SODIUM:4 Gravity (12 page)

The Defenders slowly moved into a formation that placed a ship every half kilometer going six ships deep. The other GAFs took up position on the left flank. I hesitated to join their ranks. When a second order came in to assemble I reluctantly looked back at my team. Something did not feel right. We had no weapons or strategies that were affective against the mega-ship. I could find no logical reason for the commands being given.

It was not the first time I had questioned our tactics. But, again I didn't have all the information. I didn't know what our plans might be. So, I pushed easily forward on the throttle to move us into position.

The Defenders on the right flank suddenly began to lose their shields and explode as their reactors detonated. The alien mega-ship had targeted our assembly and was firing from more than 600 kilometers away. Even with the atmosphere running interference, the alien weapon was too powerful for our shields. By the time the order to disperse was given, 64 Defenders and their crews had met their end.

The alien skirmish line soon turned into an arc and continued its push north spreading outward as it went. Our enemy was cutting a 400 kilometer wide swath through America's heartland. Our hopes were now pinned on the silent nukes that lay in wait. But those hopes were soon dashed as the mega-ship turned its weapon on the areas where the nukes had been deployed. In 20 minutes, our only hope had been crushed by the superior power of the alien gravity beam.

Our Defender force was moved to Roanoke Virginia where we had the protection of the Appalachian Mountains as the alien weapon was only effective with line-of-sight. It felt cowardly to hide away while millions of our citizens were being killed and our homes destroyed.

The alien fleet continued to advance in an arc that stretched from Springfield, Missouri to Evansville, Indiana. Evacuating vehicles were smashed on the roadways as they fled. Many had abandoned their cars to run into the nearby fields to hide. Many had given up and stayed huddled in their homes awaiting a quick but horrible death.

The tears welled up in my eyes and the anger in my heart. Was this the way the Earth was going to fall? Was this the way Man had chosen to end his fight? How long did I have before my loved ones became victims of the crushing alien attacks? How long did I have before our remaining forces were rounded up and put to death?

I had a full complement of 64 Drillers at the ready. I had a ship that could travel faster than light. I had a suit that allowed me to move about invisibly and yet these all seemed useless against our superior foe.

When the alien forces had destroyed St. Louis, Missouri they turned decidedly northwest. They were heading for the vast cornfields of Iowa. Their starvation strategy was once again coming to light.

The anger in my heart grew until such time as I could no longer control it. I turned our GAF upward and shot into the sky and soon into the black space beyond. I arced our craft and re-entered the atmosphere near Hudson Bay in Canada. Shepard asked what I had in mind.

The screams from my commander rang hollow in my audio implant. I soon switched off my QE comm. I knew I was once again disobeying orders, but I could not sit idly by any longer while our people were mercilessly slaughtered. I was taking the fight to the enemy.

I told Randy to ready all 64 Drillers and that we would be going into battle. We could not fly to confront our enemy but we might have a chance at drilling. I pushed the throttle hard and did a flip near Minneapolis while hugging close to the ground.

I set down just north of Des Moines, Iowa and turned our GAF downward. The BHD cut quickly into the rich farm soil and we were soon a kilometer underground. I leveled out and pushed the throttle full, heading southward. The BHD silently cut a tunnel through the Earth.

I stopped just south of Des Moines and began circling tightly to cut a small chamber out of the bedrock. When complete, I pushed upwards, drilling a tunnel towards the surface. I stopped short by 5 meters so as not to give away our position to the approaching enemy.

I flipped again and returned to our newly dug chamber. I then began to drill another tunnel towards the surface at a slightly different angle. The process was repeated until eight tunnels lead upwards and outwards coming just shy of the surface.

Shepard again asked what I had in mind. I told her we would wait in silence for the alien force to begin passing overhead. When our foe was directly above Randy would be given the go-ahead to launch all Drillers. We would then turn and head safely northward through the tunnel that we had initially come through. With a little luck, we would be able to bring damage to our enemy or at least perhaps slow them down.

We sat patiently, waiting until the sensors told the story of the destruction of Des Moines by the mega-ship. An hour later the ground above once again rumbled as the alien attack force moved overhead. I turned and gave Randy the order. Our 64 Drillers departed going eight to a tunnel while screaming towards the surface, drilling the final 5 meters of earth before breaking free. It was a surprise from below that the aliens were not prepared for.

The Drillers emerged into several pods of alien skimmers and quickly did their worst. The progress of the attacking fleet was halted as chaos consumed the skimmers. The alien fighters circled helplessly overhead as their ground forces below attempted to scatter and run.

In the commotion and chaos that ensued one of the Drillers soon found its mark in the alien cruiser. Minutes later the cruiser exploded in a bright flash, sending shards of debris in every direction, taking out a number of fighters and hundreds of skimmers just below. A green fog soon blanketed the area.

The mega-ship pounded the ground positions where the Drillers had emerged from but to no avail, we were long gone. I then flipped on my QE comm and forwarded the video of what we had done to Command. Orders quickly went out to the remaining Defender fleet.

Within an hour a second and third subsurface Driller attack had been launched and again the enemy took heavy casualties. The destroyers soon opened their doors and began loading skimmers. A fourth attack then took down one of the destroyers as it hovered just above the ground and loaded its cargo.

Our strategy was working and the tides of war were once again turning in our favor. In a last effort to collect its forces, the alien mega-ship flew down the line of skimmers picking up crews as it went. When a Driller attack emerged in the line of skimmers in its path the mega-ship then turned skyward, followed by the 14 empty alien carriers, it was soon beyond the atmosphere.

Defender crews from around the planet were soon called into battle against the 10,000 plus alien fighters. As Drillers filled the skies over the remaining Iowa corn fields the alien fighters soon abandoned the thousands of remaining ground forces in retreat, following after their command ship and carriers.

Our attentions were soon focused on the more than 40,000 skimmers that had been left behind. The skimmer weapons were not powerful enough to overwhelm our shields. It was almost like shooting cattle in a fenced field. They had nowhere to run, nowhere to hide and no defense against our superior weapons. We were like crocodiles feeding on an animal who had lingered in the waterhole for too long. We were relentless and complete in our destruction.

The final alien skimmer crews were given the opportunity to surrender, but they continued their fight to the death. I wondered if they themselves were only machines. I wondered what would motivate them to the point of dying so needlessly. Perhaps it was fear, perhaps it was their beliefs, perhaps it was in their culture to die fighting and never surrender. We then watched in disbelief as the final thousand alien skimmers grouped together and fogged themselves. When the last skimmer craft melted into nothing a cheer went up at Command.

The alien mega-ship and its carriers and fighters regrouped in space at twice the distance of the Moon from the Earth. They moved randomly and the mega-ship made periodic sweeps with its gravity weapon to prevent another BGS incursion.

Again Mankind had survived... survived to fight another day. In the attack another 146 million souls had perished, this time in the American heartland. Millions of acres of crops had been destroyed and everything human in the entire state of Missouri had been crushed.

But, the aliens had once again been pushed back by an inferior force. We wondered what their next strategy would be. We wondered if we would somehow be able to counter it. We wondered if we would be able to overcome the potential annihilation of Man that still loomed in the heavens.

Our scientists and other research personnel were poring over the videos of the newly discovered humanoid species. They appeared to be commanding the squids. I wondered if perhaps they were the key to ending this war.

As we bandaged our fresh wounds, the alien force again sat idle for months. We had lost nearly a billion citizens since the arrival of the main alien fleet and we were facing the possibility of starvation for hundreds of millions more. Our factories continued to turn out fighting hardware and our citizens continued to train and to make repairs of what we could. I sat on station watching our foe and began to get that now familiar foreboding feeling.

What were they planning? What terror would they bring next? What struggle would we have to fight to overcome and who were these new human like creatures? The alien mega-ship floated silently as we looked on. The moves that would come next were again ones that we had no way to prepare for and no way to fight. The few months of peace were blissful, but the tides of war would once again turn against us.

For months the citizens of Earth continued in their recovery efforts, but difficulties were mounting. Factories were at full production and supplies were becoming scarce. Food shortages were common and efforts to contain the unrest were at times insufficient. Man struggled to maintain his composure.

Three times I had asked to take action against the alien fleet and three times I had been denied. I was angered and at the same time relieved when orders came in for my team to return to Lake Pleasant and the accommodations of Chamber #2. We had earned four days of rest and recuperation after 84 days straight of being at war. It was a liberty call I knew the crew was in need of.

After touching down we were herded off to the med labs for an analysis of our BGS suits. Randy and Raven would be getting an upgrade while Shepard and I would be receiving a full analysis of our suit performances. As far as I was concerned they had worked flawlessly.

When our checkout was complete we each made our way to our quarters. I laid back on my anti-grav mattress and placed a call to my family. It was evening in Alabama. Things back home were tough, supplies were in high demand and short supply and workers were still employed in the factories in the city, leaving farmers shorthanded during harvest time.

My grandfather had been on the tractor for 10 hours straight trying to help my father bring in the corn. I wanted to return immediately, but the only available air-cab would not be free until morning. As always, my grandfather did not complain. Toiling in the fields was what made him happy.

I checked the personnel logs and was disappointed to find that Zack was away visiting his family in Michigan and would not be returning until after my departure. Even though I looked forward to the short break from my crew I did not want to be alone. I rang up Randy, Raven and Shepard and we headed for the base pub.

We drank into the wee hours of the morning, laughing, telling jokes and talking about our families and childhoods. Several hours had passed before we realized that our BGS suits were filtering the alcohol from our systems. Shepard pulled up a holo-display and checked the suit parameters. An adjustment was made to our filters and our evening of celebration continued.

When our party had come to an end, I stumbled back to my quarters and laid back on the anti-grav mattress. I pulled up another holo-display and returned the BGS filters to normal. Within minutes my buzz was gone and the sleep meds had been administered. Sleep came quickly.

When I woke in the morning I was expecting a hangover, but none was there. I shook my head and let out a "woot" in approval as I exited my quarters heading for the hangar. The air-cab was on time and I was soon on my way home. As I looked down at the passing landscape I smiled at the beauty our planet had to offer. It was worth saving.

We passed over the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia and then over the foothills of western North Carolina. I casually answered my comm when an unexpected call came in. It was Command and I was being called back for immediate duty. The alien fleet was again on the move.

I passed my orders to the cabby who quickly turned back towards Lake Pleasant. I was still in the air when the alien fleet touched down in Lake Ontario and disappeared under the water's surface. I called Shepard who was waiting in the hangar for my arrival. The team was ready and waiting for my return.

When the air-cab touched down I tipped the cabby heavily and ran for my ship. Within minutes we were racing to a rally point in Roanoke. The tactical screen soon lit up with information. The fleet had come ashore at St. Catherines.

When the fighters and skimmers surfaced they began the now standard annihilation of everything human. The mega-ship followed and then began pummeling Buffalo from a distance. When the big guns at Buffalo went silent the aliens revealed a new tactic. The mega-ship began using its gravity weapon to dig a three kilometer wide trench up the Niagara River heading towards the now ruins of Buffalo.

The behemoth moved quickly and within half an hour had reached the waters of Lake Erie. A massive torrent of water now flowed through the trench on its way to Lake Ontario. The destroyer surfaced next, surrounded by a thousand fighters. It was heading up the St. Lawrence towards Ogdensburg. The powerful gravity weapon of the destroyer was soon put into action pushing earth into the great waterway to create a dam.

Command launched numerous cruise missiles in an attempt to halt the alien progress, but each were knocked from the sky before closing in on our enemy. We were then given orders to head to Boston and then Montreal where another subterranean assault was planned. I was given command of two squads of GAFs to take out the destroyer.

As the waters flowed into Lake Ontario the lake level began to rise. The streets of Toronto soon began to flood. The fifteen million inhabitants of the city suddenly had to seek higher ground. As we raced into Montreal and turned southwest, the mega-ship and its forces disappeared into the waters of Lake Erie.

Before our arrival in Montreal the destroyer had finished its handy-work of blocking the St. Lawrence waterway and had returned to the safety of Lake Ontario. We were left with no target. I signaled Command and was told to "sit tight" as they evaluated the situation. I would do nothing of the sort.

I commanded my two squads of GAFS to start drilling into the earthen dam constructed by the aliens. Our progress would be slow, but we would at least be attempting to do something. With the waters rising in Toronto, our work would be the only relief to be offered.

The mega-ship and carriers, with their horde of fighters, were soon spotted at St. Ignace, knocking down the spans of the I75 bridge between lower Michigan and Canada, before diving down into the waters of Lake Michigan. My first thoughts were of Zack and his family in Traverse City. I signaled Command and asked for orders to the area... I was denied.

The destroyer was next into action as it pushed a 20 meter swell of water towards the flooding shoreline of Toronto. The wave was long as the destroyer moved parallel to the shore as it pushed the water forward. Toronto was soon deluged with massive floods going 20 kilometers inland.

The city and its suburbs soon lay in a lake with only tall buildings jutting up from the murky cold waters. Command again attempted nuclear strikes on the destroyer only to have the alien fighters knock down anything sent their way well before it came within range. The destroyer next surfaced and after using its gravity wave in one long sweep, the tall buildings of Toronto were knocked over and perished into the floods.

My fears for Traverse City soon came true; a giant swell of water was reported heading down Grand Traverse Bay. I could only hope that Zack was able to move his family to safety. Word next came that the 9,000 fighters accompanying the mega-ship had surfaced and were flying cover as the mega-ship began to move southward in Lake Michigan.

As the behemoth moved it pushed a 40 meter swell of water towards the shoreline. Within an hour the massive wave had moved as far south as Muskegon where 100,000 skimmers surfaced and followed the wave inland. Grand Rapids was soon overwhelmed and its ongoing history brought to an abrupt end.

The destroyer departed the Toronto area and began a new campaign to annihilate the shorelines of Lake Erie. Again the fighters circled overhead as cover while the destroyer pushed a massive wall of water inland while moving southwest. Cleveland would be inundated within the hour.

After sufficiently restoring the flow of the St. Lawrence, Command then ordered my squads into further action. We were to proceed to the shorelines of Lake Erie and then to dive beneath the waters. Our target was the destroyer and the strategy was to move ahead of it and to lie in wait.

I was sure our progress was being monitored by the aliens and as such I devised a new strategy. We would drill below the lake bottom where we would launch a number of Drillers. After drilling their way through the earth a kilometer beneath the lake bottom they would then surface 50 kilometers in front of our position and begin hunting for the destroyer.

We dug deep and launched 20 Drillers into the soils below the lake. We then continued forward taking position in front of the advancing destroyer. I was sure we had been detected and that there would be no surprise waiting for the destroyer. I was right. The destroyer stopped short of our position and rose above the surface. It continued to push walls of water towards the shoreline as it moved slowly ahead.

But we still had Drillers advancing towards the destroyer and our programming of them could not have been better. The Drillers came up through the lake bottom and then surfaced directly under the destroyer.

Eighteen Drillers were immediately destroyed, but two made contact with the ship’s outer walls and soon began their dirty work of eating the great ship from the inside out. The destroyer fell prey to the Drillers and its reign of terror on the citizens of the Great Lakes came to an end. As the green fog spread over the hollowed destroyer it sank into the cold murky waters of Lake Erie.

The thousand fighters above then turned and headed for the mega-ship. I gave the order and pushed hard on the throttle as we rose quickly to attack the fighters who trailed the pack. Our 14 GAFs then launched all Drillers and began to pick away at the alien horde as the confusion of battle set in.

We managed to down 16 alien fighters before turning back. A safe distance had to be maintained from the mega-ship or we risked being knocked from the sky. We turned and headed southeast towards Pittsburgh to await new orders.

The mega-ship then turned its weapon on Detroit. From 250 kilometers it sat and did its dirty work. The Detroit death toll estimates rose quickly towards one million souls with the Windy City being the next to feel the alien wrath.

With Detroit in ruin the powerful alien gravity weapon turned on Chicago. At the same time the 10,000 alien fighters swarmed down into the suburbs followed by the 100,000 skimmers who had since finished up with Grand Rapids. I cringed as the 50 Defenders who had been parked on the ground in Chicago rose up in an attempt to stop the alien horde. It was suicide.

From Pittsburgh I received orders to return to Roanoke. The orders were firm as a major counter offensive was in the works. Within minutes we were safely on the ground behind the Appalachians awaiting the call into battle. Our eyes remained glued to the tactical screen.

The screen soon lit up with more than 50,000 Drillers and another 5,000 stealth cruise missiles. I waited for the wide sweeps of the alien gravity beam to clear the skies of our new offensive. I was stunned at what happened next.

Huge fireballs erupted simultaneously in Gary, Oak Lawn, Shaumburg and Waukegan. As the giant mushroom clouds rose I knew the cities had been sacrificed in an attempt to stop the alien slaughter. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I thought of the millions of lives that had perished in an instant, taken by our own hand. I opened my mouth to scream, but only silence emerged.

The massive alien fighter and skimmer fleet had taken a heavy blow. The Drillers and cruise missiles were soon on target to finish what the self-annihilating nukes had begun. Within half an hour of the Chicago apocalypse the alien mega-ship was in retreat. The remaining skimmers had been abandoned while the final horde of 1,200 alien fighters left the atmosphere with the mega-ship.

Our orders quickly came in and more than 400 Defenders and GAFs descended on the rubble of Chicago while chasing down and destroying the remaining skimmers. As the last skimmer crashed down into a green fog a cheer went up at Command. I could not bring myself to celebrate as I scanned the debris of what only hours before had been a teaming, thriving city of more than four million citizens.

Before orders came to return to Lake Pleasant I pushed the throttle and flew to Traverse City to inspect the damage. My heart sank as I saw that the mega-ship had swept the flooded remains of the city and surrounding suburbs. Nothing over a meter in height was left standing.

As the tears filled my eyes I again pushed the throttle and within minutes settled just above the tarmac at home base. As we taxied into the hangar I wiped my eyes. We touched down and powered off the ship. I stood and followed Randy, Raven and Shepard out of the rear hatch.

I began the long walk towards the elevators with my eyes looking at the floor before someone stepped in front of me. It was Zack! His face told of what I already knew. Much of his family was gone. His life up until joining the corps had been stripped away. The hurt in his eyes was overwhelming.

I put my arms around him and pulled him close and the tears once again began to flow. After a long embrace he pushed me back gently and then asked me to follow him to the hangar break room. As we turned the corner an elderly woman and man stood. I recognized the resemblance immediately.

Zack's parents had flown back with him earlier that morning. They had survived with only a small bag of clothing and their Yorkshire terrier named T-Rex. But gone were his Aunts, Uncles and cousins. Gone was their home and gone were their neighbors and friends of many years. Their life in Traverse City lay in ruin. After a brief introduction I called my parents and asked if they would help. Their response was immediate. That afternoon, Zack's parents were in an air-cab heading for eastern Alabama.

My day was soon filled with debriefings. Command needed every detail, every move and every thought that had run through our minds as the day's battles had ensued. By the time the briefings had ended Zack had been off duty for hours and had retired to his quarters for the evening. I wondered down to the base pub and ordered up a beer.

The day had been long and I was growing ever weary from the seemingly never ending battles. It was a war with no winners. A billion citizens of Earth had perished and now countless numbers of the enemy. And what of the humanoid creatures, how many were there and why did they hate us so?

I was soon joined by three technicians who had just come off shift from working on the new prototype ship. After seeing the clearance indicators on my BGS suit they opened up about what would be ready for testing in less than a year, the first of the Brenner Class destroyers.