the Alliance about this race.” The big ship turned and moved toward the moon then went vertical to escape the system. As it picked up speed the sensor officer said, “Warleader, there are ten of the Human battleships closing on us at twice our speed. They will intercept us more than 1000 segs from the jump limit.”
The Warleader had never known the fear he was feeling. He was trapped. He sat in his command chair and watched those ships coming at him at unbelievable velocity. His silver plume was laying flat against his back and he could see his death approaching. “Warleader, I know we would never consider surrendering,” his second said, “but if we all die here, there will be no one to warn our world of this danger. I will follow you to death, but the Home Nest must be warned.”
“Honor demands a death before dishonor,” the Warleader said. “But you’re right. This is a danger that we must try at all costs to warn the Vetrel. Abandon ship; set the self destruct. Everyone into survival Pods. Let’s hope these Humans take prisoners. Abandon ship!”
Commodore Johnson saw the big ship stop and start emitting life boats. “Hold your position,” he ordered his ships. “I’m sure they have set a self destruct; let’s wait until it goes off. Communications; order a transport for the prisoners.”
On Cainth the Clan Leaders watched the fortresses totally destroy the fleet above the planet. Terl looked at the clan leaders and said, “That’s what will go on line over us tomorrow. Only 300 ships remain to be converted. For the first time in more than 1500 cycles, we can feel what it’s like to be free.”
Tgon-Gee saw the slaughter of the fleet at the planet and turned off his feed. “How close we have come to being made powerless. Dorg was right; the Alliance Leadership had set us up. He felt a deep burning anger and was determined to make them pay but first a trip to Cainth to thank them for their advice.”
Kosiev said, “Commodore Johnson, have one of your ships move toward the Saratoga and fire a light beam at it. We’re going to stop the feed now.”
“Yes, sir, the ship is already in position and the Saratoga has acknowledged the cut.”
The remaining Alliance warships were caught between two Human fleets and they had no chance of survival. The 738 human ships destroyed twice their number within 60 seconds of contact. The Subleader ordered a fast withdrawal but now the numbers were in the Humans favor and each ship took one of the remaining Alliance ships and destroyed them all before any of them could make it to the jump limit. The Alliance had sent 4800 ships and none survived. The Humans lost 240 of their 900 ships. More than 60 % of those losses were from being rammed by larger Alliance ships.
Kosiev reviewed the results and said to Tag, “We have to change our fleet strategy; staying in formation works in space battles but not against ships willing to ram. We can’t give up our edge in speed and maneuverability by having our fleet stay in line.”
“You’re right,” Tag said while looking at the ship losses. “The weave worked well but we waited too late to start it. Perhaps we use both next time. We’ll engage them in formation and then start the weave once we break into their ranks. We should also change direction every ten seconds. They can’t maneuver as fast and it’s hard to ram when your target turns away faster than you can match.”
“I understand we took the flagships crew prisoner,” Dorg said. I thought this race was supposed to suicide before being captured?”
“I think they saw no one was going to escape and they know the importance of getting a warning to the Alliance,” Tag said as he watched the flagship self destruct on his video. “Admiral, leave a ship hidden that can watch the wreckage of their ship.”
“Why, do you think they have something planned?”
“How hard would it be to hide a small armored shuttle in the wreckage that was isolated from the blast?”
“I see your point. Their Warleader was not among the prisoners. Should we just destroy the wreckage?”
“No, we might want to let him escape.”
“For God’s sake, why?”
“We now know the screen will protect the planet. I don’t want the next invasion to target Earth but to target the fleet. He knows we only used 900 ships. The Alliance will not have a clue how many we used so they may order an all out attack fearing we have huge numbers. I hate to let them know about our planetary defenses, but I don’t want them to think we have more ships than those 900. The Warleader will also be able to verify that we lost 240 ships so the Alliance will not feel it needs to send all the ships in its arsenal. We still haven’t cut into their numbers enough. One thing for certain though, we won’t need to hide anything for the next battle; they will send everything they have if they lose the next one.”
Kosiev thought about Tags suggestion and said, “What if there isn’t a ship hiding in the rubble?”
“Then we have to arrange an escape but I think that is premature at this point. Move all your ships away from the wreckage and have the Cleveland come around from the sun and keep an eye out. We’ll give them five days to make their break. We also should make it look real and have one of our ships start the chase from too far away to catch them.”
“I’m nervous about revealing our planetary defenses, but you’re right. We can’t handle more than 40,000 warships. Do you think it might be a good idea to maybe add four more asteroid fortresses?”
“We haven’t fully charged the ones we’ve got. We’re still at only 60 % charge after destroying those 800 ships. We can add more if we can get them to 100 % capacity. Even with the sun and all those reactors, the system holds an inconceivable amount of energy and is still weeks off from fully charging. Think about how valuable that screen will be to our ships during a planetary fight to discharge their screens.”
Kosiev thought a moment and said, “I hadn’t even considered that.” Then he smiled. “You know; we’re not as much an underdog as it appears.” Then he started laughing.
Chapter 6
The Warleader sat in his small ship watching his screen as the Humans finished destroying the ships in the outer system. His race was not one to ever be intimidated by any military they had ever encountered but now he was nervous that his life was on the line for the first time in his career. He knew his species was no match for what he had witnessed here in this attack on the Humans. He thought back to his initial over confidence and wondered how he could have possibly planned things differently that would have led to a different outcome but he was forced to admit that the end result would have been the same. “I talked about killing; they actually did it,” he thought as he watched his screen. Every one of the survivors on his small ship was in a somber mood and frightened that they, too, would be discovered. He watched as the crew of his battle ship was picked up by the Humans and loaded aboard a transport that then moved out toward the large planet near the Star drive limit. The Warships escorting the transport followed as it moved further and further away. “Do you detect any other ships in the vicinity?” he asked his sensor officer.
“No Warleader, all the Human ships are now in the outer system. There could be some on the other side of this systems star but not where our sensors can see.”
“How much faster did our instruments show their ships are than ours?”
“At least twice as fast, maybe more; I don’t know if they went full speed in their attack on our fleets.”
“Let’s assume they are three times faster, is there a route out of this system that would allow us to reach the Star Drive limit before we could be overtaken?”
“Warleader, you also have to factor in their missiles. This small ship cannot handle a full attack because of our small screen. However, if we wait for two more drags then the closest ships will be those escorting the transport and if we go down away from the plane of this system taking an angle toward the back of that star, we should make it. I wouldn’t suggest delaying beyond that because now that the battle is over at that large planet some of those ships may start back in system.”
The Warleader pondered his options and then decided. “In one drag we will break our cover and accelerate to the closest jump point. We’re assuming that they will see us immediately and respond instantly. There has to be a few dregs of uncertainty and that’s all we will need to make our escape. Notify me if any ships start our way.”
“Yes Warleader.” The time moved slowly and the tension mounted in the small ship. Finally, the sensor officer said, “Now is the time.”
