Battle of Sol
Page 34
“Hmm… at least 40 battlecruisers, 20 superdreadnoughts, and 8 Titans, or the equivalent in terms of hull tonnage, sir. Huge. And as time moves deeper into the future, they will need even more than that, as I will be producing more mobile pulsars in the interval. Not to mention that they will need even more than that once we begin building stationary defenses around our wormhole exit, again.”
“What are the chances of them attacking with all that tonnage you just mentioned? When will it happen?”
“Hmm… actually, probably never, because soon — like in three months — I’ll launch my attack with our remaining and new pulsar battlecruisers, with or without new units that have the technology we gained from them. The enemy will have also realized that any significant but minor force they send out of that wormhole, I’ll be able to defeat. So their only option is to wait until it’s so massive that I cannot defeat it, but by then, I’ll be ready to launch an attack myself. Their only chance of victory is to defeat my attack, or to find a way to counter my pulsars with new technology, which would allow them to successfully attack Sol in much smaller numbers, or both.”
“I see… about this… attack of yours, how will you do it? What are your future plans?”
Yamato grinned. “That requires me to reveal to you one more tech we gained from them that I’ve been keeping a secret.”
The president nodded. “Go on.”
“We now have their artificial wormhole nexus technology. We can build artificial wormholes of our own, within say… the next 2 months!”
“You mean…” said the President, wide-eyed. “We’ll be able to attack their bread centers and manufacturing worlds, their core systems?”
“Yes, Mister President! This new artificial wormhole nexus tech doesn’t just impact how we fight but where we fight. We’ll be able to cross vast light years that we ordinarily couldn’t cross from just going through the naturally made wormholes that connect one star to the next closest star. We’ll be able to go straight into their manufacturing core systems, and bomb the hell out of them! There are some limitations, mind you, such as the star that we connect our artificial nexus with still needs to be in the spectral O class. These are supermassive stars, so we can’t go anywhere we want. But we can cross through their frontlines and the defenses that they’ve created to block our normal advance in the past.”
“Now, what are our chances of winning the war?” said the President.
Yamato thought for a while. “Well… I have to correct myself after what I said earlier. The answer to that is actually quite complicated. But it’s also very simple, too. It’s very simple because with the current tech base as it is, we are unstoppable. Our pulsars and carrier-based fighter system are — in war gaming terms — overpowered, and we will be even more overpowered when we have implemented all the alien tech we’ve gained yesterday. But you have to remember that the Argonans, at least their leadership, think very resourcefully and can create new tech or adapt their tech with the stuff they stole from us. They can start creating fighters of their own, or battlecruisers and superdreadnoughts with our shields. I wouldn’t put it past them to develop longer ranging tachyon pulse cannons, or any shipkiller beam weapon that out-ranges our pulsar guns. Hell, they can create new weapons that we’ve never thought of. If anything about what we’ve learned since fighting them in the last two encounters, it’s that they are adaptive and creative. It will be tough, but it will be very interesting to see how the next few months play out. I can’t fathom how both sides will adapt to each other and create new things or change existing things. But…” Yamato continued despite seeing the president’s mouth open, “I have to say we have the immediate edge, sir. Once we go into their core manufacturing systems, and wreck their tremendous industrial capacity, the game will be on our side once more, as we will have an apparent tech advantage without a quantity disadvantage. In other words, we’ll soon be able to produce on the same level as them, but the quality of what we produce will be better — as things look like right now, sir, with the fact that we captured their entire tech base.”
The President nodded, and sat back, thinking. “That’s a lot of stuff to think about. Luckily, I have recorded everything so I can go over what you said before answering to Congress. Thank you, Mister Yamato. I will tell them what you told me, and hopefully we can continue the war with a series of astounding victories like you have shown here, yesterday.”
“Thank you, Mister President. I will aim to do just that.”
“Farewell.” The president closed the call, and his image disappeared, leaving Yamato in the dark hologram room to think about the war himself.
Admiral’s Quarters, Fleet base Ontario, above Earth
Two hours later…
Yamato stood in his quarters, staring out his transparent-aluminum window at the massive rim of Earth that flooded his entire viewing span from left to right. He saw numerous white clouds that partially enshrouded Earth’s blue oceans and green-brown land masses — he could almost see New York and New Hampshire and the Old American east coast rotating into view from the west. The unseen sun showered Earth with its warm glow from behind him, outside the bounds of his viewing window.
Yamato bit his lips. From this view, it was hard to imagine that Earth was a planet-wide metropolis with over 20 billion humans living on its surface and in its underground chambers. Earth was vast, and had so much potential despite at one time being called the outdated center of the human galactic sphere. Now, it was humanity’s last hope.
Earth… where it all begun, as well as where it nearly all ended. If it were not for the valiant efforts of the sole remaining home fleet, Earth and all its dreams would have been shattered yesterday.
Yamato sighed, placing his palm on the cold surface of the window. The next parts of the war would test humanity to its limits. But — at least — in a way, the moment where it all changed had already passed.
So… when was the turning point of the war? Yesterday? Or now? Or still ahead of us, in the future?
Certainly, gaining the enemy’s entire tech base was part of the turning point — but it could also be said that the outcome of the war was already on humanity’s side the moment some science techie made the brilliant innovation that made possible the mobile pulsar-class battlecruiser. And having fighters had always given humans a definite edge. It was simply a matter of finding innovative ways of using those fighters.
When will the next awesome battle take place? It was hard to imagine when or where because he was uncertain about how all the various techs he gained would be implemented within humanity’s defenses and fleets. One thing he was absolutely certain of though, was that soon his newly made pulsars would come online, and that by itself was enough to start thinking offensively.
Yet… although he was eager to begin, he knew he had even greater reasons to wait, because soon — without or without his commandeered and converted Titans — he would have numerous warships equipped with alien technologies that he could only dream of.
And the Titans — by the star gods — the Titans! Once we get those Titans online, we’ll be beyond unstoppable! We could equip them with our version of the enemy’s TPCs, or even with our newly enhanced pulsar cannons! The drive rings too, by gods, we’ll be able to move those Titans much faster than they were before! And with modern human-made shields!
With so many exciting, positive things taking place, Yamato wondered, again… when, exactly, was the turning point?
As he touched the cold window separating him from the deadly void outside, he realized an epiphany. Now was the moment. Every moment was an opportunity to affect change. Each second that passed was an opportunity as well as a potential for loss. The turning point is now, and it will always be now — not in the past, or in the future, but the present moment.
The turning point was the moment humanity gained the ability to think, to change its own future for the greater good. So in a way, it had begun the moment humans had learned to manipulate their own en
vironment. The turning point was the moment the first human could catch a glimpse of an idea, and then use that idea to help himself. So… in a way… the turning point had begun eons ago, and was still continuing, as humans continued to aspire for greater things, to cherish and perfect themselves. And it would continue endlessly into the future even when humans became several subspecies or had lost its own identity to the whims of space and time.
But now, now was the moment. Cherish the now, because it will never come, again.
But… if the entire war was a series of decisions, with each decision equally important that led the war to its present moment, Yamato wondered about how great were each of his own decisions. Was it worth it? — sacrificing so many lives, 600 billion in all, to keep the war ongoing instead of giving up? To continue fighting for humanity’s right to govern and command itself? He couldn’t help thinking that it was wrong to sacrifice the countless billions of humans in Alpha Centauri. Yet, as his mind went over it… to be free of tyranny, it seemed any amount was worth it.
And on a smaller scale, was it worth it to commit so much human firepower on that enemy star fortress when it didn’t even impact the latter phases of the Battle of Sol? Yamato couldn’t help but think that he had made catastrophic errors that nearly cost him the game. And was it worth it to keep 30,000 missiles hidden behind the sun instead of at the wormhole exit? Was it worth it to commit so many missiles at the enemy’s kamikaze ships — only to have one k-ship still reach its target?
Now, he analyzed the enemy’s decisions, too. The enemy had fought brilliantly. They had done nearly everything to perfection. But… they had made mistakes, too. It was satisfying to know that both Humans and Argonans were imperfect. He recalled the biggest mistake the enemy made, which was during the late part of the battle, when the enemy still had missiles inside their missile ships and Yamato had tried to kill off the enemy’s missile ships with his fighters. The enemy’s chance to win the battle had existed for brief moments, but the Argonans had made the wrong decision. If they had used all their missiles to attack Yamato’s fighters instead of keeping the remaining 40% of their missiles in reserve, Yamato would have ended that phase of the battle with much fewer fighters. And if the enemy had done that, Yamato would never have had enough fighters to immobilize the 5 Titans by hitting each Titan’s drive rings. Yamato would have had to resort to using his pulsars to close the distance with the enemy Titans… to shoot the Titans’ drive rings, but 3 pulsars were no match for 5 Titans at close distance…
As Yamato analyzed his own and the enemy’s actions, he came to realize that both sides had made blunders, because both sides were not perfect. He was gracious that the battle had ended the way it did. Any different and…
He looked at the massive sight of Earth that dominated his viewing frame. It all came back to Earth. It was all for this rich blue orb, this motherworld that he had fallen in love with. If he had acted any different during the battle, Earth would look a lot different. And if another man had been in his place, Earth might very well be a radioactive wasteland.
For Earth!
Yet, he couldn’t help thinking that if a better man had taken his place, the war would be at an even better state than it was now. It was impossible to know. He couldn’t predict alternative timelines. He had to resign to the fact that he was but a cog in this massive machine — this universe. Had the Yamato cog performed well? Could a different cog perform better? He didn’t know… and would never know.
One thing he did know was that he could not win the war by himself. He would need immense help in the coming months, both low-level and high-level, as always. He thought of the defeated… the people that he lost, and was glad that as long as Earth existed, there would be more to replace the lost manpower and commanders. In the future, the Yamato cog may not function well, and it would be up to another. Who will rise?
He looked at Earth, again. It was all for her. There had been so many battles, and so many more battles were to come. He felt hopeful.
He gazed at the glitter of stars surrounding this massive blue orb in front of him. Wasn’t it mankind’s destiny to conquer the stars?
This is our story. The story of humanity, and by the gods, he would add his chapter in it, and continue the story, and make it flow and become great. And when it was over and done, he would finish and let another man — or woman — take the reins once more and it would continue until the end of time…
This is our story, thought Yamato, as he stared at the magic that was the blue planet, the motherworld that made everything possible.
THE END.
Links
Author's Notes:
https://leeguo.weebly.com/authors-notes.html
Yamato's Dream:
https://leeguo.weebly.com/yamatos-dream.html
Battle of Sol Version 1:
https://leeguo.weebly.com/battle-of-sol-version-one.html
Where i got my ideas from:
https://leeguo.weebly.com/where-i-got-my-ideas-from.html
All four links can be visited at https://leeguo.weebly.com
Simply go to the top right, select “published works” and then a menu will open up and you can select “battle of sol” and a menu of the four links will pop up.
Table of Contents
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 4
Aftermath
Links