Leaguer's Collision
1
Charles Flores hovered above the surface of the Moon, his suit's field glowing harshly in the vacuum. He finished placing the last link of the new sensor array he had constructed with help from the artificial intelligence housed in his armor.
Flores hoped to use it to boost the range of his internal detectors so that he could detect anomalies in the inner planetary system to better safeguard the Earth. Two weeks ago an asteroid had fallen towards his home. He had narrowly averted it by almost burning out his suit's primary weapon.
The omniwave wasn't designed to fire blasts so close together.
He had built the sensor array out of the remains of the giant iron rock, manufacturing the parts as quickly as he could with the limited help his suit could provide.
Flores connected to array, powering it up with the power cell he had built. System sorted through the input, categorizing it from trivial to extremely important.
One item marked important was a pair of explosions in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Two masses broke their orbit to fall towards the Earth, much like the one that Flores had already dealt with.
There was no way he could stop them with what he had.
Still, he had to try. He was a Leaguer and it was his duty.
2
System fed trajectories to Flores as he kicked into high gear towards the masses. The further away he intercepted the two stampeding asteroids, the more time he had to deal with them.
It couldn't be a coincidence that two rocks would start towards Earth so soon after he had averted the first one.
Something had caused this.
He couldn't worry about that yet. He had to stop the immediate threat first. Then he could look for the cause. It didn't matter that it was something he should have done after the first asteroid instead of assuming it was a natural disaster.
The armor had that one major weapon, force screen manipulators, a hyper-jump generator, and a gravity generator for sublight travel, and of course, System. As Flores roared along, he ordered a digital countdown to keep track of how much time he had before the destruction of all life on Earth. Then he had System go over possible solutions to force the two giant projectiles off their current track to impact something else with less harmful results.
System kicked out a number of solutions, some more workable than others. It thought it could fire three blasts from the main gun before its workings exploded, terminating the armor. That would stop one of the flying mountains. The other one would crash into the East Coast and still destroy everything caught in the sudden wave of destruction erupting from the Atlantic.
He promised himself an upgrade in his offensive capability after this was over, one way or the other.
Leaguer flew against the nearest asteroid, searching for a fault line. He needed to crack this pumpkin as fast as possible to give himself the luxury of more time. He used the field manipulators to begin boring through the hard rock to the center of mass. System gave him a depth reading as he went after his target.
Leaguer's field had formed giant claws to help him dig. The suit increased his strength, while System pointed the path of least resistance. It took him precious moments to cut through to the target point. When he reached the correct depth, he took a moment to collect his thoughts before firing the wave in the center of the asteroid. The spherical blast erupted, splintering the celestial hammer into deadly shrapnel that impacted against the other stone bullet in passing.
Flores waited for the AI to boot back up, glad of the limited protection the armor gave him even when it was down. His sensors came back on line first, then the gravity generator that allowed him to fly. His field snapped on at low power. It recharged as he flew after the other asteroid.
He definitely needed to add some offensive weapons to his resources.
Leaguer caught up with the other asteroid as his suit's power output crept back to normal. He used System to locate stress points as he landed on the surface. He thought the rock's orbit had been broken by something unnatural. The last piece of evidence was a huge crater at the stern of the flying wrecking ball.
Flores floated to the spot indicated by System. It was deep in the crater caused by whatever had thrown the rock from its orbit. Cracks in the asteroid was highlighted by the AI on the inner surface of his visor.
Leaguer inserted his field into the lines. He bunched the field together to rip at the stone. Fragments tore from the tenuous gravity well in lazy arcs as the field ripped at the rock. A fissure widened into a full blown canyon.
Flores pushed into the nascent cavern, widening it by pushing the rock apart with all the strength his armor's sensors could channel against the walls. The asteroid seemed to be splitting along the line of resistance he was following.
Put too much push on this one, Flores thought as he dug in deeper.
Leaguer asked System to begin designing a small weapon array to add to his suit. His field projectors were supposed to restrain any offenders he encountered, while the wave gun totally destroyed things at ground zero.
He needed a workable medium to deal with this new menace. System could probably give him a few designs from the manual that would fit the bill.
Other leaguers surely had loaded pieces of weaponry on the planets they protected just as Flores loaded whatever he came across while protecting the Earth.
Flores asked System for means to move asteroids of the bulk he was dealing with along with the weapon array.
Maybe it would kick out the face of his new enemy.
Leaguer reached the center of the hurling planetoid. System posted the information he had requested on his visor.
"Save it," said Flores, after a quick glance. "I'll look at it when we are done with this."
System dropped the files in a folder. Its attention returned to the interior of the cavern. It marked several fracture points for exploitation.
Flores pushed against the stone, moving to point blank range. He closed his eyes, even though System would dampen the wave gun flash automatically. He triggered the blast. The spherical flare vaporized the nearby stone as it shredded the interior of the cavern. The asteroid came apart like tissue paper under the violent assault.
Leaguer floated helplessly as System struggled to come back on line. It rebooted as fast as a snail, but it did reboot.
Flores called up the saved file, asking for a best guess from the collated memory. System spat a pocket battleship at the top of the list. Different configurations, but same result. A sighting would identify the subject and sphere of influence.
Right before Flores ripped it apart with his armor's augmented strength.
System brought the field to full power as Flores directed the armor into the Asteroid Belt. A downloaded plotter allowed him to avoid the swirling rocks as he soared forward. If there was a ship lurking about, it was cloaked from normal observation. Flores used that to narrow his memory search.
3
Leaguer avoided the spiraling rocks as he soared through the Asteroid Belt. System scanned the local space. An inset flashed every ship in its memory as it looked for the right one in its scanners. A ship that big had to be hiding behind a massive light distortion. Jupiter and Mars threw reflected sunlight along the Belt, casting long shadows on the orbiting stones. The technology should have cast prints across the spectrum.
Leaguer hovered above the horizon of the Belt. System was blank across the board.
Flores was not ready to admit defeat. There had to be some kind of clue as to where that ship was hiding. He refused to believe that three planet killers had broken orbit within a few weeks of each other and took off for the only inhabited planet in the system. It was especially unbelievable because of the crater formed by the pushing blast on the second asteroid.
That ship had to be here to keep watch on the rocks when they destroyed the Earth. They would want to move in quick to take over for the extinct human race. A system on the edge of the Milky Way was not important except for jumping across the void to the next galaxy in the local group.
Going the other way, Earth was a stepping stone to move deeper into the Milky Way, depending on where the explorers were going.
Flores landed on one of the bigger rocks. He asked for plot points for the planet killers. The red lines on his visor directed his gaze to a spot a few hundred yards away. System detected nothing.
Flores took to the air, angry at himself. He flew to a small asteroid nearby. He grabbed the rock in his force generators, and flung it like a giant fastball through the empty space that was the point of origin for the planet killers. He was surprised to see accelerated light slicing the rock into pieces.
System settled on a profile after it had analyzed the beam.
Flores hefted another small asteroid, flinging it with his gravity controlling strength. He watched as it sailed into the System indicated spot. Another high power laser sliced into the rock, dividing it into sections.
Space distorted as the ship activated its drive. The signal was instantly turned into a ghost image for Leaguer to track. The three forward turrets fired to keep the agent away as it backed into a straight line run out of the solar system.
Flores easily dodged through the volley, force field surrounding him in a glowing bubble. The armor carried him through the composite steel, a bullet that shredded the material on impact. The golden hero let countermeasures stop the atmospheric release as he headed for the bridge to see the captain of the ship.
System gave him directions as security forces fired energy accelerators at his field. He bulled through the improvised blockades, hurling the vaguely humanoid frogs out of his way. His field absorbed the lasers, channeling them into the floor and walls.
Blast doors closed to keep Flores out of the command center. He tried to roll the doors back, but was unable to budge the heavy metal. Security surrounded him. Lasers flared against his protection. Leaguer pressed himself against the wall. The redirected energy sliced ribbons out of the surrounding deck and any defender who strayed too close.
Flores took to the air, smashing the star sailors out of his way. If he wanted to talk to these people, maybe he should put a stop to their ship. He headed for Engineering with lightning speed.
=Warp jump imminent,= warned System as the agent descended and flashed to the stern of the ship.
Flores nodded as he smashed through a small knot of guards trying to keep him away from his prize. A giant hand projected in front of him to hold the closing blast doors out of his way.
Should have closed these first.
He slipped pass the door, sweeping the engineers clear of their work stations with gold fists. He had System mark the control panels, as he piled the star travelers against the sealed doors.
Time for some creative programming skills.
Flores, with System's assistance, worked the ship's computer surfaces over. It was nothing for him to dump out all navigation coordinates, scramble the instruments to acquire new data, and plot a course out of the solar system with no way to return. He set a timer as he opened the doors up.
He heard the engines rev up on their new course as he flew for the rip in the hull. He barely paused as he smashed through the regrouped security teams. He sailed through the hole and out into space.
He hovered in place as the ship charged up to the jump threshold and crashed into hyperspace. When they exited, they would be truly lost until they came across someone who could give them directions back to wherever they needed to be.
Hopefully it would be enough of a warning for future advance members of their species.
epilogue
Charles Flores stood on the Moon, surrounded by his suit's golden aura. System was interfaced with the array he had set up, storing any anomalies that might appear beyond the inner planets. He had already planned to set up another array on Io, and one of Neptune's moons. Several relay beacons would feed information back to the Moon, which would send it to System for evaluation.
It wasn't fool proof by any means, but it was the best he could do at the moment with his available resources.
Flores had already rifled System's memory for small weapons systems he could incorporate without too many problems. One was even a variation of the Leaguer's field extenders. He had placed that at the top of his list so that he would have something in the middle ground.
Extending and sculpting his field, and firing his wave gun, had their places but just being able to knock a hole in something was also useful when it was necessary.
Flores took to the air. The Earth was a blue ball rolling through the starry expanse. He smiled as he headed for home. A standard report had been filed with HQ, but none of the other inhabitants needed to know how close the human race had come to being wiped out by another species who wanted to clear the ecosphere and start over with its own unique guidelines for the perfect planet.
Leaguer descended to the Earth, heading for his home in Church Hill.