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WE FOUGHT AND CHASED two Phelb task forces back across their border and then deep into their space, then we drove onward to Earth. Falsun was nearly fifty light years from Earth, and we had intercepted messages between ships that there was a general panic around the Falsun system about our incursion to the Sol system.
It was when we approached Pluto that I began to worry about my plan, because Pluto’s outpost was empty. As was the Mars outpost. I ordered the task force to hold position and wait for further information. Sensor range was limited, and even though we could see Earth from our position in orbit around the Red Planet, we had to wait for our sensor pulse to come back at the speed of light. And once it did, my concern grew.
“The entire fleet?” I asked, standing arms crossed in front of a large holographic display, with a slight grin on my face.
“I’m glad to see this is amusing to you, Colonel Valentine.” Jones said, slamming her hands down on the edge of the display. “Because this is extremely worrying to me. There are four hundred Phelb ships out there, and there are three of us, Colonel.”
“And this shows they’re desperate.” I said, pointing at the four large battleships on the display. “These are their primary capital ships, correct?”
“As far as we know, Valentine, but what is in your head?”
“I can’t imagine a galaxy where they pose us any true threat if they don’t have those battleships, am I wrong, Captain?”
“I’m beginning to follow you and I don’t know if I like it, Valentine.”
“Well, good.” I smiled at her. “Our new engines. They are accurate enough to jump us into the gravity well and back up to the fleet?”
“Yes. But we wouldn’t be able to come back for you.” Jones stared at me. “You realize that?”
“Yeah, I do.” I grinned. “The Night stalkers are ready and willing, Captain.”
She exhaled explosively. “Colonel Valentine, ready your soldiers.”
“With pleasure.” I replied, then turned and spoke into the comm unit on my shoulder. “Sergeant Kelis, gather chemical and radiological inoculations and administer them to the Night stalkers, Lieutenant Grace, prepare to land on the orbital stations.”
“How many, sir?”
“Eight thousand,” I replied. “I will lead a team to the surface.”
“Sir.” Came the reply of ten team leaders at once.
“Yeah, I know.” I replied. “The task force is going to engage their heavy battleships and then jump out of the system and request reinforcements from Vandor. We are going to take the orbital stations and take Earth. “
“Sir.” Lieutenant Grace said firmly. “Request permission to lead operation the surface.”
“That’s a negative, executive officer. I will lead the operation to the surface.”
“Sir, I really must protest.” Grace said, an edge to her voice.
“You have your orders, Lieutenant.” I snapped back.
“Yes sir.”
I rolled my eyes as I rode back down the elevator to the crew bay and went to my gear locker and began pulling on combat gear and my body armor. A black mask with a filtration system completed the ensemble and I discovered looking in a mirror that someone had painted a white skull overlay on the outside. Ivata, most likely.
“Colonel Valentine,” Someone said in my earpiece. “I have Commander Valentine for you, sir.”
“Put her through immediately.” I replied, strapping my sidearm to my thigh.
“Did you like your new filtration mask?” Mallory asked me. There was a soft click, the great distances involved created a slight lag in the voice traffic.
“Yes, I figured Ivata was behind it.” I replied, strapping the inoculation kit to my other leg. “Are you ready to deploy?”
“Yeah, so, your gamble worked, when are you departing the system?”
I laughed under my breath. “We are...not leaving. The Night stalkers and I are going to take and hold Earth.”
She laughed. “Stop joking around. When are you leaving?”
“I’ve ordered the task force to engage the battleships and destroy them, and then jump away. We are going to be staying to take over the orbitals and its defenses, we are going to repel the fleet with the defensive weapons on the orbitals.”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Mallory shouted into my headset.
“No. We need a foothold in the Sol system and we are going to take it. I need reinforcements, by the way. A lot of them.” I replied calmly. “If we can take and hold the orbital stations, we will have a ship building facility that we can use to bolster our fleet and strike at Falsun.”
“Destota, that is if you can even hold the stations.”
“Are you kidding me right now?” I asked. “I left all the greenhorns with Ivata to retrain and be ready for the next battle.”
“Do you realize that is the human home world? Do you not believe that the Phelbs will try anything to crush you?” She asked, pleading with me now.
It wasn’t that I was being stubborn. We couldn’t run now, because we were stuck. If the task force fled, then the Phelb Fleet would chase us, but if we struck at the core of their power in their battleships, we could use the task force to strike and fade while the Phelbs had to choose between attacking the stations to drive us out or get hit by the biggest dreadnoughts in the Vandorian fleet.
I guessed the odds of the Night stalkers surviving was around fifteen percent.
“Mallory,” I said softly, sliding a black baseball cap over my head. “Please send the fleet and fifty thousand soldiers. As soon as you can.”
“You can’t hold those stations for two months.” She said calmly, sadly.
“We don’t have a lot of choice. We have to hope Shockwave can take down those battleships.” I looked at the deck, then drew a cigarette from my breast pocket and lit it.
“And if they can’t?” She asked.
“Then we’re all dead and I need you to destroy Falsun.” I replied, dragging my cigarette.
“I understand.” She said softly. “I’ll get there as soon as I can.”
“I love you.” I said, sliding my gloves over my hands and picking up my sniper rifle.
“I love you too.” She sniffled. “Destota?”
“Yeah.” I looked down at my boots and then looked up at the other soldiers around me, who were all nearly ready to depart for Earth’s surface.
“Give them hell.”
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