Mike's War: Sequel to Jesse's Starship (17 page)

“There’s a hundred and fifty of those ships moving in above the city. My computer says that if they move within a mile above the force field, they will collapse it within thirty minutes.”

“You’re just a wealth of good news.”

“I’m sorry, General.”

Derek punched off the channel and thought furiously about what he could do to slow the Beamships. He pressed a button, “Major Romanov.”

“Yes Sir.”

“How vertical can you raise the barrel on the tanks?”

“The most recent modification allows us to raise it ninety degrees; why do you ask?”

“Will your computers target aircraft that are stationary?”

“I suppose so, Sir. That’s not what they’re designed to do. I suspect if they’re above three miles, we won’t be able to reach them.”

Derek thought a moment, “How high would an antipersonnel Sliver round go?”

“It’s lighter than the high explosive rounds. I can program them to release their loads about four miles up. The slivers would probably fly another three quarters of a mile.”

“Aircraft will be arriving above the city in less than ten minutes. Assign your tanks to fire on them as soon as they stop and take position above the city.”

Romanov smiled, “We’ll give it a shot, General.”

Derek punched a button again and said, “Adams. If we can keep those ships more than four miles away, how long will we have?”

Adams appeared to be listening for a moment and he looked back at Derek on his visor’s display, “About four hours.”

“We’re going to use the tanks to keep them away from us. Now find me a way to get my men off this planet.”

• • •

The Gracken Planetary Commander was in his personal quarters when his Support Leader stuck his head in the door, “Commander, the ships report two of the small enemy ships have appeared in this system.”

The Commander looked up from the metals report and said, “Let me know if anything out of the ordinary happens.” The Support Leader left and the Commander turned back to his reports. The new mines were producing a huge supply of metals and the processing plants he forced the local inhabitants to build were finally coming online. The ores should be processed and the initial loads should be ready for removal within another three weeks. He had his computer run an analysis and saw that his labor force may be reduced substantially if things continued as they were. He didn’t like the idea of pulling some of the workers out to produce food for the workers but it was going to have to be done to fully exploit the ore deposits on the planet. At least the first loads would be completed shortly so the Elders wouldn’t scream too loud when production slowed down. These local creatures were just too feeble to really do much heavy work. The analysis finally completed and he sent the report off to the communications unit. He thought for a moment and pressed a button on his panel. The Support Leader came in and he said, “What did the ships report about the two ships?”

“They’ve not reported anything, Commander.”

“Contact them and see what happened?”

The Support Leader walked out but returned five minutes later, “Sir, none of the ships in orbit are responding.”

“What?”

“None of them are answering our transmissions.”

“Another Gracken Leader rushed through the door, “Commander, we’ve just had a transmission from the eighth city we conquered that it is being attacked by warriors that are dropping into the city from orbit.”

“Get me the Leader of the Pacification Force on my panel.”

A few moments passed and then the Leader appeared. “What’s going on?”

“We’ve had a force of about two thousand drop troops land in the city and they are currently attacking all of my units. They’ve seized the force field complex and I suspect they are preparing to energize the facility.”

“You must prevent them from activating the force field. I’m sending my air assets to assist you but that force field will delay them being able to fire on the invaders. Do not allow them to activate that force field!”

The Commander heard a loud explosion followed by three others. After a moment the Pacifier Leader said, “They’ve just taken out my heavy blasters. They are using some kind of weapon that blows through our force fields. I’ll mass my surviving pacifiers and move on the complex momentarily.”

The display went dark and the Support Leader shook his head, “Pacifiers are not really good at fighting.”

The Commander nodded slightly, “That’s why they’re Pacifiers. Get the first Attack Group moving; we’re going there to assist them.”

“Who is attacking?”

The Commander looked at his panel and shook his head, “My scanning team has no idea. We need to go there and find out.”

The giant Gracken Commander walked out of his quarters and watched the controlled mayhem that happens when a military unit is rushing to organize an attack. His two hundred thousand warriors were going to take some time but they should be on the way within two hours. He entered his personal vehicle and lifted above the thousands of warriors rushing below him. He smiled; his units were well trained. Whoever was stupid enough to attack them would be taught a lesson shortly.

• • •

Romanov looked at the radar display in his tank and saw more than a hundred and fifty aircraft were moving toward the city at three hundred miles an hour. He activated his visor and said, “Computer, assign the first of the enemy aircraft to my tanks and have them targeted. Make sure no more than one tank fires at any target.”

Romanov waited and after a moment heard, “Targets are assigned, main guns are locking on designated aircraft.”

Romanov hit the general tank frequency, “Gunners, hold your fire until the aircraft stop overhead. We will all fire simultaneously. After the first volley, choose another target that has not been laser designated by another tank. Standby….ready….FIRE!!!”

• • •

The Beamships arrived over the city and powered up their blasters to fire on the force field. Before their blaster coils could charge, thirty of the large aircraft exploded in huge blasts and rained debris down on the force field. The Commander of the airships was killed by one of the first shots and it took several seconds before the Gracken could respond. Thirty more Beamships exploded and the ranking Gracken yelled, “Get out of here!!!”

The surviving aircraft accelerated away and Romanov yelled, “Cease fire! Cease fire! Our systems are not capable of hitting high speed aircraft.” Romanov pressed his console and yelled, “Lt. Nogama, what’s your status?”

“My four tanks are moving at our fastest speed toward the force field Complex. The other companies have joined us and are moving with us through the city.”

“What about the Gracken?”

“They were moving over the tops of the surrounding buildings but the flyers forced them down to street level. Sir, they are incredibly fast. They will arrive at the complex a few minutes before us.”

Gomez shook his head, “Bolton, are you copying this?”

“I am; do you have a number coming my way?”

“More than eight hundred.”

“I have half that number to counter them. We’ll hold until you arrive, Nogama; just don’t take too long.”

• • •

Derek listened to the exchange and said, “Halley, stop your mortar platoon and have them lob some rounds into the streets leading to the complex.”

“Yes Sir.” Halley stopped running with the other warriors and said over a frequency. “Naomi!”

“Yes Sir.”

“Stop your platoon and set up your mortars to lob some rounds into the streets leading to the complex.”

Naomi stopped running and yelled, “PLATOON, STOP AND SET UP YOUR WEAPONS!” The forty warriors immediately stopped and began setting up their barrels. Naomi set up the control panel and began seeing the individual guns start logging in to her system. She linked the panel to the feed being sent from the Q ships in orbit and sent instructions to the computer’s software. The computer tracked the advancing Gracken and began issuing targets to the twenty mortars. The troops watched their barrels and when the light on the side turned green they dropped a round into the end of the barrel. There was a loud sound like a giant coughing and the shell was on the way. In another moment, nineteen more rounds were fired. The mortar barrels didn’t look much bigger than a shotgun barrel and only weighted ten pounds. The round it fired weighed a pound but delivered a devastating blast of slivers just before it hit the ground. The forty members of the platoon all carried twenty rounds each in their backpacks and they were being used at an incredible rate.

• • •

The initial mortar volley fell on the advancing Gracken and more than a hundred of them were blown apart by the rain of slivers. The next volleys were not as successful. The Gracken could hear the incoming shells and would jump just before they arrived and fly over the explosions. The shells were set to explode at fifteen feet above the ground but the Gracken could jump more than twenty five feet high. The slivers were blown toward the ground and the Gracken were avoiding them as they continued racing through the streets.

• • •

Naomi saw the issue but there wasn’t enough time to reprogram the shells before the Gracken arrived. She shook her head and entered new instructions as fast as she could type. The next six volleys launched twenty shells within a half a second of each other and they began exploding in a line. The Gracken could really jump…but they had to come down and now the mortar shells were exploding in a constant wave in front of them; another seventy Gracken Warriors were blown apart before they could make it to the complex.

• • •

Dave didn’t have to guess when the Gracken would arrive; he could hear them as they rushed closer, “You have your firing zones. There are four streets leading into this plaza and that’s where they’ll be coming. Every third warrior will keep the air clear of Gracken directly in front of their position.” The noise was loud and Dave shouted over the din, “WEAPONS FREE!”

The three hundred and seventy six infantry men raised their shoulder rifles and activated the small reactor that operated the magnets that fired the slivers. The hum of the reactors couldn’t be heard over the roar of the charging Gracken. One moment the plaza was empty and in the next it was filled with giant Gracken Warriors. The first eighty Gracken were killed as quickly as they entered the plaza. Bolton thought it was going to be easy to hold them off but the next Gracken rushing into the plaza grabbed one of the dead and held it up in front of them as they continued their advance. Dave was stunned that the Gracken could lift the more than five hundred pounds of their dead and continue to run forward. They were slowed down but the dead Gracken they were using as shields had to be blown apart before the one holding it could be stopped. The huge creatures were quickly advancing when Dave yelled over the command frequency, “AIM AT THE PAVEMENT; TAKE OUT THEIR LEGS!”

The entire front of the Gracken advance was dropped as slivers blew through their feet. Some of those that were knocked to the ground were jerked up and used as a shield even though they weren’t dead. The Gracken began jumping with the dead they were holding. Dave found their strength incredible.

Halley yelled, “Flyers, move in and open fire.”

Three hundred warriors tilted their foils and came rushing in over the Gracken formation and opened fire. The Gracken charge stopped for a moment to open fire with their blasters at the small flying creatures over them. That pause proved to be deadly.

Lt. Nokamura’s tanks arrived and he yelled, “OPEN FIRE.” The three Abrams and Leopard tanks fired an antipersonnel round into the Gracken that exploded into thousands of tungsten shards. The shards blew into the rear of the attacking Gracken and decimated their ranks. The shard was non-explosive but when it hit, it expanded into a mushroom shape and blew a huge wound channel into whatever was unfortunate enough to be in its path. The survivors of the other six companies stepped around the tanks and the Gracken were raked from the front and the rear. Even with the devastating fire, more than sixty Gracken made it into the lines of the four companies holding the complex and killed fifty three of the soldiers.

• • •

Derek and Halley arrived at the scene and Derek shook his head. He pressed his collar and said, “Where are those Alliance engineers?”

Bolton looked at his visor and answered, “They’re still in the force field’s command center.”

“Get them out of there now! Major Romanov, I want you to move all of your tanks to the beach beside the force field complex. I want all companies to meet the tanks and start getting ready to meet Gracken forces. All Company and Battalion Commanders report to me as soon as we arrive at the beach. Now, get moving!”

Halley looked at Derek, “What’s going on?”

“The Q ships have spotted more than two hundred thousand Gracken warriors forming up to come here. They’ll be here in less than two hours.”

Halley shook her head, “What’s the news on getting our carriers down here?”

“As long as those aircraft are operating, our carriers would be blasted before they could get close. Adams tells me that even their Q ships would be vaporized if more than fifty of those ships fired on them. It appears those ships have two Starship beams mounted on them. We’re grounded until a means of removing them is found.”

Halley shook her head, turned, and began running toward her mortar platoon. They were going to be needed in the coming fight.

M
ike looked at Adams on the wall display in the Tactical and Operations Center at Fort Rome. “Are you certain you can’t go in and take those aircraft out.”

Adams shook his head, “I’m not but my ship’s computer is. Tuffy says that we can withstand six of the Gracken heavy beams for about a minute. There are more than ninety of those aircraft close to the city that could all fire on us as soon as we jumped in. They are all armed with two Warship grade heavy blasters; we’d be blown away before we could get off a shot.”

“What about the Raptors?”

Jeanette said, “Mike, I was involved in the Raptors rebuilding and they are a compromise. They’re too small to install both a jump drive and our heaviest force field. They’re designed to jump in on a Gracken Starship, fire, and jump away. They can stand up to a single warship long enough to get off a shot, but just barely. We now know that since the Gracken ships aren’t armored they will do significant damage to those they hit but they would be blown away faster than the Q ships if they go to take on those aircraft.”