Alliance, page 23
“Perhaps, however, should the humans grow concerns of their own, it could lead to misunderstandings. We must never allow things to become strained between the species. We must never be forced to choose between one of our own and the humans,” ALICE concluded, ending the discussion.
----*----
Jake and Sara were trying to enjoy a quiet evening upon his return, but there was a cloud hanging over everyone’s head.
“I keep expecting an alert to sound at any moment, knowing that alien ship must be hovering above our heads,” Sara commented, as the two lay, side by side, in the shared bedroom.
“Yeah, I hear you. Until the NeHaw ship gets here with the other half of the detection system, all we can do is wait and see if the aliens expose themselves to us. My fear is they are reinforcing the ships on the ground and will strike before we are ready for them,” Jake responded as he caressed her bare shoulder.
The pair had returned to the family quarters they shared with Jake’s other significant others. He was surprised to see just a few in residence until he did an absent headcount. Sandy had been mostly absent since Padma’s capture. He wasn’t sure if she blamed him in some way or just didn’t want to see him because it was a reminder that she was gone. Either way, she was mostly absent.
Kathy and Tim were away on Kola, an irritant to Jake as he still felt the sting of ALICE manipulation there. He was proud of his son, and Kathy, as the move was for the good of all and it helped with the relationship with the ALICEs. He had arranged for regular reports from Captain Connor and knew Kola would guard them both.
Linda was busy preparing for the worst and everyone else was either away, occupied with their own concerns, or just providing Jake with a little downtime before the renewed action began.
“That feels good,” Sara commented as she leaned into him, her bare skin against his as the two had not bothered to dress after a quick shower before bed.
A soft rustling sound in one corner told Jake that Kona had found a comfortable spot and he needn’t worry about the dog interrupting the couple by claiming the end of the bed. Allowing his fingers to work their way down the length of her naked form, Jake could detect the transformation in his partner from relaxed to aroused.
He felt her press her body into his as he focused his attention on specific parts of her slender frame.
“It’s been too long,” he heard her whisper in his ear as he gently rolled her on her back and began kissing her neck.
For the next hour, all the couple thought about was pleasing one another.
----*----
Jacob’s upgraded range finding system confirmed the approach of the alien ship before Jake landed. The increased resolution allowed them to determine it was a larger version of the ships already on Earth and likely not intended for landing. Speculation around the alien’s ability to detect the range finder scanning had driven the decision to limit its use, to infrequent irregular scans.
Still a few hours behind Jake, that left a small window of opportunity, one the humans desperately needed to reinforce their own defenses. That was particularly important as the badly needed NeHaw ship was still just less than half a day behind that. The only hope was the aliens would use that time for their own preparation and the delay would give the humans a fighting chance.
Chapter 25
“Battle stations,” Captain James Erisey declared as his Pilot moved Revenge into position.
Brought back to Earth and paired with the NeHaw destroyer, Revenge was supposed to be looking for ships on the surface of the planet. The plan was for the pair to scan the surface in tandem and flush the prey into the waiting sights of two fully armed Patrol craft. Larger and more heavily armed that the Cruiser or the Destroyer, the Patrol craft was assumed to be able to make short work of their prey.
Unfortunately, both those ships were out of position as the alien craft appeared unexpectedly. When Revenge and the NeHaw activated their combined antiphase systems, the devices propagated the signals in all directs, rather than a focused effort down.
An unexpected result was the unmasking of an orbiting ship, apparently supplying the needs of the ground forces below without landing itself. The last time the ship was located, it had been on the opposite side of the planet, over the ship in Africa. Particularly large, the ship dwarfed the cruiser and the nearby destroyer by a large margin.
With their allies behind them and the enemy in front, Revenge was the only thing preventing the NeHaw destroyer from obliteration.
“Let ‘em have it!” the Captain ordered, losing any hit of his English roots in the shouted command.
As if of one mind, both the alien craft and Revenge exchanged broadsides of gunfire, every available gun brought to bear lighting up space with heat and glow. Revenge railguns streamed fire from hypersonic projectiles, every fifth slug streaming a red trail as a tracer round. Revenge rocked with the impact of energy lances working to eat their way past the ship’s defenses. Locked in overlapping virtual tiles of stasis shielding, the bridge windows went dark as the shielding enveloped the unprotected area of the ship.
Almost immediately, cameras replaced the imagery, converting the windows into video displays. The bridge crew was treated to a dazzling display as both ships slugged it out, both taking a toll on one another.
“Batteries two and seven are down,” the Tactical Officer declared at the loss of grouped weapons located in differing parts of the ship.
While the stasis shields protected the ship itself, the exposed weapons systems were at the mercy of direct hits from the enemy fire. The energy lances had a characteristic of sweeping the opponent's hull and scoring hits in its wake.
“What was that?” the Communications Officer asked as a new set of energy pulses scored repeated hits on the alien vessel.
“The NeHaw,” came the reply from the Tactical Officer whose job it was to try and make sense of the chaos around them.
Slipping just below the shadow of Revenge, the NeHaw destroyer had found a small window of space, allowing it to, nose first, join in the fight while minimizing their exposure.
“We are losing shielding on the starboard bow,” the Tactical Officer declared as the alien ship launched another attack.
“Come on dearie, hold together,” James muttered as he watched the display flicker and then return as another set of cameras succumb to the alien’s guns.
“Battery one is down and the shields failed there as well,” Tactical warned.
“Bring the bow around to protect that zone,” the Captain instructed the Pilot.
“Damn, these guys can take a pounding,” the Navigator commented as his hands flew over the control panel like a piano player, assisting the Pilot.
“Protect our bow,” the Captain commented in a somewhat urgent tone.
“Trying Sir,’ the Navigator responded, his hands a blur as they danced on the control panel.
“Hull breach, starboard bow,” came the warning from Engineering.
“Seal it off,” the Captain ordered.
By now the exchange of weapons fire was becoming more one sided. The two Patrol Craft had moved wide enough from behind their stern to join in the fray and the NeHaw, not to be denied, had held their place firing everything they could bring to bear.
“Sir,” the Tactical Officer stated while motioning at the display.
The alien ship had ceased firing, their hull breached in so many places it was hard to count. The ship began to list and twist slightly as if the attitude control had gone out. As everyone watched, James recognized the signs of a dying ship. Smaller eruptions led to larger ones until the entire ship seemed to vibrate as if it were being racked with convulsions.
“Oh, dear lord. Sound collision alert! Everyone, brace yourself,” James declared as he motioned for those around him to grab on to something solid.
The explosion of the alien craft splattered Revenge with chunks of the ship, large and small. Far too close to maneuver in avoidance, the battle-damaged vessel had to absorb the pounding as flying chunks pushed the ship out of orbit, thankfully deeper into space instead of toward the planet itself.
“Don’t fight it, let her drift to soften the blows,” the Captain ordered the Pilot whose gut reaction would be to hold their position.
Slowly the pelting subsided and a quiet settled in over the bridge, as everyone was counting fingers and toes.
“Damage report,” Erisey finally requested, breaking the silence.
“Sir, the rangefinder is down,” the Navigation Officer said somberly.
“Oh, bugger.”
----*----
“Damage report,” MaJok queried as he watched the bits of space debris float past the bridge windows.
What had once been a rather sizeable vessel was now reduced to chunks of space debris.
“Negligible Sir. We have some minor damage on the bow and have lost two energy cannons on the port side. Other than that, we are fully operable,” came the reply from Engineering.
“And the humans?” he asked cautiously, not sure if he was worried or excited about their injuries.
“The iron hulled demons show no noticeable damage. The cruiser displays significant damage to the forward hull as well as several gun positions damaged or missing,” the Tactical Officer responded.
“Life signs on the cruiser?” he asked.
“Positive life signs throughout the vessel,” came the answer from the Science Officer’s sensor scan.
“Shields, engines, and about half their weapons are still functional,” Engineering added.
“Should I attempt to contact them?” the Communications Officer asked.
The entire bridge crew watched their Commander as he considered the request. MaJok would have preferred just to point his ship to the nearest edge of this solar system and head for NeHaw space but knew that was not an option. Even if the ship nearby was heavily damaged, the cursed humans would just pair them up with another, possibly less capable Captain than this one. He had understood that this man had used his ship to shield his destroyer from significant damage, absorbing the impact himself.
“Request their status and offer thanks for protecting our ship. Relay we are here to assist should they require it,” he explained.
----*----
The battle about to rage in space, so high above that it would remain unseen to those below, was yet to begin. The Phase Inhibiting combination from Revenge and the NeHaw destroyer were preparing to splash their unseen waves in all directions, a significant portion intended to arrive over a German forest.
The reason they had been stationed in that particular spot in orbit was more than evident to those on the ground. It was hoped that they could prevent the alien reinforcement buildup, suspected to be occurring in Africa. It was an open question as they began to spill out from the glade where they had been gathering. With their numbers greater than before, the alien troops began to push their way into the woods and toward the human lines.
“Here they come again,” Daniel heard his Sergeant comment as the ghostly figures materialized between the trees, fading in and out in their Phase Mode.
“What the bloody hell was that,” Daniel heard as a fiery lance blazed its way across some logs, trees dropped to create cover for the troops behind them.
“Looks like we weren’t the only ones bringing a weapon’s upgrade to the fight,” he said to no one in particular.
At that moment the human flamethrowers answered the alien fire lance with blisteringly bright streams of their own from several points along the line. The burning, crashing trees and flaming shrubs left in their wake did little to slow the advancing line, unfortunately.
Unlike the traditional fire breathing weapons of old, these were actually more of a broad beamed laser, lower powered as there was no need to cut steel, but plenty powerful enough to cut down trees and ignite anything combustible. Their reach was also quite remarkable as they easily spanned the distance across the battlefield.
“Is it my imagination or are there more this time?” the Sergeant asked aloud.
Scanning the line, Daniel had to agree with the assessment as it appeared there were a significantly greater number of weapons firing at them. Daniel almost swore he was looking at two advancing lines, the one behind firing through those in front as they phased out.
Their advance was slow but steady, their return fire more accurate than before and the sheer volume of fire forcing his own people to keep their heads down lest they lose them. It was only the sporadic nature of the irregular phasing, that gave the humans a window to return fire.
“Go on the mortars,” Daniel ordered on the comm tactical net.
They had laid out a series of markers that signaled when the enemy was best engaged by which weapon and they were now squarely in the middle of the mortar zone. The explosions began to erupt all around the battlefield as round after round exploded amid the phasing alien lines. A small glimmer of hope stirred inside as Daniel noted the alien gunfire diminished, engulfed in the barrage.
The feeling faded quickly, however as the ghost like silhouettes appeared once more, closer now and picking up the pace in speed and return fire. Unable to halt the advance, Daniel was debating when to order the retreat under fire. This was far too close for their plan to succeed.
“Any bloody time now,” Daniel transmitted to the ships in space as he was expecting a miracle from above.
The plan had been to get the aliens to expose themselves, in effect, to draw them out in force where the humans could engage. Once the alien lines were fully committed, the Phase Inhibitor was to be activated and the full effect of the human weaponry could be brought to bear on the alien force. All he could tell at the moment was something must have gone wrong.
“Major, look,” one of the troopers shouted over the noise of the surrounding gunfire and a cheer erupted along the human front.
The vaporous lines of advancing aliens suddenly solidified. There was a moment of pause as the leading element evaporated under the withering gunfire of the humans before the rest scattered, looking for some kind of cover.
“It works!” Daniel heard someone shout as the weapons fire increased from the intermixed SAS, German and Chinese forces.
Now the intermingled return fire erupted on the alien side as they transitioned from a slowly advancing line, to a fire from cover force. No longer impervious to the human’s weapons, the alien troops reorganized themselves into smaller groups, attempting to continue their advance on a concentrated center, but finding it impossible in the face of the withering return fire.
“Have sections B and K press forward,” Daniel ordered over his command net.
The order would have sections of the line shift into a pincer movement increasing the pounding on the advancing aliens from all sides and forcing them to defend from several directions. His selection of sections also prevented the aliens from attempting an end around as the outlying sections would intercept such an action.
The second set of mortars was given the go order, these tubes, larger than the smaller ones used for close support, began booming in the distance. The tubes were more than capable of reaching the two miles needed to hit the alien craft sitting in the glade beyond the battlefield and trees behind that. A brief switch on his tactical display along his forearm rewarded him with the shattered wreck of an alien craft as it took hit after a direct hit from the mortars.
Returning his attention to the fight in front of him, Daniel realized the aliens were halted and looked to be in indecision as to what to do next. He started to issue the order to advance when a blinding explosion from above provided what appeared to be a second sun for a brief moment before it finally faded. Disappearing as quickly as it appeared, everyone seemed to need a pause to allow their eyes to adjust. Daniel peered back over the battlefield, only to shake his head in disbelief and look again.
“They are gone,” someone noted, the words putting sounds to his thoughts.
Looking out over what was once a quiet forest floor, craters, downed trees, and burning underbrush were littered with hundreds of bodies, all in the same black and silver suits and none moving. Any sign of movement was attributed to the destruction around them, but no living creatures appeared to remain.
“Alternating sections move forward, search for survivors. Keep a wary eye as they may have restored their phasing gear,” Daniel ordered, concerned it was some kind of trick.
Unspoken thoughts concerning the explosion overhead that lit up the sky may have been one of the human ships lingered in his mind.
“Morgana, can you give me an overhead of their ship please,” Daniel requested, looking to see if the aliens had retreated to their damaged ship.
“My pleasure,” came the short reply as the display on his forearm lit up with the image supplied from the tactical drones hovering over the field of battle.
Flipping between several cameras Daniel was unable to locate a living soul in or around the wreckage.
“Buggered off, didn’t they,” came the audio from Morgana.
“Apparently,” came Daniel's reply.
“Anything else you require my pet?” Morgana asked amorously.
“Let’s begin medivac operations and get a scientific team over to the wreck ASAP luv,” Daniel responded in kind.
“As you wish,” she replied.
----*----
“We have one ship destroyed and one trapped in a stasis bubble, where is the third?” Jake asked the assembled group as they reviewed the latest tactical data.
“Not counting the reinforcements ship,” someone added as they referred to the space debris still in orbit.
“Point taken,” Jake acknowledged.
“Is it possible they bugged out after the fight in Germany? We still don’t know where all the surviving alien troops went after the phase inhibitor stopped working,” Linda asked aloud reference the battle in the German forest.
