Star People

Chapter 21

Divide and Conquer

Jan 12^th, 13 AE…

The bridge of the Missouri…

“Captain, we have located the Zedan invasion force.” Ensign Taichen announced. “The main body of the attack force is approximately 1,500 km northeast of our position. They’re currently moving at around 20 knots. Satellite and drone surveillance confirms the launch of 400 fighters and 300 torpedo and dive bombers.”

Mark Delan nodded and then turned to his wife. “It looks like they know we’re here.”

Commander Reelan nodded. “Apparently, they do. Are General Kurdo and Admiral Kajor going to signal to Tarhesse to launch her fighters?”

The Missouri’s captain paused for a moment, and then nodded. “It’s very likely.”

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The bridge of the Iowa…

“Then we are agreed?” Admiral Kajor asked after seeing the tactical display of the approaching Zedan aircraft.

“Indeed we are.” Kurdo nodded. “Send the order to eliminate all approaching enemy aircraft, and then have Tarhesse’s fighters return. If the Zedan forces lose a large part of their fighters and bombers, their carriers will be rendered useless and they might be convinced to call off the invasion without sufficient air cover.”

“And if they decide to keep on coming, despite the lack of air cover?”

“Then the Zedan commander has a lot of iron in his guts… and in his head.”

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The bridge of the Yorktown…

“Scramble the Star Hawk squadrons immediately!” Admiral Tarhesse commanded. “I don’t want a single enemy plane to come within a hundred kilometers of the fleet!”

The communications officer nodded as he spoke into the PA system. “All Star Hawk pilots! Red alert! Red alert! Man your fighters! This is not a drill! I repeat, this is not a drill! “

In the Yorktown’s mess hall, Captain Wittens gave his wife Miriyo a goodbye kiss as he stood up, grabbed his helmet and dashed off with the other pilots toward the main hanger. Several others emerged from their quarters and other parts of the carrier to join them.

In less than two minutes, James was already climbing into his Starfighter as it was being prepped for launch. No sooner had he buckled himself in and the nav-computer activated itself, his Star Hawk was loaded into one of the launch bays. After putting on his helmet, he signaled to the ground crew that he was ready to go. The Star Hawk was enveloped by hyper-accelerator fields and sent shooting out of the launch bay at incredible speed. The plasma engines ignited themselves as the fighter cleared the carrier and James took control.

“Star Hawk Prime to Yorktown. Launch was successful! Awaiting intercept coordinates!”

“Roger that, Star Hawk Prime! You and your squadron are to proceed to coordinates Lambda 34! Eliminate all enemy aircraft! Repeat, eliminate all enemy aircraft! You are not to let a single one come within 100 kilometers of the fleet! Admiral’s orders!”

 “Acknowledged Yorktown! Now joining with squadron and heading to Lambda 34!”

“Good hunting, Captain!”

As Captain Wittens’ Starfighter joined up with the rest of his squadron, his scanners picked up the approaching enemy aircraft at 900 km from the fleet. After he got to the front of the formation, he signaled to all the pilots to engage their boosters. All one hundred and fifty Star Hawks accelerated toward the horizon and disappeared from sight in a heartbeat.

One hundred and fifty Star Hawks against seven hundred enemy aircraft. As far as James and everyone else in the Free Land fleet were concerned, the Zedan pilots were outnumbered.

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On the bridge of the Missouri, Mark and his crew watched the tactical display on the main holo-viewer. The small blue blips indicated the Star Hawks while the tiny red blips were the enemy aircraft. Naturally the red blips were far more numerous, but Captain Delan was not concerned.

Nearly all of the Star Hawk pilots were battle-hardened veterans of the Cryterian War. It wasn’t the first time they had faced off against a foe that had a numerical advantage and defeated them. The Star Hawk was the most advanced air and space superiority fighter in the Star Alliance, while the enemy flew replicas of antiquated fighters and bombers.

This was going to be a slaughter.

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“Star Hawk Prime to Hawk Wings! The bogey units have been positively identified as hostiles! Our orders are clear! Shoot them all down! Acknowledged?”

Every pilot answered back with an affirmative as they all began locking onto their targets. The plan was to fire off a massive wave of anti-fighter missiles to take out half the enemy force, and then finish off the remainder when they came within visual range. They had faced off against the hordes of the Cryterians in the depths of space and on numerous worlds. The Zedans would be nothing more than target practice.

As soon as his targeting computer locked on, gave the signal to the other pilots.

“Attack!”

All one hundred and fifty fighters launched two Skybolt missiles apiece. Each missile was about one meter in length, but was driven by a powerful ion thruster module. At their tip was a sensor array that could lock onto a target from over 160 miles away. Each packed a warhead that was more than sufficient to damage small space cruisers. A World War II fighter being hit by one of these would be practically vaporized.

The Skybolt missile was capable of Mach 5 speeds and the entire swarm of 300 disappeared over the horizon.

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The approaching wave of Zedan fighters and bombers…

Captain Arnts nodded as he led his squadrons of fighters and bombers toward their target. The Zedan radar had picked up the fleet of three hundred enemy ships and they had been scrambled to sink them. What he and others didn’t know was that the Star Alliance had allowed itself to be detected in order to draw the Zedan forces out. If it had wanted to, they could have easily jammed their radar.

As of now, the Zedan pilots were about 15 seconds away from annihilation.

“This is Captain Arnts to all units! We will be encountering the enemy fleet within 10 minutes! All torpedo and dive bombers, it’s time for you to arm your bombs and torpedoes!”

The torpedo and dive bomber squadrons all began arming the ordinance mounted on the wings and bellies of their aircraft. As for the fighters, each pilot took their machine guns and cannons off safety. They were already seeing the glorious battle that was to come.

KA-BOOM!

Almost two seconds after the last pilot had armed his weapons, one of the lead planes was engulfed in a red-orange ball of flame. In rapid succession, several more fighters and bombers were sent plummeting toward the ocean as smoking masses of debris as they exploded without warning.

“What the Hell?!”

“We’re under attack!”

“Where is the attack coming from?!”

“What are those things?!”

“Are those… rockets?!”

“Those things are following us!”

“I can’t shake them…. AAAAARRRGGHH!”

Since Captain Arnts had not been targeted by the initial missile strike, he had not been hit by a missile and could only watch helplessly as several dozens of fighters and bombers were blown apart.

“All units, break formation! Evasive maneuvers! We’re under attack! Search for enemy craft and counterattack!”

Zedan planes continued to fall from the skies as the pilots desperately tried every maneuver to throw off their attackers. However, all of their efforts would come to naught as all three hundred Skybolt missile found their mark. Then things got worse for the Zedan forces as the Star Hawks appeared the horizon.

“Unidentified craft approaching!”

“They’re too fast!”

“I can’t keep up with them!”

“What are they?!”

“They have no propellers!”

“Too fast! Too fast!”

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Aboard his Starfighter, Captain James Wittens nodded as he quickly assessed the damage done by the initial missile strike. The Zedan forces had been whittled down to about 400 and they were practically no threat to the Star Hawks. After signaling to his squadrons to begin the assault, he and two of his wingmen got on the tail of three enemy planes. A short burst from their kinetic-accelerator guns and all three Zedan fighters were reduced to flaming wreckage. All around them, Star Hawks picked off their targets with little to no effort.

The slower-moving torpedo and dive-bombers were also not spared as the Star Hawks ripped through them with kinetic rounds, missiles and particle beams. Even at close-range, the fighters from Free Land could not be stopped. Even more Zedan aircraft were shot down with laughable ease. Soon their numbers dropped to below 200, and then to 100. Those who tried to retreat were also destroyed. The orders were clear. They were not to let a single enemy plane return to base.

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“Damn you!” Captain Arnts shouted as he pushed the throttle of his fighter to its maximum. His men were dying everywhere and not a single enemy fighter had been shot down. As soon as he saw an enemy ship as it passed by, he put all of his effort into shooting it down. He wasn’t going to die without inflicting at least one casualty on the enemy.

Unfortunately for him, he had picked one of the best Starfighter pilots in Free Land as his opponent. Lieutenant Kojiro Tanakato was already credited with 19 confirmed kills during the Cryterian War, plus 6 Wyvern Knights of the Sath and now 4 fighters and 5 dive-bombers of the Zedan Naval Air Forces. The Terran pilot easily evaded Arnts’ attempts to shoot him down. Not that the bullets and cannon shells would have done anything against the Star Hawk’s deflector shields and hyper-durlenium hull.

Putting his ship into a simple barrel roll and decelerating his speed, using his g-force nullifier system, Tanakato was almost instantly on the tail of his attacker. A half-second burst from his particle cannons and the Zedan fighter was blown to bits, along with its pilot.

Less than a minute later, the skies were completely cleared of Zedan planes. With their mission completed, the Star Hawks turned back towards their carrier, the Yorktown.

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The bridge of the Missouri…

“Captain, the Yorktown has sent a battle report from Star Hawk Prime, Captain James Wittens.” The Kyteeri communications officer announced. “All approaching Zedan fighters and bombers have been destroyed.”

‘Acknowledged, Lieutenant.” Mark replied as he turned to his First Officer. “Now it’s up to the Zedan commander to make the next move.”

“If he’s smart, he’ll turn back after losing so much of his aircraft.” Reelan commented.

“If he’s smart. But I have a feeling that won’t be the case.”

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The bridge of the Kilgari….

“What?! It cannot be!” General Erstal Rommet exclaimed as he received the report from one of his aides.

“I’m afraid it is true.” The aide replied. “We have lost complete radar and radio contact with all 700 aircraft. They’re gone, Sir.”

“How could this happen?! We had sent out fighters, torpedo and dive-bombers, seven hundred in all! That’s enough to wipe out a small fleet! Were they all shot down by anti-aircraft guns? Surely they must have damaged or sunk most of the enemy fleet, did they not?”

The aide took a deep breath before replying. “No sir. Our radar indicates that our planes never made it to the target.”

“What?!”

“The enemy fleet of 300 ships is still holding its position. We detected around 150 enemy aircraft being sent out to intercept our fighters and bombers. Before we lost contact, the pilots began screaming out that they were up against some strange weapons and enemy planes. They must have shot down all of our planes.”

“You’re telling me that one hundred and fifty enemy planes intercepted a force that was more than four-and-a-half times greater and defeated it?!” One of the other high-ranking officers exclaimed.

“That… seems to be the case.”

General Rommet and his staff went silent as they considered their options. As of now, they still had enough fighters to maintain air cover. They were still shocked that the Free Land fleet had destroyed the entire strike force. However, that didn’t mean that they should call off the invasion. Rommet determined that they still vastly outnumbered Free Land’s fleet if the enemy could only muster up 150 planes, which meant that they didn’t have as big as a carrier force as he had. Furthermore, no one wanted to face the Grand Leader with bad tidings.

Rommet was partially correct in his assessment as the Star Alliance had only brought one carrier to defend against the Merdov Invasion Fleet. That was the Yorktown. On the Zedan side were 6 heavy carriers and 6 light carriers. Each heavy carrier could support up to 150 fighters and 100 torpedo and dive-bombers. The light carriers could only hold about half of those numbers. The loss of 700 planes had exhausted nearly all of the complements of 2 heavy carriers and 2 light carriers. However, Rommet and the others still considered themselves with the advantage in numbers.

After much consideration, the Zedan General still believed that he had the numerical and tactical advantage. Even though he was concerned with reports that Free Land had some powerful ships and weaponry, he was still confident enough that he had enough forces to overwhelm them. It was a just a question of how to deploy that advantage.

Looking intensely at the map on the table, Rommet noticed that the overall position of the Free Land fleet had not changed. They were simply waiting for his forces to come to them. However, the Zedan commander wasn’t going to charge toward them, especially since he didn’t know the full scope of the enemy’s weapons and capabilities. So the most logical strategy was to get the enemy to split his forces.

He began issuing new orders.

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The bridge of the Iowa…

“Do you see what the enemy is doing now?” Admiral Kajor asked as he and Kurdo watched the tactical display begin to change on the main holo-viewer.

“Yes. I suppose I can give the Zedan commander some credit.” The Catian general nodded as he pointed toward the northeastern sector of ocean between the Zedan and Merdov continents. “He knows that his forces greatly outnumber our own so he’s trying to make us split our fleet. He’s sent about three hundred ships to this sector, knowing that we’d have to respond.”

“And in this sector, he’s sent another three hundred ships at the same time.” The Velor admiral stated as he pointed towards the southeastern coastline of Merdov. “I believe he thinks that once we’ve separated our forces to deal with these two attacks, he’ll drive his main force through the gap.”

“It’s not a half-bad strategy, and it might have worked… if his opponent was the same level as his own.”

“But we’re not. So what would be your best suggestion to deal with this development?”

“The enemy wants to divide and conquer, so why not oblige him?” Kurdo first pointed toward the group that was heading toward the northeastern coast of the Merdov continent. “The enemy group here consists mostly of cruisers, destroyers, a few battleships and one light carrier. Looks like he’s also using a few submarines as well. I believe the 110^th and 115^th Destroyer Flotillas would be sufficient enough to neutralize that threat.”

“I see. And the second group heading toward the southeastern coast is of similar strength, so we should send out the 109^th Cruiser Flotilla and perhaps a Nebula-class battleship.”

“Yes, I think we can send Captain Sareia to take care of that second group while Captain Vikes should have no problems in handling the first group.”

“As for the main force, we’ll simply destroy it once it tries to run through the gap.”

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Captain John Vikes nodded as he received the orders to lead the 110^th and 115^th Destroyer Flotillas against the 300 Zedan ships that were heading toward Merdov northeastern coast. He turned to his communications officer, a Nemonian.

“Signal to all destroyers of the 110^th and 115^th Flotillas! We are to move out immediately!”

“Aye, Captain!”

The Johnston lifted itself out of the water and began heading out, followed by 19 other destroyers.

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On the Nebula-class battleship named the Michigan, Captain Brittany Sareia nodded as she received her orders to move out and lead the 109^th Cruiser Flotilla.

The Nebula-class was the Star Alliance’s version of the pocket battleship, as it only had two, double- mount pulsar gun turrets, and was about 75% the length and width of the Missouri. Its Neo-Proton Wave Gun was also less powerful than the Missouri’s, but could still devastate a small continent. It only carried four Starfighters and had a lesser compliment of missiles.

The Michigan, like every other ship in the Star Alliance Fleet, was a battle-hardened veteran of the Cryterian War. Captain Sareia and her crew had already been credited with 18 victories over enemy cruisers, destroyers and one Cryterian dreadnaught. It was more than a match against 300 World War 2-level ships. However, General Kurdo and Admiral Kajor did not want to take any chances that one of the Zedan ships might be able to slip past them and wreak havoc on the Merdov continent. Hence was the reason why she would be having the 109^th fighting alongside the Michigan.

“Move out!” Captain Sareia said in a firm tone.

Like the Johnston, the Michigan took to the air. It headed toward the southeastern coast to intercept the enemy. Following behind it were 10 cruisers.

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The bridge of the Kilgari…

“General!” The radar operator called out.

“What is it?” Rommet asked.

“I am detecting movement from the enemy fleet. A small group of ships have begun moving toward the north, while another small group is heading south.”

“As I expected.” The Zedan commander stated. “How many are heading north?”

“I count twenty.”

“Only twenty? That shouldn’t be enough to deal with three hundred ships, especially with two carriers per group. What about the south? How many did they send to deal with the second group?”

“Only… eleven, Sir.”

“Are they mocking us?! Do they really believe that ten or twenty ships can defeat a force 15 to 30 times larger?!”

“Well, they did defeat seven hundred of our…” The radar operator then became silent as Rommet glared at him with murderous eyes.

Rommet then barked out his orders. Once the two smaller fleets reached their destination coordinates, they would all attack simultaneously. Free Land would feel the full might of the Zedan Fleet and be wiped off the face of Istaria!

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On the bridge of the Iowa…

“It looks like they intend to stretch out our forces and use their sheer force of numbers to overwhelm us.” Kajor commented as he watched the tactical display.

“It’s basically three simultaneous attacks.” Kurdo stated. “He seems to be under the belief that we hadn’t sent enough of our forces to deal with those two smaller groups, let alone the main group.”

“To be perfectly honest, the Missouri by itself is more than enough to destroy the entire Zedan fleet.”

“Yes, well we still can’t let a single one of those ships or aircraft slip by us. We’ll have to annihilate the entire enemy fleet. We need to send a message to the Zedan government that we will not tolerate these acts of aggression.”

“So be it then.” Kajor turned to his communications officer. “Ensign, what is the location and status of the 110^th and 115^th Destroyer Flotillas?”

The young Velor nodded as he replied. “Captain Vikes has reported that he and his destroyers have reached the interception point and are about to wipe out the Zedan forces with a saturation missile strike.”

“Just like he did with the Black Dragon Fleet.” The Catian general mused. “Well, I suppose twenty Vanguard-class destroyers should have more than sufficient firepower to do the job.”

“I’d call it more along the lines of overkill.”

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On board the Johnston, Captain Vikes received word that the Zedan attack force was well-within range of their missiles, a mere 200 miles.

“Signal to all destroyers.” James commanded to his communications officer, a Kyteeri named Lysar. “Load all launch tubes with anti-ship proton missiles.”

Deep within each destroyer, the loader crew worked quickly to load the launcher tubes with the highly-destructive ordinance. Each missile rode on a conveyor belt towards the launcher apparatus. A large grappler arm swung above the conveyor and grasped a missile. The proton missile was then inserted into the end of the launch tube. When all sixteen launch tubes were readied, the loader crew signaled to the bridge.

“Anti-ship proton missiles ready, sir!” The helmsman announced. She was also a Kyteeri who was named Vari.

“Open fire!” Vikes cried out.

On the stern of each destroyer, panels opened up as sixteen missiles were shot straight out into the skies and disappeared from sight. In less than a few seconds, a total of 320 missiles reached an altitude of over 10 miles, and then turned their trajectories downwards toward their targets.

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Two hundred miles away…

On board the bridge of the Zedan light carrier Neverta, Admiral Janso Veraga was informed by his radar operator that several dozens of incoming objects were heading toward the battle group from high altitude. Thinking that they were under attack by some enemy aircraft, he immediately had his carrier turned into the wind to launch fighters. The cruisers and destroyers were also alerted to set up their anti-aircraft guns.

However, all of this would prove to be futile as more than three hundred proton missiles came down like a metal rainstorm of destruction. The Neverta took two missiles on its flight deck, causing aircraft that were in the process of launching to be blown to pieces. Both missiles penetrated the steel deck and detonated below, Veraga saw a huge flash of light and his consciousness faded away, along with everyone else aboard the carrier.

Unlike the former wooden ships of the Sath, the carrier and all the other Zedan ships were not completely vaporized when hit by the proton missiles. The Neverta barely managed to hold together during the impact, but it was reduced to a burning wreck that soon broke apart into three pieces. Each piece eventually sank beneath the waves.

Despite desperate anti-aircraft fire from the battleships, cruisers and destroyers, the Zedan forces were unable to stop or even slow the rain of missiles. A few cruisers were hit dead center and were blown in half. Several destroyers were almost completely reduced to floating debris in an instant. Even the mighty battleships were no match as the missiles pierced their armor and reduced them into wreckage. Even the submarines were not spared as a few missiles plunged into the ocean and ruptured the hulls of the underwater vessels.

In less than a minute, the Zedan battle group that had been threatening the northeastern coast of Merdov ceased to exist.

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On the Johnston, Captain Vikes received the report that all enemy vessels heading toward the Merdov northeastern coast had been destroyed. The missile strike had been 100% successful. Then he received word from the southeastern coastline.

Captain Sareia and the ships under her command were using the Zedan forces as target practice.

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The southeastern coastline…

As soon as the Michigan and the 109^th Cruiser Flotilla reached their interception coordinates and landed in the water, Captain Sareia decided to forego launching a missile strike and instead destroy the enemy battle group with her battleship’s and cruisers’ guns. That meant letting the Zedan forces come closer, but she wasn’t concerned. Besides, the Council of Prime Directors did state that they wanted to demonstrate to the enemy how futile their weapons were against Free Land.

“Captain?” Her navigator called out. She was a female Velor named Hizent. “Sensors have just picked up several dozens of enemy aircraft coming towards us.”

“Tell all the cruisers to swat them down. Let those enemy pilots see what they’re facing against.”

“Aye, Captain!”

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As soon as she gave the order, every cruiser in the 109^th began charging up their anti-aircraft and other point-defense weapons. They were instructed not to use beyond visual range tactics, and allowed the enemy bombers and fighters to come within sight of them. However, as soon as they were sighted, the Zedan pilots found themselves flying into a wall of annihilation.

Maser cannons pointed skyward and began firing bolts of energy, ripping the Zedan planes and pilots to shreds. What was even more disheartening for the pilots was the accuracy of the point-defense weapons. Short-range missiles and projectile guns were also fired at the enemy. In half a minute, the skies were clear of all Zedan aircraft as their remains splashed into the water. They never even got a chance to fire off a shot or drop a bomb or torpedo.

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“All enemy aircraft have been neutralized.” Hizent announced. Then she noticed something else approaching them on her scanners. “Captain, I am now reading five underwater contacts breaking off from the Zedan battle group and heading toward us.”

“Submarines most likely.” Sareia commented. “They failed in their attack in the air, so now they’re trying an underwater tactic.”

“Shall we commence with anti-submarine countermeasures?”

“No, I don’t want to waste too much ordinance on them. Let them come and give them a chance to fire their torpedoes. For all the good it will do for them.”

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Some six miles away and several meters below the surface…

On board the Zedan submarine Virgila, Captain Vohan Zeeker snorted as he sighted the Nebula-Class battleship and the 109^th Cruiser Flotilla through his periscope. He thought the commanding officer of that tiny fleet of strange-looking ships to be nothing but an amateur. The formation was begging to be hit by torpedoes. He was more than happy to oblige.

“Load all forward torpedo tubes and prepare to fire! Maximum spread and distance!”

All five submarines got into formation and aimed for the center of the Free Land formation. A minute later, each submarine acquired their intended target and launched six torpedoes, for a total of 30. They all waited for the resulting carnage once those torpedoes hit their marks.

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“Captain, we have incoming torpedoes!” Hizent announced.

The female Captain pondered for a moment. She could just maintain her position and let the torpedoes detonate harmlessly against the Defense Barrier. She doubted those weapons could even damage the hull. Then she decided on a more novel countermeasure.

“All ships in the line of fire! Ascend to twenty meters above the waterline!” Captain Sareia commanded to the communications officer. She then turned to the helmsman, who happened to be a female Catian named Kisla. “Helmsman, take us up!”

“Aye, Captain!”

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“What?! This cannot be! It’s impossible!”

 The rest of the bridge crew of the Virgila were wondering what the captain was seeing through his periscope to make him exclaim so loudly in disbelief.

With their eyes glued to the viewing ports of their periscopes, Captain Zeeker and the other submarine commanders stared in complete shock as the Michigan and five cruisers simply floated up out of the water and hovered more than sixty feet in the air. All thirty torpedoes simply passed by harmlessly beneath them.

“Since when can ships fly?!”

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“Detonate those torpedoes.” Captain Sareia ordered as she watched the underwater projectiles pass by. “I don’t want any innocent civilian ships or docks being hit by them.”

“Aye Captain!” Lieutenant Kisla responded as she turned on a special remote frequency, causing the torpedoes to explode harmlessly once they were a mile away. Multiple spouts erupted into the air, creating a brief show of waterworks before settling back down.

The Michigan’s captain nodded as she turned her attention back towards her underwater foes. “Are we still tracking the enemy subs?”

“Yes, Captain!” Ensign Hizent replied. “They seem to be taking some evasive maneuvers in order to mask their positions after firing those torpedoes.”

“Launch five of our aqua-missiles into the water. Sink them all.”

“Aye Captain!” Kisla exclaimed as she locked onto her targets and fired.

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On the Virgila, Captain Zeeker was at a loss of what to do. The enemy ships were able to hover high above the water, which meant that torpedoes were useless. The only other weapons he had were the submarine’s deck guns and he dared not surface. That was akin to suicide. He was about to order all subs to retreat, but then his hydrophone operator cried out.

“Sir! The enemy has launched something into the water… I think they’re torpedoes!”

“Evasive maneuvers! Dive! Dive!”

All Zedan submarines began desperately tried to evade the underwater missiles, but to their shock and horror, the aqua-missiles easily tracked them and corrected their courses. When they caught up to their prey, they detonated, breaking the Zedan subs into pieces. Not a single Zedan submariner survived.

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“All enemy submarines have been destroyed.” Hizent announced as the Michigan and other cruisers set themselves back into the water. She again noticed a change in the tactical display. “Captain, the remainder of that battle group is now advancing towards our position.”

“It’s about time.” Sareia stated. “I was getting bored of waiting for them to come to us. I was about to order all ships to head toward them.”

“It looks like they intend to overwhelm and defeat us through the use of their naval guns.”

“Fine by me. It’s time for Zedan to learn just how big a difference there is between their firepower and ours.” She turned to address the communications officer. “All ships, ready main batteries! You are clear to use pulsar guns! Prepare to engage and destroy the Zedan battle group!”

 

To be continued….

Author’s Notes

Due to personal family business, I will be taking another break for a couple of weeks or so. Sorry to leave you hanging but I need to take care of this first. My apologies to all my readers.