Total Betrayal (Deep Space Endeavor) (39 page)

             
"He also has a dozen of ours," Enosal added, wishing he had them back. “Admiral Dyson is quite anxious to see her daughter. I, too, hope our friend will open his conduit again soon. According to King Dominus, he was in a pretty bad situation, he was badly injured and even with the additional Hyperian vessels would be outnumbered over two thousand to less than five hundred. We may have to face the fact that he lost and may not be coming back to us."

             
"I have thought about that, but I am unwilling to accept that." Valinor said with a resigned sadness that showed he didn't fully believe the words he was saying. He didn't want to think that the man that had saved his life, and brought him his daughter, and gave so much to his planet might not have made it. "Anyway, it would appear as if Tovanoras is consolidating his full forces in two locations: Zinnebulous for a run at you, and Chawanas to probably take a run at us. The only problem is that he can also take a run at Sollonia, Qualoosh, Julan and Zelanott from there. So we cannot pull any of their forces to help either of us until both planets have been engaged."

             
"Still, even if no one stands by us, he has less than a two to one advantage. All of the Alliance's most powerful fleets are mobilized and prepared to send help to our planets, so if we can engage him long enough, reinforcements will show up in time to turn the tide our way."

             
"Our sources say he will be fully consolidated in six days and can attack at any time after that. My Special Assignments Task Force is out right now trying to gather more information." Valinor added with a weary sigh. "I'm going to need to give them some serious down time when this situation is resolved; they've been going full speed ahead for a long while now."

             
"My intelligence network has as well; it is necessary. Tovanoras’ timing cannot be coincidence; my new shipyards are almost finished with their first forty
Battle Hammers
. Together with our older yards, we can produce sixty every four months. Tovanoras had to know that he couldn't wait another month because we would have four hundred ten, and sixty more five months from now. He somehow knew our production schedule. We will have to protect our shipyards no matter the cost. Thankfully, Jesse gave me the designs for a planetary shield. It takes an unimaginable amount of power to keep it up during battle, but I have employed the entire power grids on two of our three continents with that task, we should be able to keep him at bay for quite some time before he can take a shot at our planet."

             
"That is good news; we, too, were given the designs, but we could not meet the power requirements, so I am afraid that Kaldor may have a little bit tougher time of it. I must return to my other duties now, my friend, but I will alert you immediately if any new information becomes available."

             
"As will I." Enosal replied as the transmission ended. He sat alone in his office and found himself hoping the Alliance could make it through this latest trial.

Chapter ten

______

              Maria hustled her team into position to breach the south entrance of the impossibly large ship hangar just outside Caracas city limits. The depot could easily fit forty ships for repair or house a small city for a few hundred thousand people. According to Tate's recon team, there were even more ships than Jason and Serge originally thought. Josiah, Jason, Kimi, Xanu, Reece and Tanna along with two dozen of Tanna's soldiers were ready to breach the west entrance while Cartwright's team had the north and Charlie's team had the east. Four thirty man teams, each bringing an additional thirty warriorbots, were set to breach simultaneously. The depot was filled with Enclave techs scurrying about and Enclave soldiers standing guard. General Kelly had sent an additional sixty Marines along with two hundred warriorbots to form a perimeter around the facility. The Enclave forces had been thrown out of the Coalition pending the election of a new President, but there were still cells like this all over the place as Rhodes' and Bliney's corruption had allowed the Enclave to infiltrate deep. This was really no longer their concern as they were gone for good once they relieved the Enclave of these ships.

             
The Enclave thought they were being smart trying to disable the remote control while still on the ground and keeping the vessels powered down and hidden. Little did they know that it only took turning them on once for Serge and Jason to figure out where they were, now they were looking at a whole lot of badly needed ships.

             
"Our teams are on the ground, Admiral," Collin relayed to Jesse. "Reports confirm there are fifteen SSE ships and nine Special Forces cruisers. There are also four SSE cargo haulers filled with all kinds of fun stuff.”

             
"Like what?" Jesse asked.

             
"Smart mines, warriorbots,
Vipers
and plasma cannons, although the cannons are third gen." Collin answered as he kept a close eye on the situation.
Endeavor
was cloaked just outside the depot and would provide cover for their forces if they needed to retreat. If they could not procure the ships, Manny would have to bomb them from orbit, which probably wouldn't go over real well with Earth's government.

             
"I want them all, Lieutenant, even the cargo haulers." Jesse replied.

             
"We thought you might. We'll do our best, Admiral." Collin replied. He then sent a transmission with Jesse's orders to Josiah on the ground.

             
"Just like we thought, Maria," Josiah confirmed. "Jesse wants them all." He commed the recon team next. "Tate, your team's objective is to get the roof of the depot open by whatever means necessary, blow it if you have to, but we will need a quick exit."

             
"Yes, sir," came Tate's excited reply.

             
"Everyone else, we have to keep the Enclave busy while Jason and his techs power up the vessels and install the slaving software so
Endeavor
can lead these ships home. There are more ships than we thought, so Jason and some of his people are each going to need to do two ships, which means we are engaged twice as long. We have extra Marines and extra bots ready to go if we need them, so don't be afraid to call in some backup." Josiah waited until the round of "Yes, Sirs," was complete before giving the order to go.

             
Soldiers and warriorbots breached from four directions on the unsuspecting Enclave forces. Most of the soldiers went down fighting the warriorbots and Josiah's team took down the rest. The techs quickly surrendered and Cartwright's team was immobilizing them while Jason and his techs began their work. Half of the ships were already powered up, so they began the process of powering up the rest and then went back to the ships already powered to begin the software installation. It would take nearly eight minutes to install, while the full powering up sequence took about twelve, which meant they had to hold this facility for twenty minutes. Josiah didn't think it would be a problem until he heard blasterfire erupt outside of the depot.

             
"Looks like Coalition forces are moving in, Captain." Tate alerted from his perch on the roof.

             
"We'll deal with them, you just make sure that roof is open." Josiah replied. He sent all of the warriorbots and three of his teams out to reinforce his Marines while his last team stood watch at the ships to protect the techs.

             
"Looks like we have a full on occupation force, boss." Reece called out. "This might get sticky."

             
"Collin, you and the three shuttles begin a strafing run if they get too close before we're ready. Chances are they think we're Enclave, which is fine. I don't want them knowing who we really are; they likely have a shoot to kill order on me for destroying the Presidential Palace and killing the President."

             
"Will do, Captain. It looks as though some ships are also going to investigate Manny's position. It's a good bet they know we're here." Collin sadly replied.

             
"Can't do anything about that now, let's just try and complete the objective and get out of here in one piece." As Josiah said that, a line of hover tanks appeared through the trees. They began to open fire on the warriorbots and Marines and Josiah commed
Endeavor
again. "Take em out, Collin."

             
Endeavor
appeared out of thin air and began strafing the enemy tanks while the three assault shuttles began strafing the ground in front of the troops. The first line of tanks was destroyed, but they had a lot more.
Endeavor's
sudden appearance did cause them to pause momentarily.

             
“Receiving transmission, Captain," Collin commed.

             
"Put it through," Josiah replied.

             
"
Endeavor
, this is Colonel Thomas, you are trespassing on Earth and interfering with our elimination of the remaining Enclave forces."

             
"Colonel, we have already eliminated the Enclave forces and captured the scientists that were attempting to steal our ships. As soon as our ships are ready, we will be leaving."

             
"Negative,
Endeavor
, those are our ships and you will not be leaving with them."

             
"Negative, Colonel, Earth still owes us for thirty-six ships and these cargo haulers were never purchased from us."

             
"Who am I speaking with?" The Colonel angrily demanded.

             
"Captain Josiah Jackson, Colonel."

             
"We have you outgunned and surrounded, stand down or we will open fire. You destroyed all of the SSE ships our government bought from you, we owe you nothing."

             
Clearly there was still some bad blood here, and Josiah didn't think he would be getting through to this man, but he had to try. "Read the contract, it stipulated that if our ships were ever used to attack us, we could destroy them and all debts would still be owed. They're our ships, Colonel. As a sign of good faith, we are sending out the Enclave scientists for you to take into your custody." As the techs wearily marched towards the enemy line, Josiah looked on in horror as Earth's forces opened up on them, killing them all.

             
"One set of traitors down, one to go. Last chance, Jackson, Surrender or die. Those ships are ours."

             
"You do realize we gave you back almost two hundred captured Coalition ships because we didn't want you to be vulnerable to further Enclave or Syndicate attacks, right." When there was no answer, Josiah commed Collin. "If they open fire, take them out, all of them until they either lay down arms or retreat. As long as they're shooting, we're shooting back."

             
"Yes, Sir," Collin answered, hoping it didn't come to that. His hopes were dashed as the first plasma blast from a heavy hover tank cannon took a chunk out of the wall of the depot. As one, the Marines and warriorbots began returning fire.
Endeavor
swooped in, destroying more tanks as the shuttles strafed troops this time instead of the ground. They would no longer be playing nice with Colonel Thomas.

             
Josiah was directing the battle when he suddenly received a transmission on one of the Enclave transmitters he had confiscated. "Group one, this is group two. We are in position and await your signal. On your go, Prague will be destroyed and this pitiful Coalition will no longer have its capital. The chain is in place and once we destroy Prague, everything within a hundred miles will be rendered uninhabitable for centuries."

             
Josiah knew he had to answer, so he took a chance. "Very good, group two. Confirm coordinates of our devices. We are just under an hour from being prepared to leave this wretched planet for good. We will have Marcos’ technology and we will use it to conquer the galaxy. We shall leave Earth with a painful parting gift."

             
"It will be as you say," the group two spokesman replied as he sent the coordinates of the devices.

             
Josiah commed General Davidson and he was not happy to be woken in the middle of the night. When he finally appeared on the transmission, Josiah collected himself and began. "General, this is Captain Josiah Jackson, and I have some very important news for you."

             
"Jackson, you're right at the top of our hit list, and if the briefing I've just been handed is correct, you are involved in a military action against Earth right now. You will pay for your crimes, son."

             
"I get it, you hate me. That's fine, but if you don't listen very carefully to me right now, you will lose all of Prague."