“Incoming missiles detected, Admiral,” announced the Fleet Defender Officer. The experienced officer was a long-time member of the admiral’s staff with tens of battles to his credit, including the first Chzek-kin raid on the Rheas Homeworld.
“Get the khul veck tactical map updated!” the admiral cursed at the quantum computer AI. The thing was ginky in the way it wanted precise readings before it would display tactical data and was delaying updating the tactical map until it reconciled conflicting sensor readings from the fleet ships. Something that was inevitable in the tight formation the fleet was currently deployed.
“They know where we are, gazheimet!” the admiral roared; he was relying on another full-time segment before the fleet was detected and wasn’t going to get it. How the humans had the luck to have sensors along their approach path was an infuriating question the admiral had to let go of as he knew they would not show him the courtesy to answer even if he could ask. Instead, he issued new orders, “All ships, begin active scans. Bring up active defenses for the fleet. Establish the multi-layer defensive screen!”
The order went out from the fleet communication system and in moments the tightly clustered fleet erected a nearly impenetrable, layered defense against the incoming missile attack. No information was available for the humans’ space combat tactics beyond their use of long-range missiles. What little that was available was from the few survivors of Chzek-kin fleets who had fought battles, and lost, to the humans. None of the tactical data from the destroyed ships was transferred to the surviving ships and the only reason the surviving ships survived was due to their positions far away from the missile attacks. What was known was that in every previous battle, the Chzek-kin fleets spread out their formations and used small squads of ships rather than maintaining the much tougher to defeat massed defensive firepower of a tight fleet formation. Admiral Tukool had no intention of repeating the mistakes of the past, even when he couldn’t be sure precisely what those mistakes were. Operating with limited information was common in space combat and required a forensic analysis and conjecture to come to any conclusions, especially conclusions about battles in which your side lost and did not have access to the battlefield and remains of destroyed ships.
Fleet defenses in tight formations had four effective layers. The outer layer, with technically unlimited range, relied on high payload anti-ship missiles used to create a wall of radiation and explosive force enemy missiles would have to penetrate. The next inner layer, effective out to the range of passive visual targeting systems at approximately three million miles, relied on independently targeted anti-ship and anti-missile missiles and long-range lasers. It was in the third layer that active detection systems began to be used. The active sensors became effective once light speed sensor transmissions were able to successfully receive a ping off of an incoming missile. The travel time of the sensor’s transmission to and ping from the target also needed to be short enough to allow effective targeting of a constantly maneuvering target that would be moving thousands of miles per second. Point blank defense was the final layer and was made up of decoy chaff and infrared dispensers and point defense lasers. After the fourth layer was the near-suicidal tactic of detonating multiple nuclear missiles sequentially while in close proximity to the ship to form an impenetrable barrier. It was at least as hazardous to the ships as were the enemy missiles and wasn’t counted as a defensive layer.
Watching the now-updated tactical map, the Chzek-kin admiral watched as an irregular and uncoordinated stream of missiles began to appear. A group of twenty missiles popped up on the sensor screens, followed by a trickle of four to eight missiles, followed by another smaller group, followed by a lull before another small group of missiles appeared again. The enemy did not take the time to set up a simultaneous time-on-target missile barrage, unlike the barrage that would soon be hitting the human base. To the admiral, this did not seem overly impressive on the part of the human commander. Either they were sloppy, or they were caught by surprise and were conducting an uncoordinated reaction. Why would the humans think they need to fire immediately and without a synchronized attack when his fleet is still so far out in the system? the admiral wondered.
“Target the larger missile groups with missile walls, standard ratio, and use independent targeting for the smaller groups. Put lasers on the singles. We need to conserve missiles where we can. This could be a long fight,” the Chzek-kin admiral ordered. Both the fleet weapons and defender officers acknowledged his order with the traditional, “Kooslot!” response. Loosely translated it meant, “By your will, my hands are guided!” Old timers like the admiral were unanimous in their preference for tradition aboard their ships and the creator help the officer who started using Chzek standard in the admiral’s presence when no Chzek were around.
The admiral watched the tactical screen as the first wall of one megaton nuclear missiles formed a wall of radiation and destruction in front of the initial wave, destroying them. He then watched as successive waves of missiles were destroyed in small groups and singly at long range. It was only after the third wave of incoming enemy missiles were destroyed that active sensors began to pick up thousands of smaller objects approaching the fleet along the same path as the now destroyed missiles.
Before he could demand to know what the objects were, orders were shouted by the captain of the Behemoth. Freezing in place, the admiral listened as the captain ordered point defense lasers and short-range anti-missile missiles to commence firing. The captain was frantic in his orders and the admiral’s gaze was drawn from him to the tactical screen of the ship’s combat bridge where the admiral could see thousands of contacts the ship’s quantum computer was attempting to track simultaneously.
Snapping his head back to his own tactical display, the admiral began shouting orders for all ships before he caught himself. The order was already given by him earlier and every ship in the fleet was engaging the incoming objects. Maneuvering was not an option for the fleet in the tight formation, he realized. Their entire fate rested in the close-in defensive weapon systems and the luck of the vastness of space that most of the incoming objects would miss striking the fleet’s ships.
There was luck; a great deal of it for most of the ships in the attacking fleet. The incoming objects were mostly unguided and passed between the ships. A benefit, the admiral believed, to the enemy missiles’ destruction at long range that made the objects spread more in their dispersion prior to reaching their targets.
Luck being a fickle mother, not all ships were spared. Many ships in the fleet were impacted by the small depleted uranium slugs dispensed by the Mk VII missiles the humans used. Most of the damage was minor as the Chzek-kin shields held or deflected the slugs and only two ships sustained any damage from direct impact by closely spaced slugs hitting their shield in the same section and overwhelming it before it could recover.
As fortunate as the fleet was in withstanding the onslaught of thousands of what amounted to super dense ball bearings, the fleet did not fare as well from the many guided, one hundred pound, DU kinetic darts that punched through the shields if a number of the fleet’s ships, crippling several and causing the total destruction of three ships that were struck in vital systems. The Chzek-kin battlecruiser, Twaun, suffered massive damage due to secondary explosions as a kinetic dart penetrated the ship’s main missile magazine, while the destroyer, Dwerket, exploded into millions of pieces from the resulting explosion from a kinetic dart passing through its number two reactor.
For hours the fleet suffered losses as the small waves of missiles reached the fleet. After losing another three ships, with four others heavily damaged, the admiral ordered the fleet to break from its tight formation and spread out so they had room to maneuver. The tactic helped significantly to eliminate damage from the unguided DU slugs and allowed the guided kinetic darts and low yield nukes to stand out as they had to maneuver to engage the evading ships. Still, several more ships were destroyed and damaged and the admiral fe
lt his fleet slowly being dismantled.
Soon, he thought, looking at the hole in the side of the ship’s bridge and realizing he and the others on the bridge were only alive because of the new damage mitigation equipment installed on the ship and the required combat pressure suits they were all wearing. The ship was still functional as the destroyed systems along that side of the ship were easily handled by backup systems.
The new Impact Shrapnel Arrester Field installed on command ships by the Chzek to mitigate impact damage saved the total loss of the bridge crew. The inertia dampening technology used by the system projected a high energy pulse of its dampening field for a micro-tick inside the hull of the ship in sections affected by a penetrating impact; momentarily arresting all kinetic energy in the space and turning shrapnel into floating debris, concussive force into calm atmosphere, and superheated matter into cold metal as energy transferred was dampened. The drawback to the system was it also disrupted all electronic systems in the space and momentarily halted the motion of blood and bioelectric impulses in the crew. Ship’s systems affected needed to be restarted, which was a small price to pay to avoid being destroyed. Chzek-kin biology was able to recover after the momentary hiccup in their bodies at the molecular level, although the chill, nausea, and mental confusion induced could be debilitating for several moments.
Still holding his second stomach and resisting the urge to vomit in his helmet, the admiral mentally cursed the Enemy, Soon we will have our revenge when our missiles reach that gatool veck enemy base. Count your dead then and let us see if you still wish to claim victory! This Chzek-kin race was not fond of fighting the Chzek’s wars, but the warrior in them committed fully once the shooting started.
Chapter 26: Black Rock Three Base, Waypoint System
Standing in the Command Center with the crew on its third watch since detecting the approaching enemy fleet, Admiral Bilford was updated on the ongoing explosions of their Mk VII missiles as they wreaked havoc on the enemy fleet. The decision to not set up a simultaneous time of impact for the missile assault was intentional. With small numbers of missiles constantly trickling in, the crew of the enemy ships would have no rest and suffer the constant fear of their ships being destroyed. He knew it would not be as instantly overwhelming as a single strike could have been, but the admiral understood this was a battle of attrition and the last one standing was likely to be the force with the highest endurance that also did not run out of ammo.
Unfortunately, the defenders of Black Rock Three Base were not able to see conclusively the damage they were doing outside of the catastrophic impacts on enemy ships where the explosions could be identified with spectral analysis. Seventy detonations of the Mk VII’s lethal nuclear warheads were identified and another seven enemy ships were identified from their ship core’s explosion through spectral analysis. Even with only seven identified nuclear explosions, the admiral knew there had to be much greater damage done to the enemy fleet simply due to the volume of DU slugs and guided kinetic darts that did not carry explosives. It was also promising for the defenders as the number of reflective surfaces increased and began spreading out from the enemy fleet. It could only be a debris cloud of destroyed ships that was continuing on with the fleet until they changed velocity or course.
“Make sure we keep a firm track on the enemy fleet. That debris field will fool you into believing they are coming straight down the pike while they slip away,” the admiral ordered, realizing he was becoming mesmerized watching the flashing sparkles of reflected light and explosions. It would be easy to fixate on the wrong thing and we can’t afford that, he thought.
Two hours later the admiral was informed their time had come, “Admiral, the outer beacon has detected incoming missiles. Over two hundred contacts at fourteen million miles,” the sensors officer reported.
“Commence long-range intercepts with Mk VIIs,” the admiral ordered, “Fire at will as targets come into range of the anti-missile systems and give me a status on the dampening shields.”
“Commencing fire,” responded the weapons officer, followed by a report the inertia dampening shields were in auto activation mode and all systems green. The shield was de-energized to permit defensive systems contained under the dampening umbrella to fire, but could be instantly reactivated by the quantum computers monitoring the base’s sensors.
The Mk VII missiles were set to early deployment of their warheads to gain the largest spread of ordinance possible and allow the individual attack vehicles to track in on their targets. It was less than two minutes after giving the command to launch that detonations began to happen. The incoming swarm of missiles spread out and began taking evasive maneuvers, but was unable to avoid the wall of depleted uranium slugs, guided kinetic darts, and nuclear warheads. Confirmed kills began to stack up on the tactical displays of the base’s virtual command center as the base’s multiple quantum computers calculated the trajectories of what were quickly becoming thousands of pieces of metal debris and missiles incoming and defensive fire outbound. It was spread out in an hourglass shape heading to and away from the base.
“Sensors, are their missiles spreading out?” asked the admiral, disregarding the debris and focusing on the remaining red vampire symbols of the approaching wave of missiles. There were still over one hundred fifty inbound and they seemed to be maneuvering for position and not just evasive changes in course.
“Yes, Admiral. They appear to be targeting the entirety of Black Rock Three. Why would they do that?” the sensor officer reported and asked.
Ignoring the break from limiting communications during combat to essential exchanges only, the admiral gave a reply, “They want to break the rock.” When he said it he realized Black Rock Three may have an Achilles heel.
Not understanding what he meant, the sensors officer took his eyes off his tactical screen long enough to look at the admiral. What he saw did nothing to calm the fear he already had churning through his body. It was clear now what the admiral was saying; the enemy wanted to break up the entire asteroid.
Quickly looking back to his tactical screen, the sensors officer switched over to the defensive assets screen and saw most of the asteroid did not have inertia dampener shields or a close-in anti-missile capability. It was information readily available to any officer or tech in operations, but no one had ever considered the possibility of destroying the entirety of the giant, heavy element laden, asteroid.
The sensors officer returned his eyes to the main tactical screen that everyone in the virtual command center was already staring at. The point defense missiles and lasers were firing and enemy missiles continued to be destroyed. The count of confirmed destroyed vampires quickly rose and kept climbing until all outbound defensive fire stopped around the base and revetments on the side of the asteroid. The tactical screen became blurry for a moment, then switched the view to an external satellite orbiting the base; the inertia dampening shields had activated.
The new view looked down on Black Rock Three Base. The entire base was glowing blue as the inertia dampener projectors mounted in the columns deployed around the base and revetments activated. The field was projected fifty miles into space and forced the defensive weapons under their protection to shut down as anything they fired would simply be captured by the dampening field along with the incoming enemy missiles.
The remaining inbound missiles spread out to impact over the entirety of the asteroid, but still favored Black Rock Three’s main base with half of their number. Sixteen missiles entered the projected inertia dampening field and detonated. Unlike on the ships, the base’s shields were able to bring the cores of the missiles to a complete standstill more than thirty miles from the base. Several other missiles suffered the same fate and were denied satisfaction as they were caught in the defensive field protecting the base.
The remaining missiles were more fortunate, from a Chzkek-kin’s point of view. They impacted the unprotected asteroid and penetrated deep inside before detonating their hundred meg
aton asteroid breaker warheads.
Shockwaves were sent through the metallic ore rock as each of the missiles struck; penetrating deep into the asteroid before detonating. The waves ran along the length of the asteroid shattering the internal structure. Upon reaching the surface, the energy was reflected back into the rock where they it was amplified; building upon itself as it travelled end-to-end. Intersecting and crisscrossing the asteroid, fissures erupted between the different rock formations and split the asteroid into thousands of pieces.
When the energy from the nuclear explosions reached Black Rock Three Base the tunnels, open spaces, and space docks were all ravaged by rock surfaces exploding into the open spaces. In tank warfare of the 20th Century, the effect was called “spalling.” In Black Rock Three Base it did not have a name. The first deaths were in the deep recesses of the base and the space docks. The reactor, manned by hundreds of engineers, contained hundreds of EGG Habitats that were torn apart as the rock around them shattered. The survival habitats, all shock mounted in reinforced tunnels, put up no more effective resistance than the chicken eggs they were named after. In the space docks, hundreds of dock hands were torn apart by rock shattering off the walls. What energy not reflected back into the asteroid was put into the surface rock as it shattered and spewed into the open spaces; tearing the three ships moored there to pieces.
Throughout the base and revetments the asteroid itself became death and crushed, shredded, and entombed the base’s crew. There would be nothing and no one to rescue.
On the back side of Black Rock Three asteroid, several ships were in hiding in revetments, caverns, and valleys. They were parked close up against the asteroid with systems powered down in hopes of avoiding detection. Each was destroyed in turn as rock spalled the surface and devastated the hulls of the ships. Ten support ships and their crews joined the megatons of rock and debris ejected into space around the remains of shattered asteroid. Even if rescue crews wanted to enter the area to search for survivors, they could not get close without being damaged or destroyed by the expanding debris field.
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