was too busy engaging the enemy fighters to do so.

As the other alien ship had, this one launched a ring of missiles from its nose. The missiles banked as soon as they were clear of the ship and sped toward the
Oberon
.

The dogfight ended just in time for Commander Pickett to see the missiles strike the
Oberon
. The small ship only had limited offensive and defensive capabilities, and her crew was not able to shoot down enough of the missiles to save themselves.

The
Oberon
exploded, sending debris down toward the Earth where it broke up further as it struck the atmosphere. The debris streaked earthward, and Pickett watched one of the larger pieces until it disappeared beneath the cloud cover. It looked like it was on course to land somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

His attention was soon brought back to his immediate surroundings as two more alien fighters found him and his squadron, but they were defeated without any further loss. Pickett checked his instruments.

“Admiral, this is Commander Pickett. We need to refuel and reload. Request permission to return to the
Vigilant
.”

“Permission granted, Commander. We have two more squadrons launching now.”

Pickett glanced back at the alien mothership before turning back toward the
Vigilant
. The damage their missiles had caused seemed superficial, but the enemy wasn’t sending nearly as many fighters out as they had during the last battle. Pickett guessed that they felt confident that they were safe as long as their shield was up and were only sending out fighters or missiles when they knew nothing else could get in.

If that was the case, it was going to be a long battle. The humans hadn’t been the only ones to learn from the first engagement; the aliens were being careful now. They’d sent a bigger ship and seemed willing to bide their time. Perhaps they were stalling on purpose, waiting for another of their ships to arrive. If that happened, Pickett knew that Earth’s defenses would fall.

RICK SULLIVAN WATCHED the battle from afar. If the aliens sent a ship after his freighter, he’d have plenty of time to jump into hyperspace before they reached him. He knew he might have to deal with the entities once there, but it was his only option; the freighter was completely defenseless.

He’d been alone since he’d left Ives behind on Earth and was beginning to worry that something had happened to Frank Allen. He didn’t know what Allen had planned. What if he never returned? Sullivan supposed he could go back to Earth and help fight the aliens on the ground, but for the time being he felt helpless.

A massive explosion caught his attention, and he guessed that one of the larger ships had been destroyed. He closed his eyes and lowered his head but jerked it back up. There’d been a sound behind him.

Sullivan spun around and came face to face with Frank Allen, looking tired but determined.

“Frank! Where the hell have you been?”

“I’m sorry, Rick. I couldn’t get away until now. Liz and the other entities… I’ve been fighting them almost constantly since the last time I saw you. But now they’re busy trying to influence the aliens in this battle.”

“I need more information, Frank. What’s going on?”

Allen moved closer and looked at the monitor in front of Sullivan. “These aliens,” he said, pointing, “are desperate. Their battle with the other species in their part of the galaxy isn’t going well. They were using their wormhole technology to investigate other planets, even other parallel universes, trying to find a place to relocate, a place where their enemies couldn’t follow.

“Earth—our Earth, not the parallel Earth where we met Captain Quinn—is a horrible choice for them. They could have easily found an uninhabited planet somewhere that would have supported them.”

“But the hyperspace entities had other plans,” Sullivan said.

“Exactly. These aliens are a lot more susceptible to psychic manipulation. In fact, Liz and the other entities found that they could almost control them like puppets. The reason we were sent to the parallel Earth wasn’t to close the wormhole and save it. It was to give the aliens a trail to follow us back here. The hyperspace entities convinced them that humans were as big a threat to them as their other enemies, that we could easily destroy them. So they came here to hit us before we could hit them. They want to take the Earth for themselves. The environment is almost perfect for them, and we have a lot of infrastructure they can use. That’s why they haven’t just carpet-bombed the planet.”

“So what do we do, Frank? What’s our play?”