Free SODIUM:4 Gravity by Stephen Arseneault Page A

battleship and then again to a cruiser. The main target had been missed but our tiny Ghost fleet was doing severe damage. A celebration erupted as cheers rang out over the QE comm link coming from Command.
    The three Ghosts ships that had made it inside were now broadcasting signals of their own. Command had worked it into the plans that once detection was inevitable they might as well broadcast what they were seeing.
    I was tuned into the video feed from Ghost 994 on-board the first battleship. Once inside they had launched all 64 of their Drillers. As the Drillers began their work the pilot performed a BHD micro-burst to move quickly back outside the large craft and to a safe distance.
    The Drillers were hard at work inside the alien vessels moving from bulkhead to bulkhead destroying everything in their paths. When the second and third Ghosts attempted their getaways the mega-ship was waiting for them. Two bursts of its powerful gravity weapon told the story of the end of eight brave souls.
    The next time around the attack counter never reached zero. The remaining two Ghost ships were detected and eliminated before reaching their targets. More than 500 Defender craft had been launched in an effort to engage in a large scale stealth attack. With the annihilation of the Ghost ships the raid was canceled as we could not risk sending 2,000 crewmen to what would be an almost certain death.
    I muted channel 1650 for a private conversation with Shepard. I pleaded with her to join me in taking some action, any action, on our own. We had one week remaining before death and destruction would be brought down upon our planet.
    We carried 63 of our 64 Drillers that were ready to be put into service if we could only get back inside the mega-ship. Shepard was steadfast in her response. So long as we had orders we would follow them. We had no way of knowing everything that Command was planning.
    She reasoned that perhaps our role in the coming days would be critical in turning the tide. That role would not happen if we were dead and scattered amongst the stellar winds. It was one of the things I appreciated most about Shepard, her reasoning was always sound.
    Back on Earth the factories continued to churn out Defenders, Drillers and coil guns. Other than the fringe few, the masses toiled on at building our defenses. Every major city was now defended by at least two dozen heavy coil guns as well as hundreds of light guns.
    In a burst of productivity we had raised our Defender count to 4,186 ready ships with fully trained crews. We had launched more than 500 space based mobile coil guns and produced thousands of ground launched Drillers. Our cooperation among nations and achievements at home had been nothing but incredible.
    Earth was as prepared as it possibly could be. I wondered if my grandfather had dug a bunker for my family. I wondered if there would be a farm to return too after the inevitable battle commenced. I wondered if I somehow made it through the crisis at hand... would everything have changed for the worst.
    We were up against 14 fully functioning alien carriers that brought 15,426 fighters. We had one battleship, four cruisers and 13 destroyers to contend with along with the behemoth mega-ship. I wondered if all the saucers had gravity weapons as powerful as the mega-ship. I wondered if my simulated 8-1 kill ratio would hold.
    As I sat in my chair lamenting my existence the alarms on my holo-screen began to sound. More than 100 enemy fighters had changed course and were headed in our direction. We had somehow been detected. It would take just over an hour for them to reach our position. I alerted Command and asked for direction.
    Command soon gave the go ahead for a return home. Our reconnaissance mission had come to an end. I pushed the throttle to full and six minutes later we vanished from the aliens sensors as we passed through light speed.
    When we touched down near Lake Pleasant it was 156 hours to zero. Crews were