“They did understand,” Lopez said. She sounded astonished, as if she didn’t quite believe her own words. “They knew what we were saying.”
Ted nodded, slowly. He didn’t blame her for being stunned. The aliens had been silent for so long that some humans had given up hope of being able to talk to them. But now there was very definite proof that the aliens understood at least one human language. It opened up all sorts of possibilities.
“Record a second message,” he ordered. He waited for her nod, then continued. “This is the human commander. We would like to speak directly to your leaders. If you do not open communications within five minutes, we will commence offensive operations.”
He looked over at Lopez. “Send the message,” he said. “We’ll give them ten minutes before we start engaging the orbital defences.”
Lopez blinked. “Ten minutes?”
“They might not understand our time measurement system,” Ted pointed out. Even explaining minutes, seconds and hours to the aliens would be tricky. They’d have to show the seconds ticking by, then match them to names… which the alien timing system could be very different. For all Ted knew, their version of hours could be three or four human hours long. “We’ll give them time.”
The minutes ticked by slowly. There was no response.
Ted let out a long breath. It would have been nice to have opened proper communications, if only to discuss the planet’s surrender. They could have moved on to other matters of mutual interest, starting with just why the damn war started in the first place. But, after their telltale response to the first message, the aliens had just fallen silent again. Now, though, they had a piece of data for the analysts to study. Who knew — maybe they could find the aliens on the planet’s surface who understood English and speak to them.
But there was no time for that now.
“The Marines are on their way,” he said. The Rhino wasn’t dawdling either, or bothering with stealth. His ships would reach the fleet in just under an hour. “Signal the fleet. It’s time to start clearing the way.”
He paused, gathering himself. “The known defensive stations are to be engaged with extreme force,” he added. “Stations that have not revealed any weapons or the willingness to use them are to be left alone, hopefully so they can be boarded. Any large chunk of debris that might impact the planet’s surface is to be smashed before it can enter the planet’s atmosphere.”
It was a risk, he knew. The orbital stations might all be armed — or they might be rigged to explode when humans forced their way into the stations. Or, if the alien leadership was trying to drum up support for the war amongst its people, it might have rigged the stations to cause an atrocity, perhaps by knocking one of the asteroids out of orbit. There was no way to know without taking the risk of triggering any booby traps the aliens might have left behind. He shook his head; like so many other things when it came to dealing with the aliens, they were facing riddles wrapped in mysteries and enigmas. If only they could talk!
“Order the fleet to engage,” he said, quietly.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Henry smiled as the starfighter was, once again, catapulted out into interplanetary space, followed rapidly by the remainder of his squadron. A quick glance at his display showed the alien stations marked in a mixture of red and yellow; red for known threats, yellow for potential threats. Several of them were launching additional starfighters, dispelling any hopes he might have had that they’d already destroyed the alien starfighters defending the planet.
“Shoot,” North commented. “There’s more of the buggers.”
“More targets,” a grim American voice said. With Roosevelt gone, the remaining Americans wanted blood. “You have the ten on the right, I’ll take the hundred on the left…”
“Stay in formation,” the Wing Commander growled. “And try to engage the starfighters away from the stations. Those bastards are probably crammed full of point defence.”
“Understood,” North said.
Henry smiled. He had a feeling that they were definitely about to earn their pay. No one — no one human, at least - had assaulted a heavily defended planet, but all the theorists agreed that it would be bloody. But the aliens had crushed New Russia’s defences with uncompromising brutality. Humanity might do as well… or discover that the aliens had their own surprises waiting for attackers.
He pushed the thought aside. One way or another, they were about to find out.
“Launch decoys,” Ted ordered. “The frigates are to open fire on my mark.”
“Aye, sir,” Lopez said. “Decoys launching… now.”
Ted nodded. Hopefully, the aliens would suddenly see the human fleet quadruple in size. They’d know three-fourths of the sensor images were decoys, of course, but it would still be hard for them to separate out the true starships from the illusions, particularly when the missiles went to work. The alien ability to command and control their defences was about to take a severe beating.
“Order them to stick with Attack Pattern Alpha,” he said, as more and more of the alien active sensor arrays came online. They would be far more precise than passive sensors, but the human attackers knew where they were now. “I want all of the alien active sensors targeted for destruction.”
He watched as the alien network slowly revealed itself, then smiled. “Order the frigates to open fire,” he said. “I say again, they are to open fire.”
The display suddenly sparked with new icons as the frigates opened fire, volley-firing their missiles towards the planet’s defences. Moments later, the aliens responded, directing their starfighters into position to intercept the missiles. But the human starfighters knifed into the alien ships and a series of dogfights began as the they started to knock down the alien craft one by one. Moments later, the first set of missiles started to detonate, blasting laser beams towards the enemy stations. Others were knocked down before they had a chance to detonate.
“Sir,” Commander Higgs said. The analyst sounded tired, but enthusiastic. “The data is revealing certain patterns. Among other things, the aliens defending the planet are not as well-trained as the aliens who fought at New Russia and other battles.”
“You think we’ve encountered a reservist unit?” Ted asked. He’d thought the same at the previous battle, but he wasn’t inclined to assume he was correct. “Or one unprepared for war?”
“Their training is definitely flawed,” Higgs insisted, calmly. “They might have taken out a carrier, but they’re outmatched by our pilots.”
“Let us hope you’re right,” Ted said.
He turned and looked back at the display. Some of the missiles were finding their targets, but others were being knocked down by the enemy defenders. Their point defence crews were clearly very motivated, Ted thought, with a moment of bitter amusement. But then, unless alien reactions were far faster than human reactions, they’d probably programmed their computers to handle the guns. There was no way a human mind could keep up with the incoming missiles, designate targets and engage them before it was too late.
“Keep a sharp eye on the stations that have yet to open fire,” he ordered. “I want to know if they show the slightest sign of hostility.”