Chapter 7

There were still four places that Eevar had found that needed attention, so the fleet left to look at the nearest one of those. When they got close enough, they realized that the planet they were approaching was a relative small gas giant. At least, that was what it looked like as they approached. Out of curiosity, Jacob transported a sampling flask into the atmosphere and brought it back for analysis.

The planet's atmosphere was a mixture of ammonia, nitrogen, and hydrogen. The atmosphere was certainly one that they were not interested in trying to breathe, but not one belonging to any enemies they were familiar with. Of course, the people running what looked like a prosperous trading port did not necessarily come from that planet. They slowed to match velocities with the planet and let the universal translator do its thing. After a couple of minutes they began to understand the speech coming from the radio, so they moved a little bit closer.

'Edward' was sent to try to learn who and what was going on around the planet. Harry, the captain, reported that these were oxygen breathers who had set up a refueling station around this planet. The local intrasystem trade was done with ships that used the hydrogen extracted from the gas giant's atmosphere as fuel, and they stopped in here for refueling before making the final leg of their run into the heavier gravity field nearer the star or after climbing out of the gravity well.

The humans were amazed at the apparent amount of commerce being carried on by ships with relatively simple reaction motors. These people would probably be customers for the gravity generator the Earth ships used, but that was something they decided to save for later.

The were discussing their next investigation site when Eevar sent an urgent message. Not too far away, there seemed to be a situation developing that looked like the time the FBs attacked Earth. There was a large ship hovering over a planet that had no space capability at all. Furthermore, the volume of the planet's atmosphere seemed to grow larger, if one judged by the increased cloudiness of the image the radar was returning. A large number of small satellites would produce that same effect, so this could be the FBs in action.

Jacob ordered the fleet to emergency readiness for a quick jump to the site of the suspected atrocity. It only took a little over 10 minutes of preparation for the fleet to be ready, and they accelerated away from the ecliptic at their maximum ability. In approximately four and one-half hours they were moving fast enough for the Lurie Effect to work, and they made their jump.

The fleet formed a loose shell around the planet outside the orbit of the alien ship while they gave the universal translator time to gather the data it needed. As soon as they had enough data, Jacob broadcast to the alien ship. "What are you doing? We see that you are enveloping the planet with a web of small satellites. What is the purpose of these satellites? If they cause any harm to the life on that planet, you will have us to answer to. We have seen the results of a similar activity, and we want to know what you have in mind."

"Go away! We are engaged in a sacred mission to purify the galaxy. If you do not leave right now, you will feel our wrath!"

"Are you the fluorine breathers who are killing all other forms of life? If so, you must stop right now. If necessary, we will stop you with ultimate force."

This was enough to cause an immediate reaction from the other ship. Laser cannon were turned on the ships of the Earth fleet. Good fortune had nothing to do with the fact that the laser blasts were deflected. It was part of SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) that the laser shield was turned on whenever there was the possibility of enemy action.

Jacob said, "Stop this foolishness right now, or face the certainty of our return fire."

The laser fire continued, so Jacob ordered each ship to target specific laser cannon with one JT slug. At his command, the 12 slugs were transported into the targets, and there were 12 tremendous explosions on the outer shell of the ship.

That was enough to cause the release of swarms of fighters. These fighters were pouring out of the mother ship at a remarkable rate. Jacob had 'Michael' transport one of the large slugs into the middle of the ship. The target ship was so huge that there was no obvious sign of the explosion that Jacob knew had to have taken place within the ship.

OK, time for some major arm twisting. There was a prepared plan with assignments for each ship for a combined bombardment of the enemy with 24 of the large slugs. Jacob called for Plan Armageddon to launch on his command. The last of the ships reported that it was ready 140 seconds after he gave the original command. On his launch command, each of the ships transported two of the 5 kg slugs to specific points within the enemy ship.

The enemy seemed to shake violently and most of the hull turned red. The enemy began to break apart as the red area continued to grow. Segments of the hull broke away under the influence of internal pressure. Relatively tiny dots were seen ejected into space. At least some of these dots had to be bodies.

Any large chunks of the enemy ship that broke away more or less intact were targeted with the 500 g slugs to make sure that there were no survivors trapped within pockets inside the chunks. It took nearly 10 minutes to complete the total annihilation of the ship, but there was eventually nothing left but a large debris field.

Meanwhile, the fighters had been relentlessly pouring laser fire at the Earth ships. This fire had done no harm to the Earth ships because of the efficiency of the shield. The fire had been returned by the Gatling Guns, eight per ship, mounted on the 12 ships. This Gatling Gun fire consisted of solid slugs of depleted uranium fired under control of the FTL radar. It was almost impossible to avoid being hit by the swarm of bullets fired from these guns, but a few of the fighters did manage that miracle. However, a second pass by a fighter was usually fatal, so the fighter attack was over in about 25 minutes. The enemy did not seem to have any volition—they had been ordered to attack, so they did, until they were destroyed.

It was a good thing that the laser shield was so effective, because the ships had to remain in absolutely stable and predictable orbits. Only by doing this were they able to avoid the solid slugs poured out by the Gatling Guns. A hit by friendly fire would have been immediately fatal, since the kinetic energy imparted to just one of the slugs was enough to blow a monster hole in the hull of the former submarine. The computers controlling the guns had to know where the ships were going to be so that fire would not be directly at them even minutes after the shot had been fired. If an enemy ever learned to use solid shot instead of laser beams against the Earth fleet, there would be hell to pay, because the Earthers had no defense against such an attack.

Once the battle was over, Jacob tried to contact any sentient life on the ground. He did not receive any replies by radio, so there probably no sentient creatures on the planet, but he wanted to know for sure. The first step was to send down a sample flask to return with a sample of the atmosphere. This was found to be a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen, so the first question was answered.

The next step was to send down a remote television camera to show them what the place looked like before they ventured down themselves. The pictures showed a uniform plant covering, probably something like what the Earth had been like in the Carboniferous Period. There were no signs of towns or cities, so Jacob assumed that the planet was still undergoing its evolutionary development, therefore, it was best left alone.