by Lee Guo
Stars At War
By
Lee Guo
Text copyright © 2014 Lee Guo
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the author, except for brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews are permitted.
This is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or have been used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Content Editor: L. Elliott
For Mom
Table of contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31 - Epilogue
About Lee Guo
Connect With Lee Guo
~
Prologue ~
Star System Dalon, Core of the Viron Empire
Planet Dalon's World
He kept falling, falling. Blackness everywhere—no light, no ground, things did not exist for him to hold onto…Just nothingness. A total void, and so he fell.
Who am I? What am I? He didn't know. He didn't even have the emotions to feel afraid, or to be curious, or to wonder. All he knew? He’d been in a falling trance for as long as he could remember.
Time. What is that?
A body. What is that?
A light. What is that?
A small light, very miniature, shone from far away.
He couldn't quite tell what it might be, but it certainly looked different. At least, it was something.
When the light became brighter, he became curious—certainly something new.
Curiosity. He could feel this emotion, again.
The light. It became larger. Like a single star in a black sky.
Prancort wanted to touch it, to grab hold of it.
Prancort...yes, that’s my name, as it has always been, and always will be.
He seemed to have hands, now. He reached for that dot of light, but instead it reached out for him.
The point of light zoomed at him. It enclosed him from all sides. It surrounded him. Colors emerged around him.
Objects filled the sky. A place. A time. A reason.
Logic existed, again. Things existed and were related to each other.
I am Prancort. I am me. Prancort de Gaulle—a machine—a god.
He now saw it in his mind…Hundreds of starships firing laser beams at each other. Thousands of people died every second—and High Admiral Prancort was the mastermind behind it all. The Supreme Commander of all he surveyed.
He was going to win. He would win. He always won—every game.
Yes, the war…The battle, it all came back to him now…
Act 1
CHAPTER ONE
Star System Orasis V
Flag Bridge, Mobile Battle Fortress VSF Epsilon Decimus
Battle…Battle happened all around him.
I can win—I can win. Prancort gripped the railing with tight fists and he could hear his own breathing through his armored suit. Huff. Huff. His brain worked at maximum speed.
Below him, hundreds of uniformed officers carried out his orders.
The flag bridge busied itself in an unnatural high as it controlled the entire human space navy in what was the largest battle humanity ever encountered to date. The product of hundreds of worlds and billions of human laborers fought against the alien armada that wanted to kill every human being in the galaxy.
Huff. Huff… Prancort's nanite enhanced brain sent out orders at lightning speed.
His eyes darted at the giant holographic display in front of him. The red and green images flashed across his face, constantly changing, constantly updating as the holomap tried to represent what was happening on the battlefield in three-dimensional form.
He was a machine…He was a god.
Yet, even as his lightning fast reflexes commanded entire squadrons of starships, a thought kept repeating through his mind of how —he was indeed failing.
The truth is—the enemy he fought turned out to be even more vicious and cunning. The alien out there, commanding the opposing fleet, rarely made mistakes, and constantly overpowered Prancort on numerous occasions.
Yet, Prancort persisted. He tried his best to kill that emotion—the fear that he might lose. He must do it for humanity. He needed to do it for himself. Because—if he failed here, he would never allow himself to live…
Star System Orasis V
Bridge, Juggernaut VSF Asterix
Captain Donovan bit at his lip. As a forward commander, his duty was to hold the line, but there’s only so much even he could do. In the end, he was just a pawn on the board, a pawn the higher ups commanded.
"All laser batteries, fire!"The Captain stared at the holomap with blood-struck eyes.
The twenty-kilometer super-dreadnaught Asterix readied its 400 laser batteries and fired into the leading snake warship. Massive amounts of energy ravaged the enemy starship, crisping its outer layer of armor to bits.
However, this didn’t seem to matter. The snake warship had so much armor, it seemed undeterred as it fired back.
Damage sensors went ablaze. The bridge rocked as waves of violence slashed through it.
"Report!" said Donovan.
"I'm reading light damage to our forward armor! Power conduits on our forward section have been damaged by 25%. Light casualties!"
Flag Bridge, Mobile Battle Fortress VSF Epsilon Decimus
“I wish I could use missiles in this battle,” Admiral Prancort said aloud, but he knew he couldn't. Too much intersystem dust and small rocks existed within the asteroid field. Missiles would blow upon hitting any rock since they didn't have a gravity-field powerful enough to deflect them, especially with the missile's extreme speed.
Battle space looked like a gigantic asteroid field. Nothing—but a thick particle dense field with millions of mile wide asteroids in every direction…the proto-stellar dust field of a newborn star. The snake admiral had chosen it, and High Admiral Prancort had been forced to follow the enemy admiral into the stellar dust cloud with the belief human ships could outperform because they were smaller.
“Well, the enemy cannot use their missiles, either,” Vice Admiral Prion observed.
The battle in Block E-9-C was won, but the other battles in other blocks weren’t as victorious. Prancort already sent an overwhelming number of ships to Block E-9-C to win that battle, but he didn't have an overwhelming number of ships in all the other blocks.
A large part of the enemy's success could be attributed to the power of the enemy juggernauts. They were unfathomably well armored and could take on a lot of damage, especially from the front. He learned several things during the battle of block E-9-C. A snake juggernaut couldn’t be destroyed from the front, unless overwhelmed by firepower from a human juggernaut and only if the snake were already damaged. The only cost-effective way to destroy it was from the flanks where the armor seemed weaker.
Also, because of the way snake starships were designed, where the aft and side armors were especially weak, a single Viron element could turn the tide of the particular battle if properly positioned. In the case of Block E-9-C, it was a single Viron light-cruiser.
This directly related to his tactical successes. Certainly, surrounds and ‘bear claw’ tactics worked when they were done fast enough by small elements like his destroyers and light-cruisers. Even a single light-cruiser positioned in the rear or flank could give the enemy a dilemma it couldn't solve without repositioning its own units, thus wasting valuable time and exposing even more side or aft armor.
The exception would be with a head-to-head confrontation, then the snakes definitely took the advantage. Their frontal armor was that strong. Worse yet, the enemy had eighteen remaining juggernauts while Prancort only had fifteen.
Gripping the railings with his sweaty hands, Prancort continued scanning the battlefield for solutions.
Battles now occurred in over eighteen blocks. Over 80% of Prancort's fleet engaged in direct combat. The 20% unengaged starships rushed inward, away from the fleet's flanks. The snake fleet continued pushing high-density forces through openings in an attempt to overwhelm by sheer firepower. Prancort's only resort besides pushing more ships directly into the ‘action zones’ would be by flanking and rearing. He could do it easily because his smaller ships could maneuver through pockets. In general, his ships were faster because they could do so.
So, there were two things which would impact the success of this battle: how well the Viron ships already in combat could flank and rear the snake attackers, and how fast Prancort could get his remaining twenty-percent away from the flanks and into the battle at the center wall.
Losses in the center already soared to over a third of all of Prancort's starships.
The snakes lost Twenty-percent of its pre-battle numbers, but this was mostly in terms of smaller starships like destroyers and light-cruisers. The snakes beat Prancort in the heavy-cruiser tally, killing twenty-eight Viron heavy-cruisers compared to fifteen snake heavies lost. Despite this, Prancort did destroy two snake juggernauts while losing only one, but this was because of a fluke in the orders.
The battle still raged on. Prancort had little choice but to continue giving out orders, both on a large scale and on a small scale. He made sure those ships arriving into the center battle wall would arrive from a point where it could flank the enemy ships. He ordered starships already in battle to proper locations, especially if they were idle. For instance, most of the combatants in Block E-9-C were already mopping up all the snake units. These units could be sent to a neighboring block, where their firepower could win the day there… All in all, he’d gained a slight advantage when the enemy attacked on all fronts. Many bottlenecks were made, which allowed Prancort to shoot enemy ships coming out of cracks one at a time. However, he lost the advantage once the enemy got through, as head-to-head, his units couldn’t fight a frontal battle with snake units.
CHAPTER TWO
Flag Bridge, Mobile Battle Fortress
VSF Epsilon Decimus
Admiral Prancort played the game. The game was called…Who could outflank the other. The snakes played the game as well, even though they were ahead, without knowingly playing it. Prancort needed to play the game exceptionally well in order to win, but the enemy didn’t.
The asteroids made the game more crucial, but it also blocked the way. If the battle were held in open space, flanking would have been more difficult because both sides would have begun shooting each other from tens of thousands of kilometers away. In reality, the line-of-sight became much harder to get, then because you needed to slow down in order to maneuver, an object that moved to your flanks would stay there.
Prancort controlled hundreds of units in a kaleidoscope of movement. Vice Admiral Prion helped out, too.
Often times, their strategies for a particular block mingled.
“See you those two snake cruisers?” Prancort pointed out. “We have to pull away or reflank, if we don’t they’ll get side shots on us.”
“We don’t have the troops to counter flank,” Prion countered.
“Then we bend back,”
A few seconds later, Prion spoke, “Why did you commit to that attack? We’re in a disadvantage in that block.”
“It’s okay. I have two destroyers ready to rear attack.”
“Two destroyers won’t make a difference in that block.”
“Trust me, they will.”
Then, there was the enemy commander. He seemed to react faster and have greater map vision. Which is only natural since he’s a centipede with many legs, and so it wasn’t unexpected how his alien brain could multitask better.
It turned out to be uncanny how well the snake could play it out. Talk about getting the snake to make mistakes. Now when the snake was in, he could play it well.
“I’m pulling out of Block D-7-C,” Prancort announced.
“If you’re pulling out of D-7-C, I’m pulling out of the neighboring blocks. I’ll get surrounded,” Prion responded.
“Maybe not, then.” Prancort shook his head. “But I can’t hold D-7-C. Can you spare me some reinforcements?”
“Two light-cruisers is all I can spare.”
“That might balance the odds.” Prancort nodded. “Do it.” His mind focused onto the battle. The fate of his nation’s future rested on it. He couldn’t believe it all came down to this—whether or not he could outplay the snake commander inside an asteroid field. Outrageous, but true. It seemed like a dream.
I can win, I can win.
Bridge, Juggernaut VSF Asterix
“Weapons, fire!” Donovan ordered. On the map, he watched as the snake light-cruiser on the seventeen snake battle wall suddenly took an entire frontside of Asterix’s laser beams into its right armor.
Its side armor splintered in blinding hot explosions. Armor fragments spewed in every direction. The light-cruiser stopped firing into the human wall of the ships ahead of it, and instead teetered over like a puzzled child.
Asterix’s next discharge of laser beams burned even deeper into the snake’s side-innards.
The snake suddenly turned towards its right, in an attempt to forward face Asterix, which flanked it.
When it finished the turn, some human captain in the human wall ahead of it noticed it had revealed its side, and fired onto the snake light-cruiser’s left armor. Another human starship in the big wall followed suit, then another.
The light-cruiser exploded white-hot. Fragments of its ten-kilometer hull ricocheted on a snake heavy-cruiser nearby, leaving giant marks as well as moving the ship.
“Weapons, switch fire towards snake heavy-cruiser, E52,” Donovan ordered amidst the cheering on the bridge.
“Aye, sir!”
Asterix’s forward laser mounts beamed into its next victim, a snake heavy-cruiser on the snakes’ remaining battle wall—who also faced the human wall. The beams slashed into its side armor like it did to the exploded light-cruiser. Explosions pockmarked all across the second victim’s side-hull. Once again, weak side armor fragments spewed in every direction.
“They don’t know what to do about it,” Commander Rajek noted from beside him.
“We’re a game changer,” Donovan concluded as he stared at the snake. What can you do? If you turn to face me, the human wall in front of you will fire at your sides.
The snake didn’t move.
All the while, the Asterix continued to blast its side-armor and destroy its side-hull.
A light-cruiser crept up besides Asterix, and Donovan noticed its insignia, the Viron light-cruiser Pendam. Join the party! Donovan snickered.
The light-cruiser Pendam also fired into the snake heavy-cruiser from the flank, adding to Asterix’s destructive firepower on the snake’s side.
The snake, instead of twisting to face its assailants attacking its vulnerable side, simply stood still and let itself be destroyed…such was the dilemma it was in. A m
inute later, it exploded in another white-hot fireball. Pieces of its twenty-kilometer hull splattered in many directions.
“Good. Target the next…“ Donovan’s voice faded away, as he spotted it on the central holomap. A little thing, about half the size of a human destroyer. About one kilometer in diameter. He’d previously ignored it, thinking it to be merely hull fragments—but no, it now moved too carefully and purposely for that. Worse, its emissions told him that it was a piloted ship. Though, not a Viron ship. He’d never seen it before.
Donovan now remembered the debriefing.
Admiral Prancort, in the center of that massive auditorium, told all the captains of the human fleet to be wary of the kamikaze ship, or the K-ship. A true suicide ship, armed with as much antimatter as it could carry.
“Weapons, target that small K-ship behind the human battle wall and fire!” yelled Donovan.
“I can’t, sir! Our ships are blocking it! I don’t have line-of-sight!”
“Comm, tell the captains of Ashigaru and Mitsume that—”
Just then—the k-ship blew. First, a blinding white-flash occurred right in the center of the fourteen-ship human battle wall. A blinding shockwave expanded—unlike anything Donovan had ever seen before. From his distance, it looked like it would rock Asterix and drain its shields. From the close-in distance of the ships inside the human battle wall, it was like absorbing a supernova’s energy explosion.
Immediately, two human ships, the closest to the detonation, exploded into giant fireballs as the shockwave crashed into them. Three other human ships within the next closest vicinity had their shields ripped off their skin. Green-blue shield energy splashed outward, along with pieces of their hull.
Donovan didn’t need to magnify the holomap’s zoom to see fireballs whooshing through those ship’s innards.
The rest of the human squadron seemed to break formation, as soon as they were struck by the shockwave.
He sure didn’t want to be in Prancort’s position. The damage to the fleet was vast. Damage control sensors on those ships must have been beeping like sirens. When he studied the human wall of fourteen again, it wasn’t a wall anymore, but a scattering of ships trying to come to their senses among the snake’s fire.