2318

SEVEN

Evanson glanced at the radar on his tracker once more. They were close to Earth, and he was restless. In hyperspace, their fleet could only receive messages but was unable to send any, which meant that they were cut off from all communications and would not be able to help Earth before they reached.

He had waited hours waiting for a message from Earth with little sleep, but there seemed to be no reply from the planet. As he was about to doze off, he was awoken by the commander of the Aetos, who barged into his cabin, "Mister Evanson, there is a message from Earth, and it relays some... bad news."

"What bad news? Are they under attack?" Evanson leaped up from the couch and placed the tracker on the table next to him and followed the commander out of the room to the bridge. "The Earth fleet is in a bad state, it says," The commander spoke as they hurried down the aisle to the bridge, "Their shields were breached, and their planet is already exposed to bombardment. Their flagship was destroyed, and their remaining defenses are weak. If we do not reach the planet by the hour the Earth might be totally taken over by the Aksillet."

"Then how long will it take for us to reach Earth?" Evanson asked as they went up the wide flight of stairs leading to the bridge.

"It is impossible to reach Earth within the hour unless we boost all our ships but we would not be able to fire out in-built cannons within five minutes after we land. The only thing we can do then to stall the Aksillet is to engage all our fighters until our cannons are in working condition," The commander replied, and they finally reached the bridge. Evanson followed him in silence as they strode towards the control hall. 

The commander grabbed a piece of paper and held it out to him. On the freshly printed sheet, Evanson read and thought for a moment, then turning to the commander, "Go with boost speed. We have to reach there in time and tell all fighter pilots to prepare and swarm the Aksillet fleet once we reach Earth."

The commander nodded and left. Meanwhile, Evanson stood alone on the bridge, staring blindly outside into space. Help was arriving, but it was unknown how long it would take before the Aksillet fleet capitulates all of Earth.

~

The destruction of the Peregrine could be seen from the bridge of the Colossus. The supercarrier split into countless small pieces in a fiery dance. A piece rammed into the hull of the Colossus, causing the hull to erupt into flames before being extinguished into the vacuum of space.

On the bridge of the Colossus, the crew watched in stunned silence. Devan, Barker, Ell, and Drew stood watching the destruction outside. Everyone knew that their fate was sealed -- the Aksillet had the power to annihilate their entire fleet unless they retreat.

Barker wasted no time and hurried to the control hall and gathered the officers. "We've got to hurry," He spoke to the officers, "They've got in-built missiles on every ship which would spell the end of us if we do not take them out." Barker surveyed the Aksillet fleet, and spoke, "They are placing their supercarriers at the back and smaller, missile-capable ships. We've gotta take down as many missile-capable ships in the front as possible to shield our larger ships from the missiles, and our smaller vessels will make a fortification in front of us as protection. The larger fleets will fire from behind the fortifications."

"But the ships... it will be costly to destroy the small ships, even if you decide to shift all troops on the smaller cruisers to the main vessels," An officer spoke, "We can't let our most agile vessels get destroyed so early into the war."

"No, Admiral," Barker shook his head, "We have to do this. They are coming and we have limited time. Fire as many missiles at the Aksillet fleet as possible, and tell all the personnel in the Central Space Station and the smaller vessels to evacuate to our ship. Meanwhile, continue bombarding the enemy, we have to hold until there are reinforcements, and this is an order."