Admiral Kosiev, Admiral Dorg, and Tag watched the monitor on board the Washington for what they knew was coming. Kosiev could tell the bridge crew was apprehensive about the coming battle but they maintained their discipline and though fear was a part of their daily meal, moral was high. The six week warning was over today. The Alliance fleet would make their jump soon. “Keep your eye on the small group of 800 ships. If I’m right they should be jumping first,” Tag said. They continued to watch and then they saw the small group start moving away from the planet. After 90 minutes had passed, a second larger group of 2100 warships started moving away from the planet. Both groups had moved into their assigned attack formations when the third group started moving an hour later.
“You’re going to have to tell me how you know these things in advance, Mr. Gardner.” Kosiev said. “It looks like you were sitting in their planning session.”
“I could have been wrong, Admiral. But they don’t know that we know how many ships they’re sending. We also know how they are organizing their fleet. It’s easy if you have those facts. If we didn’t know that, this plan would be hard for us to handle without the asteroid forts. We probably couldn’t handle it even if we did know. I’m surprised they didn’t just jump all 4000 ships and head straight for the planet. If they were spread out enough, there’s no way we could prevent them from attacking Earth at least not without matching ship for ship. I believe that part of their plan is to also totally destroy our remaining ships.”
Dorg said, “It is never good tactics to leave ships that could attack when you invest a planet; especially when one is uncertain of their number.”
“That’s what they’ll do next time,” Danielle said. “There won’t be any attempt at occupation; they’ll be coming to destroy us. That is assuming that they don’t do it this time. They’ll send over whelming numbers to destroy the planet. Then they will go after the fleet.”
“Have faith, dear. We still have those 6,000 ships in the outer system if we absolutely have to use them. If we get all the recording ships, we just might use them to cleanup any survivors that run for the limit to escape. We still outnumber them. That’s why I’m not concerned about the final outcome this time.”
“Sir,” Lt. Kelly announced, “the Cleveland reports Alliance ships jumping into our solar system on the other side of the sun. She counts 750 plus shaping up and moving in system.”
“Keep me informed,” Kosiev said. “Open a channel to all ships. Jump alert, jump alert. The first group of Alliance ships has jumped into our system on the sun side. The first fleet we’ll face will be coming shortly. We will wait on them to come to us. Hold your formation and we will attack together. Commodore Davidson?”
“Yes sir.”
“You are to hold your ships until the third group jumps in to support the ships we’ll be facing. I want them at least 45 minutes in system before you jump in and then close at full speed.”
“Commodore Johnson?”
“Yes sir.”
“I need you to find those recording ships before I jump in my second fleet. They will be moving inward with their fleet. Look for them to be trailing their fleet by 60 minutes travel distance. Bobby, we will have to jump in once that third fleet moves in system 45 minutes, we can’t delay any more than that. That’s how long you have to find them.”
“We’ll do our best, Admiral.”
Time passed slowly then after two hours they watched the second Alliance Fleet disappear from their feed. “Battle stations all ships,” Kosiev ordered. “Hold formation; we’ll wait for them to come to us.”
The Alliance ships broke into normal space just outside the star drive limit and tightened up their formations. The Subleader of the Vgrig saw on his sensors that the Earth Fleet was located an hour’s flight time inside the Jump limit. “All ships; hold formation and begin moving to close on the Earth Fleet; go to full speed.” The Subleader looked at his communications officer and said, “I’m not going that far inside the jump limit without support. There are more ships than we thought they had. Contact the support fleet and tell them to move their timetable up and jump in as soon as possible. Let me know the soonest they can arrive.”
“Yes Subleader.”
Bobby Johnson had started his two groups coasting an hour’s travel distance behind the jump zone the Alliance Ships had entered. Their screens were extended to the limit of their range using only the power that leaked from their power cells. He had insisted that all eight ships had to be located and targeted before any attack. He knew his time was short and after 20 minutes, none had been found. “Are they going to come after the next fleet,” he thought? “No, they wouldn’t want to miss anything.”
“Sir,” Lt. Bergin said, “We have six new targets on our grid with five of our ships within range of each of them.”
“There’s two still unaccounted for. Find them.”
On board the Saratoga, Captain Rick Stevens looked at his communications officer and ordered, “Start the feed and send it to the Cainth Assembly and Central Command.”
“Yes sir. Feed starts now.”
Terl was waiting in the assembly hall when his monitor started showing the battle beginning in the Human’s solar system. The other Clan Leaders watched and Terl could see their nervousness. He then put the channel number that Admiral Dorg had been given by Tgon-Gee and relayed a copy of the feed. All the Clan Leaders in Terl’s office watching the upcoming conflict were standing and crossing and uncrossing their four arms as the Alliance fleet moved in system. Terl said, “That is a Big Alliance fleet. Let us hope our brothers have planned well.”
On the Glods home planet, Tgon-Gee received notification that the feed was coming in from the Cainth Empire. He went to his office and looked at the positions of the fleets and immediately noticed that the Humans had a lot more ships than the 140 he was told by the Alliance. Still, 4000 ships should handle that number easily enough. He sat down and ordered a meal. He also called his Grand Fleet Commander to join him. “This is going to be a long day,” he thought.
Commodore Johnson was starting to worry. The second fleet had jumped in and started moving in behind the first Alliance fleet. He knew his time was running short and that in less than fifteen minutes the second fleet of Earths ships was going to have to jump. “Sir, we found the other two. They were trailing the second Alliance fleet. We have 10 ships in range to attack.”
Bobby opened a channel to his ships and said, “Only the ten ships in range of the eight recording ships will attack, on my command, take them out then jump out of the system. Execute!”
On the Alliance Central Government World, State Leader Sten and Headman Dgzh were watching their monitor which showed their ships moving in on the Human Fleet. According to the analysis, the Humans had 450 ships facing 3500 Alliance ships. The Cainth must have been mistaken on how many ships the Humans had. The Humans had probably not used all their ships in the first battle. Then he heard over his feed a Human voice saying in Alliance, “This is the Earth Ship Peaceful Living with a message for the Alliance Warships invading our system. We are going to have to resist your occupation because of the murder of our colonists. We can’t trust that we will be treated fairly. Please abandon your plans and return to the Alliance and let’s try to work this out thru peaceful means.” Sten got a visual on the Earth Ship which was just behind the second Alliance fleet. Then he saw two Alliance Cruisers turn back and close on the Earth Ship and fire their primary weapons into the small ship. Nothing happened for a moment then the Earth Ship blew up.
Then a Voice was heard from the Alliance Fleet that said, “Resist and we will kill every Human in this system. There will be no negotiation.”
Sten said to Dgzh, “They shouldn’t have fought us the first time.” Then his screen went black. State Leader Sten remembered what happened last time his screen went black and he opened a channel to his Military Liaison, “Get a ship ready to jump to the Humans system. I need to know what’s happening.”
“State Leader, we don’t have a ship ready to send. All of them are in the Human’s system. It will take three hours to get a ship from our inner system to the jump point to go investigate.”
Sten looked at Dgzh and said, “Get me a ship, Headman. Get me a ship there now.”
The eight Alliance recording ships were trailing the fleets and everything was moving according to schedule. On board the command ship for the recording flotilla, Ship Leader Monjh heard his sensor officer shout, “Sir, a ship is powering up and bearing down on us. Contact in 2…” He never finished his sentence. Two needles from two different ships struck the cruiser and it blew apart piecemeal. All eight ships were destroyed within three seconds of each other. The ten Human ships then disappeared from the system.
“Commodore Davidson, Bobby said. “The slate is clean.”
Commodore Davidson ordered, “All ships, jump to assigned coordinates on my command, Jump!” The second Earth Fleet jumped in behind the two Alliance fleets and went to full speed. The first Alliance fleet was still 20 minutes from contact with the Earth fleet when their sensors showed the second Earth fleet jump in behind them. The Subleader didn’t like this situation at all and ordered his ships to stop and wait for the second Alliance fleet to join up with his ships. Then he noticed that the first fleet of ships was no longer waiting for him to come to them. They were accelerating at an extremely high speed toward his fleet. “How fast are those ships coming at us,” he asked his sensor officer?
“Sixty Thousand segs per sem and still accelerating, Subleader.”
“You must be mistaken, no ship can fly that fast?”
“Every one of their ships is moving at that speed and will be here in less than five dregs.”
The Subleader looked at his screen and could visibly see the Earth Ships getting larger. “Order all ships to prepare for battle. Target the big ships first.”
The sensor officer looked at the Subleader and thought, “All of us see the same thing you do. We know these Humans destroyed two thousand ships in their last battle and I think we are all afraid that we have been placed in a terrible trap that none of us will live thru.” Then the Human ships were upon them.
On Glod, Tgon-Gee saw the Human ships accelerate at an inconceivable speed at the Alliance Fleets. Now he could see that the Humans had more than 900 ships and had trapped the Alliance fleets between them an hour inside the Star Drive limit. The third Alliance fleet was approaching the Humans home world but he couldn’t take his eyes off the space battle. He saw the eight Alliance recording ships all blow up within a couple of sems of each other and he knew he was seeing this when no one else in the Alliance was getting any information on what was happening. Now he was thankful to the Cainth Admiral for getting him to not be a part of this action. Then the fleets smashed into each other and ships began to die.
Misty Nicole went on the Earthwide emergency channel and made an announcement to everyone on Earth. “We are going to be attacked within the next four hours. There are eight hundred Alliance heavy warships approaching our planet from the Sun. Their intention is invasion to hold us hostage so our fleet will stop fighting the 4000 plus Alliance ships coming in from Jupiter. I am declaring an emergency holiday and request that everyone go home and await the outcome. We have installed a heavy shield around our planet that we feel will protect us from any harm until our ships can come and remove the Alliance threat. Do not panic. Take your time going home. We will keep you informed of what is happening.”
Director Nicole watched one of her public display monitors where a news person was saying. “We knew this day was coming. The traffic lanes are full and millions are leaving their work locations and going home. Only essential personnel are remaining at their stations.” Then he stopped a person on the street moving toward a parked floater and asked him, “How do you feel about the Director’s announcement?”
“I’m very frightened but I know our leaders have planned for this and that we’ll come out of it ok. We all pray for our sailors putting their lives on the line. Now I need to go home to be with my family.” The citizen then calmly boarder his floater and waited in line to enter the traffic lane.
“No one has panicked and it appears to be an orderly evacuation, John,” the news reporter said. I think the man has summed up how we all feel right now; back to you.” Director Nicole felt a sense of pride in how her people were handling this crisis and then went back to the feed from the battle. “Let us hope that screen is all they say it is,” she thought.
The Warleader saw the blue-green planet ahead and looked at his sensor officer. “How many ships are here to protect the planet?”
“We detect none. The only things we see are the nine moons circling the planet.”
“There’s only supposed to be one moon according to Alliance charts, a large single moon,” the Warleader said.
“There is one large moon further out than the eight small ones circling the planet. It’s interesting that those eight moons are all in the same orbit and equidistant from each other.” Suddenly the planet disappeared behind a bright white colored light.
“What is that?”
“They have surrounded the planet with some kind of screen, War Leader; according to our readings, its more than 60 degs thick.”
The Warleader’s eight hundred ships arrived in Earth orbit and looked down on the screen that covered the planet. “Communications; ask the Humans to drop their shield or we will begin bombardment of their planet.”
The message was transmitted and an answer was immediately received. “Take your time. We will enjoy the show down here. If you want to surrender, please let us know.”
The Warleader was livid, “Fire all weapons into the screen. Target their largest cities.”
More than 80,000 primary beams and 4,000 missiles were fired at the screen surrounding the Earth. The flashes were gigantic; but nothing got through the screen.
“Warleader, it appears that the screen is getting stronger with our attack. It was 60 degs when we started our bombardment and now it is 86 degs thick.”
“Move all our ships to one side of the planet and have them fire all our weapons into one part of the screen.” The 800 ships gathered above Central City and formed a circle. “On my command fire all weapons into the marking beam on the screens surface; fire!”
The Alliance fleet fired into the screen and the Warleader could see waves of color move out like ripples into the rest of the screen. “Warleader, the screen is now 93 degs thick.”
The Warleader slammed his claws into his console. “How am I going to get thru this screen he yelled at his crew? Hit it with five fusion missiles.” The Warleader thought, I didn’t want to destroy this world, we’ll just have to take what we can of the remains.”
Five 400 foot long missiles left the massed Alliance ships and impacted the screen. The blast knocked all sensors off line momentarily and when they came back on the Sensor officer said, “The screen around the planet is now 110 degs thick.”
‘Cease firing energy weapons at that screen,” the Warleader ordered. “How am I going to break thru this screen?” He thought.
The four hundred and fifty Human ships hit the Alliance fleet at 60,000 miles per second. The three ship teams found spaces between the Alliance ships and flashed in among them before they could respond to their presence. Each of the small ships fired two needles into the ships they encountered and the battleships fired their primary beams as they passed thru the Alliance fleet and then turned to come around for a second attack matching the speed of the Alliance ships, 450 Alliance ships exploded. Five of the Human ships died when they collided with an Alliance ship. “Reduce speed,” Kosiev ordered. “Pull up vertical and come over the top of their formation. Keep your formation together. Use each other’s screens and hold your positions in the line.”
Captain Rubens in the Los Angeles was amazed at the number of targets around him. There were twenty dreadnaughts moving in to attack his ship and escorts. The huge ships were beautiful and all looked on fire as they fired their beams and missiles. Some were so close that their screens were bumping against each other. “Weapons, target the closest Dreadnaughts and fire two needles each into them. Use the primary beams on those more than ten miles from us. Helm, pick the cleanest path thru.” The Los Angeles was being hit by more than 800 primary beams when she began firing. Six of the dreadnaughts were hit by the two needles each and seven others were hit by the awesome 700 foot wide primary beams. All thirteen were damaged with seven of them blowing up into small rubble. The surviving six continued to fire and were being joined by eight others. “Weapons, I want the primary beams fired every three seconds whether we have a target or not. We need to bleed our screens.” Captain Rubens saw his screen moving into red as the Los Angeles turned and flew between four of the dreadnaughts as they sought to surround the smaller ship. The dreadnaughts beams followed the Los Angeles as it moved away from the mass of gathering dreadnaughts. The two escorts of the Los Angeles would fly thru her screen and take some of the energy then attack other Alliance Ships. The Los Angeles moved thru the Alliance formation killing ships and darting between open spaces to avoid being rammed. Some of the Human ships were not as fortunate.
The Dallas was also being attacked by twenty dreadnaughts and was having success until two of 3,600 foot long ships accelerated and rammed her from both sides. Before she died she fired 40 needles into the surrounding dreadnaughts and fired her primary beams into the two ships ramming her. The resulting explosions cleared space for 20 miles around the site.
Kosiev asked, “Has the second fleet made contact?”
“In three minutes,” Kelly answered.
“Ship count, Ensign?”
“We’ve lost 68 ships, sir. The Alliance has lost 875. The Empire ships have taken a drastic toll on their heavy ships but they still have more than 800 in the first fleet. They have started to ram our larger ships, Admiral.”
Kosiev pushed a button on his com and said, “All ships begin weave on my command, Execute!”
The Earth fleet suddenly went in four different directions. One quarter of them went straight down thru the Alliance fleet while one quarter of them went vertical. The other half of the fleet went left and right. The Alliance fleet found itself with ships passing from different directions and they could not change directions as quickly to ram. They would try to follow the ship they were attacking only to find another human ship firing at them from above and below.
Kosiev ordered, “Initiate one quarter change, execute!” All the Human ships rotated ninety degrees and continued moving thru the Alliance ships firing needles and Primary beams. The Alliance ships just could not change direction fast enough to keep up with the faster smaller ships and they were getting mauled.
The Washington looked on fire as it was struck by hundreds of beams and missiles. Captain Mikado watched as three dreadnaughts picked up speed and attempted to ram. “Fly straight at the lead dreadnaught and run down its length,” Mikado ordered and then held on to his arm rests as the Washington abruptly changed direction. The other two dreadnaughts tried to match the turn but only flew into the dreadnaught the Washington was running along. The screen of the Washington was so hot it penetrated the dreadnaughts screen and burned thru the top of the dreadnaught for its entire length setting off its missile magazines as it passed. The dreadnaught exploded behind the Washington taking the other two Alliance ships with it. Alliance ships were dying by the hundreds.
Captain Rubens in the Los Angeles was approaching three dreadnaughts from below that were chasing the Clearwater. He hit two with his primary beams and the third one with three needles. All three were dead and bleeding atmosphere as he passed. The Clearwater turned suddenly leaving three ramming ships passing thru the spot it had just occupied. Captain Rubens ordered, “Kill those three rammers.” As the Los Angeles passed vertically by the three dreadnaughts, three needles punctured each of the dreadnaughts screens. Two of them didn’t even leave rubble when the hornets hit their missile magazines. The third was broken into three parts bleeding atmosphere and enduring multiple explosions.
The Subleader was watching his fleet being destroyed around him. He tried to call the Warleader for direction but he couldn’t break thru the interference. He saw his second support fleet being attacked by the second Earth Fleet and he knew he couldn’t expect help from that quarter. “Order the remaining ships to turn and join the second fleet. Do it immediately.”
“Sir, the Alliance ships are turning and running toward the second fleet.”
Kosiev ordered, “Cease weaving and pick a ship to destroy before it joins them.”
The Human ships broke formation and every ship attacked a single Alliance warship. Three hundred and forty Alliance ships were destroyed before they made it to their second fleet.
“Ship Count, Mr. Kelly?”
“We are down to 330 ships. The Alliance first fleet has lost 1908.”
“Form up and prepare to move in on the remaining Alliance fleet. Commodore Davidson, we will be joining your attack in thirty seconds.”
“Welcome to the party, Sir.”
“All ships, forward,” Kosiev ordered.
Tgon-Gee watched the carnage and looked at his Fleet Admiral and said, “Can you think of any reason why we would want to take on these Humans?”
“Excellency, I would suggest that our burial plans should extend indefinitely. Whoever attacks those small warships is going to lose a high number of theirs. We should thank the Cainth Admiral for his warning.”
“I agree. The thing that interests me the most is that shield they have around their planet. We don’t have anything remotely close to the technology to do that. If we had that shield so we didn’t have to fear the Alliance, we would have our freedom back. Make immediate plans to visit the Cainth. I’m going to leave tomorrow and surprise them; I want to know how they knew this was going to happen.”
The Warleader was beyond frustration. Nothing he did would penetrate the screen around the planet. Then he had a thought. “Subman Fznegt. I want you to take your ten ship squadron and go out to the orbit of the big moon and accelerate into one of those small moons circling the planet. Keep your screens on and launch all your nuclear missiles right ahead of you.”
Subman Fznegt heard his instructions and knew that his time had come. All Vgrig with his rank were used if necessary to suicide. “Warleader, May I off load all the non-essential crewmen?”
“No you may not. I want your ships operating at top efficiency when you hit the screen.”
“As you wish Warleader.”
“Sir, we have ten ships moving away from the fleet toward the moon,” Lt. Minishe said.
“Weapons, target those ships. It they turn toward us, I want them hit 80 miles out from the screen,” Colonel Taz ordered. “Get me a channel to the Washington.”
“Admiral Kosiev, this is Colonel Taz; I’m the overall commander of the fortresses. We have observed ten Alliance ships leaving the main body of the fleet and moving toward our moon. If they turn and make a run at us, I am going to release weapons. Do you want us to then continue to fire at the Alliance fleet?”
Kosiev looked at Tag and Tag asked, “How many of their ships are in range of your beams?”
“All but one; the largest ship is stationed by itself between the moon and our screen about 8,000 miles out, all the others are holding station within five miles of the screen.”
Tag shrugged and looked at Dorg and Kosiev; Kosiev said, “Colonel, kill as many as you can. I don’t want all those ships to scatter and run the chance that one might escape to warn the Alliance of our screen. I’m going to have Commodore Johnson jump ten battleships to the other side of the sun to prevent their ships from escaping the way they came in.”
Colonel Taz said, “We’ll delay firing as long as possible to give them a chance to jump.”
“There’s no need Colonel; all of his ships are outside the jump limit. Start your firing when and if those ten ships run at you. If they don’t, then hold your fire. I don’t want to use your weapons if it can be avoided.”
“Yes sir.”
Dorg said, “With all due respect, I would like to see them.”
Tag said, “Don’t worry. They have started ramming our ships with dreadnaughts; I don’t see any other purpose of those ships except to do the same.”
“Warleader, we are in position.”
‘Start your acceleration now.”
Lt. Minishe said, “Sir the ten ships have turned and are accelerating toward our fort.”
“Attention all fortresses; this is Colonel Taz. We are going live weapons. Target the ships around our screen. Hold your fire until we eliminate the ten suicide ships. The four fortresses on this side of the planet are to target their zones. As the other forts rotate into position, move your zone with the rotation. I think they will run directly from the planet, but stay alert in case they try to run around it. We will fire in 30 seconds.”
The ten Vgrig ships were accelerating at their maximum speed and were 80 miles from the surface of the screen when a bright white light 5 miles wide erupted from the fortress and hit the ten ships. Nothing remained when it turned off.
“Holy Groad, what was that?” the Warleader said. Then he saw more than a hundred of those beams fire through his ships. “Get out of there!” he yelled into his com; but it was no use. His fleet was sitting still and it took a few moments to get under way. Those moments proved fatal when those beams moving at light speed hit his ships. Out of 800 ships hanging above the planet only 10 were able to start moving but they were hit before they could move out of range. Where those beams hit, nothing remained. “War leader, the screen has reduced to 87 degs thickness,” the sensor officer said, “and all of our ships have been blown out of existence.”
“How are our other fleets doing?”
“Only 210 of 2000 managed to make the third fleets lines. We lost 1790 ships to the Humans first fleet of 450 ships. They are attacking the third fleet with 780 ships now.”
“Pilot, take the ship away from the planet and head for the Star drive limit at top speed. We have got to warn the Alliance about this race.” The big ship turned and moved toward the moon then went vertical to escape the system. As it picked up speed the sensor officer said, “Warleader, there are ten of the Human battleships closing on us at twice our speed. They will intercept us more than 1000 segs from the jump limit.”
The Warleader had never known the fear he was feeling. He was trapped. He sat in his command chair and watched those ships coming at him at unbelievable velocity. His silver plume was laying flat against his back and he could see his death approaching. “Warleader, I know we would never consider surrendering,” his second said, “but if we all die here, there will be no one to warn our world of this danger. I will follow you to death, but the Home Nest must be warned.”
“Honor demands a death before dishonor,” the Warleader said. “But you’re right. This is a danger that we must try at all costs to warn the Vetrel. Abandon ship; set the self destruct. Everyone into survival Pods. Let’s hope these Humans take prisoners. Abandon ship!”
Commodore Johnson saw the big ship stop and start emitting life boats. “Hold your position,” he ordered his ships. “I’m sure they have set a self destruct; let’s wait until it goes off. Communications; order a transport for the prisoners.”
On Cainth the Clan Leaders watched the fortresses totally destroy the fleet above the planet. Terl looked at the clan leaders and said, “That’s what will go on line over us tomorrow. Only 300 ships remain to be converted. For the first time in more than 1500 cycles, we can feel what it’s like to be free.”
Tgon-Gee saw the slaughter of the fleet at the planet and turned off his feed. “How close we have come to being made powerless. Dorg was right; the Alliance Leadership had set us up. He felt a deep burning anger and was determined to make them pay but first a trip to Cainth to thank them for their advice.”
Kosiev said, “Commodore Johnson, have one of your ships move toward the Saratoga and fire a light beam at it. We’re going to stop the feed now.”
“Yes, sir, the ship is already in position and the Saratoga has acknowledged the cut.”
The remaining Alliance warships were caught between two Human fleets and they had no chance of survival. The 738 human ships destroyed twice their number within 60 seconds of contact. The Subleader ordered a fast withdrawal but now the numbers were in the Humans favor and each ship took one of the remaining Alliance ships and destroyed them all before any of them could make it to the jump limit. The Alliance had sent 4800 ships and none survived. The Humans lost 240 of their 900 ships. More than 60 % of those losses were from being rammed by larger Alliance ships.
Kosiev reviewed the results and said to Tag, “We have to change our fleet strategy; staying in formation works in space battles but not against ships willing to ram. We can’t give up our edge in speed and maneuverability by having our fleet stay in line.”
“You’re right,” Tag said while looking at the ship losses. “The weave worked well but we waited too late to start it. Perhaps we use both next time. We’ll engage them in formation and then start the weave once we break into their ranks. We should also change direction every ten seconds. They can’t maneuver as fast and it’s hard to ram when your target turns away faster than you can match.”
“I understand we took the flagships crew prisoner,” Dorg said. I thought this race was supposed to suicide before being captured?”
“I think they saw no one was going to escape and they know the importance of getting a warning to the Alliance,” Tag said as he watched the flagship self destruct on his video. “Admiral, leave a ship hidden that can watch the wreckage of their ship.”
“Why, do you think they have something planned?”
“How hard would it be to hide a small armored shuttle in the wreckage that was isolated from the blast?”
“I see your point. Their Warleader was not among the prisoners. Should we just destroy the wreckage?”
“No, we might want to let him escape.”
“For God’s sake, why?”
“We now know the screen will protect the planet. I don’t want the next invasion to target Earth but to target the fleet. He knows we only used 900 ships. The Alliance will not have a clue how many we used so they may order an all out attack fearing we have huge numbers. I hate to let them know about our planetary defenses, but I don’t want them to think we have more ships than those 900. The Warleader will also be able to verify that we lost 240 ships so the Alliance will not feel it needs to send all the ships in its arsenal. We still haven’t cut into their numbers enough. One thing for certain though, we won’t need to hide anything for the next battle; they will send everything they have if they lose the next one.”
Kosiev thought about Tags suggestion and said, “What if there isn’t a ship hiding in the rubble?”
“Then we have to arrange an escape but I think that is premature at this point. Move all your ships away from the wreckage and have the Cleveland come around from the sun and keep an eye out. We’ll give them five days to make their break. We also should make it look real and have one of our ships start the chase from too far away to catch them.”
“I’m nervous about revealing our planetary defenses, but you’re right. We can’t handle more than 40,000 warships. Do you think it might be a good idea to maybe add four more asteroid fortresses?”
“We haven’t fully charged the ones we’ve got. We’re still at only 60 % charge after destroying those 800 ships. We can add more if we can get them to 100 % capacity. Even with the sun and all those reactors, the system holds an inconceivable amount of energy and is still weeks off from fully charging. Think about how valuable that screen will be to our ships during a planetary fight to discharge their screens.”
Kosiev thought a moment and said, “I hadn’t even considered that.” Then he smiled. “You know; we’re not as much an underdog as it appears.” Then he started laughing.