This gas giant like most gas giant emits very powerful low frequency radio waves, and when inside the atmosphere, it is next to impossible to get radio signals from anyone, unless they transmit directly over head with a strong signal.
The moon where we had left our beings, was on the other side of the planet and would be out of communication for many cycles if not for the entire duration of the refilling, since the habitat chosen was not directly facing the planet, and being gravitationally locked, it would never face the planet directly. At that time we thought nothing about it, since we did not expect any danger. This was my failing as the Warmaster.
We had just completed an interstellar journey, with the computed amount of fuel exhausted, we were down to 6 of 64 the tank capacity. As is our procedure, we took the time to fill up the tank to 64 of 64. This is a task that takes two cycles even in a well-known gas giant in our home system.
Since this was an unknown planet and we had decided to proceed cautiously, we were skimming gas from much higher up in the atmosphere than is normal. Here there was less turbulence, but that also meant there was less atmosphere to skim. It took us nearly four cycles to fill up our reaction mass tanks.
After filling up, since we were not aware of the situation, we did not use emergency de-orbit procedure, but followed standard procedure and took a further half cycle to break orbit of the planet towards the moon. The habitat was chosen to be on the opposite side of the moon from the one facing the planet.
This was a logical choice, since that ensured very little radio interference from the emissions of the planet, and no blockage of the line of site to the home planet or other bodies especially the 3rd planet. Since the planet did not offer much warmth or light, and whatever it did was equally distributed across the entire moon due to its thick super rotating atmosphere, there was no special advantage in having the habitat on the planet facing site.
This also meant that we spent half a cycle while we travelled to the moon in blissful ignorance. When we finally turned to make orbit with the moon, we were shocked to see not one but three void vessels in synchronous orbit over our habitat.
There too many questions going through my mind. Very soon after the master of tasting had tasted over the entire radio frequency, he could confirm that the signals emitted from the vessels were consistent in pattern with those being emitted from the 3rd planet.
So the spawns of Ka were more void capable than I had originally thought. The fact that they had some void capability was evident from the encounter with the scout vessel. The curious caste had assured me that their void capability was so primitive that they posed no threat in void at all, and were incapable of crossing the distance to reach the 6th planet, without us having ample warning. I had based my entire tactical situation on this assumption! Obviously they were wrong.
If they were still aboard, I would have placed one of them in the liquefaction chamber as an example against incompetence. Therein lay my problems. Not only were the curious caste not on board, I did not have anyone aboard but for a skeleton crew meant to refuel. No weapons master or weapons crew, no damage control, or any of the other tasks required while going to war. In our hurry to have as many limbs as possible making the habitat fast, we had sent all of them down.
In hindsight, I admit that the fault of incompetence lies not only with the curious caste but also with me. I should have followed proper warrior doctrine and should have been prepared for war at any time. For this incompetence I and my crew will now pay a terrible price and seek redemption.
I contacted the habitat below and was relieved to get a reply from them immediately. They appraised me of the situation since I had left.
About a cycle after my departure, the habitat had detected the burn of a void vessel as it maneuvered to get into orbit. They had analyzed the burn signature, which was not 100% certain since they had done it through the thick hazy atmosphere of the moon.
They were not very sure, but the burn looked like that of a primitive chemical rocket. The curious caste were remembering this from their memory, since our beings had not used a chemical rocket since ancient times. The burn signature was also remarkably close to the spectral analysis of the enemy’s projectile weapons, which also used chemical propulsion. Some of our own projectile weapons still used chemical rockets, very primitive but very effective. As Warmaster I know this.
The vessel of Ka’s spawn waited for a less than a cycle in space, during which they bombarded the entire surface with radio waves including intense ones on our habitat. There was no danger of radiation from those waves. They were not that strong to be of weapon’s grade.
The curious caste’s hypotheses is that they were mapping the terrain, which could only mean that they were gathering intelligence for a land war. Why would the enemy vessel not bombard the habitat from space but go to war on the surface beats me.
Either they are not sound military tacticians or they do not have the capability to bombard from space, which would be strange given the fact that they have enough mastery over the void to travel across a planet.
The warriors in the habitat had wished they had some ground to space missiles. They could have blown the void vessel. The vessel showed no military acumen and was holding in low synchronous orbit, inviting to be hit by a missile.
Unfortunately I as the Warmaster have shown equally poor military acumen. All the missiles are stored here on the migration vessel. In fact the few warriors that went below, did not take any weapons at all except what they carry on their person as is their duty. In their anxiety to carry as much building material as possible down, a warrior’s duty to carry weapons were forgotten.
After less than a cycle, a second ship was detected coming into orbit. Almost immediately after that, the habitat detected a continuous stream of shuttles going to a certain co-ordinate close to our own habitat. I immediately asked my master of tasting to scan the co-ordinates given and was able to confirm a habitat had been made at the given co-ordinates.
These spawns of Ka were not as primitive as I had initially thought. The environment would have to be as hostile to them as it is to us, since they are living in similar temperature and atmosphere as our beings, although at a slightly higher atmospheric pressure.
So they had to build their habitat with all the issues that our beings faced, and they have managed to do that. I decided not to underestimate them anymore. My underestimation of these spawns of Ka was the reason for us being in this predicament, and absolutely horrible tactical situation.
My disdain for their military tactics also took a beating when I studied their habitat. It was a defender’s dream. To top it off they had chosen the warmest spot on the surface, which surely helped. It was still cold for any living being but not an immediate death sentence for our beings.
The spawn of Ka had chosen a warm fortress and I knew they had done a better job of selecting a site. We had taken into consideration a flood safe, easy access to local resources and accessible terrain in mind when we were selecting our site. The spawns of Ka, as would be expected since they had come to war, had selected with military objective of defensibility in mind. For this failing I accept the responsibility.
Half a cycle later, our habitat detected the third vessel, which surprisingly did not land shuttles immediately. It scanned for about a quarter of a cycle before proceeding to land shuttles. It almost seems that the last vessel was verifying the data before proceeding. Did this last ship not trust its own beings? No that was unthinkable.
It was likely that this ship carried their Warmaster, who wanted a confirmation of the data collected and the analysis made about it by his subordinates before proceeding. I would do the same if I was the Warmaster of three vessels and arrived last. I made a note on the tactical station to mark this vessel, this would be my first and primary target when we attacked.
The habitat informed me that almost immediately after the third landing by the spawns of Ka, a scout of theirs was detected approaching the habitat we
had built. This confirmed my suspicion about the vessel of the Warmaster, and also answered a few questions.
Why did they wait so long to start the battle? They were waiting for full reinforcements and the arrival of their Warmaster. Are there any more vessels coming for reinforcement? Unlikely. The enemy waited for full reinforcement before launching an attack.
The enemy approached in a shuttle which dropped off two of their specimen some distance from the habitat and then retreated back. Our warriors had obviously been waiting outside hidden. The warriors ambushed the two intruders with the personal weapons that the warriors had carried.
The warrior’s energy weapons were not very effective in the thick atmosphere of the moon, but their projectile weapon were. One of the intruders was hit and fell down and probably died immediately. The suits of the spawns of Ka are extremely weak and they are extremely vulnerable to the atmosphere.
Their body is also less tough than ours, but has many biochemical similarities to our beings. The other specimen was far more agile and alert and was able to evade the initial projectile attack. The warriors gave him pursuit. The specimen was somehow able to recall the shuttle, which indicates they have communication equipment close to ours. This is to be expected from anyone who can travel even a short distance across the void.
The shuttle flew in at speed and fired a hail of projectiles at the pursuing warriors hitting four out of the six. This meant instant death for the four hit, but the other two were able to evade and take cover. The specimen escaped with the shuttle with very little valuable intelligence, but they had left a dead specimen for us to study. The curious caste has opened up the specimen and all the taste logs of the encounter and the specimen are attached with this report.
The next encounter was less than a cycle later. Our warriors had been alert and were patrolling the perimeter of their habitat. This time they did not approach by shuttle but on limbs. They have four limbs, two short and two long. They use only the longer limbs for walking in a way so strange, it is hard for me to describe it. The taste log of the encounter will give an idea of how.
Unlike the bungling scouts of the previous encounter, this time they were led by a capable warrior. They ambushed and killed a perimeter patrol with the objective of infiltrating the habitat. They were able to break into one of the habitat modules, which lost its integrity and all the beings in that module were lost.
The warriors beat them back in the ensuing battle, and disabled their shuttle. The invaders took three or four casualties, while killing 203 of ours. This despite the fact that they are only a quarter the size of a warrior and half the size of other castes by mass. The spawn of Ka are a very capable land warriors.
It was also unfortunate that most of our defenders were not from the warrior caste and hence were not trained warriors. Every enemy attacker seemed to be a trained warrior with exceptional skill as a marksman. Their hand held projectiles however were fairly ineffective, but their shuttle mounted projectiles were devastating.
It is the theory of the warriors who fought, that the invaders ran out of projectile ammunition in the end and thus decided to retreat quickly. What the invaders had not realized was that our warriors who only had their personal weapons were also out of ammunitions themselves.
After running out of ammunition, the warriors saw the invaders fight with blades. Most were short, about twice the size of our metal claws which they held in their short limbs not used for walking. These were ineffective due to lack of reach given their short limbs.
However a few carried long blades. Their anatomy allows the short limbs to carry long blades, thus giving them longer reach. These were dangerous and caused many of the casualties amongst the warriors. A warrior’s limb was hacked out and carried back by the invaders. It is believed that it was taken as a sample back to their habitat. I suspect that they have their own curious caste who would examine the sample, the same way we did.
I had earlier been relieved that Ka had created such a primitive spawn for us to defeat. I now believe that this spawn is far more dangerous that it looks. Ka has created something truly sinister, with the intention of trickery by making this spawn appear primitive. These are very intelligent creations of Ka.
Our warriors gave chase, and they can run faster on their six limbs than the evil creatures can on their two. However they followed carefully, mindful of the shuttle which fired projectiles. This time however the invaders jumped on to a land vehicle, which was nothing more than a platform sliding, with chains on the rear turning on some automated locomotion device. We had assembled one land vehicle ourselves, but it was inside the habitat, and it would be too late to give chase with that.
The warriors are sure that they will get attacked again. While they have increased the vigilance at the perimeter, the elder warrior had decided that offense would be the best form of defense. It is untenable for them to be slowly withered by attrition.
It was unfortunate that most of the beings in the habitat were builders and curious caste required to set up the habitat. They had no training as a warrior and that had shown in their recent encounter with the enemy.
If the enemy were to attack again, with no projectile weapons left and the demonstrated capability of the enemy warriors, even a group of 128 enemy could descend and wipe out the base with so few warriors to protect them.
With this risk in mind, the senior warrior was considering giving the orders to accelerate the incubation process. The first batch of 4096 warriors was still in incubation. The current stage at which the incubation was, meant that the spawned warriors would not suffer any serious physical damage if they were accelerated.
The mental abilities of spawned warriors would however be curtailed as those have just started developing. They would have no serious mental deficiencies to prevent them from functioning as a regular warrior, but higher level thinking, which enables some of them to rise to the level of senior warriors or Warmaster would be absent.
The senior warrior considered that a fair payoff to ensure the survival of the habitat. Most of them would be consumed in the ensuing battle with the spawns of Ka in any case, so long term plan for this batch of warriors was moot. They could always spawn the next batch at leisure once they have survived this immediate threat.
The warriors could be spawned within 3 to 4 cycles in accelerated mode, and would be immediately capable of defending our beings’ habitat. With a training regimen of a few cycles, the senior warrior estimated that they would be able to mount an offensive against the enemy camp and wipe it out for good once and of all.
That was the strategy the elder warrior was going to follow. Now however with me the Warmaster back, it will be my call to endorse the strategy or countermand it.
I thought through the report from the habitat. I could not fault the logic or the strategy of the elder warrior in the habitat. It was right according to warrior doctrine as well as sound strategy. I had however looked at the fortress the evil spawns had chosen, and was wary of trying to breach it, especially in this hostile environment, where a minor injury causes death. I also had to think of the tactical situation in the void, where I had three void vessels to contend with. So I ordered a detailed tasting of the enemy void vessels from my tasting master.
When I got the taste report about the vessels, I was overjoyed, amused, surprised, amazed and wary at the same time. The vessels’ hulls were laughably thin. A warrior could probably punch a hole in it with its claws. Although it was made out of a material which had good weight to strength ratio, so it was probably a bit stronger than it looked, but it was still ridiculously thin.
Even our beings’ life boats are made out of thicker material. Are these spawns of Ka stupid to come to war in this flimsy vessel? That is what made me wary. I had previously underestimated these creatures and paid a heavy price for it. Even now I felt guilty for leaving the habitat without a shuttle, which would have gone a long way in setting the odds even in terms of air superiority in the previous skirmishes.
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On the weaponry front, there was no way to guess the enemy vessels’ arsenal. The weapons capability they had demonstrated on the scout, before its transmission was cut off was primitive. However everything about these spawns of Ka is a deception, I will to go with the assumption about the worst.
I re-evaluated my earlier position about the void vessels’ incapability to blast our habitat from up here. After hearing about the sample taken by the invaders, I realized that they are doing very much what our beings would do, what we had intended to do by setting up our habitat on this moon… Study the enemy.
That is the reason they had sent ground soldiers and not attacked from the void. So I had to assume that they had energy weapons, both made out of light as well as superheated gasses expelled magnetically. I had to assume they had missiles which were nuclear.
It was probably too much to expect them to have antimatter weapons. Our beings could not make enough of it for the curious caste to experiment liberally, so these beings were unlikely to have it either. I had to assume parity on weapons.
On the size front, the enemy void vessels were tiny in comparison to our migration vessel. It was far smaller than even a scout ship. However all other things being equal, size is not a great factor. If anything a small and nimble vessel often has the advantage.
The biggest issue was that I had to contend with three of them. Tiny and flimsy as they may be, three vessels properly fighting in a formation as a team has many tactical advantages over a single large ship, however robust.
They could maneuver independently and hit me from different directions, while we will have to keep track of three independent targets with a skeleton crew and both defend against them from three different directions as well as try hitting them in three different directions. I just did not have the crew for it. In a battle even if one of the three survives, they have won the battle, while if my only vessel dies, I have lost it.
The Battle of Titan Page 57