Escape to Earth 3: Defending Holy Ground
hit them. However, I suspect they’re not going to continue to fly in such a tight formation. We need to fire the cannons on different trajectories next time.”
    “You’re the boss. Issuing orders now.”
    • • •
    The Invader Fleet Supal screamed, “WHERE ARE THEY?!”
    “They are not within our scanning range.”
    The Supal shook in his tub and said, “Order the ships to spread out and avoid gathering in groups. They had to have fired from far ahead of our advance. As soon as the first ship explodes, the entire fleet will leave the void and move into normal space to allow time for their projectiles to pass.”
    “I will issue your orders, Supal.”
    The Supreme Supal swore at the Great Leaders who had sent him on this murderous voyage. They were four months behind schedule and his losses were monumental. At the rate he was losing ships, less than a third of his fleet would arrive at the target. This was not worth the losses being suffered.
    • • •
    Kitch shook his head; “We should have been doing this from the beginning.”
    Gunny slowly shook his head, “The end result would be the same.”
    “Why?”
    “Because we’re going to run out of DM rounds after five more attacks. We would still have been forced to go in and attack them head on.”
    Kitch leaned back in his chair, “Are we going back to those tactics after we run out of rounds?”
    “Lukas has ordered us not to do it. He wants us to skip out into open space above the Milky Way and wait to see if the Invaders can find Earth. We’ll go in and make it a fight if they do.”
    “There’s no way we can win?”
    “No, but we should be able to hurt them enough to delay an attack on the Fellowship Civilizations.”
    “Haven’t we already done that?”
    Gunny shrugged, “Who knows. The point is that we’ve done a good job of cutting into their numbers. Now we have to see if delaying them as much as we have shortens the time they can search for Earth.”
    “How are the blackouts going?”
    “Far from perfect. How do you notify everyone on the planet to not use electricity when huge sections of the planet don’t have a means where they can be contacted? The oasis out in the Sahara has the food stations but no electronic communications. The same is true for the Outback in Australia. They’re working on it but every time they order a blackout, numerous places are detected by our ships. We’ll hope for the best but it doesn’t look good if an Invader Warship comes close to the planet.”
    Kitch wiped the sweat off his brow and shook his head, “I didn’t know a black man could sweat this much.”
    “Get in line, Kitch. All of us are sweating this.”
    “Easy for you to say. You’ve fought in tight spots before.”
    “Yeah, but nothing like this. We’re all novices at this and the worst is still ahead of us.”
    “You could have gone all day and not told me that.”
    “Ok, I take it back.”
    “Too late! Are you ready for the next attack?”
    “We’re waiting for the computers to link with the probes and give us the coordinates we should fire from. The invaders are on the move again so it shouldn’t be much longer.”

Chapter Five
    J ason left the bridge and went to the landing bay. He was depressed at his new assignment and wondered what he had done to tick off the Admiral. He arrived and saw his Attack Pod was being serviced. Lt. Maxwell saw him walk into the giant bay and yelled, “We’ll be done in twenty minutes.”
    “Take your time!” Jason went over to the small cafeteria and ordered a meal. He didn’t know when he’d have another full meal. He only had the food pellets to eat on his Pod.
    Samantha Young saw Jason eating alone so she took her tray over and looked at him, “Do you mind if I join you?”
    “No, I’m not going to be good company, though.”
    Samantha put her tray down and said, “Why not?”
    “I’ve been relieved of my current duty and assigned to being the liaison with the Silver Ship sitting

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