Nowhere to Hide (13 page)

“Why?”

“That would cause too many questions. Just nod and act like you’re suffering; you’ve had lots of practice.” Bang stared at her. “Those violations are real. Right now, no one wants to be around him. He needs that to protect him from anyone seeing the changes to his ship.”

Bang nodded, “You’re right; mums the word. Are you going to make Sandi pay for making the change?”

“You better believe it.”

Bang laughed, “Good.”

T
he Grandfather looked up at his oldest son as he read the scouting reports, “It appears your brother didn’t do a good job of communicating what was going on in that galaxy.”

“I feel part of that blame belongs to the family he was sent to advise. I suspect he was a tool for them.”

“How so?”

“You know he was smart but bravery has never been one of his strong points. He was careful to a fault. It was out of character for him to lead the first invasion.”

The Grandfather turned all six eyestalks at his son, “Then why did he do it?”

“The only quality he possessed that was stronger than everything else was ambition. I suspect the other Senior Father simply pointed out how much glory would be given to the one making the first attack.”

The Grandfather swelled in size and moved the top of his body back, “That would have done it.”

“I also suspect the plans for the invasion were not destroyed in his attack. I know that family must still have a copy.”

“Yes, but we can’t prove it and I know they won’t give it to us. I called for their Grandfather to be executed.”

The Son leaned forward, “That wasn’t a good idea.”

“I see that now; however, I had to make an effort to place the blame with the other family.”

“And now here we are.”

The Grandfather leaned right indicating a shrug, “What are you planning to do?”

“Do my best not to get our family killed.”

“You think the danger is that great?”

“I do; how was our fleet destroyed?” The Grandfather sat in silence. “More than nine million ships were blasted out of existence and no one knows how it was done. The Scouts that escaped recorded a very powerful, organized attack immediately after they arrived at their assigned coordinates. The removal of our probes a year ago indicates they know about our plans to invade and the civilizations there have united to meet us.”

“Should I suggest to the Council that we avoid that galaxy?”

“You can make a case for it but I suspect that will just harden their resolve to attack.”

“Why?”

“Now that we’ve attacked that galaxy three times, do you think they’re just going to forget it? No, the council will see that the civilizations there will come after us now to prevent a future invasion; I know that’s what I’d do in their place.”

“Son, you should replace me on the council. You’re much smarter and wiser than I am.”

The Son swelled and then deflated, “No, we don’t have another Senior Father qualified to lead us during this dangerous time. My place is here.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to be forced to launch a major scouting attack. I’m not sending just one ship to scout; I’m sending them in groups of four.”

“Why four?”

“So they can have protective coverage for each other. I’ve seen the scout reports and more might have survived if they had multiple fields of fire around them.”

“How many are you sending?”

“A million groups of four ships each. They’re getting their assignments now. They’ll launch in five days.”

***

Drey and Ian watched the giant gathering of ships outside a distant galaxy on the main display. Drey let the patterns of the ships flow through his mind and said, “They’re doing something.”

Ian nodded and looked up, “Moe, can you see any pattern in their movements?”

“They’re trying to hide what they’re doing but they are organizing an attack.”

“What do you mean hide?”

“I suspect they think they’re being watched. However, ships are being loaded with provisions throughout that mass gathering and the numbers indicate an attack is going to be launched.”

“How many ships?”

“Between three and five million.”

“Can you determine how they’ll come in?”

“No; but I can make a guess.”

Drey leaned forward, “Have at it.”

“They launched a million scouts in their last invasion. That would indicate they have the locations of that many civilizations in their databanks. I honestly don’t think they’re going to launch ships to just cruise around and casually look around for what’s going on here. All of the ships will have a target and I think they’ll be going back to their targets from the last attack.”

Drey looked at Ian, “They’re sending in groups of ships instead of just one scout.”

Ian shook his head, “That is not good. Just killing one of those ships is a dangerous undertaking. If they provide covering fire for each other, we are going to lose ships.”

“And planets.”

Ian looked quickly up at the speaker, “Planets?”

“The targets during the last invasion were the main planets of those civilizations. I suspect they want to remove the galaxy’s leadership. They won’t just be scouting; they’ll attempt to destroy their targets.”

Ian looked at Drey, “Do we have enough dreadnaughts to disrupt space around those worlds?”

“If we send them in now, we should have subspace disrupted around all of them within two days.” Ian stared at Drey and Drey leaned back in his chair, “The disruption will last two weeks. We just have to plan to keep our dreadnaughts disrupting space until this conflict is over.”

Ian sighed, “Moe, get the Kilper Admiral to send his fleets of dreadnaughts to start the disruption.”

“I’ll notify the Hub to make the assignments and get them on the way.”

Drey pushed his communicator, “Attention all Admirals, we will be initiating a war warning immediately. Make sure your ships are at action stations. We’re anticipating an attack quickly. Plans of your organization to meet it will be sent to my desk within 24 hours.”

***

Chip looked at Mikki and Bang, “I hoped for more time. However, what I’m about to tell you is important. When you jump in on an Invader Battleship, you have to time your missiles in such a way that you don’t fire at the same time.”

Mikki’s eyebrows moved up, “Why; I would think two simultaneous hits would be better than one?”

“In the last attack, we discovered that a powerful hit on the invading ship’s force field would rock it violently.” Chip looked over in the corner of his office and walked over and picked up a beach ball. He held it out in front of him in his palm. “It appears that the Invader’s force field is supported by an extremely strong energy emission from the force field emitters. It’s like having a hyper alloy column supporting the roof of a building. It doesn’t give at all.” Chip took his right hand and jabbed his index finger into the beach ball and it flew off to the left.

Mikki nodded, “So a hit will stagger the ship.”

“Exactly.” Chip walked over and picked up the beach ball and said, “Hold this on your palm.” Bang extended his hand and Chip placed the beach ball on it. “However, what happens when two hits happen simultaneously on opposite sides of the ship?” Chip took his two index fingers and hit the ball on each side. The ball remained in Bang’s palm.

“They cancel each other out.”

“Yes they do and I need the target ship staggered to increase the possibility of getting a clear shot off. Our missiles aren’t as powerful as the neutron FTL missiles being used by our Green Civilization Allies, but they will rock the ship.”

“How many times do we hit our target?”

“You will each fire one missile each.”

Mikki and Bang were shocked. Mikki shook her head, “That’s suicide if you attack after just two hits. I’ve seen recordings where we lost hundreds of ships after the Invader was hit with ten times more.”

Chip shrugged, “Either this three shot system will work or it won’t. If it works, two hits will be all that’s needed to distract them. You should also remember that we don’t have an infinite number of missiles on our ships. If we’re going to assist others, we’re going to need to ration how we use our inventory.”

Bang looked at Mikki and then turned to Chip, “What happens if it doesn’t work?”

“Then the two of you are going to have to use the tactic of flying parallel to your target and launching three missiles.”

“That’s also suicide.”

Bang looked sharply at Mikki, “Why do you say that? That’s how we killed them before.”

Chip tilted his head to the left, “Yes, but there weren’t other ships giving supporting fire to each other. Dodging three or four beams coming at you is a far cry different from having to avoid twenty or more.”

Mikki shook her head, “Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. However, if they have covering fire, are we going to be able to avoid being hit?”

“The four tenths of a second delay to lock a beam on your ship will still apply. If your micro-jumps are two tenths of a second, their supporting vessels will also have difficulty targeting you. You must make sure you’re not jumping around the ship on a predictable route or toward another Invader providing covering fire.”

Mikki shrugged, “We’ll spiral around it; Bang, you hit the target on the front and I’ll hit it either in the middle or rear. That should prevent us firing together.” Bang nodded.

Bang looked at Chip, “Sir, you’re the one in the most danger.”

Chip smiled, “It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it.”

“I’m glad we’re finally getting to go into combat.”

Chip leaned back, “You are; why?”

“Because the next slug that tells me I’m reporting to a coward is going to get decked.”

Chip and Mikki laughed. Chip looked quickly at his wrist unit, “We need to get to our ships. The probes say something is happening.” The three ran out to the landing field as thousands of attack ships lifted and blasted into the atmosphere.

Mikki looked at her display and said, “Chip, the space around the planet we’re assigned to protect has been disrupted.”

“Change your settings to the FTL micro-jumps. The system will still function as we’ve planned.”

“That’s true for us but you’re going to have a lot more difficulty getting a shot off at the correct moment.”

“Salud has practiced enough to do it. Just complete your run and get to our designated coordinates to reform for the next run.”

“Yes Sir; good luck.”

“And to you as well.”

Chip looked at his panel and powered up his communications console, “Salud, I want you monitoring fleet broadcasts for any place that needs support. Prioritize them in order of what you deem most important.”

“I’ll keep track of what’s going on, Chip.”

“Are you ready to jump in FTL to the bow of an oncoming Invader Battleship?”

“I’m as ready as I can be having never done it before. I should get better over time.”

“Let us hope you have the opportunity.”

“That goes without saying.”

“What has Captain Lambert assigned us to do in the coming attack?”

“We’re in the second wave.”

“I hope the first wave is successful.”

***

The probes detected millions of Invader ships jumping away from their massed fleets and sent the warning out; the attack was on the way.

***

Drey waited above the Green Civilization’s Capital planet with his sub-fleet of Thetas. He heard his board alarm go off and saw fifty invader battleships appear. This was not good. He called for reinforcements and powered up his console, “Doc, it looks like we are going to have to assist in the defense.”

“I guess they saw this particular planet was a major problem for them last time. I’m assigning targets. The Green Ships are starting to hit them with neutron missiles. We need to get our ships out there and start taking advantage of their strikes.”

Drey lifted his communicator, “All ships, attack your assigned targets.”

Drey stared at his display and saw Green Ships exploding around the incoming Invaders.

***

Dee saw the invaders moving in and stood up, “Drey, get out of there.”

“I’m sorry, my love. You know I can’t leave them undefended.”

“You’re too important to us; leave!”

“I love you, Dee.”

Dee’s display went dark and she sent an emergency dispatch to Ian.

***

Lilly watched in horror as the first wave of attack craft were being blown apart by the cross fire from the four huge battleships speeding in toward the planet. She hit her panel, “Second wave, get in there now!”

Chip looked at his panel, “We’re going after the front ship. If I’m successful in knocking it out, I’m going to FTL over it and fire two shots at the two ships directly behind it. I hope the blast from the first ship will mask my approach.”

“What do you want us to do, Sir?”

“They’re in a diamond formation with a lead ship, two to each side following it, and the fourth bringing up the rear. Go to the back ship and start hitting it. I’ll come for a bow shot after I fire at the two behind the first.”

“Good luck, Sir. Get out of there if the three missile pattern doesn’t work.”

Chip sighed, if it didn’t work, getting out wouldn’t be an issue, he’d be dead. “Here we go; three, two, one, FTL now!” Lilly saw her squadron was going to die. No one could get close enough to get off a shot and she was losing ships quickly. She watched the four incoming battleships and knew they were going to get through to the planet. She slammed her fist on her chair arms and suddenly saw the lead Invader Battleship explode in a massive blast followed by the two directly behind the lead ship blowing up an instant later. The fourth ship was rocked by boson missiles but then it exploded adding its shock wave to the first three ship’s explosions. She shook her head, “Jack, what just happened?”

“I’ve had to slow the recording down but it appears that Lt. Robinson’s group just took out all four invaders.”

Lilly was dumbfounded, “Get him on the channel.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“His group has just left at tremendous FTL speed and jumped away.”