Chapter 5
The Andromeda II was the pride of the Space Defense fleet. Her design was more rounded than the angular design of the original, and included four shock cannon turrets, and two Wave Motion guns that gave her more firepower better than any other ship in the fleet. She was also painted differently than her namesake, in that she was painted white, with a red underbelly like the rest of the fleet's ships, while the original Andromeda had been painted grey with off white accents.
Under the guidance of Kitano, her captain, the Andromeda II glided gently into the center position of the defensive wall of ships that guarded Earth.
"Captain," Commander Mizutani spoke from the Andromeda's video panel, "We don't often get advance warning like this, so be sure that you are ready."
"Yes sir. I do wish we had a better idea what to expect. I also don't feel comfortable with the Gamilon ship having taken position behind us. I know they won't help defend the Earth, but I think they are too ready to turn against us."
"Do the best you can, Captain. As long as we only target weapons and engines, the Gamilons will not interfere. They may even help. Either way, best of luck to you, Captain."
Kitano gave the Commander a sharp nod, and then broke the connection. "Dash, is everyone ready?"
Dash, formerly the gunnery officer on the Yamato, was now Combat Chief on the Andromeda. "All stations report ready. Nothing is showing on radar."
Kitano didn't respond. Something was going to happen. Soon. He just had to watch for it.
At the chime, Sandor looked up from his paperwork. A new message from headquarters displayed itself on the computer screen.
It read, "Be ready."
"Incoming missiles!" Dash shouted.
"From where?" Kitano demanded.
"From directly ahead, it just appeared out of nowhere."
Kitano watched the missiles trail carefully as it was tracked on one of the overhead screens. They curved gracefully through space, arching harmlessly over the Andromeda. Each one impacted in rapid succession with the Gamilon battleship.
The Gamilon ship seemed to groan in space from the impacts, but in the end, could not withstand them. The lower hull of the ship exploded in a ball of flame.
"Those missiles came from somewhere, fire ahead of us randomly until we hit something." Kitano ordered.
The fleet obeyed. Shock cannon blasts and missile trails filled the sky.
"Radar reports enemy shuttles behind us, descending towards Earth."
"Launch our fighters to stop those shuttles!"
"Enemy fighters coming in from above."
"Our guns will take care of the Enemy fighters, have our fighters concentrate on the shuttles."
Anti-aircraft guns on the Andromeda and the rest of the ships opened fire. Fighter after fighter exploded, but the enemy fighters did not stop. Just as the Earth planes were told to ignore the fighters, the enemy fighters were ignoring the larger ships, dancing around their antiaircraft fire, and focused their attack on defending their drop shuttles.
Earth's fighters had to abandon their pursuit of the shuttles to defend themselves, as the shuttles touched down on Earth unhindered.
The Andromeda waited helplessly in space, unable to attack either the enemy shuttles or planes for fear of hitting her own fighters.
If asked, Wendy would tell anyone that her favorite thing in the world is her flower garden. Not only did she like flowers in general, but they also had a special meaning to her since she met her husband over a Wild Calomel flower. Even after their first meeting, flowers had represented their love as they sent secret messages to each other by showing their flowers during communications between Earth and Yamato. So she tended her garden of flowers with special care.
Aside from the part time job she had several years back as aide to Commander Singleton, Wendy never cared much for military matters. Even then, the only reason she took the job was that the Commander had been her grandfather. She didn't notice the flash in the sky, and would not have thought anything of it if she had. Nor did she notice the jet trails of the assault shuttles as they entered the atmosphere.
Today, she was content with weeding her garden, secure in the knowledge that her husband was safe working at Earth Defense Headquarters, and would return to her as soon as whatever emergency had called him away was resolved.
She did notice the strange soldiers in gold armor. She watched in silent horror as a group of them gathered at the end of the street, before they fanned out, going to each house on the street in turn.
One of them noticed her.
She turned to run.
In the Earth Defense Headquarters, Homer barely noticed the unusually hectic level of activity. His mind was focused entirely on his job.
With a practiced ease, he sorted incoming and outgoing communications, patching the Commander instantly through to whoever he needed to speak with. On standby screens he maintained connections with Kitano on the Andromeda, Sandor on the Yamato Sea, the Earth based Marines, a variety of fighter squadrons. Yet he also busily worked the radio trying to find the frequencies that the enemy was using to coordinate their attacks.
When he could spare a glance, he would catch a glimpse of the main panel as it displayed the progress of the enemies' invasion.
At the Star Force Academy, the campus went into lockdown mode as soon as an alert was sounded. Cadets waited patiently in their rooms, or clustered around windows to try to figure out what was going on, while listening to Defense Force broadcasts.
Kei remained in her room, trimming one of her many bonsai trees. She knew there was nothing she could do to help, so she tried to occupy her mind as best she could. It really didn't help.
Across campus, Yumi was hyper from the excitement and rushed to join her friends gathered at the cafeteria windows. They talked of all the brave deeds that would be done that night to fight off the invasion. They talked of what they would do if faced with such a threat, and of how some of their fellow classmates may react under the same situations.
In another dorm, Adam Row paced his room to keep from getting too worked up. He tried his best to remain calm, since he believed that nothing good could come from rash action. Deep in his soul, he wanted to rush out and engage the enemy first hand, if the attack had come only a day later, he would be a formal member of the Star Force and would have been able to do something about it, but now... He tried to calm himself. In the end he wound up simply sitting down and fuming.
It was not the first time that Derek Wildstar had felt completely helpless, it was a feeling he could never get use to. This situation was painfully similar to the invasion by the Black Nebula, when he had been forced to watch the destruction of the Earth Defense fleet from the cockpit of his patrol ship, and later was forced to watch second and third wave of invaders, helpless to do anything but run for his life.
Now, too, he was unable to do anything to stop the assault on Earth. His patrol ship was not maneuverable enough to engage any of the enemies' fighters. They evaded him easily whenever he tried, and completely ignored his ship when he did not. They were taunting him, staying just out of reach.
It made him angry. It was a deep anger, but one he was strangely comfortable with. Like an anger he had known before. Before he had viewed his anger as a friend, but it had ruled him, as much as he had used it. He no longer allowed his anger to rule his actions, but that did not lessen the frustration he felt.
Nova glanced up at the flash of light that briefly lit the sky. A battle, she knew. Is Derek up there? she wondered. She hoped he was still at headquarters, but she knew that Derek wouldn't be happy unless he was up in the thick of the fighting.
She had other things to worry about, as she was jostled from her worries by passers by on the busy city street. She carried a bag of groceries in each hand, so she had to turn around to make sure her two children, Mark and Miyuki, were still close behind, each carrying a small bag of their own.
With a battle going on, she didn't want to be on the streets with them. Anything could happen.
For a split second her mind went back to the invasion by the Black Nebula. Alphon's paratroopers glided through the city at night, attacking civilians indiscriminatingly. Firing into passing trains, and apartment buildings. The civilian death toll had been high.
All the more reason for her to get the children home quickly. She didn't want Derek to have to worry, after all.
She hurried from block to block. Mark and Miyuki, picking up on their mother's worry and sense of urgency, quit their playful bickering, and tried to follow their mother even more closely.
She saw a strange aircraft fly overhead... she tried to think calmly what to do next, but she did not seem to realize that she was not calm.
There was an explosion, and the unmistakable sound of weapon's fire. The crowd on the street began to panic.
Some part of her said to take the children and hide in the nearest building, but she was too panicked herself to listen to it.
Dropping her bags, she grabbed each of her children by the hand and began running with them down the street.
Rounding a corner, a leveled weapon made her stop.
Chaos continued to grip the Earth Defense Headquarters, with messengers running from one post to the next, relaying the most updated information and orders. Despite its appearance, it was a very efficient form of chaos.
Homer compiled the latest set of communications into a basic summary for his commander. Commander Mizutani would only need the most pressing and important information, which Homer's practiced eye easily picked out. A pattern began to reveal itself to him… or rather the lack of a pattern struck him as odd, if not alarming.
He rushed over to the commander, offering him his compiled report. "It doesn't make sense, Commander; they're not making any moves to attack any of our fortified or strategic locations. They are staying out in the city's outskirts."
In a rush, the Commander snatched the sheets from Homer's hand, and looked over them himself, taking just a second longer, then studied again the tactical map displayed on the main panel. "You're right. Wait a second... What was it the Gamilon said about the attack...?"
The Commander paced another two steps. Of course, he thought, its not an invasion, its a round up! "Order all troops to leave their fortifications, and to engage enemy troops wherever they encounter them. Try to keep civilian casualties to a minimum."
Homer nodded, then disappeared into the bustle of the command center, doing his best to see that the orders were carried out as quickly as possible.
Knox was every bit the space marine his brother had been, and was very proud of that. His pride showed in every sound and in every movement he made. When the order came through for them to move out, he gleefully jumped at the chance to prove himself.
Grabbing his helmet and rifle, he hollered at his troops, "Come on, guys, Lets go get 'em!"
He then set out at full speed, full of confidence that his men would be right after him. His confidence and enthusiasm overflowing into them, his men followed instantly.
Yelling non-stop, Knox led his men at a break neck speed. Dodging people, they ran through the city to the nearest recorded landing site.
The gold armor made the enemy easy to spot. Although the wolf like shape to the heads of the enemy troops made Knox uneasy, it did not stop him from taking the first shot.
The shot went wild, but succeeded in getting the attention of the Death Wolves.
Although their return shots were more accurate than Knox's had been, they maintained a steady stream of fire back at the marines.
Knox swore at himself for missing, then took cover behind a trash can as laser shots fired all around him. Without aiming, he fired a few shots over the trashcan, back at them. Then, before he knew it, all was quiet.
The enemy had retreated.
Slowly, Knox and the other marines stood up enough to look around.
The civilians had all run away, and there was no sign of the gold clad soldiers either. The street was empty except for a few stray bodies of people who had not been as lucky as Knox.
Shaking himself, Knox did not allow himself to be discouraged. They weren't at the landing site yet, so he grabbed his gun, and his troops set off again.
Tired of pacing, Jordy Venture went back to the communications panel and activated it. "What's going on? First you don't want me here at all, and now you don't let me leave! Will you at least let me out of this room?"
This time, at least, someone answered. "I am sorry, Cadet Venture. Earth is under attack and all flights have been cancelled."
"Attack? I have to get back then!"
"Negative, cadet. Just be patient. Chances are you will be able to do more good up here than on Earth anyway, so why send you back, just to recall you tomorrow. Just wait, I'm expecting a few more people, and then I'll bring you all down at once."
Jordy knew that further questioning would do no good. Instead he sat back down on the floor of the small room, and tried to figure out just what the voice could be talking about.
Kitano's jaw dropped as he stood from the command chair on the Andromeda II. Overhead screen number four happened to be covering the section of space directly below and behind the fleet. He just saw the appearance of the largest battle station he had ever seen. Easily twice the size of the Gorba stations the Black Nebula had used, and it had not simply flown up. It had simply appeared. One moment the screen had been empty, the next the screen was filled with the huge form of the battle station.
"Someone tell me, where did THAT come from? And scan it! I need to know where its engines and weapons are!"
The battle station was huge, and cone shaped, like an upside down top. It had a central spire coming up from the top, and spaced out along the curved exterior were a series of domed platforms. Some of the domes were transparent, revealing cities within them, but most of them were opaque. At the base was a box shaped structure, which seemed to house the shuttle bays, and possibly housed an impressive weapons system.
"Sir, the assault shuttles have launched from Earth, and are rendezvousing with the enemy battle station."
"Dash, find a way to stop that thing."
Dash focused on his targeting equipment, using their sites to try and find something that resembled an engine or weapon. The box at the bottom of the station was the most inviting target, but was on the opposite side and impossible to hit. He tried to find something, anything that he could shoot to damage that thing.
It was taking too long. Nothing looked like a thruster. At this rate, all the shuttles would be on board any second.
Finally, he found something. He wasn't sure what it was, but he felt fairly sure it was part of their navigation systems.
The rear shock cannons rotated, tilted down towards the target and fired.
The explosion was magnificently impressive, but nothing more.
The last of the shuttles landed, and as soon as it had, the battle station moved with incredible speed. In a matter of seconds, it was out from under the Andromeda's fleet, and a second it disappeared into a space warp.
"Calculate that ship's warp destination!" Kitano commanded. His normal calm was wearing thin, but he would take the time necessary to get the job done right. As soon as the navigator made the calculations, Kitano would order the fleet to pursue.