The Jordan dropped out of the hyperspace membrane at the edge of the Delgas

system. The bottom of the ship opened. A set of fabricators slid out into space. The

ship pushed into an orbit to slide around the outside edge of the system with the many

weapons onboard ready to fire at anything deciding to chase after it.

“All right,” said Harry. “Everyone ready to go?”

He had grabbed armor to protect his torso, a helmet with built in radio and mana

tracker, a ripper, and a variable ammunition pistol. He pulled on a glide harness over

that.

“Yes,” said Har. He had on armor with a fabricator built into a gauntlet for force wall

projectors. He pulled on his helmet and harness for a safe journey to the surface.

“I think we’re all ready,” said Yema. He carried a huge rifle in his arms. He had put

a pistol with a large caliber in his belt.

“I will kill them all,” said Warrior Milla. They floated on the air, spinning in place.

“Howitz and Detrac,” said Harry. “I know this can be overwhelming. I don’t want you

guys getting hurt. Stay close to me, shoot what I shoot. Stay in the middle of our

formation if you can.”

“We’re ready,” said Howitz.

“The cannon that I use will punch holes in the enemy, but it is slow firing,” said

Detrac. “It will open a path for us, but your faster weapons will have to carry us while

it recharges.”

“We will do what we can,” said Harry. He made a circle with his hand. “Let’s mount

up.”

“Harry,” said John. “We’re dropping mana observatories on the moons. That should

give us an eye on things.”

“I’m ready for input,” said Harry. “Don’t get caught floating out here. If you have to

leave us, do it. I’ll make a gate so we can leave if things get too hot.”

“We got this,” said John. “Guy?”

“I’m in the hot seat, ready to lift, weapons hot,” said Guy. “Course plotted.”

“Marker on original beacon,” said Harry. “Marker on contractor beacon. Light route

in the helmet.”

A small map in the corner of his visor showed him where he had to go and where his

potential allies were. He nodded at the glowing line.

“If we get split, the number one marker is where my bees are holding on,” said Harry.

“Get with them if you can and they will protect you. If you want to carry on with the

mission after you hook up with the bees, use them as air cover and protective line of

fire.”

“Understood,” said Yema. “If we can’t stay together, we head southeast on our own

to retreat from the planet, or to pick up your drones and try to save the other

contractors. We won’t be split.”

“That is a lot of confidence,” said Har.

“I have been doing this a long time,” said Yema.

“Take us up, Guy,” said Harry. “Drop down under the air ceiling, and we’ll jump.

Then take off.”

“I got it, Harry,” said Guy. He opened the bay and let the bee drop out of the Jordan.

He told the weapons not to fire until he said so. He didn’t want an accidental

discharge when he was trying to avoid attracting attention.

The bee dropped into the reddish-green sky. Guy kept an eye on the xenos trying to

chase his aircraft. He had asked for a ton of horsepower so he could outrun anything

chasing him. The altitude marker glowed at the corner of his eye. Once he hit the

level, he had to head back up to the edge of space.

“Coming up to hover, guys,” said Guy. “Opening the bay door.”

Now he needed to light his enemies up to give his friends a chance to get to the

ground. He hoped Harry knew what he was doing. He looked over his shoulder as the

crew advanced to the door.

“Clear the sky of the xenos,” said Guy. They jumped under an umbrella of particle

streams and missiles. He spun the bee to let the missile launchers rebuild and shoot

again. He nodded when the contractors fell below what he considered the safe limit.

He had to clear the sky himself.

He headed up to orbit. The launchers and streamers fell silent as he got some distance

from the enemy fliers. He made sure the bay door was shut to keep his air in the bee

as he thought about what he could do.

He listened to the radio chatter. He decided he could do something to help the

contractors out. It was dangerous, but he was good with that. Harry wouldn’t approve,

but there was nothing he could do while he was running for his life.

Guy did a quick plot out with his finger on the control. The screen lit up. He made

sure he had a full rack of missiles. He headed down at full speed. He kept an eye on

the altimeter as it counted down. He spotted the contractors killing monsters at will.

He crossed over a newly burned line in the grass and told the weapons to fire at will.

He pulled up as he drew a line of craters on the ground. He headed for orbit as the

flying aliens gave chase. He outran them to the edge of the atmosphere and headed

out into the system.

“We’re heading to the edge of the orbit,” said Cat. She sent him a pointer. “Meet us

as we circle back.”

“All right,” said Guy. “I don’t have any pursuit after the precision I just did. I wonder

why.”

“They don’t care about numbers,” broke in Marques. “All they care about is holding

the planet, which they are still doing.”

“Mr. Jordan and his guys are at a checkpoint,” said Le Roi. “They are still in there.”

“All right, guys,” said John. “We need to think about the second dock we’re dropping

off. Then we need to start thinking about defenses for it when the star whales decide

to knock it out of the sky.”

“I’m closing in on the Jordan,” said Guy. “I don’t see anyone behind me. Going to

coast in to try to hide my destination.”

“Shields will go down when you’re close enough, Guy,” said Cat. “Opening the bay.”

Guy waited until he below the flight line of the Jordan before he tried to match

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

speeds. A grabber descended and attached to the vessel. He cut everything to let the

grabber pull him inside the still changing battleship. He waited for the bay doors to

close and air to be pumped in before he opened the bee up to the outside and headed

for the upper decks.

At the other end of their orbit, it would take days for him to fly the bee across the

system and help Harry out. The contractors were on their own for the foreseeable

future except for the intelligence updates from their mana trackers.

“All right, guys,” said John. “We have a few hours before we have to drop the second

dock. Then we need to try dropping a third.”

“We should put it in orbit around the gas giant and let the little moons hide it,” said

Delmar. “And it gives us a straight shot at Delgas when they do launch.”

“I think we should use this one for fighters and small bombers,” said Marques. “And

make the third dock for bigger ships.”

“Why is that, Marques?,” asked John.

“It better not be no video game crap either,” said Delmar. John shook his head at the

interruption.

“Mr. Jordan’s drones work great because they are fast and small,” said Marques.

“Instead of trying to clear orbit before we have anything we can fight with other than

the Jordan, I think we should use the fighters and bombers to clear a path for them to

get on target.”

“We can use them to take out the respawn points close to the other contractors,” said

Garry.

“And that makes it where we can punch holes in their coverage,” said Delmar.

“All right,” said John. “Pick a spot. Nick? Are you getting this?”

“I think so,” said the agent. “So the plan is to bomb the planet as cover for our ground

troops with a secondary goal of clearing out the factories?”

“I think so,” said John. He looked at his assistants. They nodded in affirmation.

“That’s the best way we can help from up here, so we’re doing it.”

“I’m sending word through the radio system,” said Nick. “I’ll let them know when the

small craft are on the way.”

“We don’t want to send bombers by themselves,” said John.

“Maybe three fighters for each bomber,” said Le Roi. “Three of them push in as

linemen, the bomber attacks the target.”

“How big a bomb?,” said Delmar. “Too big takes out our guys, too small does

nothing.”

“And it has to be small to be carried by the faster bomber type we’re talking about

using,” said Marques.

“Something like this should be okay,” said Garry. “It’s about three missiles exploding

on impact, and it’s small enough to be carried by the variant fighters we’re talking

about.”

Guy walked into the briefing room. He took one look at the images floating over the

table and knew what they were talking about. He grinned.

“What about a load of sun guns?,” he asked.

“Those stationary cannons Harry used on Wallens?,” asked John. “What are you

thinking?”

“We start seeding the planet with those sun guns to give the xenos something else to

think about other than our bombers and fighters coming in,” said Guy.

Delmar stared at him for a minute. Then he started nodding.

“We can build two bombers for each fighter group,” said Delmar. “One bombs the

ground, the other drops the building thing for the sun guns.”

“We hit the temples,” said John. “Once we take them out, the rest just need to be

cleared out.”

“We need to program the docks to drop off,” said Garry.

“We might need to drop two in the rubble,” said Marques. “That will speed things up

for us.”

John nodded.

“Honey, can you bring us to a stop at the edge of the gas giant’s reach?,” he said.

“We’re sending help to Harry’s crew a little sooner than we thought.”

“All right,” said Cat. “I’ll put us in orbit around the giant, and you guys can do what

you need to do.”

“All right,” said John. “We ask the fabricators to build the flights. We put them in

orbit with the rocks. It will change the times for each run. That will hopefully throw

the xenos off.”

“Unless they’re like the bees,” said Delmar. “Then they’ll go on watch and try to

knock our guys down before they can do the run.”

“The really bad part is what if they track the flight path back here,” said Guy. “Our

fighters won’t be able to stand up to their big boys.”

“Right now, we’re just causing a distraction,” said John. “The rescue comes first, then

we worry about taking the planet back.”

“And doing massive damage helps us,” said Marques. “The main thing is blowing up

those temples. If we can do that, then the rest will take as long as the bees’ building

can outpace the xenos.”

“All right,” said Guy. “Let’s see what we got.”

The group worked on the guidelines with the help of Nick as Cat dropped them in an

open slot between two rocks. The Jordan floated on the tide around Delgas Major, the

Malgas, as the cargo bay filled up. Then the ship opened its belly and dropped two

expanding spider webs in place. The docks took up two lagrange points of their own

that carried them around the planet.

“All right,” said John. “We need to get back in our orbit and head away from here.”

“The last thing we need is a whale to drop in for a visit,” agreed Guy.

“Who knew war was so boring?,” asked Delmar.

“It’s only boring for us, and Nick,” said John. “Harry is killing those things by the

ton. Logistics, planning, tactics is always boring and sometimes stressful while you

wait for news. That’s nothing compared to being at the front line and wondering when

you are going to get killed.”

“I’m taking us out,” said Cat. “The docks look like they are doing good from up

here.”

“The first corvette launched,” said Nick. “It should be striking their orbital forces in

a few minutes.”

“Can you give us the run in real time?,” asked John.

The Jordan pushed back on its course for the outer edge of the system. Cat had

another point they could drop a fourth dock. She set one of her screens to watch the

corvette’s feed as the computers monitored the space around the ship.

Harry’s first corvette had been a disk with two guns on top and bottom. Missile

launchers had been set in the front. The Jordan’s corvettes were arrowheads with

energy guns on the front and rotating missile launchers on the v-wings that acted like

gatling guns.

It swept in from the edge of the system, weapons priming. Data and scans were turned

into images for the Jordan as it floated the other way. It’s flight path took it away

from the sentinels orbiting around Delgas, and into smaller prey. Flying xenos

vaporized under its attack as it swept down.

Something swooped down on its back and began ripping it to pieces. A lucky strike

chopped an engine. The corvette hit the ground, blasting out a crater.

“That was two minutes of combat,” said Guy. “Anybody see what happened?”

“Scanner detected a threat and then damage started kicking,” said Garry. He played

with the computer for a second. “It looks like some kind of pterodactyl.”

“It’s fast too,” said Delmar. “It took our boy out like that.”

“It’s another thing Harry will have to watch out for while he’s down there,” said John.

“We have a few hours before the next one hits. Let’s head out and place another dock.

Maybe the random attacks will confuse the xenos enough to keep the docks hidden

from them.”

“As long as we don’t go in with them,” said Garry. “I don’t want to crash down and

get eaten.”

“It killed a few of the enemy,” said Nick. “If we can keep pushing them, we might be

able to do the rest before the end of the week.”

“Are all you alien guys so optimistic?,” asked Delmar. “There’s no way we can clear

the planet out by ourselves in a week.”

“Not even a week,” said Marques. “More like three days.”

“We’re still trying to clear out Wallens,” said Garry. “There’s no way we can do the

job in three days.”

“How much time do you think you will need?,” asked Nick.

“A year maybe,” said Delmar. “Maybe less if we can get a concentrated push of

contractors wanting to make points for equipment.”

“I will see how many agents want to send contractors to our new training academy,”

said Nick.

“The Delmar Reese School for Killing Aliens sounds good,” said Delmar.

“If it works,” said Garry. “The Delmar Reese School for Getting Killed by Aliens

would be more like it.”

“You guys work on that name for my school,” said Guy. “I’ll hire you as goats.”

“Yeah,” said Delmar. “The greatest of all time.”

“I think he means the goats they leave out for tigers so they can shoot them,” said Le

Roi.

“Go get something to eat and take some time off,” said John. “There’s nothing we can

do before our robot spaceships start attacking. Harry will call if he needs us to power

up and head back to Delgas at full power.”

“By that time, it will be too late,” said Delmar.

“And that’s why command sucks,” said John. “You have to wait on word that your

operation went into the toaster sideways and blew it up before you can do anything

about it. In this case, the best we can do is wait until we get word. If Harry can hang

on, he will.”

“What if he can’t?,” asked Delmar.

“Then we finish the job,” said John. “Now go and relax. We won’t be doing any

heavy lifting until we circle back to other side of the system.”

He watched them go, before turning to the table. He would rather be on the ground

than waiting for something to try to catch up to his ship.