"We are ordered to hold still!" said Lance.
Jeffery nodded. The Human Empire forces had been ordered to guard the inner planets in case the enemy tried to strike behind the main forces.
"Twenty-five enemy cruisers approaching," said Lance. And a much greater number of frigates and corvettes, all advancing toward the Mopian home world.
But the Coalition forces did not stand still. Miccvan forces were first to engage the Kaitians and they wrought havoc in the enemy ships.
The power of the Miccvans must have caught the Kaitians by surprise, as they were forced to halt the advance to fight.
***
"Ha ha ha!" laughed Milton aboard the Thoughtful Flame. His ship had already destroyed many enemy cruisers. The other Miccvan ships were doing their part as well.
"Advisor!" said Nisha. "That little fighter destroyed another corvette!"
"Show me!" he ordered, and he saw a small and fast fighter surf within weapon fire surprisingly easily.
The fighter destroyed yet another corvette. Then, suddenly, the Kaitian forces retreated--after they'd lost nearly twenty cruisers.
"They are retreating!" said Nisha and Milton smiled.
"We have the first victory!" said Milton to the entire fleet. "Well done!"
He ordered the fleet to regroup. The Coalition losses of the first battle were not as bad as Milton had thought they would be. But, then again, this was just the first battle and it was far from over.
And sure enough, the Kaitian forces also regrouped and launched another attack.
***
The Kaitians were furious at the unexpected resistance of the Coalition forces. Captain Kould particularly was not used to retreating from a battle.
After Kaitian forces had regrouped and started the second attack, Kould was again the very first to engage the enemy. His first target was a corvette that he destroyed easily with a single torpedo.
The second corvette tried to target Kould's fighter, but he was too fast for them. He was once again glad that he had made his fighter fast and maneuverable. The corvette tried to target him very hard but with no success. Kould disabled the engines of the corvette and it stopped dead in space. It was an easy target for the Kaitian cruisers that came behind Kould.
Milton had already marked the fighter and ordered his own fighters to pursue and destroy it. A squadron of Miccvan interceptors pursued Kould and, although they couldn't destroy it, they managed to keep him busy so he couldn't engage other ships.
The Miccvan capital ships fought against their Kaitian counterparts and losses were heavy on both sides. The Miccvans stood their ground bravely and the Kaitians couldn't advance toward the Mopian home world.
The Miccvan bravery didn't go unnoticed. The Kaitians launched a third wave to attack, this time directly against the Mopian home world that was defended by Mopian, Rg'Tkeen, and Gemono forces.
"Milton!" shouted Nisha, but Milton already saw it.
He couldn't believe his eyes. The third wave of the Kaitian forces outnumbered the Coalition forces at least by three to one.
***
"Hell and damnation!" cursed Jiao. "Can't we go any faster?"
The Village of War was speeding toward the Mopian home world to join the battle. The long-range sensors already showed the Kaitians attacking.
"Not if we want to fight," whispered Matt, unheard by Jiao. Then, in his regular voice:
"Thirty minutes, ma'am."
Jiao said nothing, but she was angry. If only they'd left sooner from the rendezvous point.
After they'd attacked the last target, Jiao had gone to rendezvous point in Coalition space, but there had been no one there and no messages waiting for her. She realized that the Coalition forces were getting ready at the Mopian and Ooktian home worlds, and after waiting for a full day in the rendezvous point, she'd decided to go to the Mopian home world to reinforce the Coalition forces. But the attack had started while they were en route and now they were already too late.
The minutes crawled by as they approached the Mopian home world.
"Matt," said Jiao, "exit hyperspace in the middle of enemy forces and launch our ships and fighters."
"Yes, ma'am," said Matt, and felt his heart pounding even faster. It was difficult to exit hyperspace in the middle of other ships, not to mention in the middle of a battle.
For Matt, minutes flew past as he got the ship ready for battle.
***
A High Priest aboard the Kaitian command ship, still in hyperspace, smiled and monitored the battle. He'd been frustrated with the defeat at first but now everything was going as planned.
The High Priest's smile waned when the screen showed a disturbance in the middle of the Kaitian ships.
"The Behemoth!" somebody shouted behind the High Priest. "The Behemoth has come!"
The High Priest cursed. He'd hoped that his forces in ME-18 had damaged it enough to not be able to fight.
"Captain Kould!" he called.
"Sir?" answered Kould from the middle of a battle, silently cursing the High Priest for interrupting his fight.
"Go and disable the Behemoth," ordered the High Priest. There was no acknowledgement, but he saw Kould accelerate toward the Behemoth.
"Sword Legion!" called the High Priest. "I want that Behemoth captured. Kill all inside and take it to the home world!"
"Yes, sir!" acknowledged the Sword Legion commanders near the Behemoth. The ships moved beside the Behemoth and launched their landing crafts.
***
"Admiral!" said Matt after a huge blast shook the ship. Jiao disregarded the blast and ordered The Village of War to continue firing. All ships and fighters had left The Village after exiting hyperspace and were engaged with Kaitian forces.
Humans fought bravely and inflicted heavy losses to Kaitians, but also sustained heavy losses themselves. Jiao felt bleeding in her heart each time her own soldiers died.
"Admiral!" shouted Matt again. "Engines disabled! We cannot move!"
"What? How?" said Jiao, thoroughly surprised, and turned to look at the ship's status console. The engines were not only disabled, they were not there anymore. The engines were gone and she just couldn't believe it.
Before she had time to react, a klaxon never heard before sounded throughout the ship.
It took a moment before she registered the sound for what it was.
"Intruders!" she shouted.
She turned to Matt, who said, "The Jaegers are ready!"
Jiao nodded and silently thanked whoever had thought to prepare for intruders. She had herself questioned why the Jaegers should be trained to defend The Village of War; she'd expected it to be impossible that someone might actually try to raid the ship.
The Jaegers reacted quickly and rushed to predefined defense positions. One platoon seemed to appear from nowhere to the bridge and the captain set up a defensive perimeter outside the bridge.
"Captain!" called Jiao.
"Captain Howard Cooper, ma'am." The captain saluted. "6-Alpha-1. At your service, ma'am."
"What's the status?" asked Jiao.
"We are ready," said Howard. "We are defending most of the key targets."
"Most targets? Why not all?" asked Jiao, and already knew that she wouldn't like the answer.
"We've had casualties; not enough men to defend all targets," said Howard. "Even with the engines gone, there's not enough of us to fully defend all potential targets. And lower priority targets are already stretched thin. I think they are trying to capture the ship."
"I agree, Captain," said Jiao, "They wouldn't have just disabled the engines if they wanted us destroyed."
"Yes Ma'am," said Howard, "And I also think they don't want to capture any of us, just the ship. They want to kill us."
"I must agree." Jiao sighed. She'd feared that already. Their only chance was to fight until the enemy had been killed.
"We're going to need reinforcements."
Howard nodded in agreement. "I'll send you prio
ritized list of targets where we need the reinforcements the most. The highest target in the list is the bridge. We need another platoon here."
***
Jeffery was frustrated aboard the bridge and mumbled curses each time a Coalition ship took a hit. He, and all the other Human Empire ships, had been ordered to stand still.
They were supposed to be the reserve force, but, from Jeffery's point of view, it was already past the time to call the reserves.
His frustration was elevated to new levels when the Kaitians started to raid The Village of War. Numerous landing craft attached to the hull of The Village of War and, one by one, the guns that had hammered the Kaitian ships began to cease firing.
"Commander!" called Lance. "Message from The Village of War! They are requesting reinforcements!"
Jeffery quickly read the message and ordered, "Lisa! Send the Marines to help."
"Yes, sir!" said Lisa. She sent an order to the Marines to meet her for briefing in the shuttle bay.
Jeffery recalled the discussion he had with Ellen and how she had wondered whether Marines were needed in a space battle. He sighed and hoped to see Ellen, and the other Marines, return safely from The Village of War.
"They're on their way," said Lance. Jeffery looked at the screen to see three shuttles and three platoons going toward The Village of War and evading the enemy fire on the way.
Jeffery held his breath as the shuttles approached The Village of War and sighed in relief when all three docked with the super-cruiser.
***
"Commander," called Milton, "a word with you."
William nodded and went to his office for a private discussion.
"What is it, Milton?" asked William.
"The battle is not going well," commented Milton.
Miccvans had gone to defend The Village of War after the Kaitians had disabled it. So far, they'd fared well against the superior Kaitian force.
But Milton was right, thought William, the battle was not going well. They were standing their ground, but only barely. Counter-attack seemed to be, at best, very difficult.
"I agree," sighed William.
They were quiet for a moment, but William knew that Milton was thinking the same thing as he was: they were going to have to retreat. And soon. Before it was too late.
"You know what we have to do," said Milton, "but how do we do it? The Mopians won't like it."
"They'll be furious," said William, "I know, I'd be."
"Not to mention the Mopian people on the planet. We'd sacrifice them to the enemy."
"I know," said Milton sadly. "It grieves me--but unless we retreat, the same fate will happen to all worlds and we'll not be there to try to stop the enemy. We could try to push the enemy back with the human fleet."
"That's one thought," said William. "I know my people are already frustrated and they are eager to fight. But we can't win, and we can't drive the Kaitians away. I won't send my people to a fruitless fight."
"No," said Milton, "of course not."
William glanced at the screen and saw how the Kaitians attacked one of the cruisers from The Village of War, the Ocean of Reliance. Milton looked as well as the human cruiser fought bravely. It had already destroyed two of the enemy cruisers when, seemingly out of nowhere, the cruiser exploded and took two enemy cruisers down with the explosion.
"Damn!" said William. "What happened?"
"That annoying little insect!" said Milton angrily, and pointed to a small fighter that barely evaded the blast. "I've seen that before."
"Me, too," said William. "I made a mistake ignoring it for being so small. But it has caused more trouble than the enemy cruisers. But it gives me an idea."
"Let's hear it," said Milton, as he watched the small Kaitian fighter and gave orders to the Miccvan fighters to hunt down the annoying Kaitian insect.
"Let's blow up The Village of War," said William. "The explosion would give us a brief moment of surprise to launch the counter-attack." Milton's eyes widened in shock.
"Of course," added William smiling, "we'd evacuate our people first."
"Of course," said Milton quickly, betraying that he really had thought that William had meant to destroy the ship with the people still on board.
"It might work," he said after a moment of thinking.
After more thinking, he said, "Let's do it. How long to evacuate The Village of War? The timing is essential."
"I'll find out," said William.
"Great," Milton continued, "we need to blow up the ship immediately after the evacuation and at the same time launch the attack. The human fleet can lead the attack."
***
The fighting aboard The Village of War was fierce, but so far the Jaegers had held their ground with only light casualties, and inflicted heavy losses to the intruders.
But the enemy seemed to bring two soldiers for each that died even though the Coalition forces and The Village of War did their best to shoot down enemy landing crafts before they could dock.
"Admiral!" called Matt. "Message from the Coalition Command."
"Mmm," mumbled Jiao and read the message.
"Captain Cooper!" she called and Howard hurried to meet her.
"Ma'am?" he asked.
"How long do you need to evacuate the ship?" asked Jiao.
"Evacuate?" said Howard, surprised. He didn't think they really wanted to evacuate.
"Question from the Coalition Command," said Jiao, seeing that Howard didn't want to think of evacuating.
"Right," said Howard. "Just a moment, ma'am."
"I think Command is planning something," said Jiao to Matt. She hoped so, since it seemed to her they were fighting a losing battle. Other officers probably had come to same conclusion, but had said nothing.
Howard returned and said, "Twenty-five to thirty minutes to evacuate the ship, ma'am."
"Thank you, Captain." She dismissed him and sent the answer to Command: "Thirty-five minutes."
After a couple of minutes, she knew what Command was planning and why they wanted to know how long it would take to evacuate. She took a deep breath and called Matt and Howard.
"Ma'am?" said Howard and Matt.
"Command is planning a counter-attack," said Jiao. "The plan is to blow up The Village of War and then, in the turmoil of the explosion, our fleet will attack the enemy and drive them away."
"Really?" asked Howard, surprised.
"Really," said Jiao. "As soon as I acknowledge the order, we will set the ship to self-destruct in forty-five minutes. We start the evacuation and exactly the moment the ship explodes, our fleet attacks the enemy. Timing is crucial. Anyone not on the escape pods after thirty-five minutes will die from the explosion.
"Any comments?" asked Jiao.
Howard and Matt glanced each other and Jiao knew that they knew that this was a battle they couldn't win. Better to destroy the ship than to leave it to the enemy.
"One more thing," added Jiao, as the men were leaving to carry out their orders. "Radio silence as of now. We can't risk them intercepting our communications."
"Ma'am," said Howard, "may I get five minutes before you acknowledge the order? I may need that to get all evacuated."
"Two minutes, Captain," said Jiao. "I can't delay any longer than that."
Howard saluted and ran to relay the orders to his men and to send the message to others around the ship.
***
"Simmons!" shouted Howard, and Caleb hurried to him.
Ellen looked at Caleb as he talked with Howard, and it was obvious from his behavior that something was about to happen.
"Karl," she called and nodded toward Caleb and Howard. "Something's going on."
Before Karl could say anything, Caleb came to them. Running.
"Get the others!" he ordered Ellen.
"What's going on?" asked Karl.
"We are leaving," said Caleb. "We need to be in the escape pods in thirty minutes. Orders from Command," added Caleb, answering Karl's silent que
stion. "We're blowing up the ship."
Karl's eyes widened in surprise.
Ellen and the others came up to them and Caleb told them that they needed to leave the ship.
"The bridge officers will take two escape pods," said Caleb and showed the pods on the map he'd projected to the floor. "We need to secure passage to that one."
"The enemy holds this corridor," said Hannah, and pointed at a corridor intersecting their passage. "And there may be enemies near the escape pods, too."
"That's why we need to go now," said Caleb, getting ready to move.
"Radio silence, people. Visual signals only. Cortez! Stay here. Wait for our signal and bring the officers to escape pods ASAP," ordered Caleb. "Thornton! Girard! Take point."
Without a word, Karl and Ellen moved to the corridor, rifles ready.
The corridor was empty. There were meeting rooms on both sides.
Karl signaled halt and Ellen moved to his side. He nodded and they stormed the first meeting room on the left side of the corridor. It was empty.
Ellen signaled Caleb that the room was secure and the rest of the team came to the door.
"Chandler," ordered Caleb, "Stay here. Thornton, Girard, move on."
Tommy made himself small in the doorway to wait for the signal to go to the escape pods.
Ellen pointed the wall ahead; there were fire marks. There were even more fire marks as they neared the meeting room on the right.
"Blood," said Karl, and pointed to the doorway. Ellen signaled Caleb that enemies might be in the room.
Karl moved outside the door and tried to hear anything, but there was nothing. Ellen stood ready to dive in to the room and Caleb was behind Karl ready to go in on his signal.
After a second, Karl gave the signal.
Ellen dove in to the room with Caleb behind her, and Karl covered them from the door.
"Hell!" cursed Karl quietly. Ellen stood up and looked around and so did the rest of the team.
There were four bodies in the room: a Jaeger and three enemy soldiers. It looked as the Jaeger had fought against three enemies and killed them all. But the Jaeger had died by the sword thrown through his neck.
It was the first time they had seen the Kaitians up close. Each three of the enemy had full body armor, a sword, and two rifles. They were bigger than humans, but otherwise looked like humans.
As a matter of fact, all the known sentient species in the galaxy looked like humans. The only exception was the Rg'Tkeen, and no one could explain why.
"Sir?" asked Karl. "Do you know if we have any enemy prisoners?"