B00BKLL1XI EBOK (37 page)

“Maybe they don’t need to?” mused Grey. “Maybe just seeing a friendly, familiar face on TV would be enough? Why would anyone care whether the studio is twenty miles away or across the galaxy? It just seems that seeing Ace or Nelson or Dot plugged in and knowing what’s going on with Earth would send the right signal. We should really talk to the Commanders about this.”

As the High Council struggled to reignite the human fascination with technology and space and restart their stalled trade deals, Gene and Newman kept on fanning the flames of fervent neo-traditionalist groups. The previously easy going on Earth suddenly became much tougher.

[ chapter _ 035 ]

Across the galaxy and far from the heated media wars on Earth, the Nation’s armada continued its deep incursions into the Dark Gods’ territories. Capturing Sigma 07Xd was a major victory both as proof of concept for using Shape Shifter technology on the battlefield and as a blow to the Dark Gods’ egos. Using interstellar missiles laden with IGFs to lay down suppressive fire, the Nation’s forces engulfed dozens of border worlds and colonies. Once captured, many of these worlds became new launch pads for interstellar missiles which flew further and further into the Dark Gods’ realm.

The going was slow and difficult and nearly a quarter of all ships per attack squadron were destroyed while over a third needed repairs. Of course without the aid of tens of thousands of explosive warheads with multi-gigaton yields, combat losses would’ve been a lot higher. Ace felt uneasy every time that the Dark Gods countered a salvo of IGFs with their own hyper-bombs because the only thing he could do in reply was to deploy more IGFs. As the armada hopped from frontline to frontline, he toiled away on complicated computer models to come up with new ways to defend his craft in combat.

“Things are looking good now,” he said during a status meeting, “but we have to keep in mind that we’re over-relying on high yield bombs clearing out the battlefield for us. Sooner or later, we’ll hit defensive perimeters that are just too difficult to clear out with this tactic. Our casualty and injury rates will increase by at least 250% if we’re not able to kill off more than half the targets on entry. If you do the math on that, it basically says that we’d get our asses torn off, fried extra crispy and handed right back to us during a major engagement.”

“So what would you recommend?” asked the other Commanders.

“I’d advise to stabilize our positions and go into trench mode for a bit until we can figure out a more effective way to protect ourselves in a major battle. If we don’t... Well, I can’t guarantee that Shape Shifter ships and Guardians can secure new worlds by themselves. They’re only going to be effective in tandem with MRDGs and GRBGs.”

His comments were taken to heart and after a thorough analysis of the situation, the other High Commanders pinpointed the last world they need to secure before they could afford to settle down in a defensive mode. It was the first of the Dark Gods’ capitol worlds, heavily defended by an impressive fleet and terrifying weapons easily comparable to monster IGFs.

The intense strategy session took place on a space city hovering deep in occupied space and surrounded by an enormous fleet meant to assault the Dark Gods’ citadel. Since long range probes found an extensive blockade, Ace summoned a specialist in planetary defense and long range siege, the same expert who was with his fleet during the war with the Rexx. Embracing the challenge, Leo joined Ace’s crew once again to help put together the optimal plan of attack. After a day of scheming, analyzing and number crunching, the armada set off for their first battle for the control of a Sentry’s capitol world.

Shrouded by a vast cloud of green dust, Epsilon 88G was a gloomy, desolate world. Because the light of its parent star hardly reached it, nothing could grow on its surface and temperatures never rose above a bone chilling -137° Celsius. Eruptions from its volcanoes sent toxic plumes of ash swirling into the atmosphere, covering nearly half the planet in thick spirals of noxious storms. Whatever scant rays of sunlight pierced the dust cloud around this desolate world took on a pale green tint. Bouncing off the swirling ash plumes, they gave the entire planet a ghostly appearance. White hot bolts of lightning generated in the toxic ash swirls added to the eerie effect.

The sprawling metropolis of temples, labs, factories and towers which hosted meetings between the Dark Gods’ agents and the Dark Ones, shone in a multitude of eerie, spiraling lights in the clearings between the greenish-gray ash plumes. Protecting the city was one of the biggest fleets the Nation had ever faced.

Arranged in a thick band around the planet’s equator, hundreds of thousands of gunships, battle cruisers and small, amoeba-like craft designed to take on small fighters and bombers challenged anyone to try and get past them. If they were in trouble, surface based weapons of mass destruction would assist them. Vigilantly scanning the stars around them, the fleet waited for an imminent attack.

“As far as blockades go, this is a pretty damn good one,” observed Leo as he studied the images on the bridge of his destroyer. “We’ll need to press them into the closest orbit we can to limit the amount of damage they can do from the planet’s gravitational well.”

“So proceed as planned?” asked Christine from a video module on the bridge’s panoramic screen.

“I’d say so,” he nodded with approval.

On the bridge of Ace’s destroyer, Christine turned to Ace with an inquisitive look. He had a bad feeling about this, she could tell by the absent look on his face and the nervous tapping of his claws on the armrest. She cleared her throat.

“All right, shift to attack speed and get ready to deploy,” he said snapping out of it. “Steve, all set with your key?”

“Yes sir,” came the reply.

“Christine?”

“Yes Commander.”

Epsilon 88G was getting bigger and bigger on the bridge’s main screen. The stars and dust clouds which were blurry shapes with pale reddish and bluish hues started acquiring a clearer focus and normal colors as the destroyer began to slow down to sub-light speed.

“Coming into IGF range in 10 seconds,” informed Steve.

“Keys in,” nodded Ace.

Steve and Christine inserted tiny command keys into a switch on their control boards. To deploy a massive swarm for IGFs, two keys needed to be plugged into two circuits and turned at the same time. As crude and ancient as this authorization method was, it helped to prevent a random mass deployment of IGFs if a computer virus was able to take over the weapons system. It was impossible for a single operator to turn both keys at once since the switches were placed on the opposite sides of a bridge or in different destroyers altogether.

The targeting computers beeped. The ship was now in range for a mass IGF deployment. Ace hesitated for several seconds, trying to weigh something in his mind.

“Fire,” he finally said.

Steve and Christine turned the keys. Thousands of IGFs shot out of their silos deep within the destroyers and surged towards the line of gunships and battle cruisers in the distance. Usually, the armies of the Dark Gods braced for impact and spread out to minimize losses when the IGFs went off. But this time, they countered with a swarm of spike shaped missiles which deflected the terrifying protuberances generated by the IGFs’ blasts.

The equator of Epsilon 88G lit up with red and white lights but the impact of the bombing was minimal. On his bridge, Leo started to punch in the codes to activate plan B. Minor setback, he thought as he entered the last password.

As brilliant coils of plasma left by the initial bombardment began to cool off and dissipate, a shower of hyper-dense matter slammed into the blockade. Leo didn’t just release dozens of the same dark matter bombs that crippled the Rexx’s fleet during the siege of Rexx Prime. He rigged them to open behind the veil of blinding light.

The surprised Dark Gods found their ships being turned inside out as the inky globs with red and blue auras easily phased through their powerful hulls. Some dark matter spheres pierced right through the planet below, causing major quakes as they upset the hot, molten rock beneath the thin crust, kneaded into a hellish furnace by the gravity of neighboring gas giants.

When the lethal rain came to an end, the results were notable, but to Leo and Ace’s surprise, they could hardly be called carnage. The wounded fleet of the giant killer worms was still intact, ready to defend their world from a major siege. Once the Nation’s destroyers and planet killers with the Shape Shifters’ liquid craft in tow warped into focus, the blockade erupted with a powerful volley. Not known to be slow on the trigger, the Nation’s craft shot back in an instant. The tough, brutal firefight began.

“Doesn’t look like we softened them up at all,” grimly observed Nelson over the intercom. “My unit got hit three times.”

“What can I say?” shrugged Ace. “We’re going to have to fight the old fashioned way and hope that a few IGF bursts will help out in a real jam. Leo, any ideas?”

“We have to split the blockade so can wedge in a planet killer and give it a clean shot at the target,” replied Leo. “We can divert their fire and make them use it against their own ships and the city’s defenses.”

“Ok,” agreed Ace. “Dot, how are you doing?”

“Getting by,” she grunted. “Those little fighters are a pain in the ass. I’m trying to clear them out with IGFs but they just keep on coming. How many of these things are there?”

“No clue,” replied Christine. “We can’t even count them all.”

Ace weighed his options for a few tense moments.

“Let’s see what we can do people,” he said. “Leo, let me know if something’s not working out. Nelson, keep hammering away. Dot, reduce those fighters. Christine and Steve, I need you to get on board your own SBDs and protect our rear flank with two MRDGs. Everybody clear?”

“All clear,” they agreed in unison.

For three long, bloody hours the battle raged on. Despite the power of the Shape Shifters’ craft, swarms of fighters and devastating bursts of IGFs, the Nation’s forces simply couldn’t subdue the Dark Gods. Whenever they would push the defensive fleet back, powerful bursts of lasers and missiles from the planet below wreaked havoc on their new orbits. Firing missiles and particle cannons at the city subdued surface based defenses for only a few minutes.

Nelson’s forces were stuck, kept at bay by several squadrons of battle cruisers. Dot’s destroyers were able to sweep up most fighters but were now hacking away at wave after wave of gunships. Steve and Christine were barely holding back the opportunistic squadrons looking to outflank the Nation’s forces. Deep in the mix, Leo tried to drive a wedge into the seemingly invincible blockade. Backed up by a squad of liquid ships and over a thousand destroyers, he tried to open a possible path through the enemy ships only to be pushed back. With ever growing alarm, he looked at the casualty rates. The fleet’s destroyer count was down to half of its original size.

At long last, they were able to clear out just enough enemy ships to unleash a planet killer’s full power at the Dark Gods’ metropolis. The beam struck like the impact of a meteorite, undulating as its energy began tearing through the planet’s rocky shell. More than half of the city was leveled in the first seconds of the blast as the shockwaves raced along the rest of the outpost. On the other side of the planet, the crust began to crack, exposing a long, orange gash filled with hot magma which quickly rushed to the surface.

Thousands of gunships and battle cruisers immediately fired on the stationary planet killer. Its shields were ablaze as they strained to cope with the full brunt of the Dark Gods’ counterattack, but there was simply too much to hold back. After thirty seconds of sustained fire, the planet killer exploded like a monstrous IGF, sending plumes of diffused plasma for hundreds of miles in every direction and basking many of the ships in orbit in an intense aurora. The city below was in ruins, but the Nation’s fleet was on the verge of collapse after losing over two thirds of its units in the melee.

“I’m pulling the plug on this,” commanded Ace. “All units retreat immediately!”

Following standard protocol, the commanders’ ships flocked into a single group, surrounded by robotic destroyers. Dot, Nelson, Steve and Christine were quickly swept up in the swarm of retreating ships while Leo and Ace tried to catch up, firing their aft weapons to hold the pursuing battle cruisers and gunships at bay. Robotic destroyers protecting the other commanders helped by firing their main cannons and precise salvos of missiles with an occasional IGF thrown into the mix for good measure.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t prevent what would come next.

Just as Leo and Ace’s destroyers were ready to spin round to join the rest of their escaping fleet, an aggressive battle cruiser willing to sustain serious damage to get to its goal shoved its way through tens of robotic guards and slammed one of its tentacles deep into the hull of Ace’s craft. It split its tentacle open to reveal a set of claws which pierced deep into the destroyer’s innards and tore out the pebble shaped bridge pod. Retracting its tentacle, the alien ship sucked Ace deep inside its shapeless body and darted back towards the planet.

Leo, Nelson, Dot, and the humans watched in horror as gunships, fighters and a battle cruiser tore apart Ace’s eviscerated destroyer to make sure it wouldn’t self-destruct with a cataclysmic yield. Just like that, their leader was captured and his ship reduced to shrapnel.

“Oh shit...” mumbled Leo who’s own craft was just a few miles away from Ace’s. “They... they got him.”

“Leo, did they just get Ace?” asked Dot over the intercom with utter disbelief in her voice.

“They got him,” he growled. “How the fuck did they do that?”

“Leo, get in formation, now!” commanded Nelson.

Immediately, a squadron of battle cruisers turned toward Nelson, Leo and Dot with their tentacles extended. As the commanders tried to flee, the alien craft took off in hot pursuit, followed by a swarm of gunships. The Nation’s escaping fleet broke off into small groups, headed in a multitude of different directions in an attempt to force the aliens to choose who they would follow. The Dark Gods stayed on Nelson’s, Dot’s, and Leo’s tails.