Leo looked at his board and said, “We will be teleporting to the Hugon system in five minutes. We will now go to full alert.” He pressed the red button on his console and the ships intercom began announcing, “Battle stations. All hands to battle stations.” Most of the crew was already at their posts but the alarm let them know that the Rossville was going back to war after twelve hundred years of lying dormant. The crew felt the tension and was impatient to go into action. Leo looked at his display and then said to Sen-Gen, “Count it down, Lieutenant.”
The huge Glod pressed her com and said, “Teleport in 5.4.3.2.1, port.”
The Rossville appeared in the Hugon system and took its position halfway between the jump limit and the planet.
“Permission to come aboard, Captain.”
Leo looked at his display and saw Prince Gardner, “Permission granted, Your Grace. The landing bay is clear for your ships; the coordinates have been sent.”
Aladdin and Wings appeared in the landing bay and Matt, Melanie, and Stem stepped out and was greeted by three Red Warriors in full battle armor. “Welcome aboard, Prince Gardner, Admiral Grace, and Seed of Sprig. The Captains apologizes for not welcoming you personally with the full crew but we are currently at battle stations and he requests that we take you to the bridge.”
Melanie returned the salute of the warriors and said, “We understand, Team Leader, carry on and we will follow you.”
Al sent a thought to Fly Girl, “This is a big ship.”
“Not as big as the defender class but I can tell that this one is built for speed. They built them strong in the past.”
“You’re right. Notice that this crew is focused on their jobs. The Captain runs a tight ship.”
“He should, Al. He is a direct descendant of Admiral Kosiev. He doesn’t have the psychic skills to be a searcher but he sure has what it takes to command one of these ships.”
“Let’s be nosey and see what’s happening on the bridge.”
“I’m already listening.”
“You over achiever.”
Fly Girl laughed and sent a feed to Al to listen in.
Leo saw Matt enter the bridge and said, “Crew, Atten-shun.”
“As you were,” Matt said. “Please carry on your duties Captain.”
“At ease, return to your duties,” Leo ordered. He then bowed to Matt and saluted Melanie.
Melanie returned his salute and said, “Carry on, Captain. Tell us what you’re planning.”
Leo returned to his command chair and pressed a switch which illuminated the central screen on the bridge. He turned a toggle and a strange looking device appeared on the screen. “This is the penetrator that the Algeans have developed for the transports.”
Matt looked at it and said, “I don’t see the cross in the center that was on the first model.”
“That is only for the penetrator that will be used to hit the invader’s small ships. This one is quite similar to the one that we are developing to use on the mother ship.”
The three visitors walked forward and looked closely at the screen. Leo used his board to highlight different areas. “This penetrator was originally powered by Coronado Power cells and was the fastest weapon ever used during its time.
Stem thought, “It was very effective against the ships my race used during our war with the Realm.”
Leo nodded, “It reached half the speed of light in its flight. This new penetrator is externally similar but it is powered by a red generator. It will reach three quarter light speed in its brief flight.”
Matt whistled, “That is fast, Captain. What is the range of this weapon?”
“There really isn’t a range except that it will have to be fired by visually aiming it. We still don’t have a sensor that can electronically track them. We do have optical sensors that will home in on the color of their ships which means the sensor will be most effective if they are coming toward the star in this system and we are between them and the star. If they are between the star and our ships then they will be dark on the side away from the star and the optical tracking won’t work.”
Stem thought while looking at the device, “How much distance does it take for it to reach full speed?”
Leo looked at the Algean and said, “That’s the other limitation; in order for the penetrator to make it through the hull of a transport it must reach full speed. It will take fifty miles for that to happen. It probably won’t work inside that distance. It will work best at seventy miles.”
Matt looked at Leo and said, “That’s going to be a tough shot if you have ships flying erratic paths during battle.”
Leo shrugged, “That’s why we will want to plan to have them coming in toward the star; our optical sensors will see them that way.”
“Just how big is this penetrator,” Stem asked.
“It’s seven hundred feet long with the stone tree shard making up five hundred feet of its total length.”
Matt was stunned, “How many of those can this ship carry?”
“More than ten thousand, Your Grace.”
Melanie said, “How can you carry that many? This ship is big but it could never hold that many.”
“This ship has the black hole skin of the Alexander Kosiev. We could theoretically put millions inside that skin if we wanted.”
“I thought the Kosiev was the only ship with that type of skin,” Melanie said.
“No, the Realm converted most of the Megaships during the war with the Captors.” Leo looked at Stem, “Your parents developed the process that made that conversion possible.”
“With the help of Cassandra and Tommy Gardner,” Stem added.
“How fast can you fire these?”
“We haven’t field tested it but we think we can fire more than forty a second if we needed a spread of them. We also think that if we had to fire them at darkened targets they would turn and come back once they passed the target and saw the green color.”
Matt looked closely at the screen and then looked at Leo, “So this attack we’re planning will answer a number of questions about this new weapon?”
“That is what we are hoping. We are going to launch from behind our red screen so the transport should only have two seconds to see the incoming penetrator and react. I do not believe that a ship that big can react fast enough to avoid it.”
“Does this penetrator carry the Captor energy ball?”
“Yes it does and it is set to go off two seconds after impact. The case holding the iron tree marbles will open and blast the marbles out when the outside temperature drops two hundred degrees below their melting point. We estimate that should happen two minutes after the energy ball ignites.”
“We are assuming that the shard will penetrate the hull of that transport,” Stem thought.
Leo looked at Stem and said, “That green substance is a dichotomy of hardness. Nothing can penetrate it except items made from organic substances but it is very fragile when hit by an organic substance. I understand that the engineers actually fired a simple arrow made of wood through a ten foot section of it from the captured ship. The shard will be traveling at 140,000 miles per second at impact and it should penetrate the hull. Some of the engineers fear that it might go all the way through the ship but the bomb and marble package will automatically eject from the shard if a second impact is detected and remain inside the hull.”
“Matt, are you going to hide the planet like you planned,” Al inquired?
Melanie looked at Matt, “I believe the ship is actually going to the planet.”
“Why do you think that, Admiral,” Leo asked?
“You have to ask why a ship was sent here. I believe that they want a better reading of the planet to compare with their data. I noticed that the planet we substituted does not match the continents on the old planet at all. With the planet missing from the system they’re in now they might be starting to wonder if planets can be moved. That would lead to a second trip to take a much closer look.”