Imprint of War

by Phil Huddleston

  "The destroyer gave chase, but they had too much of a head start. When it reached the mass limit and sank out, we did get a good vector, though," said Privend. "We sent a destroyer and corvette after them, but they were unable to find anything."

  The holo displayed a vector of the alien ship leaving the system. Privend compressed the holo display with a silent AI command and froze it. He turned to face the assembled officers.

  "Now, hold that thought in your mind momentarily while I give you a second item of intelligence."

  Privend opened a second holo, floating silently above and to the right of the first one. In the second holo was the Nest system. At a considerable distance from Nest appeared a red dot, blinking.

  "Recently, one of our remote sensing teams monitoring a QE repeater buoy detected some EMF - very faint - but they were able to isolate it from the background noise. It appears to come from a star-faring civilization with FTL, in this direction." Privend pointed.

  The officers around the table nodded but sat up a little straighter. The first item Privend had discussed was not news to them - they knew all about the unidentified black ships, mostly via scuttlebutt. But this was new.

  "As you know, in the last 300 years or so, we've detected a half-dozen civilizations with electronic communications. All of them have been tracked and their planets reduced for our colonization efforts. None of them, however, had more than rudimentary FTL capabilities. The Daneki came close - they had the beginnings of a small Space Navy - but we destroyed that in short order."

  "However, this new civilization appears to have a significant starship presence and - if our understanding of the limited communications we’ve received is accurate - they are a very aggressive, expanding star nation."

  Privend turned back toward the holo. "The blinking red dot shows our best estimate of the location of this space nation, based on the weak communications we have received – a planet called ‘Earth’."

  Now Privend, with a thought to his AI, caused the two holo displays to move together and merge into one.

  As the two displays moved together, the vector in the first holo - the black ship leaving the Pi Sag A system - pointed directly at the red blinking dot in the second holo labelled ‘Earth’.

  Privend turned to the assembled officers.

  "We definitely have company," he said.

  Kaus Media – 348 Light Years from Earth

  Bat Scout Station Fourteen

  10 April 2206

  The RDF frigates Beijing, New Delhi and Osaka – also known as the 4th Asia Assault Squadron – came out of stealth 1,000 kilometers off the Bat Scout Station at Kaus Media and immediately opened fire with railguns and beamers. The station was a small base on one of the moons of a cold rocky planet just outward of the stars habitable zone – a moon very similar to Phobos in the Sol System. The base was small, as its only function was to serve as a listening post and supply stop for scout ships working in the sector. The Asia Squadron had waited patiently for several days until both small Bat corvettes assigned to the base were docked, taking some R&R time. This was to catch them uncrewed, if possible, or at least with minimal crew on board - and with any luck at all, to destroy both before they could send a QE blip back to Nest.

  Their first thirty railgun shots had a hit ratio of 90%, meaning each corvette received nine railgun rounds and the base itself received another nine. The net impact left nothing but a very large hole in the ground, surrounded by clouds of drifting dust and debris. No QE comms were sent.

  Pulling off target, the Asia Squadron vectored back toward the mass limit to start their next mission. There was no need to check for survivors.

  ***

  A Bat resupply convoy - protected with four destroyers and two cruisers - surfaced at the mass limit at the planet Danek and cautiously made their way in, keeping a sharp lookout for the mysterious Black Ships. About a quarter of the way on their run in to the planet, they were jumped by two of the wedge-shaped frigates. The two Black Ships managed to damage a merchantman before they realized they were out-gunned and turned to flee. Unfortunately, before they could make it out of the system, the Bat warships pounded them into scrap metal. One of the Black Ships blew up during the fight and was of little use to the Bat Intelligence Office; but the other was mostly intact after the battle. It was immediately towed back to Nest for a painstaking examination.

  Of course, it was a setup. The two frigates were purely AI-controlled - there were no living humans on board. The human bodies placed on the ships were inanimate clones, with brains completely lacking useful information. They looked very real, of course. Every detail of their bodies, their clothing, their quarters and the remainder of the ship looked exactly as the RDF desired it to look - realistic and believable.

  Even the AIs driving the ship were only partially functional. They were non-sentient, limited in capability, and contained exactly the information the RDF wanted placed there.

  And most telling of all, the weapons and engines of the ship were intentionally de-rated to reflect a false story of their capabilities…

  ***

  Privend stood at the observation window, gazing at the wrecked Black Ship outside in the spacedock. Beside him stood his immediate boss, Captain Hakor, and Hakor's boss, the Chief of Naval Intelligence, Admiral Laksid, with his aide next to him. The Black Ship was holed in a half-dozen places, and one entire quarter of the rear was missing. The engines and weapons had been removed and taken away for analysis. The remaining hull looked like the derelict it was.

  "Definitely a frigate class," said Captain Hakor. "Three railguns, three beamers, six missile tubes. We found 120 bodies inside. We estimate about half the crew was ejected into space during the battle, so we're guessing a total crew of about 240."

  "That seems a little light for a frigate," said Admiral Laksid. "Our frigates have, what? About 300 crew?"

  "Yes, sir," said Captain Hakor. "That's true. But our frigates have four beamers and four railguns, so that's two additional gun crews and all the support required for them. So, not surprising this one has a smaller crew."

  Hakor pulled up a personal holo in front of them, showing them the body of one of the crew members from the black frigate. “We are calling them “Apes”, because their body plan looks like the big monkeys we have in the Southern Jungle,” he said.

  Laksid laughed. “Very appropriate. How about their weapons?"

  Hakor nodded. "We managed to get one beamer functional again. About 80% of the power of ours, slightly different pulse train, but nothing special. Same with their railguns - about the same size and throw weight as ours, although as near as we can tell, it would have nearly twice the cycle time."

  "Pitiful," said Laksid. "And you say the ship was a little slower than ours during the battle...?"

  "Yes, sir. By the time they realized they were out-matched, we had already damaged one and it was down to one engine. They both turned and tried to make it to the mass limit, but our cruisers were able to run them down. Our lead cruiser put two missiles into the crippled one and it blew up instantly. This second one almost made it to the mass limit - but they were only pulling 155g, while our frigates can pull 205. We caught them just before they could sink out."

  "So, their technology is nowhere near as good as ours," said Laksid. ''It sure seems stupid for them to start this kind of trouble with us when our technology is clearly superior."

  "Yes, sir. I agree. But we don't really know their motivation. Or their intentions. That's where Commander Privend comes in. He's been monitoring their communications since we discovered them."

  Admiral Laksid glanced across at Privend.

  "Yes, I've been reading the daily briefings. Seems like mostly it's just a boring mish-mash of trashy game shows that you're intercepting, Privend. Anything new?"

  "Well, maybe." said Privend. "We sent a fast scout to place QE repeater buoys closer to their system. We're now getting near real time intercepts. We haven't gotten anything definite - their
military communications are encrypted, and we haven't been able to break them - but their newscasts do contain a few gems of information."

  "Such as?" asked Laksid.

  "Well, recently, we've found a news radio channel which seems to be politically oriented. As you know, the signals we receive are very noisy, coming via QE compression, and we don't have the bandwidth for video. But this radio news channel shows tremendous internal dissension among their political parties. It seems there is a hawk party which wants to attack us and wipe us out, and a dove party which wants to approach us and negotiate a treaty. Their government appears to be fragmented between those two parties, as well as some others which factor into the mix. Overall, I'd say they have no coherent plan of action at all."

  "So why raid us?" asked Laksid.

  Privend paused.

  "Sir, I can only suppose that their military is very much in the hawk camp. I suspect their Navy is doing these raids on their own, without the full knowledge of their central government. But I can't be sure of that, with the limited intel we've got so far. We're working on obtaining better insight into that part of the equation."

  "OK, keep working that angle." said Laksid. "And keep those daily reports coming my way. I want a better feel for why they are raiding us, especially since their technology doesn't seem very good. Now, Hakor, how about this ship? Anything else?"

  "Quite a lot, actually. We were able to partially re-activate the AI. It's light-years behind ours, an antique by our standards. Very little war fighting ability - it appears that the crew fights the ship manually, with only minimal assist from the AI."

  "My stars," said Laksid. "That's primitive. How do these creatures think they have any hope of attacking us?"

  Hakor shook his head, his ears pointed in agreement. “I think they are completely out of control, sir. Their government appears to be fragmented and their military appears to be driving the boat. I suspect they have no actual strategic plan at all. Just picking at us because they can."

  Laksid shook his head. "It will be the end of them."

  Laksid took one last look at the battered frigate, then turned to go. He gave one final look at Hakor.

  "Find out everything you can about this ship, Hakor, because we're going to be fighting these Apes soon."

  Hakor saluted, as did Privend. Laksid returned the salute casually and stalked away, his aide beside him. Hakor turned to Privend and looked at him sternly.

  "Find out what they're up to, Privend."

  "Aye, aye, sir," said Privend. He saluted and watched Captain Hakor walk away.

  His face was a calm mask, with no sign of the tension within.

  Mad Dog

  War is common and justice is strife, and all things come into being and pass away through strife.

  - Heraclitus

  Zeta Capricorni A – 386 Light Years from Earth

  Planet ‘Rome’

  7 May 2207

  Phoebe’s task force sat in stealth halfway between the Zeta Cap A system primary and the mass limit. Coming towards them, a huge convoy of Bat ships headed for the planet code-named ‘Rome’ – home of 200 million primitive sentient creatures, about to be destroyed. The Bat colonization convoy was led by a battleship, leading two cruisers, two frigates and a half-dozen destroyers and corvettes. Following well behind were transports carrying half a million young Bats - ready to form the core of a new colony for the Bat Empire once the warships had reduced the planet to rubble and stacked the bodies of the inhabitants into the reefers for food.

  Phoebe sat in her chair on the flag bridge of the Vercingetorix, watching the tactical, biding her time. The Bat convoy came on, slowing rapidly as they approached the planet.

  Below her elevated podium still called the ‘Flag Bridge’, even though it was not a separate bridge, Phoebe saw her Flag Captain, Selena Field, making the final preparations for the attack.

  "Everybody stay cool," said Selena. "Stay patient, stay focused."

  "Aye, Mum," came a chorus from the Vercingetorix’ bridge crew.

  Weapons Officer Benjamin Stafford, sitting strapped tightly into his chair, raised one finger. "Thirty-five seconds...."

  "OK, Guns" said Selena. "Alert 1."

  Benjamin nodded. "Alert 1 sent."

  The alert signal propagated to the other ships in the fleet. In every ship, an alarm bell clanged loudly three times - the warning to the gun crews that firing would commence in thirty seconds. Throughout the fleet, gun crews re-checked their configurations one last time - even though they had been checked and re-checked a half dozen times already.

  In the Beamer Two gun pit of the frigate Birmingham, the gun crew fastened their helmets and went on internal oxygen. The gun boss slapped one youngster on the back of his head, as the boy was slow getting his helmet in place.

  "You looking to die today, Matthews?" yelled the Chief.

  "No, Chief!" cried the young crewman.

  "Then get that damn helmet secured, son!" said the Chief.

  "Aye, Chief! It's secured now!" said Matthews.

  "OK," said Chief Myers. "Everybody stay cool, stay calm, keep your materials in your hand, be ready to go."

  "Aye, Chief," came a chorus from the ten-man gun crew. They had no role in the actual firing of the beamer - that was automatic and controlled by the Weapons AI and the bridge. Their job was to repair the beamer if it was damaged or quit firing - or, as a last resort, if the bridge or WepsAI was so damaged they could no longer control the gun, the gun crew would fire it manually from the gun pit consoles.

  Sweat glistened on their brows as the seconds ticked down.

  "Open fire, Guns." said Selena quietly. Instantly, Stafford hit the red button in front of him. Across all ships in the fleet, stealth dropped, and Phoebe’s fleet opened up with missiles and railguns on the passing Bat convoy. Shortly after, the beamers also started firing as the range grew shorter.

  Phoebe’s flagship, the Vercingetorix, along with her two other battleships, the Agrippa and the MacArthur, took on the Bat battleship directly, while the rest of her fleet went after the remainder of the convoy.

  Caught by surprise, the Bats were slow to react. The Vercingetorix put a half-dozen missiles and railgun slugs into the battleship’s engines before she finally began evasive maneuvers, turning back toward the mass limit in a futile attempt to escape. But it was far too late. As she twisted away from the Vercingetorix, it only brought her into the crossfire of the Agrippa and the MacArthur. Within another thirty seconds, the Bat battleship was out of control, engines dead, at the mercy of the attackers. The three RDF battleships stood off at a relatively safe distance and put missile after missile into her, pounding her into junk.

  Meanwhile, under mostly AI control, the remainder of the RDF fleet raked down the line of ships, tearing pieces off one after another. One Bat cruiser quickly took a hit in an engine, and a huge explosion destroyed the entire vessel in a heartbeat. Soon after, another exploded in a ball of flame, quickly snuffed by the vacuum of space, leaving incendiary trails in all directions as munitions cooked off. Ripping right down the passing convoy, the cruisers and frigates of Phoebe’s task force blasted ship after ship, easily destroying most of them within ten minutes.

  At the ten-minute mark, all the RDF ships stopped firing and boosted for the mass limit, making their escape. Behind them they left more than two dozen hulks drifting in the void.

  Nest - Bat Home Planet

  8 May 2207

  Privend sat quietly at a corner of the conference room table, listening to the raging officers yelling at each other. Half of them wanted to send Home Fleet out to destroy Earth immediately - today, if possible. The other half wanted to wait until a proper plan was developed. Privend was too junior in rank to join this discussion, so he simply sat, ready in case any question came his way.

  Finally, after minutes of wrangling and disagreement, the door opened and CNO Makvil walked into the room. Instantly, the noise stopped, and everyone rose to a loose attention. Makvi
l took the chair at the head of the table and looked around the room.

  "Latest estimates are we lost roughly half a million young Bats," he stated.

  The hubbub started again. Many officers were too shocked to speak, but others made up for it with their vociferous yells of "Kill the Apes!"

  There were many pointed exclamations to launch the Home Fleet and wipe out the enemy. Makvil waited patiently for ten seconds, then held up his hands for quiet.

  “Let me hear your thoughts,” said Makvil.

  Senior Admiral Bruntel grunted. "We sit here like mice! They are insects buzzing around our ears! To let them keep sniping at us, is beyond stupid, it's dereliction of duty! You've seen the reports on their ships - slow, weak armaments, no AI fire control. We go, we kill them, we come home! End of story!"

  Privend sighed, but silently. Bruntel was a force to be reckoned with. Privend’s boss, Hakor, spoke up. "Sir, we do not know for certain the full magnitude of the force at their home world. All we have are scouting reports, compiled from a distance. And we don't know for certain there aren't bigger, better ships there."

  Bruntel sneered. "I have seen these Apes, Hakor. Trust me, they are mere insects, grown to think they are Bats. They won't stand for ten minutes against us!"

  "Please, gentlemen," cried CNO Makvil. He tapped on the conference table with his pipe, knocking ash onto the table. "Let's try to control our emotions."

  Bruntel shook his head and sank back into his chair. Privend ordered his notes and collected his thoughts. He was playing a dangerous game here. Too much resistance, and he might actually talk the High Staff out of sending the expedition to Earth. Too little, and they might not take enough of the Home Fleet with them. He was walking a fine line. Hakor nodded at him, and he stood and spoke.

  "Granted, Admiral, that taking a portion of the Home Fleet might be sufficient, there is still the issue of leaving Nest unprotected for the three months that it would take to go there, reduce the enemy, and return," said Privend.