“Yes sir.”
Ron-Dar called in his jump officer and began issuing instructions, “Have you managed to finish calibrating the jump linkage for the other four ships?”
“Sir, what you’re asking has never been tried before.”
“I didn’t ask you if it has been tried before; I asked if you had completed the project I assigned you.”
The drive officer looked uncomfortable and said, “I have the slave mechanisms built but I need to trial it on two ships before I install it.”
Ron-Dar pressed his com and was connected to Admiral Mikado. “Sir, I need two ships to trial a device before we leave for the Algean Galaxy.”
Mikado looked at the newly promoted Glod Captain and asked, “Just what is the purpose of this device?”
“I want to be able to press a button at Mr. Gardner’s direction and have all of the ships in our squadron jump immediately to the coordinates entered on Retribution. I also want to be able to enter the formation that they will emerge into normal space so that we can maximize our firepower.”
Mikado stared at the Glod and said, “What prompted you to come up with this, Captain?”
“I thought that fast hit and run tactics would work best if all the units involved could move simultaneously without having to coordinate every jump officer on every ship. The mechanism will engage when the flagship energizes the master unit, then he only needs to decide where to go and put the formation he wants next to the coordinates.”
“I understand that you will have a total of five ships in your squadron; is that right?”
“Yes sir, it is.”
Mikado looked away from his display then said, “I will have five mega ships jump in to your position within an hour. Run your trials with them and if your device is successful, I want a working copy left with Captain Schmidt on the Texas.”
“Yes sir and thank you for your help,” Ron-Dar said. He looked at his drive officer and said, “Get your staff and equipment ready and go make it work. I’ll expect our ships to be linked by nine hundred hours.”
“Yes sir,” and the drive officer ran from the bridge. Lt. Rena watched the exchange between the two officers and thought that this new captain was one sharp blade. She looked forward to seeing what other surprises he had planned.
Tag sat in his ready room aboard Retribution looking at the five captains sitting around his conference table. Two of them were Human and one was from a race called Venzer and had participated in the final battle between the Humans and the Alliance at Sten’s Planet having chosen to side with those that rebelled against the Hargons. He looked almost amphibian with webbed fingers and toes and sleek dark fur covering his body. He stood four feet tall which actually made him shorter than the Cainth. Tag thought he looked like a beaver without the tail. The last two were his captain, Ron-Dar, and a Pydres. Tag was surprised to learn that he was Klas’ son and had worked his way up thru the ranks fighting against the Plants. Tag could sense the intensity of the young Pydres and knew he had a score to settle with the Algeans.
“Officers, good morning and welcome aboard,” Tag said. “The Plants are currently attacking a planet in their galaxy and harvesting all the life forms for their consumption. We jumped a stealth sensor probe outside the solar system, accelerated it toward the sun, and then shut down all systems except for passive sensors. We have been able to determine that the new ships the Plants have developed are there guarding their harvesting efforts. We have seen that forty of their heavy harvesting vessels are leaving the planet and moving toward the jump limit. We would like to be able to jump into the system and hit them but there are also frequency ships in the system preventing that. We will be attacking those harvesters just before they reach the limit. We also have developed a new technical device that will jump our ships as one unit. Ron-Dar will explain how it works. The harvesters arrive in 20 hours so we will be jumping to Gamma Galaxy in 19 hours and then to the system being attacked. Ron-Dar will be the senior officer on this mission simply because he is the commander of the flag ship; any questions?”
No one said anything so Ron-Dar stood and said, “Let me explain how the new device slaves our star drives together.” Tag stood and left the room to his officers.
The Algean Fleet Leader watched his display onboard his flagship as the fleet continued harvesting operations. His crew had just finished eating some of the inhabitants and he was preparing to move his ship back to the null band when his sensor leader stood up at his terminal and said, “Our ships at the null band have just been attacked by the Strangers.”
The Fleet Leader asked, “With what results?”
The Sensor Leader said, “We lost 489 ships with twenty of them being the heavy harvesters that were leaving the planet fully stored.”
The Fleet Leader slammed his arm on his console and broke the chair arm. “How do they keep finding us? Did they go inside the null band?”
“No Fleet Leader, they stayed outside and made a quick attack and jumped away.”
The Fleet Leader thought and then ordered, “No harvesting ship is to leave without an escort of 5,000 ships. Have the fleet form up at the null band and enclose a space for our harvesters to go and jump out of this system. Where did the Stranger’s ships go?”
“They jumped away after running thru the middle of our ships destroying everything in their path. The fleet is spreading out waiting for a return.”
“Are the broadcasters in place to prevent them jumping into the system?”
“Yes Fleet Leader. We’ve located them 550 gelds inside the band.”
“Form up the Fleet. Those ships that have not eaten will rotate in to the planet 100 at a time. Bring one of the harvesters out to 20 gelds to expedite the process.” He then turned back to his display and sent a message to the elders that the Strangers had attacked again.
Tag’s five ships jumped into the system being attacked by the Plants, spaced themselves sixty miles apart, and ran full speed at the huge harvesters. The Plant fleet was caught by surprise and hundreds of ships tried to get between the harvesters but then the five ships turned on those new needles as they swept thru the Algean ship formations. The tiny beams lanced out and struck the Plant ships and every time a needle hit a ship died. The Plants launched more than 50,000 missiles at the stranger’s ships but they were exploded before they could reach them.
Ron-Dar ordered the squadron to load their missile ports with the old two stage penetrators which had hornets and watched as his ships approached the huge harvesters; they then fired 90 penetrators at each of the twenty mile long ships. They started blowing up like a string of giant firecrackers and in less than 15 seconds all twenty had been totally destroyed.
The new hornets were keeping the plant missiles off his ships as they passed thru the Plant squadrons but Tag looked at his captain and said, “Time to leave.” The formation was slaved to Tags ship so whichever direction Ron-Dar directed his ship the others moved automatically with it. The strike force was moving at full speed and just as a huge swarm of missiles approached them, Ron-Dar jumped his formation away. “It looks like your new device worked well,” Tag said.
Lt. Rena said, “We give up a lot of our advantage not being able to jump inside the jump limit. Has anyone come up with a way to counter that frequency they’re broadcasting?”
Ron-Dar looked at his jump officer and said, “Not yet. The gravity of the star coupled with the frequency work together just enough to dampen the resonance of our drives. We tried to find a frequency that would eliminate the one they are using but they are broadcasting at such a high power that nothing has worked so far.”
Tag looked at his display and said, “Then there isn’t much we can do to save the inhabitants. All we can really do is to try to make things miserable for the Plant fleet but it would be suicide to move in toward the planet.”