“Fleet Leader Hogn,” Richard Commed to the Empire Ships Commander, “Do you have any plant movement on your sensors?”
The Small Cainth Commander on board the Cainth Empire Ship Short Sword replied, “We have some movement your way but it is so scattered that they’re not presenting much of a concentration for us to fire on. They won’t arrive at your location for more than eight hours which will be around the same time that the Plant fleet arrives. It will be dark by then and since they don’t give off any heat, they’ll be more difficult to see. If they use weapon platforms or anything else that uses energy, we will hit it from space but the plants won’t be easily seen, at least not from this altitude. If you’ll set your markers, you can call in supporting fire as you need it. If the forts get in trouble, we will have to move to support them and you and your men will have to hold out.”
Richard thought that it was not coincidence that the Plant troops and fleet were arriving at the same time. “How are we doing on the off loading of our weapons?” He looked over his shoulder and saw the huge structure going up in the middle of their formations. The four sides bordered a square that was two miles on each side. Once completed the structure would have walls fifty meters thick. There would be enough room for all the drop troops to enter but then they would be trapped inside with no freedom of movement. Drop troops were at their best in fluid situations that allowed them to move and attack from different directions.
General Dorg beeped his com and Richard said, “Go ahead, General. What can I do to help you?”
“Have you decided how you want to handle the initial assault?”
“I would like to entice them into attacking our front. It’s my opinion that the Naval Marines armor is superior to all of the forces here so I would like to take the initial and heaviest charge.”
Dorg looked at Wiseman and said, “Just how do you intend to do that?”
“We will space our forces among your troops and turn on their invisibility. To the on rushing Plants our lines will look much more porous than the other three. All of our weapon platforms have also been coated in the clear armor and they will also be unseen.”
Dorg said, “How will we maintain unit cohesion during the fight? Won’t the command structure be compromised if we mix our forces together?”
“Our basic structure is built around our companies which consist of 160 troopers and their support weapons.”
“My division is broken down much the same way,” Dorg said.
Then I suggest that we alternate our companies along our front. The 160 man spacing will look like openings in your lines. Set up your weapon platforms to cover the area between your companies so it looks like you don’t have enough troops to cover your front. We will set up our platforms to cover the front of your companies. Once the Plants discover our little subterfuge, we’ll free our platforms to targets of opportunity.”
“Just how good is your new armor, General?”
“It can take direct hits from your heavy weapons platforms.”
Dorg looked at Richard on his display and it was clear he was skeptical of the claim. Richard keyed his com and said, “Colonel Watson, report.”
Jer came on their display and said, “Yes Sir.”
“Jump over to General Dorg’s headquarters and demonstrate your armor for him.”
“Jumping now, Sir.”
Dorg stood there and waited for the Colonel to show up. After two minutes he said to Richard, “When is he going to get here?”
“Colonel Watson, show General Dorg your armor.”
Suddenly Jer appeared standing within a foot of Dorg directly in front of him. Dorg jumped back and nearly fell until Jer grabbed his hand and held him up. “I never saw you,” Dorg said.
“Our coating can hide us effectively, General. It allows us to be very, very sneaky.”
“Colonel, step out in front of the Generals lines and let them hit you with heavy weapons fire.”
“Yes Sir.”
Jer jumped completely over the Cainth’s front line and stood a hundred yards in front of their position. Dorg shrugged and ordered him hit with both beam and projectile platforms. The two platforms opened fire and Jer disappeared in the dust that rose around him. “Cease fire, Dorg said.
Jer stood there and then jumped back inside their lines. His armor looked just as it did before. Dorg was amazed. “General Wiseman, we have to get this for all our troops.”
“We’re working on it but it is so new we can’t even get all of our forces in them. We have sent the specs to your government but it looks like Earths factories are the only ones at this point that can produce them. We’ll just have to use what we have General. Once the battle starts, the fort will start firing when the Plants are three miles out, you will start at two miles out; my companies will hold their fire until the Plants are one mile out and at that point we will hit them with all we’ve got. If we have to fall back, your companies will go the first 500 yards and then ours will move back even with them and this process will continue until we are inside the walls of our fort. We will try and hold our lines but fall back if it looks like we’re going to be overrun.” The eight divisions started working hard to get their lines organized before the plants arrived.
Seven hours later Richard looked away from his display and said to General Dorg, “Navy reports a huge mass of Plants headed this way. They are currently hitting them from space but the mass is using the topography to avoid the beams. They’ll arrive here in forty minutes and they’re moving fast.” Richard keyed his general com and said, “Attention all units; the Plants will arrive in forty minutes. Prepare your lines and hold. Keep your general com open in the event I call for a withdrawal.”
Colonel Huseen watched his sensors display and saw the Algean Fleet arriving. The ships split and moved to surround the planet from 50,000 miles out. It held that distance until all of its ships were equally distributed around the equator. He keyed his com and said, “The range of our focused primaries is 30,000 miles with a width of 1,500 feet. If we can get them in to less than a thousand miles, we can probably take out a large number of their ships. We will not turn on the screen until we absolutely must do so. Use you needles to hit any missiles targeted at the forts from long range. I want them to think they have to overload our defenses with huge numbers. In the fleet action they fired when they were less than 800 miles away. That is what I’m hoping to get done here. All forts can turn on the screen with their energy switch if they are endangered; however, I want all of you to delay as long as you possibly can.”
The Algean Half Fleet Leader held his ships at 50,000 miles from the forts and planet. He knew the Algean armies on the surface were timing their attack with his arrival but he didn’t want to go in blind against those eight huge asteroids circling the planet. “Fire one power missile at each of those constructs.”
On the asteroids, the warning klaxon started sounding warning of incoming missiles. Huseen saw that the plants had launched an anti matter missile at each of the forts and keyed his com, “Hit the missile targeted at your fort at 900 miles. It’s an antimatter missile so turn just the screen around your fort to 1/500 power. Do not turn on the general screen.”
The missiles flew at the eight forts until 900 miles out a needle hit each of them causing one of the largest explosions ever witnessed by the crews on the asteroids. The forts individual screens flashed on just long enough to stop any damage then went off. “Stand by,” said Huseen. “Let’s see what they do next.”