ALTERNATE
TALES OF THE STAR FORCE
STAR BLAZERS---A STRANGE INTERLUDE…
Being the fifth part of THE
NEW COMET--- BY: Frederick P. Kopetz
This Act is being completed with the
Cooperation and Assistance of Derek A.C. Wakefield (as usual)---Freddo
ACT THREE: A NEW TERROR
IN THE SKIES…
I. SNEAK ATTACK
Space Battleship Argo
EDF Saturn-Titan Space
Station
Saturday October 4, 2206
1823 Hours: Earthtime
The Argo was caught in the worst of possible
situations as the ship fell under attack while she was locked into space dock,
and under repairs.
“Second
bridge hit!” called out Sandor. “Heavy damage!”
“The
cruiser next to us just took another hit from enemy missiles,” said Becker from
the Cosmo-Radar as Wildstar ran onto the bridge.
“The
main deck has just taken a hit ahead of the forward gun turret,” said Sandor.
“Damage repair parties to the deck level.”
“Port
side pulse lasers ready. Smokestack missiles ready,” said Domon.
“Open
fire,” said Wildstar. “Defend the ship and the base!”
The
Argo fired her pulse lasers and
missiles at a wave of approaching Scorpions. Many were hit, but one of them
kamikazed right into the Argo’s side,
causing more damage even as Yamazaki worked to bring up power.
“We
have to sortie and get away from this dock!” snapped Wildstar.
“I’m
working on auxiliary power now,” said Yamazaki. “I can’t get power on the wave
motion engine until we finish installing that manifold!”
“Is
it aboard?”
“Yes,
luckily,” said Sandor. “Henson, Bando, and IQ-8.9 are working on putting it in
now. But the best power we can give you are the auxiliary engines and keel
jets.”
The
sound of the auxiliaries coming up resounded through the Argo’s superstructure as another missile hit the ship. “I can get us
aloft in a hundred and eighty seconds,” said Yamazaki.
“We
may not have a hundred and eighty
seconds!” said Wildstar.
“I’m
doing our best,” said Yamazaki as he sweated and worked. “Kitano, make ready to
free us from the dock and give her all you’ve got when we have power!”
Wildstar
added, “All hands! When we sortie, we’ll attack that enemy fleet…and then…see
what is going on near Earth!”
“Aye,
aye,” said Kitano as he wiped sweat
from his brow.
Soon,
enemy planes came at the Argo from above.
Domon said, “Main guns on target!”
“Fire!”
said Wildstar.
The
ship’s guns went off, and many of the enemy planes were blown apart in Titan’s
murky atmosphere.
A
moment later, the Argo began to lift
off.
“Sir,”
said General Stone a terrible forty-five minutes later as he turned to
Commander Singleton while a huge group of officers watched the devastation over
Earth. “The Second Fleet reports they are seven minutes away from intercept of
the enemy fleet. We just tried an attack with a bank of battle satellites, but
have achieved only minor damage. The defense missile battery in
“Stone,
where is the Star Force?” demanded Singleton.
“The
Argo reports they are under attack on
Titan but are attempting to sortie,” said another officer. “They report medium
damage to the Argo, and the loss of
two cruisers near them at their moorings.”
“Sir,
another burst of energy is about to hit Earth!” reported another officer in
Earth Defense Headquarters. “Projected impact point; the
The
energy burst slammed into one of Earth’s forests a moment later as Singleton
bowed his head and ground his teeth. “This is outrageous,” he said. “I never
thought that they would strike quite like this…I thought only Zordar and
Ekogaru were that mad…”
“Sir,
the President is on the line,” said General Stone.
Singleton
and the others saluted as President Mendellsohn came on the videophone. “Hiram,
where’s the Earth fleet?” he demanded.
“Second
Fleet is five minutes away from the enemy now,” said Singleton. “Contact
estimated at 1905 Hours. Other units are regrouping to warp towards Earth.
We’re firing nuclear-tipped missiles at the enemy fleet now.”
“Missiles
fiired!” said Stone.
A
huge wave of missiles flew towards the enemy fleet, their warheads separating
when they reached enough altitude.
Some
of the Cometine destroyers and carriers were caught in the barrage, but others
went on as they launched planes as if nothing had happened. The Devastation fired her guns again, and destroyed
many of the missiles before they even got close to the fleet.
“So,
they’re still fighting, Pishda?” sneered Gernitz. “I thought taking out one
city would be enough. Evidently Earthlings are slow learners,” he sneered. “Target the enemy base from which these
missiles came and flatten it!”
“When
do we send our message to them?” asked Pishda.
“You
do it, Pishda. And wait until enough of them are dead! Fire the siege cannon
again!” snarled Gernitz.
The Devastation’s siege cannon went off
again, blasting apart the EDF base in
“Dead-on
hit!” roared Pishda.
Gernitz
laughed again, sounding like a complete maniac.
“We
will send Invidia plenty of pictures when we are done,” said Gernitz.
“Sir,
long-range sensors have picked up an enemy fleet approaching us at two thousand
gerad distance,” barked a helmeted
Cometine officer.
“We’ll
play along for a bit,” said Gernitz. “Have General Edig’s destroyers and
cruisers engage them first. We’ll see how long they can last against us.”
“Yessir!”
said Pishda.
1905 Hours…
The
flagship of the EDF Second Fleet was the huge Andromeda-class space battleship Scorpio. She was accompanied by four Jamaica-class space battleships, two Prince of Wales-class space battleships, a Yorktown-class spacecraft carrier, fifteen New York-class space cruisers, and fifty Warsaw-class space destroyers and twenty-five Valkyrie-class space gunboats. All in all, ninety-nine vessels had
risen up like angry angels to oppose the Cometine Fleet.
“Admiral
Deramus!” said the First Officer aboard the Scorpio,
a man named Captain Maurer. “Our battleships and the carrier have launched the
first wave of attacking Cosmo Tigers. The gunboats are also backing them up.
They are one minute away from contact.”
“Very
good,” said Deramus. “Order half the cruisers to spread out before us and help
ten of the destroyers out with torpedoes. Have the Sixteenth through Eighteenth
Battleship squadrons ready their main guns to engage any enemy destroyers that
get through our screen. “
“Yessir,”
said Maurer.
“Admiral!”
said a young woman at the radar of the Scorpio
known as Lieutenant Farris. “Enemy battleships approaching
us! They’ve done a space warp!”
“Ready
main guns!” snapped Deramus. “Target, enemy fleet.”
The
main guns of the Scorpio and her
nearest escorting battleships and cruisers locked on target. “Enemy squadron in
firing range!” said Maurer.
“Open
fire!” barked Admiral Deramus.
The
guns of the Scorpio and her escorts
spoke, blasting cataracts of energy right into the guts of the enemy fleet.
Many Cometine ships perished at once before they could press their attack upon
the EDF vessels.
Three
squadrons of Scorpion gunboats blasted into the midst of the Earth fleet a
moment later, and they were also greeted by the guns of the Earth vessels. Some
died, others inflicted damage upon the EDF ships. Two
EDF cruisers, the Guam and the
But the guns
of many of the Earth ships took care of many of the Scorpions. Others were
destroyed by the Cosmo Tigers that wheeled about in the midst of the Fleet,
helping to screen the battleships and the carrier.
Gernitz
was so arrogant that he was not expecting massive reistance from the Earth
Fleet. He was a little stunned, as a matter of fact, by the ferocity of their
defense.
“They’re
not scared…not at all,” said Gernitz. “What is with these Earthlings? Are they
all suicidal? They may have us outnumbered but with those old ships of theirs
and our newer ships, we have them outgunned by five factors.”
“They
are tremendously arrogant,” said Pishda. “Should I call them yet?”
“Not
yet,” said Gernitz. “We have bombers hitting two of their cities, and we have
their fleet at our mercy. Let the game play out here for a while longer before
I make them taste our Magna-Flame siege cannon again!”
“Yessir!”
At Alpha Sirius, the
“Enemy fleet, locked on target!”
said Rosstowski from his post. “Ready to fire forward guns!”
“Fire!” said Captain Venture.
The
Four of the enemy vessels were
destroyed in the
However, four more of them wheeled
about and hit the
We’re holding our own, thought Captain Mark Venture. But for how long?
1928 Hours…
“So,
what is going on?” demanded President Mendellsohn to Singleton.
“Sir,
Second Fleet has engaged the enemy fleet over the
“Where
is the First Star Force? The enemy is bombing
“No
word from them,” said Singleton as he bowed his head. “I have heard that
they’re pinned down at Saturn-Titan in battle with a force attacking that
base.”
“What
about the
“Pinned
down at Sirius,” said Singleton sadly. “We just heard from them.”
“Hmm,”
said the President. “We just called the Gamilon Ambassador and advised him of
the situation. He is trying to raise Desslok.”
“I
don’t know if we can count on them coming quickly enough,” said Singleton.
“Like it or not, this is our problem, for now…”
Deramus
received a report from one of his Captains. “Sir, sensors indicate that half
the enemy fleet is destroyed. The enemy dreadnought is just keeping back. They
haven’t engaged us yet.”
“Good.
Mister Maurer….have the Nineteenth, Twentieth, and Twenty-First Battleship
squadrons accompany us at the rear. Order them to prepare wave motion guns. And
ready our own!”
“The
target?” said Maurer as the Scorpio
began to reduce speed.
“The enemy dreadnought! We’ll
need a mass barrage to bring that damn thing down!”
“Yessir!”
said Maurer with a smile. “Stop all engines!” he ordered. “Transfer energy to
wave motion guns!”
The
Scorpio and the space battleships
“One
minute to firing!” said Admiral Deramus. “Target, the enemy
dreadnought!”
Deadly
glows of energy began to appear near the muzzles of the space battleships and
cruisers as they made ready to fire.
Aboard
the ships, the hum of the engines began to build to an oscillating whine as
power came up deep within the Earth vessels.
It
was now exactly 2000 Hours, Earthtime.
“Are
we scared yet?” hissed Pishda on the Devastation.
“Our ships are falling like insects on a dry day!”
“Commence
forty-five degree turn,” said Gernitz with a smile. “Make sure that they are
properly targeted…”
“Yessir!”
“The
energy surge is rapidly building up in the Earth vessels!” said an officer on
the Devastation.
“Do
not be concerned,” said Gernitz. “We have time.”
The
Devastation finished its turn and
made sure that the siege cannon was facing the Earth
fleet.
On the Scorpio, Deramus smiled as Maurer said,
“Twenty seconds to firing! Prepare all anti-shock and anti-flash measures!” he
said as he lowered his goggles and gripped his firing pistol. “Enemy flagship twenty-one megameters dead ahead! Energy
count at one hundred and twenty percent! Open safety locks!”
“Safety
locks open!” said an officer from below in the Scorpio’s bows.
The
communications officer on the Scorpio
said, “Admiral, battle line ready to fire in fifteen seconds!”
“Commence
ten-second countdown in five,” said Deramus. After a
pause, he said, “All ships!
The
glows at the muzzles of the Earth battleships and cruisers began to glow very
bright as Gernitz just smiled at the spectacle.
“Wonderful,”
he said. He stood on his bridge with the firing grip of his siege cannon in his
hand. “Magna-Flame gun…energy buildup completed…all hands…brace for shock…”
“How
long do we wait?” wailed Pishda.
“Let
them fire…two..one…FIRE!”
Gernitz
smiled and fired.
Just as
the EDF vessels fired, Gernitz fired his gun.
The
Devastation’s Magna-Flame cannon went
off, blasting an accelerated beam of energy into the heart of the Earth fleet
just as the wave energy of Deramus’ battle line was let loose. The orange
energy beam blasted through space, repelling the combined rage of the Earth
vessels like a horrible typhoon, and then, before Deramus could react, the beam
slammed into the
Before
Deramus could react, the mighty Scorpio
was blown about like a feather in the wind and was torn to bits a moment later.
A
short time after that, the horrible Magna-Flame beam that had destroyed the
Fleet, not yet expended, blasted down into Earth’s atmosphere, and slammed into
the coast of
“All
surviving Earth ships!” yelled Captain Osterhoff, the skipper of the Earth
carrier Courageous. “Retreat and
regroup at full speed for a second attack! Hard about one
hundred and eighty degrees!”
“What
do we do?” said Pishda.
“Let
them run!” laughed Gernitz. “There’s only twenty of
them left! Now, we will speak to the Earth Command. Open up a channel to the
Great Megalopolis!”
2020 Hours….
“Sir,”
said General Stone. “The enemy says they want to talk to you.”
“What?”
said Singleton. “Open the channel.”
An
image of a sneering Cometine officer came up on the main screen in the
Operations Room of Earth Defense Headquarters a moment later.
The
large-nosed officer said, “I am General Pishda, the second-in-command of
Marshal Gernitz, commander of this operation appointed by Princess Invidia. If
you cease your resistance, we are inclined to be merciful. Are you the Commander of the Earth Defense Forces?”
Singleton
replied, “I am Commanding General Hiram Singleton, commanding officer of the
Earth Defense Forces. I would hardly call the deaths of almost seven million
people in an hour merciful, General. What is your game?”
“You
have been resisting us ever since you agreed to surrender almost five years
ago, Singleton. Is your Government mad as well as suicidal, sir?
I estimate you have lost 8.25 million people, both civilian and
military, in fighting that was needless since we would have peacefully
integrated you into our glorious Empire if you had surrendered as you had
agreed, traitor!”
“Zordar
was the one who began the genocide,” snapped Singleton. “I see you are just
following in his sickening footsteps.”
“Those
people could have lived as our subjects,” said Pishda.
“Or
suffered as your slaves?” said Janlits as he came up behind the Commander.
“What
are you doing there, you Melezartian
scum?” hissed Pishda.
“Earth
does not stand alone,” said Janlits. “Iscandar, Earth, Gamilon, Pellias,
Melezart, Rikasha. We all oppose you and your slavery, Pishda. Tell your
Princess Invidia that we will not readily give in to you.”
“You
can tell her yourself,” snapped
Pishda. “Singleton. I make an offer to you, Desslok,
and the rest of your so-called pitiable alliance on behalf of Princess Invidia.
Invidia is merciful. She is offering you a truce that will last for twelve of
your days. During that truce, we would like to meet with repesentatives from
your races under flag of truce at Melezart. In that conference, Invidia is
interested in offering a treaty of peace that will bring this war to an end.
While we have the power to destroy
you, as we have demonstrated again today, we will forbear if we can come to a
peace that will be acceptable to all of us.”
“If
this “peace” involves surrender to you…” snapped Singleton.
“You
agreed to surrender years ago. Before you agreed to unconditional surrender to
us, you had asked for negotiations. In the name of mercy, Invidia is prepared
to forget what has transpired and she would wish to negotiate. I am sure that
we might be able to come to terms.”
“That
remains to be seen,” said Singleton. “I cannot approve this myself. Our
Parliament must meet, and…”
“We
give you twelve of your hours to reply,” said Pishda. “We leave now.
Communicate with us on this frequency. If you agree, the truce stands. If not,
we will be back to begin with the rest of your cities and towns, and…”
“General
Pishda? Marshal Gernitz!” yelled an officer. “The Argo has been spotted off our stern! It is is the midst of an
energy buildup!”
“The
Argo,” sneered
Pishda. “It looks like your Star Force is about to fire its wave motion gun at us. Tell that
Wildstar we do not want him at the negotiations, but we would meet with one of
the other murderers who helped kill Zordar. Now, we depart!”
And,
at that, with a suddenness that surprised even Wildstar as the Argo drifted in with her wave gun
powering up, the Cometine dreadnought and what remained of her fleet warped
away in dramatic flashes of light. At that, the battle was over.
“Well,
Wildstar?” said Sandor as the energy buildup was stopped.
“I
would love to know why they did that,”
said Wildstar.
“I’m
sure there has to be some kind of explanation,” said Domon. “But what is it?”
“If
I knew, I’d tell you,” said Kitano with a shake of his head.
“What
is the time?” said Homer.
“Exactly
Twenty-Thirty Hours,” said Sandor.
“Homer,
contact Earth Defense,” said Wildstar.
“Yessir.”
II. AFTER THE
Space Battleship
The Region of Alpha
Sirius
Sunday, October 5, 2206
0015 Hours: Earthtime
“I
don’t understand this,” said Captain Mark Venture as he sat in his quarters
with his wife Holly and with Paul and Aliscea Rosstowski. “One minute, they
were on the attack…the next minute, they ran from us.”
“I
read a lot of confusion in the mind of the enemy commander,” said Aliscea after
she paused for a moment. “It seems as if he received orders to retreat that he
did not like.”
“Paul,
how badly damaged are we?” asked Venture.
“We
have damage to two main turrets, to the observation deck on the port side, to
one of the auxiliary engines, and one of the upper fighter bays took a hit.
We’re down two more planes from that hit due to fires.”
Venture
sighed. “We’re down to thirty-six planes, now, even with the replacements we
received from Alpha Sirius. Nine planes per squadron. If we are in many more
major battles like this, we may have to be withdrawn due to simple battle
damage.”
“How
much longer can we remain on station like this?” asked Holly as she sipped at
her coffee.
“I
really don’t know,” said Captain Venture. “I really don’t know…”
0315 Hours…
On Earth,
in the Tokyo Megalopolis, Parliament was meeting in an emergency joint session in
the Federation Senate Chamber that night on the orders of the President. The
session was not going well.
“I
would recommend that we accept the Cometines’ offer for a truce,” said Senator
Renate Hiller, a Senator from
“We
always swore we would stand firm,
Senator,” said Senator Hu’an Chin, a Senator from
“But
how can we stand if that fleet will be back?” said Hiller.
“How
will our alliances suffer if we accept the offer to negotiate?” said a
Representative from
A
figure came in with a stricken-looking face…it was the Gamilon Ambassador. He
came over to a Senator and whispered something. The senator then stood. “I have
been told that Gamilon itself was attacked tonight and they are considering
negotiations if we agree to them,”
said another Senator from
As
General Singleton bowed his head, the President went back to the rostrum. “The
time for debate is running out. I would ask if we could make a vote now.”
“Floor
has no objections,” said the Speaker of the Senate. “You have thirty minutes to
consider your decisions and then vote on the motion submitted by Senator Hiller
proposing an acceptance of the Cometines’ offer to negotiate. May God help you
in those decisions, because we are today considering…the very future of the
human race.”
General
Singleton whispered to the President. He was given permission to leave. “I’ll
be waiting in one of the conference rooms, sir. Tell me how the vote went…”
Fortty-five
long minutes later, the President came into the room. “Hiram,” he said quietly.
“The motion passed. We have agreed to accept the Cometines’ offer to negotiate.
You are to communicate our acceptance of their offer to the Comet Empire by
morning, and you are also to order all EDF units to begin a twelve-day truce,
contingent, of course, on the enemy accepting the same. We should be able to
negotiate something during this cease-fire.”
“Since
it is Parliament’s decision, I hope we do,” said Singleton. “We had better not
be surrendering, though…”
“Surrender
is not part of the plan,” said President Mendellsohn. “Obtaining an honorable
peace is…”
Later
that dark Sunday morning, a very exhausted President Mendellsohn was talking
with Singleton and the Gamilon and Iscandarian Ambassadors and the Prime
Minister, who were all closeted in Mendellsohn’s office in
Presidential House, where they were avoiding the reporters and their shouted
demands for more information.
“Gentlemen
and ladies,” said President Mendellsohn after he stood in silence with his eyes
closed for a moment. “Now that we have made our decision to negotiate, we need
to determine how we will proceed next. We need to know what the situations were
on your homeworlds…those of you who have come here from deep space to help us
reason together on our alliance.”
“How
bad was it on Gamilon?” asked the current Prime Minister, who was a Representative from
Count
Von Dalberg, the recently-appointed Ambassador from Gamilon, said, “My report
came from Talan. The Cometines showed up and came suicidially out of warp with
three carrier squadrons. They attacked the cities of Gamilstadt, Hochstadt,
Zedig, and Zankal. They used anti-matter missiles on Zankal and destroyed it.
Desslok is outraged, I am told.”
“They
went after Iscandar, as well,” said Astra of Iscandar as she sat there in her
purple gown with her eyes closed.
“Did
they destroy any cities?” asked Von Dalberg.
“No,
just a few small villages, Count Von Dalberg,” snapped Astra as she gave the
bearded Gamilon officer a black look. It seemed clear to Singleton that the two
of them had some history between them; history that didn’t seem to be happy.
“Still we lost lives to those monsters, just as you did.”
“That
is why Desslok thinks we should negotiate and gain a truce at the very least,”
said Von Dalberg. “Then, gentlemen, we can rebuild our forces, bury our dead,
and even if they give us only a short truce, we can eventually strike back at
an opportune time and destroy Invidia and her rotten New Comet.”
“That
is our thinking, as well, sir,” said Kopechne. “That is why the Parliament and
the President have empowered me to pick a representative to meet their demands
to send to the negotiations.”
“Then
you have responded?” said Astra.
“Our
acceptance went to them half an hour ago,” said Singleton. “Marshal Gernitz,
who was waiting near
“We
are still unsure whom our representative should be,”
said Prime Minister Kopechne.
“Desslok
will appear in person at the conference with Talan,” said Von Dalberg. “Perhaps
your Prime Minister should go.”
“I
know Astrena will represent the Pellians, and that Lord Cha’rif will represent
Rikasha,” said Astra. “My mother has called upon me to represent Iscandar’s
interests.”
“Janlits
will represent Melezart,” said Mendellsohn. “Now, who should represent us?”
“Perhaps,
sir, myself, General Singleton, Admiral Yamanami, or Commodore Wildstar,” said
Kopechne.
“They
made a request…or, a demand,” said Singleton. “I remember it from when General
Pishda first spoke to us. He said, ‘Tell
that Wildstar we do not want him at the negotiations, but we would meet with
one of the other murderers who helped kill Zordar.’ I think he wants a
member of the First Star Force there.”
“But
which one helped kill Zordar?” said Mendellsohn, thoughtfully.
“There
were only three people left on the Argo
at that point in late 2201 when they were about to attack Zordar and Trelaina
intervened,” said Singleton. “Namely, Derek Wildstar, Mark Venture, who was
unconscious…and the woman who was then named Nova Forrester…”
“If
Venture was unconscious,” said Astra. “That leaves only Derek Wildstar and Nova
Wildstar.”
“Eliminating
the Commodore, it leaves Nova Wildstar,” said Prime Minister Kopechne. “Mister
President?”
“Singleton,
she is young. Can she handle it?”
“She
helped negotiate before with the Rikashan Council back in 2202 on Rikasha,”
said Singleton. “So, Lieutenant Commander
Wildstar already has negotiated once…”
“She
would be the obvious candidate,” said the President. “General Singleton, clear
her for a compartmented “Q” clearance and then submit her name to the Cometines
as our special envoy. I intend to contact her at once aboard the
“Yessir,”
said Singleton as he nodded his head.
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