Part 5 (1/2)

”It's an old saying from thousands of years ago, Gee. Whenever a story's heroes-that would be us-get saved in the nick of time through some type of implausible mechanism, it was called a deus ex machina.”

Gee's silence let Grant know he had lost the engineer with his rambling. He decided to try again.

”Basically, it means we should be dead, but our a.s.ses just got saved by a miracle.”

”That's a good thing, right?”

”For us, it is. But I don't think the Minith will appreciate it.”

Grant cut the connection and changed channels to alert his forces to be prepared for landing. Once that task was completed, he drew a deep breath and released it slowly, willing his body and mind to relax.

For the first time since entering his carrier, Grant took stock of the faces seated around him.

Son of a b.i.t.c.h.

”Conway, what the h.e.l.l is your squad doing in my carrier?”

”It's good to see you too, General,” the sergeant replied with a tight smile. She tapped a weak two-finger salute against her brow. ”I thought someone should be watching your back once we hit the ground. I nominated my team.”

Despite his initial irritation, he knew she was a good soldier and led a smart team-he could count on them when the s.h.i.+t hit the fan.

He quietly returned her salute and nodded to the other soldiers.

”Everyone check your weapons.”

CHAPTER 7.

The rapid capture and rushed descent toward Waa saved the s.h.i.+p from the attacking Minith fighters, but Gee wondered if was for naught. The velocity with which they pa.s.sed into and through the planet's atmosphere was such that they would strike the surface like an inbound meteor.

His concern was misguided. At what seemed like the last possible moment, the s.h.i.+p decelerated and softly touched down. Without the benefit of the external vid feeds or the s.h.i.+p's control panel, Gee would never have detected either the rapid descent or the almost-immediate slowing of the s.h.i.+p. He felt no change at all, and realized he should have had a little more faith in the Waa.

”We're down,” he alerted all the forces at the same time as he activated the bay doors.

He waited for just a moment to ensure they still operated before finally evacuating the command center. He didn't know how much time he had, so he ran as fast as his chubby legs could take him to the bay and his a.s.signed carrier. His rifle was already there, waiting for his arrival.

The lead jet carriers wasted no time. As soon as the bay doors provided enough clearance, they were out of the mothers.h.i.+p and climbing. As planned, they peeled right, left, and right in a weaving pattern as soon as they exited. The pilots' and co-pilots' eyes anxiously scanned the skies and the terrain below for targets.

It did not take long. The skies were filled with Minith carriers headed directly toward them. The ground, though occupied by some enemy forces, appeared relatively open. Without exception, the pilots elected to focus on the airborne threats headed their way.

Within seconds of leaving the s.h.i.+p, missiles were on their way to their targets.

The battle for their lives, and for the freedom of every human on Earth, had begun.

Grant watched the vid feed from the lead pilot on a monitor. What he saw from the camera showed minimal enemy troops surrounding the mothers.h.i.+p. That view was confirmed by the reports being communicated by the other pilots in the force. All reported the same thing: minimal ground forces. Ma.s.ses of incoming enemy carriers.

He opened a link to the armored vehicles and initial infantry units that were just beginning to exit the craft.

”All ground forces, proceed north at top speed along the planned route. Fight when necessary, but remember, we don't need to kill them all-we just need to punch past them. Speed is what we need here.”

From the height and distance from which Rala viewed the battle, the human flying vehicles appeared to be a small flock of angry birds. Although ma.s.sively outnumbered by a much larger flock-no, not a flock, but a swarm-they were ingeniously equipped with efficient, lethal stingers. She grew angry as she watched the toxins spit from those stingers reach out again and again to knock the incoming Minith troop carriers out of the sky. As each one exploded in the air or crashed to the ground, she couldn't help but think of the lives lost. She wondered if one of these angry little birds had provided Treel with a similar death.

Suddenly, she no longer wanted any of these humans captured. She only wanted them eradicated.

t.i.tan exited the s.h.i.+p at a sprint, but quickly fell behind the much-faster Telgorans. Patahbay and his fellow warriors entered the fight at once and, within minutes, scores of the Minith defenders fell. The hate ama.s.sed by the Telgorans over decades of Minith invasion had obviously not abated, despite the elimination of the giant green aliens from their planet.

That was good, because t.i.tan's hate was still just as strong. He hurried to catch up and join the Telgorans as they pushed north.

Grant saw the problem at once.

Although the Minith did not appear to possess jet carriers similar to his own, the number of incoming Minith troop carriers they were facing was too great. For the moment, his forces enjoyed the advantage on the ground, but the ammunition required by his fighters to keep that advantage was not sustainable for long. Their basic missile loads had to be nearly depleted already. That would leave them each with several thousand high-powered ballistic rounds and full charges for their less-effective pulse weapons. The ballistic munitions could easily knock down the incoming carriers; the pulse weapons, probably not.

Very soon, the enemy would be able to land their carriers wherever they wished and deploy their foot soldiers at will. At that point, the battle would s.h.i.+ft from one of air superiority to one of ground superiority. And that was a battle they could not win.

Grant considered ordering his own troop carriers, still ma.s.sed inside the mothers.h.i.+p, to proceed directly to the governor's residence. The four hundred infantry might be sufficient to storm the place and accomplish their objective. But that would abandon his ground troops already engaged to their own fates. That was not a decision he wanted to make-at least, not until he had no other choice.

For now, he would stick to the plan and hope for the best.

It was now obvious that the humans were headed in the direction of her building. She doubted that was their final destination. There was nothing spectacular about it that could interest the humans. She mulled over the problem and, within seconds, a moment of clarity provided the answer. They were headed north. Truk lived to the north. They were headed for the governor's location.

Now that would be interesting. For a moment, she wondered what, if anything, she should do with the knowledge. She weighed her options and finally contacted Ghin.

The aide sounded frazzled and tried to put her off, but when she informed him that the humans were visible from her office and appeared to be headed north-toward the governor's residence-his irritation turned to grat.i.tude. After all, he was located at the residence.

Despite the glee she would have felt if the humans actually made it that far, contacting the governor's aide was an easy decision to make. Although no one in the military had yet recognized the humans' intentions, it was only a matter of time before their objective became obvious. It was better that she be credited with providing the information now, before anyone else had a chance.

Despite the fact that it wouldn't change the end result, she was such a loyal and obedient supporter of the governor. She owed him nothing less than her best efforts.

Two jets and their crew were gone. One accidently crashed into a densely packed formation of Minith carriers, taking out several of the enemy vehicles in the process. The other had been brought down by a grouping of the enemy when it flew too close to the ground.

The remaining fighters were out of missiles and running low on ammunition. Within minutes, they would be down to their pulse weapons, which would limit them to action against ground troops.

Grant's ground troops were pus.h.i.+ng forward and making good speed. They had covered almost a third of the distance to the objective and were holding their own against the relatively minimal number of Minith ground troops they encountered. That would change shortly when the enemy began offloading more and more troops to join the fight.

For now, though, Grant felt things were going as well as they could. The enemy outside were focused on his air and ground troops. None of their efforts were focused on the mothers.h.i.+p. He suspected they had no idea that four hundred infantry soldiers were loaded into twenty large carriers waiting to join the battle.

”General Justice, this is Tank Commander One, over.”