Stein looked at him stunned. Thats almost 50% of the ships we have assembled. How many ships did the Humans use?
Dgzh looked at his console again and said, They only used 600 and fifty four of them escaped.
The wall screen changed to the face of the Vgrig Warleader who said, Weve destroyed over 500 of their ships.
Stein looked at the Warleader like he was a crazy man and said, How can you say that in a tone that sounds like this was a victory.
Dont you see State Leader? They only had 640 ships at the end of the last battle. Our sensors show that most of the ships we were able to identify before we destroyed them were among the survivors of the last battle. We lost a lot of ships but they are down to less than 100 ships to defend their system. That many we can destroy easily.
Stein looked out at the wrecked and destroyed ships and turned to Dgzh and said, I dont care what he thinks. I want an additional 6,000 ships called up from the reserve. We planned to invade with 17,000 ships and thats how many we will use. Use the authorization that the Ten gave us.
Yes, State Leader, it will be done.
Stein turned and looked at the Warleader and said, You better make sure these Humans are destroyed. You can leave their planet and jump straight to the home planet of the Glod Union and destroy it too. Ill be notifying them of our impending arrival momentarily. Ill also be contacting the Cainth Empire to inform them that we will be occupying their worlds as soon as we finish with the Glod.
Kosiev waited aboard the Zeus just outside of Rosss Planet and wondered just how Tag would arrive. There was no way The Washington would escape that deathtrap. So he sat and waited. Then he heard Tag say over the internal com, Admiral, will you open the landing bay?
Kosiev looked at Kelly and said, Do we have a ship on our sensors? Kelly shook his head and looked puzzled.
Landing Bay, open the outside doors and prepare to receive boarders.
Tag was right next to the landing bay in Atlas main cabin. He thought, Atlas, youre right next to another ship named for a Greek god. We have made it the flagship of all our fleets. Your name is a noble one for my people.
Thanks, when are you going to allow me to be seen?
I probably need you to reveal yourself to their sensors as you drop me off in the landing bay to prevent a panic. Im going to tell them that a friend provided transportation and leave it at that so dont linger too long.
Good luck and call me if you need me, Atlas said.
Kelly was watching his screen when he jumped up and said, Holy groad. Theres a ship right next to our hull. How did it get thru our screen?
Kosiev rushed over and saw the small silver ship extend a tube into the landing bay and then retract it. Suddenly the ship flew away so fast that it vanished from view instantly. What was that Mr. Kelly?
I dont know sir but our sensors said it left at a physical speed faster than light.
Kosiev looked at the midshipman along with Captain Mikado that had come over to observe the proceedings. Thats not possible, Mikado said.
Kelly looked at them and said, Hey, I didnt make these reading, I just announce them.
Tag walked into the Bridge whistling and said, Ok we can go now.
The three of them looked at Tag and Kosiev said, I dont suppose youre going to tell us about how you arrived here are you?
And take all the fun out of your guessing, no way. I just hitched a ride with a friend.
Tag could hear Atlas laughing inside his head. Sorry, I had to show off a little.
Kosiev said, Captain, take us back to Earth. He thought to himself, I think Im going to start drinking.
Chapter 12
Tag and Admiral Kosiev sat in their chairs on the Zeuss bridge watching the feed from the passive sensor in the Central Alliance system. Tag took a drink of his tea and said, They just keep on coming. Whats the count up to now?
Kosiev was leaning back in his chair and had to straighten up to see his console. He took a look and leaned back again, Right at 15,000.
Tag whistled and said, Theyre still not forming up so they must be expecting more.
Kosiev yawned and looked up at the ceiling and said, Yep, they must be bringing more than I would care to manage. Then Kosiev sat up and said, Things have changed over the last two battles. If they had brought this many the first time; how do you think wed be acting right now?
We would be freaked out of our mind, Tag said. Weve learned what we can do in the last two battles. We have averaged killing ten ships for every one of ours. They would have to bring 60,000 at that ratio to break even with us. This battle will be the most weve had so far.
How do you see it breaking down?
Tag thought a minute and said, They must think we only have about 100 warships left. If they jump into the system with that many ships, Im not going to waste any more. Well station 94 ships around Mars and when their fleet approaches Earth well have them fly to the planets surface and turn on the screen. I dont see anything else they can do but come in and begin their campaign against the planet.
Do you think they will bring all their ships in immediately?
Probably not; you wouldnt either; I would have the ships spread out thru the system and search for any unpowered ships lying in ambush. What do you think theyll do?
Kosiev thought and said, I agree. They will come in from all points of the compass and do a full scan of all the space from the star drive limit in to Earth orbit. Thats probably why theyre bringing so many ships. They should just englobe our system and move in together. If everything checks out, then they will bring all ships in and turn them facing away from the planet to make sure they arent interrupted while they attempt to drain our planetary screen.
Admiral, I honestly dont know what they are going to do. I would recommend that you have the new Ultra Battleships completely out of the system programmed with multiple jump points around Earth. Since they can jump in close to the planet, they wont have to be hidden like all the other ships. By the way, I understand that we are only building the Ultras now. Since they are faster than a destroyer and cruiser, it doesnt make much sense to continue building those small ships.
Thats right. Were up to 575 as we speak and their crews are training on multiple jump attack.
Tag furrowed his brow and said, Multiple jump what?
Kosiev laughed and said, You got us started thinking about it with your fleet of remote controlled ships. We jump 50 Ultras into the middle of the Alliance formations and they fire every weapon at any available target. Then as they start to be fired on they jump away to safety to only jump right back in behind the ships that were attacking them. Multiply that by ten and you can imagine the affect on the enemy.
Wow, Tag said shaking his head. I wish I knew what the Alliance fleet is going to do. Are our ships on the moon ready for action?
Yes, we have eighty launch tubes with five ships each ready for instant launch. The first four hundred ships will launch followed by 400 more every ten seconds. Weve raised the number were going to have in the cavern to 4000 so all of them will be launched in about ninety seconds. Kosiev then rubbed his chin and said, How do we hide the other 3,000 ships if as we believe the Alliance fleet goes looking for them?
We cant. What about this. What if we have the 3,000 ships not housed on the moon parked on the planet. If as we suspect the Alliance starts draining our screen and we are able to draw them in closer; then just as we go to full power on the screen, we launch 2000 ships straight out from the Asteroid Fortresses. The forts will fire their five mile wide beam and our ships will follow that beam right thru the Alliance ranks. I feel pretty certain that when that beam is fired every Alliance ship in the vicinity will be moving away from it. It should open a path beyond their ranks. Two shots and all three thousand are thru. What do you think?