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***

The Pental Admiral saw the massive mayhem taking place in the Invader’s formation and ordered another missiles barrage. The attack craft cleared the Invader’s fleet as another two hundred thousand FTL missiles roared in. The overlapping fire that had been so effective in the first two barrages were not there on the third and most of the missiles flew into the Invaders unimpeded. The entire formation looked like it was on fire.

Kregen shouted, “Make your second run now!” The fifteen hundred survivors of the first attack roared back in to the Invader formation.

***

The Father held on to his seat straps and yelled, “How many ships have we lost?”

“We’re approaching twelve thousand!”

“Get the fleet back in formation!” The Father’s ship was shoved hard to the left as an attack craft followed up the first three missiles with another three and the Father’s ship blew up. The Second Father took command and ordered the fleet to continue toward the planet. They still had five days before they arrived and he hoped enough ships survived to take out the target. The attacks seemed to never end as he held on to his harness and watched ships around him explode.

***

“Kregen, we’ve lost half our group.”

“We’ll be taking part in the next attack, Rissa. They have lost two thirds of their ships as well. Thank the Creator for the Pental’s missiles. They’re not strong enough to penetrate or really weaken their force fields but they’ve shoved them around enough for us to hit them twice.”

“WHAT IS THAT!?!”

Kregen looked at his display and saw fifty thousand Green and Grey ships appear around the Invaders as they launched another giant missile barrage. Kregen’s eyes went wide as the new missiles hit the Invader fleet. The explosions on their force fields were a different order of magnitude from what the Pental were firing. Marissa shouted, “They’re using Neutron warheads.”

“All attack craft, pick an Invader ship that’s been hit by one of the new missiles. We’ll start our attack NOW!”

***

Kregen roared in on the enemy fleet and saw numerous enemy battleships being rocked violently by the Neutron Missiles. He targeted the closest to his point of entry into their ranks and then fired at four others as he flew through their formation. All five ships blew apart with a single three missile salvo. Now it was only going to take a single shot to take them out and the attack craft blew a corridor two miles wide through them. Kregen saw numerous Invader battleships blowing up from multiple hits by Neutron missiles. Three hundred more attack craft were killed in the attack but more than ten thousand Invaders were destroyed. The tide was turning but ships were dying on both sides at a horrendous rate. The attack craft formed another line and turned back toward the enemy formation. As they rushed forward, Kregen wondered how the other planets were faring.

***

Dom watched his attack group clear the Invader fleet and saw hundreds of their ships burning. He did not have the luxury of thousands of ships launching FTL missiles to distract the enemy. The Computers had not assigned a high priority for the planet he was defending, so he had to do it alone. He was thankful the new Boson Combo had proven effective against the enemy battleships. The other thing that saved his ships was the fact their force fields were strong enough to withstand two beam hits. In spite of that, he had lost more than twelve hundred ships. He shook his head and knew the superior numbers he had to face were more than he could overcome. The running battle had been going on for three days and most of his pilots were surviving on stimulants.

He was down to four hundred Thetas the next day and then the Invader changed tactics. The six thousand surviving Invader battle ships suddenly flew away in different directions and spread out along a fifty thousand mile wide line. Dom shook his head and pounded his fist on his panel. He knew there was no way for his ships to kill all of them before they reached the planet. His rage began growing and he snarled into his communicator, “Pick a ship and take it out. Then take another.”

The four hundred Thetas spread out and began attacking individual ships. No more Thetas were lost from that moment on. A single Invader Battleship stood no chance against a Theta going in at full combat speed. By the time the Invaders reached the planet, only eighteen hundred of the original twenty thousand were still operational. The planet was hit with thousands of nuclear warheads, killing all life on it. None of the victorious Invaders managed to survive long enough to escape.

Dom killed the last Invader but still saw the burning planet in his mind. He had failed to defend it. He wept for the loss of life as he called for another assignment. It came and he left the system at FTL speed.

***

Ian watched the Invader ships launch thousands of warheads at the planet and felt immense sorrow. He had lost more than nine hundred of his sixteen hundred Thetas and knew that this Invader Fleet was highly organized and had maintained their covering fire throughout the long fight to the planet. Eight thousand Invaders had been destroyed but he knew he didn’t have the ships needed to stop the survivors from escaping. He paced them as they turned to leave the system and saw they continued to fire their beams on all sides of their formation. He was furious but couldn’t do anything to stop them.

“Sir, can you use some help?”

Ian jerked his head toward his display and saw Dom, “Yes, I can. How many ships do you have?”

“Thirty five hundred and eighty six I’ve collected from several attacks, Your Highness.”

Ian smiled, “Send fifteen hundred to my coordinates and you take the remainder and move below their formation.”

“You’re not going to do this alone, I hope.”

Ian saw a Green Civilization Wing Commander on his display, “I could have used you two days ago.”

“We all have our burdens during this attack. I think you can use me now. We may not have been able to save the planet but we can make them pay for it.”

“Launch a missiles barrage into their formation, please.”

“Where do you want it?”

“Send the first one in over the top and follow it up with one from below after our ships move out of their formation.”

“I’ll be launching in thirty seconds.”

***

The Senior Father watched his display and saw the arrival of the enemy ships. He had been lucky so far but he saw his luck was changing. He didn’t know what those giant Green Ships were going to do but he knew the arrival of the small green ships was going to be a real threat. “Get our covering fire organized! Continue at full speed toward open space!”

***

The Green Civilization main battleships came roaring in from above the Invader formation and launched a massive Neutron Missiles barrage. Thousands of them were burned but their neutron warhead continued moving at immense velocity into their ranks. No beam in existence could burn material from a neutron star. Those warheads blew into the Invader formation creating giant blasts on the force fields they hit. The neutron material didn’t give and the force fields held against their supports. Thousands of the giant Invader ships were rocked violently off course. The organized covering fire that had saved them going in was shattered when the missile barrage hit. The Thetas followed in on the heels of the missiles and Invader ships began exploding. The second barrage rocked the Invaders again as the second attack wave roared in from below and in less than ten minutes, six thousand Invader battleships were blown apart. The killed ships were left behind as the survivors continued running for the safety of open space.

Only six Invader battleships managed to make open space and jump away. The Fleet Commander was not one of them; Ian killed his ship less than a mile from escape. His loss was huge. He was one of the few Fathers that had managed to survive with most of his fleet intact long enough to attack his target and make it back to open space. He ended up being a mile short of safety.

***

The Sovereign watched the information coming in from the attacks and shook his head. The Gedna appeared on his display, “I’ve made a decision to send the majority of my ships to defend against the Invader’s attack.”

“That will leave you undefended if they come here.”

“I don’t expect that to happen unless we lose this round.” The Sovereign stared at him for a long moment and the Gedna said, “I’ve determined that more than a thousand of the planets that have been destroyed might have been saved if we had committed our entire inventory.”

“We are not responsible for their loss.”

“When they do come here, are you hoping the rest of the galaxy sends all their ships to defend us or just a small percentage?”

The Sovereign’s display went dark and he sat back in his chair. After a long moment he pushed a button on his panel. The Fleet Controller appeared and he said, “Send all but six percent of our ships to support the planets being attacked.” The Sovereign saw the immediate smile of his Fleet Commander and knew he wanted to do this from the beginning. He hoped the Invaders didn’t choose to attack while his ships were away.

***

Ryan banked his attack craft around and turned for another run at the Invader’s fleet. He pulled up as Annie Newsome banked her ship in and stopped next to his ship. They had lost twelve hundred ships attacking the tightly packed formation and had only managed to kill ten thousand Invaders. The ships sent by the civilizations in M87 to soften up the enemy’s force fields were not effective. The entire Invader fleet was in the center of what appeared to be a giant beam. None of the FTL missiles being fired at the Invaders were making it through their defensive fire and Annie had lost almost half of her ships trying to break through.

“Admiral, this isn’t working.”

“I can see that, Annie. I’ve looked at the feeds from other attacks and this particular fleet is using a different tactic. Their ships are almost force field to force field; they’re really in a compact, tight, formation. It allows them to have a much smaller space to cover with their beams. The allies are doing their best but very few of their missiles are getting through.”

“What are we going to do, Sir?”

“We’re going to continue to attack until we all die or defeat them.”

“What is that?”

Ryan looked at his display and suddenly saw ten thousand giant Green Ships emerge into normal space from their FTL fields and fire eighty thousand FTL missiles at the advancing Invader fleet. Annie shook her head, “They’re all getting burned.” All at once the entire Invader formation looked like it had fire erupt from the outer ship ranks. Those ships also veered off course, some of them smashing into the ships next to them inside the giant formation.

Ryan smiled, “The missiles are burning up but the Neutron Warheads are unaffected by the beams. They’re slamming into the Invader Fleet; we need to take advantage of this now!” Ryan punched his communicator, “All ships, form up with me and we’ll be attacking in one minute.”

Annie contacted the Squadron Controller of the Green Ships and notified him of the attack so he could stop firing missiles until the Alliance ships cleared the Invader formation. Annie also noticed that once the neutron warheads hit the invader fleet, the standard FTL missiles being fired by the defenders also began getting into the tight ranks of the Invader fleet.

***

Annie lined up her ship and heard Ryan say, “Annie.”

“Yes, Admiral.”

“I love you.” Annie was shocked speechless as Ryan announced over the general frequency, “Three, two, one, and NOW!” Annie followed Ryan toward the Invader Fleet with her heart in her throat. Ryan looked at the mayhem the neutron hits had caused; “All ships, take out the ships on the outer edge of the enemy formation. We’ll work our way inwards after each missile barrage.”

The four hundred surviving attack ships hit the tight globe of Invader ships and hit the ones that were blasted out of formation. Most of the crews on those ships were disoriented due to the severe shock from being violently pushed by the neutron hit.

Ryan skipped around the giant globe of almond colored ships, avoiding ships that appeared to have control of their lasers, and hit ships that were firing sporadically. The attack ships flew away from the formation leaving three thousand Invader Battleships burning behind the escaping Invader fleet. Ryan led the attack group in an arc to line up another run at the Invaders and saw the enemy formation exploding again as the civilizations from M87 poured FTL missile fire into the huge mass of escaping ships. As he completed the arc, he heard Annie say on his private frequency, “You’ve chosen a bad time to tell me.”

“I didn’t know if I’d get another. I just felt you should know.” The line of attack craft roared forward before Annie could respond. She followed Ryan into the Invader formation and fired her three missiles launchers at three ships below Ryan’s line of attack. All three immediately exploded. Their force fields had been hit by neutron warheads and had not recovered. Three minutes later the surviving attack craft roared away from the Invader formation and arched around to make another run.

“How do you expect me to think about this now?”

“I don’t. I just wanted you to know.”

The line of attack ships completed the turn and hit the enemy formation again from below and, for the first time, they broke into the tightly packed ships at the center of the formation. Those ships couldn’t fire without hitting the ships around them and the attack craft savaged them before the Invader Commander ordered his fleet to spread out. They were still fifteen hours from open space and the Senior Father sent all the information he had collected to the Most Senior Father. His last ship was destroyed six hours from open space. His ship was killed immediately after sending the information.

D
rey looked at Chip on his display, “I know you’re wondering why you’ve not been assigned a target.”

“I am, Sir. We’re ready.”

“I created your two strike forces for a purpose. I planned to send your fleets against the Invader attack where their leader might be located. I wanted, at the very least, for the Invaders not to have a numerical superiority. There are two fleets that have more than double the number of ships from the others. That is where I believe the Invasion Commanders are located.”