Battle of Sol

by Lee Guo

  Yamato nodded, and Captain Rogers moved back towards the forward section of the bridge.

  Should he continue attacking the TPCs? His fighter strikes and pulsar beam strikes were doing nothing. What the hell were those TPCs made of??

  “Computer,” he said, “commence deep scan of the enemy’s tachyon pulse cannon arrays.”

  “Scanning,” said the computer. “Scan complete. Accepting further inquiries.”

  “What is the molecular composition of the TPC arrays?” said Yamato.

  “The three TPC arrays are composed of unknown meta metals.”

  “What type of meta metals?” asked Yamato.

  “An unknown molecular substance.”

  “What is this unknown molecular substance?”

  “Unknown. Scans cannot identify its exact molecular construct. It is, however, capable of channeling energy to make itself more durable.”

  “Some type of powered armor?” asked Yamato.

  “Unknown at this time,” said the computer.

  Yamato blanched. “Display the most damaged tachyon pulse cannon array on the main hologram display.”

  “Displaying.”

  A massive dish appeared holographically in front of Yamato. Numerous scorch marks and craters were on the TPC’s surface, but other than that, it didn’t seem the slightest impaired. How many more bombs and pulsar beam strikes would it take to utterly destroy it?

  He didn’t know. He did know that he was wasting his time — and his fleet’s firepower — when they could be devoted elsewhere. What to do, now? It looked like he ought to —

  “Sir!” said one of the sensor lieutenants. “The Centauri’s Sorrow!”

  He gazed at one of his star fortresses — Gods damn! — and saw that its shields were nearly depleted.

  In fact, its shield gage was at 1%.

  Holy mother, have mercy on us.

  Within seconds, that same 1% becoming zero, and the first of two human star fortresses lost its shields.

  And then… Yamato watched the devastation as it came.

  The rampant battle raged above the wormhole exit. Everywhere, ships and stationary units fired at each other.

  Human Artemis and Warhammer capital ships fired with their plasma cannons at enemy capital ships, while staying out of range of the enemy fortress. Human Pulsar class battlecruisers, also out of range of the enemy fortress, pummeled their long-ranged pulsar beams at that same enemy fortress in conjunction with both human star fortresses.

  The enemy fortress and its capital ship fleet, on the other hand, concentrated their firepower at the human star fortress Centauri’s Sorrow. For many minutes, the Centauri’s Sorrow fought vehemently and courageously, but finally, the Centauri’s Sorrow’s shields flickered and died to the enemy’s overwhelming onslaught.

  The enemy took full advantage of this opportunity. It was what they had been waiting for.

  Gigantic amounts of enemy fire poured into the Centauri’s Sorrow’s armor and hull — Enemy grazer beams slashed into its armor. Enemy tachyon pulses slammed into the shieldless human star fortress, demolecularizing vast areas of its outer armor. But like the enemy star fortress, but to a lesser degree, the Centauri’s Sorrow was still a fortress and it had so much armor.

  Many areas of its outer hull exploded as grazer beams slashed in. Sensor blisters were annihilated. Weapon blisters, especially point defense laser mounts, were utterly demolecularized. Within two minutes of shieldless combat, the Centauri’s Sorrow lost 15% of its ship-killer plasma cannons, reducing the total amount of fortress-sized plasma cannons to 85 out of its original 100 cannons. Luckily, its two pulsar guns did not get neutralized — they were heavily armored…

  Those two pulsar guns kept firing, hoping to do something to that Argonan star fortress. But the enemy fortress kept simply shrugging it off…

  Flag Bridge, Federation Battlecruiser Carpathia, above the wormhole exit

  Yamato cringed upon seeing an enemy tachyon pulse slam into the unshielded Centauri’s Sorrow and demolecularize a thousand tons of armor plating.

  He cringed some more when 200 fortress-sized grazer beams pummeled like a staccato of light-speed bullets into the Centauri’s Sorrow’s armor, each beam desperately trying to dig further into its hull than the one before it.

  Yamato stood there in the middle of the flag bridge, watching, scanning, and completely clueless as to what to do next. Instead of firing on the enemy fortress’s TPCs, which was doing nothing, he had ordered his weapons on all his units to return their fire back onto the fortress as a whole, and now his pulsar beams also pummeled the enemy fortress’s armor — but it had so much armor — and it all seemed futile.

  Should I attack the enemy warship fleet instead?

  The holomap showed more and more enemy capital ships coming out of the wormhole exit completely uncontested, and they coalesced into a significant force now that all his fire was directed at the immortal enemy fortress.

  What do I do?

  My pulsar beam and plasma dart fire is not wrecking the enemy fortress’s armor at a significant pace. If I switch all my fire onto the enemy ships, it’ll be like giving up on destroying the enemy fortress. Yet if I don’t, I may not destroy anything…

  Certainly, the rate in which we’re killing each other is on the enemy’s side. Their weapons are taking out tons of armor out of our shieldless battlefortress. Meanwhile, our weapons are doing next to nothing to their battlefortress. Without shields, my units are at a disadvantage. That is… if I continue pursuing a fortress vs fortress duel.

  But what if I switch fire onto the enemy ships? Then, by the time the battle ends, the enemy battlefortress will have destroyed both of our star fortresses and we’ll have done nothing to our opponent’s fortress. But at least we’ll have wrecked a lot of their warship fleet.

  Yamato sat there, thinking. No, I must keep trying to take down that enemy fortress. I must find some way… even if it appears there is no way. That’s the only way I can win this battle and repel the invaders from this system as well as take the fight back to Alpha Centauri…

  And eventually winning the war.

  But how?

  Wing Commander’s Cockpit, Fighter 001, rearming inside the Fleet Carrier Enterprise

  The times had long passed when Trevor would fret over losing members of his wing. Now, the phenomenon was a mere number, a numb fact of what was simple reality.

  It had happened so much that he wasn’t even tempted to blame himself anymore. It was still devastating, but it was just there, like a wound — a numbing sensation that had destroyed all the painful nerve cells and was now so terrible it was painless.

  And so Trevor sat there in his cockpit, sighing.

  He turned his head and gazed at the 3 other remaining members of his Wing on his Wing health display — Hotshot, Rogue, and Mirage. They were all that was left, from the original 16 that had begun the battle.

  12 others had bought it. 12 greenies that would never see home, again —

  — Suddenly new icons, new fighters, popped up in his Wing health display.

  What the hell?

  Trevor blinked and watched in amazement as new fighter icons appeared on his squadron display — each with status information — shield, armor health, ammo status, structural integrity status, propulsion and power core status… everything!

  He counted a total of four more fighters to add to his original 4 which included himself, making the total number of members within his Wing now at 8. Where had the new extra four come from?

  He read their call signs, half expecting to see old members of his Wing appear, but no — they were all new. Diamond. Steel. Mace. And Prey.

  He punched a button, giving him a channel to all ‘members’ of his wing. “Who are you guys?” asked Trevor.

  “Well, what do you know? We’re with the legendary Sandy Gray. Good things gonna happen,” said an unknown masculine voice. “Heya. I’m Mace.”

  “Where did you come from?” aske
d Trevor.

  “We’re beta wing. Well, all that’s left of it,” said Prey.

  “Beta wing?” said Trevor. “What happened to your Wing Commander?”

  “Maniac bought it,” said Prey. “So now we’re being reassigned to you guys. Wassup, I see a lot of ladies here. I can sense when I’m around good looking chicks.”

  “Hi!” said Hotshot. “Good to have you boys with us!”

  “It’s actually not that great,” said Prey. “We lost a lot of good men in order to get the CAG to dump us into a new wing. That last attack on the TPC really killed a lot of us. Maniac was so boss but even he couldn’t run away from those pd lasers.”

  Trevor nodded, fully knowing that no one would see him nod. “I understand,” he said. “Maniac… was a long time friend of mine… I know what it’s like to lose friends like him.”

  “Then you know how pissed off we are at that star fortress,” said Prey. “I wish we could find a way to take it down, but it seems like every time we get a new idea, the bad guys have a counter to it.”

  “Then,” said Rogue, “let’s do our best next time we go on a bombing run and bomb it to oblivion!”

  “Agreed,” said Prey.

  “Agreed,” said Diamond.

  “But how?” said Steel.

  “That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it?” said Rogue.

  “We’ll find a way,” said Trevor, now optimistic. “I’m certain the fleet commander will eventually have something in mind for our next attack. By the way, how are all you new guys doing with your rearming?”

  “We’re about 70% done,” said Prey.

  “Good, good. No stragglers I see. We’re almost finished, too,” said Trevor. “Well… if the CAG wants us to be all one wing, then let’s do that. Let’s get this show on the road, boys.”

  Suddenly, things didn’t seem so gloomy, anymore.

  Volumes of enemy fire crashed into the human star fortress Centauri’s Sorrow. Eventually, some of that fire penetrated into the crucial inner areas of the human fortress’s hull. Entire decks were turned into plasma or demolecularized. Control nodes were damaged. Power conduits began leaking plasma as they were penetrated by enemy fire. Enemy lasers created gigantic explosions that blasted off fortress armor.

  The Centauri’s Sorrow was a fortress, and thus had fortress-level armor, but even this was not enough to stop the sheer volume of fire from the enemy fortress and their fleet. Sadly, the Centauri’s Sorrow did not have anywhere near the amount of armor like the Argonan star fortress.

  Slowly, slowly, parts of the Centauri’s Sorrow was chipped away. Here and there, entire sections either lost power or stopped operating. Point defense laser platforms stopped shooting. Ship-killer plasma cannons powered down or lost connection with the main computer.

  The Centauri’s Sorrow’s main shield generators tried to reactivate its shields, to block the incoming shots, but they were waging war against a storm. Every time a section got its shield back online, incoming fire from enemy would take it out and send its saturation back to 0.

  Meanwhile, concentrated human fire did little against the enemy fortress’s supermassive armor. Certainly, some of that armor was blasted away, but there was always more under it.

  Time was not on humanity’s side…

  Flag Bridge, Federation Battlecruiser Carpathia, above the wormhole exit

  Yamato sat impatiently in the fleet commander’s chair within the confines of the raucous flag bridge. In front, Captain Rogers barked orders at the bridge crew. On the holomap, Yamato saw his flagship fire pulsar beams. Each beam traveled the distance to the enemy fortress.

  The drone of his flagship’s antimatter generators mixed with the whine of the pulsar gun’s capacitors as it quickly recharged for another round. And he saw another volley of pulsar beams come out of his flagship and hit the enemy fortress’s incredibly thick armor and create, at best, a crater within a crater on a mountain of armor—

  And still!… No ideas came to him on how win the battle. He was desperately seeking answers, but they slipped his grasp.

  What is the damn solution?

  He needed an answer that would destroy the enemy battlefortress before it destroyed both of his fortresses. If he somehow destroyed the enemy fortress after it had already destroyed his two fortresses, it would be the same as losing the battle of the wormhole gate. Without his two fortresses, or even without one, he had no chance of repelling the invaders from taking control of the wormhole exit.

  Or did he? Yamato blinked. What if he was wrong? What if there was some chance of still holding the wormhole gate even if he lost both his fortresses?

  Hmm…

  It was something that he had to consider, especially since losing both fortresses was likely to happen. Could he still fight and what odds did he have even if he lost both?

  He did have five pulsar class battlecruisers, all of which could out-range enemy capital ships as well as the enemy battlefortress. He frowned. Was that enough to do anything?

  Of course it was. Five pulsar guns that could fire outside the range of the enemy’s main weapons was an incredible strategic asset. Theoretically, he could order his Pulsar-class battlecruisers to stay right outside the enemy’s main weapons’ range even as the enemy was moving towards him, and perpetually fire at the enemy outside their range. And since nothing the enemy had… could touch his pulsar battlecruisers, he could theoretically destroy a vast portion of the enemy fleet even after the enemy was given free reign throughout the system.

  He may not be able to hold the wormhole exit with these five pulsars, but he could certainly destroy a lot of the enemy as they attempted to destroy vital human manufacturing bases within the system…

  But — could he kill the enemy ships fast enough? — before the enemy had blasted away all of Earth and its orbital manufactories?

  Yamato didn’t know.

  But it was appealing, in a sense, to know that he could resort to a tactic that enabled him to fire on the enemy while not receiving any damage back.

  Why not do that, right now?

  No! — He shook his head — that contingency was for when he lost all his battlefortresses and had to give up the wormhole gate battle. He didn’t have to resort to that if there was any chance he could prevent the enemy from breaking out of the exit.

  As long as his two fortresses weren’t dead, there was still a chance he could defeat the enemy fortresses before that happened.

  But how to keep them alive?

  Back to square one, thought Yamato, frowning.

  For the longest moment, he sat, searching. His eyes eventually fell on the holographic representation of the enemy fortress. Something about the numerous human pulsar beams as they smashed into the big battlestation gave him a clue… but as he thought about it, the solution slipped away. The clue or feeling led to nowhere.

  Something about the pulsar beams from all five of my pulsar class battlecruisers…

  He had to dig deeper!

  “Computer,” said Yamato, “intensify scans of the enemy battlefortress and display the 3 dimensional image of fortress directly in front of me. I want to see it in a high definition detail.”

  “Processing,” said the computer. “Processing complete. Displaying.”

  Two feet in front of him, a high definition 3D hologram of the enemy fortress appeared. He saw… all 8 bulbous arms as well as its massive center segment. He saw craters on all areas of its armor, a product of all the attacks by human fighter bombs and pulsar beams. He saw non-functioning point defense and shipkiller armaments on the surface of its arms and center segment. The fortress was damaged, but 70% of its weapons were still effective. There were also small drive rings on its body. The fortress moved at 0.005 c, probably its maximum speed. Good. As long as it was moving that slow, it could be easily targeted by human weapons.

  As Yamato gazed at the thing, he became more curious than ever. Which parts of it were still operational and which parts were damaged? Surely
, not all parts were working 100% even in something as well armored as that.

  “Computer,” announced Yamato, “analyze the damage caused by our fire so far. Show which parts of the enemy fortress that have been neutralized.”

  “Analyzing…” said the computer, “analysis complete. Displaying.”

  Suddenly, the 3D hologram changed. A vast color scheme overlapped its entire image. Red areas meant it was heavily damage, yellow areas were slightly damaged, and as for green… undamaged.

  His eyes perused the detailed hologram of the fortress. Searching. Analyzing. Cataloging. “Computer, highlight sections relating to weapons.”

  “Highlighting,” said the computer.

  Areas of the hologram’s outer surface suddenly glowed blue. Yamato could see all weapon emplacements on the surface. A full 30% of them were damaged, and glowed red, but the rest glowed blue like the color of the sky.

  Hmm… 30 percent of all its shipkiller and point defense grazers have been disabled. Interesting…

  “Computer,” said Yamato, “highlight all areas relating to power flow and power generation.”

  “Highlighting. Displaying,” said the computer.

  Now, a vast network of power nodes and power lines running deep within its structure glowed blue like a spider web. Some of those conduits were tinted in red, meaning they had been severed, but only a minor portion of the overall network were like that.

  What was even more important was that the power cores of the alien fortress glowed blue. These massive power structures were the deepest objects embedded within the fortress’s structure. 3 fully operational cores pumped energy to all areas of the enemy fortress. Armor surrounded these chambers… obviously, it would take the greatest amount of human fire to damage these objects.

  Yamato grunted. If only we could damage these power cores easily, we’d solve the whole riddle. Sadly, we’d have to destroy the entire fortress and all its armor before our fire can reach these sections…

  Wait. Do we?

  Gods, if only I had some way to dig a path into the enemy’s most crucial areas… like drilling a tunnel or a hole through only one area of armor… instead of having to destroy all the layers of armor on every side of the fortress…