by Tori Harris
(Combat Information Center - 1.5x106 km from Earth)
“Belay my previous targeting order,” Patterson said. “Designate Bravo 4 as the new primary target. Signal Shoshone and Chickasaw to fire as soon as they are in position — danger close. Remind them to also check their field of fire beyond their targets. They’ll be firing back in our general direction this time … and the Earth itself is a very big target. They are to hold this new position and fire continuously until ordered to do otherwise. With any luck, we’ll either take the two Baldevs down or at least force them to discontinue their attack. Oh, and have Captain Abrams move his two destroyer groups around to cover the flanks of the second firing location and tell him I want C-Drive-equipped missiles in flight, just in case. Either way, we may need to commit his ships to battle shortly.”
“Aye, sir,” the tactical officer replied. “There are seven six hostile missiles in flight at this time. Time to impact for the first of these is one four seconds. The inbound missiles should begin reaching the cruisers’ point defense barriers anytime. Still no energy weapons fire from the two Baldevs, sir.”
“They probably figure it’s unnecessary at this point. Our cruisers have already taken several major artillery hits and right now each one has thirty-eight anti-ship missiles inbound.”
“Admiral,” Ensign Fletcher called, “Captain Prescott aboard the Theseus confirms that the two Baldevs are using a gravitic beam weapon to prevent our two cruisers from transitioning.”
“Acknowledge and tell Prescott that he is to monitor the Gunov closely. If she makes any indication of commencing her attack on the planet, the reserve force is to pursue and destroy. Make sure Prescott understands that his ships are not to approach the primary engagement zone.”
“Aye, sir.”
“The Rusalovs have fired again,” the tactical officer reported, his steady stream of dire reports now taking on the cadence of a judge delivering a lengthy, monotone death sentence to Patterson’s ear. “Time to impact, one eight seconds. All four Resistance battleships have engaged their supplemental aft shields.”
“I’m not surprised,” Patterson said resignedly. “They’re worried about us launching C-Drive-equipped missile strikes, but they also think they have us on the ropes. So they’ve throttled back, raised their aft shields, and now they’re planning to sit tight and slug it out until all of our major combatants are out of the fight.”
Patterson paused, forcing his disciplined mind to ignore the frightful destruction being visited on his forces while taking in the vast quantities of information being presented on the various displays around the Combat Information Center. As he struggled to distill multiple data sources into some sort of strategy that might still offer a means of salvaging the situation, his glance paused momentarily on the holographic table. The two groups of anti-ship missiles were highlighted in an angry red as they completed their final, relentless approach to the two already heavily damaged cruisers. On the far left side of the table, he also noted the approach of the next salvo of nuclear-tipped shells fired from the Rusalovs’ main guns. Whispers of despair were playing at the edge of his consciousness when his peripheral vision detected a flashing blue icon displayed on a nearby bulkhead-mounted view screen.
“I’m afraid we may well lose the Shawnee and Koori, Commander,” he said solemnly, “but I think Sarafi may have just made his first big mistake. Weapons hold on Shoshone and Chickasaw!”
***
To the extent that current Pelaran and Grey-enhanced technology allowed, TFC’s engineers had designed all of their combat vessels to keep their crews alive while remaining in the fight for as long as possible — even after sustaining heavy damage. At nine hundred and fifty meters in length, the Navajo-class cruisers’ tremendous size had provided her designers with an unprecedented opportunity to construct the ultimate expression of this design philosophy.
The ships were equipped with a large hangar bay, as well as the cavernous internal spaces required to embark a Marine Expeditionary Unit of approximately twenty-three hundred troops along with all of their accompanying equipment. Still, the ships’ size had been dictated primarily by their massive main guns, resulting in the unusual situation of the engineers having met all of the various mission requirements while still having internal space to spare. Rather than “waste” that unused space on such luxuries as more spacious accommodations for the relatively small crew, the designers had instead opted to roughly double the thickness of the ships’ outer armor. Design decisions such as these, while seemingly minor at the time they were made, could sometimes produce unexpected, far-reaching results — occasionally even changing the course of history. Now, as the already heavily damaged cruisers shook violently from the impacts of multiple anti-ship missiles, the fate of the entire world hinged on their ability to remain in the fight for just a short while longer.
SCS Gunov
(7.1x106 km from Earth)
“Why have Zhelov and Serapion not opened fire with their energy weapons?” Sarafi asked impatiently. “Better yet, why are they not ignoring the first two targets altogether and shifting their fire to the undamaged enemy ships? Surely the first targets no longer represent a significant threat. If we continue this leisurely pace, however, the other two will soon be in position to resume their attack.”
“Based on the catastrophic damage cause by the Humans’ first round of artillery attacks, the two Baldevs’ AIs automatically rerouted power from their energy weapons to their shields,” Commander Freyda replied without looking up from her Command workstation. “It assumed, incorrectly, that the targets were likely to be destroyed by the missile strike and Rusalov artillery impacts. With your permission, I will override this precaution. The data indicates that the Terran cruisers’ main guns have more than enough energy to penetrate our shields, even if we drive them well beyond their design limits.”
“Of course, do it!” Sarafi bellowed, sensing the outcome of the battle still teetering precariously between overwhelming victory and ruinous defeat.
Freyda took a moment to enter the necessary commands, then returned her attention to a high resolution image of one of the damaged Terran warships. With a quick gesture, she opened the same view on one side of the bridge display screen, then slowly panned the hull of the ship in an effort to better gauge the damage that had been inflicted thus far.
“Tactical, has our AI completed an interim battle damage assessment on the first two targets?” she asked.
“Yes, Commander,” the young lieutenant replied. “Both of the Human cruisers have sustained a total of nine main battery hits from the Rusalovs and approximately twenty hits each from the anti-ship missile strikes conducted by the Zhelov and Serapion. Power levels on both ships have dropped significantly, but, as you can see, both are still managing to sporadically return fire with their energy weapons. Our AI indicates that both ships still represent a diminished but significant threat and recommends that we continue our attacks to fully neutralize them before shifting fire to the other Terran ships.”
“I want both of those ships destroyed immediately,” Sarafi said in a low, menacing tone. “The Zhelov and Serapion’s field interdiction capabilities obviously caught the Humans totally unaware, but they will quickly regroup if we fail to exploit the situation. Unlike the ships we faced two days ago, these Terran cruisers clearly have no shielding whatsoever. The fact that these first two are still offering resistance is beyond ridiculous at this point. Concentrate all four battleships’ main battery and energy weapons fire and finish them now, then immediately move on to the other two.”
“Yes, Commodore,” several Wek officers replied at once.
Believing she might have seen movement against the otherwise static view of the Terran cruiser’s hull, Commander Freyda paused momentarily, then panned the optical sensor back in the previous direction. Pausing once again on the warship’s massive forward dorsal gun mount, she could clearly see that it was traversing ominously in the direction of the Zhelov.
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***
During the thirty seconds following Commodore Sarafi’s order ensued some of the most violent ship-to-ship combat that had occurred on or near the Earth since the days when seventy-four-gun ships of the line would fire broadside after broadside within pistol shot range of one another. Although severely damaged, both Terran ships had maintained a steady, albeit ineffectual, fire with what remained of their starboard bank of energy weapons. The Shawnee had even managed to restore power to one of her four main railgun mounts and was preparing to fire on the lead Resistance battleship when the space surrounding her hull flared brilliantly with the discharge of over one hundred and fifty heavy beam emitters.
With full power now available for their energy weapons and their AIs now having completed an extensive damage assessment, Zhelov and Serapion concentrated their fire with the intention of causing the complete structural failure of both Terran cruisers as quickly as possible. Bolts of intense, orange-tinted energy peeled back layer after layer of their targets’ hulls, focusing on locations that had already sustained heavy damage from the Rusalovs’ artillery rounds as well as their own missile strikes.
Ironically, Koori was the first to succumb, becoming (in spite of her modifications) the shortest-lived major combatant warship in Human history. Just before being hit by a final salvo of six nuclear-tipped artillery rounds, her hull buckled and failed just forward of her aft dorsal gun mount. The breech vented a number of the ship’s most critical internal compartments to space while also allowing Serapion’s energy weapons to penetrate deeper and deeper within until, finally — her reactors destroyed and all of her major systems offline — she simply ceased operation, drifting helplessly. By the time the final wave of artillery rounds arrived, their additional destructive power was largely redundant. As each round penetrated the Koori’s hull, the bodies of her remaining crew were instantly vaporized as much of her recently completed interior was reduced to brightly glowing masses of molten metal.
Less than six seconds later, TFS Shawnee suffered a similar fate. Just before the last salvo of artillery rounds reached her battered hull, however, she did manage to let fly with two final rounds of her own. Each huge kinetic energy penetrator reached the Zhelov just over three seconds later. The first round passed easily through the battleship’s shields before slicing through her armored starboard side and entering her cavernous hangar bay. The entire compartment was instantly consumed in an enormous fireball as the shell’s energy was transferred to thousands of tons of what had been hull material, spacecraft, and maintenance equipment just moments before. The second round, although beginning its flight only twenty meters from the first, was deflected slightly upward as it penetrated its target’s outer armor. Fortunately for the crew of the Zhelov, this new trajectory dramatically reduced the amount of damage inflicted on her internal spaces. Passing briefly through an unpressurized maintenance corridor, the round exited through a relatively flat section of the battleship’s hull — completely destroying her dorsal gravitic beam weapon array in the process.
Although one of their number had been effectively destroyed and another seriously damaged, the Resistance ships now seemed to rally — spurred on by the elimination of the first two Terran warships. With no appreciable delay, all four battleships altered course in an effort to better position themselves for a final assault against the remaining two undamaged enemy cruisers. Simultaneously, the two Human cruisers completed their turns back towards the engagement zone in preparation for resuming their own attack. Inexplicably, however, neither ship opened fire.
The two Rusalov battleships, having the benefit of rotating “gunhouse” mounts for their main guns, were the first to shift their fire to the remaining two Terran cruisers. A total of twelve rounds immediately streaked away at over five thousand kilometers per second, this time aimed to converge on the cruiser Shoshone just under nineteen seconds later. Eight seconds into their flight, however, the starfield ahead of the projectiles seemed to blur and distort convulsively, followed by a flash of grayish-white light as yet another, seemingly identical Terran cruiser appeared directly in the shells’ path. What at first appeared to the captains of the Resistance ships to be a stroke of good luck quickly proved otherwise as all twelve rounds reached the location of the new Human warship and — amid brilliant flashes of white light — were deflected harmlessly away into space.
TFS Cossack had joined the battle.
TFS Navajo, Earth-Sun Lagrange Point 2
(Combat Information Center - 1.5x106 km from Earth)
“Alright, alright, pipe down, people!” Admiral Patterson bellowed, trying to restore order to the normally tranquil Combat Information Center. Having witnessed the destruction of both the Koori and the Shawnee just seconds earlier, the arrival of TFS Cossack — followed immediately thereafter by a successful demonstration of her gravitic shields — had incited the room to something just short of a riot. “We will celebrate when all enemy forces have been destroyed. Until then, I need this room quiet, focused, and each of you on point.” Patterson paused and glanced around the room for a moment at all of the smiling, triumphant faces turned his way. “Hooyah?” he prompted, with just a hint of a smile.
“HOOYAH!” came the thunderous, enthusiastic reply.
“Very good. Now get back to work!” he concluded, turning back to his tactical officer at the holographic table.
“Sir, the battleship that took two rounds from the Shawnee’s main guns ceased fire on her gravitic beam weapon immediately afterwards. Based on the timing of the damage, I’d say she’s lost the capability to stop our ships from entering hyperspace.”
“That’s good news, but I don’t know if we can be certain that’s the case. Theseus’ data seemed to indicate that the beam came from one of two separate arrays, depending on their position relative to the Baldev. I think it’s safe to say, however, that as long as our ships remain above her dorsal surface, she won’t be able to use the weapon.”
“Shall we send that information, sir?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” Patterson replied, nodding to Ensign Fletcher.
“Sending now, sir,” she responded immediately.
“Our goal is to take no more Rusalov main battery hits on our unshielded ships, Commander,” Patterson continued. “Cossack is to continue to close with the two remaining Rusalovs and take them out as quickly as possible. If her upgraded reactors are working as advertised, her rate of fire should be increased as well. As long as the incoming artillery rounds can’t get through her shields, she should be more than a match for both of them.”
“And the two Baldevs?”
“Are in serious trouble,” Patterson replied with a savage grin. “They are primarily energy weapon platforms and, although quite powerful in their own right, are much more effective against our ships when paired with kinetic energy weapons. I think it’s safe to say they will be losing access to those shortly.”
“So Shoshone and Chickasaw should resume their attack against the Baldevs, then? Sorry, sir, but won’t they simply transition to hyperspace to avoid our heavy railgun fire?”
“They might, but I’ll be surprised if they are able to do so. That’s the mistake I mentioned earlier. Based on the analyses from Dagger and Crossbow, we believe that once their aft supplemental shields are engaged, they’re essentially stuck where they are. We know for sure that the additional shields encumber their sublight engine nozzles, but we have also seen indications that they prevent the ships from transitioning to hyperspace. And if they drop their supplemental shields —”
“Yes, sir,” he replied, nodding his understanding.
“One more thing, Commander. I want all enemy ships destroyed in detail. Understood?”
“Understood,” the tactical officer replied gravely.
“I’m not saying we won’t give quarter … we’re not about to start behaving like them. What I am telling you is that we will continue our attacks until all enemy ships have either surrendered unconditionally or
are completely destroyed.”
“Yes, Admiral. Does that include the Gunov as well?”
Patterson considered the question for a moment, replaying the merciless destruction of severely damaged Human and Resistance vessels in his mind. “Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it, Commander. I can’t imagine any circumstances where Sarafi would surrender. And even if he did, we would have no way of ensuring that he wasn’t preparing to launch his bio weapon under a flag of truce.”
Chapter 21
SCS Gunov
(7.1x106 km from Earth)
Commodore Naveen Sarafi stared impassively at the spectacle playing out in real-time on his bridge display screen. He had watched with pride as the first two Terran cruisers had met their demise — portents, he had assumed, of victory’s inevitable approach. That had been just minutes ago, had it not? Yet, what he now saw on the Gunov’s various situation displays foretold not of his enemies’ destruction, but rather his own. By his AI’s count, the shielded Human warship had now absorbed at least twenty-six direct hits from his two Rusalov battleships’ main guns. He surmised that there was likely only one such vessel available to attack his forces, but it had immediately become obvious that one would be more than enough. In a last ditch effort to overwhelm its shields and retake the initiative, Sarafi had ordered the Zhelov and Serapion to ignore the remaining two Terran cruisers and concentrate their fire on the newcomer. Even with a combined barrage from the two Rusalovs’ main batteries supported by enfilade energy weapons fire from the two Baldev-class battleships, however, the new Human warship had proven to be all but indestructible. Predictably, the two remaining Terran cruisers had taken full advantage of the opportunity, sending their own deadly streams of railgun and energy weapons fire streaking downrange to slam into his two most powerful remaining warships.
“Forgive me, Commodore, but should we not consider a strategic withdrawal at this point?” Freyda asked, bracing herself for a wide range of possible responses. “You have spoken to me before regarding the importance of demonstrating the danger posed by the rapid Terran military buildup thanks to their Pelaran allies. As distasteful as it is to settle for anything less than a total victory, we can now return home with undeniable proof that the Sajeth Collective must unify and commit itself to eliminating this threat once and for all.”