A Distant Future

A Distant Future Part 24

"This is the Federation ship Earth One. You are ordered to surrender and prepare for removal back to Earth to face charges of illegal immigration and harboring illegal species." "You are an idiot Captain! Raise your shields and turn your ships to face them!" The message repeated three more times before Alena cut it off.

Captain! Drog war fleet inbound on heavy burn! Count at least 70 heavy ships and some troop transports!" "All hands, battle stations! Battle stations! This is not a drill! Incoming Drog War fleet!" The Drog ships attacked without mercy and within minutes two of the smaller ships were destroyed by antimatter missiles. One ship launched escape pods but the Drog fired on each one they could. Out of almost 500 pods only 50 made it to the planet surface.

"They need to be stopped! Fire half the missiles at the Drog! Shuttle one, cover any and all escape pods so the Drog can't get them! Hit the Drog as hard as you like and don't hold back!" Shuttle one launched off the surface of the near moon and began attacking the Drog ships. "Now we pray that the armor holds. Susan, incoming casualties! Get Adam and his people out there now to bring you the survivors. Expect heavy radiation and plasma burns! We have a Drog war fleet over our heads as well!"

The captain of the Federation lead ship watched in surprise as small stubby missiles streaked up from the planet and began hitting the Drog ships. The missiles were small but loaded with one megaton nuclear warheads in them. Small and barely detectable drones suddenly shot out from the asteroid belt and tore into the Drog ships as well. The Drones began tearing the Drog ships apart piece by piece in critical areas. They were so small it was impossible to target them.

Within an hour the last Drog ship was destroyed. "Captain, This is Alena. You are ordered to stand down and prepare to transport all wounded down to the planet for treatment. We have several of your people in our medical facility right now and more are being brought in as I speak. Cease hostilities." The captain replied by firing on the transmitter they had been using.

"Thought as much. Time to play hard ball I guess. Take out the fleet. Fire the remaining missiles at them. Once they roll their strongest shields to face the threat then we throw some rocks at them. Damned fool! All he had to do was stand down and we could have avoided anymore bloodshed." Missiles flew up from the planet and the ship captains rolled their strongest remaining shields towards the threat.

The commander smiled as the missiles homed in on them. "Those fools! Had they surrendered they would have received leniency for helping to destroy those Drog ships! Once the missiles are done begin orbital bombardment of their defensive installations." "Sir! Incoming projectiles!" "Where?" "Asteroid field, sir! Thousands of them and all moving very fast with enough speed to reach us before the missiles finish!"

Another young officer spun to face the captain as the ship shook from impact. "Sir, five of the missiles have knocked out our aft shields and the generator is overheated!" "Get us all out of this! Ahead full!" A moment later two more ships jettisoned their escape pods as numerous missiles had wrecked their shields and asteroids smashed into the hull of the ship causing catastrophic damage. One by one the ships of the fleet were smashed as missiles and huge rocks weighing several tons slammed into the ships at critical velocity. The shield generators gave out and the rocks pounded the ships to pieces.

The last capital ship shook violently as the shields failed under the onslaught. "Sir! Shields have failed completely! Engines offline as well! Hull breaches all over the ship!" The captain snarled then hit the wall in anger. "All hands, abandon ship! All hands abandon ship! Launch the recorder drone then get to the escape pods! All of you, go!" The captain looked on as his ship crew ran for escape pods and left the ship. Another huge rock knocked his ship out of it's flight path and it began to sink into the gravitational pull of the planet below. He sighed and walked calmly to the last escape pod before it was too late.