Chapter 14: A Galactic Battle II

John looked to the Captain of the Lulu, “Battle Stations Captain! Plan A-1 defend earth.”

“Yes Sir! Plan A-1 defend earth.” The two men had worked out communications with the Captain’s limited English, “Sir our sensors are telling us of intruders in the flight bay.”

John heard what could pass for a marching song on earth. Some more men and women coming to man the guns on Lulu.

“Willa was standing next to John, “They won’t let me do battle up close,” Willa said as she patted her tummy.

John had seen Willa shoot. He took the two energy weapons from the Captain and handed Willa one, “You’re with me. Captain how good are the shields?”

“The best that we know of.” The Captain said.

“Captain, what if we went to the fight NOT cloaked. We have a very young fighting force. It may do them a lot of good if they can see us there. What do you think?”

The Captain realized this man in front of him was willing to risk his life to support his fighters, “Sir, as long as I have permission to cloak when our shields become weak.”

John nodded, “Agreed! The ship is yours, Captain. We will check out the flight Bay.” John saluted and John and Willa led the way along with Reverend Jacob. Nancy and Cindy along with several others followed behind. As they were moving at a slow run, Lulu announced that the conflict had moved to a level 5. The report said a cloaked mass of incoming ships the size of a small moon was on its way towards Earth. John had wondered when that was going to take place.

God had told him ten days ago the Little Grays would be attacking with 16,000 ships. The little grays originally came from the big grays. The big grays have evolved to 5th-dimensional beings. Some of the little grays are created in test tubes raised in groups of thousands with a single person acting as a surrogate mother and father. Not exactly a clone but close to that understanding. Word had gone out to help protect Earth.

Lord Heat would be leading 117 light destroyers. 97 were from Earth and 20 from Funston. They also had seven of the ten, 775’s with them. His brother Lord Tersely had 200 of his Defenders along with 94 from Earth. Colonel Demetri would be leading the 407 ships from Russia. The Russian ships were mostly 555’s with two dozen 775’s (Like Patricia) a few 665’s, 445’s, and 335’s. They also had built 278, 115’s a single man or woman ship. These last would stay on Earth with a few 555’s.

Lockheed had six of them and was tweaking them making them bigger, stronger, and faster with a bigger gun. The Russian sensor array could identify ships cloaked. Boeing had created a 225 and it was going through testing.

The Chinese had developed a fast ship designated the “1155” with a crew of 11, speed of 1.2 light-years with rail guns, lasers, and a powerful plasma energy weapon. So much for US patents. John smiled as he had heard from God that there were 13 smaller providences in China along with Hong Kong teaching the techniques that John had introduced to the world. He also heard that there would become a time when past crimes would be settled. The US and England owing far more than China although China had a far greater number against its people.

John and the gang came upon a dozen men that Johnny had hired. They were standing on the flight deck, “Dad, are you sure it’s okay for me to take the Patricia?”

“Yes, good luck son,” John said as Johnny saluted him.

The sixteen thousand ships were cloaked but because of their combined mass they showed up on the long-range sensors as apparent as a cloud on Earth would show on a sunny day.

The Chinese, Indian and European ships would defend Earth at just above a thousand miles up.

President Tripp had gotten 12 nations that were not part of the spaceship building consortium together. Germany, Italy, Brazil, Japan, Australia, Canada, Peru, Norway, Spain, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. They were to develop Earth’s Long term and short-term defenses. The planet had turned the lights off everywhere. The twelve nations had put together many floating platforms in the oceans with enough lights to distract anyone coming from space to think they were cities. The platforms brought enough attention to justify them.

John was manning the rail gun. It fired a 27-pound projectile at over 4,000 miles per hour. When they came upon the 25 lead ships the battle was still going on as both sides traded shots while both sides were cloaked. One of the little Gray’s ships would explode and one of the earth’s ships would come uncloaked floating as the crew abandoned it, transferring to God with one or more wounded. As they neared, the long-range scanners no longer could see the Little Gray’s ships. John called out over the combat channel, “What settings on the scanners work best for targeting?”

Curtis was on one of the 445’s, “Setting number 1 father.”

John had both arms in the harness for the railgun, he looked to Willa and nodded. She turned the scanner dial toward one and went to the 0 settings. Six ships were plain to see in front of them. He fired. The center ship exploded taking several others, “Thank you, Lieutenant Curtis.”

Curtis knew he was in the gray area of saying too much, but he did it anyway, “You’re welcome, father!”

It seemed that they had been playing with these guys for an hour. Knobs were turned to “1” in seconds the fifteen or so ships were turned to junk. John only got to fire twice. The result of the second shot was a ramming of Lulu. Three hundred tons of ship hit at hundreds of miles per hour destroyed control in the front of Lulu. The big ship shook. The only things that could do that were all bad.

“CAPTAIN?” John screamed. There was no reply. “Lulu, report.”

A strange voice announced, “One-time unit.” John looked at Willa, “Take over here.”

“Yes, Father.”

“Tony, Peter you’re with me.” John thought for a second, Bill had flown around Jupiter in a crowded 775. His next sermon was about human experience and joy. Sam, Bill you also. John hurried to the secondary bridge. It was in the center of the ship. It was close to the deck where The Patricia had been parked. The five men entered and found the Captain on the floor. He was still alive, but barely. “Sam, do a healing on him. It will help if he can talk and look over our shoulders if we have any questions. Bill, take the helm.”

“But???”

John waved him off. “Peter, take Navigation, Tony, take Engineering. Lulu, are you with us?

All they heard was strange sounds.

“Bill, take us out to the asteroid belt.”

“Aye, Aye Sir!” Bill responded.

John heard in Galactic Common, “Transferring to #4 core.” John looked around as all the screens came alive. Many screens went from floor to ceiling maybe 20 feet wide, showing all a 360-degree view of space around them. There was a dome over them showing what was above them and the floor they were standing on showing what was below them.

“Wow, this is what I want for a media room!” John said with four others making positive comments. John realized he was also a bit disoriented and confused. His mind was having trouble with so much input.

“I’m alive.” The Captain said in his native language, “Where am I?”.

John answered, “You are aboard the Lulu in the 2nd bridge.”

“You understand my language?” The Captain asked in alarm.

“No. If I woke up after going through what you did, I would ask, where am I?” John smiled, “Did I come close?”

“Yes, My Emperor.” The Captain laughed and instantly held his side in pain, “Owwww!”

“Lay down, let me work on you some more,” Sam said to the Captain. The Captain looked at his hand then pulled up his sleeve and looked at his arm. Many of the gray spots were gone. His skin still had a gray tint, but his fingers where pink.

“Sam?”

“Yes, Captain.”

“Help me to the shi.” Captain Said. (Shi = another word for bathroom.)

John chuckled as he watched Sam helping the Captain. Healings sometimes brought the worst out of people through the digestive system. He picked up the mic, “Attention everyone with us. We have a few minutes. Let’s have the replicators make everyone a half dozen protein bars. Also, gather near each of you at least two bottles of water. Take a pit stop also. We will be attacking the right side of the enemy formation. When we start to run out of opponents, we’ll hang a U-turn and take on the left side. UNDERSTOOD?”

“Father, what if we miss one?” Someone asked.

“Good question. Our goal is to get that group whittled down to a manageable size like a thousand or two. Stay with our formation if possible.” John released the button on the mic, “Tony how many ships do we have?” John asked, he spun his command seat around and could see many ships forming up on the back three screens.

“Reporting.” It sounded like Lulu.

“How many ships are joining us, Lulu?” John asked. Tony looked at John. John looked back at Tony, winked, and held his index finger to his lips then pointed up.

“We have 468 in formation. There are three groups of friendlies of 323 coming towards us from the rear.” Lulu was back. John looked at Tony again seeing a big smile and his head nodding confirming Lulu’s assessments.

“Nice to have you back again Lulu,” John said. He turned the mic on again, “All 335’s and 445’s return to earth. Who is the highest rank aboard any of the 335’s?”

“Major Berg,” Lulu reported.

“Major Berg are you out there?” John asked.

“Major Byrd here.”

“Major Byrd, are you knowledgeable about Earth D-5 Battle Plan?” John asked.

“No sir, I’m on my way out of the service in 5 days. Hold on, Cadet Martha Thomas just brought it up on screen Sir.”

“Are you assigned to the Space Corp.?” John asked.

“No sir, my son was taking me around the moon today. We were on our way back when we got the alert. I just came along for a ride.”

“What do you think about the space program?”

“Where do I sign up?”

“I’m assigning all of the 335’s and 445’s to you to protect our Mother Earth.” John looked around, “I’m taking the rest of the spaceships on an old fashion cavalry charge. I’m hoping to knock down over 9,000 of them.”

“Understood Sir.” Major Byrd said realizing his men and women might see an overwhelming attacking force of a thousand or more.

Battle Plan D-1 was the standard Earth’s watch. D-2 would double D-1 and that was where the earth had been this morning. Twelve ships around Earth with another dozen ready to move where needed.

That was changed to D-3 with the alarm. Now the home world was going to the top of the alarming scale and battle plan. “D” stood for the defense of Earth.

“Major, what service?”

“Marines.” The Major was concerned, “I was offered a promotion, but we would have to move, and my wife said no.”

“USMC, 1967 to 1969. Semper Fi!” John said, “More important are you related to Admiral Byrd?”.

“One of my Fourth Great Uncles.” Major Byrd said.

“My third Great Grandmother Madeline Byrd married John Taylor who was a member of the Virginia Rifleman in the Revolutionary war. We are probably cousins to some degree.”

“Thank you, Sir, we’ll protect Earth.” Major Byrd said.