Saxon Andrews - The power of a Queen

“Commander, those ships are hitting the city as they crash.”

“Would you rather have those ships deliver the ten thousand soldiers? Fire all remaining missiles and go to your second stations. Do it now before they start hitting us.”

The sky above the city was awash in flame as thousands of missiles headed skyward and homed in on the incoming Plant transports. Thousands of the transports were hit and fell to the planet destroying huge sections of the city below. A-Group ran from the tops of the buildings and dove into elevator shafts that were empty of elevators. As they fell close to the ground they used their suit jets to slow them down. As they landed they ran out of the building and found the laser cannons they had hidden. The Commander of A-group looked up and wondered if the Plants were not as bright as he expected them to be. Suddenly the building where they had launched their missiles was hit by a beam from space and the entire structure blew apart. All over the central part of the city buildings were being blown into rubble.

“Alright, they think they have us now. Pick your targets wisely, warriors, and get on the move immediately after you fire.”

The mobile laser cannons watched their sensors as the transports began to come in again. They had reached fifteen hundred feet off the ground when every cannon in the city fired simultaneously. Transports fell by the hundreds. The mobile cannons raced away from their firing sites and looked for other places that had been set up to hide.

“Commander, invaders that were landed outside the city are approaching in mass. They’ll be hitting the southern city limit in moments.”

“Are the ardvile cannons ready?”

“Yes they are sir.”

“Fire when they are crossing the city limit.”

“Yes Sir.”

The Group Commander hoped he could slow the invaders down long enough for the transports that had left the planet to escape. His brother was the fleet commander and those ships were the best and brightest of his race. He watched his display as a green mass came rushing toward the southern part of the city. “Come on; get closer; get ready, fire!”

As the green horde rushed up on the city, ten thousand cannons launched twenty thousand energy projectiles each in a mass wave at the invaders. The cannons had been camouflaged and gave off no energy signature until they were fired. The entire wave of green invaders was blown back; more than a mile of their ranks was totally blown out of existence.”

All over the northern continent the Plants were being hit hard by the dug in defenders. Atlas watched the unbelievable carnage and thought that these defenders had been preparing for this invasion for a long time. The invaders were taking a huge hit on their landing forces. Perhaps the defenders might prevail and hold on to the planet. Then the city disappeared in a nuclear blast. All over the northern continent the ten largest cities were blown into radioactive dust.

Then the slaughter began. Organized resistance disappeared with the ten cities destruction. The green mass of invaders swept through the remaining population centers. Civilians were captured by the horde and eaten alive. Once their hunger was satisfied the invaders began herding the survivors into camps where they were stunned and transported up to the fleet to be consumed. Not only were the inhabitants transported but all the native wildlife and fish were transported. A ship would dive into the ocean and fire a stun beam into the water and all the sea life within miles of the ship would float to the surface to be swept into nets and transported. Within twelve hours ten percent of the life on the planet’s northern continent had been consumed or transported. At that point the ships began harvesting all the plants on the continent’s surface along with any organic life forms. Atlas then saw thousands of huge twenty mile long transports moving into the system to receive all that was being harvested from the surface. At that point a thousand ships began moving toward the escaping civilian ships.

Atlas had seen thousands of worlds that were bare on his travel into this galaxy. He knew he shouldn’t be experiencing any emotion but something in him made him sick with revulsion. Tag had used a term called cancer and he had looked into the Humans mind to understand what he was referring to and he agreed; this was a cancer and it was growing. He had to do something but he didn’t want to disclose his presence. He had seen enough of the savagery at the planet so he decided to take a chance. He jumped out to the fleeing civilian ships and extended his jump field to enclose all three hundred of them. He then jumped to another galaxy away from the one the Humans occupied on the possible chance that that the line of his jump could be traced. He then jumped to another Galaxy and then a third with the escaping ships still safely enclosed in his screen. He waited for forty minutes to see if the Plants had followed and then he jumped to the planet that the humans called Ross and dropped out of null space. He then found the leader of the civilian ships and contacted him on his communications board and explained that he had intervened to save them. He instructed them to land on the planet and to use the buildings that were undamaged on its surface to settle in. He promised that food would arrive shortly and that they would be contacted by a race that would help them. The shock of the interstellar jumps that had happened along with their miraculous escape left most of them in a state of semi-shock. The leader began questioning him but Atlas told him to wait and all his questions would be answered; then he jumped to the battle that had just ended in the Central Alliance system.

Tag had just finished his talk with Sten when Atlas said, “Tag, will you do something for me?”

Tag was startled but thought, “Sure, what do you want?”

Atlas quickly explained that he had saved some people from the plant race and had taken them to the planet called Ross. “Will you go there and help them?”

“Admiral,” Tag said, “I need you to change the jump coordinates to Ross. We need to go directly there.”

Kosiev looked at his communication officer and said, “Pass the order to the other ships that we will be jumping to Ross. We will be jumping in 30 seconds.” The Human battleships disappeared from the Alliance system and reappeared just outside the orbit of Ross.

“Where did those ships come from?” Kosiev asked Tag as he watched the shuttles leaving transports and landing on the planet’s surface.

“I’m not sure. I’m taking a shuttle down to the surface to see what’s going on. Standby and I’ll let you know.” Kosiev looked at him with an expression that Tag had come to know well, “Don’t worry, I’ll be safe.” Then Tag left to board a shuttle. “Atlas, these people aren’t members of the Alliance, how do I communicate with them?”

“Their leader is on the ground at the town of Ross. Just touch him and I’ll put a link in him so you can communicate thru your thoughts.”

Tag landed and all the new inhabitants ran from his ship. They were humanoid in appearance but were dark brown in color and had six fingers on each hand with two opposable thumbs on each hand. Their arms were shorter than Humans but had elbows that appeared to be able to rotate 360 degrees. Their black hair was sparse but covered most of their body. The head was large with a brow that had a ridge of raised skin that ran from their eyes to their ears which were small almost bat like. There was obvious intelligence in their face and one of them began walking toward his ship. Tag stepped out and waited for the Alien to come to him. The Alien said something that was completely unintelligible and Tag held out his hand. The Alien looked at him and then took Tags hand in his own. Tag could feel the small shock that went into the alien and watched him give a sudden start. “I think you can understand me now,” Tag said.