Saxon Andrew - A rose grows in weeds

Tag looked at the display and said, “We need to give ourselves some room to operate. Jump one of the forts into the front of their formation now.”

Dorg pushed his com and said, “Mikado, jump one of the forts 50,000 miles into the plant formation and detonate it.”

Mikado pressed the control on his control panel and one of the forts moved out from the planet and began moving toward the plant fleet. The crew on the fort boarded their ship and counted down their jump to coincide with the forts jump. Mikado turned on the fleet general frequency and said, “Ten seconds until the fort jumps.”

All of the human ships watched until the fort suddenly disappeared and a blast engulfed the front ranks of the plant fleet. The plant ships in the first 100,000 miles were blown out of existence. Rose watched the blast and closed her eyes and saw what was going to happen. She turned to Tag and yelled, “Withdraw the fleet now, we’re about to be hit.”

Tag looked at her and looked back at the huge blast in front of the Stars Realm fleet wondering how they were going to get hit by anything. Then he commed the fleet and said, “Withdraw toward the planet now.”

The Stars Realm fleet turned and accelerated toward the planet. Then Tag saw what Rose was yelling about. More than two million of the new plant ships came around the blast from all sides moving at a speed that was incredible. They were going to be on them in less than five minutes and the fleet was not going to be able to outrun them.

Tag commed McAllister and said, “Launch as many penetrators as you can. We’re about to be overrun.”

Cade commed him back and said, “We won’t be able to get enough in to stop them all; we are still trying to slow the rest of the plant fleet coming around the forts blast.”

“Do what you can but we are going to lose ships if you don’t slow these new plant ships.”

The Stars Realm ships began firing their penetrators and space between the two fleets looked like hundreds of thousands of laser beams as the penetrators accelerated into the incoming plant ships at half the speed of light. There were so many plant ships that the front ranks would be targeted by the penetrators but those in the second and third ranks were hidden behind the front rank. Then the two fleets hit and ships began to die.

Tag watched as his ships killed thousands of ships every second but more than six thousand of the plant ships made it through and hit his fleet. Five thousand mega ships died with nine hundred more being damaged severely within five minutes of contact.

Tag lifted his com and said, “Admiral Mikado, prepare the remaining forts to make their run into the plant formation to take out the front of their fleet. Walk the forts out with the second one exploding 25,000 miles further into their formation than the first one. Let’s see if we can’t back them up to give us some room to maneuver.

One of the forts jumped into the front of the oncoming fleet and exploded clearing a hundred thousand miles of their front ships. The next fort jumped to the back edge of the explosion and cleared out another hundred thousand miles. This continued until all sixteen forts had made their jumps. Almost two million miles of the front of the incoming fleet was blown away in the huge explosions of the forts. Of the plants eleven million ships, more than six million were destroyed.

Rose looked at the plant fleet and knew that most of the ships killed were the old heavy harvesters and that more than four million of the new missile ships were still coming. Now there were no more forts. She looked at Tag and said, “You’ve got to prepare the fleet to jump away. They are coming and there are still more than sixty thousand miles of heavy harvesters to get thru before you can hit their new ships. Those new ships will be on you before you can get underway if you wait.”

Tag looked at Rose and keyed his com, “All ships, have your star drives ready to jump on my command. We are going to go out to 1,200 miles from their front and back away toward the planet. As soon as their new missile ships come at us, I want you to jump away when they are five hundred miles away.”

Tag keyed his com again and said, “Cade, we’re out of forts; you have got to keep them off us. Jump your penetrators into the gap between the fleets and keep firing as we back away toward the planet.”

Cade nodded and the screen went dark. Suddenly thousands of the new penetrators began jumping in between the front of the oncoming plant ships and retreating Stars Realm fleet. Tag and Rose looked at the penetrators coming out of their star drives and the whole front looked like a continuous silver-blue lightning flash as they emerged from null space. Rose watched the rolling of wave after wave of penetrators and saw that the Plant fleet was being held two thousand miles in front of the SR Fleet.

Rose looked at Tag and said, “Dad, it’s time. She looked at Commodore O’Donald and said, “Jump your ships to these coordinates, please.”

Bridget took the paper with the numbers on them and said, “These are a long way from here.”

Rose said, “None the less, make your jump immediately and have all your weapons brought on line before your jump.”

Bridget looked at Tag and he went to his chair and placed his hand in the indent on his console and said, “Weapons free.”

The Kosiev felt like it had come alive. There was a hum that filled the room then rose in pitch until it disappeared. The lights dimmed and a background of yellow light filled the bridge. Bridget handed the coordinates to the helmsman and said, “Jump to these now.”

Tag commed Dorg and said, “Hold the fort and don’t let them take the north wall. We are leaving and you now will assume overall command of our fleet.”

“Where are you going?” Dorg asked amazed that Tag would leave at this critical moment.

“I don’t know, Admiral, but Rose says we must go now.”

Dorg looked at Tag and said, “Stay in touch and tell that daughter of yours I love her.”

Rose commed back, “I know, Uncle; we’ll contact you shortly.”

The jump officer entered the coordinates and hit the jump switch. The jump tone sounded and the Kosiev disappeared from the raging battle.”

The Algean Fleet Leader saw the huge ship disappear from his sensors and wondered where it was going. He didn’t know why but it worried him. These strangers just weren’t predictable and he knew that the big ship leaving was not a good thing.

The Kosiev broke back into normal space above a green covered planet. It hadn’t been in normal space but ten seconds before thousands of ships began attacking. He could see that millions of ships around the planet were moving toward them on his chair’s console screen. “Where are we Rose?” Tag asked.

“We are at the Plant’s home world. Commodore O’Donald, I need you to hold off the attacking ships while I try to persuade the leaders of the Plants to communicate with me.”

Tag was stunned. Rose was right, he would have never allowed her to come here but he was committed to try and help her accomplish what she came to do. “Commodore, the ship is yours.”

Rose said, “Try not to fire at any of them; you should be able to hold them off defensively for a while.”

Tag looked at his daughter with amazement then looked at O’Donald and saw her nod. “She’s right, Your Majesty; they will not be able to harm us. I’ll hold them off until you order us to fire our weapons.”

Tag looked at O’Donald and thought, “There is a lot about this ship I haven’t learned. Maybe Rose does know what she’s doing. Then he turned his attention to Rose who was allowing him to listen in on her communication attempt.”

“I am trying to communicate with the Eldest Leader of this race,” Rose thought at the planet.