Chapter 16

After finding five more from the same planet, Jim was shocked when he found another from another planet, which was a lot closer to the empire. Returning all six of the people, Jim set out, not caring if anyone said a thing; it was only a two-day journey at light speed. Approaching the planet, Jim was prepared for them to come out after them when there were no ships. Jim did a planetary scan and found that the Krong here had no ships smiling. Jim activated the planet killer and watched as the planet started to crack and then explode. Jim smiled wider. It was good; it was at full capacity again. The next one would take a week to get to.

The whole week they traveled, Jim and Mary worked the shields, finally increasing them to twice what they’d been in the last battle. They’d protected two of the four reactors on the outer ring with more shielding. They managed to get power consumption down fifty percent more. They’d just gotten the weapons a twenty-five percent power increase when they arrived a day outside the empire boundary at the next planet. This time, they sent ships, though compared to the last battle, this was over in an hour, as was the planet.

Retreating back to empire space, they made their way back to the home empire planet. After arriving, Mary and Amber went to the planet’s side while Jim started to scan the planet again. Only two hours into it, Jim was pissed when he found a group of ten in another city. Damn it! Removing all of them, Jim was pissed. It appeared they were from five different planets, shit! One was only a few hours away! Calling Mary and Amber, Jim told them he’d found five more. Having repaired two of the three broken DMTMs, the women were back in no time, though Amber was still unsure. She didn’t really like going through things.

Arriving only an hour later, they met no resistance. Jim cracked the planet with ease. After two more days, they arrived at the second planet. Meeting no resistance, they were about to shoot when a world ship appeared from behind the planet along with a few thousand fighter beetle-shaped ships. Cursing, Jim knew that even with the improvements, they were still a little vulnerable, especially against a massive world ship.

“Dickie deploy vapor drops all along the front lines,” Jim ordered.

“Compliance,” Dickie quipped back.

“Vapor drops! Those are dangerous, Jim!” Amber yelled.

“It’s ok, Amber we used them in the big battle they were a huge help,” Mary replied.

“No! You don’t realize vapor drops utilize the most unstable explosive in the empire, if you found a way to stabilize it I would like to know how,” Amber told Jim. Just nodding Jim watched as the first wave disappeared in a brilliant flash of light.

“Alright, deploy guns shields and arm turrets. Let’s go, girls. Time to exterminate some bugs,” Jim said, a huge smile on his face. Two guns were more than enough to handle them, but the additional guns helped them dish out destruction a lot faster. Destroying the world ship’s engines, Jim pushes it with a small energy beam toward the planet. They all watched as the satisfying explosion wrecked half the planet, Jim took out the rest moments later. Sighing, Jim told them it’d be a week before they got to the next planet. It was two days past the empire boundary. Jim was starting to wonder if they’d ever be free of this race, “Maybe you should declare war on them,” Jim said, “that way, it’d be with the people’s blessing.”

Amber thought for a while, “The only way we could do that would be to reveal who you really are, Jim.”

“NO! I will sacrifice almost everything but that, there has to be another way,” Jim growled.

“None that I can see, Jim, I think the people deserve to know who saved them,” Amber said, a little surprised at the stout refusal he gave.

“Maybe one day, but not now. For now, he is dead and will remain that way,” Jim said, looking straight at Amber, shaking his head no again. Mary once again noticed this. ‘What the fuck is he hiding now?’ thought Mary. Almost a week later, they were closing in on the planet. They’d seen no ships or sign of the Krong the whole way. Approaching the planet, they were met by thousands of ships again, though this time, they got readings of humans on the planet. “What the fuck?” Sighing, Jim wiped the ships out in short order, radioing the planet, and a human voice came through. “Who the fuck do you think you are? You destroyed our whole planetary defense squad,” the voice screamed.

“You mean you are with the Krong?” Snarled Jim.

“Of course, we have been for years.” the man answered incredulously.

“I’ll give all humans an hour to leave the planet, then I’ll destroy it,” Jim snapped back.

For thirty minutes they called then it was quiet, then the massive exodus began, ships of every description began to flee the planet. Jim didn’t care, as they struggled to leave, Jim gave them extra time, finally no more ships were leaving, powering up the planet killer, Jim made short work of the planet. The women also thought that the humans living with Krong had lost their minds.