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

will protect the planet. I don’t want the next invasion to target Earth but to target the fleet. He knows we only used 900 ships. The Alliance will not have a clue how many we used so they may order an all out attack fearing we have huge numbers. I hate to let them know about our planetary defenses, but I don’t want them to think we have more ships than those 900. The Warleader will also be able to verify that we lost 240 ships so the Alliance will not feel it needs to send all the ships in its arsenal. We still haven’t cut into their numbers enough. One thing for certain though, we won’t need to hide anything for the next battle; they will send everything they have if they lose the next one.”
     
    Kosiev thought about Tags suggestion and said, “What if there isn’t a ship hiding in the rubble?”
     
    “Then we have to arrange an escape but I think that is premature at this point. Move all your ships away from the wreckage and have the Cleveland come around from the sun and keep an eye out. We’ll give them five days to make their break. We also should make it look real and have one of our ships start the chase from too far away to catch them.”
     
    “I’m nervous about revealing our planetary defenses, but you’re right. We can’t handle more than 40,000 warships. Do you think it might be a good idea to maybe add four more asteroid fortresses?”
     
    “We haven’t fully charged the ones we’ve got. We’re still at only 60% charge after destroying those 800 ships. We can add more if we can get them to 100% capacity. Even with the sun and all those reactors, the system holds an inconceivable amount of energy and is still weeks off from fully charging. Think about how valuable that screen will be to our ships during a planetary fight to discharge their screens.”
     
    Kosiev thought a moment and said, “I hadn’t even considered that.” Then he smiled. “You know; we’re not as much an underdog as it appears.” Then he started laughing.
     

Chapter 6
    T he Warleader sat in his small ship watching his screen as the Humans finished destroying the ships in the outer system. His race was not one to ever be intimidated by any military they had ever encountered but now he was nervous that his life was on the line for the first time in his career. He knew his species was no match for what he had witnessed here in this attack on the Humans. He thought back to his initial over confidence and wondered how he could have possibly planned things differently that would have led to a different outcome but he was forced to admit that the end result would have been the same. “I talked about killing; they actually did it,” he thought as he watched his screen. Every one of the survivors on his small ship was in a somber mood and frightened that they, too, would be discovered. He watched as the crew of his battle ship was picked up by the Humans and loaded aboard a transport that then moved out toward the large planet near the Star drive limit. The Warships escorting the transport followed as it moved further and further away. “Do you detect any other ships in the vicinity?” he asked his sensor officer.
     
    “No Warleader, all the Human ships are now in the outer system. There could be some on the other side of this systems star but not where our sensors can see.”
     
    “How much faster did our instruments show their ships are than ours?”
     
    “At least twice as fast, maybe more; I don’t know if they went full speed in their attack on our fleets.”
     
    “Let’s assume they are three times faster, is there a route out of this system that would allow us to reach the Star Drive limit before we could be overtaken?”
     
    “Warleader, you also have to factor in their missiles. This small ship cannot handle a full attack because of our small screen. However, if we wait for two more drags then the closest ships will be those escorting the transport and if we go down away from the plane of this