Capt. Kyle Marks had one fear. Devastators- Massive, moon size battle-cruisers capable of completely burning entire continents in a matter of hours. Besides the massive weapon arrays, shields, hull plating, armor, and hacking systems, they had one other strength, but that was it's one weakness. You see, Devastators consumed massive amounts of energy in combat, over fifteen times that produced by the entire fleet of Axiom class vessels (some thirty or forty ships). And thus the guns could only be fired every few months or so, but when they did… well, no one had ever lived through seeing one shoot. They had to deploy massive ground armies in order to contain the situation on the given planet or ship so the guns could have time to charge, fire, and cool down. Kyle was one of only four people to have seen one in person. That lived.
The reason Capt. Marks had been unsure of the number of ships in the Axiom's fleet wasn't because he couldn't find the launch records. Those were recorded on every ship in the original plans for Operation Re-colonize so they would know everyone made it back to the planet. But he did know that at least four of the vessels had staged a rebellion when their captains found out about A113. These same ships also learned the true purpose of the Devastators.
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Auto activated. He saw the flashbacks of what had happened. And in an instant, he knew. He had failed. He spun around to the view windows to be sure it was true… it was. So why had he been reactivated? There was no longer any use for him. Or was there? He ran a thermal scan on the ships interior. Besides a few mice and rats, the ship was deserted. Darting to the windows again he saw his true fears; a sandstorm approaching, with humans scurrying to and fro. They would all be killed. Wasn't their protection part of his protocol- Notice: Autopilot 001. You have landed on Earth without proper authorization. You have violated code 17442 of the Buy & Large flight code. You will be terminated. Not good. Alarms rang out on the ship, but no one was there to listen. Auto watched in shock as meteorites pounded the colony. But these weren't accidental. People screamed as they tried to get to their sandstorm bunkers only to realize that the meteorites had destroyed them. "What have you done? What have you called upon us!" McCrea burst onto the bridge. "Nothing. I have no control on this ship. I cannot communicate outside of planetary relays. I didn't do this. Only one type of ship could cause this devastation…"
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Marks now heard the same warning. Notice: Unidentified Orbiting Station Complex. You have approached and entered orbit around Earth without proper authorization. You have violated code 17442-4 of the Buy & Large flight code. You will be terminated. Capt. Marks sent out an alarm to every Solar System Defense System that had been installed after the last Devastator. "Lunar Defense Grid: Contact Established." The voice of the computer announced. Marks breathed a sigh of relief. At least they had a little time."Asteroid belt complex: system established. Martian Defense Grid: Contact Established. Jupiter Defense Base: Contact Established..." The voice continued to list a number of moons with colonies and bases on them surrounding Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus. Then, the phrase he had feared: "Neptune: Contact Unavailable. Possible jamming- running diagnostics. Pluto: Contact Establish- WARNING: Communication lost with Pluto Early Warning System. Alert: All personnel in outer Sol prepare for imminent attack!" Similar voices rang out on Neptune ordering immediate evacuations, as with Uranus and Saturn. "Damnit. Not now. We don't stand a chance with the civil war going on right now." An notice popped up on the Navscreen. "Sir: we are receiving from Earth."
"Put them through." A video message appeared on the view screen. "Sam! I thoug-" "Stardate 13-42-2790-1. I am afraid for my life. This is one-" "Sir, it's just a recording." "Let it play dangit. Maybe we'll learn something." The video continued. "-learned something truly dreadful during my studies of our attempts to draw other ships here. Michel, the same man who released DAN, has also sent out a message to B&L fire control in Alpha Centauri. And apparently they had sent a pair of Heavy Devastator Prototypes. I don't know what to do. Michel is insane. I can't afford to be fighting on the ground now, we are screwed if those ships have fire capability. I'm hoping that the "prototype" part the darn robots are testing is in the planetary combat part. Otherwise… ot be able t…out long…survi…Contact Lost." "Get them back on the line. Now!" Capt. Marks yelled at his Comms officer. "Sir I'm trying, there appears to be a problem with the broadcasting system sir, I'm not sure what is going on down there…"
…
"Knox tower this is Falcon 1 requesting emergency landing."
"Falcon! What are you doing in the air?"
"Negative. I'll explain on base. We need landing clearance NOW."
"Hold Falcon…"
"Falcon 1 your are cleared for landing on all runways, do your best."
…
Felix and Thomas watched in horror over what they saw on their approach. Civilians desperately fleeing attack bots while human and robot resistance forces tried to buy the civilians time to get out. Thomas cringed as he watched a tank engage an attack robot just to have DAN come around the corner and rip the top off the tank and use a flamethrower and kill everyone inside. Thomas looked away. The radio crackled constantly, telling the pilots about the terrible state of affairs and reminding them every chance it got. "Jackknife, this is Dagger, we need reinforcements, we're being overrun. "Dagger, Jackknife, sorry, we can't afford to lose any more units ourselves." "Dagger, can you fall back to Katana, we are moving towards your location now."… "Dagger? Dagger!" "… is dagger… we are… damage… retreat. We… do what AGGHH!.." "Jackknife, this is Keris, we have lost contact with Ford battalion, any news?" "Negative Keris. Ford Battalion was attempting a flank maneuver to buy us a break last I heard." Felix broke in to the desperate cries and grim reports. "Isn't there a way we can turn this thing off?" Thomas looked at the radio in a rare moment of silence. "Tim, Radio Fort Knox, we're going back into the fight." Thomas spoke forsakenly. "We can't leave those men to die."
