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Admiral Halsey sat in the admiral’s chair on the bridge of her flagship, the Ganymede, and fought the urge to have her jaw drop to the floor.
What was on the screens before them, both large and small, were extremely detailed, real-time images of their targets.
She had ordered full-stop to her task force so they could study these. Captain Talbot’s idea to upload the new communications technology to the micro-probes which were already in the enemy system had paid off in spades.
Halsey made a note to herself to give that woman the next, brand-spanking new Star-Guardian to be commissioned.
“We were able to send the updates real-time to the micro-probes, and they immediately had the ability to return the real-time images we see now,” Captain Bowers was explaining to her and her staff.
“Analysis?” she said.
He shook his head at her. “Information is coming in so fast and in such quantities we are having trouble keeping up. As you can see these images are constantly becoming sharper and more detailed even as we are watching them.”
“Priorities, Captain,” she said, and looked at her staff also. “Concentrate not on the planets and the star but their facilities, ships, defensive positions.”
“Yes, Admiral. It was wise to order a full stop. Otherwise we would have been at the launch point likely before we had a full picture.”
“We are no longer flying blind, folks,” she said.
Halsey didn’t like idling through space, but for the next 12 hours that is exactly what her task force did. Then she gathered her staff in the conference room.
Captain Bowers began the presentation. “Here are what I think should be our primary targets.”
A wall-to-wall picture of a row of huge ships appeared. Halsey counted at least eight, lined up in orbit of one of the planets like sitting ducks.
“Are they as huge as they look?” she asked.
“Yes, three-times the size of a Star-Guardian,” he said.
“Are they warships or transports?”
He fiddled with the zoom, got it to work. “As you can see they are literally bristling with what look like beam weapon cannons.”
She nodded.
“I agree, they are a priority for sure, get to work on the targeting and arm them with nukes.”
“Yes, Admiral.” He nodded to someone on his own staff who began relaying the order to the techs onboard Ganymede and Io which were the two launch platforms.
“Now, we really haven’t seen any activity on the other planets or their moons. Nor any other space-borne facilities. Everything seems centered on this one planet, so we took a closer look.”
The scene on the walls shifted to some factories and mining operations.
“But that makes no sense,” Halsey said. “You mean they are assembling these ships on-planet?”
He shook his head. “I don’t think so, I think they are merely supporting them, and they were probably assembled either in their home system or somewhere else.”
“Target those facilities and mines,” she said.
“Umm, Admiral,” she heard a voice say, turning to see Captain Talbot. Everyone else was staring at her too.
“Yes, Captain?”
“There are some other things you should see before you give that order.” She walked over to the console where Captain Bowers stood.
“If I may?” she said, and he stepped aside reluctantly.
“Make it fast, Captain. I want to launch those missiles and haul my ass out of here!”
“So do I, Admiral. But, look at this please?”
On the wall now appeared two human shapes. One was the classic devil alien they all knew, with the small horns and tail and red eyes. These were the enemy devils they were here to eradicate from this system.
But the others, which Talbot kept flashing on the screen one by one, looked very human.
“My God!” Halsey said. “Are those our people?”
Talbot shrugged. “People like us, or our people. It could explain why, though we have known them to visit Earth for centuries, they didn’t just wipe us out before we were capable of resisting them. They’ve been mining human slaves, from Earth or elsewhere, or both.”
“Or,” Bowers interjected, “they are not from Earth and are allied with the devils.”
Talbot shot him a look. “They don’t look like willing allies, to me.”
“You can’t tell that from a few images,” he said.
“Hold it,” Halsey said. Now what the hell was she going to do? She couldn’t nuke humans, a slave race, no matter where they came from.
“I agree they are not willing allies. How could they be?” she said.
No one had an answer.