Battle of Sol

by Lee Guo

  4 normal human battlecruisers as 2 were destroyed during earlier missile attack.

  1 human superdreadnought.

  3 Pulsar battlecruisers as two were lost earlier during the enemy missile attack.

  24 human destroyers as 6 were also lost during the missile attack.

  16 totally undamaged carriers.

  Flag Bridge, Federation Battlecruiser Carpathia, chasing the enemy fleet back to the wormhole exit while shooting at them outside their maximum weapon’s range

  Why are the enemy ships retreating? Yamato searched his brain, trying to find an answer.

  They’re just giving me more of their ships by extending the amount of time I’ll have… to shoot at them with my pulsars before their ships get within range of Earth and Mars. Why?

  He gazed at the enemy fleet. They were almost there… to the point where they started their advance into the human home system. As they reached the wormhole exit, the enemy ships suddenly halted and took position around the exit. Their battlecruisers and superdreadnoughts slid to points on the outside of their formation, in a shell, and their Titans were at their center, well protected, along with the wormhole exit at their center, too.

  What were they doing? And why?

  As he watched the enemy missile fleet retreat back into the wormhole towards Alpha Centauri, he suddenly blinked. He understood!

  It all has to do with the enemy’s missile fleet!

  The enemy’s missile ships! They’re going back to Alpha Centauri to reload on missiles!

  Immediately, Yamato could see two advantages for doing what they did — for retreating their whole fleet back to the wormhole exit.

  The first advantage was easy to spot. By retreating their entire fleet back to the wormhole exit, there would be less space between the location of the current combat engagement and the wormhole exit. That way, when the missile ships finished reloading with missiles in Alpha Centauri and returned to the human home system, Yamato would be directly inside their missile engagement envelope. Whereas, if the enemy capital ship fleet had remained where they were — or continued to press into the system towards Earth — there would be some time before the enemy missile ships entered missile engagement range after exiting the wormhole. In either case, Yamato would instantly know when the enemy missile fleet came out. But in the case where the frontlines were far away from the exit, Yamato would be able to perfectly time his retreat before the missile ships entered missile engagement range.

  This way — the way they had done it — Yamato would not know when to perfectly time his retreat because if he stayed too long and kept firing at the enemy capital ships above the exit, the enemy’s missile fleet could exit out the wormhole and blow Yamato out of space with their second swarm of missiles.

  The way they had done it, Yamato would have to guess when the enemy’s missile ships — with their second batch of missiles — would come out of the exit and return to Sol, and he would have to be cautious. If he waited too long… and remained there just outside of the enemy capital ship fleet’s firing range too long, he could be utterly destroyed by the second batch of missiles.

  Wicked. Yamato concluded. You know I cannot take the blow of a second batch of missiles, so you’re using the possibility of their sudden appearance and sudden attack to force me to retreat faster than I would perfectly like, so as to decrease the amount of time my Pulsars can fire at your capital ship fleet.

  There was a second advantage as well— a second reason for the enemy doing what they did.

  The second reason for doing what you did is to once again minimize the amount of time I have to shoot at your capital ship fleet with my three remaining pulsars. Because if you had advanced your capital ship fleet deeper into Sol, your second wave of reloaded missile ships would have to more distance to run to get to the front lines, thus increasing the amount of time I get to shoot at your capital ship fleet before my pulsars get destroyed by your missiles. By doing it the way you did, your missile ships would pop out of the wormhole exit and immediately get to shoot at my pulsars, thus less time has to pass before your missile ships get within range, and the quicker my pulsars get destroyed — and — the less damage your capital ship fleet receives in total.

  Of course, I’m not going to let your second wave of reloaded missile ships destroy my pulsars — now that I know you have enough firepower to blow my pulsars out of space with missiles. I’m going to retreat my pulsars before your missile ships can fire on them, and I’m going to get them within the defense of Mar’s antimissile envelope so my pulsars will sustain the least amount of damage when you DO fire your missiles at them.

  Yamato sat back and thought. So the main question comes: just how long will it take for your missile ships to reload with new missiles that you’ve got deposited in Alpha Centauri? Because that’s how long I have to fire at your capitals before I have to retreat.

  Twenty minutes? Thirty minutes?

  He sat there as he wondered and wondered…

  20 minutes later…

  Flag Bridge, Federation Battlecruiser Carpathia, shooting at the enemy fleet outside the wormhole exit

  On the main map, another enemy battlecruiser exploded. The fourth one so far since the enemy returned to the wormhole exit.

  Yet still, Yamato had not suffered one loss since the enemy’s first missile swarm finished. He gazed at his asset number screen. He still had 32 noncarrier ships, plus 16 carriers that were being rearmed with fighters far away near Mars.

  In the meantime, he had also killed an enemy superdreadnought, taking down the enemy’s numbers to 20 battlecruisers, 14 superdreadnoughts, 75 destroyers, and 5 Titans.

  Yet, he knew this success was an illusion. When the enemy’s missile ships returned to Sol, he would be forced to retreat long before that happened, and then the enemy would be given free roam, without pulsar harassment from him, all the way to Mars. Mars was right in the way between the wormhole exit and Earth, so he knew the enemy would attack Mars first; if not to get rid of its defenses, then to destroy Mar’s warship construction sites, which although being only 8% as large as Earth’s, still counted as a lot.

  Then, depending on what happened there, the enemy would go on towards Earth or fail to do so and die.

  Yet how exactly am I supposed to succeed in killing them? It’s not like my surprise behind the sun is anything major.

  Yamato wanted to keep his pulsars right outside the maximum firing range of the enemy fleet for the entire duration of their journey to Mars, but he knew that would be fatal. The enemy’s second missile swarm attack would utterly destroy his three remaining pulsars, which is why he had to get them inside Mars’s antimissile envelope before the next swarm of enemy missiles could be fired on him.

  And then there was an even greater problem. His entire strategy was to keep his Pulsars alive by using Mars’s antimissile defenses when the enemy launched their second missile swarm — that way, he could still use his pulsars to harass the enemy during their trip to Earth after leaving Mars. But the enemy didn’t really have to fire their missiles through Mars’s anti-missile defenses. In fact, they didn’t have to fire missiles at all until they wiped out everything at Mars, using their capital ship fleet. The reason Mars was only defended against a missile attack was because all the prior simulations made it seem that if the enemy were to ever win the wormhole exit engagement, their capital ship fleet would be so small that the only real threat to mars after the enemy broke out would be their missile fleet.

  How wrong the simulations were… we could never have predicted all these surprises the enemy had implemented. Their minesweeper dreadnoughts… their mobile star fortress… their overwhelming industrial output.

  And so, the problem remained. If the enemy destroyed Mars’s antimissile defenses with their capital ship fleet, how would he keep his pulsars alive from being killed by the enemy’s missiles, long enough to actually make a difference during the enemy capital ship fleet’s move towards Earth?

  As
it seemed, he would never get his pulsars within range of the enemy capital ship fleet, because the moment he did, they’d just fire their missiles at him.

  Yamato sat there, once again searching his brain for a solution. It took a long time — several minutes — but eventually, he found one.

  His carriers.

  Yes! I can use my carriers to attack the enemy’s second wave of reloaded missile ships during their journey towards Mars! Since fighter attack range is longer than the enemy’s missile attack range, my carriers will never be in trouble of being attacked by the enemy’s missiles! They can just remain outside the enemy’s missile envelope and send fighter after fighter at the enemy’s missile ships, exactly like the way my pulsars are firing at the enemy’s capital ships while being outside of the enemy capital ships’ main weapon envelope!

  I got it!

  But damn, won’t I lose a ton of fighters this way? The enemy has 39 capitals and 75 destroyers to protect their missile ships during their move towards Mars!

  But… Yamato reclined on his seat… it’s not as bad as it looks. We don’t have to send wave after wave of fighters at the enemy’s missile ships. The enemy’s missile ships are weakly armored and were never designed to withstand attacks of any sort. They were meant to shoot their missiles and retreat, not to absorb damage like their capital ships.

  Yamato sighed. So it’s decided. I know what to do, now.

  He rubbed his chin and thought it over some more. There is a danger that they might use their missiles to strike my fighters as my fighters attack their missiles ships, but I suppose it’s a danger worth risking. If I don’t do this new plan, I’ll never be able to destroy the enemy’s missiles and prevent their missiles from attacking my pulsars…

  Wing Commander’s Cockpit, Fighter 001, on board the Carrier Enterprise — near Mars’ fighter base, ready to restock with new fighters

  Trevor sat there once again in the cockpit of his Mark 9 Starfury. It all comes back to this, he thought. He was practicing breathing exercises to relax himself when his Wing Health Display beeped. When he glanced at it, he saw 12 new birds appear on it. 12 new birds to add to his original 4, making his Wing a full 16-member squadron, again.

  On his map display, he could see all 16 birds parked inside the carrier Enterprise. He knew where they were, and he knew the wing net was online.

  It’s time. Time to get this show on the road. “Good morning, everyone,” said Trevor into the wing net.

  “Wow, is this the legendary Sandy Gray?” asked one voice.

  “Yes, it is,” said Trevor Gray. “Okay. Listen newbs, this is your new wing commander. There’s no time to train you guys with exercises. So I’ll make it simple. When we get out there, there’s three things that you need to do and need to do well. We’re lucky that the enemy doesn’t have fighters or even drone fighters, or our lives would be a hell of a lot more complicated. Here are the three things: One, you need to know where you need to be to let loose your bombs onto your target. Two, you need to know the path you want to take to get there. And three, your need to know how to survive to get there and to get out. The route that you take to get out is usually not the same route you take to get there. So three is the most difficult of all of them. Sometimes the path you originally want to take cannot be done, you have to find a second path, an alternate path, or give up on the first target altogether and find a different target. That has to happen as a split second decision. You cannot take too long to decide or you’re dead meat. In fact, all of this has to happen within the span of seconds, so you need to be agile and a quick thinker.”

  “Wow, being lectured by Sandy Gray, how sweet,” said one voice.

  “What is your name?” said Trevor.

  “Victorio Bertini, sir.”

  “Listen Vic, I don’t know what they taught you in cadet school, but this is the real deal. No more simulations and exercises. I don’t know where you are in your stage of training, but from here on out, you make a mistake you die. In fact, even if you don’t make a mistake, you might still die. I’m not trying to scare you — I’m giving you the cold hard facts. We only have about sixty minutes before the big boss sends us out into the void to bomb a target, so we all need to be ready. In order to be ready, you have to be able to think cool and keep your head cool. That means getting rid of all extraneous thoughts, like all that mess you learned in cadet school. Got me?”

  “I got you, sir!”

  “Good. There’s more I need to teach all of you and we don’t have a lot of time…”

  10 minutes later…

  Flag Bridge, Federation Battlecruiser Carpathia, shooting at the enemy fleet outside the wormhole exit

  After another enemy superdreadnought exploded…

  I suppose it is time, Yamato concluded. Soon, the enemy’s missile ships are going to pop out of that wormhole. I don’t know exactly when, but if I don’t retreat outside of their attack envelope before they arrive, me and my pulsars will be dead meat.

  “All ships, full retreat towards Mars, now,” said Yamato into the fleet command line. Instantly, he watched as all the elements of his fleet began the withdrawal away from the wormhole exit, each ship heading towards the inner system where Mars was.

  Besides, I’ve done enough damage to the enemy’s capital ship lineup with my pulsars…

  Wing Commander’s Cockpit, Fighter 001, on board the Carrier Enterprise — still near Mars’ fighter base, restocking with new fighters

  5 minutes later…

  Trevor continued, “… and remember, guys, you need to watch where those enemy laser beams come from and where they go. After some time, you’ll be able to unconsciously anticipate where the next beam will go, and where it’ll hit. Those enemy point defense beams come much too fast for you to consciously dodge them, so you have to let your sub consciousness take over. At first, you can program your computer to follow a random dance pattern, but if you want to survive in the long run, you must learn where and how to dance unconsciously.”

  “Yes, sir,” said a bunch of replies from his new super greenies.

  For the first time in several long minutes, Trevor gave himself some pause, then he finalized his message, “Thanks everyone for listening to me. I know that was a lot to take in, but there’s a lot to learn. I don’t want anyone to die first thing. I want everyone to have as high a chance to survive as possible so we do as much damage to the enemy as we can. It’s our species well-being that is on the line, after all.”

  “We hear you, sir,” said someone.

  “Now rest up,” said Trevor, “and chill inside your cockpits, and let the carrier maintenance crews arm your new fighters with bombs and fuel. It’s about to get a whole lot intense when we sortie out. Write an e-letter to your loved ones, or whatever. Play some games, if your mind is restless. We’ll talk once again when we’re out of the carrier. Sandy, out.”

  When he closed the wing net, he realized for the first time in a while that everything that had happened so far would happen, again. Were his new super greenies ready? Probably not. Probably most of them would die.

  No — he didn’t want to think of that. He shook his head, trying anything to keep his mind off this possibility. His first impulse was to talk to someone. Someone who gave him hope. He opened up his computer screen and logged himself into the fleet net. Using his cockpit keyboard, he typed a query.

  Come on, come on, where are you?

  And then the answer appeared on his forward monitor.

  LAURIE TALBOT, MIA. LAST KNOWN CONTACT, 0244 HOURS. POSSIBLY DEAD.

  Dead? Thought Trevor. Dead?

  He slammed his fist on the cockpit keyboard, writhing in agony. His mate was missing!

  Damn it! She had been so good to him, and he was sure that with her skills, she’d survive all the sorties and fighting and come back to him. But she was gone. No one knew where she was. Did her fighter get shot out of the sky? Was she a floater or a streaker with disabled powerplants? Was she still in one piece?


  When she had asked the CAG before the battle to be transferred out of Trevor’s Wing, he had thought the idea was for the best. After all, it was tough on him to give orders when he was so attached to one particular member, but now he wondered if she hadn’t transferred, maybe, maybe, there would have been time to give himself a chance to say goodbye. Maybe… she wouldn’t have gone missing.

  Are you kidding yourself, Trev? Everyone in the former Wing except yourself and another had bought the farm. If Laurie had remained in your Wing, her chance of dying would have been higher, not lower.

  So where is she now?

  He entered more queries into the fleet net. The fleet database had nothing. No one knew. He wondered if anyone had even thought about searching for streakers with SAR tugs with all the havoc that had happened so far.

  Laurie… Laurie… are you still in this world? Will I see you, again?

  No… I probably won’t. You’re probably dead. Dead like everyone around me. What do I do???

  And then a thought clicked in his head. What happened to his estranged wife?

  He typed a new query into the fleet net.

  The words came out on his monitor.

  MARCY DEVRIES, DECEASED. FIGHTER SHOT DOWN BY ENEMY LASERS, 0102 HOURS.

  Trevor sat, stunned.

  And then… his entire body started shaking!

  Why is it that everyone I fuck dies? Why is it that bad things happens to everyone around me? First, it happens to Maniac, then everyone in my wing, and then my mate! Why the fuck am I still alive to witness all this happen? Why do the star gods keep me alive?

  He sat there, panic-driven sweat dribbling down his uniform. And it’s all going to happen, again!

  AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN! I WANT IT TO BE MY TURN. I WANT TO END THIS. IT’S NOT FAIR, AND IT’S NOT REAL.

  Take me, star gods. I’m the last one left!

  “TAKE ME!” yelled Trevor, slamming his fist into the cockpit keyboard repeatedly.