SODIUM:4 Gravity (8 page)

Much of the afternoon was spent chasing down fighters in our quadrant. We kept our distance from the main body of the fleet and the other large ships as we picked away at their fighters.

Two destroyers then turned in our direction. I put the call out to our squadrons to retreat. As we turned and fled, our holo-screens lit up with another 4,000 ground launched Drillers rocketing up towards the approaching destroyers.

The space surrounding the large ships was soon filled with small explosions as the ships maneuvered and fired upon the Drillers. I took the opportunity to again throw our squadron into battle. We kept our distance from the large ships as the relentless Drillers charged the destroyers again and again.

Cheers once again filled our cabin as one of the destroyers ceased to move and showed signs of destruction. Again a bright flash told the story as the fusion reactor aboard the destroyer was breached.

Our celebration was short lived as the mega-ship maneuvered in close to the remaining destroyer. Wave after wave of Driller exploded in bright fury as the mega-ship swept the surrounding space with its powerful gravity beam. The active Driller count in our quadrant soon dropped to zero.

Without the threat of the Drillers our kill ratio soon plummeted back near one-to-one. The mega-ship moved to another quadrant enacting the same highly effective Driller sweep. The tides of war had once again turned back towards the invader's favor.

With the alien destroyer once again limiting our attacks I tried repeatedly to knock another alien fighter offline. As a new strategy the aliens triggered the self-destruct of their disabled craft. A green fog would spray out encapsulating and dissolving the dead fighter before we could make use of it.

The next hour was spent chasing down the stray fighter that ventured too far from its parent destroyer. Our squadron's original 28 Defenders now numbered 12 and our team of four GAFs was down to three. We had kill credits for one destroyer and 47 fighters.

After many hours of battle I was surprised that nearly half of our mobile coil guns were still in service pumping out tungsten rounds. Our scientists and engineers had launched a number of special Defenders with a new gravity shield. The special Defenders would sit in the middle of a cluster of mobile guns protecting them from the relentless attacks by the alien fighters.

Slowly but surely a pod of alien fighters accompanied by a destroyer would charge a group of our mobile guns. The alien losses were heavy, but our mobile guns were falling one by one.

I asked for Command to deliver new orders, but none were forthcoming. Command was occupied with larger strategies. Our holo-screens soon lit up with 186 new launches from the ground. It was a new type of nuclear space mine with an active skin and passive sensor.

Each launcher held 20 such mines which would be released once free of Earth's gravity. The mines would drift towards the fleet and float unseen until fired by a 20 kilometer proximity trigger. The warhead was expected to kill any craft within 500 kilometers.

As our battle continued, I locked onto a new fighter and gave chase. The fighter weaved and dodged, but our GAF and my reactions were too fast for its programmed behavior. Randy quickly notched another kill.

The nuclear mines had soon drifted into position. A bright flash from a detonation showed on our holo-screens every few minutes. We were five hours into our war of attrition. The stats showed 4,324 confirmed alien fighter kills to our 1147 Defender losses. Our mobile guns had been knocked down to only 47 still in operation. The numbers remained in favor of the invaders.

The war in the heavens continued to churn until the last of the mobile guns went silent. As we chased a fighter an urgent order came in from Command. All Defenders and GAFs were to return to Earth to their designated city defense assignments. The massive alien ships were making a move into Earth's atmosphere.

The space mines took their last heavy tolls on the alien fighters. As a result the final alien assault force consisted of 10,652 fighters, 11 destroyers, four cruisers and a battleship. The mega-ship remained space-bound along with ten of the carriers.

We were soon on our way to defend Seattle, Washington. I pushed the throttle to full as our squadrons split up for their new assignments. My nervousness grew as thoughts of civilian casualties entered my mind. We took up position above the city along with 22 Defenders and waited for the inevitable attack. We were now defending our homes.

I looked around at Raven, Randy and Shepard and gave each a nod of confidence as I shook on the inside. An alien destroyer and 126 alien fighters were heading our way. We waited patiently for our foes to enter the kill zone around Seattle, Victoria and Vancouver. Our ground defenses included regular armed forces, 36 heavy coil guns, 76 light guns and 66 of another new weapon... mini Drillers.

The mini Drillers were fast to fly, quick to turn and had highly resistant shielding, but offered only a conventional warhead. Their biggest asset was to add confusion to the enemy tactics during battle as they chased fighters in a relentless pursuit.

Just before breaching the outer perimeter of the Seattle kill zone the attack fleet altered course to the north. They moved up through western Canada between Vancouver and Banff National Park. The invaders then turned west to settle in the bay near Port Hardy.

The calls for assistance from the area were short lived as the alien fighters spread out in an ever widening circle around the destroyer crushing everything human in their paths. I felt helpless as innocent people lost their lives just to our north while our orders to defend the Seattle zone remained.

I turned to Shepard, Raven and Randy and asked if they had any ideas. There was only silence in response. I turned back to my holo-screen and watched in dismay as the alien fighter's circle of destruction continued to grow around the alien destroyer.

Shepard then spoke up with an idea. The aliens had been able to trace the 25kHz buzz from our video sensors making our invisible advantage of the active skin largely useless. With our video feeds turned off we would largely be flying blind. Shepard's idea was to modify our video feed to be a series of low power still shots. On our holo-screens it would appear as a jumpy low-resolution video, but the 25kHz buzz would be gone. It was not an ideal solution, but it would be adequate for reconnaissance.

I put the request into Command and was rewarded with a go-ahead. I gave the order to my crew and turned our GAF in the direction of Port Hardy. A quick burst from our BHD sent us hurdling towards our target. We drifted for half an hour before moving inside the ever widening circle of alien destruction.

The video jumped in spurts and starts but the images were clear enough to see what was happening below. When we had almost reached the destroyer I patched the video feed back to Command through my QE comm.

The destroyer was busy. Giant doors had opened on each side and small alien craft were moving out and down into the waters of the bay. Each of the small craft skimmed along atop the water heading for the shoreline of Vancouver Island. An amphibious assault was under way. The same scene was being repeated at various locations around the globe. The large alien craft had landed over shoreline waters and their assault forces were being released.

Five green blips then appeared on my holo-screen coming from the southwest. They clung close to the cold ocean water of the Pacific. The first three came directly at the alien destroyer while the final two veered north and then turned to approach from the west.

Raven punched in the identity codes which revealed stealth cruise missiles carrying old style 1 megaton neutron warheads. They were a remnant of the mistrust that still existed between nations... a remnant of the strategy of mutual destruction. A quick calculation by Shepard placed us directly over the destroyer when the first three missiles would be arriving. We would be in for one spectacular show.

As the missiles hugged the terrain of Vancouver Island to the southwest I clinched my teeth and braced for an impact that would have no effect on our GAF with its active skin. I was soon let down as a gravity beam fired from the destroyer crushed the incoming missiles making their warheads inert.

The alien ground units continued to pour out of the dark gray craft heading towards the shore. Raven then pointed out a dark shadow under the water's surface heading northward out of the bay. An underwater assault was underway as well.

The two remaining cruise missiles continued on their slow approach from the west. I checked the kill perimeter of the alien weapon and took note that we were nearing the northern edge. In an attempt to distract the destroyer I ordered Raven to set our shields at the rear of our ship and I pushed our throttle to full. Our stealth tactic of single shot video had likely been compromised by the move.

The destroyer quickly reacted firing a beam directly at our position. Our shields went to 102% before dropping quickly. It had been a gamble but the shields had held. At the same time the cruise missiles came within eight kilometers of the destroyer and detonated.

The bright flash soon turned into a boiling mushroom cloud of fire and debris that spread outward in a thin triangular shape. The alien destroyer sustained heavy damage from the twin blasts.

Trees on the island out to 5 kilometers burst into flames while those out to 75 kilometers in front of the blast were flattened. The warheads were effective at the eight kilometer distance due to the use of a shaped-charge type of explosion.

I quickly flipped our GAF and headed back into battle. The fireball had consumed 29 of the alien fighters and disabled a dozen more. The destroyer was down in the waters of Port Hardy bay. A full third of the amphibious assault force lay still on the shores near Port McNeill.

I maneuvered towards two incoming fighters and Randy made short work of them with our coil guns. I then dove hard towards the disabled alien destroyer while Randy launched four Drillers. We again took out another fighter that attempted to intervene.

As we circled and fired at advancing fighters the work of the Drillers soon became evident. A bright flash consumed the alien destroyer when the reactor was breached. The area was soon covered in the familiar green fog as the remains of the alien destroyer dissolved and sank into the bay.

Cheers went up at Command as two other destroyers met with similar fates. But the cheers were short lived as alien forces were now on the ground. We steered through a wave of fighters firing our coil guns and gravity pulses as we flew back towards the kill zone around Seattle.

With the destroyer dead the alien ground forces turned their skimmers westward towards the Canadian mainland. They were now heading towards the industrial centers of Calgary and Edmonton. Raven counted 87 alien fighters circling ever eastward to assist in their assault.

I again flipped hard and pushed the throttle full. There were a dozen damaged alien fighters on the ground near the blast zone and their utility robots were sure to be fast at work bringing them back to operational status. One by one I flew near the damaged fighters allowing Randy to finish the job the cruise missiles had begun.

With our sensor feeds back in full operation I began to scan the waters north of Port Hardy for the sub-sea forces. They had either gone deep or were moving at an extremely fast pace away from the area. Raven signaled Command and soon had the readouts from the Canadian and American armed forces sonobuoys.

On the tactical holo-screens commercial sea traffic in the area showed as white blips. Green symbols indicated nearby American forces of a cruiser and a fast attack submarine and Canadian forces of a Coast Guard cutter. Again, there were no signs of the alien submariners.

With the damaged alien fighters annihilated, I put in a request to Command to go after the remaining alien forces in our area. The request was denied. I then asked to remain in recon mode shadowing the alien ground force and was once again denied. Our orders were to return to Seattle.

As we cruised safely back into the Seattle kill zone our tactical screen again lit up with five green blips heading towards the alien forces. Five more cruise missiles had been launched at our enemy.

I was saddened at the thought of innocent civilians in the area being sacrificed when a more precise strike could be accomplished with our Defenders. But, I was making judgments from the information I had and I could only guess that it was in some way incomplete. We again watched helplessly as the invaders continued their advance.

Raven identified the cruise missiles as having ten kilo-ton neutron warheads. They were tactical weapons designed to destroy everything within a confined area. Two alien fighters soon broke ranks and moved on the advancing nukes. They knew how to detect them.

Within seconds the five missiles were knocked from the air. Four fell harmlessly to the ground while the fifth detonated clearing out a heavily forested area in a circular pattern of two to three kilometers in diameter. The two alien fighters fell from the sky smoldering as they impacted the ground and were soon covered in the green fog.

I again requested permission to attack the alien army and was again denied. Our sensors had detected 6,244 skimmers in the alien force now being escorted by 85 fighters. I had sudden visions of some of the training scenarios we had gone through back in the Defender simulators in boot camp. Fighting the ground forces from a Defender had been some of my favorites.

The invaders had soon crossed the coastal mountains and were moving across the plains, several hundred kilometers north of Whistler. Calgary and Edmonton each had two heavy coil guns and numerous light guns. They each had a squad of four Defenders at their disposal as well as their conventional forces. They were heavily out-gunned by the attacking force.

Word soon came in of other battles raging across the globe. The alien battleship and nearly 600 fighters had settled in the waters of Tsushima Island in the Sea of Japan. The island had quickly fallen after the alien battleship had released its armies. More than 60,000 skimmers and an untold number of subsurface craft had departed from the hangar bays of the mammoth ship. All were said to be heading for the Japanese mainland.

Two destroyers and 722 fighters had settled in the South China Sea as a battle for the Philippines was underway. A cruiser accompanied by 677 fighters had taken up position in Hervey Bay just north of Brisbane Australia. To the northwest a destroyer and 276 fighters had overtaken Sri Lanka and were headed north towards India.

Another destroyer and 342 fighters took position in the northern region of the Red sea. Two destroyers had landed in the Caspian and Black Seas, each commanding several hundred fighters. A cruiser, two destroyers and nearly 2,000 fighters had landed off Malta in the Mediterranean Sea. Sicily had fallen within minutes.

The remaining cruiser and another two destroyers landed and overtook French Guiana and were moving southward along the north Brazilian coast with 1,544 fighters in tow. The final two destroyers along with four carriers and 4,122 fighters splashed down in the middle of the Pacific with their final whereabouts unknown.

The invaders made a point of avoiding our most heavily defended cities. Our conventional forces were early in the process of receiving upgrades to their fighting equipment. By Earth standards they were better equipped than any force Man had ever known, but they had no real defense against the gravity weapons of the squids.

A single platoon had received the new BGS suit that I was wearing. I checked for their whereabouts on the command screens and took note that they were deployed around Washington, D.C. I soon grew frustrated when I did not see a strategy forming up to attack the alien ground force near Seattle.

I again requested that command allow us to attack the aliens headed for Calgary... again I was denied. Raven then remarked that there were pleas going out on the public airwaves for someone to come to the aid of Calgary. It was all I could stand.

In the field of battle the squadron commander had the authority to take direct charge of their squadron if they felt the need. It would come at a high price if countermanding a direct order. I felt the ends justified the means. I directed two Defenders to keep watch over Seattle while the remaining Seattle squads followed me into battle on the plains below Banff. The order was given over loud objections from Command.

I pushed the throttle to full. In less than a minute we were engaged with the alien fighter force. I rolled as Randy fired and Raven manipulated our shield. Two alien fighters were quickly cut in half. Our team then launched half of our remaining Drillers and my tactical holo-screen was soon full of blips moving about like a thick swarm of gnats.

Command screamed for our return, but those screams fell on deaf ears. Until... alerts began to flash on our Seattle Defense screen. The submariner alien force had begun an invasion while we were off chasing the ground force. I felt sick to my stomach as I ordered an immediate return to defend Seattle. I had countermanded direct orders and abandoned my post.

In the time it had taken us to return the port of Seattle was in shambles. Ships were ablaze and sinking in the sound and along the docks. As I flew in and began to target the alien ground forces, a large high-rise in the downtown district toppled over onto the expressway. Smoke was beginning to fill the skyline as a ground war ensued. Our armed forces fought fiercely but the overwhelming advantage of the alien gravity weapons mowed them down.

An initial count of 3,126 alien skimmers had emerged from the waters of Puget Sound and immediately began destroying the docks and naval resources that were stationed there. They were knocking down or flattening everything in their path.

I swooped low and slow and Randy began to target and annihilate the skimmers on his tactical screen one by one. I then turned south heading for the industrial district and Harbor Island. Flames shot high from the factories and warehouses. I identified a pod of five skimmers and headed directly for them.

As Randy took aim our sensors went haywire and the tactical screens went white. The aliens had some type of jamming gear making our sensors ineffective. We were now limited to video for identification and aiming. Our fighting ability had been reduced dramatically.

I yelled at Shepard and Raven to dig deep and find a way to overcome the jamming. I then turned to Randy with the statement that visual targeting was all we had. I would get him as close as possible and he would have to make the best of it.