Brigadier General, when was the last time you were in solitary?! Have you forgotten how to address a senior officer? screamed Clay, which was unusual for him, changing the subject right away. Theres a message from headquarters. Doctors demand you return, we need you intact. Theyve found a solution, and not only for you, but for all of us, for the whole Empire. And its all to do with you. Exclusively! You understand? Whats with your theater show?! Turn the beacon on immediately and stop trying to be a hero!
I have no way out. Im completely encircled, and the toads are finishing off my robots. Theres only 10 left. Fuck my modules force field was hit from above and was thrown about, but wasnt severely damaged.
What happened?
Nothing serious, yet. Some operational issues. I turned the beacon on.
I see. Wait. And dont you dare die. Youve got it, General?
Yes, Sir. My mission is not to die. Do I have permission to carry it out?
Once you reach my ship, Ill show you!
I didnt listen. Behind the thin chain of my robots was a small relatively vacant patch of space in front of a heap of burnt iron debris. Thats to where we were slowly moving back, snapping shots at the toads most impudent flyers and terrestrial drones. Good thing they had run out of heavy tanks, otherwise Id quickly been screwed. There was no good news in my situation.
The medium-range scanner buzzed, and 19 small high-speed air targets appeared on the screen. That was a missile salvo. How fortunate that there was almost nothing left to deal with them. Just guns. I had run out of guided missiles seven minutes ago, and I directed my module to the enormous pile of burnt heavy machinery.
On top of this heap of wreckage our heavy tank stood with its hull side split open and the turret smashed. Hiding behind it, I sent my robots to the opposite side where they began to shoot at the approaching missiles. The toads became quiet, and didnt want to get hit by their own missiles. My robots performed very well and managed to shoot down nine missiles Then an explosion!
The tank behind me, where I was hiding, was knocked over by a shock wave, but I managed to get out of the way. As Id hoped the incoming missiles were aimed at targets that were actively fighting back.
General, do you hear me?
Yes, Dean, I hear you well.
Im alone now, the robots have been blown to bits.
Before Clay could answer, a toad drone appeared, jumping on the tank that was on its side. We fired almost simultaneously at each other, the enemy was blown away from the tank and disappeared behind a heap of debris. My modules force shield repelled the intense plasma strike, but the generator burnt out from overload and only my armor could protect my vulnerable module.
Lie down! I heard the general shouting in my helmets headphones.
I fulfilled the order without thinking, and I did so right in time. The area around me became a fiery inferno. The main battleships cannons ain't no aircraft gun. Ive already seen something like that The air above me was filled with howling pieces of armor flying in all directions, as well as pieces of concrete and various debris. You dont want to get caught in the way of these projectiles. Heavy blows banged the modules armor, but lucky for me the shards couldnt pierce it.
When the dust settled I saw an approaching corvette. Usually, space warships dont enter the atmosphere, but this was clearly a very special case. The battleship above continued shooting while taking on fire from 800 meters away. Clearly there were no worthy targets left in my vicinity. I didnt wait for an invitation and rushed to the corvette as fast as I could. My module tumbled into the ships hold while general Clay urged me on, hollering with such great skill that even the legendary sergeant from military school would have been envious.
Chapter 2
General, Sir
You can put ranks aside, Dr. Silk.
Ehh yes, of course. So, Dean, have you heard anything about mental fields? The medical colonel glanced at me questioningly.
Our conversation was informal. General Clay brought me to the Admiraltys central clinic and handed me over to the local vanguard of medical science who were going to explain everything. Clay also wanted to attend and brought along two generals whom I had caught a glimpse of before at headquarters.
I only know that your department is working on this matter; nothing more.
Well, I see no reason to go into detail, but there are a couple of points that I really want to make clear. Until recently the physical nature of this substance wasnt certain. Plenty of empirical data attested to the existence of mental fields and to the fact that such fields allowed for the instantaneous transfer of information from the brain activity of intelligent beings across a very large distance. At the same time, the principles of controlling these fields were, and still are, beyond our comprehension. Strangely enough, the enemy attack that you were a victim of, along with 1,500 members of our military, has led to a breakthrough. Whatever was used by the ehh, toads, which so it seems, thats how you call them functioned on the basis of mental fields, but it definitely used their vibrations as one of the harmful effects. In general, the details arent important, but weve found the key to a partial understanding of this phenomenon while studying the changes in victims brains. Bear with me a little longer, I'm coming to the main point. Weve modernized one of our experimental units and now we have a kind of scanner allowing to study the extent of mental fields at great distances from us. Im talking about millions of light years. At lesser distances signals merge, unfortunately, and are distorted by interference, but thats secondary. The important thing is weve discovered a human civilization. Its very far from us, and we cant even indicate the precise direction. Weve been lucky with this coincidence of circumstances, and weve managed to gain access to the mental field of a comatose man. Hes sick. At their medical level hes terminally ill, but we know this disease and are able to cure it. Their civilization is significantly less advanced than ours some 200 years behind, at least. They recently discovered hyper-jump and started launching interstellar flights, and almost instantly they bumped into a hostile race, a humanoid, but not a human one. Theres a war on there, just like here. I wouldnt say theyre loosing, but this war is all-consuming with apparently no end is in sight.
And how could they help us? this question from my mouth was clearly written on the faces of all those present who still werent in the know.
Generals, Sirs, tell me honestly, will we be able to win this war?
There was a long silence in the doctors office. Eventually, it was broken by Clay.
This is a very difficult question, Dr. Silk. Let's say, if there wont be any great innovation in the field of armaments, we'll lose.
And how long can we keep going? After all, we're not the only ones with possible breakthroughs in new weapons; our enemy might as well.
The war has been going for almost 100 years. For now, we still have somewhere to retreat, but this cant last forever. We have 20 years, probably 30 if were lucky.
And what happens next?
It gets pretty grim after that, doctor. Well be chased out of the developed worlds system interconnected by a network of stationary hyper-portals, and well have nowhere to go except intergalactic space. But I dont think theyll let us go. Theyll catch up and destroy us. The toads can manage hyper-jumps as well as we do.