Chapter 18: Is It Safe to Come Out Yet?

“RJ?” Bob called over the intercom. His son-in-law and sons were loading up his 336s in the back.

“We are rapping up. Both ships have full magazines. We are getting in Stan-1. The door is closed and lifting off. Stan, close the back door.”

“General all doors are secure, and we are ready for lift-off,” Stan said.

Bob looked to Teresa and got a nod, “Stan, lift-off. How many ships are floating here? More than ten thousand, Sir. We have a full complement except for the Construction Battalion and the five hundred below that RJ will bring up when ready.”

“This is General Rowland. As I am sure you have heard, we have another incursion out past the Uranus orbit. We will cloak and proceed out there and see what we have. Any questions?” It was quiet over the airways, “Stan best route and the best speed for all ships.” The fleet lifted off and soon the sky was clear except for the many thousands of ships to the west that belonged to General Rowland the attacking force of the first enemy convoy later tonight.

As General Rowland lifted off another force of two thousand came out of the west. General Rowland, General Ceca, General Brien, and General Lloyd all lifted off following the two thousand ships with their own two thousand ships. Behind them were the five hundred ships led by Major RJ his brother-in-law.

General Delaney came upon the battle scene spread out over many dozens of square miles, “Tactical Display Stan.”

“General Delaney, have Colonel Delaney and the Earth forces behind her turn and face the twenty thousand ships coming from the Blue People. General Rowland should be the Commanding Officer of that field of battle.”

“WHAT?” Bob screamed. Everyone looked at him. He took a deep breath and relaxed, “Sorry as you were.”

Susan was called over, “Sir the computer has redirected us towards that?” Jeffery Taylor was pointing to a mass of ships.

“God warned us last night.” Susan thought for a second, “Deploy the Holographic.”

“Betty, outside line please.” One of the physical holograms nodded to Susan, “Oncoming force HALT! Who are you?”

“We are here to stop a miss-service. I am Lord Shadow of what you Earthlings call Blue People. Your planet has been chosen to house the transiting Spider-people.”

“Not today, Lord Shadow, not on my watch. I am Colonel Susan Delaney of the Watcher Division, sworn to protect Planet Earth. The Spiders have already committed Murder of our fellow humans and are being dealt with as we speak and will continue to be eliminated within this Galaxy.” Susan was just a bit fired up.

Buster looked at his son, who was smiling from ear to ear, he turned to Teresa, “Is that your daughter?”

“Oh, yes that’s our Susan and that Shadow has her dander up big time. Teresa looked to Bob,” Any doubt she’s your daughter now!” A question had been raised once upon a time because Susan had been born early when nine months before Bob had been overseas knee-deep in one of the sandbox events.

Bob looked at Teresa and started laughing, “You won that argument a long time ago and you are right again, I have never heard anything like that since mom unloaded on dad for something stupid, he did.”

William looked to his brother, “Is that Aunt Susie?”

“It sure is, she’ll make a good General.” Bob the third said then looked to his grandfather who gave him a wink. He giggled.

Susan took a deep breath then started in again, “Shadow, does Emperor John Taylor know you are pulling this stunt?”

“He does not bother himself with such trivia matters.”

“Shadow, when he does hear about what you are pulling there may not be any Blue People left in the Galaxy by the time, he considers this matter done.”

The Shadow sputtered then screamed, “OPEN FIRE UPON THE EARTHLINGS.”

Susan’s Holograph got hit dozens of times. Lockheed had fixed another little issue. Somewhere in all that noise, Susan Screamed, “OPEN FIRE!”

General Tripp with a hundred of his, brand new 885s also yelled “FIRE.” He was amazed to see a Thousand of the Blue People’s ships explode. It took four minutes for the next shot. Then three and a half and near the end three minutes. Ten times they had fired during thirty-nine minutes and by that, they were getting near to General Lloyd and his destruction. There were about two thousand ships partially damaged that Susan’s group all got to shoot at. The three leaders all felt more than satisfied that they were ready for tonight.

General Rowland and General Ceca also watched as General Delaney destroyed a large number of Spider ships. The Space Drones had made all the Stadium and Super Stadium Ships blind and leaderless. The battle lasted two hours. The last hour was just to make sure the debris fields were checked again and again.

“Heidy, how many ships did we destroy today?” Rowland had this conversation going out to all the ships within the Earth Command. Bubba was less than ten miles away listening.

“Sixty-Four Thousand four hundred and sixty-four, sir,” Heidy said.

“How many ships did we have here today?” Rowland looked to Delilah.

“Sir we had just under Eight thousand ships.”

“What are our losses?”

“Fourteen Space Drones, Sir. Sixteen ships were hit with energy weapons, but all are working and appear to be able to fly back to Earth. One glancing blow from an antimatter canister. No explosion, no damage, no loss of life. No injuries to speak of.”

“Comments?” General Rowland asked.

“Why did you guys show up?” General Delaney asked.

“God told us last night we would see the biggest battle to date for the Cadets,” Rowland answered.

“I’ve just gotten my father back, not going to let some spiders take that away from me. My Command needed some excitement to help settle them down.” Susan said, “Now we are ready for tonight.”

“Good job Daughter.” Bob shared, “How is your command?”.

“Typical bunch of gung-ho Cadets. They were born ready and have served well today. I’m proud to be involved with them.” Susan praised, “General Rowland when we have some time, I have some promotions I’d like to speak to you about.” Everyone knew exactly what Susan was doing. She was seeing what her new command staff was capable of doing. She had already kicked a few butts, now she was holding out the carrots to see who would step forward. She wanted a triple “A”, not a sort of okay “B” Command.

“Sir, General Delaney. Warrant Officer Jacob Forrester here, I request permission to go with General Rowland tonight.”

“You think the Drones will have a positive impact on the outcome?”

“Yes, Sir you certainly know they did here. I have never seen so many headless chickens running around bumping into things.”

“Like shooting fish in a barrel. General Rowland, did God give you any indication of more battle for the Earth Force coming at us tonight?”

“The Russians have an engagement of five or six thousand. You might get a good night’s sleep General Delaney. God did not share anything about tonight for you and your team.”

“We will sleep in our ships. Jacob and Tom go ahead and take your Drones back to Earth and get them prepared. Have fun tonight.”

“Thank you, Sir.” Jacob sent out the command for the CBs to return to Earth.

“Rowland, do you have a way to stop the #1 convoy?” Bob asked.

“Sir, we are going to have four hundred 885s putting out a cloud of anti-matter for this next convoy to run into tonight. The Drones will make a nice frosting on the cake if we can get them to stop or slow down the convoy.”

“General Ceca, how are you doing today?”

“What a mess we made today. We have what 40 to 50 square miles filled with debris.” Ceca commented. I’m glad I don’t have to clean it up. This brought much laughter.

“That’s what we have seen in all of our engagements. Does anybody have an idea how many we killed today?” Teresa asked.

“Twenty thousand ships times ten per ship is 200,000 Blue People. Forty thousand ships of spiders at 10,000 per ship is that four hundred million spiders?” Rowland asked not believing his numbers.

Bob and Teresa noticed their grandson William looking at them nodding his head. Everyone was stunned at the implications.

“Bubba, are you out there? Have you watched the entire battle?” Rowland asked.

“I’m here General Rowland.” We have seen what four hundred million spiders can do to a planet. No humans were alive after three days. No animals after fifteen to twenty days. No fish in the sea, or birds in the sky after thirty days. You have a right to defend your planet, you have performed very well. I will get word to Emperor John; I would think he will be most pleased.” Bubba answered.

“Any idea when Earth may see him again?” Rowland asked.

“He keeps running out of ammo for his little ships. He thinks a handful of days.” Bubba said.

“We will be confronting the convoy he is following in two days,” Rowland predicted. “Thank you, Captain Bubba. We will see you next time. Take care.”

“Thank you, General Rowland. Good Job everyone.” Bubba giggled.

“Buster, are you okay?” General Delaney asked.

“Without the Cadets, we would be dead.” Buster Sr. said.

“YES and NO. With our space entry, we have opened ourselves to what has happened. Before the Cadets, the leaders with their secret space programs were playing Russian Roulette with all our lives. The Pleiadeans were protecting us, from our stupidity. When President Tripp got into office, he was greeted by the Pleiadeans with an ultimatum to either have Earth join the other Space Age Worlds or prepare to continue to be a major food source for many others.” Bob said.

“I mister average citizen had no clue.” Buster was holding his head.

“It’s deeper than that. John Taylor knew what he was doing when he suggested to let the kids fly the pretty spaced ships.” He had both Buster and Teresa’s attention now.

“During the Cold War in the ‘60s and 70’s the US could get a Division of Marines ready to fight in ninety to one hundred twenty days. The USSR took nine months to a year to get their division ready to fight. In The USSR the average shoulder could not drive and had never seen a gun. Father John knew that the average teenager, both boys, and girls on Earth could step into a computer-aided Spaceship and fly it today. He knew we already had in place the ability to train hundreds of thousands in the shortest amount of time. The time that was going to be needed was to get the people of Earth comfortable in supporting a Space force of teenagers.”

“And my son is a part of this. Holy Cow. We are taking on the Galaxy.” Buster said.

“No sir, we have already done that. We took on the Bullies and won. Now we are fixing some of the problems, deep problems with the Galaxy. Much like Tripp took on with the Deep State in the United States and the world to fix the problems of the foundation. That is what John is doing for the Galaxy.”

“Wow! And I thought This would be a nice safe adventure to enjoy.” Teresa laughed.