Chapter 25

Month 150—July on St. Jeanne d’Arc

“BATTLE STATIONS. Battle stations. This is not a drill. This is not a drill.” Joan’s voice filled the ship while Ubie’s voice filled the resort and Papillon Base. At the resort, our riflemen headed to the basement range while crew from St. Jeanne who were groundside transported up. The railgunners and their teams hit the pads at the base. I ran out of my room naked with Rainbow padding along behind me, trying to clear her eyes from the earth-shaking orgasm she’d been experiencing when the speakers broke in.

“I’m gonna kill a couple of Sa’arm for this!” she grumbled. As I ran, my cock leaked the remains of the semen I hadn’t finished spraying into Rainbow. We snatched a quick kiss at the transporters.

“Go get ‘em, Tiger.” I gave her rear a pat and she winked as she disappeared from the transporter. I stepped onto the pad and was taken directly to my control couch where I could monitor Ubie. Tatts slipped onto the couch beside me.

“You smell like sex,” she laughed.

“I thought that delightful scent was coming from you!” We settled back with our VR helmets to the sound of Tatts giggling. “Status, Ubie.”

“Hyperspace bubbles are still forming. So far two hive colonizer spheres and an assortment of Vesta, Vervactor, and Venti ships have emerged. The hive spheres have not yet released their fighters but are known to carry twenty-seven light ships each.”

“The ships have appeared outside the band of mines that previously destroyed their scouts. Confederacy ships are faced off across the minefield to form a blockade. A Voluptus conquest sphere has now emerged. The Swarm are moving into position for another jump and Confederacy ships are falling back to the Earth HEZ.”

“Estimated time to arrival?”

“Three hours, thirteen minutes, and twenty-seven seconds.”

“How are we getting information so fast if it’s going to take them three hours of hyperspace and cruise time to get here?”

“I am monitoring AI chatter. Their communications are much faster than Confederacy ship-to-ship communications.”

“Let’s take a look at our ships,” Tatts said. “Is everyone moving all right?”

Our VR display switched to the flight deck where pilots were standing beside their birds—the sleek sexy Hawks and one Aston Martin. Crew were running with helmets for their pilots and opening hatches. There was a flight deck crew member for each pilot now. There was some talk and laughter among the flight teams as they prepared to mount up, but with a sense of excitement that was more than we’d seen lately. With the invasion three hours away, they weren’t rushing to mount up. There were a number of intense kisses being shared.

“Boss, this is the Captain. How do our systems look?”

“Everything is humming, Captain. Ubie reports no failures or slowdowns. Ground-based forces are taking up position in the shooting range. Railgunners and crew have arrived at Atlantic Basin and railguns are idling. Pilots are boarding their birds. All systems are awaiting your command.”

“The Sa’arm ships have made their jump in-system,” Dakota said. “Joan has been giving me projected landing points for the invasion. She says it looks like North America, Central Asia, and something in the Southern Hemisphere—possibly Australia or Africa. We’ll have to choose our targets carefully.”

“We can’t fight a Southern Hemisphere invasion,” I said. “Leave that to the Confederacy. I don’t think we can take on the conquest sphere unless there is no choice. We’ll take on the weak spots in America or Asia as they are revealed.”

“Boss,” Dakota asked on our private channel, “this invasion looks awfully well coordinated for the Sa’arm having only gotten a brief look from Neptune on their first visit. And sending a conquest sphere? Not just colonizers?”

“This is the first time the Swarm have made a serious push into our system, but don’t forget they’ve faced human Confederacy ships in a lot of systems over the past ten years. All they needed on their first scan was to discover that we were here waiting. They’ve met us enough times to know they need to arrive in force. Remember, their goal is to land the spheres on Earth. That’s what all the other ships are here to facilitate. Our job is to prevent an Earth landing. Got it?”

“Got it, Boss. It’s time to get our birds in flight.” Dakota switched to her all points speakers. “Attention. Pilots mount up and check in with control. Gunners, check your systems and ammo. This is a live round. Make sure you’re loaded for bear. Railguns pre-load the first salvo and make sure the next is ready to go. Remember, we’re letting the Confederacy’s big guns take out everything we can. We’re a mop-up crew—the last line of defense between the dickheads and our planet. Good hunting, people.”

“Captain, Hawks all report manned and armed. Hummingbirds are standing by at 50,000 kilometers above the pole.”

“Launch Hawks,” Captain said. The 360-degree screens on the bridge lit up with the view of space projected from the multiple sensors on the Hawks.

“Everything looking good, Ubie?” I asked on the channel Tatts and I shared.

“I think so.”

“Think?”

“There is a tingling in my circuits that is being fed by the pilots and weapons operators. I can only assume this is a response to adrenaline pumping in their veins.”

“Excitement, Ubie dear,” Tatts said. “This is all excitement mixed with fear, anger, anticipation, and raw sex.”

“Emotions still surprise me at times,” Ubie said.

“Just remember, we’re right here with you, my friend,” I said. “We trust you.”

“And I trust you, Boss. Transit bubbles are appearing in the projected locations. The conquest sphere is targeted toward east-central Asia. One colonizer sphere is directed toward southern Africa. The other is headed directly for the center of North America.”

“Kansas?” Tatts asked.

“Kansas is regarded as the geographic center of the forty-eight contiguous states of the United States,” Ubie said. “The North American center is generally accepted as northern North Dakota. A town named Rugby claims the honor.”

“Let’s make sure it doesn’t get the honor of the Swarm’s first landing.”

“Confederacy ships have begun engagements and are fighting the battleships and cruisers. Smaller Sa’arm ships are harrying the defenders. Confederacy forces have focused their greatest firepower on the conquest sphere over Asia. Both sides are taking heavy losses from both the African and American sphere groups. They are significantly outgunned.”

“That gives us our target,” I said. It was clear we were needed to defend North America.

“Hawks, prepare an attack run on the battle group approaching North America. Hummingbirds, prepare to defend Confederacy ships. The Sa’arm are primarily using energy weapons. Our purpose will be to disrupt the beams with shields. Alpha, Beta, and Gamma flights, prepare to dive bomb the sphere. Delta through Xi, you will run as many strafing flights on the smaller ships as needed. Stay out of the way of friendly fire. Omicron, Pi, Rho flights, you will stand by to offer aid to any ship pressed beyond its ability. Anouilh or Confederacy.”

A Vervactor and several fighters were giving heavy fire to a force attempting to penetrate the sphere’s defenses. Confederacy ships had been unable to penetrate the enemy’s shields. Suddenly, three misshapen cylinders appeared in near collision with the Vervactor, spewing out .50 caliber explosive rounds at near proximity into the shields. In fifteen seconds, before the Vervactor could react to the small ships, they were gone and three more appeared from a different direction. The shields faltered just long enough for the Shiros to get a series of plasma torpedoes through. All seven impacted the hull, causing severe damage. Shields did not come back online and a well-placed railgun projectile from one of the Confederacy ships drilled into the fuel reservoir and the Vervactor disintegrated.

Five flights of Hawks targeted the Lima attack fighters, popping in and out of hyperspace to strafe the small ships with their explosive shells with good effect. The fighters seemed to stumble as one and then another vented to space and broke apart.

“Wahoo!” Skitty yelled as her gunners took out another of the fighters.