Free Annihilation: The Power of a Queen by Saxon Andrew, Derek Chiodo Page A

Admiral? Danielle?”
     
    Kosiev said, “It sounds good to me.”
     
    Danielle said, “Don’t forget the ship warning them that we will resist their occupation.”
     
    Tag looked at Kosiev and the Admiral said, “It’s already in place. The Saratoga will control it and will also be sending a feed of the action to Central Command and to Terl on Cainth. At the end of the battle, one of our ships will be shown approaching the Saratoga and firing as we cut the feed.”
     
    Danielle looked at them and said, “Are we over confident? We’re sending video of this assuming that we are going to win. Are the two of you sure of the outcome? I confess that four thousand ships scare me.”
     
    Tag looked at her, “Danielle, before we took on those 2000 ships with 350 of ours, I was petrified that our technology would not win out. I saw so many of our ships dying in flames and felt that we were in serious trouble but most of our losses happened within the first 30 minutes of the conflict. After that our ships learned how to use each other’s screen to protect themselves and our losses stopped. We also learned the right mix of ships to fight together and also to hold our formation and attack together instead of just picking a target and going after it. Our ships know how to save each other now. The small ships empty their overloaded screens into the battle ships screen and the battle ship releases the excess energy by firing its primary beams. We would not fire before until we were next to a target; now we know that firing the primary beam keeps their screen stable. Danielle, we’ve learned a lot and now we’re going to use 900 of our ships against 4000 of theirs. That’s more than a 30% improvement in the ratio of ships than last time. We will lose some ships but we will learn from it. Our plan is to try and make sure that no one else learns from it. Are you sure you want to be here when the battle begins?”
     
    Danielle looked into Tags eyes and saw his concern and fear for her and said, “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but by your side. Whatever happens; we’ll face it together.”
     
    Kosiev slipped out of the room to give them time for each other. He hoped Tag was right about the new tactics and formations but he knew that barroom fights and space battles didn’t always happen like you plan them. He knew one thing for certain. There were 4,000 reasons to be nervous coming their way shortly. “I wonder if they are worried,” he thought.
     
    Aboard the Vgrig flagship Mass Murderer the Warmaster was discussing the coming battle plans with his Subleader. “You understand your responsibility.”
     
    “Yes Warmaster. We will follow your jump two hours later to give you time to reach the planet as we move into their system. The third group will jump in 30 minutes after we arrive or when we call them if conditions change.”
     
    “That is correct. You must tie their fleet down in the outer system. We’ll go to the planet from the backside and put some of their cities to the claw. After some of them have been wiped completely out of existence; I’ll call for the surrender of their fleet. If they hesitate, two more cities will be clawed from the surface into dust. They’ll give up. Then we can enjoy ourselves with their population. Do not disappoint me, Subleader!” The Vgrig Warleader stood up to his eight foot height and spread his leathery wings, his fangs were dripping from anticipation of the coming slaughter. He looked even more like a gargoyle. The silver plume on his head stood straight up showing his eagerness to start the killing.
     
    “I’ll do my duty and make myself worthy of stature. May our claws dig deep.”
     
    The Warmaster smiled and looked forward to the kill.
     

Chapter 5
    A dmiral Kosiev, Admiral Dorg, and Tag watched the monitor on board the Washington for what they knew was coming. Kosiev could tell the bridge crew was apprehensive about the coming battle but they maintained