The Outer Moon (A Sapphic Sci Fi Adventure)

Chapter 33

              There were a dozen Earth ships, and they looked like they'd been put together in a hurry. It appeared as though an enterprising engineer took a space shuttle and bolted it to the top of one of the old Antuhsas ships that had been in orbit around Earth for study, and then they somehow connected the controls from the shuttle to the engine of the smaller ship in a way that obviously got the job done if they had made it to the new system.

It worked, but it looked ugly, and there was no way it could survive a reentry.

But each of them had a dozen bulky missiles slung under them, and all of the observers knew without being told that they were nuclear. 144 nuclear missiles on their new home would render all of their hard work in creating a utopia moot, and potentially wipe out the Antuhsas species. They weren't going to allow that.

"Everyone steady," Lena ordered. As the only person with actual combat experience, she had been placed in charge of the defense, and had all eight of the two seater ships, her own larger one along with Emma's, and then two of the new modifies Antuhsas ships which had Kajna and Radali piloting them under her command. Behind them, the rest of the fleet which included the Aspis was waiting in case missiles were fired and made it past the original line. "Just remember, we're not firing unless they fire first. If that happens, just take out your assigned target, then turn around and evaluate the missiles before engaging. We don't know if our ships can handle nukes." Each of the defending ships was lined up opposite one of the invaders, so it would be easy to hit their respective targets.

Their nerves were all on edge, though they knew what was probably going to happen. The attackers had travelled over four years to get here, and the odds of them turning around for another long trip home didn't seem likely. No, they were here to attack, otherwise they would have jettisoned their missiles as soon as they saw the defenders.

Back in orbit around the moon, Pepper was in their original transport with one of the few communication units that could speak to the attacking craft. She wanted to avoid a conflict, but so far, they hadn't responded to any of the messages she was sending on all frequencies. "Earth ships, please state your intentions. As you can see, you're outnumbered, don't make this go any further."

The silence on the other end was the only response, and Vanessa hung her head as she pulled Pepper into a hug. "You tried. At this point it's up to them."

Pepper nodded, then sent a message to Lena. "Lena, there is still no response. I don't think they're going to stop."

"Agreed," Lena said quickly. "We'll keep you safe."

Pepper turned to hug Nessa, silently weeping at the waste of the lives that was about to take place. It was all so pointless, what did they really think that they were going to accomplish? It wasn't like they could send another colony here, was it? "We need to put together a video for Earth. They need to see what their prophets are costing them, and what the original Atlantis planet really looks like. The legacy that they think they deserve is nothing but destruction."

"We'll do that. Then we'll go back and make sure they realize that they're going to lose any time they end anything this way," Vanessa assured them. "We just want peace, and they should be able to live with that, or we'll have to keep defending ourselves."

"All because a few men decided they should be more important than anyone else," Pepper snorted. "I guess that's the way humanity always is. I really hope we can prevent that from happening here."

"We'll do our best, honey."

Closer to the battle, Lena was ready to make sure the humans knew they were serious about defending themselves. "Fighters, deploy wings."