Book 2
New Neighbors

Chapter 3

When everyone arrived at the Mars base the new settlers were introduced to the current population by Cmdr Thomas. He also explained their circumstances and that they would be joining to help survey and settle the new planets in Alpha Centauri. The children were encouraged to help the newer children settle in. Cal was put into dry dock for repairs, AL and Carol were to take turns being upgraded. A new ship was ordered to be constructed, a Cruiser with the newest drive and weapon technology obtained from Cal's data banks. The most skilled techs from both races were selected to design, and improve on, new fighters.

After AL had been upgraded, Amy and crew returned to the Moon and Ted was dispatched to Earth to recruit more people. It had been decided that Earth would not be told about the discoveries in Alpha Centauri or about the Andreians. The recruitments would be done in secret and the recruits would be shipped to the Moon and then to Mars for training. They needed at least 1000 people between the ages of 18 and 25. They needed to be intelligent, motivated, and willing to just disappear. Ted also wanted to get some of the better scientists to join. The recruitments would take several weeks to months to accomplish. After getting the ball rolling Ted returned to the Moon base.

It was three months later before there were enough new recruits to fill the open positions on the cruiser, in the fighters, and in the ground forces. Amy had not been idle during this time. She, along with Jake and Ted, had come up with a basic plan for the expedition to Alpha Centauri. Ted had been able to recruit a Navel captain to head up the cruiser, which would be named The Taurus, who would be in command of the expedition. The plan called for the cruiser and Carol to go to Alpha Centauri with enough people to explore the two planets and defend themselves if needed. Once both planets had been scouted the best one would be claimed and Carol would start the pre-colonization process. The one thing that would rule out a planet was if it was inhabited already. 

The expedition was set to leave in 3 days, so AL was headed to Mars again so that Amy could see them off. They were about an hour from Mars when the picket drone network reported an inbound ship just outside the orbit of Pluto. Since Ted was the one on duty, he had all ships go to yellow alert and notified Amy of the reported contact. Once Amy and Jake were on the bridge, the three of them started to plan for another ship contact. As Jake put it "Here we go again". Then a second report came in that it was not one ship but two, one large and one smaller.  This was not considered to be good news.

The reports continued to come in and AL had connected himself to the network to analyze the data in real time. Neither of the ships were found in any of the three AI databases. The Taurus reported that it was fully manned and was starting towards Jupiter; Cmdr Thomas reported that Mars' defense forces were manned also. Ted acknowledged both transmissions. Amy wasn't real familiar with the cruiser and ask Ted about it. Ted took a few minutes to describe The Taurus to Amy, and Jake. 

"The Taurus is 200 meters long, 75 meters across at it's widest point, has four forward facing guns, five missile launchers, two rear facing guns, and her shields are the best we could get from Cal's database. It carries fifteen two-person fighters and twenty single pilot fighters that it can launch all within 3 minutes. It has two EMP emitters. The computer core is triple shielded against both EMP and particle weapons. In addition it carries three troop shuttles each holding twenty-five men plus two pilots. It has an upgraded FTL drive for use outside the system and can approach 3/4 light speed inside the system." Ted explained.

Amy and Jake were very impressed with this new cruiser and were saying so when AL reported weapons fire between the two ships. Amy put everyone on red alert and had their own fighters start readying for combat if needed. She then had a conference setup between AL, The Taurus, and Cmdr Thomas so that each would be aware of any developments. Cmdr Thomas reported that he had not launched all of his fighters, but was saving some on the ground as backups. Captain Jones, on The Taurus, requested permission to close on the ships and warn them out of the system. He estimated he could be within missile range in ten minutes at full system speed. AL interrupted to say he had gained access to the communications of the two ships, one sounded humanoid and the other didn't.

Amy told Captain Jones to make contact with the ships and to not take any chances. The Taurus suddenly seemed to jump towards the two ships as it went to full system speed. Cmdr Thomas said he was activating the pickets in full defense mode and reminded The Taurus to activate it's friend-foe transponder so as not to be attacked by the automated system. Ted double checked that ALs transponder was activated also. Now they waited.

It was twelve minutes later when Taurus reported that it was at optimal missile range and that the two ships were not responding to hails. Taurus reported that it had a visual on both ships and the larger one was massive, at least twice the size of The Taurus. AL and Taurus both detected inbound missiles coming toward The Taurus at the same time. The Taurus fired its missiles and then disappeared as it jumped to within 100km of the biggest ship, the smaller one appeared to be out of the fight due to damage. The inbound missiles were taken out by the pickets as they approached Neptune.

All five missiles hit the big ship at the same time, or within seconds of each other, from different directions. Taurus then opened fire with it's forward guns and launched it's fighters. One of the pickets was close enough to provide a visual of the battle between Taurus and the other ship. The big ship attempted to launch it's own fighters but they were shot down quickly by Taurus' fighters. Taurus targeted the engines and weapons on the big ship. The battle only lasted about 30 minutes before the big ship no longer fired weapons. For the first time, the big ship responded to the hails from Taurus and surrendered. But the second ship also responded and said that the big ship was known to play dead then self-destruct. Taurus reported a large build up of power coming from the big ship and decided to back off from it. The big ship exploded, taking out itself and the closest picket drone. Taurus reported that it was shaken but only had minor damage to one missile launcher.

Taurus approached the smaller ship, warned them to shut down all power except life support and prepare to be boarded. The smaller ship protested this but were told that until it was proven that they were not a threat it would be best if they complied. Taurus sent two shuttles of troops to the ship's landing bay, accompanied by four fighters. As soon as the first fighter tried to land someone took a shot at it with a plasma rifle, the shot just bounced off the fighter and caused more damage to the craft in the bay. The fighter never touched down, it just rotated to face the shooter and a small barrel came out of the nose and fired. The round hit the shooter and continued on out through the side of the ship. There was no further display of resistance. While this was going on, Taurus reported that it had located a life pod from the large ship and would capture it but not bring it aboard.

Once the two shuttles of troops landed and discharged their cargo of thirty troops in full battle armor, the commanding officer of the small ship presented himself, surrendered, and apologized for the attack on the fighter. The officer in charge just nodded and escorted him to one of the shuttles to speak with Captain Jones, on the Taurus, and Amy, on AL, at the same time.

The ship's officer identified himself as Captain Turrini of the Organo Protectorate and said that he had already sent out a call for re-enforcements and aid. Then he asked why his ship was boarded. Captain Jones told him since he and the other ship had brought a battle to this system both were considered hostile until proven different. Amy added that if Captain Turrini was peaceful then he had nothing to worry about, they would provide what help was needed to get him back to his own area of space.

After talking with Captain Turrini, Captain Jones asked if he could either visit the ship or if Turrini would accept an invitation to visit the Taurus. Jones also offered Turrini assistance with repairs and had the troops return to Taurus. Captain Jones arrived about an hour later via shuttle and was greeted by Captain Turrini.

"Greeting Captain Jones, I apologize again for the attack on your craft. The ship's internal comm. system was not working and the order to stand down not heard in the launch bay." Turrini said.

"No damage done, except you lost a man that you most likely could use. Mistakes happen. I would personally like to welcome you to the Sol system. I took the liberty of bringing a couple of my maintenance people with me to aid you in repairs, I can also offer a tow to our repair facility if needed." Jones replied.

Their conversation was interrupted by a massager. After reading the message, Turrini told his bridge to acknowledge the message and to cancel the request for assistance. Turrini then asked if the repair facility could be used and if there were facilities available for his crew. Jones told him that some type of arrangements could be made and that at the present time there weren't R&R facilities available but the crew was welcome to visit the surface, accompanied by security of course. Turrini accepted the offer and Jones called his ship to tractor them to Mars, and to notify Amy of the arrival.