Authors: Barlow,M
While recharging, the first line of battleships hovered lower to allow the second line to fire their energy waves. The waves traveled through the openings in the shield. They wrecked tens of Manakaris’ ships in the blink of an eye.
The Manakaris ghost ships blasted through the holes in the shield. They headed for her army. They were small—couldn’t accommodate over ten people—and fast enough to evade most of the missiles and bursts Alissara had her army fire at them. Again, her ships opened fire to take out the ghost ships. By the time, they reached her army, the Manakaris had destroyed half of them.
Once the surviving ghost ships reached her army, they targeted the right wing. They wreaked havoc, took out ships, and disappeared before her battleships reacted.
The European army commander appeared on the communication holograms. “We’re taking heavy damage here. Can you do anything about these ships?”
She couldn’t blame him. His force was bearing the grunt of the nimble attack. “I’ll send an infiltration unit to take care of it,” Alissara said. “Stay away from the ghost ships. Shield your vessels and make sure your soldiers are alert. Keep contact to a minimum.”
Alissara ended the transmission and turned to Dara. “Get Violet on the line.”
Dara nodded.
Alissara stared at the dark hologram for a moment until it came alive with the Australian Special Forces Commander who wore light, black armor.
“Take out the ghost ships in the right flank,” Alissara said.
*****
Violet had been on her feet since the battle started, staring at the radio. She watched from the sidelines while the enemy destroyed their ships. And she hated it. Her unit rescued the survivors from the burning battleships, but she wanted to do more. She was relieved to hear from Alissara. What was the point of leading an elite unit if she wouldn’t contribute?
She motioned her team to get ready. “How many?” Violet asked Alissara.
“Two hundred ships, give or take.”
“We’re on it,” Violet said through the radio.
Once the message ended, she switched the communication channel to speak to her unit. “We need to destroy the ghost ships in the right flank. There are two hundred of them. Follow my lead, use their communication patterns to find them if you don’t have visual, infiltrate when safe, and be careful—we’ll be surrounded by friendly battleships.”
She ended the message and motioned her pilot to take off.
The small airship took a sharp right turn and traveled between the US battleships. The rest of her force followed—a hundred ships just as small and just as agile. When her ship reached the right wing, Violet had it cloaked to fly by unnoticed. The airship slid under a large British ship the way a stingray passed under a blue whale.
Violet saw the first ghost ship. It resembled the locomotive unit in the Bullet Train between Sydney and Melbourne. As she activated her shield, Violet jumped inside the red circle in the middle of her ship. Four of her men joined her.
Her entire life, Violet studied and prepared before making a move. She hated failure. Hated the unknown. That’s why she studied every angle, considered every possibility, and carried on missions on her own terms. A year and half of infiltration training gave her the skills and confidence to jump into uncharted territories. Whether it was filled with courteous sales ladies or leviathans, she’d survive.
“I have line of sight. Ready when you are,” the pilot said.
“Ready,” Violet said.
A thick cylinder of bright green energy appeared on the red circle. It surrounded them. Glowed. Then it disappeared. Violet and her team were inside the enemy’s ghost ship. She stared at the first Manakaris who weren’t trapped in a cage.
One quick look. She absorbed her surroundings. To her right, there were two pilots, secured in their seats. To her left, five soldiers in silver armor and tubular weapons spread around the small ship. Straight ahead, stood their officer—a seven-foot giant, covered in blue armor. His torso bulged and protruded with a developed exoskeletal bone armor.
She can do this.
Their arrival startled the Manakaris. Before they recovered, Violet leaped forward. She pushed the officer to the wall with enough force to turn a human being into pudding.
The officer bounced off the wall and punched her in her head as if nothing happened. Her body flew in the air for three meters. She hit the wall with a bang before she fell to the floor against the cold, hard metal.
He didn’t give her a chance to gasp. The officer sprinted to her location, bent over, and with all his might, he punched her. Violet activated her Space Random Jumping device. She warped away from under him. Sprung to her feet. Planted her knee in his face.
The officer stood up and reached for his face to examine it. Violet raised both her hands in front of her, gathered her mental strength, and pushed him again. This time, she targeted his head. The energy knocked him back. He dropped to the floor. Motionless.
As soon as the officer’s body hit the ground, the ship took off in a collision course with the British battleship, she saw earlier. Violet pulled her weapon and fired two shots, killing the pilots.
Her team had neutralized the five soldiers in the back of the ship. Violet walked to the same spot where she first landed. Once they’re inside, she threw a small button forward and pushed her earpiece.
“We’re done here.”
Moments later, the same green energy cylinder engulfed them. When it disappeared, Violet was in her ship. She rushed to the front shield.
The ghost ship exploded. Not a spectacle. A small, contained blast that rendered the ship useless.
Violet threw her body on the nearest chair while the pilot navigated between the large ships to find more ghost ships.
“Is everyone okay?”
“Yeah,” Dan said, “I can’t believe that worked.”
“I know, the captain hit like a truck,” Violet said, bending and stretching her knee to make sure it was okay.
He smiled. “I took on two.”
Violet chuckled. “All right, go Dan!”
Dan bowed in a theatrical manner. “It’s what I do. I wake up in the morning, have my cereal, and kill two Manakaris.”
Everyone laughed.
She let her imagination run wild. The Manakaris were tough but not invincible. Yes. Her team could do this. She could do this.
“Got another one,” the pilot said.
Violet and her team assembled in the teleportation circle. She was ready storm another ship. Now that she knew what to expect, the fight might be easier.
*****
Alissara checked the statistics. Another hundred battleships down. How much more could her army take? The Manakaris’ battleships pounded them, and the ghost ships infiltrated their formation. Her battleships struggled to land any attacks. The defensive shield absorbed their firepower.
Violet’s image popped on a hologram. “It’s done.”
Alissara’s eyes smoldered. “Good job!”
When Violet took off her helmet, Alissara noticed the scowl on her forehead.
“How bad?”
“Over a hundred soldiers.”
Alissara closed her eyes. She couldn’t find the words. She became numb as she’d lost tens of thousands of soldiers. With a bitter taste in her mouth, Alissara wondered when would this battle end?
Dara’s hand patted her back.
Her commanders had it worse. It took all their willpower not to burst into tears. Their battleships exploded with hundreds of soldiers onboard, and infiltration teams rescued ten, maybe twenty.
Alissara’s eyes lit up as she hovered forward to the communication device to speak to David Harris, her second in command. Time to do something crazy.
“David, I need you to take over.”
“Why?”
“As long as their shield is up, we can’t touch them. We must take out the vessels sustaining it. I’ll take the antimatter-equipped battleships and storm the shield. But we can use some cover.”
David lowered his gaze for a moment before he looked at the hologram. “Whatever you need.”
Within minutes, Alissara led two hundred battleships straight to the Manakaris shield. Her battleships spread out. They put up their shields.
Missiles targeted her small force, but the battleships dodged the attack and fired their antimatter launchers at the shield. By the time Alissara’s battleship reached the large barrier, her force punched large holes in it. The defensive vessels in the Manakaris’ army became exposed.
Alissara planted her feet on the floor of the battleship and stared at the enemy’s vessels. “Fire everything.”
Green waves of death destroyed multiple defensive vessels on the spot. Atomic bombs—courtesy of the US army—evaporated tens of large battleships that rushed to rescue the defensive vessels.
As the enemy’s missiles took out many of her ships, huge portions of the shield vanished. A missile hit her battleship and knocked it to the side. The pilots sealed the damaged area. It wouldn’t survive another hit. Hundreds of battleships separated from the Manakaris army and blazed toward Alissara.
She leaned forward to instruct her battleships. “We’ve done enough damage. Pull back.”
Her ships warped outside the shield and again to the area between the two armies. David had targeted the Manakaris force that chased her with heavy firepower. Her pilots maneuvered out of harm’s way and warped one more time to join the rest of her army.
Two hundred ships left. A little over a hundred returned. Her Korran battleship sustained heavy damage, but it wasn’t fatal.
The only consolation was, although outnumbered, her force now had the upper hand. Parts of the shield disappeared to expose the majority of the Manakaris ships. The irony was the Manakaris supplied the energy her ships used. Their brutal attacks ensured her chargers stayed above 80% throughout the battle.
“Activate general communication,” Alissara said. “It’s time to finish this.”
A minute later Alissara faced the communication device. Her picture appeared in every ship, not just the commanders’ battleships.
“Soldiers, pilots, officers, and commanders,” Alissara said. “It’s been my privilege to lead you for the past few days. This is our endgame. If we squeeze them to the point of no return, they’ll blow us up the way they blew up my planet. The numbers are even, and their shield is shattered. I say we recharge, shield up, and rush them. Try to destroy a battleship or two, then warp to safety. Infiltration units can finish them off the rest.”
Alissara ended the message and took a deep breath. Her plan was a twist on the endgame, but it was the right move. She knew it.
“Go,” Alissara said and motioned the pilots. The sound of the engine was deafening. The giant ship charged forward toward the Manakaris’ first line of defense like an unstoppable boulder fired down from a cannon atop a steep mountain.
Alissara put her hand on Dara’s shoulder and looked at her. If she was meant to die here, at least she’d die with a friend.
The dark waves of doom traveled ahead of the ship, destroying a handful of ships. Missile after missile the size of her small, silver ship blazed through space until it exploded against enemy’s battleships.
“Enough, take us out of here,” Alissara said.
As the ship turned around, Alissara stared at the wave after wave of the enemy’s ships and wave after wave of her own. They stalked the enemy and surrounded them. Ready to put an end to it all.
*****
Gabriel Wu, the Australian forces commander, followed Alissara’s lead. Once his battleship destroyed a handful of the enemy’s ships, he ordered his pilots to retreat. Before the battleship warped, a large ray of antimatter hit the rear and punched a hole in it. The vessel shook uncontrollably.
“We’ve taken too much damage. We can’t warp, General,” the pilot said.
The piranhas would soon swarm his damaged vessel. Gabriel straightened his posture, locked his hands behind his back, and turned to the pilot.
“Activate the nukes,” Gabriel said, with a determined look in his eyes. “We’ll take out as many ships as we can.”
In two minutes, the ship was a powder keg waiting to blow any second. It plummeted through space toward a cluster of Manakaris battleships. A minute or two, and it would be over.
Gabriel walked to the front shield. He stood between the pilots’ seats and watched the battlefield. Earth’s shielded battleships broke formation. They traversed through space with incredible speeds, pursued the Manakari ships, and destroyed them. Then the battleships warped and headed the other way.
Within minutes, the entire Manakari army would be wiped out. He’d die a happy man in twenty, nineteen, eighteen…
He activated the ship’s internal system. “It’s been an honor—”
“Hold on tight, General.” Violet’s voice came from behind him.
A powerful force pulled his body back to a clear area in the middle of the ship. Her hands grabbed him tight.
Gabriel craned his neck. Violet and her soldiers flooded his battleship and grabbed his men. “Where did you… you need to leave. the ship is—”
Light surrounded her soldiers and his before they teleported. When it was his turn, a cylinder of light engulfed the two of them along with others. Gabriel shielded his eyes from the bright light.
“You’re safe, General,” Violet said.
He was in her small airship. The crowded ship warped away. From a window, he watched his battleship explode and take out dozens of Manakari’s ships. Gabriel took a deep breath and headed to a chair.
Violet chuckled. “Watch it, General, you’re sucking all the air.”
Gabriel smiled in relief before he remembered the rest of his men. “Did you rescue everyone?”
“We’re doing a head count.”
After a few minutes, one of her officers reported to her.
“We’ve lost five of mine,” Violet said, “and one of your pilots who stayed behind and detonate the ship.”
Gabriel fell silent for a while. They lost people they cared for, and if there was any justice, the Manakaris would burn for eternity. “Take me to one of the command ships.”
She ordered her pilot to seek the nearest command ship.
The pilot examined the navigation system for a while. “The American command ship is nearby.”
Gabriel frowned. “Keep looking.”
Everyone on the ship laughed with relief as the pilot traveled to the ship’s location and teleported him and his men to the large US battleship.
*****
Ten minutes later, Alissara spoke to everyone from the Command Battleship. “Well done, recharge your drives, and rest before we head back.”