Cassandra said, “Crap, they blocked the negative matter.”
“Are they chasing us?” Tommy asked.
“No, they’re staying in the system looking for the planet.”
Twig said. “I think they expect us to come back and try to save the planet.”
Tommy thought for a moment and said, “Stop us now.” Cassandra focused and brought the Kosiev to a stop. “Twig, teleport the ship back inside the invisibility screen,” Tommy ordered. Cassandra furrowed her brow and looked at Tommy. “The more ships we can destroy here, the fewer there will be to face at their home world.” Tommy then keyed his com and said, “Wes, Twig is going to send you a coordinate, jump your four ships here immediately.”
Wes saw the coordinates and ordered his jump officer to teleport the ship immediately. He sent the coordinates to the other three ships and they arrived four seconds after the Rossville broke into normal space inside the screen.
Tommy said to the four ships, “We are going to wait for the Captor fleet to gather around our location and we are going to fire a full salvo of negative matter through the middle of their fleet; we will then follow it out and fire on those ships to the side of the salvo; any questions?”
The four ships lined up on the Kosiev with two on each side. One was stationed above the other each of them higher and lower than the Kosiev. The ship on top would fire at ships above the formation and the one below would fire on those below. The Kosiev would handle those ships coming from the sides firing between the ships on each side. Tommy looked at Cassandra and said, “Can you include them in your aura and run with them.”
Cassandra closed her eyes and thought then said, “I think so but I don’t think I can go further than the outer planets.”
I just want to get them outside the Captor fleet. Once we’re clear then everyone can teleport away if it comes to that. I’m hoping the negative matter will clear a way through the energy balls that I know they’ll be firing into our path. I’m hoping that they won’t be able to hit us from the sides because of our speed.” Tommy then hit his fleet com and said, “As we run from the screen, I want full salvos fired above and below our escape path. When we hit the outer planets, we will teleport away; signal if you understand.
Lt. Ortiz said, “All ships have confirmed instructions.”
Wes looked at Linda Kay who was now his sensor office on the Rossville. She had requested, actually demanded, to be stationed on Wes’ ship. There was no way she was not going to be with him after what had happened before. Wes had protested but she said, “I will not, cannot, live without you. We will live together or die together.”
Rose had written an order giving her an exclusion from the fleet rule concerning commanding officers having members of their family serving on their ship. The crew of the ship was skeptical at first but saw that Wes showed absolutely no favoritism and actually made things harder on her than normal. For her part, Linda Kay was glad he did. After a short time the crew came to like Linda Kay a great deal. She had a way of brightening everyone’s day.
Lt. McAnn, we will be firing over the top of the formation. Please feed to weapons the targets in best position to be hit.”
“Aye, aye, Captain,” she said.
All five ships watched the feed from the Kosiev and saw hundreds of thousands of the Captor ships moving back and forth looking for the planet. They were moving closer and were less than a hundred thousand miles out from the SR ships. Tommy looked at Cassandra and said, “I will collapse the invisibility screen; you control the flight of the ships. We’ll make our run at them when the leading edge is ten thousand miles out.”
Cassandra nodded and kept her eyes on the sensor monitor. “Attention all ships,” She announced over the fleet frequency, “the negative matter will only travel at eighty percent light speed. We will stay behind the initial launch until the mass has either cleared the Captors formations of until it runs out. I am extending the Kosievs’ teleport screen to cover the front of our formation. I will implement the screen when I determine we are no longer protected from the front. Stay in formation, if you fall out you will have to use your own teleport screen so have it ready on standby. Our run will begin in a projected one minute. Prepare to fire a full salvo in front and we will follow three seconds later. You don’t have long to reload your magazines so make the time count.”
The Captors were scanning space along the projected orbital path of the planet and their scans were not showing anything. The Captor Fleet leader watched the scans and thought, “It has got to be near this point. How are they hiding it?” He looked closer at his sensors and that’s when trouble beyond his wildest estimation broke out. He only had one second before he was hit by one of the black balls and imploded. He was not alone.
A huge moving black mass exploded out of empty space and raced toward the middle of the incoming fleet. Thousands of red ships were hit and disintegrated and right behind the moving black mass five of the strange white ships erupted out of nowhere and began following the black mass into the ranks of the Captor fleet. The Captors responded immediately and fired their beams and energy balls at the ships but missed as the ships flew by them. As the white ships passed, hundreds of red ships were hit and destroyed. The ones in front of the enemy could not fire their weapons through the moving black mass which destroyed everything in its path and the ones to the sides of the formation fired and missed as the white ships flew past them. There were more than a million energy balls chasing the white ships but were not making up enough ground to impact. Several Captor ships tried to run through the black mass and ram the escaping ships but only disintegrated as they struck the moving black wall.”
“Lt. Ortiz, how are the other ships doing?”
“The Captors in front of us are trying to run around the edge and ram us.”
Tommy looked at Cassandra and she said through gritted teeth, “Let them; our hulls will cut them apart. The only way they can hurt us is with an explosion.”
Captain Zeng commanding the Cainth Pulse Ship Clan Warrior watched as a Captor ship flew in at high speed cutting the corner of the black mass and hit his ship head on. The Captor ship was cut right through the middle falling away in two pieces and exploding into fragments. A second Captor ship came right behind the first and just before impacting fired an energy ball and hit it with its beam. The resulting explosion blew the Clan Warrior out of formation and rocked the four other ships throwing them out of formation. The Clan Warrior was blown back and into the path of the energy balls chasing the fleeing SR ships. A huge red ship hit the energy balls as they neared the tumbling Cainth Pulse Ship and the resulting explosions ripped the ship apart and then shredded the pieces.
Tommy felt the Kosiev as it was thrown left and watched as Cassandra struggled to regain stability. “Get us out of here,” he yelled. “That blast wave will be on us in five seconds.” The blast wave was moving at the speed of light and was closing in on the remaining ships. Cassandra hit the teleport button and the four ships disappeared. Just before the ships disappeared Cassandra sent a thought into the black mass and exploded what remained. All of the remaining Captor ships in the system were blown out of existence as the blast wave engulfed everything within a twenty light minute radius and imploded it.
The reinforcing Captor ships arrived in the outer system just in time to see their fellow warriors totally obliterated by the blast. They jumped away before the blast arrived. The First Male and the warriors at the planet saw hundreds of thousands of empty berths on the construct. In their long hundreds of millions of year’s history, no Captor had ever died. Now they had lost a third of their population to a tiny number of tiny ships in a tiny measure of time. They were ruled by instinct but they were also intelligent beings that were starting to realize that there was a real possibility of defeat. They also were feeling the drive to swarm diminish. It would take hundreds of thousands of years to begin to replace the warriors that had been lost.