Pray for the Prey (2 page)

Cyanna said, “Yes Sir.” She began issuing orders to the fleet and wondered what was happening to make RV change the plans at the last minute. The Fleet jumped across the Milky Way and formed into three, four hundred ship formations.

Arvolo looked out at the twelve hundred Battleships and said over the fleet frequency, “We will only have a short time to practice for this exercise, so make it count. Each fleet will be assigned a line of Violet Ships and our timing must be exact. Make sure your needles have their weapons set for the correct timing, distance, and are assigned the appropriate place in their attack waves. Are there any questions?”

The channel remained silent and Arvolo took a deep breath and said, “Begin the exercise.”

The twelve hundred Earth Battleships jumped into position and launched their needles. Arvolo watched the fleet move into their assigned formations and go through their practice attack. He turned to Cyanna, “That’s not going to work.”

“I see that. Let me make a change.”

“You can make all the changes you want but our practice time is over. Form the fleet up and get ready to jump.”

Cyanna issued the commands and jump coordinates for the fleet as she simultaneously issued instructions to the Needle’s Wing Commanders. They received the new instructions and scrambled to make the changes before the Fleet arrived at Andromeda. It was going to be close. Cyanna delayed as long as possible but saw RV starting to get impatient. She announced, “We will jump into Sierra Space in fifty seconds.” She put her hand on the fleet jump control but watched the communication panel out of the corner of her eye. As she turned to Arvolo for the order to jump, she saw a green light go on in the upper corner of her board. She smiled, “Let’s hope they can do it.” She looked at RV for the command to jump.

• • •

Earth’s Command Team was watching the feed from the fleet and Chris said, “There is no way they can pull off that maneuver with the Needles. They need to change that plan before they jump in on the Violet Fleet.”

Jeff sighed, “I’ve listened to their fleet frequency and they have issued commands to change the attack pattern. I don’t know if they have enough time to make it work.”

Chris looked at Dolly and she could tell he was worried. She looked at her display and said, “If Arvolo takes the time to practice a new exercise, I suspect they will lose their opportunity to catch the Violet Fleet in open space outside Andromeda and then the entire plan will be for naught. Once they enter the galaxy, there’s no possibility of attacking them in their formations. I think it’s too late to stop this from happening. Even if the Needles aren’t totally successful, they should be able to destroy some of those ships if the initial phase is successful. We still need to know how our ships match up to theirs.”

Chris stood up and began pacing in front of the main wall display. Jillian got up and joined him. She whispered, “Either we trust Arvolo to make this work or George will have to assume command of the Fleet. If we override Arvolo’s decisions now, he will lose his ability to command those ships.” Chris stopped pacing and Jillian said, “Until our Crazy Cuban messes up, he should be supported.”

Chris sighed and watched as the twelve hundred battleships moved into their formations prior to jumping. “Well, it’s too late now. Let’s pray he’s got this under control.”

“Have you ever seen him out of control?”

“I did see him cry at his medal presentation.”

Jillian punched him on the arm, “What do you mean? You were crying like a baby as well.”

“I made the mistake of looking in a mirror and saw my full beauty in my dress uniform. That would bring tears to anyone.”

Jillian shook her head, “Now who has the oversized ego?”

“I’ll be close to you eventually.”

Jillian went to punch him on the arm again but he ran and hid behind Dolly’s Chair.

Dolly didn’t even look up as Jillian chased Chris, but looked at her fingernails as she picked up a file to work on them. Chris watched her from behind her chair and raised his eyebrows. Jeff said, “She does this when she’s not able to do anything but wait. If she keeps this up she won’t have any fingernails.”

Dolly said, “Sure I will; this file is smooth.”

Jeff flinched and came over and took the file from her hand and rubbed his finger on it. Chris and Jillian delayed their chase as he checked the file. He shook his head and said, “Just when I think I’ve got you all figured out I discover I’m not even close.”

“Oh you’re close; just not quite there yet.”

Jillian rushed around the chair and Chris spun the chair, keeping Dolly between them. Dolly laughed as Jillian came quickly around the other side of the chair and Chris jumped over Dolly’s desk. Hemon smiled as he watched them chase each other around the room. He turned to the main display and knew that things were going to start happening rather quickly.

• • •

The Seven Leaders of the Blue Giants were intensely focused on the large table in front of them. They watched as thousands of their huge battleships attacked the three lines of incoming Violet Ships. They had managed to kill a thousand of the invader’s ships during the initial contact, but then the three massive lines of ships began firing white energy pulses that destroyed the Blue Giants, before they could get close enough to get the maximum punch out of their beams. More than a hundred thousand Blue Giant Battleships were left burning behind the advancing Violet Fleet.

The First Leader looked at the others, “I think it would be a waste to send our entire fleet at those ships. It’s clear they can launch those energy pulses faster than we could get ships close enough to kill them. What should we do?”

The Third Leader said, “It appears we can do nothing but run. Unfortunately, most of our populations have not been moved and will die if we don’t slow them down.”

The Seventh said, “I was wondering if we should contact those ships from the other galaxy.”

The First was silent for a long moment and then said, “I don’t think they’ll assist us. I know we would not help them.”

“What if they meant what they said?”

“Other civilizations always tell falsehoods hoping to be spared. Do you honestly thing they would come to help us against this enemy or celebrate our destruction.”

“I don’t know. They have not matched up to any pattern I’ve ever seen.”

The First looked around the table and said, “Contact them and see what they say.”

• • •

Arvolo was about to issue the order to jump, when his communications officer said, “Communication coming in from the Blue Giants.”

Arvolo said, “Hold the count down. Let’s see what they have to say.” Cyanna breathed a sigh of relief; this delay will give the Needles more time to make the changes. Arvolo took the communication on his board and listened in as Christopher Connor answered. Arvolo wondered why Chris sounded like he was out of breath.

• • •

Chris said, “I understand you’re being attacked by the Violet Ships.”

“That is the reason for my communication. I was wondering if your statement about assisting us if we were attacked was still valid.”

“As a matter of fact it is.”

“Will you come and help us? Our fleet cannot standup to their ships.”

“Our fleet is already in position to attack their fleet. Admiral, do you need the Blue Giants to do anything to assist you in your plans?”

Arvolo punched his board, “Yes, I need you to send a line of ships at their fleet and make it appear you are making a massive attack along the entire front of their lines. When your ships arrive within range of their weapons, have your ships jump away.”

The Seven Leaders looked at each other and the Seventh said to them privately, “They were coming to help before we asked. This is something we must consider if we survive this.”

The First acknowledged the thought and said, “Send the orders and inform the White Ships that we will be moving in on the invaders momentarily.” Arvolo received the response and watched a feed from the Blue Giant Ships as they formed a long line and start accelerating at the three long lines of Violet Ships.

• • •

The Fleet Controller watched as a million of the giant blue battleships formed a line and started accelerating toward his fleet. “Stop forward motion and prepare to fire when the enemy moves in range.”

The Controller watched the line of giant ships move closer and heard his Weapons Controller say, “Fire all pulse cannons,” just as the line of Giant Ships disappeared.”

“What’s going on?”

“We have a thousand small ships in the rear of our lines.”

“How many?”

“Actually there are twelve hundred ships that are launching thousands of tiny craft.”

The Controller’s last command was for the center of his three lines to turn and fire on the ships behind his fleet. His ship blew up so fast after the command, that he never saw what was happening to the center of his three lines. The Communication Controller was unable to send a picture of the ships attacking the fleet from the rear back to their home galaxy, as he was disintegrated along with everyone else on the bridge before the scanners could be activated.

• • •

Each of the three lines of Violet Ships had four hundred Earth Battleships appear directly behind the center of their line. The four hundred ships lined up behind each of the three Violet ship lines had six miles of spacing between them and fired a massive broadside of strikers and main beams into the center of the three long lines. The strikers and beams blew away twenty thousand ships from each line and the explosions were massive. The lines remaining on each side of the massive explosions no longer had a force field on the ends where the ships in the middle were destroyed. Arvolo watched his display and said, “Admiral, what’s penetrating their force fields?”

Cyanna looked at her board and said, “It’s the strikers, Sir. They’re knocking a big enough hole through the force fields for our main beams to get through. The main beams only weaken the field. It’s the strikers that are doing the damage.”

Arvolo turned back to his display and saw the Violet Ships in the six lines that had been separated by the destruction of the ships in the middle start to turn to bring their weapons to bear on the small ships at their rear. He watched as three long lines of Needles moved over the top and three more long lines moved below the bottom of the massive destruction. Each of the six lines of Needles were accelerating at one of the Violet Ships lines.

• • •

Wes Maddit watched as his three lines of Needles moved over the top of the exploding center of the Violet fleet at high acceleration and bore down on the three lines to the left of the formation. Three more lines of Needles moved under the center toward the three lines to the right of the formation. The force fields on the ends of those six lines were blown away with the destruction of the Violet Ships in the center and were left open to attack.

Gretchen Logan led eight thousand Needles toward the top line of Violet Ships. The line of Needles was moving at one quarter light speed and as she arrived at the open end of the Violet Ships force fields, she fired two fusion missiles into the open end and then jumped into Sierra Space. Each of the eight thousand Needles following her launched their two missiles into the opening and disappeared with her. All six lines of the Violet Ships had more than sixteen thousand fusion missiles flying inside their force field in less than thirty seconds.

The first missiles launched were set to explode at the far end of the forty thousand ships in the line. The missiles following the first were set to explode three thousand miles from the ones launched in front of them. The fusion missiles had been set to fly the length of the line and they were all set to go off simultaneously. As the last two missiles were launched into the open end of the Violet Ship’s force fields, the sixteen thousand missiles accelerating down the six lines blew up into massive explosions that filled the force fields from one end to the other, blowing out of the open ends.

The Violet Ships saw the small fusion missiles fly by their line but were unable to fire their weapons inside their force field. The energy pulses would pass through the force field, but would not activate until they were clear. The Violet Ships were trapped inside a hollow tube that reflected the shock wave from the thousands of missiles back into the ships at the center.

The Blue Giant Fleet watched as the three lines of Violet Ships were blown into debris and vapor in a blast so massive that the light would one day in the far future be seen by telescopes in the Milky Way. The entire battle lasted less than two minutes. They were stunned and shocked at the efficiency of the small White Ships.

Arvolo looked at Cyanna and said, Jump the Fleet out of here to the other side of the Milky Way. We’ll retrieve the Needles there.”

Cyanna said over the general frequency, “All ships, all ships, jump to our starting location immediately. Jump Immediately.”

The Earth Fleet disappeared and Arvolo watched his display as all of the Fleet’s Ships arrived. He turned to Cyanna, “Excellent work in making the change to the Needle’s attack routes.”

“You were right, there was no way we could have had them all come over the top. They would have run into each other if we had done it that way.”

Arvolo’s communicator beeped and he listened as George contacted the Blue Giant Leaders.

• • •

“I’m sure you’re wondering why we jumped our fleet away so quickly.”

The Seventh said, “Not really; you’re anticipating the enemy will send a follow up ship to determine what happened here.”

George smiled, “You’re right. I suspect that if you can move populations you might want to do so as quickly as possible. I don’t think they will allow this to go without some sort of response.”

“We agree but they can’t do it quickly. You have given us time to save the bulk of our populations. We thank you for your help.”

“It was the right thing to do. We wish you success in survival.”

“Before we end this communication, we want to know why you chose to assist us.”

“We have tried to convince you that we are not your enemy nor do we ever want to be. We would hope that one day when you’re able to overcome your suspicions, you may choose to be a friend.”