Annihilation: A Rose Grows In Weeds (12 page)

“Helmsman, come about and make for the remaining Algean ships.” Seven hundred and twenty nine more ships were lost in the second attack against the Heavies but of the original 10,000 that began the attack, 8,804 still remained. They made very short work of the remaining survivors and they then turned to face the massive fleet moving into the system to face them.

The Algeans had lost more than 20,000 ships including all of the heavies that had been collecting the harvesting of the food source for the Algean Empire. The loss of those ships was going to be felt and the incoming fleet was bent on making the intruders pay.

The Algean Fleet Leader that had jumped into the system had been watching the conflict between the ships from the planet and the strange ships as his fleet formed up and began moving in system. “Those strangers are more than twice as fast as my best ship. If we can get close, we can destroy them. The only ships they lost were when they came into range of our beam weapons. Firing missiles at them is an exercise in futility. They can out run them. How am I going to trap them?” He thought as his huge fleet continued to move in toward the strange ships.

Suddenly, the Detection Leader said, “Strange ships coming out of Star Drive behind us.”

The Fleet Leader looked at his display and there were more of the strange ships and these dwarfed the ships that had come in earlier but there were fewer of them. At that point things went bad very, very fast.

A
dmiral Mikado looked at his display and was amazed at the size of the Algean Fleet he was facing. He had faced twenty thousand ships before in battle but the biggest ships were dreadnaughts that were only 3,600 feet long. The Plant heavy ships were more than 100,000 feet long at 23 miles in length and there were more than 40,000 of them in the ships facing him; his ships at 5,180 feet long looked tiny in comparison. He had to decide now about what direction he was going to take. One part of him said to do as much damage as possible then run; but then the remaining 2 million Pydres would be facing a death sentence once the Plants continued the harvesting of their planet. He turned to Captain Kelly and said, “Get Kosiev and Dorg on a channel right now.”

Kelly turned to his communications officer Cheryl O’Sullivan and said, “Make the contact, Lieutenant.”

He waited for a minute then his display came on. He saw the two Admirals looking at him and he said, “I’m sending you a feed of the Plant fleet sent to rescue the ships at the Pydres Planet.” On his display he saw both of them look away and he could see their amazement at the feed they were receiving. “Before I continue this operation, I want to make sure that this is what you think we should do.”

Kosiev said, “You’re the commander on the scene; what are your thoughts.”

Mikado looked at the feed and then said, “If we back off now we will be running from now on. I recommend that we jump the forts and transports in to the Planet and start the ground action against the Plants. We may have to leave the system if our fleet can’t defeat this large an enemy but I am going to trust that even this fleet won’t be able to defeat the forts. The new weapons should keep them at long range. I would rather fight them here and now than at the Dremels planet where there are billions of lives at risk there.”

“Do you think the forts and Marines can hold out over an extended conflict?” Dorg asked worrying about his brother leading one of the divisions.

“I took the liberty of using the Cainth transports you sent to load them with munitions and structures for the troops to erect to fight the Plants. Those transports are huge and the troops and the fort should have enough to last 6 months. If we have to retreat, I will park the Empire class ships under the forts shield to support the drop troops and then the Ultras and my Megas will just jump out of the system.”

Kosiev thought about what Atlas said about his former masters not having the will to fight when it was necessary and it cost them everything. “Admiral, begin your operation. If it’s to be a war of attrition then we will begin there. What can we do to help?”

“Start getting relief divisions for the troops prepared and develop some transports that have in system jump capability. Normal transports would never be able to fight their way thru this fleet to the planet.”

“We’ll get on it immediately; good luck and good hunting, Admiral.”

Mikado watched his screen go blank and then said, “Status of the Algean fleet?”

“They were moving in system now half of them are turning back toward us and half are continuing toward Commodore Smiths ship,” Lt. Patel answered.

“Have the Plants launched any missiles at us?”

‘Lt. Colson said, “No sir, they have not.

“Let’s see if we can turn them all around toward us.” The Algean fleet had moved 200,000 miles inside the jump limit when the Megas jumped in. He picked up his fleet com and said, “All ships form a line with two mile spacing and move in toward the Algeans at 1/3 speed. I want five salvos of penetrators fired when we are 500 miles from the enemy and we will follow it up with our primaries on those ships only designated by one penetrator at 300 miles so make sure your sensor officers mark on their consoles those ships that only get hit by one. We will then back away from the Plants and fire five more salvos with primary follow up. We will continue to do this as long as they continue toward us. Captains, maintain the 300 mile separation from them.”

The SR fleet closed the gap quickly and at 500 miles from the Algeans each ship fired five salvos of 800 penetrators each then moved in to 300 miles and stopped. These penetrators carried 300 of the new hornets. Where it took 200 of the old hornets to destroy a dreadnaught, the new ones would have done it with six. These new devices had a devastating sting.

The Penetrators spread out and began designating the ships in the front ranks of the Algean fleet. Thousands of beams reached out to stop the incoming salvos but the penetrators were programmed to fly an erratic path to its target. Thousands were destroyed but the majority made it thru the Plant’s defenses. Five hundred brilliant beams stabbed out from the Megaships into the Plant formations targeting the ships that had only one penetrator locked on. Two seconds later, five hundred more beams fired and continued until the first hornets had all hit or died.

Twelve thousand Algean ships died and five thousand more had been damaged. “Fire Second volley,” Mikado ordered. “Begin backing away from the incoming ships, maintain 300 mile distance.” Five more volleys of 400,000 penetrators headed toward the massed ranks of the Algean fleet.

“Colson, damage status done by the hornets,” Captain Kelly asked almost as if he was reading Mikado’s mind.

“No single penetrator makes it thru the Heavy Ships or their Medium Battleship’s screens. If two hit within five seconds of each other, then the second does penetrate releasing the hornets. The resulting damage appears to severely damage the heavies but doesn’t knock them completely out of action. It does appear that if one of the hornets hits an anti-matter missile port then the entire ship is destroyed. On the lighter classes, if one can call a seven mile long ship a lighter class, then it only takes one penetrator to breach the screen; having two designate it is overkill. The 600 hornets totally destroy their lighter ships. Following up the penetrator with the new primaries is only partly successful. The penetrator weakens the screen on the heavies and the 500 foot wide primary goes completely thru the ship but 500 feet on a hundred thousand foot long ship won’t take it out of action unless you’re lucky enough to hit an anti-matter magazine. It will slow the heavy down but not take it out of operation.”

Mikado watched as the penetrators approached the enemy ships and said quickly over the fleet com, “Target five Megas for each heavy designated by only one penetrator; make it happen now. I want to kill a hundred with every volley.”

Lt. Colson started entering the new instructions into his console but there was no way he could down load them to the fleets computers in time before the penetrators struck. It wasn’t organized; some of the heavies had 200 Megas target them and some only had two but the results could be immediately seen. More than 100 of the Algean Heavy ships were destroyed out right or dead having lost the ability to move. Another 15, 000 Algean ships died.

Commodore Smith watched the approaching 50,000 ships and began issuing orders, “When those ships are 300 miles out, fire a full salvo of penetrators and prepare to follow them in to 200 miles.”

Suddenly, the tide of ships began turning and moving out toward the battle that the Megas were raging just inside the jump limit.

“Attention all ships, assume line formation and form up on my ship. We will attack the Algeans as they move toward the Megas. All Empire class ships will leave formation as soon as the forts jump in and assume formation under them as the drop troops begin landing operations. Plan to intercept any missiles fired at the forts from the planet’s surface.”

As Mikado continued to back away from the Algean fleet they suddenly turned and moved away from his ships. Colson said, “The ships headed toward the planet have reversed course and are moving out toward our location. The other ships are moving to join them.”

“Stop all engines and hold position,” Mikado ordered. “Captain Kelly, they haven’t fired any missiles at us. Why do you think that is?”

“Commodore Smith scared them. He used their missiles to destroy that follow up fleet. They’ve observed twice that we can outrun any missile they fire at us. I think they’re not going to give us a stick to beat them with.”

Mikado thought about it and said, “You’re probably right. I wanted to keep this at long range but they probably are not going to cooperate. Ms. O’ Sullivan, contact Commodore Smith and tell him to hold off attacking until the two fleets have joined up and to wait for further instructions.”

Captain Kelley said, “What do you have in mind?”

“We have knocked out one quarter of their fleet and have not lost a ship. I think they plan to spread out and attack us on a front too wide for us to stop them.”

“We could always run,” Kelly said.

“I think that’s what they hope we’ll do so that they can come up with better tactics against our superior speed. However, there is one more thing they can do.” Kelly raised his eyebrows and Mikado said, “We are still 150,000 miles inside the jump limit and they look like they want to draw us further in; that’s why the withdrawal. They will spread their fleet out around our 500 Megas, move forward, and then jump another fleet in to trap us between the two of them inside the jump limit and then fire their missiles when we are surrounded on all sides so we have nowhere to run.”

“Do you think they can get another fleet together that quickly?”

“Do you think they had those 100,000 ships just waiting for us to show up?”

Kelly shrugged and said, “You make a good point. What are you going to do?”

“Exactly what they want me to do; order the fleet in system pacing the Plant fleet at 300 miles. I want single volleys fired as we advance. Our software will now apportion our Megas out to the Heavies hit by one penetrator but I suspect that the heavies will be moved behind the other ships as they move in to join with the other Algean fleet.”

Colson looked up from his console and said, “That’s exactly what they’re doing and it also looks like they’re trying to coordinate the firing of their energy beams so that there is a solid wall between them and our penetrators.”

“How successful are they at that?” Mikado asked.

“They are knocking more than 60% down than before but once they start maneuvering to dodge the incoming penetrators then their coordination fails miserably.” Colson looked up again from his display and said, “How many do you think they will jump in to trap us, Sir.”

Mikado got a faraway look on his face and said, “I’m scared to even think about it but as soon as those two fleets join up in front of us I’m going to jump the forts in to the planet, have Smiths group fire two salvos of penetrators from behind them and then have the Ultras jump to our position and fire two salvos of penetrators while the Megas fire five salvos into the fleet facing us. We will all then jump in next to a Heavy and hit it up close with our main primary beams. Colson, have three jumps locked into each ship’s guidance so that they can multiple jump within that fleet next to three heavy battleships. I only want two seconds of time between each jump. After the third jump, have all ships jump to a location directly above their formations and fire all of our remaining penetrators. We will then jump to the planet and stay as long as possible to make sure the forts are up and running. Then we will jump out and go home to replenish our stores. Mr. Colson, will you send the orders to Commodore Smith along with the down loads for their selected targets.”

After receiving his orders, Chen looked up again and said to Smith, ‘Why can’t you launch a full volley of penetrators at each jump inside their fleet to increase the odds of more getting thru; plus, if they use their beams to hit the penetrators they will probably hit their own ships.”

Commodore Smith commed Mikado and offered Chens suggestion. Kelly and Mikado looked at the sensor officer relaying the message and then at each other. Mikado lifted his personal com and said, “Effective immediately, Lieutenant,” Mikado paused his recording and said, “Mr. Smith, what is Chen’s full name?”