Talosian Chronicles 6: Armageddon (18 page)

"Please show us," Adam asked and motioned to the holotank. Tonya nodded and brought up the new underground structures and had them displayed in relation to the current facilities. "They're still working of course, but two of the new areas are available. They're little more than bare plasticrete, but they have power, sewer and replicators. They don't have holographic projectors or any of the other comfort items yet. These are just your basic bomb shelter until the maintenance drones can get in there and finish them. Honestly, they don't even have beds yet."

"Tonya, if I knew you wouldn't take my head off, I would kiss you!" Hines said excitedly. "We can do this, can't we?"

Adam grinned at his friend. "Yes we can. The people will have to help us, but it can be pulled off. Paul, I want every replicator we have to start making furniture for the new shelter. How big were you making this Sergeant?"

"Honestly Sir, I just told the drones to keep building until I told them to stop. As you can see, three of the sections are done, and they are getting close on three more. That should give us about sixty thousand more beds. I'll have to pull the drones out after that; I think we'll be out of time by then," Tonya finished.

"Control, did you get all that?" F'ren asked.

"I certainly did. I'll still send you that freighter, but most of the first load will be furniture and emergency supplies. If you folks can get it unloaded fast enough, we might be able to get more people over to you before it gets too dangerous for them to fly," the girl replied. "Major, I'm putting in a recommendation for citation as well as promotion for Master Sergeant Miles under your name. I'll even add my stamp to it for what that's worth,"

"That would be perfect, Control, thank you," F'ren replied.

"Control, this is Colonel Wells of the United States Army and site NY four. I'd appreciate it if you would put my name on that as well, please," Adam said.

"It is so recorded Sir. Cargo is confirmed and mission is approved. The civilian medium freighter
Horizon's Reach
will be departing Phoenix Base as soon as they can get loaded." She paused a moment and chuckled. "I just received a message from the Admiral. You might want to inform
Captain
Miles that she is out of uniform."

"That was fast!" Adam said smiling at his shocked friend.

"Sir, all requests sent through me are passed on to General Anders and then to Admiral Williams. I am allowed to skip the General if he is busy, and he was. All of that information was sent directly to Admiral Williams' office," the girl replied. "It's also the reason the freighter could get the priority it has. All orders came directly from Admiral Williams."

F'ran smiled. "I'll take my team out to Duke Ellington Circle and see if we can get them to calm down long enough for them to understand they'll be safe."

"You might need to persuade them. At this point, they are little more than a big destructive horde." Hines replied.

"Well, I suppose my team and I can always just strip naked and stand on top of the Raptor. That'll shock them into listening to us!" F'ren replied grinning in humor.

Adam snorted. "Or start an orgy!"

TDF
Star Dancer

Vicinity Lunar Point L1

Earth, Sol Sector

"All units! Action stations! Enemy arrival is imminent, I say again enemy arrival is imminent!" Ian said over the open comm to all the separate commands.

"Sensors indicate Caldarian fleet mass reduced by forty-one percent. Targets passed minimum hypermissile limit; defense network standing down for reload," one of the operators reported.

"It's up to us now, do we have their exit locations?" Ian asked.

"Not exact Sir, but some of the vultures are moving closer to Earth," came the report. "Contact! Hyper-event forming vicinity Mars orbital track! Sensors indicate small to medium craft emerging. No vultures are close enough to engage!"

"Give it to the closest unit," Ian ordered. "Fuck!" he swore mostly to himself. "That's how their going to drop out near Earth, they sent a scout in first! Alert Earth and Orbital defense commands to expect enemy capitol ship exiting in orbit. Warn Earth to expect orbital bombardment and troop deployment!"

"So much for shifting them into the path of the Imperials," Chloe said.

"No, that could still work. They won't drop more than two Super Novas on Earth; they'd trip over each other," Ian said. "We can still shift the rest once the exit while we deal with the two that got in." He was studying the holotank and the placement of his forces. "Our defenses can deal with the smaller stuff, but the Super Nova's will be the problem." He looked up at Chloe. "Send an alert to Jenny and the Commander of the
Dawn's Path
to prepare to make for Earth Orbit and engage the Super Nova. We're the two closest ships with enough fire power to hurt them."

"Message sent," Chloe replied. "Sir, I know we're a lot tougher now, but two battle cruisers against two Super Nova dreadnoughts, head on?"

"We don't need to kill them Chloe, just fuck them up real bad," Ian explained. "Super Nova are like walnuts; they have a tough outer shell, but once you crack it you can get to the good stuff. We only need to crack their shells for the fighters and condors to get to the meat."

"I'm allergic to nuts, Sir," Chloe replied.

"Yet you work here; why is that?" Ian countered, causing everyone in the room to laugh.

"Multiple hyperspace events forming! Two in Earth Orbit! Sensors predict Super Nova class ships!" An operator called. The rest of the room got very busy, very quickly. "One event is over the Pacific Ocean, Hawaiian Sector. The other is over Europe! Vulture zero-three-zero-one has locked onto the Hawaiian event. Europe is out of range!"

"Damn, okay Chloe, here's what we need to do; we're going to trade places with
Dawn's Path
…" Ian quickly explained how he wanted the two battle cruisers to pass close by and engage the European Super Nova. When he finished explaining it to her, he turned to one of the closest operators. "Hines, I need something delivered. Can you place the order?"

"Whatcha need Sir?" the young man asked.

"I need a fifty tactical AM warheads delivered to the Super Nova now over Europe. I'll pay extra for a speedy delivery," Ian said.

"Company card Sir? The man asked as he entered the orders for the fire mission.

"Naw, charge it to the Caldarians; they really need them," Ian said.

"Order placed," he checked a timer on his screen. "Delivery is scheduled for shortly after our arrival."

Ian nodded as he turned back to the holotank. "I wanted to get them something nice to welcome them to the system."

"I'm sure they'll appreciate the gesture, Sir," Chloe replied, grinning. "We're on course for Earth and the Super Nova. Jenny thinks your crazy, but was game. Commander Saracen grinned evilly when I gave them their orders. Are we sure that guy's sane?"

"No one's sane today Chloe," Ian replied seriously. "Sane beings have no place in this."

"Sir, the Hawaiian Super Nova made it out of hyperspace, but it is heavily damaged. She's launching fighters, but no carriers or missiles. Her weapons appear to be off-line and main propulsion is out. She's slowly falling into Earth's atmosphere."

"Ensign Hines, copy my previous order to the Hawaiian Super Nova, tell them to keep delivering until that bitch breaks up. We can't let it go down intact!" He turned back to the big tank. "Chloe, we need more hurt put on that one. If it impacts the planet, it'll be worse than a hundred nukes."

"Sir, in her present condition, she'll make one orbit before entering the atmosphere over the western Pacific Ocean. Impact is predicted for the Gulf of California or the Baja Pennisula. Predicted velocity at impact is between Mach twelve and nineteen. Even without her ordnance detonating, it'll hit the San Andreas fault with the force of a two-hundred megaton nuke," the ESAR commander said.

"So, what's the
worst
case scenario, Gene?" Ian asked rhetorically. The man snorted and nodded to him.

"Sir, two minutes to intercept with the European Super Nova. The Commander recommends we hang on to something!" Someone called. "We're fining the Ion cannon at point blank range!"

"Sir, your warhead order will be delivered in one minute, forty-five seconds," the operator, Hines, reported.

"Nice timing, Hines. It's almost like you planned it this way!" Ian replied.

"Just lucky I guess Sir."

"Your plan seems to be working Sir; It looks like the enemy is beginning to move. If we can blow these two assholes away, we should be able to get back on task," Chloe replied.

Ian had been watching and saw the same thing Chloe did. The bulk of the remaining Caldarian forces had exited in the space between Earth and Mars. Orbits. It was obvious, even to Ian that they had not expected to exit in the middle of most of the Alliance war fleets. They immediately closed ranks to protect the bigger ships, but the outcome seemed obvious. The Caldarians were out-numbered and out-classed by the newer, more advanced warships.

Ian had ordered the Task Force commander of that sector to make sure the Caldarians knew they had the opportunity to surrender or to run, even though no one believed they would accept either option.

The Super Nova that
Star Dancer
and
Dawn's Path
were attacking had arrived and started standard Caldarian invasion protocols before the two allied warships could get there.  They had launched their troops ships, and had begun orbital bombardment of major population centers.

They hadn't expected anti-missile defenses, but they did know how to deal with them. After the first wave of missiles had been shot down, the old ship's main batteries were turned toward the planet and fired.

Heavy mount lasers and particle cannons targeted the hardened bunkers housing the anti-missile batteries. Fighters from the local Earth base frantically tried to disable or knock the heavy weapons out before they could break through the shields, but there were just too many guns. The Super Nova was also equipped with her own fighters and anti-fighter weapons systems.

In the twelve minutes the ship was attacking, it destroyed Budapest, Vienna, Prague, and Munich. There was heavy damage to Rome, Berlin, Frankfort, Brussels, and Paris. Six weapons emplacements were destroyed and nine other were damaged; three badly. Of the thirty-five fighters and Condor bombers involved in the attack, nineteen of them would never return to base seven others made it back into the atmosphere before ejecting. Six hundred and fifty thousand civilians also died in the shelters under the destroyed cities. No one had an exact count of the civilians that had remained on the surface in those cities.

From there, it only got worse.

Cybernetics Lab Complex

Team
Tiamat

Phoenix Base

Selene, Earth's Moon

Sol System

"Mama Bear to all cubs," Tara said over the comm. "We have incoming. The Caldarian's are sending in troop transports protected by fighters and their carriers in squadron sized groups. We are to focus on the transports while the other wings work on the fighter carriers. Those troops are heading for Earth, guys. We have to stop as many of them as we can. If we get them all, the fighter carriers next, then the fighters themselves; but don't pass up any opportunities."

"You heard her, team! Let's go kick some blue butt!" Ashley said, supporting their leader.

As one, the excited kids replied 'Yes Sir!"

Tara was happy her team was so fired up, but she wondered what the Commodore was thinking; It certainly wasn't a milk run, but by destroying those transports, they were going to flying through a lot of bodies. Her kids were going to see the ugliest part of combat in their first sortie. Then again, perhaps that would be for the best. They would quickly know who could handle it and who couldn't.

The video game simulators the kids were used to playing, did show things like ejected or dead pilots floating in space, but the kids knew this wasn't just a simulation this time. They will know the bodies they see were real.

"All cubs, turn to heading two-niner-three by one-three-six relative and accelerate to point seven. Hostile intercept in eighteen minutes; weapons hot!" Tara ordered. "Save your missiles for the transports and keep an eye on your power levels."

As one, the flight of eleven fighters turned and shot off on the new course. Moments later, Tara caught a small flash of light out of the corner of her eye. She turned and looked down at the planet, where she thought the flash had come from. They couldn't be nuking the planet already could they? She asked her command computer for an update.

"Mama Bear, this is Cub Six, did you see that flash of light?" one of the kids asked.

"Yeah I did, hang on a sec; I'm trying to find out what it was," Tara replied. When she saw the results she grinned. "North American Sector tracking and weapons installations report confirmation of the destruction of a Caldarian Super Nova in orbit over the United States. The second Super Nova is abandoning it's troop transports and fighter carriers and has broken orbit. It has been heavily damaged and appears to be attempting to rejoin the main Caldarian fleet."