Behemoth: Rise Of Mankind Book 1 (14 page)

              “Keep a steady escort until further notice.” Gray took a moment to consider the situation. The Silver Star came through for them and they survived the assault but the next step involved getting Protocol Seven. He hoped it didn’t turn out to be a wild goose chase, some fringe theory of a dead culture. They put a lot of faith in these visitors to provide a solution.

              He reviewed the battle on his tablet and something interesting caught his eye. The enemy fighters did not attack the Behemoth. They went after the Silver Star. Made a straight line for it in fact. Why? The ship’s weapons were down and posed no threat. Maybe they didn’t come to Earth for an attack on humanity. Maybe they wanted to take down the Silver Star…

              This gave some credence to the voracity of this Protocol Seven, sure. The enemy clearly worried about it.
Now we need it more than ever.
Gray leaned back and considered their positions, just out of weapons range. Were his opponents worrying about what his people would discover enough to push them into a mistake? He sure hoped so. If Protocol Seven proved to be as valuable as it seemed, it might well turn the tide of the war.

             
I can’t get ahead of myself
. One battle at a time. The overall conflict, the Alliance’s multi front war zone, couldn’t be his concern at the moment. All his focus remained on staying alive and defeating this incursion. When they wrapped them up, they might have plenty of time to worry about galactic affairs. Right now, Earth required all their attention.

             
Remember, we’re the shield…not the arrow
. Not yet at least.

They had two dangerous adversaries repairing as much damage as they could before another assault. Gray devoted all his attention to them and what they represented. Events already played out differently than the previous visit by these bastards. The Behemoth stood prepared for a real engagement and didn’t fold at the first sign of trouble.

              That alone provided the Captain with confidence. They could hurt their opponents and more importantly, had the ability to win. Their tactics proved sound. If the Behemoth carried them the final mile, they’d very well make history and if they didn’t…well, history might not matter to anyone anymore.

             
It’s all a matter of perspective. As Redding said, no pressure….

              Tech crews worked feverishly on the Silver Star. Olly focused on the suspended animation chambers. Reliable power was restored but the program to revive the occupants would not successfully execute without errors. This meant Olly had to work with Sid to debug the code and recompile it. They’d already made three goes at it with a fourth underway.

              Cathleen continued to tinker with the database but struggled with minor corruption. She isolated bad entries and used the universal code to clean it up. Every step required painstaking focus. One mistake set her back to the beginning and she made incremental backups to ensure her work wasn’t lost.

              The engineering bay proved to be in much better condition than anticipated. After rebooting systems, Maria was able to support the efforts of the other technicians. She routed power, provided access to computing power and established solid connections with the bridge. When she finished her work, the Silver Star would be ready for manual operation again.

              This meant the consoles on the bridge were all active. Lisa went beyond the weapons to scans, navigation and piloting. She had the screen working and cameras hidden all over the hull provided high resolution, real time images of space around them. The Behemoth established a connection with their computer and synched up their maneuvers, allowing them to adjust formation.

              “I’ve analyzed the enemy tactic,” Cathleen announced, making Olly jump. “Sorry, sir. I’ve found a cache of scans from when they attacked these people. It’s brief, but they didn’t detect them until they started firing.”

              “What did they learn?” Olly asked.

              “It’s some kind of sensor blindness,” Cathleen replied. “A low level radiation blast that confuses scans. That’s why our people thought they disappeared.”

              “Why’d they suddenly reappear? How’d our scans pick them back up?”

              “It’s not a constant pulse,” Cathleen continued. “From what these people discovered, they’ve got roughly a minute of stealth.”

              “Send it over to me,” Olly squinted. “Maybe I can come up with a counter.”

              “Aye sir.”

              Olly frowned as the information filled his screen. The radiation had to be low enough to not be noticed but a specific potency to impede sensor equipment. Compensating for it, now that they knew, wouldn’t be too difficult. A quick recalibration would do the trick and if they had the process queued up, they’d be back in business in
seconds.

             
Plenty of time to counter an attack.

              He wrote up the program and sent it over to Paul with a note on how it worked. Lisa received it next with a request to plug it into the consoles on the bridge.
Glad to take your little advantage away. What’ve you got next, you bunch of bastards? Believe me, we’ll counter that too
.

              Olly returned to his attention to the suspended animation pods. These guys liked to posture and show their muscles but they were learning humanity wouldn’t just roll over for them and die. It was a lesson Olly hoped would be particularly painful.

***

              Gray read over the discovery of how they didn’t see the enemy attack them. He shared it with Clea and shook his head. A simple trick, hardly rocket science, blew out their sensors and blinded them. In another time, before their upgrades, they would’ve died. But they didn’t and now, his people learned to counter their nonsense.

             
If only we would’ve been one step ahead instead of three steps behind that time
. He’d been so proud of himself with the bomb trick, this bit of humble pie tasted all the more foul. He deserved the self chastisement but didn’t have the time. He shook it off and directed his attention forward.

              The enemy maintained their distance, probably still conducting repairs. A half hour stretched to an hour. Higgins reported more systems restored. Eventually, one side or another had to crack and attack again. The trick involved risk analysis. Were they combat effective enough to survive a second engagement? More importantly, could they catch the enemy unprepared for the next bout?

              “Sir?” Agatha broke through his concentration. “We’re being hailed.”

              “The enemy?” Gray exchanged a glance with Everly.

              “No, they’re channel states they’re with the African League. It’s the ADF Nile.”

              “Paul? Do you have them on scan?”

              “Aye.” Paul checked something on his console before continuing. “They’re on a rapid approach from the enemy’s flank.”

              “What the hell are they doing?” Redding asked. “They’re not planning on joining the fight, are they?”

              “If they do,” Clea said, “they’ll be slaughtered.”

              “Play their message, Ensign,” Gray said. “Let’s see what they have to say.”

              A voice crackled over the speakers immediately. “This is Captain Jaren of the ADF Nile. We are here to engage the enemy and lend the Behemoth any aid it may require. Our superior firepower and technology will make us more than a match for the invading force.”

              Clea’s brows shot up. “I believe they are actually insane.”

              “Any truth to what they’re saying, Paul?”

              Paul shook his head. “Conventional weapons, sir. They don’t even have a pulse drive to speak of. Maneuverability is hampered by old thrust engines…their core is fusion…its state of the art for what it is but if they start trouble with the enemy ships, they won’t stand a chance.”

              Gray engaged the communicator. “Captain Jaren, this is Captain Atwell of the Behemoth. Withdraw from the combat zone immediately. You do
not
have the firepower to deal with this threat. The enemy we’re facing has superior armament and defenses. Your weapons won’t even penetrate their shields. I repeat, withdraw immediately!”

              “You have nothing to worry about with us, Captain Atwell,” Jaren replied. “We are well trained and prepared for this engagement. We appreciate your concern but it is unnecessary.”

              Gray slapped his arm rest. “Don’t be a fool, Jaren! I’m not telling you this because we’re too proud to accept help! We don’t want your people to die in a pointless exercise of vanity!”

              “They’ve cut the transmission, sir,” Ensign White said.

              “They’re advancing!” Tim shouted. “Look! They’re actually moving in to engage!”

              “God damn it!” Atwell gestured at Redding. “Turn us around, they’re pushing our hand. Get in there to help! White, radio the Silver Star and tell them to engage immediately. All pilots, hit them
now
! Make it happen, people! The Nile doesn’t stand a chance without us.”

              Everyone on the bridge sprung to action. Everly hit the coms with Revente, White contacted Olly and the ship began to move, fully powered and ready for action. The enemy powered up their own weapons as the Nile closed within range. The Behemoth shoved ahead, closing distance.

              “I don’t think we can make it in time, sir,” Redding said. “I’m pushing it and we’ve got one hundred percent power but this…this doesn’t look like we can make it.”

              “Don’t say that,” Gray replied. “Just concentrate.”

             
And pray the Nile can survive long enough not to get blown straight to hell
.

              “Thirty seconds to range,” Paul announced.

              “Twenty,” Tim corrected. “Thirty for the Silver Star.”

              Gray turned to his tablet and cursed under his breath. The Nile would be on the enemy in ten seconds and was probably already in range of their weapons. Pulse blasts erupted from the invading forces, cutting into the Nile and blowing straight past their inferior shields. Everly stood and took two steps forward, staring at the screen with wide eyes.

              “Push it, Redding!” Gray grunted through gritted teeth. “They don’t have a lot of time!”

              The Nile fired a volley of missiles, each one ineffectually flashing against the shields of the enemy as if they were no more than space pebbles crossing the wrong path. A second barrage of pulse lasers struck the Earth ship, this time causing catastrophic damage. Gray watched helplessly as the ship parted in the center, bubble explosions occurring along the hull before the engines caught.

              Agatha stiffened seconds before the entire ship went up, pieces of the wreckage flung off into space. “I…I heard them scream…”

              Everly turned to her. “What was that?”

              “Their coms were linked to mine…” She trembled. “I heard them. Just before the explosion…I heard them.”

              “Slow down,” Gray muttered. “Cancel the attack order. Pull back to our previous position.”

              “Sir?” Everly turned on him, scowling. “They just annihilated an Earth vessel! Murdered every single person on board!”

              “I’m aware of that, Adam.” Gray returned his severe look. “But blindly rushing in and attacking at this moment wouldn’t exactly do us any favors. We have a plan…find out what the Protocol Seven is. When we have it, we’ll employ it and send those dogs straight back to whatever hell they crawled out of.

              “In the meantime, we will fight this battle with patience, strategy and intelligence. A full on assault right now, even with both ships, is not a guaranteed victory.”

              “My experience suggests attacking at a time like this is the unexpected thing to do,” Everly replied. “We go in and get them after they’ve had a quick victory…and show them what it means to mess with us.”

              “But yours isn’t the experience we’re listening to today,” Gray said. “Kindly work with Paul to see if there are any survivors from that explosion…escape pods or shuttle craft. Our first order of business is to save lives. Not risk our own seeking vengeance.”

              “Yes, sir.” Everly sat down, albeit in a seemingly grudging manner and spoke quietly with Paul.

              Gray remembered the first engagement with the enemy. He saw people die then too and it affected him just as much now as then. These people, the soldiers who attempted to help, only meant to protect their planet. Not wise, but their hearts and souls were in the right place. Like every other being, they only wanted to keep those they loved safe.

              Whatever vanity or arrogance pressed them on cost them their lives but these invaders, these warmongering aliens were to blame. If they hadn’t gone on a galactic wide rampage, countless dead would still be alive. On all sides of the conflict, enemy, Alliance and human. No wonder so many banded together to stop them.

              As Gray looked over the people on the bridge, he recognized the same grim determination in their expressions as he felt in his soul. He never doubted anyone’s determination but even the coolest individual must’ve felt some heat in their blood. Witnessing the death of so many human beings elevated their resolve.

              “It’s the right decision,” Clea said.

              “I don’t need you to tell me that.”

              Clea shrugged. “I was under the impression that humans appreciated validation from time to time.”

              “Now’s not that time.” Gray turned to her, softening his severe expression. “I’m sorry. But in this case, after what I just saw…I want to do what Adam suggested but I know it’s the wrong course of action.”

              “Yes, we both know impulsive behavior costs lives.” Clea turned to the view screen. “And our enemies seem to have a knack for taking advantage of weaknesses.”

              “I can’t wait to exploit theirs.” Gray hit his com, connecting with Engineering. “Higgins, you’d better have some good news for me. You’ve got another few minutes for repairs. How much do you have left to do?”

              “The hull damage has to wait until we can safely dock,” Higgins replied, “but those decks are sealed. All systems have been restored. I’ve had to do some rerouting of power and such but weapons, shields and engines are all ready to go.”

              “Fantastic. Let’s hope the Silver Star has as good of news.”

             
I sure could use a little right about now.