Our communications are being blocked. Warleader, sixty huge ships have just come out of star drive inside the moons orbit and destroyed eighty ships trying to escape. They have now jumped back into star drive and disappeared from our sensors.
Thats impossible. No ship can jump in that close.
Im replaying it on your display.
The Warleader watched and saw the ships appear close to the escaping ships and then destroy all of them instantly. They then disappeared. Do we still have communications to the Alliance Center?
Yes, Warleader, Ill open a channel now.
State leader Sten was in his office waiting for updates from the fleet with Headman Dgzh when his assistant came in saying emergency communication from the fleet. Stein and Dgzh looked at each other and both could see the anxiety in each others face. Put it thru.
State Leader, the Humans have surrounded half of our fleet at their home world, The Warleader said. It appears they have more than 7,000 warships.
Sten and Dgzh were stunned speechless. Finally, Dgzh said, Why is only half your fleet at the planet?
The Warleader felt a sick feeling but knew his life depended on his answer. I expected some kind of trap from the Humans. We scanned every inch of space in their system with the entire fleet to make sure no low powered ships were hiding. We found only the 90 ships left over from the last battle. I was concerned that the Glod Union would jump in to save their Human ally so I stationed half our fleet at the Star drive limit to prevent any surprise attacks that would pin our fleet in system too far to jump to safety. The Humans hid their ships inside the moon deep enough to avoid our sensors and had 3,000 more on the surface hidden by their screen. Its a good thing I did what I did or we might lose our entire fleet.
Warleader, you outnumber them almost three to one. You would have had a better chance with your fleet intact.
The Warleader looked at the Alliance leaders and said, Admiral, 600 of their ships jumped into your system before this battle and destroyed more than 5,000 ships. They lost only 500 or so ships. They have consistently killed between six to ten ships for every one of theirs we kill. Now they have 7,000 ships in system. How many ships do you think it would take to defeat them?
Sten and Dgzh knew he was right. If all their ships had been trapped that far from the star drive limit; they would have probably lost them all.
Theres one more thing that you need to know, the Warleader said. Im sending a recording of what happened when some of our ships tried to break thru the Human blockade.
Stein and Dgzh watched as the eighty ships tried to escape and the 60 huge Human battleships jumped in on top of them and destroyed them all. Thats not possible, Dgzh said as he jumped up from his chair. No one can jump that close to a star.
Then the two Alliance leaders looked at each other and it dawned on them that if the Humans could jump that close to their own planet, then they could jump in right next to theirs. Warleader, bring the remainder of your fleet back to Alliance Central immediately. As soon as you jump in move your fleet around the planet.
State Leader, his assistant said while running into the room. There are more than 250 warships that just jumped in close to our planet. They are right outside our atmosphere and the leader is requesting to speak with you.
The Warleader looked at the two and could see their fear. He then said, Do you still want me to jump into your system?
No, you would never arrive in time to save us. Take your ships to Luris and inform the leader of our Safety Prime Council what has happened. He will decide our next course of action. Sten then looked at his assistant and said, Put the communication thru to my office. He then sat down knowing his world did not have long to live.
The Subleader watched as his ships were escorted to the moon and parked. He kept hoping that the Warleader would come and assist him but even that hope was dashed. Subleader, the Alliance ships at the jump point have disappeared. They have jumped out of system.
Now he knew most of his personnel would be trapped here. They just didnt have enough transports to move them all. He could tell in his crews faces that they were feeling despair.
The Human leader wishes to speak with you again.
Put him on.
Commander, it appears your fleet has decided to leave, Kosiev said. I would like to offer a suggestion if youre open to it.
What is that?
There are 400 dreadnaughts that you were using to drain our screen. If you will park them at the coordinates Im about to give you, our engineers will remove all the machinery from them and you can then use them to transport the remainder of your forces. Those dreadnaughts had very small crews because they were not built to fight. With the shuttles and extra cargo space in them, we have calculated that you should be able to get all your crews home.
The Subleader looked at the Human and saw his crew out of the corner of his eye looking up hopefully. Why are you doing this? You could have destroyed us all and you chose not to do so. Why?
Commander, it has come to our attention that if we destroyed your total fleet, that there was a good chance that the members of the Alliance might begin attacking each other. Are we wrong in that assumption?
The Subleader thought about all the races in the Alliance that would jump at the chance to destroy his race if given the chance. He knew his race was not alone in that category. No, you are not wrong.
We do not choose to be the ones that cause billions of deaths. We are going to give the Alliance one chance to save itself and there will not be a second. We are having that discussion with the Alliance leaders at this very moment.
Ill bet thats an interesting conversation, the Subleader thought.
Chapter 15
State Leader Sten looked at his display and saw a young Human male. He thought, Hes pretty young to be leading that many ships. Then he said, I am State Leader Sten. I understand you wish to communicate with me.
The young man smiled and said, Relax, State Leader. We are not here to destroy your world. Sten could feel Headman Dgzh sign and sit down. Then why are you here?
Im hoping that we can end this madness and come to an understanding where the bloodshed will stop. However, I know that you dont have the final word in this matter and that we will probably go away with no agreement. I was fully prepared to totally destroy your fleet when it entered our system, but I was shown that if I did that, then I would precipitate a civil war among your members. Our best guess is that if that happened, more than 900 billion could be killed. We cannot allow that to happen if it can be avoided.
Sten interrupted saying, What do you mean.And the young Human held up his hand and said, Im not finished. Hold your comments until I am. We allowed half of your fleet to jump out of our system and we have captured the other half and parked them on our moon. We were planning on sending the crews back.
Sten could see Dgzh desperately trying to get his attention, Would you give me just a moment, my second in command is going to keel over if I dont listen to him for a moment. The young Human smiled and actually laughed. What is it? Sten said angrily. Cant you see Im busy?
State Leader, this conversation is being heard on every planet. It is on every communication device in the entire Alliance.
Sten looked at the Human and heard him say, You just found out that were broadcasting this to all the member races of the Alliance. Sten nodded. The young human paused for a moment and appeared to be listening to someone, then he said, State leader, we are going to release your ships off our moon with no conditions. I would recommend you return them to the races that contributed them to your fleet. Some of those members will need those ships to protect themselves. We thought about holding them to force you to come to terms with us but one of us thinks that the civil war will start if we dont get them back into your hands quickly and we respect the opinion of that person highly. We have turned the crews around and are getting them back into their ships and will escort them out of our system. You may do with them as you choose. We are a peaceful race that learned in a bloody history the evils that come with war. We rearmed ourselves because we were attacked by one of your member races that is now one of our brother planets, the Cainth. The Glod Union has also asked to become one of our brothers and we have accepted them into our Stars Realm. We will defend them and ourselves. However, we do not desire to rule anyone. These two races freely chose to join us and are free to leave any time they choose. We do not desire to take anyones territory or tell anyone how to govern their planet. We do not want to destroy or kill anyone and will do all that is possible to avoid it, but we will defend ourselves. We are at heart a peaceful race. Having said that, I want to make this clear so that there will be no misunderstanding; should you choose to continue this attack on us, we will destroy the ability to make war of who ever participates in it. If we determine that you are again preparing a fleet for the purpose of invading us, we will destroy it and then systematically destroy every warship of the ones leading the attack. We know the ten planets that truly govern your worlds. Their paranoia has been taught to all of its members but we choose not to live in fear. We are open to discussions but one thing we will not negotiate. The total destruction of worlds and races ends today. If an Alfont tone is ever heard again, investigate first and acquire it for the betterment of all your races. We will not sit by and watch a race totally annihilated. Other than that, you may do as you please. I hope that we have shown in our actions that we dont make idle threats. All we desire is to be left alone and to live in peace. Think long and hard before you challenge that wish. Contact us if you have any further questions. And with that the Human disappeared from the screen and after a short pause, the 300 warships surrounding the planet jumped away.