SAW 1: Stars at War

by Lee Guo

  On the Outside Asteroid Wall of the Cylinder

  Bridge, Juggernaut VSF Asterix

  "The Fierrera is gone, sir!" Comm advised, "It's not responding, anymore. I can't hail it!"

  Donovan watched the Fierrera, or what was left of the Fierrera, as two giant chunks sped left and right.

  He then, studied her assailants and grimaced. So, this was the reason those three heavy-cruisers stood idle behind that asteroid cluster—to get rear and side shots on us! Worse yet, every captain in the flotilla knew that to turn towards those three rear snakes would be suicide. If you turned, the snakes in front would get you.

  Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

  Such was the power of a two-sided attack. It would’ve been best to have everyone turned in one direction, so only one of your assailant groups—in this case, the three snake heavy-cruisers behind—would get rear shots.

  Who would be next? It would be up to fate, and the whim of your enemies.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Flag Bridge, Mobile Battle Fortress VSF Epsilon Decimus

  Admiral Prancort watched a volley of snake grazer fire cut the backside of the light-cruiser Halek, which then dropped acceleration. It meant reactor trouble. This wasn’t good. Any rear hits would not be good. Human ships were designed, so their forward armor would be toughest, precisely because in most scenarios, combatants would be hundreds of thousands of kilometers away and most of the time, they would be forward-facing each other. Side-facing engagements were few, and rear-facing engagements were rarest. It seemed in a proto-stellar asteroid field that was less the case. Though, even here, it would be still advantageous to concentrate most of your armor in front, because forward-forward confrontations occurred much more often.

  Obviously, snake starships were designed the same way.

  The human light-cruiser Halek took more hits to the rear, then it exploded in a massive containment breach—it, too, joined the line of debris that came from the Fierrera.

  No, Prancort could not take much more of this. At this rate, the flanking flotilla would get destroyed and there would be nothing left to do anything at the destination.

  Luckily, he called all of his forces into Block D-9-D and the surrounding blocks. This meant, there were some reinforcements coming towards the cylinder from the top. They were too far away to get inside the cylinder and play a part of the battle inside, but they did have, or soon would have, line of sight on those three snakes.

  Luckily, the snakes also possessed weak rear and side armor.

  Above the Cylinder

  Bridge, Light Cruiser VSF Harrington

  Captain Elise de Manchu grinned in her padded suit as her light-cruiser Harrington gained line of sight on the three snake heavies below. Hers was a fast ship, and not unexpectedly, she made her way quickly to the relevant battlefield. "Fire at the lead snake!" she ordered.

  "Which one is that—ma'am?" weapons asked

  "The middle one!” Dummy.

  "Yes, ma'am. Firing!"

  The Harrington's cruiser-sized lasers beamed into the top-rear section of the enemy heavy cruiser below. On her holomap, she saw explosions dotting the massive hunchback. Not a devastating shot, since it came from a light-cruiser, but it did get their attention, and hopefully, it would pull them away from attacking those six remaining human vessels far below. Prancort's orders. Her job would be to prevent those three snake heavies from annihilating the flanking flotilla.

  One of the snake heavies turned to meet her.

  "Shield status?"

  "54%, ma'am," DC responded.

  "Good." Elise nodded.

  The Harrington was a new ship, and its shield emitters were the most efficient in the fleet. It recharged the shields fast, especially after that last encounter, where shield saturation dropped to the single digits.

  Elise shuddered. She almost lost her life and her crew in that one. Battle is an amazing gamble, and she ‘d won—that time.

  "They're firing, ma'am!" weapons advised.

  Below, the ‘leader’ snake finished turning a 180 and beamed all 250 grazers into Harrington's forward shields. Her shields splashed, but despite all that, she could still see the three snakes clearly on her holomap, as their location and orientation seemed to laser into her ship from a probe network.

  "Shields at 36% and dropping, ma'am!" said DC.

  "Weapons, switch laser target away from the forward facing ship and at any of the ones still exposing their rear," she ordered

  "Which one?"weapons replied.

  "Anyone! The left, Carl!"

  "Y—yes, ma'am."

  Elise shook her head. How did this officer get into her bridge? It was impossible to correct now…she returned her attention at the three snakes below.

  Suddenly, she felt a ping of fear. Real fear. Even if she managed to get all three snakes below turned to face her, her ship was doomed. She was only a light-cruiser, which didn't fare well at all, with not one but three snake heavies.

  Then, she realized that Prancort's flanking flotilla's destination was so vital that he’d sacrificed her to get there. Despite all the years of officer school's drilling of sacrifice and duty, she still wanted to yell at Admiral Prancort.

  You rascal!

  "Ma'am, we got company!" helm advised.

  "I know, lieutenant. The second snake is turning towards us."

  "No, ma'am! Look behind us!"

  Two human vessels: a destroyer and a heavy-cruiser stepped into position beside Elise's Harrington. She grinned in sheer joy as the two vessels laser beamed the third unturned snake. The beams smacked the snake's rear, and since they came from a heavy-cruiser, vast fireballs and plumes caused rippling explosions to billow out.

  "Carl, target the unturned snake heavy," Elise ordered.

  "Yes, ma'am."

  Harrington's forward lasers added to the onslaught ,slicing the unturned heavy's back. The snake wretched and exploded in an overloaded reactor mess that threw a gigantic half-kilometer fragment into the neighboring snake.

  Excellent! Now we’re even! Three human starships, a heavy-cruiser, a light-cruiser, and a destroyer, against two damaged snake heavies—a battle Elise hoped for.

  "Ma'am! We got company!" said helm again.

  Elise smiled. She watched behind her ship and didn't see any. Where are they? Then, she realized the officer didn't mean good company. She peered above her, about 80 degrees from her forward axis, and knew from that direction the news would be bad. A red holoblip. And not just a small holoblip, but a giant one. A snake juggernaut aimed at her trio ‘squadron’ and fired juggernaut-sized grazers that slashed into the human destroyer beside her. The destroyer didn't even front-face the juggernaut as the grazers dove into its side armor.

  Explosions rippled through the human destroyer's tiny hull, tearing through its top armor like it was nothing, shattering its energy stores. The Bellophoron disappeared in a flash of light. And all its 1000 crewmen.

  Debris ricocheted off Elise's hull. She could hear it. Clang! Clang! I'm next, thought Elise. Fourth Military Maxim: when all enemies have the same attack-to-weight ratio, kill the easy targets first. "Helm! Turn us to face that juggernaut!" yelled Elise.

  No—too late. Even if she completed her turn, she'd be exposing her belly armor to the two snake heavies in front of her. In a split second, she realized she was doomed, as juggernaut-sized grazer beams crashed into her cruiser's top.

  Above the Cylinder

  Bridge, Juggernaut VSF Asterix

  We're there! Donovan watched at the battle above and behind him, realizing that the two human vessels, Harrington and Camilla, had no chance of survival. But they’d done their job. They turned the three snake heavies away from shooting at his flotilla's rear.

  Donovan wished he could give a moment of silence to all who commanded those two ships, but battle didn't give him time. He barked orders to decelerate the Asterix, so it could slide through the cylinder's asteroid wall and reach their destination…a flanking
position on the enemy units inside the cylinder.

  The holomap showed all the remaining five members of his flotilla also decelerating in an attempt to seep through the asteroid wall below.

  I hope the battle down there hasn't finished, because it's payoff time.

  Above the Cylinder

  Command Nexus, Suicide Ship CE Cha-mungnum

  Cha-mungnum's mandibles clicked in delight. The Master Commander’s plan had been perfect.

  He saw the five ship human flotilla. Their attempts to decelerate, so they could weave in between the asteroids of the cylinder’s top wall in order to gain flanking position on those twenty Cell ships below…might seem like a success. But they didn't know about Cha-mungnum. The Master Commander perfectly positioned Cha-Mungnum to destroy the flotilla. What made it even better—the enemy could not see him.

  The ‘Cha’ in his name designated a subset of the warrior caste. From the beginning of Cell civilization, his subcaste were the scouts, the ones whose self-sacrifice was relied on by the other castes. Now, he fit that role perfectly…a suicider…commanding a ship loaded with fifty-thousand roaring’s of antimatter.

  He felt glad. Glad, to do his duty for his clan, for his species. His ship, also called Cha-Mungnum, only required twenty insectoids to man. But when detonated, the provided the positioning was perfect, and it could kill thousands of multitudes more. But who cares? They were the enemy. They competed for territory and thus, should be thought of as prey.

  Cha-Mungnum's mandibles clicked. His twenty-two limbs inputted orders into the ship, thereby taking it out of ‘camouflage’ mode.

  The ship Cha-Mungnum suddenly sprouted legs. Legs which created a gravity field, pulling his ship—previously an innocuous asteroid—directly at the sweet spot of the human flotilla.

  Above the Cylinder

  Bridge, Juggernaut VSF Asterix

  What the hell is that? Recognition sparked in Donovan.

  NO! NO!

  It was so damn close! It was right there, right in the middle of the flotilla, or where the five-ship fleet would be in seconds!

  "Comm!" Donovan called. "Tell the fucking flotilla to shoot that thing! Weapons! Shoot it down! Shoot it down!"

  "But we'll hit our ships!" weapons countered.

  "It doesn't matt—" The K-ship exploded right in front of the five ship fleet. The massive white antimatter shockwave expanded at near light-speed. The leading human juggernauts Pusan and Javelin disappeared inside the shockwave. Seeing two twenty-kilometer starships vaporize into plasma would have unsettled Donovan, but he didn't have time to react as the blast flung Asterix like a ship in a typhoon. The next two heavy-cruisers Oxion and Beaumont, both occupying the middle of the flotilla, rippled with explosions. Entire sections of their forward hull blew away into debris.

  Donovan was lucky. The Asterix held the rear of the flotilla. Even luckier, it somewhat trailed behind the other four ships, since its reactors were at half, and so were its gravitic engines. When Oxion and Beaumont expanded into superheated chunky debris, Asterix remained whole.

  Though, it didn’t mean it hadn’t taken a beating.

  "Shields are wiped out!" said DC.

  "Of course! What do you think?" Donovan retorted. "Helm, do we have gravitics?"

  "Gravitic engines are—are—operational!" helm exclaimed, clearly amazed.

  "Turn us down! Descend into the chasm in between those two asteroids!" What amazed Donovan was how the antimatter shockwave, despite sending part of every subsystem into red-red-black, did accomplish something extraordinary. It completely nullified Asterix's forward momentum.

  Definitely, something Donovan needed, since every snake starship within three hundred kilometers would be targeting him.

  "I've finished turning," helm advised. "I'm descending!"

  "Go!" Donovan shouted.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Flag Bridge, Mobile Battle Fortress VSF Epsilon Decimus

  Prancort's grip spasmed.

  Damn those K-ships! He should’ve known! He should have brought some K-ships to the battle himself, but they were so useless in open space—how could he have known the enemy would bring K-ships in case of an asteroid battle?

  All his fault. It was all his fault that he didn't think of it himself. He accepted an engagement in the close-in battlefield, yet he didn't bring K-ships. "It's my fault," Prancort said aloud.

  "Now is not the time to regret. Concentrate on the battle!" Prion urged. "Concentrate on what you can do!"

  Everything went to terrible. The K-ships. The snake frontal armor. Everything. He wanted to quit, he truly did. A voice in his head told him it was already over, and how he should evacuate while he still had forces left, but another voice told him he could still win. The second voice won. Prancort would not give up. He wasn’t a man who gave up.

  He did have one arsenal left. It came slowly, but it was almost there. His own starship, the battle fortress Epsilon Decimus.

  Above the Cylinder

  Command Nexus, Heavy Cruiser CE Gro-Banok

  "Destroy that human ship!" Master Commander's voice rang in Gro-Banok's anterior lobe.

  The suicide attack down below worked perfectly. The antimatter explosion killed four human ships. Gro-Banok didn't even know about the plan, but he’d trusted Master Commander, and Master Commander had not failed him.

  Now, all he needed to do was use his heavy-cruiser to destroy the remnant of the flotilla, the one that got away, because it was slower than the rest.

  Gro-Banok peered at the remains of the two human starships above him. They’d fallen into the trap as well. They failed to factor in the Cell juggernaut flanking their top, and they died miserable pointless deaths because of lack of judgment by their commander.

  Then, of course, he considered the single starship below, a human juggernaut that barely had controls of its gravitics. It bled flames from its hull….practically dead, but it still could run away.

  "Destroy it!" Master Commander Cro-Drignon ordered in a slithering voice. "Give the prey no quarter!" "Yes, my commander." Gro-Banok yelled at the pilot of his heavy-cruiser.

  Abruptly, Gro-Banok decided he would do the honors himself. Using all twenty-two legs, he inputted commands into the central computer to about-face and turn 180 degrees to shoot down the lone human juggernaut.

  Do not run, prey. Accept your death!

  Inside the Cylinder

  Bridge, Juggernaut VSF Asterix

  Donovan was running…running into that hole. His entire starship felt so heavy. It felt like he couldn't move an inch. But slowly, slowly, he was accelerating.

  Hold together, baby.

  He knew the snake heavy kept eyeing him, turning to meet him.

  We're getting there. Asterix slowly entered the hole in between the two asteroids. While the seconds ticked away, he felt more and surer his back would be shot. Then, Asterix slid past the two asteroids on both sides. "Helm, turn us to the left! Use the left asteroid as cover to protect us from snakes in our back."

  "Y—yes, s—sir."

  Donovan glanced over at the helm officer. The man was literally shaking. "You okay, Chris?"

  No response.

  "Chris?" Donovan saw a limp body in a heavily padded suit, lying in front of the helm console. Donovan removed the safety restraints from his captain's chair and dove towards the helm station. He glanced briefly at the unconscious man, but more importantly, he entered commands into the ship computer himself to veer Asterix to the left.

  All around him, bridge officers watched as Donovan jammed the helm controls like the seasoned veteran he was.

  Twist. Twist. Turn. Tap. Tap.

  An explosion shook the ship. That sounded like it came from aft. The snakes are shooting at us.

  The Asterix finished turning, and now the shots sounded from the ship's left.

  It's better to be shot from the side than from the rear.

  Slowly, the Asterix slid into the no-hit zone out of line of sight from the snakes behin
d it.

  When the Asterix got behind the asteroid, he realized he would be safe for a while—until the snake followed him into the hole.

  "Captain, look!" the weapons officer, Carly exclaimed.

  Donovan stared at the holomap and realized he now stood in position to see everything inside the cylinder or ‘chasm’. The Asterix was the only ship out of the eight-ship flotilla that made it to the destination—it was all up to him, now!

  He watched as the forty starships battled it out in front of him. Entire walls of humans and snakes forward facing each other and lasering the frontal armor of their opponent. Only Donovan's Asterix had side-shot opportunities at the twenty or so enemy vessels beneath. His ship would be the game changer!

  "Weapons—Carly!" Donovan called out, still standing in front of the helm controls, "Shoot the smallest ship who is side-facing us! Hell…shoot em all!"

  "Yes, sir!"

  On the big holomap, Donovan saw Asterix's lasers connect with each of the snakes inside the cylinder. Not doing very much damage to either one, it sure distracted them from their frontal battle.

  "Sir," Carly called back, "Three, no—four snakes below are turning to face us!"

  "Shoot the ones that haven't turned, of course!"

  "The turned ones are firing, sir!"

  Donovan held onto the helmsman's chair as the combined power of four snake starships grazer-beamed into Asterix's forward hull. The bridge shook from the almighty blasts and amidst DC's yelling, Donovan wondered what it was all for.

  We don't have enough attack-power to make a difference on the flanks of the cylinder! If only more of our flotilla made it!