Saxon Andrew - A rose grows in weeds

The room was quiet as everyone thought about why she would ask that question. Then Tag said, “I believe we can program them to do that; why would we want to do that?”

“What if things turned bad and we were forced to jump out. What would those forts do if they were flown into the Plants fleet and detonated? How big of an explosion would they make? Also, if they appeared to be escaping, wouldn’t the Plants attack them with large numbers?”

Tag was quiet and then turned to Cade. “What about it. Does what she’s suggesting have any merit?”

Cade sat there running calculations on his console and then he looked up shaking his head and said, “If we flew the 16 forts around the Dremels Planet half way out to the jump limit and detonated them, everything within 100,000 miles of each of those forts would be destroyed.”

Tag sat down stunned, “How can that be?”

Cade said, “Remember, those 16 forts have the ninety foot power cells and it takes more than two weeks close to a star to fully charge them. Releasing all that energy at once would be similar to a small nova; the blast wave would be devastating.”

“What about the crews manning the forts?” Misty asked.

“That’s actually the simple part,” Cade answered. “We place a transport on the fort with the null star drive to escape. When the star drive is activated, the fort detonates five seconds later. The resulting blast will eliminate the null drives coordinates so the Plants won’t be able to read them.”

Tag looked at Danielle and said, “What a great idea. Even if things don’t go bad, we will use these forts for that purpose. What better use could we use them except to reduce the Plants fleets. I think we can now break off and discuss this among ourselves and see if there is anything else we can think to do. We’ll get back together in two hours, or drags for those speaking Alliance.”

Tag looked at Danielle and thought to her, “Tell Rose I said to thank her for that idea.”

Danielle furrowed her brow and thought back, “How did you know that?”

Tag looked at the woman he loved and thought, “Because thinking of ways to take life is foreign to you; you always find ways to save life.”

Rose sheepishly thought to Tag, “Caught again. You have to admit, it is a good idea.”

Tag laughed and thought back, “Keep them coming, Rose; keep them coming.”

The Algean Fleet Leader was discussing the completion of the harvest and the plans to invade the recently discovered system suspected of being the Strangers Home System with the Elders. There were only ten rotations left and most of the final 900 harvesting ships were full and ready for departure. He was beginning to believe that the Strangers were not going to interfere with their final harvest and that he had just been nervous. He keyed his console and said, “I was worried about the Strangers attacking again but it appears that we will finish with no interruptions.”

The Eldest Leader said, “What plans have you decided to use to attack the Stranger’s System and how long before you leave to attack them?”

“We will finish here in ten rotations and we will then organize the three fleets and go directly to their system.”

“Will you need more ships?”

“No, Eldest, they ran from our combined fleets last time and we should have enough ships to defeat them.”

Suddenly the Fleet Leader’s sensor tool interrupted him by yelling, “Thousands of Stranger ships have just jumped in the system and are moving in toward the planet.”

The Fleet Leader looked at his display and saw thousands of the white ships lined up and moving inside the jump limit toward his massed fleet. He had moved most of his ships close to the planet to protect the harvesters from the hit and run tactics the Strangers had been using at the jump limit. He had left two bands of anti-matter missiles between his fleet and the jump limit and those missiles were now turning on their engines and began targeting the incoming ships. The Eldest looked at the Fleet Leader and said, “Are you able to handle this attack?”

“They are bringing in the same number of ships they used in the last attack, so I believe we should have enough unless they have new technology. It might be a good idea to have another fleet ready to jump in behind them to prevent their escape.”

The Eldest looked away from the display and said, “Order another fleet to the system.” He then looked back and said, “They will arrive quickly to support you.”

The Fleet Leader nodded and turned off his display. He looked at his console and saw on his display that the anti-matter missiles were waiting for the incoming fleet to reach 300 miles from their position. There were 30 million missiles waiting for the Strangers to come into range and he ordered his fleet to begin moving to intercept the Strangers. Suddenly, 2000 huge ships jumped in behind the line of Stranger’s ships, accelerated to just in front of the incoming ships and then turned and accelerated back to the jump limit and disappeared. “What was that about?” he wondered.

Tag watched his display as the transports accelerated to his formation and released their full load of hornets. Each one of those transports carried more than 30,000 hornets that were ejected out of their pulse cannons at tremendous velocity. The 60 million hornets leaped ahead of the Stars Realm fleet and moved toward the band of waiting anti-matter missiles. “Maintain five thousand mile separation from the hornets,” Tag said over the general fleet frequency. The SR Fleet slowed and allowed the hornets to move 5,000 miles in front of them and the fleet accelerated and matched the hornet’s velocity. Once the hornet’s sensors began detecting the anti-matter missiles, they turned on their thrusters and accelerated into their ranks. As the hornets designated the front ranks of the Plant missiles the remainder flew above and below those that were targeted. Five thousand miles in front of the SR Fleet, anti-matter missiles began exploding.

Tag spoke into his com, “All ships, move into tube formation and launch hornets as needed.”

The 50,000 ships of the SR Fleet moved from a line into a hollow cylinder formed by five lines of ten thousand ships each moving toward the waiting missiles like a spear. The hornets had been programmed to destroy everything in front and to the sides of the formation. The blasts were far enough away from the fleet that the Megaships screens could handle it without failing. As the outer ships screens turned red, they would move inside the cylinder and new ships would replace them. The SR Fleet moved inexorably toward the Algean Fleets surrounding the planet.

The Algean Fleet Leader could not determine what was happening. The entire space in front of the Strangers ships was a huge mass of anti-matter explosions that were happening on such a massive scale that none of his sensors could see into it. Power missiles were exploding on a ten thousand mile front. He ordered his ships to stop moving toward the Strangers ships out of fear that the anti-matter explosions would destroy his ships. His fleet stopped and stayed behind the second band of power missiles. He kept watching the massive explosions wondering how much longer they could possibly continue. He had placed two bands of power missiles between the jump limit and the planet. The power missiles had a range limit of 300 miles before they ran out of fuel so they had to wait for the incoming ships to get inside their range. There was 100,000 miles between bands and the second band could not go to support the first band because they were too far out. The first band was 90,000 miles wide and had more than 30 million power missiles. “How can anything survive that?” he thought and then he saw the huge cylinder of the Strangers Ships emerge from the explosions and then fan out into a long line moving toward his fleet. The Fleet leader was stunned. The missiles did not appear to have any affect. The Strangers ships accelerated toward his second band of power missiles and moved rapidly beyond the 300 mile range of the missiles in the first band that had survived.