ONE: Epilogue of Hermesh

15. To Fight for a Few

Captain Tekkar, any news of the Helmeshi Fleet?" Her second in command, Marok Narim asked nervously.

"I don't know how long it will take Admiral Attupe to reach us, if that's what you are asking." Tekkar replied, keeping her eyes on the viewscreen.

"Sorry Captain. It's just that most of the Helmeshi ships that were built for the Xacreth War have heavy lead based armours," Commander Narim explained, "If the enemy is indeed using gamma ray based weapons, then perhaps those Helmeshi ships will have a better chance against them."

"He will arrive as soon as he can, Marok. Don't distract yourself with matters that are not in our control." retorted Tekkar.

As the Commander left, Tekkar knew that despite her dismissal, he was not entirely wrong in his assessment. And that was one of the many reasons why every commanding officer was desperately waiting for the Helmeshi fleet to arrive.

A communication that was being relayed across the command thread echoed in Tekkar's ear, "400 enemy ships are holding position 0.15 Centrons outside of Shon'hir. 600 ships are on their final approach."

A few moments later a second communication came through. As Tekkar listened, she could feel fresh tendrils of desperation claw at the stillness she had so carefully cultivated. "Long range subspace sensors have detected at least 100,000 alien ships inside Hermesh."

Holding her breath, as she looked on, Tekkar finally saw the images of a string of massive ships, like dark tridents, approaching Shon'hir. "Wait till most of them cross the threshold before activating the Erra Grid," Tekkar heard General Naaroke Barmin's command.

Tekkar witnessed the ships flying in the same, strange horizontal formation as before. Around fifty alien ships were closing in on Shon'hir.

"General Barmin, it is now or never. We cannot wait for the rest of the enemy ships to arrive," Tekkar heard another voice beseech right as the third alien formations entered the Ralnac System, "Those 150 ships are big enough to cause...."

"Turn on the Erra Grid!" General Barmin bellowed, cutting in.

Almost instantly, her ship's sensors informed Tekkar that the entire space surrounding the Ralnac System was being drowned by invisible radio waves.

"Launch the first set of missiles; let's see what happens!" Tekkar heard General Barmin again, giving the order.

In the very next moment, thousands of relatively small hexagonal shaped guided missiles came flying out of Shon'hir and headed straight for the alien ships. To everyone's horror, the first few hundred missiles, after reaching their intended targets, simply went right through them. But then, the ones behind them started exploding into bright balls of light, upon impact with the enemy ships.

"It's working! They're solid now," a euphoric voice reached the Acting Captain. But this time it came from behind Tekkar. In the next instance, everyone else on the bridge joined in the spontaneous celebration.

"Release the rest," Tekkar heard General Naaroke Barmin continue with his next order.

Over the next two minutes, Tekkar saw a few hundred thousand such missiles hurled at the advancing enemy ships, all of which appeared to be at various stages of turning solid. She only realised that she had been holding her breath, when she gave out a sigh of relief. The Erra Grid was working! The Acting Captain only hoped, wherever he was, Reemon Erra was seeing it too.

Responding to this onslaught the alien ships started to slow down while at the same time, deploying countermeasures. Resembling exploding umbrellas of light, these countermeasures blocked the guided missiles from reaching their intended targets, by making them exploding on impact. But those that managed to circumvent these defences and struck the advancing ships, were inflicting significant damage.