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“We now know their language; a probe intercepted a message from the leader of the invasion.”

“Did it get their jump coordinates?”

“Remarkably enough, it did.”

Ian stopped looking at his control panel and looked up, “That was incredibly stupid to broadcast that information.”

“It appears they don’t encrypt their transmissions.”

“What?”

“Their language is so complicated that it’s taken all of our computing resources to learn it. It took Moe and the Hub working together to finally get it completed.”

“Do you have it?”

“All of our ships now have it downloaded into their communication devices.”

“What about Drey’s taskforce?”

“He has them scattered around the black hole waiting for reports of any Invaders arriving in the galaxy proper. He should be able to respond quickly if they send in scouts. The Negotiator has his system tied in with Moe and he’ll take the scans and assign ships as soon as they’re detected.”

***

Ian saw Violet appear on his display, “Be careful, Ian.”

“Careful is my middle name.”

“Make it your first name; I want our baby to know his father.”

Ian smiled at her, “I love you, Violet.”

“I love you, too.”

Ian punched his communication panel and began receiving reports. “Get us to the assembly coordinates, E.” The Green Ship disappeared and Ian listened to the civilizations in M87 respond to the War Warning that was being issued. The magnitude of the coming fight was beyond anything ever witnessed. More than a billion ships moved to their assigned positions and waited for what they knew was coming.

***

Violet looked at Dee, “WHAT DO YOU SEE!”

Dee’s eyes were closed but Violet heard her say, “The odds in this attack favor us. It will be the main invasion force that will be overwhelming.”

“Can we win?” Violet only heard silence. It was the first time that the voice that spoke while Dee focused on events had not answered. That, more than anything else, frightened her. She continued to wait and finally Dee opened he eyes, “What do you see?”

Dee looked at Violet and slowly shook her head, “We need to leave to the galaxy they’re currently attacking when their ships leave.” Violets eyes grew wide. “If we prevail against the first invading force, two others will join them and we will be attacked in our own galaxy as well. There’s not much time.”

Violet hit her communicator and the King appeared on her display, “Your Majesty, I have bad news.” The King’s face grew serious and Violet told him what was coming. The King contacted the First Councilor and although he was skeptical he knew the King was not one given to being deceived about things.

“What do we do?”

The King had a tight grimace and said, “We have to start moving our populations to the galaxy they’re leaving.”

“How will our people survive?”

“Our probes have scanned millions of planets the Invaders attacked and most of them still have their entire infrastructure intact. There is some damage on some of them from nuclear blasts set off by the defenders but most were basically unharmed. The Invaders didn’t use weapons that would kill the native populations; they defeated their defenses and then stunned the inhabitants and removed them afterwards.”

The First looked at his Admiral, “We’ve done this once, First; we can do it again.”

“But this is on an entirely different scale.”

“Yes, but we aren’t being attacked while we’re doing it this time. If our forces can buy us time in M87, we can accomplish a great deal in what time we have.”

The King of the Union nodded, “I need your assistance in helping us organize our exodus.”

The First nodded, “I’ll get you the people you need to get it started.”

“We don’t have as many planets as you do. I’ll get our information on what planets are available to the Hub Computer and it can coordinate with our Obelisk in making the assignments.”

The First shook his head, “Let’s hope we have enough time to do this.”

The Admiral nodded, “We need to make good use of the time our brave warriors give us.” The First and the King both nodded.

T
he Advisor looked at his panel and saw the Senior Father, “I wish you success on your mission.”

“Thank you; we should have things ready for your arrival. When are you coming?”

“I’ll start the main invasion in three days.”

The Advisor smiled and said, “Make it four days.”

The Senior Father was furious; the idiot still challenged him on everything, “It will be delayed by one day.”

The Advisor smiled and knew the frustration the Father must have been feeling but he hid his emotions well. “I’ll let you know if we need you sooner.”

“That would be good.”

The panel went dark and the Advisor looked at his Son, “You will launch the scouts to their assignments as soon as the main body of ships leaves.”

“Yes, Father.”

He looked around the bridge and saw all the crew at their stations waiting for the command. He smiled, “Jump in two minutes.”

The probe saw the giant mass of ships all activate their force fields and sensed their star drives being activated. It sent the warning out as the millions of Invader ships disappeared.

***

Lieutenant West sat in his ship and waited for the message to come in. “Glen, are all systems active?”

“You’ve asked me that four times and for the fourth time, they are.”

“I know; I’m just a little nervous about this.”

“Aren’t we all?”

“Computers don’t feel fear.”

“Speak for yourself; I was at the first trial with you.”

“Just make sure they’re all in normal space before we jump.”

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

***

Millions of ships appeared in normal space outside M87 and began forming up into units. The Advisor looked at his Second and heard him say, “Ten minutes until all units are organized.” The Advisor nodded and watched his display. He looked for enemy ships to start attacking but none appeared. He turned an eyestalk to his left and the nephew at the scanning station shook his body. This was not what he expected; they had to know his fleet was here.

***

A million Invader Ships jumped into M87 and began collecting data on the main civilizations. Their initial arrival went unchallenged, but not for long.

***

Lilly received her target’s coordinates and relayed them to her wing. Seven attack craft jumped and came roaring in on the giant almond colored ship. “Spread out and launch! Get out if you take fire from their main lasers.”

Lilly watched her wing spread out and the first three launched two boson missiles each at the giant ship. They began hitting the huge ship’s force field and it looked like it was covered in a massive wave of fire. The Invader fired at the three attack craft and two of them exploded when they were hit by multiple beams. “Damn, those beams are too strong.” Lilly rolled her ship toward the giant and saw beams start reaching out for her. She turned parallel to it and accelerated away from the beams sweeping toward her. Just before they hit she dropped out of normal space and micro-jumped to the other side and launched two missiles. She jumped again as three massive beams swept toward her new location. “Jack, this doesn’t look good.”

Her computer immediately said, “I’ve notified the others to jump before they’re hit. My readings indicate the enemy’s force field is weakened considerably after two hits but it recovers faster than anything I’ve ever seen.”

***

The Ship’s Father felt his vessel rock with the arrival of the first two boson missiles. Every time one hit, he had to hold on to his command chair to remain steady. “Weapons, eliminate those ships!”

“They’re incredibly fast, Father. We’ve managed to kill half of them. I’m launching missiles.” The Father nodded as four huge missiles erupted from his ship and lanced out at the remaining four small ships. One missile and three beams hit one of the small ships and it exploded.

***

“Lilly, I have four missiles leaving the enemy’s force field and one of them is locked on us. I’m going to three quarters speed to evade the one tracking us.”

Lilly turned her ship away from the Invader battleship and ran around it with a large missile locked in on her thrusters. It came roaring in and Lilly quickly locked the three missiles in her launch tubes on the huge ship, launched all three simultaneously, and jumped just before two more beams hit her ship. Suddenly, the giant ship exploded with a massive blast that sent huge pieces of debris flying out from the center of the explosion. Jack sensed the blast’s shock wave rushing out at them and jumped away with the other two survivors.

“Lilly! What did you do!?!”

Lily stared at her display in shock, “I have no idea.” She replayed the destruction on her display, “I was running from the missile chasing me and saw two beams sweeping in on my ship. I launched all three of the missiles in my tubes and got out.” Lilly watched the expanding blast of the giant enemy ship and looked at her display, “Jack, what happened?”

“You won’t believe it.”

“Try me!”

“You were running parallel to the ship and you launched a boson missile from the two side launchers and bow missile launcher. I only had time to lock in one location on that ship and all three hit that location.”

“We’ve been doing that for the last twenty minutes.”

“Yes, but we were firing as we came at them head on.”

“What difference does that make?”

“The bow missile would hit first and their screen would recover before the two from the sides arrived. When you fired running parallel, the side closest to the invader hit first but the bow missile hit less than a tenth of a second behind it. The missile fired by the launcher on the side away from the invader hit immediately behind the first two hits and made it through the force field. That last missile had to come around us to hit that ship, which caused its slight delay. That delay is what made it work. The first two blew a hole that the third went through.”

“Get this information out to Fleet. We have to exploit this.”

***

Ryan jumped in on his target and saw the giant ship fighting off the local civilization’s warships. The FTL missiles were hitting the Invader at an incredible rate and it was being rocked by the hits; but none were getting through.

“Ryan, I’ve just received a message from fleet that one of the Invader battleships was destroyed when it was hit by three missiles on the same spot on its force field. The third missile should arrive just behind the first two.”

Ryan looked at the message, “Thanks, Jess. Program the tubes accordingly and let’s see if that information is accurate.”

“I’m jumping in ten miles away to launch, Admiral. I’ll fire the two side tubes and follow them up with the bow tube.”

“Line it up and get out quick.”

“You don’t have to worry about that.”

***

The local ships attacking the giant invader had lost fifty ships to its beams. Fifteen more had been killed by missiles. They were lining up for another attack when a Green Ship appeared and fired on the Invader. There was a massive blast on the invader’s force field followed by another blast inside it. The Invader Battleship exploded and vaporized inside its own force field that didn’t collapse in time to release the explosion. The contained blast blew back in and vaporized the ship. Ryan looked at his board and saw not all of his ships were as successful. The Invaders learned quickly and were firing at the first indication of a ship entering normal space and once missiles were detected they fired a massive series of beams around them to burn anything coming in. It wasn’t easy but his pilots were baiting the Invader’s beams as another ship roared in to take a shot. The scouts sent by the Invader were being mauled.

***

Stan watched the feed from the microprobe and saw no more ships were jumping in, “Glen, it’s time.” Stan held his breath and punched the drive button. His ship arrived in green space and he saw four Invader ships enter green space around him attempting to bump him into normal space. He pushed the launch button and accelerated away from the incoming ships.

The four ships turned and followed Stan in green space, never seeing the small device that was left behind. The neutron mine floated in green space for two seconds and then entered normal space just before the boson trigger fired the container into the neutron material.

***

The Advisor heard, “We’ve detected a single ship in sub space. Ships have been dispatched.” The Advisor wondered why just one ship had come. That didn’t seem right. He reached for his communication panel but never reached it.

***

One moment, ten million ships were hanging in space organized into neat ranks. The next, a massive blast exploded in the middle of the massed ships that vaporized eighty percent of them. The survivors that were located the furthest from the center of the blast were pushed so hard that most of the crews were killed by the impact of hitting the restraints of their chairs or the walls of their ship. Only 648 Invader ships were flight worthy and they had numerous casualties. What they didn’t know was that the blast had also given them a dose of lethal radiation. Their force fields were able to keep the blast effects out but the massive blast of gamma rays could not be stopped. The survivors were doomed to die within five days.

The survivors fought to gain control of their ships but the high radiation from the blast had damaged numerous electronic systems. The most sensitive system on any warship was the star drive; they found they couldn’t jump away from the millions of ships jumping in on them. The quick death by the incoming missiles and beams was actually a blessing; slow death by radiation poisoning was not a kind or quick way of dying.

Soon, the surviving Invader ships that jumped in to scout the galaxy jumped out to their main fleet’s location and found themselves overwhelmed by millions of ships. Some of them managed to send a recording of what they encountered before they were destroyed; but no one in the massed ships of the Invader Main Fleet was able to get a feed out on what had happened to them.