Saxon Andrew - A rose grows in weeds

The Algean Leaders swayed in the gentle breeze on their home world looking up at the bright red sun. They had their feet solidly placed in the golden soil tasting the nutrients. One of the Algean scientists approached and stood beside the soil waiting for the leaders to notice. The Eldest Leader broke his attention from the sun and said, “Have you been able to determine how the Strangers have been able to find us?”

“No, Leader, we have not. Some of us think that perhaps they managed to place a device on the hull of one of our ships but close inspection has not turned up anything. We will continue to look but I think they must have some form of technology that we do not possess. One of our junior scientists postulates that they might be doing it with psychic skills but again we have no evidence to support that view.”

The Eldest Leader swayed and said, “Have any of our psychics ever been able to do what he is postulating?”

“No, Leader, we have not. I just think we have tried to come up with any idea because we just can’t explain how they keep finding our harvesting operations. Doing it psychically is just pure conjecture.”

“Thank you, you may go back to your group. Notify me if you find anything.” The old scientist bowed and shambled away from the grove of Algean Leaders.

The second oldest leader turned and said, “The Strangers have not returned since their last attack on the Harvesters. I’m concerned that they may be waiting for the next Harvesters to come out to the null band.”

The Eldest Leader leaned toward the Military Leader and said, “Have you made any plans to insure the Harvesters safety.”

“Yes, Leader, I have. We will bring the new fleet to the null band and place a missile shield around the space the Harvesters will jump from to our storage world. I am also having two full fleets on alert for immediate jump into the system if the Strangers show up again. I know they are our older model ships but they have been armed with the new power missile. We will follow them this time when they jump away. I will assign a ship to every ship they use to track their jumps.”

The Eldest Leader said nothing but looked back up at the bright red sun which told the Military Leader that his plan was acceptable. The golden soil continued to feed them and they relaxed enjoying the beautiful day.

Tag, Dorg, Chen, Mikado, and Ron-Dar sat around the conference table in the Gardner Castle Library planning the upcoming battle. Tag looked around the table and said, “I’m sure some of you are wondering why I’ve invited Ron-Dar to the meeting. His actions during our hit and run on the Algeans at the planet they are currently harvesting have convinced me that he has the talent to command more than just one ship, so I have sent the paperwork to promote him to Commodore effective with this meeting. He will continue to command my five ship flotilla and control the group jump mechanism that is being installed in all our ships. My group will not be involved in the fleet action but will stand off and observe what is taking place making sure our ships are not trapped during the battle. Welcome to the Fleet Command Circle, Ron-Dar.”

“Thank you very much, Mr. Gardner. I look forward to assisting this group any way I can.”

Dorg smiled and said, “It’s good to have a Glod on our team. I was getting weary of this constant Human perspective.” He looked around the room at the humans present and said, “Lighten-up, you know I’m just playing with you. Ron-Dar, I know Tgon-Gee and all your people are proud of you and we also look forward to working together.”

“Where are we in our plans right now?” Tag asked.

Dorg pressed a button on his console and pointed at the wall display, “We have discussed how we are going to prepare our ships for this engagement and what you said earlier troubled me.”

Tag leaned back in his chair and said, “How so?”

“I don’t think the plants will wait until after this battle to use massive numbers. We hit their harvesters at just the moment before they jumped and you know we hurt their food resources by doing so; I think they probably expect us to hit them again when the next harvesters attempt to make their exit from the system.”

Tag leaned back, closed his eyes for a minute and said, “We would do the same thing if it were us. I think you’re right. I suspect they have a plan in place to use additional support if we show up again; I’m just not certain about how much support that might be.”

Mikado leaned forward and added, “How many ships are we going to use? Why would they not make an overwhelming number available?”

“So what’s the Plan?” Tag asked.

“We are going to prepare two fleets differently,” Dorg said. “Mikado’s fleet will carry a weapon load and set their beams for the new ships the Algeans have developed. Admiral Chen will arm his ships with the weapons needed to handle the old style ships. Obviously, Chen’s penetrators will have to carry hornets where Mikado’s will be the new three stage penetrators. Mikado’s ships will also be programmed to fire the small primary beams that move seventy feet across the surface of the ship they hit. Chen’s will use the wide primary beams of our earlier battles.”

“Why can’t you arm the ships with both types of weapons?” Tag asked while looking at the wall display that had pictures of the various weapons to be used.

“Because it takes time to rotate the mix and in a space battle time is something that is in short supply. Not only would the Captains have to track what type of ship they’re tracking but then advise weapons to change the mix of weapons. This way, you avoid the ships you’re not armed to handle and attack those you are.” If none of the old ships show up, then Chen will stand off and fire two stage penetrators at the Algeans. We are including three volleys of the new hornets on Chen’s ships because the Algeans may fire some of those new anti-matter missiles at him. This would at least allow him to escape before being hit.”

“I think you’ve come up with a good plan, Admiral; while we’re fighting, Tresk will attempt to use the new jump system on the other side of the planet. We won’t have to stay long.” Tag looked around and said, “Is there anything else?”

No one said anything so everyone stood up to leave but Ron-Dar said, “I have one small concern.”

Everyone stopped and looked at him and he said, “If they bring in the number of ships you anticipate, won’t they have enough to assign every one of our ships several vessels to track our jump line? And since the battle takes place outside the jump limit, they will have immediate readings of our jumps.”

Everyone sat back down. Ron-Dar said, “If I might suggest to the group, why don’t we use some of the Plant tactics.”

Dorg looked at him and said, “Go on.”

“We know the route we’re going to use to jump from the system while making our escape; why not set up a globe of penetrators in five consecutive jumps. Our entire fleet jumps into the first coordinates in the middle of fifty thousand penetrators and immediately jumps out to the second globe of missiles, then to the third, and so forth. After we enter the fifth globe, we jump back to the first globe and finish off any ships left behind and then go thru the other four systems we left penetrators. When we get back to the fifth globe the second time, we jump our ships into the center of the globe facing out. I don’t think they will jump into the center again at that point. We will then destroy any ships that show up. We know that the jump tracks will disappear after 10 minutes so we’ll jump out to a sixth location and see if anything shows up. If nothing does, then the fleet will jump thru three other locations waiting 10 minutes each time to make sure they were not followed.”