Laney smiled, “It’s good to have you here. Michael has told us a lot about you and I really look forward to working with you.” She turned to Michael, “I’m confused by the Legends going ahead with building the smaller Monster. I thought they wouldn’t put their tools in a ship more powerful than their own.”
Michael nodded, “That does go against their former pattern.”
Jan looked around and said, “They wouldn’t have done it without those telepaths.”
Everyone looked at her. Audrey smiled, “I’m not completely clear on what you mean?”
Jan shrugged, “The reason they wouldn’t do it in the past was the fear that the tools might rise up in revolt against them, right?”
Everyone looked at each other and Luke said, “That’s been their position.”
“The telepaths will see if any of their tools are thinking about a revolution and consume the offender. This allows them to start building the Mini-monsters.”
Audrey smiled, “Mini-monster?”
Jan smiled, “That’s what Michael calls them.”
Audrey nodded, “That’s a good name for them and I think you’re right. This removes their fear of revolution.” She looked at Michael, “Does this change our plans?”
“Not really.”
Luke tilted his head, “Why? Won’t they launch an attack before they get the real Monster Ships?”
Michael looked at the group, “Remember, those Mini-monsters’ primary purpose is to defend the Legends wherever they go. They will remain at the Legends’ Planets until the real Monsters arrives and the Legends go on board. They will then be used to attack us. They disrupted the barrier in their cluster because of what we did to that Legend who tried to build the first Monster. They’re concerned that we might attack them before they have the really dangerous ships. They’ll keep them around their planets until those ships arrive.”
Katy shook her head, “They didn’t hesitate to send four hundred of them after you.”
“I think that was done to posture with the Telepaths. We killed the one with that small fleet and they sent those ships to show them that they took the death of one of them seriously. Also remember that the Telepath that came with them threatened the commander of those ships.”
Talel thought, “Are we going to sit here and wait on them to attack us.”
Michael looked at Talel, “What would you do?” Talel’s eyes narrowed and he started to speak but then hesitated. Michael nodded, “Now you see it.” Talel nodded.
Luke watched the exchange and shook his head, “See what?”
Talel turned to Luke, “If we launch attacks on them with the new ships, their paranoia may cause them to combine all their forces and send them against us before the Monster Warships arrive. Our numbers of Attackships are woefully few to take on those ships.”
Jinks’ eyes narrowed, “Are you saying that our Battle Pods aren’t strong enough to take on those new ships?”
Talel shook his head, “No, but if they come here to attack, there’s no way we can put a thought blocker on every person on every planet and the telepaths will learn everything we know about the Sentinels, the Goran, the members of the Alliance, as well as this new ship we’re building. They will also learn about Eden and the Sentinels in Andromeda. They’ll see that if they hesitate to attack once the Monsters arrive, they might lose the advantage in numbers.”
“You’ve left out something.”
Talel looked at Michael, “If these psychic feeders come here in large numbers, they could decimate the entire population on this planet.”
Silence slammed down on the meeting. Luke began shaking his head and Michael quickly replied, “We’re working on building a system that is incorporated into the planet’s force field to act as a thought blocker. Trevor and Budge have taken on the assignment and their initial finding is that the system should operate.”
Luke sighed, “That’s good news.”
Michael shook his head, “It is, and it isn’t.” Luke’s head went back slightly. “The main planets of the Alliance are having force fields built around them and we’ll incorporate the thought blocker once it’s developed. However, there is no way to build a force field around every planet; there’s millions of them and Earth’s leadership role in this fight against them is known on most of them. If they find that out, they will ignore all the others and come here, and if they learn about it, and Eden. This attack will make the first two invasions look like a small ship excursion. The force field is strong, but none of our scientists are certain that it could withstand a bombardment from thousands of the Monster Warship, much less the millions of Mini-monsters coming with them.”
Katy shook her head at the vision and looked at Michael, “That’s why you went back and fired those heavy rounds.”
Michael smiled, “Very good, Admiral. You’re the first one to see the necessity of doing that.”
Everyone turned to Katy and she shrugged, “We had to see if they would take out the Mini. Now that we know they can, I suspect we might start building satellite missile launchers that will be in orbit just inside the force field to fire at them.”
Michael shook his head, “Again, very astute. The first one will be launched in two months. The heavy rounds used on them will be force field protected to give them a chance to get through the Legends’ disruptors.”
“Why don’t we put those rounds on our ships and avoid having to fight our way down to the Monster’s hulls?”
Michael looked at Katy, “Do you want to answer Audrey’s question?”
“I’m not sure if I’m right but I’m going to assume that this new force field protected heavy round is probably too large for our ships to carry.”
Michael nodded, “It’s about one third the size of the new Attackship.”
Luke shook his head, “We don’t have the building capacity to build defense satellites large enough to hold enough of those rounds you’re describing to make a difference.”
“We’re not.”
“What?”
“Piper’s family on the Grey Planet are building them and will transport them here as they’re completed. A third of Eden’s manufacturing facilities are building the rounds and shipping them to the Greys so the satellites will be armed before they are brought here.”
“Are the missiles the only weapon they’ll have?”
Michael shook his head and looked at Josh, “No, they’ll have a full complement of Heavy Dark Energy Disruptors.”
Talel nodded, “That’s more reasons why we would be foolish to start this conflict now.”
Michael nodded, “Exactly right. You still saw it without all the information.”
Jan looked at Michael, “So, what does this mean?”
“About how long before the party begins?” Jan nodded. “I suspect there will be a few years or maybe as many as ten before it kicks off.”
“Why so long?”
Talel thought, “Now the Legends aren’t limited to just one Monster per Legend. They’ll build quite a few more.”
Jan’s head tilted and Michael sighed, “He’s right. You said it yourself, the Vampire Telepaths will command the Monsters along with the Legend. They now form a sort of weird symbiosis where the Vampires will keep the Legends in power and the Legends will give them conquered species to consume.”
Jan shook her head, “There’s no way we can match their building capacity.”
“I’m not so sure about that, Jan.”
“OH! Did you see the size of that galaxy in the bullet cluster where they’re being built?”
“Have you taken a good look at the size of M-87, M-84, Andromeda, and our own Milky Way? If given time, I suspect we can hold our own.”
Jan tilted her head and smiled, “Now that is a good point. Touché.”