Annihilation: The Power of a Queen (8 page)

“I may have to occupy the planet and kill a few before they give one up. Don’t limit my options.”

Sten thought for a moment, “You’re right. If they surrender they probably won’t have one near the planet. Do whatever you think is necessary; just get me that ship.”

The Warmaster smiled and Sten felt a chill go thru him. “Oh, I’m sure they’ll give you anything you ask for State Leader by the time we’re done.”

“Yes, well….good hunting, Warmaster.”

“State Leader, we don’t hunt, we kill.”

Admiral Dorg commed Tgon-Gee and the ambassador answered quickly. “I did as you suggested and the Alliance released us from their invasion plans. They must really be upset with these humans; they replaced us with the Vgrig. Some day someone is going to have to exterminate that race. When they can’t kill others; they kill themselves.”

“That’s good news about your release, Dorg said. “I was wondering if you might want to do something that our Alliance friends might not approve.”

Tgon-Gee looked at the Admiral, “Here it comes again. Just what is that, Admiral?”

“We left one of our small ships behind after the last battle and we’re going to have it send us a feed on the next one. I was wondering if you might want to see it too.”

“I thought you said the Humans could detect your ships even unpowered,” Tgon-Gee said suspiciously.

“You’re right. But no ship is completely unpowered. You have to have environmental controls on. We parked the ship on an asteroid with a high metal content and turned off all power. The three man crew has lived in space suits for three weeks after the last battle until everything settled down. The power they use now is only for atmosphere and heat. So far they have not been discovered. Are you interested?”

“Absolutely, after hearing about the size of the fleet being sent this time, I think you were giving these Humans far too more credit than they deserve. I hate that we’re going to miss out on the spoils of occupation.”

Dorg looked at the Crown Prince of the Glod and said, “Ambassador. If I’m wrong about your race being set up by the Alliance then I’ll resign my position with the military. I went there with 2,000 ships and barely escaped with my life. I didn’t want to see you as weakened as my world has become.”

Tgon-Gee said, “Admiral, you don’t have to resign either way. I appreciate your concern for my people whether you are right or wrong. This should be good viewing, how do you intend to get it to me?”

“Give me a secure communicator channel designation you want to have it sent and as soon as it starts, I’ll notify you and start transmitting.”

Tgon-Gee pushed a lever and a link appeared on Dorg’s screen. “Use that one, Admiral. I’ll be waiting for your call.”

Kosiev was watching the Alliance fleet go thru its maneuvers and had become almost bored by it. He could see that those maneuvers wouldn’t work with the speed of his ships. Then he saw something happening that caught his attention. The fleet was organizing into three groups. They were going to come in from three different jump points. He had to reorganize his ships quickly. “Kelly, have the Gardner’s report to the briefing room immediately, please.”

“Aye, Aye, Sir.”

Tag and Danielle entered the briefing room and Tag said, “What’s up?”

Kosiev pointed at the monitor and said, “The Alliance fleet is dividing into three groups; two large ones and a smaller third.”

Tag and Danielle watched the screen and Danielle said, “Those larger ships are all in the smaller group. Do you think that’s significant?”

Tag looked at Kosiev and asked, “Admiral, if you were going to plan an attack, how would you do it if the previous one lost 2,000 ships?”

Kosiev thought a moment, and then said, “I would send 2000 ships in to tie down the enemy’s fleet then jump a second group in to attack from a different direction. I suspect they think we will meet them just inside the star drive limit like before which would allow them to jump the second fleet almost on top of us.”

“But what about the third group,” Danielle asked?

Tag looked at her and said, “It’s the makeup of that group that gives away its purpose.” Danielle and Kosiev looked at him showing their bewilderment. “Just like their occupation of Ross, if they can take control of the planet, then they can hold our civilians hostage to stop our resistance. It’s the Vgrig killers that are going to do that because that is what drives them. If I’m right, the smaller group will jump first to the other side of the sun from Earth and start moving in system to time their arrival at Earth with the battle at Jupiter’s orbit. I’m sure if they nuke a couple of our largest cities we would get the message. Then it won’t matter who is winning the battle, we would have to surrender.”

“What are we going to do about it,” Danielle asked?

“Basically, nothing; we’ll have 450 ships waiting an hour inside the limit and 450 out of our system ready to jump in when called. When the first group reaches our position and the conflict begins, the second Alliance fleet should jump in. They might come earlier once they recognize that they must travel an hour inside the jump limit. Once the second group jumps in, our ships not in our solar system will let them get 40 minutes inside the SD limit and jump in behind them. Our ships are so much faster that we will close on them is less than 10 minutes after we jump. I hope the recording ships come with the first group so the Alliance won’t see our tactics. It’s also important that none of the ships that attack Earth escape. We have to keep our fortresses a secret as long as possible.”
Kosiev pressed a button and said, “Ensign Kelly, get me the Cleveland on a secure channel. I’m going to send the Cleveland to the other side of the sun and have her track any movement in that part of our solar system. She can also disrupt any communications if necessary.”

“That’s a good idea. I suspect that the Vgrig will be somewhat frustrated trying to get thru our screen around the planet. Once we settle the battle with the first two fleets, half of our ships will jump to the other side of the sun and start moving in on the Vgrig ships from that direction. We’ll be much closer to the Star drive limit and should get back there and jump across the system before they could escape. The remainder of our ships will move in system toward them. That’s the plan unless you have any other suggestions.”

Kosiev thought and said, “Do we use the fort’s weapons?”

Tag thought a moment, “Only if they try to fly a suicide ship into it at full speed. I still think the screen would hold; it’s at half power now and has grown to 50 feet thick. But there’s not a good reason to see with so much at risk if I’m wrong. Does this plan meet your approval Admiral? Danielle?”

Kosiev said, “It sounds good to me.”

Danielle said, “Don’t forget the ship warning them that we will resist their occupation.”

Tag looked at Kosiev and the Admiral said, “It’s already in place. The Saratoga will control it and will also be sending a feed of the action to Central Command and to Terl on Cainth. At the end of the battle, one of our ships will be shown approaching the Saratoga and firing as we cut the feed.”

Danielle looked at them and said, “Are we over confident? We’re sending video of this assuming that we are going to win. Are the two of you sure of the outcome? I confess that four thousand ships scare me.”

Tag looked at her, “Danielle, before we took on those 2000 ships with 350 of ours, I was petrified that our technology would not win out. I saw so many of our ships dying in flames and felt that we were in serious trouble but most of our losses happened within the first 30 minutes of the conflict. After that our ships learned how to use each other’s screen to protect themselves and our losses stopped. We also learned the right mix of ships to fight together and also to hold our formation and attack together instead of just picking a target and going after it. Our ships know how to save each other now. The small ships empty their overloaded screens into the battle ships screen and the battle ship releases the excess energy by firing its primary beams. We would not fire before until we were next to a target; now we know that firing the primary beam keeps their screen stable. Danielle, we’ve learned a lot and now we’re going to use 900 of our ships against 4000 of theirs. That’s more than a 30% improvement in the ratio of ships than last time. We will lose some ships but we will learn from it. Our plan is to try and make sure that no one else learns from it. Are you sure you want to be here when the battle begins?”

Danielle looked into Tags eyes and saw his concern and fear for her and said, “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but by your side. Whatever happens; we’ll face it together.”

Kosiev slipped out of the room to give them time for each other. He hoped Tag was right about the new tactics and formations but he knew that barroom fights and space battles didn’t always happen like you plan them. He knew one thing for certain. There were 4,000 reasons to be nervous coming their way shortly. “I wonder if they are worried,” he thought.

Aboard the Vgrig flagship Mass Murderer the Warmaster was discussing the coming battle plans with his Subleader. “You understand your responsibility.”

“Yes Warmaster. We will follow your jump two hours later to give you time to reach the planet as we move into their system. The third group will jump in 30 minutes after we arrive or when we call them if conditions change.”

“That is correct. You must tie their fleet down in the outer system. We’ll go to the planet from the backside and put some of their cities to the claw. After some of them have been wiped completely out of existence; I’ll call for the surrender of their fleet. If they hesitate, two more cities will be clawed from the surface into dust. They’ll give up. Then we can enjoy ourselves with their population. Do not disappoint me, Subleader!” The Vgrig Warleader stood up to his eight foot height and spread his leathery wings, his fangs were dripping from anticipation of the coming slaughter. He looked even more like a gargoyle. The silver plume on his head stood straight up showing his eagerness to start the killing.

“I’ll do my duty and make myself worthy of stature. May our claws dig deep.”

The Warmaster smiled and looked forward to the kill.

A
dmiral Kosiev, Admiral Dorg, and Tag watched the monitor on board the Washington for what they knew was coming. Kosiev could tell the bridge crew was apprehensive about the coming battle but they maintained their discipline and though fear was a part of their daily meal, moral was high. The six week warning was over today. The Alliance fleet would make their jump soon. “Keep your eye on the small group of 800 ships. If I’m right they should be jumping first,” Tag said. They continued to watch and then they saw the small group start moving away from the planet. After 90 minutes had passed, a second larger group of 2100 warships started moving away from the planet. Both groups had moved into their assigned attack formations when the third group started moving an hour later.

“You’re going to have to tell me how you know these things in advance, Mr. Gardner.” Kosiev said. “It looks like you were sitting in their planning session.”

“I could have been wrong, Admiral. But they don’t know that we know how many ships they’re sending. We also know how they are organizing their fleet. It’s easy if you have those facts. If we didn’t know that, this plan would be hard for us to handle without the asteroid forts. We probably couldn’t handle it even if we did know. I’m surprised they didn’t just jump all 4000 ships and head straight for the planet. If they were spread out enough, there’s no way we could prevent them from attacking Earth at least not without matching ship for ship. I believe that part of their plan is to also totally destroy our remaining ships.”

Dorg said, “It is never good tactics to leave ships that could attack when you invest a planet; especially when one is uncertain of their number.”

“That’s what they’ll do next time,” Danielle said. “There won’t be any attempt at occupation; they’ll be coming to destroy us. That is assuming that they don’t do it this time. They’ll send over whelming numbers to destroy the planet. Then they will go after the fleet.”

“Have faith, dear. We still have those 6,000 ships in the outer system if we absolutely have to use them. If we get all the recording ships, we just might use them to cleanup any survivors that run for the limit to escape. We still outnumber them. That’s why I’m not concerned about the final outcome this time.”

“Sir,” Lt. Kelly announced, “the Cleveland reports Alliance ships jumping into our solar system on the other side of the sun. She counts 750 plus shaping up and moving in system.”

“Keep me informed,” Kosiev said. “Open a channel to all ships. Jump alert, jump alert. The first group of Alliance ships has jumped into our system on the sun side. The first fleet we’ll face will be coming shortly. We will wait on them to come to us. Hold your formation and we will attack together. Commodore Davidson?”

“Yes sir.”

“You are to hold your ships until the third group jumps in to support the ships we’ll be facing. I want them at least 45 minutes in system before you jump in and then close at full speed.”

“Commodore Johnson?”

“Yes sir.”