Escape to Earth-The Legacy of a Conqueror (9 page)

“Good. That means we don’t have to go in looking for them.”

“Admiral Barber is entering normal space.”

Chris looked above his ship and saw the Montana breaking into normal space directly above his line of Assault Pods. “I was wondering when you were going to arrive.”

“It’s taken longer than I anticipated to collect and correlate all the data collected from my fleet of scouts.”

Chris pressed a button on his panel and linked Allison in to the conversation. “Admiral Simmons, Admiral Barber has arrived with the maps of that species planet’s locations. Admiral, please send a download of your information to both of our computers.”

“Sending it now.”

Chris watched the lights on his data board and saw them move across the panel. After ten minutes the lights went out. “How many of their planets were you able to find?”

“It’s taken about six years to map this galaxy and the civilization you’re looking for is the dominant species here. They live on more than a hundred and thirty five thousand planets.”

“Do they have a planet with a central government?”

“They do. Just type in the key word ‘Leadership’ and its location will appear.”

“Allison, I was planning to assign targets after the battle against their fleets but it appears it’s going to take some time before they organize an attack. Take the data and assign two hundred Pods and Battleships to attack one of their planets. I want you to also assign their second and third targets as well, if you have the time.”

“I’ll start working on it immediately.”

“Allison.”

“Yes Sir?”

“I will handle the planet with their central government.”

Allison paused and said, “Yes Sir.” There was a pause and she said, “Once the fleet breaks up to attack their assigned targets, I will join you.”

Chris nodded, “That would be good. Jinks is also joining me once his fleets skip to their targets.” Chris turned back to Loree, “Are you certain you have them all?”

Loree shrugged, “When searching a galaxy, nothing is certain. However, if we missed any I’ll be greatly surprised, Sir.”

“That’s good enough for me. Thank you, Admiral.” The Montana’s drive field came on and the huge battleship disappeared from normal space. Chris looked at the display, “Barbie, have you detected any changes in that galaxy?” The view of the fleet changed to a closer view of M-84. Chris saw a grey colored cloud forming just outside the edge.

As he watched, the view moved in closer and he was able to distinguish massive numbers of large grey warships moving into formations. The cloud was visibly growing larger each minute. Chris leaned back in his chair and looked at the empty chair beside him. He shook his head. God! He missed her so much. He looked back out at the much larger cloud of Grey Ships and said, “It won’t be long now, Darling.”

“Why are we waiting on them? Let’s get this party started!”

“Patience, Sis.”

“Hey, she was my sister-in-law!”

“Eve, vengeance is something to be savored. Your time will come shortly.” Chris shook his head, Eve was something else.

• • •

Salud and Lukas resisted but she finally prevailed a year ago and they allowed Willow to convert her DNA to that of a twenty year old. She had excelled to the point where Fleet needed to promote her to command the first Assault Fleet but she was just too young. She was ranked the best pilot in the fleet and that wasn’t her greatest talent. She possessed the hybrid mind of the Welken and Humans. Her reflexes were incredibly fast and her speed was beyond any of those in her class. Her skills in the Assault Armor were unmatched. She was beyond incredible.

Lukas and Salud tried their best to convince her to just be a pilot and to forget the notion of dropping on an enemy planet. Their best efforts failed. Eve loved using her armor. Lukas finally told Salud that she needed to consider what would happen if a fish was told not to go into the water, it would never get around on land like it could in the ocean. It lived to swim. Salud finally gave in but Chris suspected she would have fought it to the bitter end if she didn’t have another child. Adam was still at home and she prayed her daughter wouldn’t be killed doing what she enjoyed most. She was starting to worry that Adam was going to develop telepathy and leave home but she put the fear aside and enjoyed every day with him. Eve was promoted to command the First Pod Assault Fleet. Her ships would be used to drop on the Grey Civilization’s central planet and soften it up for the heavy warriors. He remembered Salud questioning him about having to use her fleet to drop in first.

“Why would you drop the Pods in before the Heavy Warriors? They’re better protected than the Special Force Warriors.”

“Salud, that planet has thousands of ground based disruptors. Their warship’s beams are nowhere near as powerful as those heavy weapons on the planet’s surface.”

“You don’t seriously think one of them would damage one of our battleships?”

“Salud, the battleships will have to drop into the atmosphere to release the Heavies transports. I agree that one of those beams wouldn’t damage the new battleship but a thousand of them could. I’m also pretty certain that the transports would not survive on hit.”

“They can’t be taken out from space?”

“Those installations are protected by a force field over them. The field is powered by a huge array of reactors. The only way to get at them is to attack them from the ground.”

“I thought you said they were protected by a force field?”

“They are but the field is over them; it doesn’t reach the ground around them.”

“Why don’t you just destroy the planet from space and be done with it!”

Chris remembered his anger as he said, “That is what we’re going to do with all the others. I intend to go down to this planet and find the one that ordered that ship here.”

“So you’re willing to risk the life of your sister-in-law to extract your revenge?”

Lukas said, “That’s enough, Salud!!”

Chris looked at her in silence and finally said, “Even if I agreed that extracting my revenge isn’t a good enough reason to do it, I’d still order the attack.”

“WHY?!”

“Because we are going to have to ultimately drop on the planet in M-87 where those Legends are. Our warriors have to be used to determining if that is a viable possibility. This planet is a good place to find out and it won’t be as dangerous as the planet of the Legends. I will not send them in without them having experience on what to expect.”

Salud stared at him and then turned to Lukas. Lukas shrugged, “He’s right.”

“I’ll order her not to participate if that’s what you want but her command will make the drop!”

“She’d never forgive us if you did that.”

“I certainly won’t tell her.”

“Get real. You wouldn’t have to. She’s telepathic and she’d know.” Chris stared at her and she finally shook her head and closed her eyes, “I’ll stay out of this.”

“She’s the Fleet Commander. She’ll be directing their activities and shouldn’t be involved in the heavy fighting.” Salud looked at Chris and raised her left eyebrow. “I know, I know.”

• • •

Chris sighed. He knew that Salud knew that keeping Eve out of the fighting just wasn’t possible. It was her taking on the risks her warriors faced that made them love and respect her so much. He looked at the display again and saw the grey cloud outside the edge of the galaxy was huge. He looked at the Pod fleets and saw they were still in their normal formations. He started to say something but decided to wait and see what Allison was going to do.

• • •

Allison watched the monitor on her panel and saw the outer edge of the enemy fleet start moving toward them slowly as more ships skipped in. “Alley, what’s the width of that mass of ships leaving the galaxy?”

“They’re about ten thousand miles wider than our formations.”

Allison nodded, “And the height?”

“A thousand miles above and below our formations.”

Allison pressed her communicator, “All Pod fleets will move in Formation Gamma, now! All battleships will form up behind them in Formation Epsilon.”

• • •

Chris saw the hundred pod fleets move as one. Each fleet of ten thousand ships formed ten lines of a thousand ships. The lines were staggered above each other with five hundred yards of spacing between individual ships in each line. The fleet formed into ten incredibly long lines in less than two minutes. The battleships broke into two groups and formed fifteen lines above and below the pods with eight hundred yards between them. The lines were also staggered so that each line above was slightly behind the line under it. They looked like a set of steps.

Chris saw the huge mass of grey warships start picking up speed as it moved out from the galaxy. Chris watched the recordings of the fleet battles against the Invaders and he thought that the giant fleets looked like a single organism. He saw it again this time. It was like his fleets were a single creature that moved in a smooth organized manner to confront the beast moving toward them. The giant grey cloud also appeared to move like a single creature as it left the edge of the galaxy as it twisted and coiled. He waited until the attackers were twenty thousand miles away and he lifted his communicator, “Commence Attack!”

The ten lines of pods were too long to be seen visually. He had to depend on his scanners to reduce the view so he could see what was happening. Space battles of this magnitude were not easily controlled.

• • •

“I love you, Roy!”

“I love you, too, Lynn.”

“We should have resigned our commissions and gotten married.”

Roy sighed, “Lynn, if we did that, our warriors wouldn’t have had time to learn a new commander’s expectations. They would be put in more danger if we acted selfishly.”

“I know. It’s your fault!”

“What?”

“You shouldn’t have waited until the very last moment to ask me to marry you!”

“I was afraid you’d say no. I couldn’t muster up the courage to ask.”

“You had to know I’d say yes!?”

“I wanted to believe it but I guess I was amazed that you cared about me at all. You’re just so wonderful and special that I…I just found it hard to believe you’d agree.”

“You didn’t have to wait until a day before we skipped out to ask.”

“Yeah, but it was the fear of the coming battle that gave me the courage to ask.”

“Roy, if you get yourself killed, I will never forgive you!”

“Uhhhhh…ok.”

“I’m serious!”

“I know, I know. Just be careful.”

“What disruptor has your company been assigned?”

“Number six.”

“I’ve been assigned number two. They’re nowhere near each other. I suspect fleet didn’t want us close to each other to prevent us from going to each other’s aid if things get bad.”

“Lynn, fleet doesn’t keep track of their warriors’ personal lives.”

“Fleet keeps track of everything.”

“Come on Lynn. They wouldn’t know about us?”

“Want to bet on that?”

“What’s the wager?”

“The winner gets thirty minutes of back rubbing.”

“I’ll accept that but how would you prove it?”

“Stay linked to me and listen in.” Lynn pressed a button on her console and Eve appeared on her display. “Sir, I’m getting questions about the coming attack. Has fleet determined when we’ll be dropping in?”

“I’ve wondered the same thing but was told that I needed to learn patience. I would offer you that same advice.”

“Yes Sir.”

“By the way, congratulations on your engagement, Captain. I’m sure you and Captain McAfee will have a very happy life.”

“Thank you, Sir.” Eve disappeared from the display and Roy’s face replaced hers. Lynn could see his stunned expression. Lynn lifted her chin and looked down her nose, “I will collect when we get back.”

Roy was shaking his head, “I’ll pay up. I need to check up on my company. I’ll talk with you later.”

“I love you, Roy.”

“And I love you, too.” The display went dark and Roy pressed his company’s frequency. Eve Axel knew they were engaged. How was that possible? Now he was going to have fatigued fingers because of this. How could Lynn possibly know? Roy smiled, maybe his rubbing her back would be interrupted with other activities. He really hoped so. He shook his head again, Eve Axel knew! He blew out a breath and pressed his communicator. The light turned green and he said, “We have some time before we skip out to our target. Take this time to check your armor’s magazines and make sure they’re fully loaded and I do mean fully. You’ve trained for years to do this and I expect you to follow your training! I know some of you are feeling fear at this moment and that’s ok. It’s fear that allows us to be brave and some of us to be heroes. I ask that you give me your best and look out for each other. Now take this time and check your munitions.” Roy heard over his frequency the forty warriors in his company yell, “YES SIR!” He clicked off his communicator and thought, Eve Axel knows we’re engaged! He shook his head and began checking his magazines.

• • •

Chris watched the Pods flying at a high speed toward the oncoming mass of Grey Warships. They were nowhere close to their top speed; it wouldn’t do to fly too fast into that huge formation of enemy ships. He saw the battleships moving in with them and the sight was awe-inspiring. The bright force fields lit up the darkness of space and their beauty belied the deadly intentions of both fleets. Then, the two fleets hit head on and the dance of death began.

• • •

Marty Helms flew her pod into the formation of Grey Warships and went to the left of the one directly in front of her. The A-Pod to her right swerved to the right of the huge ship. Her three-disruptor turrets swiveled and fired two DE Beams at the ship to her left and one at the ship to her right. She knew the pod of the right side of that ship would also be firing a single beam into it. She moved even with the stern of both ships as they exploded in two massive explosions. In an instant, she was between two more ships and she opened fire again.

Across the entire front of the huge grey cloud of warships, massive explosions erupted at an incredible number. Ten enemy disruptor beams from the next ships in front of her hit her pod but were shrugged off by her force field. She opened fire on them as she passed and checked her force field’s status on her combat helmet’s tactical read out. Its power level was slightly lower but she wasn’t in danger…yet.