attackers. It fired both of its primary beams into two of the six attacking dreadnoughts and both of them were cut in half. One of them drifted away and the other exploded. The remaining four dreadnoughts were joined by three others and continued to fire on the Melbourne.
“Join on the Melbourne’s left flank and join screens,” Captain Mikado ordered. The Washington flew in and joined Melbourne at the center of the attack. Once the two screens touched, Melbourne’s screen turned yellow. Washington targeted two of the Alliance behemoths and Melbourne targeted two others. In less than thirty seconds there were four more dead hulks floating in space. The remaining three dreadnoughts turned to flee. Washington chased one and Melbourne the other. The third accelerated away from the planet toward the star drive limit to try to escape to warn the main fleet. Only four dreadnoughts remained of the twenty, and then there was only one, which was trying to escape.
“Sir, we have one dreadnought making a break for the star drive limit,” Lieutenant Kelley said. “Should we use the blocking force to stop it?”
“How many Alliance ships remain?” Kosiev asked.
“Forty-five, sir.”
“What is the count of our remaining ships?”
“We have eighty-nine remaining ships. We have lost one of our empire class battle ships, four cruisers, and six destroyers for a total of eleven ships lost against 155 of theirs.”
“Assign two ships to each of the remaining Alliance ships and let’s complete this operation,” Kosiev ordered. “What happened to the Alliance troop transports?”
“Just as you said, sir, they ran to the planet’s surface.”
Kosiev looked at Tag and said, “I’m glad you were here to anticipate that. We probably need to start giving support to our marines. We can let the blocking force handle the escapee. They’ll feel like they’ve taken part in the action.”
“I agree. Besides, didn’t you assign all of your ships to finish the Alliance presence in this system? Pick out the one you want and let’s finish this business.”
Admiral Ecsra accelerated out of the Ross system toward the safety of the star drive limit, where he could jump to safety. He was in a state of shock at what had happened to his fleet. No one could have guessed that the Earth ships were capable of what he saw. They were things that inhabit an admiral’s nightmares. Ships that wouldn’t die no matter how much energy or missiles were fired at them. Nothing could withstand a dreadnought’s fire power except another dreadnought. That was a fact that had been proven in endless battles. Only he had seen one of their small battleships withstand the fire of six dreadnoughts for twenty minutes before it exploded. Then the next one handled that fire and destroyed two of them. Two of those small ships destroyed six dreadnoughts. The Alliance had to be warned. “Are they chasing us?” Admiral Ecsra asked.
“No sir,” his sensor officer said. “One of those medium Earth battleships started to move our way, then turned around and attacked one of our remaining battleships.”
Ecsra didn’t need to ask the outcome of that engagement. The Alliance battleship didn’t stand a chance against that demon ship.
“Sir, all of our ships have been destroyed or severely damaged. We’re the only one to escape.”
“How many ships attacked us?”
“Sir, they only used one hundred ships.”
“How many did we destroy?”
“According to our sensor log, no more than fifteen were killed.”
The Admiral was stunned speechless. “How many ships do they have?” he wondered. “Maybe all they have are those one hundred ships.”
“Sir. Sir!”
Admiral Ecsra looked at his sensor officer and saw in his face the fear he was starting to feel. “What?”
“Sir, our sensors show more than 180 of those human warships powering up their screens on all sides of us. Twenty of those battleships are moving in to intercept us; what are your orders, sir?”
Admiral Ecsra was beyond giving any orders. All he could do was stare at the screen and mumble over and over, “Why did we have to start this?”
Chapter 28
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Wiseman stood in front of his men in front of the Rossville concentration camp and could see their nervousness. He could hear his weapon floaters broadcasting to the civilian population to return to the camp so they could be protected. Most of them had left as soon as the Alliance ground troops evacuated, but fortunately they had not had time to go very far before Wiseman landed. His battalion was assigned to liberate the largest camp, which was just outside Rossville. There were over thirty thousand unarmed civilians that had been staying there in terrible conditions. Fortunately, most of them listened to the broadcast and were returning. His engineers had set up the small black hole reactor and the Coronado screen was already in place over the camp. The camp was located in the middle of a flat floodplain surrounded by high hills. The green valley was lush with plant life and farms that the colonists had been farming before the Cainth occupation. He saw that the Cainth would have to come down the middle of that plain to retake the concentration camp. “Now if our navy is successful up there, we might get out of this alive,” he thought. “We have to hold out until they can support us.” He looked at his troops in their shiny new armor and understood their fears.
“Sir, all men present and accounted for, sir,” his sergeant major reported.
“At ease, men.” He stood in front of them and said through his armored suit’s radio so every one of them could hear, “You all know why we’re here. That much of our mission is obvious. What I want to make sure of is that you know why we are here. How much do any of you know about ancient Earth marine traditions? A young man that rescued me from myself taught me some of the valuable lessons of our past. Before mankind laid down their weapons and embraced peace, it was the marines that were called on to handle the toughest combat roles. They lived by a code that made them stronger together than they were individually. Our history books tell us about their victories, defeats, and bravery. It all derived from their simple code, semper fidelis.” Wiseman could see a number of his men looking at each other. “It comes from a truly ancient language called Latin that was used by the earliest world power on Earth called Rome. It simply means ‘always faithful.’ The marines would not leave their wounded on a battlefield. They would endanger themselves to protect their brothers in arms, often causing their own death. The marines were a brotherhood that meant much more to them than simple words could explain. They knew to their core that their well-being was being watched over by all of their comrades. They also knew the importance of their mission and the importance of being faithful to the ones that sent them. Now we stand here today about to face an enemy that outnumbers us and probably outguns us as well. We are the new marines of mankind. We as a people have not engaged in combat for more than four hundred years, and yet here we are. Our ancient brothers established their reputation, their traditions, and their memories in blood on hundreds of battlefields. Today, you will have the rare honor of making our new traditions. Your future brothers in arms will look back at today and see the example you give them. We face an enemy that wants to exterminate our species. If we don’t send them a message here of what the cost will be to accomplish that, then we should be deeply ashamed of ourselves. Some of you wonder about why a criminal was made your commanding officer, and I must humbly respond to you, so do I. But this much I can promise you: I will always be faithful to you. I will not leave you cut off to die or leave you behind. If there is power in my armor, I will be at your back. I pledge to every one of you semper fidelis. Semper fi,” he yelled into his mike and heard all his men answer together, “Semper fi.”
“Dismissed,” he said.
“Attention!” Richard’s adjutant said. The marines came to attention and saluted their commander. They then turned to each other, and all of them could see in each other’s eyes that something was born here today that each of them would never forget. “Move to your positions, men. Fleet reports the Alliance transports are entering atmosphere.”
The Alliance ground commander was frustrated and frightened. The fleet was being chewed up by ships one- third their size. He ordered his troop ships ground-side as soon as the dreadnought covering his transports was destroyed by three of the Earth cruisers. If things went bad up there, he had to capture the human colonists on the
