Vanger watched the thousands of Orange Ships leave normal space and go into the void attempting to escape. He thought, “Pick a ship and destroy it. Kyel, move your ships into the void and join my pods.”
The battleships went into the void and the Progen ships were amazed at the speed of the ships pursuing them. There were millions of Progen Ships in formation when the attack started. Only slightly more than two hundred thousand managed to escape. Vanger looked at the space outside the edge of the giant galaxy and knew that the debris field would be a navigation hazard for centuries to come. He looked at his panel and said, “Admiral Jekins, we have completed our mission. I will be recalling my ships and sending them to join your forces.”
“Have them form up over the top of my formation. Notify Kyel to move his ships in the formations of battleships.”
“Yes Admiral. We will be there momentarily.”
Vanger looked at his command circuit and saw that a hundred thousand pods had perished in the fight along with fifty thousand battleships but it was a victory. Costly, but worth it. He sighed and entered the void. The day wasn’t over. There would be more fighting ahead.
Chapter Twenty-One
Chris watched the fighting above the Audon’s planet and determined they could take care of themselves in the short term. “Medley, have you notified Piper about the power of the black ships?”
“I have.”
“And?”
“I told him that the older ships they sent here were able to penetrate our force fields and we were fortunate we outnumbered them. He’s changing the attack plan as we speak.”
“How long before he’s ready?”
“About another five minutes.”
Chris nodded and pressed his panel, “Eve, are your warriors in place?”
“Their Barrier Pods have dropped them off and they’re standing by in the barrier. The pods have skipped out and are standing by to pick us up if everything goes to hell in a hand basket.”
Piper is starting his attack in less than five minutes.”
“Thanks for the heads up; I’ll pass it on to my unit Commanders.”
“Eve, what the group said to me about not participating in combat operations also applies to you.”
Eve sighed, “There’s a big difference between what we do, Chris.”
“Oh? How is that?”
“I’m going to be right in the middle of Legend Land and the quickest way to get killed is to just stand around watching things happen. I have no choice but to do what everyone else is doing, stick and move.”
“Your warriors will lose their spirit if you’re killed.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. It will piss them off so much they’ll really take it out on the Legends. Don’t worry, all my units have trained to work individually and together. They’ll do the job whether I’m leading them or not. I’ve also made the chain-of-command clear to everyone.”
“Will you just be careful!?”
“Hey, careful is my first name.”
“No it isn’t.”
“It is now.”
Chris looked at his panel, “Piper has started his attack. That’s your cue to go on stage.”
“If you say break a leg, I’m going to slap you the next time I see you.”
The display went dark and Chris shook his head. It was obvious that she was her parents’ daughter. Chris turned his attention to the gigantic space battle with the Progen Fleets and saw it was too early to make any changes. He then turned his monitor to the Legends Planet and shook his head.
The Legend Leader was screaming, “Get the outer fleet ready to go to the Audon Central Planet and I want it blasted to rubble!!”
“Greatest, we’ve sent three hundred ships!”
“SEND A HUNDRED THOUSAND. I WANT THAT INSOLENT BUG KILLED!!”
“GREATEST, THE PROGEN FLEETS ARE BEING ATTACKED!”
The Legend Leader looked across the galaxy and saw a space battle that rivaled anything he had ever witnessed. In all the former encounters, the enemy would attack and flee. They were not fleeing this time and the Progen were being blasted. “CANCEL SENDING THE SHIPS TO THE AUDONS. ORDER THEM TO GO AND ASSIST THE ORANGE TOOL!”
His Second looked at him and the Leader lashed him with a violent electrical current that shot out of his outer aura, “DO IT NOW!!”
The older model of Black Ships above the Legends’ Planet began moving out of formation to skip away and just as they activated their stardrives, the Silver Ships blew into their ranks and opened fire. They began going up a giant string of firecrackers and the Second yelled, “DO NOT LEAVE!!! RESIST THIS ATTACK!!”
The Leader looked at the giant battle taking place over the planet and ordered the inner layer of new ships to meet the attackers. A few moments later, the first two thousand ground disruptors went up in massive explosions. “HOW DID THOSE FORCES LAND?!”
“I DON’T KNOW! THEY JUST SUDDENLY APPEARED!”
“FREE THE DISRUPTORS TO HIT THEM ON THE GROUND! DO IT NOW!!”
“IF WE DO, THEY WON’T BE ABLE TO FIRE ON THE SHIPS ATTACKING OUR FLEETS!”
“THEY WON’T ANYWAY! THOSE ATTACKERS ARE MOVING TOO FAST TO TARGET. FREE THE DISRUPTORS!!”
The Heavy Armored Assault Warriors took out their initial targets unopposed. Eve sprinted to the giant tower next to her first target and blew a hole through its force field and fired her heavy DE Blaster at the reactors located in the base. She gripped her thumb with the four fingers on her right hand and disappeared into the barrier as a massive blast blew out from the giant structure. She used the heavy blaster to cut the first tower at an angle and it slid down the cut and crashed to the ground. She saw the second disruptor was spinning its turret around and the giant barrel was moving toward the ground. It was too late to cut it. She waited in the barrier until the massive blast blew by and was thankful for Nudge again.
There was a huge disagreement on where to place the button that would activate the barrier. She was in favor or having it on the back of one armored glove and her Senior Unit Commanders all wanted to put it somewhere else. They insisted it would interfere with activating their missile systems. After three days of argument, she saw an outsider would have to make the decision. She called Nudge in to the meeting and he politely listened to every proposal. At the end he slowly shook his head, “All of you are wrong.”
Everyone looked at him and Gen. Gene Armstrong looked at him and said with dripping sarcasm, “So you’re going to tell us how to fight our armor? How many drops have you made, Scientist?”
Nudge looked at him and ignored his comment with a cool detachment, “How fast will one of those towers go up if you hit the reactors?” Gene stared at him and Nudge said, “Pretty much instantly, won’t it?” Gene nodded. “So all of you are proposing to place a button on your armor that will have to be pressed by one of your fingers, right?”
Eve said, “That’s how we see it being done.”
“And if you’re having to fire your hand blaster to hold off enemy forces attacking you, you put the blaster away and then press the button? How long will that take?” Everyone stared at him in silence. Nudge pulled out a stop chronometer and said, “Each one of you show me how you would press the button with the hand extended that you would use to press it.”
All of the officers showed him and he timed them. When the last one demonstrated his move, Nudge looked at the chronometer and said, “The fastest time is three tenths of a second.” He looked at Eve, “You did agree that the reactors would go up almost immediately?” Eve nodded. “You’ll be dead if you do it any of these ways you’ve shown me. I also assume you’re going to have to use your heavy blasters to take them out.” He looked at Gene who reluctantly nodded. “Am I mistaken, or does it take two arms to hold and fire it?”