Total Betrayal (Deep Space Endeavor) (34 page)

             
"That kind of total betrayal from a friend changes a man, Captain." Charlie began. "I'm really sorry about your parents, if you need a minute, I can take the bridge."

             
"No, thank you, Charlie. I'll manage."

             
"I'm a pretty laid back guy," he continued, "but if he had killed my wife or parents or went after my boys like he killed Rebecca and went after all of you, I'd be looking to hurt him badly, too."

             
"I know, Charlie, it just hurts me to see him this broken. He lost a lot more than his parents and fiancé and his leg to this man, Bliney's betrayal has forever changed him. I just hope we can get him back, and I really hope Lana didn't hear that exchange."

             
"She didn't," Carmine offered as he entered the bridge. Ariel had let him act as Lana's personal security while she was on the ship, just in case. "She was putting on her boots and checking her gear, but she's gonna hear about it."

             
"I know," Ariel replied with a sadness so deep that it cast her face into shadows. "But hopefully it won't be quite as shocking hearing it from someone as opposed to being here while it happened."

             
"I know what you mean, kid, um, I mean, Captain. Jesse's on a dangerous road, and if he goes dark, it's gonna change my whole world view."

             
"I know what you mean, Carmine."

             
"How are you doing? That's a tough thing to find out, and during battle no less."

             
"I suspect that when I finally have the time to process it, I'm gonna have a good cry, but I've had a long time to mourn my parents. I'm just really concerned about Jesse.”

             
"Let's just hope his plan works and we're all still alive at the end of the day to try and talk him down. He's always been the best person I know, and after everything Bliney has done to him, he's entitled to a mistake or two. We just need to make sure it ends with Bliney." He turned and left the room and as she watched him go, she knew that under that tough exterior and those huge arms stood a pretty smart guy.

______

              Serge brought all of the remaining plasma cannons online and aimed them at the Syndicate ships. This was step two, the key to the whole battle.

             
Jesse saw all of the cannons and all of the ships focus their fire on the aliens and smiled, now all he had to do was convince the aliens they were being set up.

             
"You know those shields cannot hold out forever," Lucien taunted.

             
"We both know they don't need to," Jesse cryptically replied. "Hey Thansar, how does it feel to be set up? You're about to lose to me for a third straight time. Even worse, you're taking all of your new friends down with you."

             
"We will not be losing, Marcos," He spit his name out as if it were vulgar. "You are outnumbered ten to one, you will soon be dead."

             
"Is that what you think? This is why you and your little alien league will never conquer the galaxy, you're just too stupid. All of our fire is focused on you and we have yet to lose a ship. I bet Supreme Commander Lucien told you our planetary shields would fail inside forty minutes, but as you can see, they're still going strong. You thought he was cutting a deal with you to get rid of me when really he was cutting a deal with me to get rid of you."

             
"You are lying, Marcos, we will not fall for your tricks again," Dobar replied "We have already seen you destroy your enemy's son, now we are supposed to believe you are on their side?" Dobar asked incredulously.

             
"That was a side deal I made with Supreme Commander Lucien. I told him I would only work with him if he let me get my revenge on Bliney."

             
"Don't fall for this nonsense." Bliney yelled into the conversation. "He is trying to divide us to save himself."

             
"We are most definitely not on his side." Lucien added.

             
"C'mon, Lucien, there's no need to continue pretending, we have them right where we want them." Jesse continued his charade.

             
"You know this will never..."

             
Jesse interrupted Bliney as he yelled, "LUCIEN, NOW" into the transmission at the exact moment he took control of all two hundred
Leviathans
and
War Hawks
. He quickly turned them on the Syndicate vessels and opened fire. Powerful lasers and plasma beams collided with alien shields in a furious light show. For several moments there was confusion throughout the enemy ranks as dozens of Syndicate ships began blowing up. Other Enclave and Coalition ships, not knowing this was a ruse began to join in when the Syndicate decided they had seen enough.

             
"We are betrayed, Thansar, direct all fire on the Enclave ships." The alien armada turned as one and began to return fire into the Enclave ranks as Polisia's fleet continued to pour all of their fire into the aliens.

             
"Cease fire," Bliney yelled into the confusion, over the transmission.

             
"We are not in control of our vessels, Sir." A frightened Captain replied. "Someone else has taken control of our ship."

             
"Marcos," Bliney yelled in a rage. "Thansar, Dobar, it appears as if Marcos had fail safes built into his ships. He has remotely taken control of his company's vessels and is using them to lure us into fighting each other."

             
"Get your ships to stop firing now, Bliney." Dobar yelled.

             
"Jesse," Serge called on a secure channel. "Some of the ships crews are beginning to figure out how to break the remote access we have over them."

             
"Fine, let's do this." Jesse sent his enemy's SSE ships in all directions at top speed and then hit the self-destruct button. All of the remaining SSE ships exploded, each one taking out or severely damaging one or two other ships. When it was all said and done, the two thousand-ship fleet had become a twelve hundred fifty-ship fleet.

             
"That was a good try, Marcos, but now you shall be annihilated. What happens to Polisia will make what we did on your other worlds seem like mercy." Dobar spat.

             
"You're welcome to try. Dobar," Jesse taunted. "Josiah, now," he called into his comms. Josiah triggered the mines and explosions once again lit up the enemy fleet. They had been so focused on taunting Polisia and trading verbal jabs with its leaders that they had no idea smart mines had been planted all around them. Another two hundred seventy ships were gone instantly as debris began to litter the space around Polisia. The enemy fleet was now down to just under a thousand, and they were in disarray.

             
"Come now, gentlemen, surely you didn't think you'd escape this battle unscathed." Jesse taunted as Hyperia's fleet began to rise through Polisia's atmosphere. "This is why it's called home field advantage. This is gonna be a costly battle for you. Some even more than others," he couldn't resist the jab a still hurting Bliney. "Serge, focus all plasma cannons on the
Enclave Flag
."

             
"What, no," Lucien replied as he realized he was now the target. "All ships, intercept those beams, do not let them hit your Supreme Commander." Lucien's order came a little too late as his ship was hit by hard light from several directions at once and his shields were quickly overwhelmed. His ship exploded in a shower of light and debris.

             
"You shall pay for what you have done here, Marcos." Bliney yelled. "All ships, continue fire. Their planetary shield is almost spent and our enemy is out of tricks." As if to completely disprove Bliney's last remark, sixty modified freighters emerged from Polisia's shield and quickly made it into the first ranks of the enemy vessels while taking heavy fire. Jesse and Serge had made sure they had powerful shields so they could cross the distance and make it to the enemy ranks. They detonated among the enemy vessels, taking nearly a hundred ships with them.

             
"You just never get tired of being wrong, do you, Bliney." Jesse taunted as Polisia's planetary shield finally went down.

             
Admiral Collingsworth was calling out directions from the bridge of the
Churchill
. He couldn't believe they were going to win this battle. Everything he had been told about Jesse was true and more. He would go down as the greatest military mind in history. He refocused on the battle, knowing that while they would win, not all of them would make it back. As the shields fell, his battle group sprung forth to engage the enemy. He wanted to go after Thansar for the destruction of Geshern, Stamdall and Triton, and his fleet group had him in their sights. His group began dishing out punishment to Thansar's escorts but soon became overwhelmed when Dobar and three other battle groups turned their attention on him. Several Syndicate ships were destroyed by the time Dobar's flagship,
Human Destruction
scored the decisive blow. As shields failed, Collingsworth sent as many crew to the shuttles as he could and launched all remaining fighters. He sadly mused that he wouldn't be around for the great victory as he chose to go down with his ship. Several of his officers stayed aboard as well.

             
"Set a collision course for the nearest enemy destroyer. If we go, I want to take one of them with me." He paused and looked at his crew. He couldn't believe how young some of them looked in that moment, but still, they were heroes. He puffed out his chest and continued with pride. "It has been my greatest pleasure serving with each of you." He looked at their faces one more time and then the world went white around them. The explosion was spectacular, and it caught Admiral Bliney's eye.

             
"Your shields are down and we still outnumber you almost nine hundred to two hundred forty." Bliney called out in triumph. "That's over three to one," he happily called, the
Churchill's
destruction still fresh in his mind.

             
"Look again, Bliney." Jesse replied as unmanned modified freighters and cargo ships began to take punishment from the enemy. They were only a distraction, but it was working.

______

              Several plasma cannons were destroyed as the planetary shield no longer offered them protection. The cargo freighter screen was just about finished, but the Polisian fleet had managed to take out another thirty or so ships. Now, however, it was down to fleet versus fleet and the enemy still held a significant advantage.

             
"How many more ships are you willing to lose, Bliney? Thansar? Neither one of you can achieve your goals any longer." Jesse was trying to stall. "And your advantage is not as significant as you think it is."

             
"It is still three to one, Marcos," Bliney yelled.

             
"As I have already said, look again." Jesse laughed.

             
Bliney did look, and Marcos had more ships than he thought, a lot more, almost double. "That's not possible; our intel could not have been that off. Where did all of those ships come from?"

             
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Jesse replied. "And there's plenty more where they came from, right Thansar."

             
"Hyperia," Thansar whispered in fear.

             
"All fighters launch, break through their fleet and attack their cities." Bliney ordered. Fighters began to emerge from all of the remaining Coalition and Enclave ships, but not the Syndicate. They had seen this trick before and couldn't believe Bliney didn't know about it. They were more than happy to let him fall for it because Marcos was right. Even if they won the battle, they could no longer complete their objective. As the fighters crossed the distance between fleets,
Endeavor
, Vee Fleet and the Olympians spread out and fired their laser nets. Bliney stared in horror as nearly seventy percent of his fighters were instantly destroyed. The rest were completely overrun by the different fighters coming from Polisia's fleet.

             
"So much for me being out of tricks, huh Bliney." Jesse smirked. Just then, a large fleet of assault shuttles emerged from Polisia's moon and attacked the back of the enemy fleet. It was a coordinated strike to eliminate as many gunships and frigates as they could. They tore through the back of the fleet as
Spykes
,
Predators
,
Cutters
and
Vipers
tore through the front. Polisia's fighters and assault shuttles began to dominate the theater as the plasma cannons continued to pump out death. Polisia's
War Hawks
and
Leviathans
were now in position to start dealing serious punishment to the disorganized enemy fleet, while the Hyperian Destroyers, Melee Cruisers and
Battle Hammers
along with General Kelly's Special Forces fleet raced towards the enemy armada. The standard, Earth-built ships remained in a defensive position around the seventy remaining plasma cannons.