The Fight for Creation: Book 02 - Scout Warrior (30 page)

• • •

Jixie took one of the previous model small ships out of the Algean’s inventory and linked with its systems. She looked up and saw Sam’s squadron in a galaxy beyond the Realm’s quadrant. She teleported out and joined him in the fight. Now this was fun. She had missed her playtime and her new toy was extraordinary.

• • •

“We have found a place where the enemy ships have been.”

“Where is it?”

“It’s in a different galaxy. It appears a rather large number of the enemy have removed a civilization that had conquered numerous planets. We captured a ship and questioned the crew extensively. They described one of the ships involved in the fight and it matches those that attacked our fleet.”

“Take a fleet and examine them to verify your discovery.”

“It will be done as you command.”

J
ason pressed his board, “Sam, we have a development.”

“What?”

“A fleet of the ships you faced in your last attack has shown up at one of the Pack planets you liberated and is landing warriors.”

“Attention all ships…”

“Don’t even think about it, Sam.”

“Jixie, I can’t allow those survivors to be killed. I’m sure that fleet is at that planet because of our being there. It’s our responsibility to defend them.”

“Hold on just a moment. Sprigly, where are you in developing the new ship?”

“Thank you for your suggestions, Your Majesty. We have two ready to undergo testing.”

“Sprigly, we have to take those ships now.”

“But Your Highness, they’ve not been trialed.”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s either take them now or my husband is taking his squadron to take on a fleet of those advanced warships. We’re coming.” Jixie said, “Sam, meet me at the Algean Ship Facility.”

“What is he talking about, Jixie?”

“Just meet me there!”

Sam sighed and said, “Eyes, take the squadron to Ross’ system and wait for me.”

Sam teleported away and arrived in the huge construction facility next to Jixie’s ship. He exited and saw Jixie moving toward him, “What’s going on?”

“I made some suggestions to Sprigly and he’s been working on a new ship model. We need to see where he is in the ship’s development.” Jixie grabbed Sam’s hand and pulled him toward the tall Algean standing next to two small ships. Sam looked at the ships and was shocked at their size. They weren’t much bigger than a shuttle.

Sprigly said, “We have not trialed these ships. They’re not ready.”

“Do they use the process we discussed?”

“They do, but we need to trial them to make sure.”

“We don’t have time for a trial. If they perform the way you designed them, can they survive the beams?”

Sprigly leaned slightly right indicating a shrug, “We think they will.”

“Well we have to take them to save a planet. If we delay, millions will die.”

Sprigly said, “Well if they don’t operate, there will be no opportunity to trial anything else but the pass through system.”

Jixie frowned, “What do you mean?”

“This ship doesn’t use a force field. If the system doesn’t work, you’re dead.”

“I thought the force field would be used to weaken their beams.”

Sam said, “Hey, hey, slow down. What are you two talking about?”

Jixie and Sprigly began talking at the same time and Jixie stopped and nodded to Sprigly. “This new ship will take any beam that hits it and just send it through the ship.”

Sam stared at Sprigly and said, “It will do what?”

Sprigly said, “Jixie suggested that instead of attempting to absorb a high powered beam into the skin of the ship to just allow it to enter and be ejected out the other side of the ship. The problem with using the system we’ve always engineered into our ships was the speed at which it could absorb a high powered beam. It just couldn’t absorb it fast enough. We’ve discovered that the problem was not in the skin, but in the system inside the skin that managed the absorption.” Sprigly paused and said, “Both of you are aware that the space inside the skin could actually hold a galaxy, right?”

Sam nodded and Jixie was surprised by the statement. “Well, we’ve reengineered the skin to just allow a beam to enter with no resistence and the beam then travels across the space inside the skin and exits the other side of the ship instantly. However, inside the skin, that beam is moving an extreme distance. Since time doesn’t function inside the skin it appears to someone outside the ship that the beam has instantly passed through the ship. However, by putting the energy management system further away from the hull, it is able to absorb energy from the weakened beam as it passes through.”

Sam stared at Sprigly and said, “You say there is no force field?”

“That’s correct.”

“What about missiles?”

“That’s easy. The ship is programmed to hit any solid object moving toward it with a beam. Besides, you could teleport out of the way long before any missile could hit.”

Jixie said, “Are you saying this ship could survive any beam?”

Sprigly said, “You know that resistance is what causes a beam to be so destructive. Any energy that hits an object that offers zero resistance will simply pass through it. That’s how the inside of our force fields operate. I guess there may be theoretical limits to this, but we’re not even sure there is a limit. The skin on our ships has zero resistance to energy.”

Jixie looked at Sam and said, “You will not take your old ships anywhere near those ships!”

Sprigly shrugged and said, “There is another side benefit if this system works.”

Both of them turned to Sprigly and he said, “There is no longer a need to conserve energy. Since the system recharges itself with any beam that passes through, all of the energy can be directed to the ship’s weapons.” Sprigly turned toward the two small ships and said, “Their beams are operating at a different order of magnitude than any we’ve ever built.”

Jixie nodded toward the two ships, “Sprigly, have you trialed the skin before you put it on the ships?”

“I have but you just don’t know if any errors were done in the melding process. We need to trial them.”

Sam said, “That’s not going to happen. Warm them up. We’ll bring them back if we survive.”

“But, Your Majesty…”

“Just do it!”

Sam thought, “Dort, Gon, link with me.”

Dort thought, “What’s wrong, Sam?”

“One of the planets we’ve liberated is being invaded by a rather nasty advanced civilization that is currently searching for us. I need your regiments ready to land and take out the invading forces if we are able to defeat their fleets.”

Gon said, “What do you mean if?”

“We’ve been debating that issue, but for now I need you mobilized and ready to go. Get moving!”

“On our way.”

Sam turned to Jixie, “You don’t have to take this risk.”

“And you do!?!”

“It’s my responsibility.” Sam paused, “It’s my duty.”

“Where thou doth go, I will follow; for better or for worse.”

Sam smiled and hugged her, “Power them up, Sprigly.”

The Algean leaned back showing his displeasure but said, “Well if you’re hell bound on doing this, and you survive the first beam, you should allow your ships to be hit a few times to completely charge your power systems. If you want us to do it, it will take a few weeks.”

Sprigly looked at the engineers standing at the two ships and said, “Activate the systems and raise the entry.”

Sam and Jixie looked at Sprigly and he said, “Oh, I didn’t tell you. The bridge is entered through the hull.”

A four foot section on the ship’s hull began shimmering and Jixie climbed up the side and stepped through the shimmering field into a small cockpit. She sat in the command chair and the control board came to life. “How do I fly this thing?”

“There is a small head band on the back of your chair. Put it on and you’ll be connected directly to the ship’s systems.”

Jixie reached and pulled the gold headband out of a small pocket on back of the chair and put it on her head. The remainder of her control board illuminated and she was instantly one being with the ship. “Sprigly, is hearing the music required to fly this ship?”

“No, Jixie, I mean Your Highness. Hearing the music will probably make the ship respond faster but it can be flown by anyone.”

Sam settled in and said, “Now that is advancement.”

“We can’t always depend on someone being around that hears the music.”

“We’ll let you know how it performs.”

“I really hope you can.”

“Are you ready to go, Jixie?”

“Hey Sam, I hear your thoughts.”

Sprigly said, “That’s another thing I didn’t tell you about.”

Sam said, “Tell us more when we get back.” Sam paused, “If we get back.”

Sprigly said, “There is that.”

• • •

The Fleet Commander watched his display as his warriors rounded up the leaders of the inhabitants on the surface of the planet and began their interrogations. It was quickly discovered that there were videos of the ships that had participated in the planet’s liberation. The videos were sent to his control panel and he saw a small ship with a force field extended over a huge gathering. This is the ones they were searching to find. But where were they now? He looked out of his view port and saw the beautiful blue and green planet. This would make a wonderful place for expansion. It had all the necessary raw materials to build ships and it matched the climate his species preferred. Of course the resident population would have to be eliminated. “Sire, we have two ships that just appeared a hundred thousand miles out.”

“Are they the ships we’ve been seeking?”

“No, Sire, they’re much smaller.”

The Commander looked at the two ships on his display and shook his head. They were smaller than his landing craft. “Ignore them.”

• • •

Sam saw the ten thousand ships in orbit around the planet and shook his head. Jixie said, “Sam, my power meters are barely above minimum.”

“I see that. I think Sprigly was right. We’re going to have to allow them to fire at us.”

“Sam, there’s no need for both of us to do this initial pass.”

“I agree. I’ll go first.”

“Sam, since when does the commander go ahead of his forces?”

“Who says I’m in command.”

“Are you?”

“No, you are.”

“Good, then I order you to wait here until I get back.”

“JIXIE!”

“Sam, be realistic. You are much more important to the Realm than me. Just be smart and do the right thing.”

Sam struggled and was forced to agree she was right. “How are you going to do this?”

“I’m going to teleport in close to that command ship and ask them to please go away.”

Sam fought his emotions and said, “I doubt you’ll be able to say much before they open up on you.”

“Let us hope Sprigly has his stuff together.”

“We can only pray, my love.”

“I’ll be back.”

• • •

“Sire, one of those small ships has appeared next to us.”

“Remove it.”

Ten massive beams shot out and hit Jixie’s ship and Sam couldn’t see it. His heart went into his throat and then the beams stopped and the small white ship was still there. “Thank the Creator.” He teleported his ship next to Jixie’s as another salvo of beams hit them.

• • •

“Sire, the ship is unharmed. The other one has now joined the first.”

“Continue firing.”

“Sam, my power system is at three quarters.”

“Start moving among their ships and draw their fire. Let me know when you reach full charge.” The two ships began moving between the giant bronze colored ships and were hit by hundreds of beams.

The Fleet Commander watched the two ships fly through his fleet’s beams unharmed and was stunned. This was impossible. The fleets beams had locked on the frequency of the two ships and all of the beams were hitting the small ships dead center. He yelled, “Launch missiles set on their frequency.”

“Sammmmm!”

“I’m at full power. I’m also focused on hearing the melody. Allow your ship to handle the missiles. If they get close, we’ll know we have to keep teleporting out of their way.”

Eight hundred missiles bore down on Jixie and her ship erupted in hundreds of tightly focused beams that destroyed the incoming barrage. “Are you ready?”

Sam smiled, “I’ll start with the flag ship and work my way out from the planet.”

“That’s a good place to start. I’ll join you and go left. You go right.”

• • •

The Fleet Commander saw that whoever was in those ships were impervious to his weapons. He started to recall the warriors, but his ship exploded around him before he could issue the orders. The explosions started at the front of the huge formation and spread through the invading fleet at an unbelievable rate. Only two thousand ships survived the destruction as they jumped away before the two ships arrived at their location. Sam linked and said, “Bring in your regiments.”

• • •

Two giant transports appeared just above the planet’s atmosphere and twenty thousand Life Warriors and their attack craft teleported to the planet’s surface. The Life Warriors determined quickly that the armor of the invaders was superior to theirs. The fighting was intense.

• • •

Tela teleported in and fired her beam and shoulder cannon at one of the invaders and watched it shrug off the hits. “Oh Crap!” The small Cainth Female Warrior teleported away just as the invader fired a high powered beam through the spot she had just occupied. She upped the power of her beam and fired her heavy blaster at the invader from behind him. The blasts staggered him but he turned and fired at Tela again only to have her disappear again. Tela appeared behind the invader again and felt her anger rising. She fired a hornet at the enemy warrior and followed it with her hand blaster and the invader exploded. “At freaking last.” Tela put out on the command net how she killed the warrior. The tide turned once that information was received by the Life Warriors. Tela teleported away just before a blaster beam passed through her location. She appeared behind the enemy warrior that fired at her and introduced him to a hornet and blaster beam. It took two blaster hits to finish him off. Tela thought, “I guess he was having a blast.” She teleported away, looking for another target.