The Administrator was visibly shaking. All he could do was nod.
“Greyson, do you have them plotted?”
“Yes, I do. Are you sure you want to destroy those facilities? There will be a huge loss of life.”
“Look at what this planet has done to those they’ve conquered. It has no soul and perhaps by destroying their capacity to make war they will know we mean business. I’d rather destroy those facilities than have to destroy the planet. This should make sure they listen.”
“Will you do that if they don’t comply?”
“Greyson, is this not an innocent planet?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve scanned it. Every place celebrates their conquests with banners and posters. Look for yourself.”
Greyson scanned the planet. “We should just destroy them now. They’ll never change.”
“First we allow them to get their troops home. They can do it a lot faster than we can if we are forced to go do it ourselves. After that, they can live in splendid isolation. I suspect they’ll destroy themselves if there are no other targets for them to go after. Or they’ll violate the border we’ve imposed and we’ll remove them. This is a hard decision but we have to be willing to make it. This cancer cannot be allowed to spread.”
Greyson began firing at the planet’s surface and the Administrator watched his display as thousands of facilities were destroyed. He slammed his arms on the table in frustration. Then he heard, “I’ll be back in thirty rotations.”
The huge white ship disappeared and he hit his com, “Commander Losel, dispatch your fleet and start moving our troops back. We don’t have much time.”
“I’m sorry, Sir, but you have condemned me to death. My fleet will not follow your directives. Find someone else to carry out your orders. We’ve been attacking planets at the direction of you and your council for years and we will no longer take part in your crimes.”
“Surely you are not going to allow our world to be destroyed. We must have your assistance. Please.”
“Fleet Control, are you listening in to this conversation?”
“Yes we are.”
“The only way we will assist is after you have arrested the Administrator and his assistants and put them on a ship and send them out of the system to us.”
“But that ship said I’ll be killed if I leave!”
“Let us hope you’re good at hiding. You have my conditions.”
“We will do as you ask, Commander. You are now the Leader of all our forces. Please make the return happen as quickly as possible.”
“I’ll leave when he leaves.” Losel waited for an hour and saw a small ship leave the planet and head toward the jump limit.
Fleet Command commed, “If you will leave a ship to escort them out, you can start moving our forces.”
Losel watched his monitor and sent a destroyer in to meet the ship. He waited until it arrived next to the small ship and said, “You will turn on your video and show me who is on board that ship.” The video came on and he saw all of the Leadership Council. He activated his com, “Carry out your orders.”
The destroyer fired on the small ship and blew it into six pieces. “We will now start moving our troops. Contact them and tell them they are ordered home. I suggest you find new leaders that will make us work together.” The fleet jumped away.
Virze and Grace looked at their scans of the planet below and saw thousands of soldiers on the surface forcing the population to work at hard labor stripping raw materials. “How many sites do we have to handle?”
“I count more than a thousand with a hundred or more troops at each.”
“Some of those troops are mixed in with the workers, Grace. It’s not going to be easy to hit them from space.”
“No, we’ll have to depend on the Flyers.”
“That’s going to require them to come close to their targets. We’ll lose some if we’re forced to do that.”
“Vring and Kreej have developed a mechanism on the Rider’s guns that may prevent that.”
“Oh?”
“You know the guns are powered by a small red generator.”
“Yes.”
“Well, they’ve added a force field that will surround the Zord and Rider once the gun is activated. It will turn off to allow the sparks to fly out and then reactivate. The Flyers will only be exposed for a very small interval. It should reduce our losses.”
“So how do we do this?”
“I’m teleporting five riders to each site and fifty over the capital. You and I will send the ships parked in orbit home to assist them in getting their troops off the other planets.”
“Do you think they’ll go?”
“I’ll make an offer they can’t refuse.”
Virze laughed, “You’ve been watching some old videos.”
“I found them in the learning center. Are you ready?”
“Yes, start sending them.”
“Anglo, this is Grace. I’ve sent you the coordinates for the Flyers. Please start them coming now.”
“They’ve been getting impatient. The first five hundred groups will arrive in thirty seconds.”
“Grace, let’s go talk to some ships.”
The Commander of the military transports in orbit above the planet sat in his chair eating a meal and suddenly heard over his PA system. “Good morning, please continue you meal while I tell you what your next actions are going to be. You will take your ships back to your home world and assist them in moving troops back home from the planets you’ve conquered. You have exactly one minute to start moving toward the jump limit. I’ll kill any ship that doesn’t follow my instructions.”
The Commander looked sharply at his Communications Officer, “There is nothing on my scanner.”
The Commander looked at his display and said, “I cannot leave without direct orders from the First Administrator.”
“Well, unfortunately, he and his entire Leadership Council are now deceased along with the eight thousand warships that were there. I really don’t want to make an example of one of your ships to prove I mean what I say, however, I will.”
The Commander yelled, “Raise all screens; power the weapons.” The Commander watched the force field form around his ship and then saw a bright beam blow it apart.
“My next shot will not be at the edge of your force field.”
He looked over at his scanner and saw that the beam had not been slowed or reduced in power. He watched as all one hundred ships had their force fields blown away. “Get underway, start moving toward the jump barrier!”
“That is very wise,”
“What about my troops on the planet.”
“You’re talking about the ones that murdered almost half the planet’s population. We’ll remove them. You don’t have to worry about them.”
The Commander felt a cold shiver go up his spine. He knew that they weren’t talking about relocating those troops. The Communications Officer looked at his board and said, “The General Officer of the military forces on the surface is demanding to know where you’re going.”
“Ignore him. I suspect he’ll know in a few moments.” He looked at his navigator, “Get the fleet to maximum speed.”
Higlon leaned right as Mraak banked hard right and screamed in from high altitude. The young Cainth Rider locked in ten sparks and set the gun for blaster-organic. He left his second gun in the holster on the bindings and listened as the gun’s tone announced that targets had been acquired. Mraak banked in on the large crowd gathered around the small rail cars that were transporting the gold ore they were being forced to load. Fifty troops stood and watched with their blasters in their hands as the workers struggled shoveling the huge mound into the cars. Higlon pulled his trigger ten times and Mraak banked hard left. Higlon held on and turned to watch. He saw his partner come in right behind him and fire ten more sparks. As they banked left two more flyers came screaming in at high
