Annihilation: A Rose Grows In Weeds (13 page)

“Tony Olivo Chen, sir.”

Mikado continued his recording, “Tony Olivo Chen is promoted to the rank of Captain and will be assigned a Megaship to command upon return to fleet headquarters.” Mikado stopped the recording and said, “Mr. Chen, this is a battlefield promotion that cannot be revoked. You will continue in your present position until the conclusion of this campaign and then await the assignment of your ship. Please issue the orders with your suggestions included.”

Chen rose to attention, saluted Commodore Smith who was smiling and said, “Thank you, sir.” The entire bridge crew cheered and Smith could see that Chen’s crew members respected the promotion. “Good,” he thought, “that supports my views of him. He’ll move fast in this navy.”

The SR fleet continued to follow the Algean fleet further in system firing penetrators and primaries as they advanced. The Algeans had lost 43,000 ships in the rescue fleet and another 20,000 that were originally in the system. The destruction was far from over.

The Algean Fleet Leader watched as his fleet was being mauled by the smaller ships but the plan was working. The Leaders will have to look at how we handle these strange ships in future conflicts. It was clear that they were more technologically advanced. The Fleet had depended on its size for too long and now it was paying the price of not continuing advances in weapon development. Those energy missiles the strangers were using were killing his fleet. We should have them in the position we want shortly,” It thought. “It won’t be long now.”

Colson looked up from his display and Mikado saw a look on his face that told him more than words. “Sir, another Algean fleet has just jumped in to the system and is moving our way.”

Mikado kept his voice steady and said, “How many ships Mr. Colson?”

“Five hundred thousand, Sir and more are still arriving.”

“How many of them are heavy battleships?”

“Three hundred thousand, Sir.”

“Mr. Colson, notify the forts to jump in to the planet, have Commodore Smith execute his orders and be prepared for his Ultras to arrive at our location”

Smith received his orders and raised his fleet com, “All ships, we will accelerate to flank speed and launch two salvos of penetrators into the Algean fleet. The Ultras will then jump to the Megas position and launch two more salvos. The Rising Sun will then press the signal that will jump all our ships simultaneously into the Algean fleet. You have two seconds between jumps to fire a salvo of penetrators and hit a heavy with you main primary beams. When we rejoin we will launch our remaining penetrators into the Algean fleet from above. The Empire Class ships will return to the planet after the first two salvos. On my command, execute!”

The eight thousand ships in Smith’s fleet accelerated at full speed and closed on the Algean fleet so fast that the Plants didn’t have time to return fire before the 3800 Ultra’s disappeared from their sensors and the Empires turned and fled toward the planet. The Plants sensors did record the eight huge constructs that suddenly appeared surrounding the planet. They even made their heavy battleships look small. Then they were fighting to avoid the three million plus penetrators coming at them from the rear.”

The Algean Fleet leader watched his display and suddenly stood up and yelled at his bridge crew, “Where did those ships go?”

His sensor leader said, “Leader, they jumped to the position of their big ships and all of them are launching those energy missiles at us.”

“That’s not possible. They are inside the band that prevents jumping.”

‘Look for yourself, Leader.”

The Fleet Leader looked at his display and he saw the 500 big ships had been joined by 4,000 ships from the first stranger’s fleet. He could see on his display the three million missiles coming at his ships from the rear and an additional six million from the front. Then suddenly all the strange ships in front of his fleet disappeared. That’s when he saw hundreds of his heavy ships exploding in his fleet and suddenly saw one of the strange ships alongside his flagship. The last thought the Fleet Leader had was, “We had them where they wanted us.”

The SR fleet came back together above the Algean fleet and emptied their magazines of penetrators. Another 800 ships had been lost moving thru the Plant fleet with 165 of them being Megaships. They learned that some of the Plant ships were programmed to fire an anti-matter missile if a ship other than an Algean got close. In the Megaships that were lost, they had the misfortune to be hit by an Anti-matter missile on their first jump which moved their screens into the red and a subsequent hit destroyed them. Ships that were hit later survived the hit. The SR fleet looked down on the Algean fleet and saw it being destroyed. Everywhere Plant ships were turning to avoid the penetrators and collisions between ships were numerous. “Execute jump to the planet,” Mikado ordered. Of the 128,000 ships sent against the SR fleet, only three small ships emerged and two of them were damaged. The Stars Realm fleet lost almost 2,000 ships.

The Algean Half Fleet Leader that had just arrived with his fleet of half a million ships watched on his display as the strange ships demolished the ships that had called him for support. It had been thousands of eight seasons since the Common had to call in more than the tenth fleet that had just been destroyed. His half fleet was involved in harvesting efforts on the other side of the galaxy when the request was received. The Home Leaders made the request so he had moved his fleet immediately; now he saw why. Those strange ships were capable of making null moves inside the limiting band that restricted their own null moves. He was of the opinion that it was impossible to make those moves that close to a star but now he had seen it done and knew his scientists were in error. This was going to call for an examination of their decisions and processes. His fleet had spread out at the limiting band and waited for the strange ships to try and run for safety when the fifth fleet attacked. Obviously, it should have been the fifth fleet running for safety. Of course that would never happen because the Common never ran from conflicts. The Fleet Leader had it cross his mind that sometimes it might be better if they would run but then he dismissed it from his mind. He sent his captured views of the destruction of the fifth fleet and what he could see of the huge constructs now circling the food source planet. The ships that had destroyed the fifth fleet were also at the planet apparently waiting for them to come to them. He held his fleet at the limiting band and awaited instructions from the Home Leaders. He wondered how he was going to attack ships that were faster and could go into null inside the limiting band.

The Home Leaders were studying the views of the fleet battle between the strangers and their tenth fleet. They had already seen the harvester’s fleet destruction and that was why they had sent the half fleet to trap the strangers before they could get back to the limiting band. Now they knew; the effort to trap the strangers was wasted effort; they could escape anytime they chose. The leaders dug their feet deeper in the soil and thought about the current situation. “What do we do now,” one of the younger leaders inquired?

No one else spoke and it remained that way for several moments. The Elder Leader said, “We cannot trap those ships but we can do something about what they are trying to do at the planet. I recommend we send the half fleet in to remove the strangers and continue our removal of the food source.” The other Leaders shifted from leg to leg and finally one of them said, “We need new technology if we’re to prevail against those ships.”

The Elder Leader said, “Go waken the scientists in their grove and show them these views. Instruct them to develop new methods to defeat these ships. Also send in the half fleet to remove them from the system.”

The Younger Leader inquired, “What do we do if the half fleet is destroyed?”

“Then we send in a total fleet. If necessary we will destroy the planet with our most powerful missile. We will not allow these strangers to intrude on the Commons space. Set up our tracking ships to determine the line those ships leave on and ready a ship to follow them on that line.”

A Plant Elder swayed and said, “We have to be close to where they jump out to read the coordinates. We cannot get to the planet, read the coordinates and jump from that point because we can’t jump inside the null limit.”

The Eldest thought and said, “You’re right. We have to be prepared to go to one of their jump points outside the limit to get a direction on their escape.”

The half fleet leader looked at his board and saw the instructions that had just arrived. “Attention all elements, spread out and move in toward the planet; I don’t want a concentration of ships for them to mass launch against. Leave enough room between ships to use your energy weapons to defeat those stranger’s missiles. Once in system we will surround the planet and destroy those constructs.” The huge fleet began their movement toward the planet that was 20 hours away.

“Sir,” Colson said, “the Algean fleet is moving in system. They should be here within twenty hours. They are spreading out with twenty miles between ships.”

Mikado looked at his display and said, “They learned not to mass together. It won’t be as easy next time.” He looked at the landing operations and commed General Wiseman, “General, we are going to jump out of system shortly. We are going to leave the Empires under the forts screen for support. Is there anything else we can do?”

Richard Wiseman looked at Mikado and said, “Admiral, just get back with relief as soon as you can. There are several million Plant Warriors dirt side and they won’t be happy that we crashed their party. I thank you for the ground fort and screens; they should make a big difference in holding the plants off us.”

“Are you thinking that they will come to you or will you have to go to them?”

“Admiral, all their food was destroyed with their fleet. This continent is basically stripped bare and we’re the only food available. Oh they’ll come or they’ll starve.”

Mikado knew the Marine General was right. “General, I shall return as quickly as possible; you hold out until I do.”

“Yes sir. That is my intention.”

Mikado broke connection and asked Colson, “Are all ships ready to jump?”

“Yes Sir, they are, however, I’ve noticed something interesting.”

Mikado raised his eyebrows and asked, “What is that, Mr. Colson?”

“The fleet moving into our system has left 1000 ships evenly spaced around the system at the jump limit.”

Mikado thought for a moment and then said, “What do you think is their purpose?”

Logan looked at his display and then said, “I believe that they are there to get a line on the direction we jump out of the system and then those ships are to try and follow us to determine our origin.”

“Do we still have that old program that makes multiple jumps thru different galaxies?”

“Yes Sir, we do. I can download it to all our ships and reduce the time between the jumps to one second. Matter of fact if you’ll give me an hour I can modify it so that every one of our ships jumps out in a different direction and none of them toward our home.”

“Make it happen, Mr. Colson.”

One hour later the 4,238 SR ships jumped from the system in four thousand different directions. The 1000 ships set up to track the line of departure were overwhelmed with the data and failed to follow any of them. By the time they picked one at random and followed it; the trace in the other Galaxy had faded.

The Home Leaders were once again dismayed by the tactics of the strangers. “Next time we will have as many tracking ships as they have ships. Next time we won’t miss.”

T
ag sat in Danielle’s office holding their daughter. He felt a warm glow and he knew it was coming from her. He knew he would never tire of looking at Rose and the same could be said for staring at Danielle. Danielle finished talking with Leila about her schedule and came over and sat beside him. “She’s got your eyes Tag Master. They’re so green that they look like they’re on fire.”

Tag smiled and said “It looks that way but she’s has your beauty. Just look at her smile and that beautiful blond hair.” Rose stood in his lap and bounced up and down on her legs smiling at her father.

Danielle just smiled and leaned against Tag’s shoulder and sighed, “She also looks like she’s going to be taller than I am.”

“Danielle, I need to discuss what you suggested to me just before Rose was born,” Tag said.

Danielle straightened up and looked into Tag’s eyes and said, “It has you bothered doesn’t it?”

“Yes it does but not for the reason you think?” Danielle arched her eyebrows and Tag said, “You might be right in what you believe but I think there is more than you see.”

“Such as.”

“What you suggest about our DNA leading us to each other makes sense even if it is hard to fathom but there are issues that trouble me. If our DNA was leading us together because we are the perfect match psychically, then what about before?”

‘What do you mean before?”

“I was going to end up with Leila. I had known that since the second level. I stole her test booklet because of that love. Everything changed to you after that theft took place.” Danielle started to respond but Tag held up his hand and said, “I know what your response is going to be but Danielle, I was firmly fixed on her, so much so that finding you was a tremendous change for me. I just want you to consider another theory.”