Alpha One - Chris Burton [114]
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The Kryl were a dying civilization. With no planet of their own, they travelled from one galaxy to the next in the vast Queen’s Ships. From here, they dispatched invading armies to consume entire civilizations. They were dying because they had nowhere left to feed. They dispatched a ‘finder’ through the fissure to seek out new feeding grounds. The finder located the Milky Way, with the potential for a vast and almost endless supply of food. They could not widen the fissure from their own galaxy. They needed to send an ‘organizer’ to achieve this.
Winterburn was tasked first, to facilitate the opening of the fissure, and second, to provide a supply of food for the starving advance army to feed on when they first entered the galaxy. The gathering Collective was that supply of food.
Part Three
Chapter Forty-Nine
The Blue Wormhole
The High Priestess knew time was short; she must stop the Nexus ship before it was too late. Her commanders plotted the flight of the missile from their current position behind the Alpha blockade.
The target was the Nexus sonic pulse ship itself. The low yield, Earth-sourced atomic missile needed to detonate within two hundred fifty meters of the Nexus ship. They calculated an explosion at this range would be sufficient to knock out the sonar pulse, and stop the wormhole from being created; the wormhole would then simply collapse in on itself and would revert to a gaseous mass.
To be successful, the High Priestess needed a sizable diversion. She elected to target the Alpha flagship, which given its sheer size and perceived lack of threat was left unprotected as Alpha spread its resources over a large area.
Shenke stared in disbelief when he realized the Sect was attacking his ship. Her shields were on low intensity and the initial impact from the Sect’s mother ship’s laser cannons was considerable. Two lower decks were ripped apart on the starboard side and. with no immediate prospect of shield protection, the laser pulse continued to cause heavy damage in the aft section of the ship. Shenke responded by turning the ship one hundred eighty degrees and brought the full shield protection on line. He then ordered the launch of two squadrons of jump ships, targeting the Sect’s Mother Ship.
The High Priestess knew she had done her bidding. She would stand and wait for Alpha’s inevitable response. She ordered the ships shields to be lowered. She didn’t have to wait for long.
Two teutonic missiles were delivered with pinpoint accuracy, immediately destroying both the Sect ship’s drive and her weaponry capability. The High Priestess knew her ship was done for: further jump ship attacks peppered the ship’s unprotected outer hull. She survived long enough to witness the final stages of her own missile attack on the Nexus Ship.
The missile reached its intended target before it was spotted by an Alpha lookout scouting the area around the Nexus ship, on watch for just such an attack. Her quick action saved the Nexus ship, as she broadcast the information to the nearest jump ship; the jump ship pilot responded immediately by firing several rounds of free-detonating chaff into the path of the incoming missile. The chaff did its job, and the atomic missile, exploded nearly a kilometer out of range for the Nexus ship.
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A nervous Dr. Cameron witnessed the attack on the Admiral Shenke’s ship and the failed attack on the Nexus Sonic Pulse ship. He knew the pulse was required to be broadcast for perhaps another two minutes before the second wormhole’s opening was assured.. He glanced over at the AUSWAS ship to see how she fared, as the void—and then the wormhole—started to take hold. She held her ground but he watched her deploy full reverse thrust. Some of the smaller private vessels were not so fortunate; their power drives were inadequate. One by one they were pulled inexorably towards the wormhole.
Finally the wait ended. After nearly three