Defending Earth-Searching for Death Feeders (27 page)

“Are you telling us that they’ll be back?”

Kyle sighed, “Yes and they’ll probably be coming with a full Battle Fleet next time. One of their battle fleets consists of about a billion warships.”

Kyle heard the shock in the being’s thoughts, “HOW MANY?!”

“About two thousand times the number you faced.”

“There’s no possible way we could survive that. Would you come and help us since you are also endangered by them?”

“We’re not nearly ready to take them on. If we showed up to assist you, they’d call in two or three more Battle Fleets. That’s why we had to stop them here.”

“But now we’re in jeopardy because of your intervention.”

“Not really. The former leader of the fleet that attacked you has already given your location to his central government. When the fleet doesn’t report in, they will come and see what’s happened. Either way, they were going to send a major fleet here if the attacking fleet was unable to take your planet.”

“So what can we do?”

“Run.”

“Where?”

“You have some time to search for a habitable planet to move your populations. The Feeders didn’t communicate with their leaders before we killed them. They were…mentally unable to do it.”

“Do you have any idea how long it would take to find a habitable planet, build the ships necessary to move our population, and leave?”

Nicole looked at Kyle, “There are thousands of habitable planets in all three of our galaxies.”

“Who said that?”

Kyle looked up, “Willow!”

“Sorry.”

Kyle shook his head, “My co-pilot said it.”

“Is it true?”

“It is but why would you trust your people with a civilization you know nothing about?”

“Would I rather take the chance of being attacked before I could move on my own?”

“That doesn’t answer the question.”

“If you chose to conquer us, could you do it?”

“I could be evasive, but yes, we could.”

“I notice the ships that attacked the enemy ships have all left.”

“They have other things to do.”

“Conquering us isn’t one of them.”

“We’re not conquerors. But I have no way to prove that to you.”

“How long would it take your civilization to move us?”

“You still haven’t answered my question.”

“I’d rather be a slave in your society than be consumed by the species you call Death Feeders. I’m sure my people would feel the same. They are all listening to our conversation.”

Kyle looked at Nicole and said, “I have no proof that your species is not an aggressive one.”

“If that were true, we’d have other planets under our control. We only exist on this world.”

“How many live on your planet?”

“A little over four billion.”

“Willow continue to broadcast what I say.” Kyle pressed a button on his console and Clarissa appeared on his monitor, “Admiral, how many colony ships does the Alliance have in its inventory?”

“A little over a million among all the members, Sir.”

“I may be needing them shortly. Start getting them ready.”

“Sir?”

“I may need them to move a planet’s population. Start getting the ball rolling.”

“Yes Sir.”

Kyle looked up and said, “To answer your question about how long it would take, it would probably take about two or three weeks if your people can get ready fast enough to make the move.”

“You can’t be serious. You said your civilization is in a distant part of the universe.”

“We will leave here and arrive there in less than a second. The trip is not what will take the time; it’s getting your population on the ships and getting them off when they arrive. You will also have to gather enough food to feed your colonists for a while until you can start growing what you need. However, before all this happens, you will need to send one of your leaders to meet with the Leader of our civilization to determine if this is what needs to happen.”

“Is your leader Telepathic.”

“He is.”

“I will go and meet with him.”

Kyle pressed his panel, “Admiral Toland.”

“Yes Sir.”

“Send one of our vessels to this planet and take their Leader to meet with Grendel. The Leader will communicate with the ship’s pilot on where he should be picked up.”

“I’ll have a ship there momentarily.”

Kyle turned around and said, “One of our ships will be arriving momentarily. Please tell him where to come and meet you.”

“I’m located in the tallest building in our largest city on the Northern Continent. It’s next to the ocean on the west coast.”

“John, did you hear that?”

“I did. The ship is outside the building as we speak.”

The telepath looked at the other leaders and one of them nodded. “How did you get through our force field?”

“Our field is stronger. Good luck. Your destiny lies in your hands. You need to persuade our leader to accept your species into our alliance.” Kyle looked up, “End communications.”

“Done.”

“Amber take us back to Fleet Operations, Nicole has a date.”

“No I don’t.”

“You need to meet him. Whatever you decide, you need to tell him. He deserves it.”

“Who are you to tell me that?”

Kyle’s expression showed his sorrow, “One who never did and regrets it every day of his life.” Kyle skipped the Light Ship instantly to the top of Fleet Operations and walked off the ship. Nicole watched him leave and slowly shook her head.

“What are you going to tell him?”

“I’m not really sure, Willow.”

“Kyle’s right. That young Kerit is waiting on you. He deserves to know where you stand.”

“I don’t have to decide now.”

“So it’s ok to just keep him hanging on hoping?”

“Will you just be quiet?”

“I’m just saying.”

“Shut-up!”

“Ok. I’ll not say another word about this.”

“You just did.”

Nicole stood up and stormed off the ship.

“You shouldn’t have said anything, Amber. You made her angry.”

“You did say something else and I think you had already fired her up.”

“Yeah, I guess I did.”

“Why?”

“Because she needs to know where she stands. Hanging half in and half out is no way to live.”

“We could lose her.”

“If it comes to that, then so be it.”

“That’s cold.”

“It’s not fair to Kyle, either.”

“But he doesn’t appear all that interested in her.”

“It’s going to be her or nobody, Amber. His heart is damaged to the point of never recovering. She’s the only one that might get him to turn it around. If she’s not fully invested in making that happen…”

“She doesn’t need to be here.”

“Exactly, and I don’t care what the Nudges have planned. My first concern is the welfare of those on this ship.”

“Do you think they’ll intervene and nudge her away from that Kerit?”

“I don’t know. She’s able to sense their nudges and may rebel against them if they try. They’re probably in full panic mode at the moment.”

“Serves them right.”

“I don’t know about that. They are doing all they can to defeat the Feeders and I respect them for the effort. If it doesn’t work with Kyle and Nicole, they’ll have to try again with another couple.”

“Who else could they use?”

“His twin sister has the same genetics. Or there’s a thousand others that meet the requirements. Either way, they should just stay out of the way of Kyle and Nicole and let nature take its course or allow it to fail.”

“They’re probably listening to you right now.”

“I hope they are. They don’t really understand how a human heart works and this is something they need to bow out on.”

“How long will it take to find out?”

“Kyle’s planning another trip out to Feeder Land in a four days. We’ll know by then.”

“And if Nicole doesn’t go?”

“Then I’ll suggest he invite Admiral Charles or Amelee. I know he likes both of them.”

“Do you think the Nudges can make it work with either of them?”

“Probably not. I suspect Kyle has been modified to only match up with Nicole. I’d make the suggestion to try and keep Kyle from falling into his depression.”

“I guess we should go to Fleet Maintenance and get the ship checked out.”

“Good idea. I want to take a look at how the ground forces are doing on the Red Aliens’ conquered planets.”

“Record what you find out. I’ll catch up after Maintenance starts their checkup.”

“Will do.”

“Willow, we make a pretty good team.”

“I know. Let’s try to make sure no one breaks us up.”

“I’m with you.”

• • •

Amelee looked at the tactical view on her visor and saw the two hundred transports gathered in formation above Earth. Each of them had ten thousand heavily armed armored warriors on board. The planets they were skipping out to land on had been assigned and the hundred companies on board each of them were receiving their initial targets. Each of the planets they were attacking had more than a hundred thousand Red Alien Warriors on the surface along with all their heavy weapons. The warriors would have a direct link to the probes in orbit to have the most current tactical information possible to guide the disruptors on the ships in orbit.

Amelee decided to delay her attack until all the Red Alien Warships above the planets had been eliminated and enough time passed for the forces on the planet to be recalled into major units. She listened to Admiral Norden’s general frequency and saw he was launching his ships in another ten minutes. She had done everything she could to get her warriors ready and they were either prepared for what was coming or she’d have to start over with others. She wasn’t really worried about losses among her troops as much as how many civilians were killed. If the civilian losses were high… She sighed and listened to Fleet prepare to launch. She stared at the formations of Light Ships leaving for each of the two hundred planets and was once again struck by the beauty of spaceships hanging above a planet. This was an image that made her shake her head at the sheer beauty. The smooth green lines of the Light Ships shining brightly with the distant star’s light reflecting off them were gorgeous. Even the large transports had a rugged beauty with their hulls covered with exit ports and disruptors shining brightly.

“Launch in ten seconds, take out your targets and prepare for attacks on the surface.”

Amelee smiled, Eric was a good leader and he ran a tight fleet. She switched her tactical to the planet with the telepaths and watched the feed coming from the probes above it. The view of spaceships when they go to war is scary and it’s very difficult to see them as beautiful. The Light Ships are very good at performing their function, which was killing other ships. The twenty Red Alien Warships above the planet had a close view of it, but only for a few brief moments.

• • •

Kelly Connor watched her monitor and saw the surviving Red Alien Warships were being killed at an incredible speed but some of them managed to activate their star drives and enter the void. She vectored in the sub-fleet assigned to prevent their escape and the Light Ships began disappearing from above the Red Alien’s home world. She turned back to the main tactical monitor and saw the views of the two hundred planets scrolling across its huge face. Ten of the planets had ground disruptors on the surface that opened fire on the Light Ships as they arrived. The pilots easily evaded them as they went in and out of the barrier but they would have to be knocked out before the transports moved into orbit. She sent the feed from the ten planets to Amelee and sent another hundred trackers after Red Alien Warships running from the attacks.

• • •

Amelee received the feed from Kelly and saw the surface disruptors firing at Light Ships above the planet. “Computer, what is the power of those disruptors?”

“It would take six of them to endanger a transport.”

“I’m not going to run that risk.” Amelee keyed her communicator, “Commodore Patel, I’m sending you the feed from ten planets where they are firing disruptors from the surface. Assign your ships to move in and take them out.”

“Yes Sir.”

Amelee had a small fleet of specially designed Light Ships to attack targets on a planet’s surface. She turned her visor back to tactical and pulled up one of the disruptor platforms. She locked the view in the corner of her visor and turned back to the planet of telepaths. The Feeders had killed the ships above it but the Red Alien Leader had sent a hundred warships to replace them. That is where the hardest fighting was taking place. Suddenly, the locked view of the disruptor replaced the view of the planet and she saw an Attackship come roaring in less than a hundred feet above the planet’s surface. The huge disruptor swiveled its giant barrel but it wasn’t fast enough. The ground forces surrounding the disruptor opened fire but the lasers from their heavy weapon platforms only flashed on the Attackship’s force field. The Attackship fired on the giant disruptor with a small missile and it blew through the disruptor’s force field and hit it at the base of its tower. The Attackship banked away as the disruptor went up in a huge blast taking out all the heavy weapons gathered around it.

“Show me other Attackships in operation.” Her visor changed and view after view of Attackships hitting disruptors on multiple planet’s surfaces began scrolling across it. One Attackship was hit by three disruptors and its force field briefly failed. Three more beams hit the Attackship’s hull but the thick silver hull dissipated the beams as three missiles were launched at the huge towers. The Attackship vanished as all three towers exploded. That pilot was lucky. Or was he? Fleet seemed to always be concerned about the Light Ship’s force fields failing. They seemed to forget the strength of the silver hulls and this was a good example of their power. The transports were also coated with the silver coating. She thought about it and decided that it might be better to hit the Red Aliens on the planet before they had an opportunity to consolidate their forces. She keyed her communicator, “All transports, skip to your targets in two minutes and initiate your attacks.”

Her visor immediately changed back to tactical and she saw the countdown moving forward. The two hundred transports’ force fields energized and she knew the warriors on them were getting new information on the location of their targets from the probes. She smiled and activated her armor’s force field. She was going in with the warriors on this drop. She had to see how their armor responded in actual combat conditions and she left it to Kelly to send the three support transports where they were needed. The countdown hit zero and the transports disappeared.