Annihilation Saga IV - Fight and They Will Come Read online

  “But it would have gotten me noticed, Lyla. I couldn’t afford to allow that to happen.”

  “Drew, I’m only slowing you down. It’s all I can do to stay with you and I know I’m endangering you.”

  “Lyla, I will not let you die! Besides, you are more of a help than a hinderance.”

  “How is that?”

  “I know your Mag-Cannons are keeping the space under my ship clear of attackers. That allows me to make a clear attack at OA ships above us.”

  Lyla saw the red-light on her panel turn green and she reached to press it, “Don’t stop collecting dark matter, Lyla. Allow the cutters to fill your magazine with projectiles and then shut it off when the collection container is full. It will allow us to continue to fight.”

  “Will it continue to collect dark matter when it reads it is full?”

  “Yes, it will. The green-light only notifies you that the collected dark matter is being cut into projectiles, not the containment tube is full. If you shut it down when the light turns green, the containment tube will be empty when the cutting is completed.”

  “How do you know that? I’ve never heard anything about it.”

  “I read the engineer’s manual on the system. It’s spelled out in the manual.”

  “Why haven’t we been told about this?”

  “I guess the only time it would be an issue is when our ships are involved in actual combat. That hasn’t happened since the collection tubes were installed.”

  “And you understood that manual?”

  “I’m a fast and competent reader, Lyla. I’ve pretty much read everything ever written about our Primes.”

  “But you didn’t even graduate from secondary-school!”

  “I was in the honor classes, and I’ve made up for my lack of education by reading everything I need to know.”

  “I can’t believe I’ve been dating a sixteen-year-old.”

  “I’m seventeen now and will soon be eighteen.”

  “You lied to me, Drew!” Drew was silent, and Lyla said, “If we survive this, you and I are over.”

  Drew sighed and said, “I understand. Let’s get back to fleet.” Lyla looked at her panel and saw the projectile magazine was full and the containment tube was full all the way to the open port. She pressed the green button and the door to the containment tube shut on the front of her Prime. She followed Drew back to Fleet and saw there were no surviving OA warships. The few OA survivors had jumped out and returned to their Motherships.

  The Senior Monitor was contacted, and it linked in to the OA fleet’s probes. It found the Fleet’s warships were being destroyed at an incredible rate and it was dumbfounded at where this new enemy had come from. It watched as the OA fleet’s warships were decimated, and it sent the recording to the ruling Council. The Council watched a few-minutes of the recording and immediately ordered every fleet into the universe where the attacks were taking place. The Realm’s forces lost their superior number advantage. The nine-OA-Fleets jumped in and organized to obliterate this unknown enemy.

  • • •

  Sprigly activated the General Fleet Frequency, “We knew this was going to happen. Fall back to the planets you were assigned. Our mission remains the same, destroy their warships and avoid their motherships. If you are attacked by a mothership, RUN! Try to keep it pursuing you for as long as possible to allow your brothers to take out their warships. Good luck and remember the one’s you’re fighting for here.”

  • • •

  Tag pressed his telepathy module, “Alright, we’ve not been needed so far, so we’re pretty much an unknown to the OAs. We can cause them massive damage in a very short time and improve the odds against our Primes. I’ve assigned each of you one-hundred-planets to attack the OAs. Once we start our attacks, you will go through the middle of the largest OA formations, kill as many as possible, and then teleport to the next planet. You will continue this process until a mothership starts pursuing you. At that point you will run and do all you can to escape. I’m hoping the motherships will focus on us and allow our Primes to do as much damage as possible. Any questions?”

  “There’s no way to win this fight, Tag.”

  “I know, Jimmy. But the idea is to hurt them enough to force them to delay in attacking the Realm. I can only pray our scientists come up with a means of taking out the motherships before they find the Realm.”

  Tag listened to the fleet frequency and heard Sprigly announce the OA’s fleets had arrived and were jumping into the planets. “Playtime! Launch…NOW!” The two-hundred new Psychic Warships disappeared.

  • • •

  “DREW! WE’RE ORDERED TO ATTACK!!”

  “Hold on a moment, Lyla.”

  “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?”

  The giant mass of OA warships that jumped in began moving in toward the planet. They stretched in countless numbers as far as the eye could see. Suddenly, a giant Psychic Ship appeared and swept through the entire length of the giant OA formation before it teleported away. “How did you know that was going to happen?”

  “I turned my telepathic communicator to the one being used by the Psychic Ships. I saw that this planet was going to be one of the first ones they were going to arrive. Time to go!” Drew accelerated away, and Lyla struggled to stay with him. He headed right into the middle of the OA formations, turned, and ran through the middle of the giant hole made in their formations by the passage of the Psychic Ship.”

  Drew fired at the OA warships below him and Lyla’s depressed Mag-Cannons added to the destruction. Drew flew straight and didn’t waver from his course, “What are you doing?”

  “Lyla, they can’t fire their blasters at us without hitting their ships on the other side of the hole created by the psychic warship. I suspect they’ll be ordering some ships to enter the hole to attack us, but I don’t believe they will be able to do it before we clear their formations.”

  Lyla was able to see what was happening for the first time and she was shocked at the number of OA warships being blasted below them as they flew at maximum speed. She looked at her display and saw OA ships moving into the tube created by the Psychic Ship and Drew said in a very calm voice, “Stay with me, Lyla. We’re going through the middle of them. I’ll take the top and you continue to fire below us.”

  The two-Primes blew into the hundred-and-fifty OA warships and half of them were hit by a compressed dark matter projectile as they flashed out of the giant OA formation. “Ok, it’s back to work as normal. We’ll be going over the top, but I suspect they’ll be breaking formation shortly and it will become a mess.”

  “Why do you think that, Drew?”

  “They’re getting savaged by our Primes on the outer edges of their formations and they aren’t dumb. Just stay focused on me and be prepared for some radical maneuvers.”

  “What have we been doing?”

  “Nothing radical. Stay focused.”

  • • •

  Admiral Higginson looked at Belle and ordered, “Move out into their formations. Be prepared to run.” Belle nodded and looked at her pilot, he nodded and set up his thrusters to balance each other and hold the giant transport in place.

  Belle looked at her scanner officer, “Let me know?” Oliva nodded and kept her focus on her console. There were fifteen-motherships moving in slowly toward the planet. It shouldn’t be long.

  Thousands of OA warships turned and moved in on the Transport. Hundreds of Primes flashed in and knocked many of them out of action, but a huge number arrived at the transport and opened fire; they ran into a threshing machine. The three-hundred Mag-Cannon operators opened fire and OA warships were hit and had their hulls crushed as the two-ton projectiles hit them at speeds faster than fifty-miles-a-second. Most of them were knocked off course and hit other OA warships flying close to them. The OA blasters did not penetrate the Transport’s force field and soon, a cry for help went out.

  Olivia looked up, “Sir, a mothership is moving toward us at high speed.”


  Belle looked at Steve, “Are you ready?”

  “I’ll move when it gets too close to change course.”

  Admiral Higginson stared at the monitor and saw the giant OA vessel moving closer by the second. Hundreds of OA warships were still being blasted by the Mag-Cannons but then the Mothership was on them and the Transport teleported away and hit full thrusters when it entered normal space. He heard Belle announce, “Shut down offensive operations and prepare for high-G maneuvers.

  Higginson pulled his harness tighter, as he watched the giant mothership appear behind them and start pursuing them. Belle shouted, “Steve, they’re going to be calling in another ship, you need to start evasive maneuvers.”

  “I’ll detect the teleport field, Sir. I’ll make my break when that happens.”

  Belle lowered her eyes, “And what happens if it emerges a mile in front of us?”

  Steve flinched and suddenly whipped the transport to the left. A moment later, a mothership appeared two-miles ahead of their previous course. Steve fled from the two-motherships and saw them move slightly away from each other. He hit the teleport button and teleported out as four-motherships teleported ahead of their former course.

  Steve teleported without stopping and the crew was being shaken by high-G acceleration; suddenly, the transport appeared just outside the OA formations at the planet they had originally run from. Belle shouted, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! ALL WEAPONS, OPEN FIRE!!”

  The giant transport blasted its way into the OA formations and Steve quickly said, “They can’t teleport into their own formations, Sir. It would destroy hundreds of their ships. They’re going to have to come in and get us.”

  Admiral Higginson shouted, “BRAVO! THAT’S SOMETHING I MISSED!” He turned to his communicator and sent the maneuver out to the other transports.

  One-OA-Mothership evidently didn’t get the memo and teleported in ahead of the transport and more than a thousand-OA-warships were crushed by the impact of its force field.. A moment later, a Psychic Warship blew through the OA formations and the Motherships forgot about the transport and left in pursuit of the giant blue-flashing warship. It was abundantly clear which ship posed the greatest danger to their fleets. The space above the 20,000 planets was a killing zone beyond anything ever witnessed in the Realm’s long history.

  • • •

  Sprigly saw giant waves of OA warships moving in on the planets, as the Primes tried to attack them on the edges. The numbers were out of hand and the Primes were losing room to maneuver as the giant OA warships moved inexorably forward. Suddenly, he saw multiple-drives flash on his display. He widened the view and saw a massive line of giant red-colored warships moving in behind the OA fleets and opening fire. “Computer, how many Red Warships have jumped in?”

  “More than six-million, and they’re still arriving.”

  • • •

  Tag saw the Red Warships jumping in and Danielle screamed her joy, “I TOLD YOU THEY WOULD COME!!”

  Tag smiled, “This will at least slow down their advance; they still outnumber us.”

  “It also gives the Motherships another ship to chase. We have enough capital vessels to keep them occupied.”

  “Danielle, they won’t be wasting motherships on the Red Warships. The OAs know their capabilities and will focus their efforts on the psychic ships. But they make a huge difference in keeping our Primes from being overrun.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Drew announced to Lyla, “Get ready to teleport in three…two…one…now!”

  Lyla hit the teleport button and saw Drew’s Prime slightly above her. “Why did we teleport out?”

  “Look at your weapons status.” Lyla looked and saw there were only two-projectiles left in the magazine. She exhaled sharply, and Drew said, “Set the system to automatically collect dark matter and have your armor to put you to sleep.”

  “But…”

  “Lyla, we’ve been fighting for twelve-hours and I know you’re exhausted; I’m about to fall asleep in my chair. Set your armor to wake you in two-hours. If our computers detect any trouble, they’ll wake us. With the arrival of the Red Warships, we can take a break.”

  “Two-hours?”

  “Lyla, the armor will put your brain in a restorative sleep and two-hours of restorative sleep is equivalent to eight hours of normal sleep. This fight is going to take weeks, maybe months and we must make sure we don’t lose our edge. Now set your armor!” Lyla activated the sleep circuit and, what felt like a few minutes later, she heard Drew ask, “Are you ready to get back into it?”

  Lyla actually did feel a lot better, “Lead the way,” she replied. They teleported back in and Drew flashed into thirty-OA-warships chasing two-Primes moving directly toward them. He flashed over them and left two-OA-survivors; the combination of their Mag-Cannons was devastating. The two-Primes whipped around and took out the OA survivors in an instant. Drew then flashed in on six-OA-warships firing on a giant Red Battleship. He flew over them and destroyed or damaged all six. And so, it went, the life and death struggle took on a life of its own, as Drew and Lyla struggled to survive.

  • • •

  Tag had taken control of the Kosiev soon after fifteen-motherships started pursuing it. Now the total trying to kill them was more than twelve-hundred and it was all Tag could do to avoid being rammed by the giant warships. He had been at it for more than five-days and fatigue was starting to set in. Only Danielle’s psychic energy added to his is what kept him going.

  He heard Danielle announce each time she received the death-notice of a Psychic Warship and ten had died during the long pursuit. But the Motherships were focused on the Psychic Ships and the Primes were left alone to attack the giant OA fleets of warships. He teleported the Kosiev and broke hard left looking for shadows to move toward…but none were present. He whipped the ship right and heard Grace announce, “TAG, NONE OF THEM HAVE SHOWN UP!”

  Tag stopped maneuvering and looked around. Danielle sighed, “It appears they understand that we can’t harm them and they’re going back to defend their warships. They must know that if we destroy them, they’ll be helpless to invade the planets.”

  Tag fell back in his chair and blew out a large breath. Danielle looked up, “Alex, take us back to the planets being attacked and notify the surviving psychic ships to join us there.”

  “Sending message now.”

  • • •

  Eddie watched the battle and the savagery of seeing his first major space battle had left him stunned speechless. His crew watched the millions-of-warships being destroyed and it was a very somber experience. “I have fifteen-motherships just jump in, Admiral.”

  Eddie looked at the monitor and saw the giant vessels moving in to support their warships. The Primes and Red Warships had mauled the OA fleets but now the difference makers were arriving. Janie turned to Eddie, “Sir, we need to get into the fight.” Eddie turned to her, “There are still thousands of surviving OA warships at every planet and we must eliminate them, or the Realm will be at risk. We need to do our part, Eddie.”

  Eddie took a deep breath and nodded. He pressed the PA and said, “Prepare to engage the enemy. We’ll be joining the fight momentarily.”

  “Why are you waiting?” Janie asked as she pressed the weapon controls on her console.”

  “There’s something I want to tell you.”

  Janie continued to stare at her console, “What is that?” Eddie was silent, and Janie said without looking at him, “What?”

  “Janie…I love you.”

  Janie froze and continued to stare at her console. Eddie quickly continued, “I don’t know when it started. I discovered that I started to admire the way you saw things everyone else missed and how intelligent your suggestions were. After admiration, I started feeling something growing in me. Now, I find that I love you and have for some time.”

  Janie turned to him and he saw her face red with anger, “YOU HAVE THE AUDASCITY TO TELL ME THIS NOW!!”

  Eddie b
lew out a breath, “I’m sorry! I’m out of line! Just forget I said it!”

  Janie screamed at him, “I LOOK LIKE CALI, BUT I AM NOT HER!!”

  Eddie raised his hands, and softly replied, “I know you aren’t her, Janie. Cali led with her emotions and feelings. That’s why she tried to prevent me going out on the Dark Knight and why she had the dart launcher installed on the ship. She operated out of fear of losing me. It was that fear that led to her death. You don’t allow your feelings and emotions to prevent you from doing what must be done. You’re brilliant, possess incredible insight, and have the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen. I know you’re not Cali and I’m thankful for it.”

  Janie stood up and her eyes were little more than slits, “When Cali brought you home to meet our family, I was incredibly jealous. She had found a brilliant professor, who had a soft and generous heart, and was very nice to look at. After Cali died, I thought that there might be a chance you and I could be an item. But noooooo! You announced that Cali was your only true love and you would never love another. You then went about showing everyone you meant it, including me. I hated you, and my sister for that. But I accepted it. I kept you at a distance and respected your wish.” Janie walked up and put her nose an inch from Eddie’s, “And now just before we’re going out to probably die you stand here and tell me you love me!”

  Janie glared into Eddie’s eyes and he exhaled a breath before saying, “Love has a funny way of giving one the right circumstances to overcome their fear of stating their feelings. I didn’t have the courage to tell you until now.”

  “WHY NOT?!!!” Janie shouted into his face.

  Eddie flinched and quickly said, “Because I thought you would take it like this.” Janie glared into his eyes and then started chuckling. She wrapped her arms around Eddie’s neck and kissed him hard. Both of them felt something run through them that was almost stunning. They had their eyes closed and didn’t see the blue field that erupted out of them and moved out into creation at a speed faster than a billion-times-the-speed-of-light.”

  They held the kiss and then heard something. They broke the kiss and looked around. A wail was filling the bridge that quickly turned into a high-pitched-scream. Suddenly they heard Bobby over the PA, “Admiral, the psychic container has just gone off the scale in pressure and it’s threatening to blow. You need to start firing the psychic blasters to release the pressure!”