Mike's War: Sequel to Jesse's Starship (23 page)

They continued to pour fire into the buildings which had reached a critical temperature and would continue to melt as long as the beams continued. The giant mobile blasters moved back outside the edge of the ruined landscape and the final barrier between them and their adversaries melted into the ground. The crews rushed forward to convert the giant vehicles back to their standard beams instead of the conventional blaster beams. It wouldn’t be much longer and he would see the killers of his Grip die. He hoped the Elder watching from space would be pleased by his actions.

• • •

Derek looked at his chronometer and said, “Romanov?”

“We should be fine, Sir.”

“Gremel, we’re ready.”

“Changing field topography now, General.”

“Gremel.”

“Yes, General.”

“Thank you. We’d have died hours ago if not for your help.”

“Make it worth it.”

Derek hit his transmitter and sent the code. Every warrior climbed on one of the tanks and held on tightly to each other. The tank drivers watched and waited for a moment and then they saw the force field over them change shape and cover the lane blasted through the buildings. They hit their accelerators and roared off the dunes and moved at an increasing speed through the middle of the city. Derek held on tightly to Romanov’s turret and watched the countdown on his visor. According to Gremel, the field would only last about five minutes covering the larger area before it failed. The Gracken’s heavy blasters were four miles away and the tanks were now moving ninety miles an hour. He smiled as the first salvo of high explosive rounds exploded out of the tanks. They were now two miles away and the giant blasters were in range of the tank’s 120 mm cannons.

Romanov looked in his command video and said, “Target our first heavy blaster and fire when ready.”

The gunner said, “Spotting laser has confirmed first target.”

Romanov said in a calm voice, “Fire when ready and reload the cannon with another HEAT round.”

The 120 mm smooth bore cannon rocked back as the shell blasted out. The feed built into the tanks by the Alliance Engineers fed another round to the breech and the loader pushed it in. “I have laser confirmation on second target.”

“Fire when ready.” The tank rocked again and the third round was loaded into the breach. They were now less than nine hundred yards from the Gracken Heavy lasers and moving at ninety miles an hour.

“I have laser confirmation.”

“Fire when ready.” The Abrams rocked again and every heavy blaster was exploded and burning as the thirty tanks flashed by their line.

The Force Field failed as the tanks reached the edge of the city and a Beamship roared in and fired a conventional blaster beam at the force field complex. The building exploded in a fiery blast. Gremel died with a smile as he watched the tanks roaring up the slope toward the Gracken encampment.

• • •

The Planetary Commander saw the tanks roar off the dunes and move at an incredible speed toward his blasters. He watched as thirty of them exploded in massive explosions killing the crews and the workers converting them to their standard beams. The blasters were helpless. Both of the beams were not operational and they had no way to defend themselves. He yelled at his staff, “ORDER THE BEAMSHIPS IN NOW!!”

The forty eight aircraft came rushing forward but the force field protected the tanks. Thirty more heavy blasters exploded when the tanks were a mile out and the last of them were destroyed as the tanks accelerated out of the city and moved directly toward the Gracken camp. The thousands of Gracken warriors watched in amazement as the hundred heavy blasters were blown away by the charging tanks. When the tanks didn’t stop and continued running toward them firing projectiles that exploded sending thousands of small explosive needles into them, they turned and ran for their arms. Their bodies began injecting them with hormones and their speed doubled immediately. They turned just in time for the tanks to roar over them as the warriors riding them fired their weapons at full auto. The Gracken were frozen for a moment and then they attacked the thirty tanks in a mad rush. They couldn’t break through the heavy force field surrounding the tanks and the Spartan Warrior riding the tanks fired at them and killed them by the thousands.

• • •

The Beamships had stopped and held off firing. Their beam would have killed their own warriors surrounding the tanks. The PC screamed, “Fire at those vehicles and destroy them.”

“Commander, we’ll kill our own warriors around them if we do.”

“If I have to order you again I will personally execute you and all of your families!!”

The Beamships moved in directly over the thirty tanks and fired their beams at full power. The infantry riding the tanks jumped off as the beams began hitting the tanks from above and formed up in a circle outside the beam hitting the tank. The eight hundred warriors began firing at the thousands of Gracken warriors rushing in on them and hundreds of them began falling. But there were too many and they were caught out in the open.

• • •

Belinda hit the ground and rolled and thanked her armor for the protection of her personal force field. “FORM UP AND START FIRING AT FULL AUTO!!” Her platoon opened fire on the Gracken warriors that had run out from in front of the speeding tank and began killing them in huge numbers. But then a huge mass of Gracken came rushing in toward them. Belinda fired, reloaded, and fired again. But it was like trying to hold a raging river at bay. More than six hundred Gracken jumped over their front ranks and rained down on the trapped platoon. Belinda fired her shoulder rifle and then felt something like a sledge hammer slam into her back. The Gracken that held her in his grip slammed his other arm into her force field and broke her neck. All over the gently rising slope, the Gracken were overwhelming the heavily outnumbered Sparta Warriors.

Derek jumped off the tank and rushed over to Halley’s side and they opened fire on the charging Gracken. Derek said over his private channel, “I’m going to miss you, my love.”

Halley shot three Gracken that had jumped into the middle of their formation and said, “If we go to another place or if we have a new life, I will find you. I love you.”

Twelve Gracken jumped in and killed Halley and Derek in less than a second. The Gracken looked around and saw that all the invaders had been killed and the tanks were coming to a stop.

• • •

The tank’s force fields held for forty seconds and then failed. Every human in and around the tanks disintegrated. But the damage inflicted during those forty seconds was incredible. Twenty six thousand Gracken warriors were killed or injured. The PC saw the carnage and yelled, “See if you can find a body!”

The survivors began looking in and around the tanks. There was no trace of an attacker’s body. They turned to the bodies lying out in the open field and heard something like a spinning sound. A moment later, eight hundred blasts rolled across the hill and killed every Gracken standing around the dead enemy bodies. The self-destruct modules detected that the warriors no longer had a heartbeat, pulse, or brainwave. They activated and exploded.

• • •

The Elder looked over at his Scan Officer, “How many?”

“More than twenty seven thousand, Elder.”

The Elder looked at his display showing the site of the battle and then it turned bright white and went offline.

• • •

One of the Gracken warriors, angered at the loss of his brothers to the explosions, grabbed the hatch of an Abram Tank and pulled on it. It didn’t budge. He put both feet on top of the giant tank and gripped the hatch with both hands. He was pumped high with hormones and he pulled on the hatch with all his strength. The hatch snapped off and all thirty tank’s reactors received the self-destruct signal and went critical. The giant tanks blew up in massive explosions sending shrapnel blowing out into the ranks of the surviving Gracken. One of the tanks was blown into the air and landed on top of the Planetary Commander’s Control Center, killing everyone inside. The massive blasts and shockwaves rolled through the Gracken killing everything they hit. The force fields protected them from the blast but the violent acceleration smashed their bodies against their force fields and pulverized their organs.

• • •

The Unit Commander watched the final struggle and shook his head at the savagery of the enemy. He stared at the wall display as the images of the cleanup changed and he saw a Warrior reaching down to open one of the tanks. His eyes went wide as he realized the Warrior was fully released. There was no way to stop him in time. He immediately turned and ran out of the central control room knocking down three doors as he left the building. The PC watched him leave and couldn’t understand what was going on. The Unit Commander arrived outside the building fully released and sprinted at an incredible speed over the rise that the camp was on and down the hill toward the next row of hills. He was a mile away when he felt the heat of the blast on his back. The shrapnel missed him because there was a hill between him and the camp but the following shockwave blew him off his feet and rolled him a hundred yards. He got up on his knees and shook his head. He looked back toward the camp and saw the giant mushroom of fire rising into the sky.

• • •

The Elder looked at the violent explosion’s aftermath and his Scan Officer said, “Make that a hundred and forty six thousand dead, Elder.”

The Elder was close to rage but forced himself to be calm. He looked at the Secondary Video and saw the ten white ships still in orbit above the planet. The Military Commander on his ship said, “Do we launch our attack against them now?”

The Elder stared at the display and picked up his communicator. “It appears I should have accepted your offer.”

“I really wish you had.”

“I was planning to attack your ships after the ground assault but I can’t do that now. Was that part of your plan?”

“It was.”

“You’re smarter than I thought. We will meet again.”

“I’m sure of it. Perhaps you’ll respect our future offers.”

The Elder slammed the communicator down and looked at his pilot, “Get us out of here.”

The Military Commander said, “I thought we were going to attack those ships?”

The Elder looked at the Commander with a sneer, “Did you not hear our wager?”

“I did.”

“I agreed that whoever won the wager would have the other save their mate at the end of hostilities. How can I attack those ships knowing that being’s mate is on his ship?”

The Commander’s eyes went wide and he said, “You can’t attack that being’s ship.”

“I thought he had made a fools wager. It appears that it was I who was the fool. Set a course for the Capital.”

• • •

The ten Q ships remained in place over the site of the Regiment’s death. There was only silence as they bore witness to the bravery of the valiant warriors making their lives count at the end. They watched along with all the people on Sparta as the Gracken were blown away by the tank’s self-destruction…there were no cheers. Everyone watched and remained silent.

• • •

The six hundred Gracken warships activated their jump drives and disappeared. After a moment Bowen said, “I expected them to attack us after what happened on the planet.”

Tilly said, “They couldn’t.”

“Why not?”

“Because my brilliant husband prevented them from doing it.”

After a few moments Jeanette said, “I’m sorry but I don’t understand. Just how did he stop them from attacking?”

Mike blew out a breath and said, “I want all of you to download the Gracken language at your first opportunity.”

Jeanette said, “Will that answer why?”

“It will. You’ll discover when you look at their language that they are a warrior culture that fully expects to die young. As a result of this fate, they have become a civilization that will gamble on anything. They have a set of norms that are built around making and accepting wagers. They will literally bet on the most insignificant things and the honor around the wagering process is staggering. People will die if they don’t pay their wagers. To win a wager through stealth is looked at as an honor to the winner.”

Tilly said, “That Gracken that Mike made a bet with thought Mike was a fool. He had no intention of using any of his warriors to kill our warriors. That would have been an example of using something unsaid to win the bet.”

Jesse said, “But General Daniels didn’t wait to be beamed to death. He attacked the Gracken and won the bet.”

Mike nodded, “I wondered why Daniels wanted to know how long those crews worked on the heavy blasters when they arrived. They were converting them to conventional heat blasters. He knew he could attack them once the crews began changing them back to their advanced beams. He took advantage of a small detail that the Gracken Wager missed.”

Jeanette leaned back in her chair, “That still doesn’t tell me why they couldn’t attack us.”

Mike slowly shook his head, “I knew the Gracken would not accept a wager that would lead to our forces being released. He also wouldn’t accept a bet that would restrict his actions. It had to be something irrelevant to what was happening. Sparing either of our mates at the end of the conflict was insignificant. The Gracken accepted the wager simply to embarrass me and show me that he was my superior.” Mike paused, “But he lost the bet…and my mate is on the ship with me.”

Jeanette smiled, “He couldn’t attack us and possibly kill Tilly. That would violate the wager you agreed on.”

“I think he saw at the end that he had been outmaneuvered. He left with a higher regard for us than when he arrived. As long as they saw us beneath them, they would never negotiate. Now, I think we’ve at least earned their respect and, at best, their fear.”

Mike looked at the display and said, “We can leave now. Go back to your assignments and I’ll be in touch when we kick off the next drop.”

Elle’s eyebrows went up, “Are you seriously thinking about another drop on this planet?”

“We owe it to our dead warriors. What do you think is going to happen if we delay?”