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The Fight for Brittania
Saving America
Saxon Andrew
Copyright © 2018 Saxon Andrew
All rights reserved.
This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locals, organisations, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.
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Contents
Introduction
Chapter One • Chapter Two • Chapter Three • Chapter Four • Chapter Five • Chapter Six • Chapter Seven • Chapter Eight • Chapter Nine • Chapter Ten • Chapter Eleven • Chapter Twelve • Chapter Thirteen • Chapter Fourteen • Chapter Fifteen
Epilogue
Books by Saxon Andrew
About Saxon Andrew
Introduction
Britannia has been destroyed. The advanced alien civilization that attacked and burned all the cities on the planet to the ground eventually returned and killed every survivor left behind on Britannia. Fortunately, hundreds of thousands of survivors were saved by freighters sent from the Melbourne Colony and were taken to Melbourne. But many of the humans on Britannia refused to leave and their choice led to their deaths.
Britannia is now dead… however, the fight for Britannia is just starting to heat up. The Britannia survivors intend to make the aliens pay for their actions in a big way. Grady and Taffy Henricks prompted a war between the aliens and the Dictator on Earth and it has been bloody. And now the aliens have finally discovered Earth’s location and the war is being taken to the home world of humanity. The dogs of war are loose, and death stalks the stars taking its due from the warriors on both sides.
Chapter One
Grady looked at the monitor and sighed. Taffy heard him and said, “It looks like the aliens intend to end this fight now.” Grady nodded. Taffy asked, “Computer, give me a ship count on the alien fleets headed toward Earth.”
“Five hundred thousand warships divided into one thousand attack fleets. Each of the attack fleets have five-hundred warships centered on one of the alien’s planet killers.”
Taffy turned to Grady, “Sending a thousand of those planet killers seems like overkill to me when one would do the trick.”
“The aliens probably know something we don’t, Taffy.”
“What are you talking about, Grady?”
“We’ve been out here in alien territory for two years stirring up trouble between Earth and the aliens; we’ve not gone back to scout Earth to see what was going on during that time. We’ve spent all our time out where the battles were taking place at the edge of the alien’s territory. Earth has probably been cooking up a defense against the planet killers during that time.”
“If they have, why haven’t they used it in the fight taking place close to the alien’s home space?”
Grady turned to Taffy, “I’m not certain Earth has developed something to counter the planet killers. I’m only suggesting they’ve had enough time to do it.” Grady nodded toward the monitor, “The aliens appear to believe Earth has something to be concerned about and we know they have been sending scouts to Earth. Something’s going on we know nothing about.”
“I agree with Grady.” Abby appeared on their communicator display and she added, “This alien fleet is far too large to just be confronting Earth’s warships.”
Dunhan interjected, “I wonder why they haven’t just sent the warships ahead of the planet killers to take out Earth’s fleets.”
Grady looked at them on the display and leaned back in his chair, “All of us need to keep in mind that Earth has conquered more than two hundred planets and all of them are highly developed. I suspect Earth has been building up their forces at a massive rate.”
“Are you saying Earth has enough warships to meet that many alien ships head on?”
“Taffy, the aliens have scouted Earth, are we agreed on that?” The other three nodded. “Then it’s pretty certain the aliens are concerned about what they’ve seen at Earth. The reason the aliens haven’t sent warships ahead is because if the forces are close to being equal in size, Earth’s warships are superior to the alien’s. They need the planet killers to keep Earth’s fleets at bay from attacking their fleets.”
“I guess that accounts for why Earth hasn’t confronted this fleet out in open space long before it arrives at Earth?”
“That appears to be what’s going on, Dunhan,” Grady replied. “Something is at Earth that can’t be sent out to meet them head on. The coming fight is going to take place close to Earth,” Grady replied somberly.
“Should we fly ahead of the aliens and take a look around Earth?” Taffy asked.
“No!” Grady instantly responded.
“Why not?”
“If Earth has a similar number of warships defending the planet, it would be too dangerous to try and get through their lines to take a look.” Grady paused, “We’re not invisible; we will be detected moving in and be forced to run. We’ll hang out with the alien fleet and wait for them to attack. We’ve probably already been detected by one or more of those stealth scouts used by Earth.”
“Why haven’t they attacked us?” Taffy asked.
Grady shrugged, “They don’t have a beam powerful enough to do any damage to our hulls. But they can vector battleships in on our location. Our safest option is to stay with the alien fleet and take a look around once the battle kicks off.”
Taffy’s brow furrowed, “If Earth has stealth scouts out here, then they know about this fleet.”
“Yes, they do, Taffy. And the fact they’ve not sent their fleets out to meet it before it arrives at Earth tells me volumes about the defenses around Earth.” Grady looked at Rory and Abby, “We should split up and you should move to the other side of the alien’s formations. We’ll record what happens on this side and you can keep track of the other. Make sure you stay far enough out from the alien formations to stay out of trouble.”
“On our way, Grady.”
The Roo Rabbit went vertical and flew far over the top of the alien fleets. The aliens had to be detecting them, but their ships weren’t fast enough to get close to the two small ships, so they didn’t even try. Grady powered up the thrusters and Taffy quickly asked, “Where are you going?”
“I’m moving outside the scanning range of the alien fleets. Our scanners have double their range and I don’t want to be close enough for them to vector ships in on us if we’re distracted during the coming battle. Once we’re outside their range I want you to use the active scanners to try and detect any stealth scouts attempting to follow us.”
“They’re almost impossible to see, Grady.”
“Scan for their thrusters, Taffy. Focus on any gravity anomalies taking place around us. If there are scouts following us they’ll have to power up their drives to stay with us.”
Taffy nodded and turned to her console. After a few minutes, she pressed a button and Grady saw hundreds of green lights appear on the monitor. “There are at least a thousand small gravity anomalies following the alien formations, Grady.”
“Are any close enough to us to see us?”
“I don’t believe so…but some of them may just be powered down watching the aliens without changing their positions. My scanner won’t detect them.
”
“We need to find a way to get a good lock on those scouts.” Grady shook his head, “There must be some way to detect them.”
“We’ll have to get Joshua to work on finding a way to do it when we get back to Melbourne.” Taffy paused and turned to Grady, “If they’ve been building up the defenses around Earth, could they have possibly built a more advanced warship than we’ve seen so far.”
Grady turned to Taffy and his apprehension was clear in his expression. He activated his communicator and said, “Abby, Taffy just asked if it is possible Earth may have built a more advanced warship we’ve not seen out in the alien’s territory. Make sure you don’t get too close to the coming battle.”
“We’ll keep our distance, Grady. You do the same.”
“We will, Abby. We should have gone back to Earth to keep track of what’s happening there. I guess we’ll find out the hard way.” Grady stared at the green dots on the monitor and activated the main thrusters. Taffy looked at him with narrow eyes and Grady said, “I’m moving Rex ahead of this fleet into the Solar System.”
“Don’t move directly in, Grady! I’m sure Earth will detect us long before we arrive.”
“I’m taking the Rabbit above the Solar System and move in from there. Use the active scanner to detect anything in our path.”
“Grady, why don’t you take Rex over the sun and move out toward Earth from there. I don’t think Earth expects any danger coming from that direction,” Taffy suggested. Grady smiled and went to maximum speed. He moved far above the spiral arm Earth was located inand then dove back toward Earth’s Solar System. He arrived behind the opposite side of the sun from Earth’s location and he flew the Rex Rabbit under the sun until he arrived at the orbit of Mercury. He then moved slowly toward Earth and waited for Taffy to detect something dangerous in front of them. He glanced at her as they passed the orbit of Venus and she shook her head, “Nothing so far, Grady.”
Grady saw Earth getting larger on the monitor and suddenly shutdown all systems on the ship except for environmental and passive scanners when the monitor began showing returns from warships close to Earth. “Taffy do not use an active scan, passive only.” Taffy nodded and kept her eyes on the monitor. Grady pulled up an image of one of the warships holding station on the sun side of Earth and asked, “Computer, do you detect any differences on those warships to those we’ve scanned in alien space?”
The computer instantly responded, “No. They are identical to the ships in my database.”
Grady nodded slightly and said over his shoulder, “Bob, Robby, move to battle stations.” The two giant robots came off their wall chargers and rushed out of the bridge toward the engine and reactor rooms in the rear of the ship. Taffy looked at Grady, “We’re still coasting toward Earth at a high speed. We’ll move inside the detection range of those warships in another hour.”
Grady nodded, “How far will we be able to see beyond Earth’s current position if we stop outside their scanning range.”
“They’re located about a thousand miles away from Earth, at the moment. Our current course is slightly above Earth’s orbit and if we stop just outside their scanning range, we should be able to see anything that happens beyond the orbit of the moon.” Taffy turned to Grady, “Do you think Earth will allow the aliens to get that close?”
Grady shook his head and shrugged, “I sincerely doubt it but we’re flying in the dark here. We don’t know what Earth has to counter them and they may want the aliens close and in a tight formation.” Grady paused and put his hand on his chin, “If the fight kicks off further out than the moon, I’ll take the Rabbit over the top and look at them from above. Taffy are all of those red dots appearing on the scanner warships?”
“Yes, Grady and that’s just those in close orbit above Earth. We’ll see more as we move closer.”
Grady’s eyes narrowed, and his brow furrowed, “Computer, give me a ship count around that planet every two minutes.”
“Currently, there are thirty-thousand warships,” the computer responded.
Grady nodded and then quickly asked, “Do those ships match up with those in your databanks?”
“They do not.”
Grady’s head went back, and Taffy put on her helmet to get a better look at the warships on the scanner. Grady asked, “What differences do you see?”
“There are major differences between them, Colonel. The thrusters on them are fifty-percent larger and there appears to be a gravity bulge in the ships’ hull indicating that it is a hybrid that uses both standard thrusters and gravity drives.”
“Just like our ship?” Grady asked.
“Yes, exactly like our ship. The energy reading from those ships also indicates there are double the number of reactors from the old model.” The computer paused and added, “The ship is no longer than the old model, but it is much thicker and appears to have double the mass of the ship it replaces. It also has larger blasters on the hull and slightly more missile tubes that are double the former size.”
“Can you estimate the possible speed of those ships?” Taffy asked.
“Not accurately, but fifty-percent faster would be a conservative estimate.”
“Taffy, send this data to Abby now!” Taffy began entering the data into her communicator and then sent it to the Roo Rabbit.
Grady turned back to the monitor and his eyes flew wide open as the computer announced, “Two hundred thousand warships now inside our scanning range.”
“COMPUTER, WHAT ARE THOSE LARGE RED BLIPS?!” Grady demanded.
“They are defense platforms that are slightly larger than the alien’s planet killers.”
“How are they different from the alien’s planet killers?”
“Unlike the planet killers, those platforms only have one giant blaster instead of fifty,” the computer answered.
“How many have you detected?”
“Two thousand are in orbit above the planet.”
Taffy turned to Grady, “They only have one blaster. Isn’t that a dumb design?”
“Taffy, they’re going to feed all the power from their reactors into one beam. It will have a longer range than the planet killers and if that thing is using a large number of reactors, it will deliver a devastating hit.”
Taffy stared at Grady and then asked, “Computer, how does that platform defend itself if it only has one blaster?”
“There are more than a thousand missile ports on it that are quite large in diameter, Captain.”
Taffy looked at Grady and saw him shaking his head, “Earth will want them close to start their attack. I suspect the aliens don’t know what they’re moving in to.”
“Why do you say that, Grady?”
“Their planet killers are outnumbered two to one. They didn’t know Earth had that many defense platforms or they would have sent more planet killers.” Grady paused and then asked, “Computer, how many of the warships around the planet are the new model?”
“Sixty-percent, Colonel.”
Grady used the air thrusters to bring the Rex Rabbit to a stop and saw Taffy’s frown, “I think we’re close enough to see what’s going to happen. Notice the warships on this side of Earth are moving to the other side.”
Taffy looked at the monitor and nodded, “The aliens must be getting close.” Grady nodded and stared at the monitor.
• • •
Admiral Martov sat on his flagship holding position at the rear of his fleet and looked at the giant tactical monitor on the wall. The alien warships outnumbered Earth’s fleets by a two to one margin but that didn’t concern him…much. He had been promoted again and he had eighty-thousand warships under his command. The fleet’s main computer had assigned him the targets he was to attack and his second in command, Admiral Wisecup, his former XO, had issued all the assignments to his fleets. He stared at the giant planet killers moving into the solar system and hoped the newly designed defense platforms would be up to meeting them head on. If they weren’t capable of that, E
arth was probably going to die today. But the scientists and engineers were adamant that the DP’s would be more than a match for the planet killers.
The speed that the conquered planets had built the giant fortresses was amazing and the new warships added to the fleets would make the difference in taking out the enemy’s warships. The enemy had not developed any new technology during the two years the war had been going on and that would be their undoing, at least he hoped it would be. There were a thousand planet killers and his command had been given three hundred and thirty to attack. His six hundred and sixty DPs had their assigned targets and his warships would hold position behind them as the alien formations he was assigned moved in toward Earth. He glanced at the tactical monitor again and saw the thousand warships assigned to defend his flagship were in position and his ship would stay outside the initial contact. He smiled slightly; Prime Admiral Jennings was on board one of the DPs directly above Earth. He wasn’t taking any chances and Martov didn’t blame him; he would have done the same thing in his place. The Ruling Council on Earth had left the planet for one of the conquered planets a week ago and would remain there until this battle was decided; they put their lives ahead of the planet. Oh well, that’s how things were on Earth. He glanced at the tactical monitor again and saw the aliens had moved inside the orbit of Mars and were slowing down. He wondered if they would back off and leave. If they did, they would have to be allowed to leave. The DPs weren’t fast enough to pursue them. He shrugged and saw the alien formations were continuing toward Earth. They had to see the DPs, but they weren’t changing course. Martov chuckled; the alien commander would probably be executed if he didn’t carry out the attack. He knew he’d be executed if he chose to run in a similar situation. Martov ordered, “Order all ships to battle stations and start the DPs moving toward our assigned formations!”
• • •
Abby looked at Rory, “Move the ship further out.”
“We’re outside their scanning range, Abby.”