Chapter 15: A Galactic Battle III

“I’ll take you to Fort Lewis so we can load up.” Barker Said.

It took a bit to get men sorted out in the ships. First flying to the new Fort Lewis Space Port then getting the men and women into the ships. With the cadets, they made it easy. Twenty minutes later they were leaving Earth’s blue atmosphere for the black of space.

They were challenged just below the first Van Allen Belt, “Halt! Where are you from and where are you going?”

“This is Cadet Wisner from West Seattle, Acting CO of this new flock of birds. We are in route to join up with Father John Taylor.”

“Keep your shields on max and your powder dry.” The sentry ship declared, “Proceed.”

“Good advice. See you for dinner.” Gary Wisner headed through the Van Allen Belts seeing nothing but flames all around them. He looked over at his wife. The two smiled at each other. The sky opened, then another bout of fire as they made their way through the second fiery belt. The black sky opened to them. Then they had to make their way through the Asteroid Belt then far off they could see a large mass in front of them. Curtis was piloting and Billy was navigating.

“Calling Space One. This is Cadet Lieutenant Gary Wisner calling Space One.” Gary called out over the mic.

“This is Space One, please explain.”

“We just received 22 spaceships from Lockheed. I have taken command of 33 cadets and an untrained force of 250 from Lewis-McCord. We have one 995, three 775’s, and eighteen 555’s. We are looking for an assignment Sir.” Gary’s wife Noel was looking at her husband while thinking, “I have the man I married back. In a few weeks, his leg will be back to normal. We’re going to keep being a part of this.”

“General Franks here. Good to hear from you, Lieutenant. You are to be known as Group 5. What Cadets do you have and how are they positioned?”

“Sir, I have the under twelve bunch. They are spread out at least one per ship with the bigger ships having two. Curtis and Bill say hi Sir. (the two boys shouted out “Hi General!”) They are with me in the 995. Without them, we would still be in West Seattle.”

“You have Lucy there?” General Franks asked.

“I’m here General.” Lucy responded, “I’m a gunner on one of the 555’s Sir. Ship Ballard.”

“Men and women of our new Space Force, you listen to these Cadets almost all have flown around Pluto and back. Ask them. As of this minute, all Cadets in Group 5 have the temporary rank of First Lieutenant. Anyone not obeying an order from these young people will have to face me and explain why. UNDERSTOOD?”

“YES SIR!” Was heard from many sources.

“Listen up Cadets, find out who is the best at video and computer games. That’s where you will find your best gunners and pilots. Captain Wisner stay behind our line twenty to twenty-five miles. You are to handle our misses and to make sure no-one comes at us from behind. Understood?”

“Yes, Sir.” Gary looked to his wife. They had flown around Jupiter last weekend and had the time of their lives. When they had slowed at the Asteroid Belt. Noel had a chance to fire one of the lasers.

“You figure out how to keep our butts safe and you can keep that temporary rank, Mister Wisner.”

“Yes, Sir!” Gary looked at Billy and got three fingers. We will be in position in three minutes General.”

“Captain, keep your scanners on the settings of one or zero. Our little skirmish gave us the information these Little Grays have not learned since we downed their spaceships in the 1940s with our Radar.”

“Too simple General.” Gary looked over to Billy and did a circle with his right hand.

Billy went to zero on the settings for the scanners. Everyone gasped.

Gary talked low, “General, we have company.”

“Have four of your 555’s drop back and take them out.”

“Will do Sir!” Gary looked to his wife again, “Ships 9, 10, 11, and 12, drop back then take out the bogies. Your call Ship Captains.”

“#9, Yes sir. #10, Yes sir. #11, Yes sir. #12 On the Way Sir.” In less than three minutes, “Ship #9 Mission accomplished Sir.”

“Lucy is that you?” Captain Gary asked.

“Yes Sir, Captain Gary,” Lucy replied.

“Good Job Boys and Girls and pass that on to your recruits.”

Noel was smiling so much her face hurt. Her husband was caught at the VA hospital getting a minor operation to adjust his support rods just as the snow started getting deep. The day after The Patricia showed up the kids manned it and Noel got him out of the VA Hospital in South Seattle. When the kids finally got him in the ship and sitting in the Captain’s Seat his request was to go around the moon. He only had one leg working for him that day. Noel brought Gary back to the shelter. When John and Jenny saw the boys manhandle Gary down the steps, they looked at each other and both said, “Healing Table.”

John motioned to the biggest SS Agent, “He’s a Veteran. His plane got shot down in Iraq. Let’s help him to the healing table.”

“Yes Sir!” Samuel, the SS agent said. He and another agent picked Gary up in a sitting position and took him to the table.

John was there examining Gary’s leg, “Will you give me permission to fix your leg?”

“Your Father John Taylor?” Gary asked.

“Your Gary Wisner. My best friend growing up was your father.” John smiled, “His birthday was July 16th five days before mine. We grew up in Chelatchie Prairie, not far from Mt. St. Helens.”

“He took you to the airport when you entered the Marine Corp.” Gary said, “Sir if you can make that leg...” Gary looked John in the eye, “You have all my permissions to do whatever you can.” Four hours later Gary was walking with the help of a cane. He had the biggest smile in the world on his face. He and Noel made love that night. First time in eight months. Every week he laid on the Healing Table. He had a minor limp but no need for a cane today. Now she was seeing the man of her dreams in action. She wanted a perfect time to tell him about her news. She had been having morning sickness. Jenny confirmed her suspicions.

“Sir. Lucy here, we have about twelve bogies coming from our behind.”

“Lucy, take your flight of four and go get them. 555’s 7 & 8 along with 13 and 14 follow Lucy.” Gary listened as he got many “Yes Sir.” In response.

Noel looked at her husband, “Eight against Twelve?”

“Nine through twelve are battle-tested. Hopefully, when the twelve bogies are down, we will have eight ships that are battle-tested.”

“Noel, that ship that just showed up, put a hole in her.”

“Yes Sir!” Noel put a hole in it then added a Curtis Kiss. (The laser took 3 to 4 seconds to punch a hole. If the finger were kept on the trigger a small flip of the laser sight would enlarge the hole to two feet in diameter in another two seconds. Curtis had figured that out.)

“Captain, bogies dusted. We have twenty-three down. All eight ships have downed at least one Sir.”

Gary looked to his wife to see her breathing hard, “You okay?”

“Battle-tested Sir!” Noel wiped her forehead but smiled.

“Hello Fleet let’s move out. All ships go to Cloak and make sure your scanner settings are at one or zero. General Franks out.”

General Franks, this is Lieutenant Tillerson from Portland, Salem, and Spokane with twenty-seven ships Sir. Where do you want us?”

“Lieutenant Tillerson, you will join Group Five with Captain Wisner in command.”

“Will do Sir.” Tillerson clicked off then clicked back on, “Calling Captain Wisner.”

“Lieutenant Tillerson I’m here. I see you coming up from our rear. We are the rear guard of the attacking force. Our job is to hit everything that makes its way through the main attacking force. We have had 24 bogies come at us from behind. Keep your eyes open for that. I will have Group Five decloak for your team to file in the gaps. Attention Group Five decloak to allow our friends from Oregon to fill in.”

Group two was the Lords and their men. They were right behind the Emperor and the Primary Earth Forces.

Group three was twelve 555’s and two 665’s lead by a 775 flying below the mass of sixteen thousand ships to the center of that mass. They came upon a ship that was twice as large as all the other Little Gray ships. One of the 665’s and six of the 555’s made their way a mile above the massive ship, the 775 and the other six 555’s along with the second 665 stayed a mile below. Ralph, one of the SS Agents volunteered to lead this group. He had been in the Airforce in a prior life. Now he was in the Space Corps.

He lined up his railgun with the anti-matter bullet on the center of the bottom of the massive ship. He looked around and got the nod. Everyone was strapped into their seats. He pressed the trigger. Throughout the ship was a WOMP followed by the 775-ship moving three feet further away from the Massive ship. After the shockwave from the explosion, Ralph looked around to make sure everybody was okay, “How many ships did we destroy with that...”

“The big one is in pieces, six are partially damaged emitting air and two more are upside down Sir!”

“Nine enemy ships and I have seven more of the experimental loads.” Ralph did the math in his head, “Let’s get busy.” Ralph got his crews lined up firing on the enemy. Six above and six below with the 775 below the bottom six. All in a circle facing out. Ralph picked targets that were a mile and a half to two miles away. Ralph also had a dozen standard 5-pound loads.

By the time Emperor John and his Space Cowboys flew by Ralph and his fifteen ships had 321 kills. General Franks had Group Three join with Group five to help protect the rear. Lord Heat’s Group Two filled in and continued the flanking maneuver on the left half of the enemy ships.

Back on Earth with Group Four in Chicago, “Micky can you get that one on your left.”

“On the Way. Got him.” Said Mikey, “Dam he keeps shooting that building. What do we do?”

The Little Gray ships in the atmosphere once holed would land and inspect the damage. If that was in the USA or even Canada many times, they would be met with gunfire from the local police or arm patriots.

General Franks had set up Cadet Programs in a few of the major cities across the United States. The first staging of ships was six 335’s and a 445 as a command ship. There were a few Cadet Centers that also had a small number of 225’s. No one was up to speed or had been certified to fly the 225’s so they sat unused.

“Mikey, this is Lord Johnny Taylor. How can I help?”

“Our lasers are putting holes in them, but in the atmosphere, they just ignore it. We have one ship that must have twenty holes in it and it’s still shooting at our buildings, Sir.” Mikey sounded frustrated.

“Men set your scanners to zero. That turns your radar on 100%. That will allow you to see the enemy ships better and so far, we have experienced a disruption in the enemy’s electronics.” Johnny Taylor shared.

“There they go, and we have another ten just arriving. Down they go without even a shot.” Mikey cheered, “Thank you, Lord Taylor.”

“You’re welcome. Off to New York. Good job men!”

The next day the Chicago headlines were: “SPACE CADETS KNOCK OUT ALIENS! They Save Windy City from Much More Destruction!” A second article would detail the saving of Seattle and LA.

Johnny in the 775 Patricia made a save in New York and blasted with his experimental smaller version of the rail gun shooting a five-pound round at 2,000 miles per hour into 9 enemy vessels. The Radar got another enemy ship giving the Lord’s ship ten for the day so far.

Johnny continued to Europe checking in with London, Paris, and Berlin then onto Moscow. As they neared Moscow, they were met with a dozen 555’s and two dozen 225’s. Johnny had the power to the engines cut before he opened a God Box to use for communication. When he learned it was all quiet in Moscow, Johnny informed the Russian men and women that he was off to Tokyo. The 555’s got permission to go with him. 4,773 miles later they came upon a hundred ships attacking Tokyo.

Again, Johnny had the engines turned off to open the God Box to communicate. He told all his supporting ships to turn your scanners to ZERO which turns on the Radar. Johnny and his crew fired the two rail guns twelve times into the mass of attacking ships.

“Lord Johnny? This is Captain Swanson and the Seattle Cadets.”

“Captain, I leave Tokyo in your hands. We are heading for Beijing.”

“Good hunting and may God go with you, Lord Taylor!” Captain Swanson replied, “All 445’s join with Lord Taylor.” Twelve of the 445’s peeled off toward Lord Taylor’s ship. The Russian 555’s stayed in Tokyo.

“Thank you and the same for you, Captain.”

Johnny put the mic back into its holder, “Navigator, how far to Beijing?”

“A little over 1,300 miles Sir.”

When Lord Johnny and his escort arrived over Beijing, they were faced with fourteen of the 885’s. These ships were fresh off the assembly line and had not been sent to Lockheed for finish or final testing the same with the Russian made 555’s. Johnny put the ship in glide and opened the God Box for communications.

One of the Chinese Volunteers passed on information, “Lord Taylor we have gotten word that your great city of Los Angeles is being attacked.”

“Then I must go to Los Angeles immediately,” Johnny responded.

“Sir, we have gotten orders to go with you.” No one ever came forward to admit to giving that order.

With Lulu the Emperor’s Yacht:

When the Earth’s forces reached halfway the left side stayed even with the ships belonging to the Lords. The right side pivoted around as they took on the brunt of the enemy as they headed to the 6-12 vertical line of the battlefield. The speed of the Earth’s ships was increased and in half the time they achieved the vertical line of the Battle. The Lords had also been busy and now had just past the left side of the 9 to 3 line.

John and General Franks looked at the scene on the viewscreen, “There are less than 1,000 ships in this ¼th piece of the pie.” General Franks said.