Sir, weve lost the Johannesburg, Lieutenant Kelley said.
Assign her escorts to another ship. Kelley, give me a ship count, Kosiev said while looking at his display.
Weve lost forty, sir, eight of them empire class.
Keep me informed, Lieutenant.
Captain Al Downing flew his destroyer out of the path of one of the Alliance dreadnoughts and was immediately hit by eighty of its primary beams. His screen went quickly into the red. Fifty missiles then started impacting his screens. He twisted and turned his ship but couldnt escape the beams that were locked onto his ship. He saw an Earth cruiser directly ahead and diverted to go through its screen. His screen was approaching light blue when he went through the cruisers screen and emerged with his screen back in the yellow. He turned back on the dreadnought that had now started firing on the cruiser. As he passed the dreadnought he fired four needles into it. The dreadnought had reacquired the destroyer and had begun hitting it again with its primary beams. The four needles penetrated the dreadnoughts five screens, and two punctured all the way into its hull. Each needle contained four hundred hornets, and half of them had entered the punctured hull of the dreadnought and were destroying everything they touched. It blew up so quickly that one moment it was there firing its weapons, and the next there was nothing but a bright light and debris scattering in all directions. Captain Downings destroyer was then attacked by two Alliance cruisers that were firing every weapon at the small ship. Once again its screen moved into red. He turned to run through the cruisers screen again when the surviving Earth cruiser exploded in front of him. He fired his remaining four needles into the two Alliance cruisers just before his ship was blown out of existence. The needles punched into the two Alliance cruisers and the hornets blew them apart piecemeal. They each started exploding at the front, and the explosions walked the length of both ships. Everywhere, ships were dying.
The Washington was surrounded by five dreadnoughts. Kosiev sat in his command chair and watched Commodore Mikado fight his ship. The Washingtons screen was red, but before entered dangerous territory, Mikado fired his primary beams and needles until the excess energy was released. Two of the dreadnoughts were cut in half by the Washingtons primary beams, and the remaining three were punctured by two needles each. Two of the three had their surfaces blown apart by the little missiles and lost the ability to fight. The third dreadnought appeared to just stop in space and hang there, doing nothing. Its screens had failed and none of its weapons were firing. Then it started drifting. The Washington continued moving through the Alliance fleet, drawing Alliance dreadnoughts like a bright light attracting moths.
Admiral Dorg looked at his display and was sick. The Earth ships had destroyed 1,500 of his ships, and the remaining five hundred were going fast. According to his best count, he had only been able to kill 140 of the Earth ships. At the current rate, he would see his last ship destroyed in less than twenty minutes. He now knew that he was right to worry about this race. His ships were no match for theirs. He had seen enough, and knew that if he waited until the numbers of the Earth ships equaled his, then no one could escape. Their only chance was to scatter and run to the jump point. Some ships would escape. The Alliance and the clan leaders had to be warned about this race. Order the fleet to scatter and run for the star drive limit. Spread out as much as possible and jump back to the Cainth system.
Kosiev saw the Alliance fleet suddenly turn and accelerate toward the star drive limit. Well, we hoped we could prevent anyone getting information of our capabilities, he thought, but he looked at his display and knew there was no way his remaining 208 ships could chase down more than twice their number before some of them jumped to safety. Order all ships to pick a target and destroy it before they can jump. Have the ten ships in the outer system jump into the limit and destroy whatever ships they can target.
The ten Empire ships near Uranus powered up, jumped to Jupiters orbit, and waited for the Alliance ships to come to them. Captain Johnsons sensor officer looked up and reported, Sir, an Alliance dreadnought just jumped in with six escorts in the outer system.
Well, we cant have all the luck, Captain Johnson replied. Theyre bound to have something eventually happen in their favor. Pick a target weapons and lets go hunting. Lets give them something to see back at good ole Cainth headquarters.
The Dreadnought Mass Destruction jumped into the human system and began recording. It immediately saw the remaining Alliance ships fleeing and being chased by the remainder of the human fleet. The clan leaders on Cainth watched the feed and saw those small Earth ships chase down the fleeing Alliance ships and blow them apart. There was no cheering; the air was somber. They watched as one of those small battleships caught a Glod dreadnought and blew it in half with two hellish energy beams. The Glod were known for the superiority of their warships. That dreadnought didnt have any effect on the ship that destroyed it. Then they saw several Alliance ships cross the star drive limit and jump to safety. Terl, watching his feed from the human system, saw Admiral Dorgs ship approaching the star drive limit as one of those small battleships bore down on it. The Earth ship fired its energy beams, but the Admirals ship disappeared just as the beams tore through the space his ship had just occupied. Terl was numb. According to the sensors of Mass Destruction, only 178 ships had been able to jump to safety. The humans had destroyed 1,800 Alliance ships, including 40 percent of Cainths total warships. Terl thought, Admiral Dorg was right about these humans; they are a race to be feared. Now we know what happened to our ships at the colony world. Then a small thought wormed its way into his consciousness: They know where we live.
That didnt take long, Atlas said.
Danielle and Tag had watched the destruction, horrified at the loss of life on both sides. Tag said to Atlas with a heavy heart, So many killed; such a waste of potential. Theres got to be a way to avoid all this slaughter.
Atlas said nothing for a minute and then spoke in a soft thought. It is called growing pains. Sometimes a civilization dies, but those that weather the storm come out better and stronger for it. You must endure until the task is completed.
Well, at least Admiral Kosiev was right, Tag said. Danielle looked at Tag with raised eyebrows. This marks the end of the beginning. Atlas, can you get the admiral on a communication channel without revealing yourself? Instantly Admiral Kosiev appeared on their screen.
Admiral, congratulations on your victory, Tag said.
Thank you, Mr. Gardner. It was costly. We lost more than 150 ships and some of the Alliance fleet escaped.
How long will it take before your ships could be ready to fight again, Admiral?
We just need to resupply our stores of missiles and provisions. Probably forty-eight hours. Why do you ask?
I think its time we paid our Cainth neighbors a visit and welcomed them to the neighborhood.
Wed be violating the twenty-light-year limit if we did, Kosiev said.
That limit disappeared with the Alliance order to occupy our system, Admiral. Were going to take this war to our enemies and see if we can fight it on their ground, not ours. We at the very least are going to declaw the cat that has been threatening us for two hundred years.