SODIUM:4 Gravity by Stephen Arseneault Page B

released once free of Earth's gravity. The mines would drift towards the fleet and float unseen until fired by a 20 kilometer proximity trigger. The warhead was expected to kill any craft within 500 kilometers.
    As our battle continued, I locked onto a new fighter and gave chase. The fighter weaved and dodged, but our GAF and my reactions were too fast for its programmed behavior. Randy quickly notched another kill.
    The nuclear mines had soon drifted into position. A bright flash from a detonation showed on our holo-screens every few minutes. We were five hours into our war of attrition. The stats showed 4,324 confirmed alien fighter kills to our 1147 Defender losses. Our mobile guns had been knocked down to only 47 still in operation. The numbers remained in favor of the invaders.
    The war in the heavens continued to churn until the last of the mobile guns went silent. As we chased a fighter an urgent order came in from Command. All Defenders and GAFs were to return to Earth to their designated city defense assignments. The massive alien ships were making a move into Earth's atmosphere.
    The space mines took their last heavy tolls on the alien fighters. As a result the final alien assault force consisted of 10,652 fighters, 11 destroyers, four cruisers and a battleship. The mega-ship remained space-bound along with ten of the carriers.
    We were soon on our way to defend Seattle, Washington. I pushed the throttle to full as our squadrons split up for their new assignments. My nervousness grew as thoughts of civilian casualties entered my mind. We took up position above the city along with 22 Defenders and waited for the inevitable attack. We were now defending our homes.

Chapter 8

    I looked around at Raven, Randy and Shepard and gave each a nod of confidence as I shook on the inside. An alien destroyer and 126 alien fighters were heading our way. We waited patiently for our foes to enter the kill zone around Seattle, Victoria and Vancouver. Our ground defenses included regular armed forces, 36 heavy coil guns, 76 light guns and 66 of another new weapon... mini Drillers.
    The mini Drillers were fast to fly, quick to turn and had highly resistant shielding, but offered only a conventional warhead. Their biggest asset was to add confusion to the enemy tactics during battle as they chased fighters in a relentless pursuit.
    Just before breaching the outer perimeter of the Seattle kill zone the attack fleet altered course to the north. They moved up through western Canada between Vancouver and Banff National Park. The invaders then turned west to settle in the bay near Port Hardy.
    The calls for assistance from the area were short lived as the alien fighters spread out in an ever widening circle around the destroyer crushing everything human in their paths. I felt helpless as innocent people lost their lives just to our north while our orders to defend the Seattle zone remained.
    I turned to Shepard, Raven and Randy and asked if they had any ideas. There was only silence in response. I turned back to my holo-screen and watched in dismay as the alien fighter's circle of destruction continued to grow around the alien destroyer.
    Shepard then spoke up with an idea. The aliens had been able to trace the 25kHz buzz from our video sensors making our invisible advantage of the active skin largely useless. With our video feeds turned off we would largely be flying blind. Shepard's idea was to modify our video feed to be a series of low power still shots. On our holo-screens it would appear as a jumpy low-resolution video, but the 25kHz buzz would be gone. It was not an ideal solution, but it would be adequate for reconnaissance.
    I put the request into Command and was rewarded with a go-ahead. I gave the order to my crew and turned our GAF in the direction of Port Hardy. A quick burst from our BHD sent us hurdling towards our target. We drifted for half an hour before moving inside the ever widening circle of alien destruction.
    The