Nowhere to Hide (29 page)

Drey was confused by her comment and he forced his eyes open and looked at her. She grabbed his head and forced him to look into her eyes, “You and I are one. You do the hard things and I’m there to make sure you don’t screw up. We didn’t fail. We did the right thing.” Drey started shaking his head but Dee gripped it harder forcing him to continue looking in her eyes, “You didn’t have anyone but yourself when Natalie died. That won’t ever happen again. Our decisions are made by both of us; that’s why I was there when you needed me.”

“If Moe hadn’t told you, it would have happened.”

“He didn’t tell me. I saw it.”

Drey stared at her, “What?”

“I saw what you were going to do in that place in my mind. You can’t make that kind of mistake without me being there to help you.”

Drey thought about what she was saying and he straightened up in his chair. He fought back from the abyss and thought about the danger he represented. Dee leaned in and kissed him deeply. “I can’t live without you, Dee.”

“I know, my Love. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

Drey looked at the floor, “Losing you was the only thing that stopped me.”

“I won’t allow it to get that far along in the future. The Union needs you to be hard. You’re right about Ian not being able to do the really hard things and you have to balance him.”

“What about me?”

“That’s what I’m here for, Drey.”

Drey stood up, “I need to tell Ian what I was going to do.”

“He already knows. He knew as soon as you issued the orders.”

“Why didn’t he stop me?”

“Because he also sees his weakness and decided that if you felt that strongly about the need to do it, he wouldn’t prevent it. He has tremendous trust in you, Drey.”

Drey looked up, “Moe.”

“Yes Admiral.”

“Thank you for telling him.”

There was a moment of silence and Moe replied, “You have restored my faith in you. She’s right, we need you.”

“Make sure you keep tabs on me in the future.”

“I suspect I won’t have to worry about that, Sir.”

Drey’s smile was crooked, “Some lessons are learned the hard way.”

“Exactly right.”

Drey reached for Dee and she came into his arms. Her joy was overwhelming; he was back from the abyss.

***

Max looked at Claire on his display, “Max, why did you turn down the promotion to the Strike Fleet?”

“I’m an attack ship commander. This is where I belong.”

“Are you familiar with the command Theta you’ve been assigned?”

“It’s taking some getting used to but I see where the additional space is needed for the command circuitry. Having multiple forms of beam weapons is taking some getting used to. I’m accustomed to just firing missiles.”

“I’m working on that issue myself. Has your fleet been given their initial assignments?”

Max smiled, “All but ten thousand ships have jumped out with the Thetas. What about yours?”

“We arrived late. They’re being sent out as we speak.”

“Have the Freaks arrived?”

Claire looked at her panel, “They’ve joined Admiral Martin’s Strike Fleet and they’ve replaced Lilly’s fleet harassing the fleet where the Invader’s leaders are located.”

“I suspect they’re causing a huge problem for them.”

“I’ve seen messages that the Invaders have been forced to jump more than twenty times to try and escape their attention.”

“Are your pilot’s ready?”

“They are. I’ll get with you after this is over.”

“Will you consider a wedding at that time?”

Claire’s smile was soft and beautiful, “I think we’ve put that off long enough.”

“Stay safe.”

“You, too.” Max jumped away with his last squadron and Claire prayed the wedding would happen. The forces arrayed against them were staggering. She looked at her panel and opened the general frequency, “Alright, it’s time to do our part. You are released to go to your assignments. Give ‘em hell.”

***

Ryan banked hard left and micro-jumped over the top of the giant Invader Battleship. Three massive beams blew through the space he just vacated and he fired a three missile barrage as he jumped again. He emerged for a moment and saw the three missiles had not made it through to the target. “Crap!” He micro-jumped three more times, before he jumped away to pick another target. That ship was going to be a tough nut to crack. “Are you having fun yet?”

“It’s getting harder to get a barrage through their defenses, Wes.”

“I’ve seen that; we need to up the ante.”

Ryan blew out a breath, “Do you want to be the target or the shooter?”

“I’m better at jumping than you are, Sir; you’ve spent too much time behind a desk. I’ll roll through from the top and head toward the bow. I’ll probably only get two jumps before I’m forced to get out.”

“That should be enough; I’ll lock my sensors on you and come in a half second behind on your route over the top.”

“Call it out, Sir.”

“Three, two, one, and go!”

***

Wes disappeared and Ryan followed him in half a second later. Ryan saw eighty beams sweep out trying to anticipate Wes’ route as he moved in behind the beams sweeping away. He fired a three missile barrage and all there roared in and hit the ships force field rocking it hard away from the blast. The organized beam coverage around the giant went haphazard as the crew was shocked by the massive explosion. Ryan micro-jumped and fired another three missiles and the giant battleship blew apart as he jumped out into open space. He looked for Wes and didn’t see him, “Salud, where is Lt. Madden?”

“I’m sorry sir; when the Invader ship was rocked, several of their beams went into the area he had just entered. It was a freak occurrence.”

Ryan shook his head, “Lt. Johnson, follow me in.”

“Sir, you are too valuable to our efforts to send you in first. I’ll lead the way if that’s alright with you.”

Ryan was constantly amazed by the bravery of the warriors under his command. He started to respond but heard, “Sir, I’ll go in with Johnson. You should direct our efforts and not be involved in the details. Are you ready, Johnson?”

“In three, two, one, Now!”

Ryan shook his head and saw the two pilots kill six battleships before both of them were blasted apart by a massive swarm of Invader beams fired by ships surrounding their target. Death walked the Invader formations and both sides were being introduced to it.

***

“Admiral Martin?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Give me an update.”

“It’s getting hard to break into their formations, Sir. The Invaders have started firing massive barrages by all the ships close our targets.”

“I’m going to attempt a dive play up the middle.”

“Sir?”

“As soon as that fleet jumps again I want you to send the coordinates they jump to on the frequency I just sent to your panel. Send it right away and have your ships ready to go in.”

“Yes Sir.” Mikki watched her pilots being chewed up by the Invader’s cross fire and she pounded her panel in frustration. Suddenly, the giant Invader fleet disappeared. “Get the coordinates out!”

“Done.”

Mikki jumped to the new location and saw two hundred thousand Green and Grey Civilization’s main battleships appear and launch a massive missile barrage at the Invaders. Eight hundred thousand neutron warhead missiles leaped out and went into the massive beams of the Invader fleet. They disappeared briefly, and then the massive covering fire fell apart like a sand castle in a huge wave. The strike fleet and three thousand attack ships followed the missiles in and the outer ranks of the Invader fleet started exploding in massive shock waves. The huge fleet immediately jumped away but sixteen thousand of the Invaders’ main battleships remained behind that were blasted by the Thetas and attack ships.

The Green and Grey ships rushed in after the cleanup, collected all the neutron warheads, and jumped away before the Invaders could launch a fleet in retaliation. The Strike Fleet and supporting attack ships jumped after the escaping Invader Fleet.

***

The Invader Fleet Father yelled, “If those Green or Grey ships appear again, jump away immediately! Do not hesitate! Go to the next coordinate without being ordered!”

The Senior Grandfather was shaken by the ferocity of the attackers. They just kept coming in, no matter how many of them were killed. His fleet was totally defensive and coordinating a response was impossible. He looked at his Son, “Order more ships to rendezvous with our fleet.”

“I’ve ordered four million more ships here, Grandfather.”

“I want eight million here, NOW!”

The Son turned back to his console and started sending orders. Two million arrived quickly but the others took hours to arrive. Every Family was under attack and none of them wanted to weaken their forces. The Son was finally forced to send direct orders to individual Invader Fleets to come immediately or face execution after the conflict ended. Only then did the numbers protecting the Senior Grandfather grow substantially.

***

Chip jumped over to the huge Invader fleet Mikki’s strike fleet was attacking and saw the numbers had grown from four million ships in the original fleet to more than twenty million. He shook his head and said, “Hub.”

“Yes Sir.”

“This is a wasted effort without the Theta fleets.”

“I agree, Sir. It would be good to get at their leadership but we don’t have enough ships to make it happen.”

“Do you have the locations where all these ships were taken from?”

“I do.”

“Reassign our ships here to go to those locations and attack the fleets that have been weakened.” Chip looked at Mikki, “You and your sailors have done an outstanding job. Go to your new assignments.”

Mikki looked out of her viewport and saw the giant Invader fleet in the distance and hated it with a passion. She didn’t want to leave; too many of her pilots had died in the effort…but… she knew they had to do it. “Yes Sir.”

“Mikki, we’re not done with them; this is simply a delaying engagement.”

Mikki nodded and recalled the survivors of her fleet.

***

Max’s squadron appeared in normal space and roared in on an Invader Fleet in the process of attacking a planet. Invader battleships started exploding and the ships in orbit turned to face the incoming alliance attack force. A thousand Invader battleships were burning but the survivors of the initial attack turned and opened a devastating fire at the small ships jumping into their formations.

***

Max micro-jumped over the top of an Invader battleship and fired a boson combo at it as he jumped toward the rear of the giant ship. He fired a three missiles barrage at the rear just as two battleships next to the ship he was attacking fired ten beams into his path. His ship flew through the beams just as he micro-jumped ahead of the enemy formation.

“I’ve been hit, Max. Both of my jump drives are out and the Higgs force field is down. All I have is the reflective hull to protect us.”

Max saw two battleships turning his way and he pushed the control wheel forward. The Theta dropped its nose and roared down into the planet’s atmosphere. “How long is it going to take you to repair the drives?”

“At least six hours.”

“That’s too long. We have to land and hope we can hold off the enemy on the planet until help arrives.”

“I don’t know if we can survive a hit from space. Where do you want to go?”

Max thought furiously and saw thousands of Invader transports dropping toward a huge city on the planet’s surface, “Head for that city; they won’t fire on their transports. Land us close to the inhabitant’s defenses and start your repairs. Break out my armor and blasters and start taking out the transports that are coming in close to our landing site.”

***

The Defense Commander heard a sonic boom and saw a small ship with a large plume of smoke behind it roar in overhead and start hitting the large shuttles dropping out of the sky. He hit his communication panel, “Don’t fire on that small ship!” He watched the ship come in at an unbelievable velocity and suddenly stop and land in a public park among the tall buildings. He looked at ten warriors around him, “Come with me; Jax, you’re in command until I get back.” The large brown being nodded and the eleven Gralen warriors sprinted out toward the small ship.

***

Max put on his armor and grabbed a heavy shoulder blaster as he opened the port and exited the damaged Theta. “Brad, you can’t allow them to capture you.”

“I know. Just try to hold them off while my nanobots work on the drive.”

Max leaped out of the port and saw eleven large creatures running toward his ship. He kept his blaster lowered, “Do you have the language deciphered yet?”

“I’ve been listening to their transmissions but I don’t have much yet. Give me a few minutes.” Max heard a loud roar and saw an Invader Lander coming in. He turned and raised his shoulder blaster and hit it in the bow and the large lander exploded and veered off to the left and crashed into a building. The Commander saw the crafts destruction and yelled, “Hold your fire.” The Commander ran up until he was ten feet from the strange creature and stopped, “Who are you?”

Max looked overhead and turned to the large brown colored being. It was biped, having two arms and legs, but its arms and legs were huge. The eleven had run the three hundred yards to his ship in an amazing time. He pointed to himself and said, “My name is Max.” He pointed at the Commander, “Who are you?”

The being stared at Max for a moment and then understood, “Lignen.”

“Max the word for enemy is grond.”

Max pointed at the Invader landers moving toward the planet and said, “grond.”

The Commander looked up at the sky and then nodded. “Max, I think I have enough now. Say what you need and I’ll translate through your speaker.”

Max looked at the Commander, “I can’t allow the enemy to take my ship. I must keep them away until it can repair itself.”

“Why are you here?”

“They’re attacking my civilization in another galaxy. We’ve brought the war here to slow them down. Their ships above your planet are being attacked by my fleet.”