Inherited War 3: Retaliation (25 page)

“Now, what part of the galaxy do you need to save today?” she asked as she lay her head on his shoulder.

“Nixa.” Was all he said and he felt her stiffen in response. Cole then explained what he had just learned from the captain of the doomed ship. He told her what he had talked to the Worlder general about, and the beginnings of the plan he had.

“No,” she said to him when he was done.

“Just no? Why?” Cole asked.

“No, slow down you have time,” she said. “My people have probably already retreated to their underground shelters. They should be safe for the time being. Cole, what you have to understand is no one invades major worlds anymore. If the Esii and Roche are on the ground on Nixa, then they had help. If they control the planet and the system, then it will be infinitely harder to dislodge them than what you think. You need someone with experience to help plan this battle.” Cole looked her in the eyes and saw that she at least believed what she was saying. It was good enough for him.

“Bain, get a hold of the General from the Worlder system and tell him to scrap the rendezvous. Tell him to bring his men here,” Cole said as he rubbed his eyes. “Wait, can we house over two hundred thousand beings here?”

“Not for long, but we can for a week, maybe two, at the most,” the base AI responded.

“Okay, send the message then. Have them come here.”

“What do we do now, wait?” Sky asked.

“No, if I were that general I would want to know what I’m getting myself into. I would want to know what the situation on the ground and in the sky is. We take
The Resurrection
on a snoop and poop mission.” Sky looked at him askance for a moment. “Sorry army lingo, a recon mission. Try to insert someone on the ground to establish com’s with the defenders and take a look at the space around the planet,” Cole said.

“I noticed you said
we
,” Sky responded. “I take it that I’m going with you this time.”

“Hell, I will never leave you behind again. Besides, I figured you would insist.”

“You figured right. Now, who do you plan on sending planet side? It would have to be someone you trust and Thalo would trust, or at least my people,” she said.

“I have two in mind, one may not like it but the other probably will. Bain, give me a base wide channel.” Cole waited for the AI to acknowledge the channel was open before continuing. “Fellow survivors, this is Commander Cole speaking. Our friends the Nixa are currently besieged by our own enemies and in dire need of help. We are going to be giving them that help. Enroute to our base are approximately two hundred thousand Worlder ground troops and an army of nannies, nurses, and other volunteers to help with the next generation of survivors while we are gone. We must begin preparations for movement to the Nixa home system. Take the next two days for yourselves. After that, report to your assignments. Cole out.” Cole slid his arm under Sky’s arm and the other under her legs. In a smooth motion, he stood up and lifted Sky in his arms. He walked quickly to the bed and lay her down.

“I missed you,” he said to her.

“Me too,” was her reply.

CHAPTER 14

The city was quiet; to a casual observer it would look deserted. To the Roche out on the plain surrounding the city, it looked like a ripe fruit ready to be plucked. To Thalo and the Nixa Army, it looked like a good place to make a final stand. They had done everything possible to turn the once thriving capitol into a killing machine. The city, Thalo thanked its designers every chance he got, was laid out in a circular pattern. Starting in the middle, it radiated out in ever increasing circles. He used that to his advantage. Thalo and his counterpart in the Nixa Army had used the time Jeth had bought them as best they could.

They designed their defense around the circular blocks. The furthest ring of the city was their first defense point. Every building was reinforced and loaded with Nixa soldiers. The roofs were lined with snipers, heavy plasma cannons, and rocket artillery. Every window that faced out to the plain held two or more soldiers, and each of the soldiers had rifles and small personal single fire rockets. All the buildings were rigged to explode on Thalo’s command. And not just explode into nothingness, but to fill the open areas with rubble and hinder any movement of the invaders. The open area between the city and the Roche was a giant trap. Mine fields, giant pit traps, and anything they could hide underground was in that field. To finish it off, they had raised a small shield around the city to protect them from initial assaults.

Thalo wanted the Roche to reveal all of their heavy weapons and vehicles during the slow process of wearing out his shields. When the Roche arrived, they would bring their heavy stuff up to batter the shield down, and by that time the Nixa would have those assets locked into their sights. The defense was as perfect as they could make it, but they didn’t plan on dying in place. Each building had either an underground tunnel to the one behind it or overhead cover in the street to allow an organized retreat. That was, after all, the heart of Thalo’s plan.

There was no way they could win against the Roche, even in a war of attrition. There were simply too many of them. What he needed to do was buy time at a high cost to the enemy and keep casualties low on his side. They planned to hold the first street as long as possible and when they were looking at being overrun, they would fall back one building and reactivate the shield.

They would be slowly compacting themselves the further into the city they were forced to go, but that gave them the advantage. The tighter the circle became, the less of their forces they could bring to bear and the more effective the Nixa became, he hoped. Eventually one of two things would happen, as Thalo had explained to Torrent. One, they would fall back to the center and have to retreat underground. Or two, Cole would show up and pull their collective asses out of the fire. Either way, most of the city would be destroyed.

Thalo moved to his forward position in the building and looked out on the field. Roche drop ships filled the sky. His suit’s counter was going nuts trying to track them all, and so he turned it off at two thousand. Roche poured out of the ships and ran to form up their companies and battalions. Hundreds of thousands of the creatures arrived in the first few minutes, and millions more were not far behind. Thalo borrowed a human slang term.

“Shit,” he swore. “We just ran out of time.” He watched as the ships kept arriving and dropping Roche. It took a few hours to get all the invaders on the ground. It took more time to get them organized. They hadn’t been landed to optimize their ability to attack the shield, and it seemed as if the infantry didn’t want to move for the heavy guns to start the siege of the shield.

“Idiots,” Thalo muttered.

“Idiots, Sir?” Thalo’s landline operator asked. They had ended up stringing miles of conduit to build a safe, unbreakable communication system. Anything that went over the air could theoretically be intercepted, so building a physical com system seemed prudent.

“They could bring a trillion Roche here to fight us, but only so many can at a time. They are grossly unorganized and easily fall to bickering amongst themselves. It’s going to be dark before they start on our shields.”

“Umm, isn’t that good for us, Sir? I mean, well, you know, the worse they are, the better,” his operator said. Thalo chuckled a bit.

“Yes, all that is true, but still, I loathe incompetence, even if it is opposing me. Send out the order to target all heavy vehicles, artillery, and whatever else they use to batter down the shields. I want a full volley on those pieces of equipment as soon as the shield falls.” Thalo looked at the monitors all around him and saw passive target locks appear on the heavy vehicles and guns moving into position to open fire. Some of the pieces were within visual range, others were a mile or two away. It all depended on their range and where they were dropped on the landing field.

Thalo’s prediction turned out to be true. The opening salvo didn’t hit until the first sun had completely set and the second was just disappearing behind the horizon. Heavy plasma cannons, artillery, and rockets began to rain down on the shield. More targets were locked on by the Nixa as they revealed themselves on the plain. The once nearly invisible shield now rippled with blue waves as the shield absorbed the energy being fired at the defenders. The attack was taking place all over the city. They were completely encircled and were being attacked from every direction at once.

It made their job slightly easier, as long as they fired out of the city they were hitting enemy. Thalo heard one soldier joke about a target rich environment. Reports began to pour in from around the globe. Every other city was overrun by Roche and Esii/ The defenders were having problems luring them out of the cities and into the country where they could harass and attack without doing too much damage to infrastructure. The Roche were, for the time, being more interested in looting the cities than chasing their defenders, which would change in time.

Thalo watched the shield as it took hit after hit and kept his force safe. He looked to the sky, no Cole. He had hoped that Cole would arrive before this. Now, well, he wasn’t sure if there was anything for Cole to do. The planet was circled by enemy ships and a billion enemy soldiers held the planet. Thalo settled in to wait. The blue glow the shield was giving off at each impact was hypnotizing, Thalo often found himself staring at it for minutes at a time.

“How is Jeth?” Thalo asked the owner of the footfalls he heard coming from behind him.

“How did you know it was me?” Snow asked.

“Trade secret.” Thalo replied, and was rewarded with a snort of a laugh from Snow.

“He wiggled his toes earlier, and that’s a good sign. So the Doctors tell me. I wish Sky was here to look at him,” she said off handedly.

“Shit, I wish I wasn’t here. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy. Well, I guess I would wish it on them,” he pointed to the invaders.

“You know what I mean,” Snow retorted.

“Yes I do, why are you here?” He changed the subject.

“Doing my part,” she replied.

“Hmm,” Thalo said as he pretended to think. “Let’s see, I seem to recall making this plan up, and I don’t remember you having a part in it. Get lost,” he said to her. He saw the shield stability tick down from one-hundred percent to ninety-nine.

“Go to hell. I’m here and want to help,” she replied.

“Do you know what Jeth would do to me if I let you get hurt? Legs or not, he would pound me into the ground. Turn your butt around and get back underground. Now!” He turned away from the screens and looked at the Nixa woman.

“No, I’m staying,” she said and planted herself in front of him.

“Damn it, listen to me.” He grabbed her arm and dragged her away from the soldiers in the command post. He dropped his voice to a whisper. “This isn’t a game. Your people have been preparing this for two days and have had it drilled into their heads. They know the plan and their part in it. You don’t and if you get in the way, your people will die. It is going to take a miracle to pull these fallbacks off, and Nixa will be left behind, alone to face the enemy and the traps we’ve lain for them. So stop the tantrum and go back down underground. Your place is with Jeth.” He turned her to the stairs down and shoved her forward. She turned to reply but stopped when she saw the look in his eyes. He expected to die here. He needed her to help Jeth through his death and bring him out the other side. She bit her lip and finally nodded her head. She turned to leave and stopped.

“He failed you, you know. He failed us all. I hope you see that now.” Thalo knew who she was talking about even though she didn’t voice his name.

“You’re wrong. Time will help you see the truth.” He didn’t turn until she was out of sight. Turning back, he saw the shield stability had fallen when he was talking to Snow, it was almost down to ninety now. The night passed slowly for Thalo, but he knew it went too fast for the defenders. First dawn broke and saw the shield down to twenty-eight percent stability. It was almost time.

Thalo hadn’t slept at all the last twenty-four hours and it showed on his face. His appearance was haggard and disheveled. The fire in his eyes shone just as strong as it had all through the night. Thalo watched the readout on the shield and the shield itself. Arcs of energy rippled along the shields surface and danced between hits. It was almost time.

“Turn on the alarm,” he said over his shoulder. Three brief blasts echoed around the besieged capital, and Nixa everywhere responded. Those who had managed to fall asleep woke at the sudden alarm and moved into position. Targets were double-checked and weapons were made ready to fire.

“Tell the shield team to stand by. When the level hits twenty-five, they need to let the shield drop and begin to recalibrate it back to the next series of defenses.” Thalo looked at the readout. Twenty-six. The room held its breath in anticipation and fear. Twenty-five. The shield sparked and sputtered in its death throes before collapsing completely.

“All fire!” Thalo shouted into the com relay. Nearly seventy-five thousand Nixa soldiers volley fired into their hated enemy. Tanks, moveable artillery, heavy plasma weapons, and every other weapon system that had been firing on the city was attacked as one. When the shield had fallen, the ranks of Roche had erupted in a great roar of celebration. Now they were being scattered by the sudden and violent response from the Nixa guns. The Roche hadn’t realized they had made their own assets vulnerable during the nighttime barrage.