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***

The Green Civilization’s Fleet Controller looked at his main wall display and heard his Sensor Controller announce, “They’ll arrive at the launch coordinates in twenty minutes.”

He nodded, “Notify the Grey Ships.” He watched the giant Invader ships approaching his position and felt a deep anger. He knew it had to be done but he was furious at the price being paid. He looked at his personal board and saw his fifty thousand ships in subspace waiting for the Invader’s arrival.

Space had been disrupted out to 250,000 miles from the planet but there was a small thousand mile band in the middle of the disruption that still allowed ships to enter subspace. Fifty thousand Green and Grey ships waited on each side of the incoming path the Invaders were taking to the planet. He looked at his Weapons Controller and saw him nod. Everything was ready. It would take the Invaders fourteen seconds to cross the undisrupted space. At two hundred and fifty thousand miles per hour, they wouldn’t have much time to detect the band. Even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to stop before they entered it. He smiled; he had a hot reception waiting for them.

***

The attack Commander turned an eyestalk to his Nephew sitting directly to his right, “Status?”

“Nothing showing on my scans, Uncle.”

He looked at the planet on his display and saw it growing larger. His ships were almost halfway to the target and nothing had appeared to slow them down. This wasn’t right. Something was going on but he couldn’t determine what it was. In the last attack on this planet, the battleships had been hit as soon as they entered the disrupted space. He said where all his bridge crew could hear, “Stay alert!” He saw his fleet arrive halfway to the planet and stood up as his Nephew shouted, “WE’VE ENTERED SPACE THAT HASN’T BEEN DISRUPTED!” He looked at his main display and saw ships on each side of his formation being hit by massive waves of missiles. His ship entered open space and he watched the ships to the side of him being blown apart.

***

The Fleet Controller watched the oncoming Invaders and, just before they entered the band his ships were hiding in, he yelled, “LAUNCH!”

Each of the fifty thousand ships on each side of the oncoming invaders released a hundred FTL missiles as they jumped away. Once the jump field around the missiles disappeared with the ship that released them jumping away, they popped into normal space and their targeting systems locked on the Invader Battleships and they ignited their thrusters. Five million FTL missiles roared into the flanks of the thousand Invaders and thousands of them hit individual ships. Those unfortunate enough to be hit were exploded into massive fireballs. Those massive fireballs burned the majority of the missiles following the first launch but more than two hundred of the Invaders were destroyed.

The eight hundred survivors finally crossed the undisrupted band and began to be targeted by Green and Grey Ships that came roaring in and fired missiles salvos. The Commander watched as his ships began firing their main beams out at the incoming missiles and breathed a sigh of relief. The attacking ships were forced to keep a distance to avoid being hit by his ship’s beams and that gave the beam operators enough time to lay down a covering fire of main beams to burn the incoming missiles. It was a violent fight but his ships finally arrived at the planet and saw the incoming beams from the planet’s defenses. He nodded and his nephew ordered, “Launch the nuclear missiles.”

Eighty thousand nuclear missiles were launched at the planet and the Invader Commander ordered his fleet to turn around. “Have our jump drives active to jump away as soon as we enter that open area.”

He sat down in his command chair and looked at the casualty reports. He had lost two hundred and eighteen ships. Now he understood how the ships in the first attack had been destroyed. This tactic used by the defenders could easily be countered by keeping their jump drives active. The incoming ships would just immediately jump across the barrier and continue their flight to the targeted planet. “Send a recording to our Family of what’s happened here.”

He sat back and smiled, “The invasion could succeed.” That was his last thought as his ship blew up around him.

***

Chip sent a message to Drey, “I have the location of the Commander of this attack.”

Drey thought a moment and nodded, “See if you can take him out.”

Chip pushed a button and Max looked up from his panel, “Claire, we’ve been given the go ahead.”

“I see that; you take the left and I’ll come in on the right.”

“Just one shot and then get out.”

The two thetas went to light speed and were on their target in less than a second. They came out of FTL drive and fired the Boson Combo at the giant ship. They went back to FTL and disappeared as the giant ship exploded. The boson beams weakened the force field around the giant battleship and the three boson missiles on each side blew through and hit the Invader in the center. Both of the Thetas were barely able to escape an Invader beam that blew through the space they had formerly occupied. The response time of those beams were incredible. The heat damaged the rear fins on Max’s ship but he was able to get away before his systems shut down. He limped away as the Invader Fleet arrived at open space and jumped away.

***

The Second-in-Command jumped out of his command chair, “WHAT JUST HAPPENED? GET ME SOME ANSWERS, NOW!”

His bridge crew scrambled but did not have any answers before the giant ship jumped away. The Nephew manning the sensors briefly saw a small Green Ship off in the distance from the escaping Invaders and wondered what it was just before his ships jumped away.

T
he Senior Father had the Second-in-Command in his office and was past anger. His emotions moved rapidly toward rage and he pulled a blaster to kill the incompetent fool that allowed his Senior Son to be killed. He was tightening his finger on the trigger of the blaster when he heard his daughter say, “He wasn’t killed like the other ships.”

He wanted to blast this idiot but he forced himself to turn an eyestalk to her and say. “What are you talking about?”

“Missiles didn’t kill my brother’s ship. All the others were killed by missiles coming in at extremely high speeds but no missiles were fired at his ship.”

The Father turned and walked over to his Daughter’s display, “Show me what you’re saying.” The Father looked at his Son’s battleship and saw it surrounded on all sides by escorts. He stared at the screen and wondered if it was possible to place more ships around the ship in the center of the formation. With that observation, he began questioning what else his Son’s second could have done. His Daughter said, “I’ve slowed this recording down to our slowest speed and it’s still not clear but we should be able to see something.” The Father watched and saw a momentary green flash and was blinded by a main beam firing at the spot the green flash appeared. “What was that?”

His Daughter leaned back and tilted left, “If it’s a ship, it’s very small and it was only there for a hundredth of a second. It took that long for our scanner to turn to record it, but our beam was faster than the scanner, and got off a shot before we could get a clear picture.” His daughter looked at him, “This is how our ships were killed in the first attack.” The Father put the blaster away and the Second-in-Command swelled with a full breath. He knew he was going to die. The Father replayed the recording six times and still couldn’t determine what happened. “Father, we had a ship fire a beam on the opposite side of the my brother’s ship but we’ve not been able to see what it was attempting to hit.”

The Father stared at his Daughter. She was as smart as her brother and he depended on her to help him see things clearly. She looked at the display and pulled up another picture. The Father stared at the image as his Daughter increased its resolution. “This image was taken by another ship just before it jumped away.” The image grew larger and suddenly there was a small green ship moving away from the fleet with a small smoke plume coming from its rear.

“How big is that ship?”

““It’s smaller than our shuttles.”

He turned to his daughter, “Could something that small damage a battleship?”

“I honestly don’t know but something did. That ship wasn’t there when our fleet moved in.”

“Could it have been launching the missiles and was damaged in the effort?” His Daughter pulled up an image of an FTL missile and placed it beside the small ship. They were close to the same size. “Were we able to determine the power of that ship?”

“No, it evidently had most of its power shutdown. Father, something damaged that ship and I suspect it was one of the beams fired by the ships around my brother’s ship.”

“If that’s the case, how did it get so far away from our fleet’s location?”

“I’m still working on that but nothing else makes sense.”

“Weren’t the ships launching the missiles also green in color?”

“Yes, but it was a slightly different shade of green.”

The Father went to his command chair and thought for a long time. The Second remained standing at attention and his Daughter waited for further instructions. Finally, he looked up, “Daughter, do you think they deliberately allowed us to kill that planet?”

“It was one of their major capitals. What makes you think they did?”

“I don’t know; this whole thing just doesn’t feel right. If they have ships that can kill us when we’re defended like my Son’s ship, why did they only use missiles?”

“It may be that they only have a small number of those ships.”

“Let’s assume the worst and say they have large numbers; why didn’t they use them?”

The Daughter thought about it and after a few moments leaned back, “You know the Council won’t believe this.”

The Second said, “Believe what?”

The Daughter leaned left and right, “They’re setting us up.”

“How!?!”

The Daughter looked at her father and he nodded, “If they stopped this attack, we would have asked for another Family to join us.” The Second saw it. The Daughter continued, “They took out the most heavily defended ship in our attack. If they can do that, they can kill any ship in our formations.”

The Second nodded, “They were also able to determine which ship our commander was in.”

The Father waved a pseudopod, “That was easy; having that many ships around it was a clear give away.” The Second lowered his head and the Father said, “You couldn’t have done anything else. I’d have done the same thing you did.”

“I still blame myself for his death, Father.”

The Father looked back at the image of the small ship, “There is where the blame lies.”

“What are you going to do, Father?”

“Ask to speak to the Council.”

“Do you think they’ll hear you?”

“We better be praying that they do.”

The Second looked at the Daughter and she nodded; they needed to start a family quickly. He would ask her Father for permission later.

***

Claire stared at Max’s ship limping away from the Invader fleet from just outside disrupted space. The freaking battleship had gotten off a lucky hit. She waited and watched for an Invader to head towards Max. If they did, she was going to be forced to kill him; both knew they couldn’t allow the Invaders access to the technology contained in Max’s ship.

“Claire, you’re going to have to do it if they start moving this way.”

“Max, I’ll die if I have to kill you.”

“Please don’t blame yourself, Claire. We knew going in it wasn’t going to be easy.”

“If you weren’t such a slowpoke…”

Max softly said, “I know, I know.”

Chip appeared on their displays, “Max, you know what we’re going to have to do if one of their ships starts your way.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Perhaps I can be of assistance.”

Chip looked at his main display and saw one of the giant Green Civilization’s Ship Commander, “We can use any help you can give us.”

“I’m going to your ship at FTL speed and have my landing bay doors open. Have your ship enter and I’ll take him to El Dorado.”

Chip shook his head, “I wish I could accept your offer but my Leaders have forbidden showing our technology to any other species. I know we’re fighting together in this war, but that rule cannot be violated.”

The Ship Controller stared at Chip and after a moment said, “I guess I’d feel the same way. I’ll bring your ship inside my FTL field and send a cable out to it. We’ll attach it to his ship and he can shoot if off if we don’t take him directly to your planet. Your other ship can follow us.”

Chip tilted his head, “Thank you for understanding.”

“If we hadn’t violated your trust earlier, I suspect this wouldn’t be an issue; but we did. We are working hard to earn it back. Perhaps this will help in that effort.”

“Thank you, Controller.”

“Max.”

“Yes, Claire.”

“I want you to move to my quarters.”

Max smiled, “I didn’t think you knew.”

“I know.” Max nodded as the small shuttle moved to his ship and anchored a cable. He stared at Claire in his display all the way back to El Dorado.

***

Chip shook his head, “I’m sorry, Sir.”

Drey nodded, “It does appear they saw your damaged ship before they jumped away.”

“Perhaps I was too hasty in wanting to participate in the engagement.”

“You’re probably right; however…I never expected your pilots to be able to take out their flagship. That ship was heavily defended and I suspect your estimate of the importance of that Commander was spot on. It is encouraging to see that if your team could hit it, they will fare well against their ships in the next invasion.”

“Do you think they’ll know what happened?”

“They can’t be so stupid that they don’t put two and two together. I hope their ego is so large that they won’t really believe a ship as small as a Theta could destroy one of their heavily defended battleships.” Drey paused and shook his head, “However, they will know that the flagship was not destroyed by missiles.”

“Will that lead to multiple fleets coming next time, Sir?”