Annihilation: A Rose Grows In Weeds Read Online Free Page A

need that many because of the numbers of ships we expect to encounter. We also have a brand new weapon that has been developed out of our needle technology.”
     
    “Do I dare ask what it is?” Tag said.
     
    Kosiev said, “Currently, our ships do not use missiles over long distances. We have to wait for the enemy to come into range and fire at them with our screen weapons. Our weapon scientists have developed a pulse penetrator.”
     
    “What is that?”
     
    “It’s similar to a needle. An energy cannon shoots a pulsed beam containing anywhere from 10 to 500 hornets thru our screen and it leaves using a Coronado Cell for propulsion. The hornet’s guidance system inside the pulse will be attracted by any ship that doesn’t have a Coronado Screen within 300 miles. It will penetrate the screen of most ships and release its hornets. This is a shoot and ignore weapon. Like the hornets, it will designate a ship with its Coronado sensors and once illuminated, the other pulsed penetrators will ignore that target and search for one that is not illuminated. If the penetrator doesn’t destroy the ship, once its illumination beam ends, other penetrators will lock on the target.”
     
    “Admiral, can you believe how fast our weapon development is happening. The old Washington is now obsolete and wouldn’t last five minutes against these new vessels. We call it old but its less than two years that the Washington was commissioned. Its eye opening to see where we’ve come is such a short period.”
     
    “Mr. Gardner, I suspect that we will be facing an enemy with more than ten million ships. I’m still worried about whether we can handle them. I’m hoping for faster development and I suspect you are too. They are going to run out of planets to harvest in their galaxy and they will start expanding in to other galaxies. We have to stop that.”
     
    Tag smiled and said, “I think you and I are on the same sheet of music. How many Megaships do we have to take to the system?”
     
    “Only twenty, but we have more than 40 thousand of the old ships converted to Coronado Technology. Why don’t we call a meeting of the leaders and plan our response.”
     
    “Good idea. I’ll contact Terl and Tgon-gee and have them contact all the interested parties.”
     
    “Looks like war again, Mr. Gardner; this time we won’t be taking prisoners.”
     

Chapter 4
    A dmiral Dorg Leaned back in his chair and saw Tresk looking at him. He had just finished the meeting with Captains Ren-Bir and Mikado. All three ships were at battle stations and were waiting for the order to jump. They were going to jump into three other galaxies before jumping to the coordinates that Thomas Gardner had provided for the Dremels system. The jumps would happen in quick succession and Dorg had made it clear that if the Plants were in the Dremels system then the three ships would jump out immediately to the last galaxy. If the Plants were not present then they would begin to attempt to contact the Dremel. Dorg had also made it clear that no one had permission to open fire on any ship that was not a Plant vessel. He thought again about the colonists that had been murdered due to his orders and hoped to try and make up for his mistake by saving the Dremel. “Captain Tresk, notify the other two ships we will be jumping in twenty sems and count it down, please.”
     
    Tresk punched a button on his com and said, “Engage star drives in 5, 4,3,2,1, execute.”
     
    All three ships disappeared then briefly appeared in three other galaxies before breaking out into normal space in a system with a medium size star. “Ships approaching firing weapons, sir,” Glensh the sensor officer reported.
     
    The three megaships were surrounded by 50 ships that had jumped in on their location and were firing beams and nuclear missiles. “Status of our screen Lt. Glensh,” Tresk asked?
     
    “Their weapons pose no danger, sir. They are actually adding power to our