David Sidwell had come to stand on the bridge of his starship much like all the other native Humans in his command. Taken by the mysterious Klin at the young age of nineteen, he had at first resisted the information the Klin and the 2G’s had shown him, information regarding the Juireans and their intentions towards Earth. Beyond the startling fact that there were real aliens and real galactic empires, why would the all-powerful Juireans want to harm an obscure planet like Earth? Sure, he’d seen plenty of movies about aliens invading a hapless and defenseless Earth for no good reason. But this was not a movie. This was real life.
Yet as the years passed, David began to accept the fact that the Juireans were simply pure evil, and that they really didn’t need a reason for attacking his homeworld.
It had also been revealed to him how unique the Human race was in comparison to the other races in the galaxy, and how the Juireans resented the Humans for their abilities — just as they had resented the Klin several thousand years before. He was convinced that eventually Earth would suffer the same fate as the Klin at the hands of the Juireans. The only way to prevent that from happening was to join the Klin and the 2G’s, and learn to defeat the Juireans before they ever made it to Earth.
Although the number of true native Humans was small, their numbers were augmented by the Second Generation Humans — the 2G’s — who had been born and raised off the Earth. Although most were younger than David — and seemed a little creepy to him — he nevertheless welcomed their help. They knew the Klin technology inside and out, and ran most of the complicated systems aboard his fleet.
Even though their original bloodline had come from people like David, as far as he could tell, none of the 2G’s had ever set foot on Earth. They seemed to display a much stronger bond with the Klin than they did with their fellow Humans, which was understandable. While David felt almost a paternal attachment to the 2G’s, he never got the sense that the familial bond was reciprocal.
“Admiral, we have new contacts,” Josh Newberry, David’s tactical officer said calmly from behind him. On the tact screen, David was shown the graphic representation of over 20 streaks of gravity wells rising up from the surface of Dimloe. “It appears as though the pirates are joining the fight,” Newberry said.
David simply raised his eyebrows. Although their firepower was not needed, he was frankly surprised to see the pirates choose sides. Throughout most of their existence, the pirates had essentially operated unmolested by the Juireans. The Fringe was such an inconsequential part of The Expansion — until now — that the Juireans really didn’t give a rat’s ass what happened here. So the pirates really had no beef with the Juireans.
That had all changed a few months back, when their base on K’ly had been attacked. In the intervening months, David had observed, undetected, as the pirates went about setting up a new base on Dimloe.
David was sure the pirates weren’t even aware of the Human’s existence on Dimloe until only moments before. David nodded. The addition of the pirates to the battle would introduce another element into the rigid Juirean battle plan, and every bit of unpredictability would only add to the Juireans confusion. The Juireans were far too-regimented in their thinking to deal effectively with chaotic and every-changing events. That was part of the battle plan David had devised.
And it was all about to start — NOW!
Chapter Eleven
Fleet Commander Siegor watched on the extreme long-range viewer as the first engagement occurred. Three of his cruisers opened fire on two of the Klin disk-shaped ships, yet as the concentrated balls of blue-white electricity struck the hulls, they simply shimmered, and the space around the ships was filled with thousands of flashing stars of light. The Klin ships then opened up with bolts of their own, which struck Siegor’s ships with an awesome fury. His ships held their ground, absorbing the brunt of the attack relatively unscathed. But Siegor also knew that most of their diffusion shields had been overloaded by the intense electric charge of the bolts.
Suddenly, a secondary array of bolts lashed out from the Klin, striking two of his own ships. These new bolts broke through the surface of the hulls and burned gaping holes in the metal skin of his ships. The two injured cruisers began to move away, leaving the battle. Then the two Klin ships concentrated their fire on Siegor’s remaining ship of the three, and in a moment the viewscreen was filled with the intense white light of an explosion.
Siegor was shocked. He had never seen a Juirean ship explode. From behind him, he heard the soft murmurs around the bridge as others reacted to the scene. “Maintain your posts!” he shouted. “Deploy the platforms on opposite sides of the corridor. Now! ”
On the main screen, Siegor watched as dozens of blue and red circles began to intermingle. The blue circles, signifying the Klin, were bouncing about and in all directions, while his own forces tried to maintain a line across the corridor. He watched as massive bolts flared out from the launching platforms. A few of the intense bolts struck the Klin ships, and he felt immense relief as some of the blue circles disappeared from his screen.
And now the smaller targets from the surface began to engage. A tech had designated them with green circles, and they, too, did not seem to follow any prescribed course or obvious line of attack.
Calls soon began to come in from various parts of the fleet with reports of damage, while runners approached Siegor with casualty estimates. Of his forty-nine ships, five had been completely destroyed and nine were damaged to such a degree that they had been rendered useless in the battle. Of the twenty-eight Klin ships and twenty-three other smaller vessels, six of those had been destroyed or left the battle scene. The firepower was too quickly approaching parity.
On the screen, eight Juirean ships were being harassed by three of the Klin ships, along with seven of the smaller green contacts, fighting it out over the airless and desolate surface of the largest moon of Dimloe. The Juireans had managed to form a line and were concentrating fire on the lead Klin ship. Three of the green targets disappeared from Siegor’s screen, and a few of the non-Juireans on the bridge actually let out muted cheers. Then four of their own ships vanished from the screen.
Siegor fell back into his command chair to watch the battle unfold. He had already lost nearly a third of his force, and although there appeared to be some areas where the Juireans were at least holding their own, there were others where his red circles were falling back, growing ever closer to his own position at the head of the corridor. Soon he would have to start making contingency plans.
The latest runner approached and handed him a screen-chip. The attackers were down to thirty-three ships, including the smaller contacts, but it appeared as though most of the enemy losses were to the smaller contacts. His force was down to twenty-three ships. He’d lost nearly half of his command in only a few minutes!
Knowing that he could never return to face Overlord Yan’wal after such a staggering defeat, Siegor prepared to have his own ship enter the fray.
But then something began to happen on the screen before him…
Riyad sat strapped into the pilot seat of his ship, gripping the control stick tight in his right hand. He twisted it forward and to the right, sending his ship in a tight spiral straight for the Juirean battle cruiser. He lined up the sites on the targeting computer in front of him, and pressed the button on the stick.
He blinked as an intense bolt of electricity shot out from his ship and coursed its way toward the target. The bolt struck the Juirean ship just below the bridge and burned through the remaining diffusion screen on the hull. It wasn’t a kill shot, but the next one should do the trick.