"We have incoming! Imperial warp signatures coming from the planet's shadow!"
Tyler Henry Madison, Supreme Allied Commander of the Alliance's Military, squinted at the view screen of the Rebellia, sister ship to the Corellia, seeing the multitudes of Imperial ships warping into the sector. He went slightly white, and hit his comm. button. "This is Supreme Allied Commander Madison to all ships, We have incoming. Man your battle stations," He shut down his transmission, and turned to Captain Steven George, the Rebellia's commanding officer. "Sound general quarters. We are in for a fight."
"Yes, Sir," George said, moving toward his communication station.
Madison turned back toward the view screen, and began to issue orders to the tactical engineers at their stations. "Keep sectors seven through ten clear if we have anymore refugees. I want defensive platoons set at two-seven to one. Orbital cannons have their order to fire at will."
He turned to George again. "Launch your fighters only when their ships first clear the planet. Until then, we use the gravity gun. Keep all other ships behind us, Rebellia is the spearhead. I want all others to have an open lane back toward Mars if things go bad. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir, I will alert Doctor Dee at once, sir."
"Good, tell him to fire at will."
Madison watched as the planetary orbital guns began to open fire on the passing Imperial Dreadnaughts and Star Destroyers. As they began to suffer more and more damage, they spread out, allowing other ships to pass through the ring they created, free from fire from the orbital guns.
"Focus fire on one ship, so we can break that barrier. We must hold them as long as we can!"
"Sir," a helmsman shouted, "We have more incoming jump signatures, reading Imperial. They are coming in over the other side of Io. So far we count eight hundred ships, but there are more inbound."
"Damn, they are trying to flank us."
"We only have one gravity gun, sir…"
Madison looked back toward the two incoming jump signatures.
"Sir, we have another jump point coming on to our sensors…"
The crew was starting to panic. There were too many; a Mathematical certainty. IN an hour there would be over ten thousand Imperial ships. They were doomed.
Doctor Edmond Dee, while being somewhat eccentric, but a genius nonetheless, had gotten the order he had been waiting for.
Captain George walked beside him as they boarded the transport for a large floating asteroid outside the gateway. Dee explained how he came up with the idea for his untested gravity gun. "On Zi, I had invented the gravity cannon. In an atmosphere, it created a stable black hole, about six miles in diameter, and crushed everything above the ground."
"I heard about this. You used it to destroy an overly powerful Zoid, right?"
"Yes, it was called the Deathstinger. Anyways, here is what I did. I says to the Alliance, I says, 'I suppose, with funding, that I could make a better version for space fighting.' They says that I can do it, only they gave me enough money for one. So I built it there."
He pointed at the asteroid that floated in front of them as their transport moved toward it. The asteroid was about the size of a Star Destroyer, only it had a very large cannon barrel mounted on the top.
"It creates a small temporary black hole. I tested it before, on an old Colossus class ship. Completely eliminated it; without a trace."
"Colossus's are huge! They dwarf even the larger Halcyon classes, even Star Destroyers!"
"Yes, that's why we are using it. The only problem is, if we have too many running at the same time, I'm afraid the holes will collapse gravity fields. We can't overload the battlefield with them."
"Well, Madison said to go ahead with it. How many shells do you have?"
"Let's not worry about that, shall we?"
"Stand by Gravity Control, prepare for Ionic distortion in five…"
"Get us clear of the blast zone!" Madison yelled.
"Four…."
"All ships standby for gravity volley!"
"Three…"
"Sir, we have a transmission from Earth for you," another officer said.
"Two…"
"Now?" Madison said, turning around, "From who?"
"One…"
"Kal-el, sir, he sounds upset…"
A shudder in the ship caused everyone to look toward the screen as a white shell rocketed toward the nearest Imperial Ships. When it was too far away to see, it suddenly exploded with a brilliant flash, and a large sphere of spectral light rose from the center of the ships. The rainbow colored streaks of light flowed around the sphere, converging on the black center of the sphere. All ships inside were flattened, and sucked into the center, where after about ten seconds, they were gone.
"What happens now?" someone asked aloud. "The sphere is still there?"
He was right, the sphere of energy still existed. There were some ships that could not slow down in time, and moved right into the gravity field.
"Standby Gravity control. Sequence initiating. Firing main cannon."
Another shudder and another flash of light erupted when another shell was launched toward the next batch of Imperial troops. It exploded in the same way, with a brilliant sphere of spectral light and gravitational energy. It erupted right next to the first one, causing an overlapping of energy, creating a third mini black hole. The gravitational field was so dense, that the Rebellia slowly started to lumber toward them.
"Stop fireing, they are sucking us in!" Madison yelled into his comm.
"Gravity control standing by."
Suddenly, the fields collapsed, and the Star Destroyers began to close in again. Madison looked to his data screen, where a reported seventy destroyers were taken out in both blasts. It didn't look that way at all on the view screen, where the thousands of ships continued to close in. As if in response to his pondering, thousands of small green and purple lights streaked toward them.
"Brace for impact!"
The Rebellia's shields absorbed many of the blasts, but the other ships didn't fare as well. Some lost pressure and exploded, while others dipped downward, out of control.
"Return fire, shut down the Gravity cannon and get it out of here."
"That thing can move?" someone else asked.
The rock that it was mounted on suddenly burst open, revealing a ship of great size underneath. It read Fury of Zi on the side, and the gravity cannon was securely bounded to the top of it.
"We need to get that back to Mars! Protect it at all costs.
Beam cannons on the Empire's Nova class assault ships began to pound the fleet, and some ships moved in front of the Fury of Zi to protect it.
"Sir, we are taking heavy losses. The Pride of Vendada, Hammerson, Beta-Obscura, and Magna Zordon have all been destroyed. We have reports the other ships are adrift. Distress calls are coming in from the Titan's Magnificence, Rock of Jeninam, Kansas, and Yamato Fringe. "
"Their fleet is too large. Fall back toward the gate. We need to last as long as possible. Send out an all-priority signal that the Inner Rim is no longer safe. Tell all refugees to find a safe sector and…"
He stood there, without answers. Everyone was looking at him, waiting for the rest of his order.
"Sir?" the officer asked after a minute of silence.
Madison looked over toward him, with a look of sadness in his face.
"Tell them to pray, lieutenant. Tell them to pray…"
The Fury of Zi was getting hit hard, and Steve George was in the middle of securing crewman as they took the force of the hits.
"Stay on your feet!"
A squadron of Covenant Banshees moved in on the Fury and blasted it with plasma and ion fire.
"Doctor Dee sir," a crewman said, "We have lost propulsion. We are disabled."
"What?" Dee said in a confused fury. "Not my gravity gun. They can't take it!"
"Sir we must leave," George said, grabbing his arm. "We have to get you out of here, you can rebuild this, don't worry."
"NO, I WONT LEAVE THIS. THE GUN IS UNSTABLE, IF YOU THINK WE CAN-"
Two other officers helped George get hold of Dee, now flailing with anger. One, a Vulcan, used his hand to cause Dee to lose consciousness, and they moved him toward the last remaining shuttle off the ship. Imperial boarding parties already were arriving. George pulled out his two Rampant-14 blasters and began to fire at Stormtroopers coming down the hallway as another shudder rocked the Fury.
"Sir, get on the ship!"
"GO!" he yelled, bolting down toward the engineering shaft. The ship shook again, and Steve fell over a ledge and onto a large reactor. Screaming with pain, the reactor began to heat up, and overloaded. Rainbow colored bolts surrounded George, who was now struggling to maintain himself. The lighting hit troopers around him, and killed them instantly. Warning lights and alarms were going off as the ship began to break apart. Suddenly, Steve howled with pain, and the Gravity Gun went off.
The remaining shells erupted with intense reactions, taking almost all of the ships within range with it. An enormous sphere of gravity exploded outward, sucking many of the asteroids and surrounding ships with it. Within an instant, the gate was sucked in, taking many more asteroids and gun platorms with it. The Rebellia was also grabbed, breaking apart into many particles in a flash of fire. The Sphere didn't completely surround the Rebellia; its size was too large. Instead, the gravity instantly collapsed with the weight of the ship, sending everything it sucked in back out, including what remained of the Fury of Zi. Steve, still howling with pain, was suddenly sucked into the collapsing center, silencing the blackhole.
The Rebellia, now adrift, began to explode from the inside, and the command deck had disintegrated. The last remnants of the gateway collapsed in on itself, as the integrity field shrank.
No Alliance soldier lived to tell what happened at Jupiter.