Escape to Earth 3: Defending Holy Ground Read Online Free PDF Page B

24 hours of rest. They will be followed by group B, then C, and then D. If nothing happens, group A will go back in.”
    Chad watched the tactical monitor and saw a quarter of his ships move out toward the closest moon. The other three Attack Groups spread out and filled in the gap caused by Group A’s departure. That ship hadn’t returned in three days. The probes would give him enough warning to get all his ships back in formation. The crews wouldn’t be at their best if their energy was sapped by the constant stress of sitting in orbit waiting for an attack. He needed them at their best.
    “Second Fleet is arriving, Sir.”
    Chad looked up and saw Julie’s fleet entering normal space. Good, now the coverage would be greatly enhanced, he thought. He’d decided to wait for Julie to move inside the gravity limit as he began issuing orders to his crew.
    An hour later he heard, “Trio sent me a recording of what happened and the orders you’ve issued so far. I assume you want my fleet to move into defensive formations?”
    “I do. If you’ll take the sun side of the planet and send a third of your ships to the moon to move in and take a break for 24 hours, I’ll send a corresponding number of ships to join them.”
    “What do you think is going on?”
    “It appears we are being scouted by a local civilization. They attacked a pod and left. I suspect they’ll be back and will be surprised by the arrival of our fleets.”
    “Are we going to war so quickly?”
    “I’m hoping we can avoid it. This may not be a planet we can stay on.”
    “But we’ve put so much time and resources getting it ready.”
    “We’re the invaders here. Let’s see what happens.”
    “The Sentinels said this was a good place.”
    “My belief that they are infallible is not as strong as most. We’ll have to wait and see what happens. Did your parents come earlier to be with you?”
    “They’re on board now.”
    “You may want to send them down to the surface with Summer. I suspect you’ll need to remain on duty until this situation is resolved.”
    “I’ll leave a Defense Pod with them.”
    “That’s a good idea. Make sure they understand that if they’re ordered off the planet to just leave everything behind and get out.”
    “They know. I’ll get back in touch once my fleet is set up and organized.”
    “That will be good. Set your reactor pattern to Able.”
    “Will do.”
    • • •
    Ten days later, Audrey looked up from her panel, “I have multiple skip trails moving through the void toward the planet.”
    Chad reached forward and pressed a blue button on his panel. On every battleship and pod the klaxons began blaring and a voice loudly announced, “ALL SHIPS TO BATTLESTATONS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! ALL SHIPS TO BATTLESTATIONS!”
    Chad watched his tactical monitor and saw thousands of Battleships and Attack Pods start blasting off the moon’s surface and start boosting for the gravity limit. Chad stared at the monitor and smiled; the fleets were very well trained. He looked at Audrey and she said, “The incoming ships will arrive in another fifteen minutes.”
    Chad nodded and put on his combat helmet. He activated the general frequency and said, “No one will fire unless I or Admiral Mitchell orders it!” He pulled up the probe’s feed and put it on his combat visor. The incoming ships weren’t moving at their full speed. The energy being used wasn’t near what they had demonstrated during the first attack. He looked at the main monitor and saw there were fifty skip trails moving toward the planet. Finally, they arrived three thousand miles out from the gravity limit and entered normal space. They stopped and remained in a tight formation. Chad looked at Audrey, “Find out what frequency they’re using to communicate.”
    Audrey began pressing buttons on her panel and Chad looked at the Silver Ships hanging in formation. He knew they had to be communicating with each other. He looked at Audrey and she