CH40

Only moments later:

Don is flight leader and Tom is right on his wing and they are both thinking the same thing. They are still too far out to fire their gun located under the nose, however they want to break up their formation into smaller groups. Dog fighting is their specialty as it is for the other pilots, so they both got tone. "Silver One, Fox Two." Don calls out followed immediately by Tom. "Silver Two, Fox Two."

Neither missile hit a thing, however it does get them to split into two smaller groups. This is followed by Don and Tom watching the lead fighter on either side of them do the same thing. That broke those two into two even smaller groups.

Don and Tom learned from last time to keep their eyes open and since their LIDAR was tracking everyone, they both noticed that a flight of three had peeled off and were headed for the bombers.

"Silver 7 and 8 split and escort the bombers, they have three bogies headed their way." Don calls out.

"Silver 7 copies." … "Silver 8 copies." Don and Tom watch them peel off and head for the bombers.

Next Don and Tom decide they want to keep them busy thinking about their own lives so they open fire using their new Lucile-modified pulse laser after lining up on a wing man for two of the groups.

They both watch as the light of the pulse laser reaches out at light speed and rakes across the nose of each fighter. They're rewarded with a satisfying mini short lived fire ball as something sensitive has been found. "WOW!" They both actually are impressed, and immediately choose his lead and open fire, noticing that their entire flight save for Silver 7 and 8 open fire at the same time after they see the result of Don and Tom's shots.

They are only a minute into the fight and they've removed 8 enemy fighters, turning a 3 to 1 advantage into 2 to 1 advantage.

The six of them quickly go into rolls as the enemy fighters start firing back. The enemy fighters appeared to want to stay in formation and not mix it up like they do.

All six of them blow past the enemy fighters and hold their speed as they watch the enemy fighters not stop but turn on a dime and continue firing.

Silver 4 and 5 call out that they've been hit. In each case one wing has taken damage and they've each lost electrics on that side, reducing their missile capacity in half.

Don and Tom fire one of their rear facing missiles and are rewarded with seeing two more enemy fighters explode in short lived mini fire balls.

Everyone but Silver 4 and 5 use their top mounted rear facing round firing twin canons and watch their LIDAR displays show two more enemy fighters take hits. They just don't know the extent of the damage.

Silver 7 and 8 are holding speed and gaining on the three enemy fighters little by little. They both know that they don't have the time to overpass them before they reach the bombers, so they both take long range missile shots followed by long range pulse laser shots.

Silver 7 and 8 are rewarded with seeing 2 of the 3 dissolve into mini fireballs as the remaining fighter spins in place and starts firing back, causing both of them to break away.

Don, Tom and the other flights of two fighters take a long swing separating out from each other to come in from totally different directions.

"What are they doing?" L doesn't understand as they watch what Lucile shows them from her LIDAR data from the satellites.

"They have gotten them to break apart as you see and I'm betting that the modified pulse lasers are proving their worth. Having your ammunition be at the speed of light is hard to beat. By the time the enemy sees them firing they are already hit.

Right now they are planning on attacking the enemy fighters that look like they are trying to reform themselves into a single flight. What Don and Tom are doing allows them to attack from three different directions. This will force the enemy to split their fire amongst the three groups, reducing their effectiveness." Lucile explains.

The group of them watch Silver 7 and 8 remove the third fighter headed for the bombers, speed past his mini fireball, and split with Silver 7 taking top. Silver 8 takes the bottom of the group of 6 bombers and escorts them towards the destroyers head on.

"Silver group I have an idea. High speed passes far outside just at the end of pulse laser range, then high speed turn firing off our load of ion mines each, letting them blow when they get close and fry their electronics." Don says.

"I like it. We can let them sit out here and run out of air and pick them up and tear them apart to see how they work. I'm dying to find out how they can turn on a dime." Tom replies.

It appears to Don and Tom that they are learning when none of their pulse laser shots failed to hit anything. That however doesn't deter them from dumping all of the ion mines that each of them carry. Happily they watch their mines float into the formation. "Their sensors must not be good enough to see them, though each is about the size of a baseball." Tom mentions as his LIDAR shows each and every one.

"What are they doing? They didn't even come close that time!" Amanda doesn't understand. However she does see that something from their fighters is headed towards the enemy fighters.

"They released something other than missiles. My guess would be mines, just not sure what type." Lucile answers her question.

They all watch the bombers pass over the first destroyer, while only the fighters shoot using their pulse lasers up against each side of the destroyer. "I like being this close. The other destroyers can't fire on us for fear of hitting their own ship." Silver 7 likes this location.

After each bomber passes over the destroyer and shoots out the back side away from the engine compartment and thrust tubes, they and the fighters release their own load of ion mines.

Once they are all past the destroyer, they all do a hard bank to come around up behind the next destroyer in line. Problem was the third destroyer had turned so that its side anti-fighter guns had opened up on the bomber flight.

"This is Gold one, all bombers unload primary torpedoes on the rear engine thrust tubes and peel off." The order is given and everyone in the Crystal house watch 6 big torpedoes slam into the back side of the second destroyer. Moments later they watch it blow itself into a much larger fireball.

"This is Gold 5 I've been hit, flight system damaged. I've got a mini ex, ..." His bomber disappears off of everyone's LIDAR.

"OH GOD!" Alexis slaps her hands over her mouth.

"I detect no bath tub on LIDAR, Gold 5 didn't have time to punch out. We lost someone." Lucile hangs her head.

"Where are Don and Tom going?" Jenn asks as she watches her husband and his brother along with their fighter flight fly farther out into space.

"Adjusting to fighter LIDAR." Lucile tells them all since the satellite LIDAR didn't see anything.

"Are those fighters?" Amanda asks seeing three signals on the screen.

"Too large Amanda, however they are of sufficient size to be Scout Carriers." Lucile informs her and the others.

"They are after the carriers that launched the fighters." Alexis surmises.

"What about the fighters that they launched?" L is curious and watches as Lucile changes to back to satellite LIDAR. "They all appear to be floating and not under power." Lucile answers her question.

"But we didn't shoot them." Jenn points out.

"Ion mines are designed to overload the electronics of a ship. Shut down their flight system, fry the signals to the engines preventing them from having thrust. If they can't blow themselves up or repair the damage, they will just sit out there floating until they run out of oxygen and the pilots die." Lucile explains.

"We are going to take these carriers one at a time. Silver 5 and 6, you're up first; after your pass peel off and go help the bombers. Remember to check your LIDAR and don't let anyone come up your six. Silver 3 and 4, you two take the next and peel off for the bombers." Don orders them.

After getting affirmative copies, the six of them make their run. It turns out these versions of Scout Carriers do have a minor amount of armament since a small number of rounds reach out towards the first two fighters. They force them to roll, firing off one missile each before banking hard to one side and rocketing towards their bomber brothers.

Silver 3 and 4 give that first Scout carrier a few shots from their Pulse Laser. They split left and right to go around and start a run on the next carrier.

Tom gets off just one shot from his Pulse Laser and watches the first carrier explode in a short term mini fireball forcing both he and Don to peel off suddenly and go around.

Don and Tom come back on course just in time to watch the second Scout Carrier blow up in its own mini fireball, leaving the last Scout Carrier for them.

"Gold 4, 5 and 6-form up with Silver 5 and 6 when they get here. The rest of us form up with Silver 7 and 8. … Silver 7 and 8, you two are the bait. Try and get them to show you their flank while we fly up their tail pipe." Gold 1 orders since he is bomber lead.

Silver 7 and 8 dance around far off their flank to try and get them to fire at them and keep their attention, and for a moment it works. However the second Gold 1, 2 and 3 begin their run the destroyer starts to turn so that their flank guns will come to bear on the bombers, forcing them to turn away.

It forces all of them to wait for Silver 5 and 6. The two flights of fighters dance on either side of the destroyer while Gold 1, 2, and 3 start their run from the rear. Gold 4, 5, and 6 start their run from the front, forcing the destroyer to choose which way to turn. The movement frees up the other bomber group to complete their run.

All the bombers have to do is make their run based on which way the destroyer turn. However they have already fired off their main torpedo leaving them left with the canisters that hold a number of mini versions. Still even those versions penetrate the hull in numerous locations, catching the interior on fire.

It actually takes two passes before something inside that is critical goes up causing the last destroyer to be engulfed in a short lived large fireball.

"What do we do with the surviving ships?" Gold 1 asks lead.

"We let the fighters sit there for a month or more and then come pick them up somehow. As for the destroyer, Silver 7 and 8 you two dance on one side just at the edge of their gun range. Silver 3 and 4, you two do the same on the other side. Silver 2, you and I are going to make a high speed pass from bow to stern. You on top, me on the bottom. Everyone else, keep your eyes open. I want to know if it so much as blinks." Don as flight lead tells them.

After Don and Tom have made their pass and conferring with what everyone saw. "I think the ion mines fried their power links. Base this is Silver one, I think we have a dead in the water destroyer just sitting out here. We get no reaction from engines or weapons, not even a minor course correction. Recommend that the breaching ships be sent up. We have a number of enemy fighters we can pick up later also." Don calls down to the base they all came from.

"That's it, we win?" Amanda asks, looking at Jenn and L who were smiling wide since their husbands were still alive.

"We only have 2 breaching pods that are useable and they only hold 5 Marines each. It is recommended that to take a ship of this size we deploy a minimum of 21 Marines." Lucile informs them.

"How many are on that ship?" Alexis asks. "It is estimated somewhere between 120 to 280 depending on which variant this destroyer is. However not all of them will be armed. It is assumed that the ship will have an armed contingent for security reasons and to prevent boarding actions, estimated to be at 30 or more." Lucile is forced to admit.

"Ten isn't enough." Amanda whispers.

"If we wait too long they may find a way to destroy themselves and this could be our best chance of gaining an FTL drive, along with gaining access to their computer core. The sooner we take that ship, the better." Lucile informs them of what is at stake.

"Meaning we could learn to make ships like that one?" Amanda asks.

"We will understand the concept, however actually building one is another matter and it will be years from now before we can even try." Lucile sees all kinds of obstacles. Having the design or even a working model doesn't guarantee that they have the technology to build a ship of this size.

"So we risk 10 men and their families so we can get our hands on a destroyer with an FTL?" Amanda still doesn't like the odds.

"Mom and dad will send them." Jenn is convinced. "They're Marines, they won't back down." L adds to her sister's thought.

It's an hour later and the Crystal clan is sitting back in front of the display drinking when Lucile informs them that their only two breaching ships have been launched. "There is a camera on the cutting arm that I can hack and display for us to watch. There are helmet cams, however, I don't want to cause one of them or all of them to cut out so only the boarding action is all I dare show." Lucile informs them, getting everyone to agree that they want to see it.

For the Crystal clan this action goes just as Lucile demonstrated when she designed the breaching pod/ships.

The air lock door opens, the arm swings down, and in just seconds cuts a hole in the hull the exact same size as the air lock door. The second the hull falls away, six flash bangs are ejected into the destroyer. The Marines go into the ship one at a time, leaving the Crystal clan watching the hole in the ship that the Marines went through.

Lucile switches to the LIDAR display of the satellites for a time to monitor what the friendly fighters and bombers are doing. After that, Lucicle switches back to viewing the opening in the hull of the destroyer.

"Can I ask a question?" Amanda asks while she stares at the opening in the hull. "Why is all I could see is their weapons, three holes on their face and the tips of their fingers?" Amanda doesn't understand since she wasn't there for the creation of the Ranger gear that they are all wearing.

"It's a stealth suit made by a company in Canada. The only parts that we couldn't make or cover using their material is the part we can see. Everything else is effectively rendered invisible." Lucile explains.

"Meaning the people on that ship won't see what is attacking them, except for their weapons?" Amanda asks, just a little proud that a Canadian company is involved.

"And for some of them, their weapons can see and shoot around corners." Lucile adds and changes the display of herself into the final product of the Rangers that were in that destroyer right now. She reminds everyone except Amanda, who is seeing it for the first time, what the Rangers look like.

The group of them watch what Lucile shows them when she switches screens. They see 4 guns step back into the breaching ship and see things coming out of a storage cabinet. "That's four Marines accessing their storage locker. They are handing out ammo clips and grenades. It is likely that they ran out of ammunition or were too low to continue." Lucile informs them all as they watch the guns floating in air go back into the enemy destroyer.

"Why four?" Alexis questions, not wanting to think what that meant. Everyone remains silent and keeps their thoughts to themselves. They aren't willing to think if the Marines they had lost so far have families.

It's only a short time later when the other breaching ship that has floating weapons enter and again they watched the storage locker being raided just like before. "Only three." Alexis notices and voices her concern.

"This is Silver 1, everyone keep their eyes open, do not get tunnel vision on the destroyer. Silver 7 and 8, I want you two along with Silver 3 and 4 to create a patrol of the area. And take a pass on the fighters to make sure they are still dead. If your LIDAR so much as blinks, blow them away." Don orders them.

The Crystal clan continues to watch as Lucile alternates the view between everything that is still going on. They watch the Rangers come back to their breaching ships, only this time when they reload they don't appear to be in a big a hurry. Then Lucile shows them something they hadn't expected.

The breaching ships close up, pull away, and head for Earth all on their own. "Lucile?" Kate inquires; she's shocked.

Lucile who is visible throughout all of this responded. "The pilot is automatic and is capable of landing the ship on its own."

"What about the giant hole in the ship?" The ship is open to space.

"Their breathing system is good for a few hours yet, however they likely found a way to seal those areas from the rest of the ship. However this is actually good news. It means they feel secure enough to hold their area, since it is likely the breaching ships will be back with another 10 Rangers." Lucile points out.

It is four hours later and none of the Crystal clan have moved an inch, save for Alexis and Amanda who tell Kate and Rick they will take care of Abby and Crystal. They are only just getting back when Lucile shows them the breaching ships attaching to the destroyer in the exact same locations as last time.

The internal camera shows another 5 armed men and women in each ship, only this time they are dressed normally. Their weapons are also normal for the time.

They watch them enter the destroyer. "Base, Silver and Gold flights will be bingo fuel in an hour. We need to leave the site for re-fueling and re-arming. The remaining fighters are drifting and believed to be effectively dead, please advise?" Don calls out.

"Silver lead, six type A's are being launched at this time to watch the fighters. You are cleared for return to Earth, you will be hot fueled and armed for immediate re-launch, proceed as best thought," the answer comes back.

Two hours later both flights are back out on patrol while watching the fighters and the destroyer. "Flight leader be advised, Ranger teams believe the destroyer is secure at this time. They are however doing a room by room search still to verify. We are forwarding a request that you keep your eyes open for any escape pods exiting the destroyer or worst case, a long range shuttle. Gold lead you are to keep your ears open for any transmissions and try and block them if spotted." Base calls out. This gives the back seat for each bomber something to do.

"Lucile?" Kate asks.

"The thought is nice, however my money is they sent a tight signal the second they spotted our fighters and bombers. When their six ships are never heard from again they will know that there is someone out here and that we are dangerous.

Good news is that they will not expect us to have one of their destroyers intact and are taking it apart for every secret it has." Lucile informs them.

"And the bad news?" Kate asks, though already thinking what it is on her own.

"The next time they send something it will be a lot larger and far more powerful. They will likely have the numbers and type of ships they encountered before combat and adjust accordingly." Lucile warns them.

"Meaning we are at war now." Rick hangs his head low. His planet had fought for years; this was not what he wanted for Earth.

"An interstellar war, yes." Lucile doesn't like it any either.

Eventually Don, Tom and the other pilots all come back to base and go back up as part of a 2 fighter and 1 bomber patrol for the next several weeks. It is days before either Don or Tom are able to leave the base for even a few minutes.

All of the girls go home and back to work though Alexis and Amanda are the most distracted. Jenn and L have their children to take care of with Rick and Kate's help. Alexis and Amanda are helping Rick and Kate with Abby. It allows Rick and Kate to go out on the town and get re-connected. Go out on dates effectively.

Eventually several weeks later the entire Crystal and Douglas clan find themselves in the Crystal house eating dinner. The dogs have worn themselves out and are lounging on their sides taking up a massive amount of floor space, while everyone else is sitting at the dining room table drinking coffee.

"What was the cost?" Alexis is feeling bad for those families losing loved ones.

"We lost one ship and its pilot along with 3 Rangers, which is actually a lot less than I feared." Natalie answers.

"And their families?" Alexis all but whispers.

"Only the pilot was married and had a little boy; the 3 Rangers were all single, however their parents are still surviving. I heard from Lucile that you arranged to pay for their funerals." Natalie looks at Rick, getting Kate to lean over and kiss his cheek. She is in on it and loves him for his offer.

"They sacrificed their lives for our future, I even have Lucile watching them so that if they ever have a financial problem I'll be there to help them. That boy is going to make it to college." Rick answers back with conviction.

"What did we gain?" Kate wants to know if the lives of the Rangers were worth it.

"The fighters are still floating out there. We haven't gone anywhere near them except to keep an eye on them. As heartless as it sounds, we're going to let them run out of oxygen and freeze to death out there.

As for the destroyer, we have 4 different teams taking it apart and are getting supplies up every three days using both of the breaching ships. The FTL is in one piece and there is an engineering team drooling all over it.

Those ion mines fried the control wiring and plunged the ship into the dark. Everywhere the Rangers went, the enemy was fighting in the dark against an almost completely invisible opponent.

We have another team working on attaching access for Lucile to access the main computer core. Our Ranger team leader is thinking that since we sent so few Rangers to take their ship they didn't attempt to sabotage any of their systems, in the belief that they could repel us.

If he is correct, it means sending such a small team actually worked to our benefit. You ready Lucile?" Natalie read the report and it looks like it will only be days before Lucile will have access.

"More than ready." Lucile rubs her hands together. She so wants to search every corner of that computer.

"According to our teams their controls are not what we are used to, so as soon as you gain access our teams could use your help understanding their language." Natalie tells Lucile. Their teams are having to rewire almost everything.

"There is one more thing – our systems have monitored a flight of two originating from China. It would appear that they are testing their prototypes." Natalie points out.

"Rick and I have dinner reservations at their home in two days to celebrate." Kate informs them.

"They are likely going to want to be involved in what we are doing. They do have their own 4th generation AI unit and they have been very accommodating so far." Kate points out, not wanting to make an enemy of them.

"We're going to need their help if we are ever going to build something bigger than fighters and bombers. You two probably need to get started on a design after we have the destroyer mapped out, which will take us months most likely." Natalie points out.

"Now we need to pray for time" Don says.

"It'll take us years just to understand how this destroyer operates, let alone have a design for our own. We don't even have the facilities or knowledge how to build them plus years longer to build our first capital ship." Jim knows they have a long road ahead of them.

"At least the Evergreen came back." Amanda points out. She and Alexis still have to talk about having children. Lucile has shown them that the Evergreen has returned as an asteroid that appears to have slammed into the dark side of Saturn, when in fact it is in its old position, nice and quiet.

Lucile has estimated that the 6th generation AI should be up and operational in a few weeks. It also gives Jenn and Meg with Scout's help time to collect the number of diamonds necessary for them to build their own AI someday. Having all this activity allows Don and Tom a chance at picking up whatever diamonds were ejected out into space.

Lucile and Kuan are already discussing having an AI on each and every capital ship that is built. It is hoped that having them on their ships will improve the capabilities of their ships. They don't have the plans to build one of themselves. The 6th generation requires diamonds from Saturn that only the Evergreen has access to. They need a plan, however they also have time.

Jim and Natalie already arranged for several more Scouts to be built and smuggled on board the Evergreen. The plan was for them to connect themselves to the control cables as the next 6th generation AI is built. At that point in time Lucile and Kuan will find out if two 4th generation AI's are better than one 6th generation.

It is now weeks later:

Abby race across the floor having escaped from her mother and climbs the stairs on her hands and feet as fast as she could, butt naked. "Abagail, you get back here." Kate yells out from below.

Abby's escape is short lived however as Alexis and Amanda choose this time to suddenly appear. "Why are you naked?" Alexis questions, as Alexis lifts a giggling Abby up off the floor. "LEX!" Abby goes from escape mode to happy-to-see-them mode.

"ABAGAIL!?" Kate walks up the stairs with a diaper in one hand. She takes Abby from Alexis' arms. "UH OH!" Amanda whispers. Abby is in trouble, however Kate hasn't added her middle name so Kate wasn't mad, or at least not that mad.

"You sure you two want to have a baby?" Kate questions and turns to go back downstairs to finish dressing Abby.

"Yeah, about that." Amanda whispers, causing Kate to stop on the stairs and turn around and stare at the two of them.

OMG!

XxXxXxXxXxXxXx

And this is the end of our story. Thank you for reading. There shouldn't be too many unanswered questions left to deal with. Plus every good story needs a little mystery about it.

The next story will not be up for weeks yet, since I've only just started. See you in the funny papers.

Happy Reading!