by Lee Guo
He waited for the holographic sensor display to clear up…
And waited…
And waited…
“Someone reset the main holomap!” yelled Yamato.
“Resetting, sir!”
A second later, the main holomap turned back on and Yamato could suddenly see. He sighed in relief. The targeted star fortress was still there, and completely intact. Structural integrity data about the star fortress immediately poured out. He quickly glanced at the data.
All armor undamaged. All weapons fully functional. All power flows undamaged. Both antimatter cores are at 100%. And all antimatter storage pods undamaged…
Yamato wiped the sweat from his brow.
But when he gazed at the fortress’s shield saturation display, he saw the impact of the attack. The fortress’s shields, previously at 80%, were now down to 31%! That massive ten gigaton blast from the K-ship had taken his fortress’s shields down by 50%!
Yamato thought about it. In a way, it was good as it got. What did he expect? Did he expect fortress to go through the blast completely undamaged?
A 50% loss in shield saturation… the fortress’s shield generators should be able replenish it in no time.
In fact, the display suddenly showed the shield level rise from 31% to 32%.
That’s the way to go! He reminded himself that the fortress had six mark 10 shield generators. And at the rate in which the enemy was sporadically shooting at his fortresses, that shield saturation display should rise more than fall.
Unless… the enemy intended to follow up with more attacks on this particular star fortress’s shields.
But how? Yamato wondered. Would the enemy suddenly target his star fortresses with all their units that are outside the exit?
Did they intend to follow up the K-ship strike with more K-ships?
In a way, Yamato thought he was lucky. He had destroyed three of the four k-ships. And in a way, he felt he was unlucky. If he had poured just a bit more fire at the fourth K-ship… if he had sent a bit more missiles at the K-ship — then it probably wouldn’t have made it to the fortress.
There were many ways to view what had happened.
Yamato snapped himself out of that retrospective reverie. He had to concentrate what was going on at hand. What had happened was already over. Now, he had to focus on what could happen.
But… in order to figure out what the enemy intended to do next, he had to examine what they had already done… to find their general patterns and overall strategy.
And so once again, Yamato folded his hands together under his chin. He sat in his seat and dove into his mind, searching…
What had happened in the battle so far…
First, the enemy came out with a massive minesweeper missile push that successfully depleted my mines down to 40%.
Then, the enemy threw out their minesweeper dreadnoughts and minesweeper destroyers to kill the remainder of my mines down to 3%.
Next, the enemy throws waves of ship-killer missiles in combination with a minor capital ship push. Their ship-killer missiles take down a significant portion of my warships and my stationary laser turrets but we successfully destroy all 10 of their capital ships that came out at the same time as their missiles.
Then, in the fourth phase, the enemy pushes with their main capital ship fleet, usually 3 capital ships and 5 destroyers at a time, by utilizing the maximum width of the wormhole exit. We utterly decimate their main capital ship push, mostly because we’re able to take out ship after ship at incredible speeds, and that’s mostly because of our pulsar guns on our star fortresses and pulsar-class battlecruisers. Still, the enemy is able to accumulate a significant force outside of the wormhole, which is 12 sharks and 6 megastars, but at the cost of losing over 25 capital ships in this phase alone.
Finally, in the fifth phase, they push out with four k-ships. Ah! The reason the enemy pushed out with their k-ships after their capital ships and destroyers have already come out is so that their capital ships and destroyer screens can offer point defense to protect their k-ships against our missiles. Now I see. If the enemy k-ships had come out first, we would have destroyed them totally with our full missile attack. Instead, they were able to protect enough of their k-ships with point defense to the point of letting one of them ram our fortress.
And… while we were shooting at their k-ships, the enemy continues to push out with their capital ships exactly like the fourth phase… and continues shooting at our capital ships with their capital ships.
In total, we’ve lost 8 Artemis-class battlecruisers and 3 Warhammer-class superdreadnoughts so far. The enemy has lost 17 Shark-class battlecruisers and 8 Megastar-class superdreadnoughts. Most of the shields on our remaining 13 Artemises and 4 Warhammers have been depleted. We’re fighting with armor only. The exception is our 5 Pulsar-class battlecruisers, which are undamaged because they are firing from outside of the enemy’s range. Our stationary laser turrets have been smashed. We only have 32 left, and those are heavily damaged and unshielded. As for our star fortresses, one is at 80% shield saturation while the other one that suffered the k-ship hit is now down to 34% shield saturation.
What is the pattern? What is the enemy trying to do? What have they been trying to do all along? And what are they going to do?
Well, I know what they’ve been trying to accomplish. They want to gain supremacy over the exit… by pushing out with as many of their capital ships as they can in as short of a time as they can. But I don’t think they knew how strong our pulsar guns are. They underestimated the destructive power of our star fortress’s dual pulsar guns and the pulsar guns on board our 5 pulsar-class baltlecruisers. If they had known, they would have tried something different. I don’t think they intended to lose 35 capital ships.
So what is the enemy going to do now? Are they going to still push with battlecruisers and superdreadnoughts? If so, I think we have a good chance of holding the exit, even though one of our star fortresses has lost a lot of its shield. Of course, we cannot hold the exit if the enemy continues pushing with their battlecruisers and superdreadnoughts indefinitely. Eventually, we’ll be overrun. But that’s only if they have infinite amounts of battlecruisers and superdreadnoughts. On that thought, I wonder just how many battlecruisers and superdreadnoughts does the enemy have? How many have they created and are lined up on the other side in Alpha Centauri?
It can’t be infinite. And if it’s not infinite… then they must realize this strategy is not working. And… if they do realize it, then they must be switching to a new a strategy. But what???
What about their Titans? We’ve seen none of their Titans so far. How many Titans do they have in total, and how many are going to come out?
Probably all of them.
That’s it!
The next phase is… pushing out with their Titans… It should happen anytime, now!
Yamato opened his eyes and put his hands on his lap. The enemy’s current strategy is not working. They’ve also tried their k-ship attack. What’s next?
I bet the enemy is about to push out with their Titans and all the tachyon pulse cannons included on each Titan. I bet they intend to overwhelm our star fortresses with these shield penetrating TPCs but — Yamato grinned — I have a surprise waiting the moment their Titans fire their TPCs. I can have surprises for the enemy, too.
Wing Commander’s Cockpit, Fighter 001, rearming inside Fleet Carrier Enterprise’s hangar bay
Newt. Jasper. Wallrock.
Holiday. Meer. Sen.
Foxy. Bridgewater.
All dead. All dead, gods damn it!
The word Trevor did not say to himself… the phrase he tried as hard not to think about… but he nevertheless did — was — because of me!
I’m the one who led them into that point defense fire. I’m the one who ordered them to charge. They’re all dead because of me!
Trevor slammed his gloved fist into his cockpit’s navigational panel. A metallic bang sounded throughout the
cockpit.
Gods damn it! I’m the one to blame. I’m the one who failed them!
It’s all because of me!
He sat there, waiting. He didn’t know what to do. He had never felt such a disappointment before. Throughout his life, he was usually carefree. But now, he felt like crying.
He felt like doing something desperate to make up for all those lost lives. He felt like —
His private communicator beeped. “Sandy?” said a female voice in his helmet.
“Laurie?” said Trevor. “What are you doing talking to me?”
“I’m being rearmed, too, in the other hangar bay. I figured we could chat. How are you?”
Trevor was silent. Then, “Half my wing is dead.”
“Oh gods, are you ok?”
“How… how did you know I’m not ok?”
“We’ve been dating for two weeks. I know you. I know how much you care about your troops, about your responsibilities. So tell me the truth.”
Trevor let out his breath. “No, I’m not ok. I’ve never felt this not ok. Everything is wrong. Everything shouldn’t have happened.”
“It’s not your fault, Sandy.”
Trevor mentally exploded. “How do you know that for sure? How do you know it’s not because of me, or because they wanted to be like me, or because they learned what I taught them and then because of that they died? How do you know I’m not the direct cause for their death… for my failure?”
The woman on the other line was silent, then said, “You don’t know. You may never know the exact cause. That’s life, Sandy. That’s the puzzle of living. There is some things you may never know. What’s important is that you tried your best.”
“But I did try my best, and… it failed!”
“And that’s ok, my darling,” she murmured. “Failure is acceptable. Failure is not the end of everything. You don’t need me to lecture you on that — you’ve lived life, you should know by now. The Great Sandy Gray should know that failure is normal...”
Trevor was silent. I’m not great. I’m not the lie that everyone thinks I am. I’m weak. I can’t live like the person everyone wants me to be. The person who took down that Titan a month ago, that’s not what I am now. I’ve become someone else — someone who can’t live with disappointments and risks. Especially, someone who can’t live with failure.
That’s what he wanted to say. Instead, he said, “I don’t want to talk anymore.”
There was silence on the other side. Trevor was about to cut the connection when Laurie shouted out, “Sandy Trevor Gray, are you telling me after all your struggles, all those years of service to the fleet, all the years you’ve fought and smiled at death and won, that now you’ve become a coward? Are you telling me the man that I loved, the daredevil with no fear whatsoever has now become a slave to his own performance?”
Trevor didn’t say anything. Her words bounced in his head, striking at his very core, and he was paralyzed until those words ran their course.
“The bottom line, Sandy,” said Laurie, “is that you can either sulk in your cockpit forever worrying about past performance, or you can rise from all that sorrow to become the man you always were, the man that strikes fear into the enemy and performs miracles, the man that always looks forward into the future and focuses on his duties. Which man will you be, Sandy?”
Trevor — no, Sandy — said nothing. Neither did the woman on the other line. A thick silence filled the comm line. Then, Sandy rose from the ashes. “I knew some of them were going to die. But seeing them die is not the same. It’s not something you can prepare mentally and emotionally for.” He paused. “But that’s past now,” he admitted. “I will become what I’ve always been. What happened to me, that simple hiccup, will be forgotten in the overall scheme of things. It will not change who I am or who I want to be. I will always be Sandy, fearless and proud. I will become the bringer of doom to our enemies. I am that Sandy Gray. Thank you, Laurie, for reminded me. You’re a manipulative one, but that’s why I love you.”
And I will remain Sandy Gray… until I die from it…
Flag Bridge, Federation Battlecruiser Carpathia
For the past two minutes, all was well on the flag bridge. The enemy continued pushing out with their superdreadnoughts and battlecruisers, flanked by their destroyers, and Yamato’s forces continued whittling down the ones that came out as well as the ones already out. The human Star Fortress… the one with shields down to 34%… continued having its shields rise. It was now at 42%. The enemy fired at Yamato’s star fortress sporadically — not all at once — and it was obvious to all that the status quo if left unchanged would result in a human victory.
And then everything went wrong.
Yamato glared at the holomap with a wicked sense of satisfaction. The battle so far made the human star fortresses look unbeatable — his star fortresses were true monoliths, as invincible as the enemy’s Titans in the battle that happened a month ago — perhaps even more powerful than the enemy’s Titans.
Where are the enemy’s Titans? Why won’t they finally push out with them? As long as they don’t come out, their existing fleet is mincemeat to my pulsar guns.
Yamato crossed his legs. What are they waiting for?
Are they waiting for the perfect moment when I have lost enough of my capital ships? His head twisted to another display. He scanned his surviving capital ships. He had 11 surviving Artemis-class battlecruisers, 3 Warhammer-class superdreadnoughts, and five Pulsar-class battlecruisers. He had lost 2 Artemises and 1 Warhammer in the past two minutes, but in return, he had killed 3 shark-class battlecruisers and 2 megastar-class superdreadnoughts.
In the past two minutes…
Now, the enemy had 19 Sharks and 10 Megastars surviving outside the exit — each firing back at Yamato’s units.
But nevermind that fact! The fact that he had only 14 surviving plasma-cannon-armed capital ships should be enough to persuade the enemy that now is the time to send their Titans through.
So… what was the enemy waiting for?
This is the perfect time to push! Any time from now on is the perfect time to push with their Titans.
Maybe… they’re waiting for their other capital ships to whittle down even more of my capital ships before sending their Titans. By the gods, they sure do have the numbers of capital ships already outside the exit…
Come on… what are you waiting for?
For an instant, he tried to imagine what the enemy fleet commander was thinking. My nemesis… my opponent for the last three years…
Was the lizard contemplating a new strategy or sticking with an old one?
He must realize that his current method is not viable. Continuing pushing out with battlecruisers and superdreadnoughts only means that these ships would continue falling at an astonishing rate. They are cannon fodder to my mounted pulsar guns.
And yet… the numbers of these non-Titans outside the wormhole are increasing… eventually, they’ll have enough firepower to destroy my capital ships at an even rate.
Eventually… but how far in the future would that be? Does the enemy have unlimited non-Titan capital ships?
Or maybe the enemy plans to —
“— Sir!” said sensors, awakening Yamato from his reverie. “Something is coming out! Something different!”
Yamato twisted his head to glance at the holomap… at the wormhole exit. “Oh… my… god,” he said.
Wing Commander’s Cockpit, Fighter 001, drifting outside Fleet Carrier Enterprise, above the wormhole exit
“All remaining fighter wings,” said Fleet Commander Yamato’s trembling voice in Trevor’s helmet, “begin bombing runs on the enemy fortress that’s coming out of the exit! Its designation will be fortress Alpha! Aim for its… weapon mounts and its primary power flows. Alpha’s schematics will be forwarded to your display. Godspeed!”
“More like Gods’ perverse sense of humor!” said Hotshot on the Wing net. “We have to bomb that? It looks deadly!”
“Those are our commands…” said Trevor. “All members of Alpha Wing, form up on me! If we go in, we go in together! Do you want to live forever?”
“Yes, sir!” the remaining 8 members cried.
Come on, Trevor. Think. Now is your chance. Examine that thing and find out its weakness. You’re the miracle worker… the magician. Find a way.
He looked at the 8 kilometer wide enemy star fortress on his cockpit battle map. It looked like a gigantic monstrosity. Unlike human star fortresses which were flower shaped, the thing in front of him had a massive round body and in place of petals had eight bulbous arms sticking in every direction. Trevor could only imagine the surface area on the thing and how many point defense cannons and main anti-ship laser mounts it had. And did it have tachyon pulse cannons (TPCs)? Did it have shields? No, Argonans don’t put shields on their weapons…
Maybe… maybe I can take it out like I did with the Titan… if it has TPCs that work in the same way!
As quickly as Trevor thought he might have a chance against it, reality pushed that dream away. Surely… the enemy has figured a way to prevent their own TPCs from being used against them… or maybe they no longer equipped their largest units with TPCs. Maybe they’ve done away with them altogether.
Wait… if they don’t have any more TPCs, that’s a good thing. That’d be a welcome relief.
But what if… what if it has something even worse than a TPC?
Trevor squinted his eyes to look at the schematic of the enemy star fortress. He made his display zoom in, and still he could not see any weapon mounts as large as TPCs.
Wait! There!
He saw them. The enemy fortress had three tachyon pulse cannons!
Worse, they were big… bigger than the ones mounted on the Titans he had fought a month ago!
How much power can those TPCs channel into destructive force? Then, as simple as that, the enemy star fortress immediately answered his question. It fired.
Trevor watched as a massive pulse wave emanated from the enemy star fortress’s tachyon pulse array. The wave slammed into a human Artemis-class battlecruiser. The battlecruiser was already mostly unshielded due to past enemy fire eliminating its shields, but it didn’t matter, the tachyon pulse wave penetrated whatever remnants of the human battlecruiser’s shields like it wasn’t there and then slammed into the human ship’s forward armor and hull.