A rose grows in weeds a-3 Read online

  Tag said, “Make it happen, Alex. We need to move on this quickly.”

  The leaders of the Algeans stood in the rich golden soil on their home world. They had just learned about the strange ships that had appeared at one of the food bearing planets that they were harvesting and destroyed a number of their ships. The oldest leader said, “They actually only destroyed one of our ships. The rest were lost when they shot one of our power missiles and the chain reaction destroyed the other ships.”

  “We are also missing one of our explorers. They probably killed that one too,” another leader said.

  “How could they have destroyed the explorer before it could have sent a warning about their existence?” one of the younger leaders asked. “One of their ships also took a direct hit by one of the power missiles and survived it. It had also been outrunning it until it suddenly slowed just before impact.”

  The group was silent. Finally the Elder said, “I wonder if it deliberately allowed itself to be hit to see if it would survive. I almost believe that they were attempting to determine our weapon capabilities.”

  “What do we do about it?”

  “We change the way we fire our missiles. No power missile may be closer than 50 geds from each other. We will also launch them from a longer range so that even if they hit them our ships won’t be harmed. We also notify the fifth fleet to be prepared to jump at the first sign of these ships. We need to know who they are and where they are; it could be another valuable food source. Make sure we track their line of departure.” The group buried their feet deeper in the rich soil and absorbed the wonderful nutrients that only existed on their home world.

  Chapter 9

  The SR fleet gathered in the gamma galaxy preparing for the coming offensive. Commodore Smith had 10,000 of the old Empire and Ultra ships. Admiral Mikado’s fleet of Megaships had grown to 500. They had just completed the software downloads and Colonel McAllister was running tests on the hornets to make sure they would go to the new protocols when a signal was sent to make the change. “Admiral, our tests have been confirmed and the hornets responded as programmed.”

  Mikado looked at the old dreadnaught that had been used as a target and there wasn’t much left to look at. “Commodore Smith, take one of the ultras out to 100 miles and use the new focused primary beam to hit that wreckage, please.”

  The Atlanta moved away from the fleet and took position then fired an intense beam at the derelict. The beam struck the wreckage and disintegrated half of the remains.”

  “Captain Kelly, move the London out to 300 miles and let’s see if we can hit what remains.”

  The Megaship moved out of formation and turned as it fired its new primary from 300 miles away. It only caught half of the remains but nothing was left of what it hit. McAllister said, “Admiral, I can only feel comfortable with targeting at 200 miles. Three hundred is stretching the envelope.”

  “Did we hit it?” Mikado asked.

  “Not a direct hit but yes you did.”

  “Then I won’t hesitate to use it from 300 miles. The ships we’ll be shooting at will be more that twenty miles long in some cases. It’s a much bigger target than what we just hit.”

  “You will only have 87 % of its energy at that range,” McAllister said.

  “Colonel, if a penetrator hits one of those ships and weakens its screen, would the primary penetrate at 87 % power,” Mikado asked?

  “If it’s a direct hit it wouldn’t need a penetrator to penetrate the screen. The focused primary beam is stronger at 300 miles than the normal primary beam would be at 80 miles.”

  “I couldn’t ask for more than that. We are going to initially use it against ships that are hit by only one penetrator as a follow up. I’ve set up our sensors on the Megas to highlight the ships that only have one designated hornet. Our targeting systems will automatically aim a primary at those ships and also change the color in all the other ships targeting to indicate that a Mega has locked on so that we don’t overlap. We will launch our penetrators from 300 miles out once the second Algean fleet moves that far inside the jump limit so we have time to out run the answering Algean missile salvos. We will jump 300 miles behind the Algean fleet that jumps in to support the planetary ships, launch our penetrators, follow up with the new primaries, fire another salvo of penetrators, and then jump in to our fleet at the planet just before the Algean missiles reach our position. I’m hoping the second Algean fleet actually fires two salvos at us before we jump.”

  McAllister said, “They shouldn’t know you can jump that far in system so they may even turn to move toward your first position which will delay their arrival to help the fleet they have at the planet.”

  “That is exactly what I’m counting on; I plan to move away from them when they launch their first missiles and run to ensure a second salvo. We’ll jump in once the second fleet turns toward us.” Mikado said.

  “Commodore Smith, form up your fleet and prepare to jump,” Mikado ordered. “Mega Captains, maintain formation and jump on my command and launch penetrators upon emergence into normal space. Commodore Smith you may jump when you’re ready. Notify me as soon as you learn whether or not one penetrator will get thru their screens.”

  The bright white Ultra and Empire ships were formed into three lines of 3,300 ships per line and were glowing waiting for their jump instructions. The crews of those ships were anxious about the upcoming battle but had faith in their commanders.

  “Will do, Admiral; prepare to jump on my command, Execute.” The 10,000 Stars Realm ships disappeared.

  And reappeared at the jump limit in the Pydres system, “Start moving in system at? speed and hold your formation,” Smith ordered. Eric smith thought back to the time he was just the helmsman on the destroyer Moscow and wondered at how quickly the world had changed. His promotions had been fast and he attributed it to the time he had spent watching Kosiev and Mikado fight their ship in the battles against the old Alliance. He had learned a lot and he was determined to not let them down even though he was heavily outgunned by the Plant fleet. “Target the heavies first and be prepared to run from their missile salvo. Launch our penetrators at 240 miles and follow them in to 200 to use the primaries. Needle operators, no hornets initially; use them to target the anti matter missiles. If you’re hit and your screen goes blue, increase speed and move behind the other ships in your line until you bleed off the excess energy.” The SR fleet moved in system and for an hour it looked like the Algean fleet at the Planet didn’t know they were there.

  “Lt. Barrett, have you detected that frequency the Plants use?”

  “Yes sir, it started as soon as we broke into normal space.”

  “Well, it shouldn’t take long now,” Smith said.

  Lt. Chen looked up from his display and said, “Sir, our sensors show some of the fleet moving away from the planet in our direction.”

  Smith looked at his display and said, “Time until contact?”

  “They are matching our speed so we will be in range in 7 hours.”

  “Maintain current speed. We don’t want them to know how fast we are capable until they fire their missiles.”

  There were 4,000 ultras in his command and they were at the point of his attack so they would have a clear field to use their new focused primaries. The Glod and Cainth dreadnaughts were on each side of the Ultras because their primaries were actually stronger than the Ultras. They were four times the size of an Ultra and had ten primary beams to the Ultras two so they should have a heavy impact on the initial contact. The old Empire ships were going to be used to target missiles and close in fighting. “I want the Ultras to fire one pulse penetrator each followed ten seconds later by a full salvo by all ships. Sensors I want to know if the initial penetrators make it thru the plant screens. If not, I want the signal sent to the full salvo five seconds before they reach the Plant fleet. Be sharp, Lt. Chin, have your finger on the signal and don’t hesitate if the first ones don’t get thru.” The full salvo of 300,000 p
enetrators would be halfway to the Plant fleet and only ten seconds from contact when the first three hundred impact. There would be less than a second to send the signal which at the speed of light would arrive in time if sent within that one second window so that the penetrators can change their targeting program. I also want each Ultra to follow the penetrator it fired and be prepared to fire its primary beam at the ship its penetrator hits. Chen, notify all the Ultras of the follow up.”

  Time dragged as the two huge fleets moved toward each other. “Sir,” Lt. Chen said, “only 12,000 ships are moving toward us; evidently 8,000 were on the planet and are now lifting off the surface. All the heavies are in the first group; the second group will arrive ninety minutes after we contact the first group.”

  “That’s good news,” Smith thought. “Our numbers are almost even. We will need to make quick work of the first group before the second group arrives. If that’s possible; those ships are huge; how many heavies, Chen?”

  “Three thousand, Sir.”

  “Those ships are more than 20 miles long,” Smith thought. “I hope our weapons can stop them; we should know shortly.”

  “Eight hundred miles from contact,” Chin reported. The two fleets slowed to avoid over running each other but the Plant fleet was getting closer visibly.

  “Prepare the initial 300 penetrators.” The bridge of the Atlanta went to battle status and all the lights dimmed to make the various displays more visible.

  “Sir,” Chen responded, “the ship that fired the initial hornet will track it in and have their primary targeted on it. The initial 300 will be fired from 300 Ultras along with 300 more Ultras targeting them with their Primary beams also. I thought it would be easier to assign targets that way to make sure. The primaries targeted on those initial hornets are also going to be triggered by the signal sent out to the hornets so there won’t be any delay. At the speed of light, the two beams should hit in less than a second from the penetrators impact on those first 300.”

  Smith looked at his sensor officer and thought, “If we make it thru this, you will command one of the new Megas. This is one sharp officer.” He then said, “Target all the salvos accordingly. Send the order out.”

  Chen turned back to his console and began issuing the orders. Smith noticed he never took his finger off the signal button. Then he heard Chin report, “One hundred fifty miles from initial launch.”

  Smith turned on his fleet com and said, “Launch at 240 miles, weapons clear.”

  At 240 miles the SR fleet launched 300 pulse penetrators. They arrived and impacted in less than fifteen seconds and Chen pushed the button. “Initial hornets did not penetrate the heavies, Sir. The smaller vessels shorter than 8,000 feet were hit and their screens were also not penetrated.”

  Smith heard his sensor officer in the background but was fixed on his display where 600 focused primary beams hit 300 of the Plants ships with a beam 100 feet wide. All three hundred Plant Ships were immediately damaged. Half of the hit ships exploded into huge explosions taking out another ship. Of the ninety heavy ships hit only forty of them had massive explosions that stopped them. The others continued to move forward. Then the massive salvo of penetrators arrived at the Plant fleet and began hitting them two at a time. The exploding ships were too numerous to count. Fifty of the heavies were so severely damaged that they fell out of formation leaking atmosphere.

  “Lt. Barrett, notify Admiral Mikado that penetrators will not pierce the screen of their ships on the first impact,” Commodore Smith ordered.

  The Algean fleet scattered trying to avoid the penetrators. They fired their beams and killed a huge number of them before they could impact but every ship had more than two hundred moving on it. The Algeans then launched their missiles at the SR fleet. Each of the heavies fired 2,000 each with all the others firing 500 or more.

  “Launch second volley of penetrators and move to flank speed,” Smith ordered.

  The SR fleet seemed to instantly accelerate away from the Algean fleet and the 600,000 missiles coming at them. To the Algean fleet, the speed at which the enemy turned and fled was incredible. No ship they had ever encountered could move that fast. Then the second wave of penetrators arrived and the Plants had no time to worry about the fleeing ships.

  “Attention all ships,” Smith said on the fleet com. “I’m going to attempt a trick I’ve once seen in action. All ships maintain enough speed to stay ahead of the Plant missiles but follow my ship and stay in formation.”

  “Sir,” Chen said, “a plant fleet has just appeared at the jump limit and is moving in system. There are more than 100,000 ships.”

  “We’ll worry about them later, Lieutenant.”

  “Ensign Mason, I want you to make a turn away from the Plant ships we just fired on and head toward the 8,000 ships in the second group coming from the planet.” The entire bridge crew looked at Smith like he was a lunatic. The SR fleet made a big turn outrunning the missiles that were cutting the corner of the turn to shorten the distance. Once the turn had been made the SR fleet was only fifty miles ahead of the mass of Plant missiles. “Ensign, I want you to slow so that the missiles are only two miles behind us and maintain that distance.”

  The helmsman complied and the rest of the SR fleet maintaining formation on the Atlanta thought their commander had lost his mind. Those missiles were close and twenty five% of them were anti-matter. They were charging in on the 8,000 plant ships from the planet at an unbelievably high speed.

  Smith turned on the Fleet com and said, “We are going to fly straight into the second Plant fleet and run their missiles into their formations. We will fire two volleys of penetrators as we approach their fleet and follow them in and then turn as we approach their ranks and go over the top and bottom of their formation. Some of us will be hit as we pass but I believe that our losses will be less than if we let these two fleets combine against us. Put all your power into your screen and be prepared to make the turn. All of the Plant Heavy ships are in the first group so we should have to endure less of a hit than the first group would give us but it will still be massive. Change the formation to two lines so that the Ultras are on the bottom and all other ships are in the line above them. We will split when we are two seconds from the enemy and go over and below them. Once clear of them rejoin on my ship and turn for a pass at the survivors.”

  The second group of ships coming from the planet saw the strange ships run from the first group and turn their way. Their excitement rose; here was a chance to hit the enemy. Then they saw the unbelievable speed of the approaching ships and knew that they would be on them is less than forty five seconds and then they saw thousands of bright lights leave the strange ships and come even faster toward them. “Fire missiles and beams, the Plant Fleet Leader ordered but by the time the ships fired the strange ships were on them and going above and below their formations. Their thousands of beams killed more than 400 of the strange ships but then they were past and more than 600,000 penetrators hit them followed by 600,000 missiles fired by the first Plant fleet. Those missiles were programmed to avoid Plant ships but there were too many of them and they couldn’t turn fast enough to avoid their ranks. Once the anti-matter missiles started hitting the Plant ships, the destruction was total. More than a million missiles and penetrators hit those 8,000 Plant ships. As the SR ships turned and came back around to attack the survivors, there was nothing left to attack. As the SR fleet split and went over and under the Plant formations, the Plant missiles lost the ships they were locked on because they could not turn as fast so their sensors locked on one of the penetrators and chased it into the Plant fleet. Most of the Plant ships were hit more than 60 times. Nothing remained, not even dust, especially when the anti-matter missiles they carried on board went off.

  “How many ships did we lose?” Smith asked Chen.

  “We lost 467, sir.” Smith hung his head a moment and then said, “All ships, move back into formation and prepare to attack the first group.”

  T
he rest of his ships moved quickly and efficiently into formation and the members of the fleet felt a huge confidence in their commander. They had lost more than 400 ships but if a fleet action had been necessary, they all knew that the number would have been tremendously higher. “Attention all ships. We will move in on the first group at flank speed. We will fire two volleys of penetrators and follow them in 200 miles behind them. I want a minimum of ten ships to target their focused primary on every Heavy Battle Ship the Plants have remaining. Weapons, arrange the spacing between each primary to 600 feet. You have 2 minutes to set up your firing solutions. The penetrators will be impacting just as we fire the primaries. Once we fire, all ships turn 90 degrees and fly straight up from their fleet. I’m sure we will have more missiles to dodge.”

  Chin programmed the instructions into the weapons console and downloaded them to all of the ships. The computer then assigned the ships to each of the remaining Plant heavies that sensors had targeted and the weapon officers on each ship sighted in on their assigned section of the Heavy’s hull. The distance was decreasing rapidly. “Approaching launch point for the penetrators, Sir.”

  “Weapons free, fire penetrators at three hundred miles.”

  The salvo of 300,000 penetrators was fired and moved quickly ahead of the fleet. As the fleet reached 200 miles the penetrators began hitting the Plant fleet and every ship fired their primaries at the Heavies. The Plant fleet fired more than 100,000 high energy beams into the SR ranks and those ships unlucky enough to be hit by 100 or more had their screens overload and blow up. The remaining ships turned and rocketed away above the mayhem taking place among the Plant ships. Of the 5,000 heavy ships still in operation before the attack, only two remained able to steer and navigate and they had ten 100 foot wide holes blown completely thru them. The remaining huge ships had the misfortune to have their anti-matter magazines hit and there was nothing left in a forty mile radius around it. Since most of the heavies had support ships to protect them, most of them were destroyed in the resulting blasts. Of the twelve thousand ships that initially attacked the SR fleet, only 2,800 remained that could fight and more than half of them were damaged to some degree. They still would not retreat and turned to chase their attackers.