Exodus: Machine War 1 Supernova. by Doug Dandridge Page A

around
the larger cities, from their trajectories most likely defensive weaponry made
to shoot down the incoming weapons.  And Clark’s sensors were keeping
track of them as well in case they turned out to be something completely
different.
    “Hold off on
firing on the, cruise missiles, I think they were called.  We’ll take care of
them once the ballistic missiles are gone.”
    “Can you get
them all?” asked Lamsat, leaning forward and watching the tracks that were
ending with rapidity, though each wave of intercepts was further along their
arc.
    “We’re trying,”
said Albright, looking up at the alien, then over at the other one, who still
had an angry look on his face.  “They’re easy to kill, but there are a lot of
them.”
    “Then take out
the Honish missiles,” said Lamsat, looking over at H’rrana with glaring eyes. 
“They started this thing, after all.”
    “You launched
first,” said H’rrana, slamming his right tentacles on the table.  “We only
responded.”  He looked over at the human.  “You need to destroy their weapons
first.”
    “We only
launched because you were fueling your missiles,” screamed Lamsat, sitting up
as if he wanted to jump out of his own seat.
    “We are
targeting all of your weapons, without regard for who they came from,” said
Albright, shaking her head.  And if you weren’t so potentially important to
us I would just turn my back on both of you and fly away.   She shook her
head again, knowing that last thought to be false.  She was mandated to contact
intelligent species, and part of that mandate was to help them survive.
    How’s it
coming, Tactical? the Captain sent over her internal com link.
    It’s going to
be close, ma’am, sent that officer.
    Albright sent a
mental nod as she watched the holo.  There seemed to be fewer missiles on it
than a minute ago, despite fresh launches.  The laser emitters were providing
plenty of power from the crystal matrix batteries that fed them, while those
batteries were being continually topped off by the reactors.  In a fight with
another ship of her class, she would be going through laser power faster than
she could replenish it.  Against primitive missiles, not so much.  It didn’t
take much power to blast them from existence.  Only their numbers were causing
much of a problem.
    “How many damned
weapons do you both have?” she asked in frustration, looking at the two
aliens.  She looked back at the holo and saw that there were even fewer
weapons, but the ones that were still up were closer to the territory of their
enemy.  And the low flying weapons were still up in mass, with growing numbers.
    Come on, thought Albright, watching as scores more warheads disappeared off the plot. 
And no more were rising from the continents, though there were still some
submarine launches.
    “Tactical,
detail someone to take out every submarine you can locate with kinetics.”
    “Yes, ma’am. 
We’re on it.”
    “You can’t do
that,” said Lamsat in a stricken tone.  “My people are on some of those
submarines.”
    “And they’re
launching weapons of mass destruction at other people on your world,” said
Albright, staring at the alien astronaut.  “Tactical,” she said again, knowing
that the aliens would hear her and relay this message to their world through
whatever telepathic sense they had.  “Target those missile fields as well.  I
don’t want them to be holding any surprises.”
    All of the
aliens sat there in shock, staring at the human who had just ordered strikes on
their world.  Moments later the first of the kinetic weapons landed in the
water near the icon of a submarine that had launched weapons.  The vessel was
probably not at that point anymore, which didn’t really matter as the weapon
struck the water with the force of a multi-megaton warhead.  Any sub within ten
kilometers of that strike was gone.  There were more hits on the water, then a
bright flash as a kinetic came