“Yes, Elder. The vast majority are locked up in a giant disruption. But there is a debris field in normal space that extends for more than a million light years.”
“Those idiots must have allowed themselves to get surrounded! Continue with the attack.”
“Will you be coming here to join us?”
“No, I’m going to attack this planet.”
“Yes Elder.”
The Elder Legend did not like this at all. He could choose his poison and going after one planet seemed to be the less dangerous of the two options. One thing was certain, the forces in that ball galaxy were strong enough to destroy the billions of tools. “How many Warships do you see in this system?”
“None.”
“That’s very odd.”
“There is a force field around the third planet and there appears to be some kind of objects in orbit above the planet.”
The Elder nodded and heard the Telepath say, “You were right. There is a presence here.”
The Elder felt his instant fear threaten to take him, “Do you sense those white high energy beings?”
“No, but I can hear thoughts dimly from the planet and according to your records, you destroyed that planet. It appears it wasn’t killed like you thought.”
“You will take the fleets in and attack that planet.”
“WHAT?”
“You heard me!”
“What are you going to do?”
“I will remain at the edge of this disruption with my personal bodyguard.”
“Your ships might be needed!”
“You’re the one that insisted we had built far more than would be needed and you lobbied for your species to command them. You also suggested I stay out of the fighting and observe what happens. I gave you what you wanted, so go and carry out my orders!”
The Telepath almost consumed the Legend but remembered the member of his species that had begged to die after consuming a Legend. Its suffering could be felt by all and the Legends refused to kill it. They waited for them to come and end its pain. It knew it had no choice. He ordered the massive fleet to go to maximum speed and the ships headed toward the distant star. The Elder waited with his three hundred Monsters and their escorts at the edge of the solar system.
Chapter Twenty
Jinks watched his visor and saw the huge Legend Fleet start forward. He still had time before he would attack. His responsibility was to reduce the number of Mini’s so the Attackships could get at the Monsters. The probes surrounding the giant Legends’ Fleet’s route into the Solar System began recording their light reflections and sending them out to the Battle Pods. The Battle Pods received the probe’s transmissions and locked in three codes each and waited in formation outside the edge of the Galaxy, where they had skipped to from Eden. This is where the Pods would escape to if they were in serious danger. Jinks looked out as the massive number of Battle Pods formed up in ranks according to their planets. The Welken, Myot, and Johan were side by side to the right. He glanced to the left and saw the ships from Earth and Eden in formation to the left. The Silver Ships were with Katy and the Attackships. They would go in when the Legends arrived at the planet. He shook his head and hoped the Battle Pod’s initial strike was going to work. Once it was done, things would get…difficult.
Ten thousand Monsters moved forward as a thousand Min-monsters formed up around each of them. The giant circular formation was more than three million miles in diameter. The giant warships flew inside their escorts and the millions of ships were tightly packed. The escorts around the central core of Monsters were formed up in five layers above each Monster; getting at the center of the formation through the Mini-monsters was impossible. The Mini’s would have to be removed first.
The Legend Fleet moved close to the orbit of Jupiter and Jinks lifted his communicator, “Pay attention, this is important. All of you have been given the light codes for three ships each as your primary targets along with two additional ships. You will skip in and fire on three ships and skip out. Notice I said three! They will start reacting after two and will be firing as you attack your third. Three ships only!” Jinks hoped the pilots listened. Many of the young pilots felt ten feet tall and indestructible. That could get them killed. “On my mark…three, two, one, MARK!” The eight hundred thousand Battle Pods disappeared in an instant. Jinks started counting off the seconds.
Chuck Bear pressed the blue button on his steering wheel and immediately pressed the orange button. He felt his pod jerk slightly and he pressed the blue button again, pressed the orange button, felt the jerk and pressed the blue button again and saw the ship under him start firing its huge disruptors as he pressed the orange button. He immediately squeezed the trigger under his right little finger and his ship disappeared as three disruptor beams flashed through the space he just occupied. One of them managed to graze his force field for a tenth of a second just before he disappeared and he looked at his force field status as he appeared outside the edge of the galaxy. It was down thirty percent.
Jeanette Burns killed her third ship and was so excited she pressed the blue button and not the pinky trigger. She pressed the orange button and pulled the pinky trigger as five huge disruptor beams hit her ship. She emerged outside the galaxy but the silver coating on her pod was melted and scorched. Her Squadron Commander yelled at her and she said, “I messed up and pushed the wrong button.”
“YOU’RE OUT OF THIS! Standby until given further instructions.”
“I’m sorry, Sir.”
“We need you and now you’re no help.”
Jinks looked at his visor and pulled up the long view. There was a giant debris field behind the advancing Legend Ships and the entire outer layer of Mini-monsters around was gone. The remaining Mini-monsters were firing randomly into the space around the advancing formation and, after an hour, ceased firing. He said, “Tactical.” The view on his visor changed and he saw the ships that the probes had light coded in the enemy formation. “Prioritize the outer layer.” He watched the codes turn from red to green. All the ships in the outer layer were targeted.” He said, “Ship loss?”
He read the columns and saw that thirty two thousand ships were either destroyed or too damaged to continue the fight. He was highly impressed with the heavy rounds. If they hit an enemy ship, it died. He toggled his communicator, “You have your next target, on my mark, you will attack that target only! Three, two, one, MARK!”
Chuck learned something during the first attack. The button that fired the heavy rounds was slower than the light drive. He decided to try an experiment. He placed his index finger on the blue button, his middle finger on the orange button, and pressed them simultaneously. He immediately pulled the pinky trigger. He pulled up the code of the ship he attacked and saw it was missing from the list. Holy… He pressed his communicator and said, “SIR!”
“What is it fuzzy?”
“I just tried something and it worked.”
“What is that?”
Chuck told him and his commander linked him in to Jinks. Jinks listened to the pilot and said, “Standby and tell your brothers and sisters what you just learned.” Jinks linked Chuck into the main frequency and he told the surviving pilots what he did.
“Do you mean you pulled the escape trigger immediately after you pressed the two buttons?”
“Yes.”
Jinks broke in and said, “We’re going to get creative this time. I’m reasonably certain that the outer layer of ships will not stop firing their disruptors after what just happened. The probes have detected there’s about a mile between the layers of Mini’s; I’m having the probes send you the light code of the ships in the layer just inside the outer layer. I don’t think they will open fire with their own ships above them so I’m giving each of you two codes. I suggest you follow Captain Bear’s advice but press the two buttons simultaneously twice followed by a faster trigger pull on the second push. Stand by for your codes.” Jinks watched the Ship Status screen on his visor and saw the all the red codes turn green. “One more time; on my mark, three, two, one, MARK!”