SAW 1: Stars at War

by Lee Guo

  To Roro, it was nothing more than an obstacle, one meant to be conquered or annihilated. Roro saw, through his interface, thousands of little human ships scurrying in system. Dozens more were warping out of the system, probably because of his fleet's enormous gravity waves. No matter. The small fishes did not matter.

  What Roro wanted more than anything else was the destruction of system's orbital infrastructure, the series of orbital elevators, refinery stations, construction yards, and hovering residential complexes that the humans so called their homes high in orbit around the system's second planet.

  Destroying the enemy's base of operations—and the ability to construct new ships—excited Roro. All made possible because of the distraction fleet, otherwise called the first invasion fleet, which attacked the human nation through the center border—the closest route in between the two nations. The humans had been expecting an attack through the center border and it’s exactly what Roro gave them. Then, once the human fleet all sorted to meet that attack, Roro would use his own fleet, the so called second invasion fleet, to rampage through the human's inner systems by entering through the periphery borders, starting with KA924, or Kolonides.

  He would destroy the human's means of constructing new ships, because…Roro was a patient war commander. After the stalemate battle of Orasis V, he knew the war could no longer be determined by a single battle, but by many battles, most likely spread out over a long period of time. Also, if the timeframe became large, and it did, a nation's ability to create and crew new ships—both his and the enemy's—would largely determine the war's outcome.

  Thus, Roro aimed for his enemy's production jugular. His first fleet, commanded by Cro-Grombak, would distract the enemy's defensive units, hopefully killing as many human ships or weakening the human fleet, while his second fleet, which Roro commanded, would destroy the human nation's innards, denying the humans their ability to produce new ships. After that, time itself would become the humans' own worst enemy, as the insectoid Cell Empire produced more and more ships, and the humans could not.

  Roro did not feel bad about destroying a rival empire's ability to defend itself. He cared only for his own empire. The Cell Empire remained in the midst of a population boom, for many decades now. Only, with not enough land. Ever since the eight warlords stopped fighting each other for territory and population space, and, as a byproduct, killing each other's population and resources, land became ever sparser. Within ten years, the Cell nation would have to induce some type of reproductive control—a veritable insult to his race's very way of living.

  For a culture where reproduction is the center of life, new land must be taken to meet the growing demands.

  It just so happened the humans owned so much land.

  Roro had no quarrel with obtaining another race's resources by force. Prey would succumb to predator. The weak will succumb to the strong. This is the nature of the universe and all things.

  The Empire must grow.

  Roro scanned everything in the system, and saw with cybernetic clarity, nothing in KA924 could withstand even one of his warships…so he gave the order. "All unitsss, attack! Kill anything that is human!"

  The Empire must grow.

  Star System Kolonides, Periphery of the Viron Empire

  Human Defensive Outpost, orbiting Kolonides II

  Command and Operations Room (CAOR)

  "Holy stars!"

  "You see 'em?" Ops asked.

  "I see them!" Captain Rolan Von Goering tried to lift his shaking hand from the main holomap controls. It was not an easy task. His entire body shook with fervor. "St—ars," he stammered. He'd never been this afraid since he’d been stranded on a spaceship as a kid.

  "Uh, captain? You gonna alert the station?"

  "Oh, yeah—right," stammered Rolan. "Action stations, everyone. Comm, signal action stations. Broadcast our scanner data to every starship or freighter in system. Tell them to get out!"

  "Yes, sir! What about us, sir?" Ensign Jessica Shelby asked.

  "I—don't know. W—We're forbidden to leave the system. We're supposed to defend our posts." Why did he feel so cold?

  Sirens sounded across the entire outpost. Inside the CAOR room, he heard Ensign Shelby's voice blasting, "Action Stations". Yellow ceiling lights flashed above.

  He gazed at the holomap, again. Gigantic red dots kept moving inward. From this distance, all the computer could project was velocity and size data. But my stars, were they massive. Eight snake capital ships, plus thirteen of what must be snake missile freighters. Oh stars, why him? Why couldn't they bother another system elsewhere in the periphery? Then, it would be some other captain's mess.

  "But sir," Ensign Shelby interjected, "There's no way we can beat that fleet. We have to scuttle the station and save our lives. High command will understand."

  "And ditch the outpost?" said Captain Rolan. "B—b-but high command never said to do that in the face of any enemy."

  "But sir, we can't win," Ensign Shelby pleaded, "And the outpost, even if manned, can't even kill one of their ships. We're toast. You're asking us to sacrifice our lives for nothing—"

  "You know…I think you're right," Captain Rolan interrupted, "Forget high command." He took a moment to ponder what he was about to do, then decided that he must do it. He couldn't ask four hundred crewmen to sacrifice their lives. The defense outpost had no chance against snake capital ships…it’d been designed to defend against pirate raids and criminal marauders. Who knew the snakes would appear here, right here, on a border that didn't even come close to touching snake space? He stared at his crew. "Signal all hands to the shuttle bay. We're ditching the station."

  "Yes, sir," Ensign Shelby answered with clear relief in her voice.

  Rolan halted. But there was one military arsenal the humans did have—and thus, Rolan had too—which could damage the aliens. The system's missile picket. There were about one thousand missiles lying in orbit, around the second planet, meant to take out small snake scavenging parties, but they weren't designed to take out an entire fleet.

  Still, their presence could be of some use, provided Captain Rolan, the system's senior military commander, knew how to use them. He didn't…And worse yet, he was a coward and he knew it.

  Captain Roland's illustrious military career and all the ensuing promotions which led him to his high rank, came as of an old but still functioning patronage system. The son of a wealthy industrialist and thus, his father carried tremendous influence in getting him to where he was now.

  Roland wasn't ready to command starships…command missile squadrons. But he needed to try. "Uhh...Jessica, reroute all controls of military units to our shuttle pod, please."

  Ensign Shelby beamed back, while looking in surprised. "Yes, sir, I'll reroute them before I leave."

  "Now, Ensign."

  "Yes, sir." Jessica grinned.

  "And one more thing, Ops—program a dozen warp packets with an update on the situation, including the size and composition of the enemy force, and fly the messenger boats to the central worlds."

  "Yes, sir!"

  Star System Kolonides, Periphery of the Viron Empire

  Shuttle Pod One, Passenger Compartment

  The inside of the escape shuttle was cramped like hell.

  "All shuttles have left the station, sir."

  "Good," said Rolan. "Tell everyone to run as fast as they can, and when they get outside the gravity well, tell them to warp out of here."

  "Where to, sir?"

  "One of the central worlds. Praxis."

  "Yes, sir. Adjusting course," said the pilot.

  Bump. The artificial gravity field within the shuttle adjusted slightly. In the shuttle's passenger compartment, Captain Rolan touched some of the makeshift controls. He stared at the small adjustable holoemitter and created a very tiny holomap. He could use it to control his units in the coming—Rolan felt like laughing—battle.

  Computer screen overlays to his right and left, allowed to him manual acc
ess to many of the command systems he'd normally have in the CAOR. It just wasn't...comfortable.

  Now, as for what to command, there wasn't much. Through the miniature holodisplay, he could see what was left the system's civilian ships high-tailing it out of the system in a gigantic cone-shaped dispersion away from the incoming snakes.

  The real problem would be what to do for the hundreds of thousands of civilians on the planet of Kolonides II. Kolonides II. A temperate world a bit colder than ancestral Earth…with all the climate, plant and animal life to make it a habitable place for civilians to live. Unfortunately, there would be no way to could transport all the civilians out of there. They would have to go to bomb shelters created in case someone—like a pirate or a space marauder—wanted to kinetic bomb the planet. Inside these shelters, the civilians could live for weeks and even months before help arrived.

  However, the shelters weren't designed for a snake war fleet. He reserved some guesses as to what the snakes would do. Since the planet wasn't in the immediate expansion zone of the snake empire, it would be very likely the snakes would destroy it with no guilt or pity to its inhabitants. In that case, the civilians would be screwed because snake kinetic kill warheads would be much stronger than any would-be pirate's. On the other hand, if the snakes did want to take control of the entire planet for habitation reasons, they would send ground troops to kill the population's militia.

  If so? Where were their troop transports?

  There were none. By stars. "Hey Jessica, we ordered the planetary population to head towards the bomb shelters, right?"

  "Uh, yeah captain, we transmitted an emergency bomb alert a while ago."

  "Good, good." Rolan scratched his head and sighed. So! The missile war. He couldn't believe it. He was going to war against the snakes. Me! How could he deal the most damage with his 500-ton missiles? He knew he couldn't take out their whole fleet—impossible. But he could try to take out at least something...while he escaped through a shuttle.

  If he could just kill one or two ships, it would make all the difference. High command would award him for killing a ship or two…maybe even a promotion to a senior captain or something...instead of command of a periphery world, he could command a real world, with millions of citizens!

  So, how would he send his missiles to attack the snake warships? What would be the best trajectory? When would be the best time to reveal that he had any missiles? Rolan sat beside his computer screens and thought about it. Then, he realized that any time to launch was a good time. There was no perfect time to speed the missiles, since he had no other assets to intersect the snake fleet's inward dive.

  As for missile trajectory, he imagined the best route would be a scattered route, with hundreds of missiles going many directions, all intersecting with the snake fleet at one critical moment. This way, some of his missiles would strike the sides of the snake fleet, no matter which way the individual ships turned their bows to.

  Roland tapped into the computer controls. The missile control screen overlaid across the displays surrounding him.

  This is it—I'm really going to do it.

  Hmm.. trajectory, trajectory. The best....would have to be... this!

  He entered the trajectory of missiles into the computers. Instantly, a dozen lines appeared on the holomap, like a really long claw, all converging at a single point where the computer predicted the enemy fleet would be—as long as the enemy fleet didn't split up. "Hey Jessica, does this look good?"

  "Uh—I don't know, captain. I'm not trained in missile combat. I specialized in communication systems—ah…" She glared at the trajectories. "I guess so?"

  Rolan cringed. "Your guess is as good as mine. I never paid attention to the Tactical Instructor on missile tactics." Or any of the tactical instructors, for that matter. What I did pay attention to, heh, were all the female health 'instructors'.

  "Maybe you should ask someone else?" Ensign Shelby suggested.

  "That's not a bad idea." What would his people think if the captain starting asking around? "Hey Paul, can you take a look at this?"

  Paul, the Tac Op, walked through the compartment and knelt to see. His grisly bearded face transfixed on the holoimage of the missile routes. "The routes are ok, captain. But I would make the loops a little bit wider, so the missiles hitting their aft have a longer time to build up speed. As for the missiles attacking their front, I would launch those missiles away from the warships as early as possible, so that they have space to generate a great amount of speed in time for the rendezvous from all the missiles. Remember, the faster the missile, the less time they are exposed to enemy point defense and counter missile fire. In general, the faster the missile, the harder it is to take them out, and the more kinetic damage they'll make, when they do hit."

  Rolan rubbed his chin. "You're a God-send Paul. I'll do exactly as you suggest."

  "You also have to be careful, because those warships could fan out when they see the missiles appearing on their grav wave detectors. No—strike that, they won't do that since it decrease their ability to defend against the missiles."

  "What I don't understand," said Ensign Shelby, "Is why their missile boats aren't launching snake missiles at us?"

  "Probably conserving their ammunition for a real encounter," Paul answered.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Star System KA924, Periphery of the Viron Empire

  Second Cell Invasion Fleet

  Hiveship Roro Cro-Drignon

  Fleet Command Nexus

  One thousand small gravity waves appeared around the second Planet. Roro saw them through his neural link with the hiveship's computer.

  Missiles!. Yes... they had to be missiles. They were too small to be starships, and they accelerated too fast…either missiles or fighters, but Roro couldn't understand why his enemy, the system's human commander, would launch fighters at him. Fighters couldn't take out his capital ships, and if the human commander wanted to take out his missiles with fighters, the humans ought to wait until he launched his missiles first—which he wouldn't launch, not until he met human starships, since his missiles were irreplaceable.

  So…those fast moving gravity waves emerging from the second planet must be human missiles.

  Good thing, he didn't spread out his warships early to hunt those escaping civilian ships! Roro's mandibles clicked happily.

  Perfect! Roro already devised a plan just in case human missiles appeared.

  In addition to taking out those orbital construction facilities' weak shields when his starships entered laser range, and of course, kinetic bombarding the planet's surface, thereby riddling the system of human inhabitants, he prepared a special surprise just in case the humans sent missiles.

  But first…"All ships, fire kinetic kill slugs at the planet! Destroy all life! Leave not one human alive!"

  Star System Kolonides, Periphery of the Viron Empire

  Shuttle Pod One, Passenger Compartment

  Rolan could still see everything sincehis shuttle pod remained tied into the Defense Outpost's military sensors. His miniature holomap showed the gravity waves of a thousand kinetic kill dots being accelerated through the snake starships' grav rail emitters. These kinetic kill slugs headed for the planet.

  My stars, the planet's civilians are dead! Those are military grade snake kinetic kill rounds!

  Nearby, Jessica prayed. It became obvious she had seen it, too. "May the stars have mercy," she whispered.

  Rolan's attention returned to the holomap. At least...his missiles could take out some of the snake warships. It didn't look like the snakes had any counter to that...

  The holoemitter beeped. New dots appeared on the holodisplay. Grav signatures confirmed: Snake fighters! 1000...no, 2000...3000 snake fighters!

  "Uhh—oh," Rolan stammered.

  "They got fighters, too?" said Jessica. Inside the shuttle's passenger compartment, all five bridge officers cried in despair.

  "That can't be true!" Ensign Laforte lamented.
<
br />   "We're screwed!" Lieutenant Chaffer cried out.

  Rolan shut his eyes in despair. It was true. Not only did the planetary population die, but he would die, too. If the snakes had fighters, those fighters could accelerate faster than his shuttle pod. Besides shooting down his missiles, it was entirely possible the snake fighters could overtake their shuttle pod, and all the escaping shuttle pods, plus a decent amount of civilian ships, before everyone reached the system's gravity well's edge and escaped into warp.

  Cries of despair filled the compartment. "We're dead," Jessica voiced his thoughts.

  "We're not screwed," Lieutenant Paul Tinkerslay piped in.

  Everyone turned their attention towards Paul.

  "What do you mean?" Rolan asked.

  Ops officer Paul sat up straight. "We can delay those fighters from hunting down our civilian ships by using our missiles as bait. By running erratic patterns in our missiles, and keeping them as far from the civilian ships as long as possible, we can use them to threaten an attack on the capital ships and pin down the snake fighters. That will give the rest of us the longest time to escape."

  "But we're deviating our missiles from the most optimal path!" Lieutenant Chaffer interjected.

  "The optimal path is the path that will lead the fighters away from us. It's useless to think we can still damage the battleships," said Paul. "The snakes have 3000 fighters while we only have 1000 missiles. Our missiles are dead. We can only use them to pin their fighters away from us so we can escape."

  It made sense, thought Rolan. We can still live! We may not be able to save the planetary population, but we can save ourselves... He nodded. Obviously, Paul's strategy would be the best way to go. It was useless to think he could damage the capital ships now since they have so many anti-missile fighters. "Very well. Paul, why don't you take command of the missile trajectories?" Rolan stood up, giving Paul a seat in front of the holomap.

  "Will do, captain. I'll try to save us as much time as possible."

  "Wait," Ensign Laforte interrupted, "What if we accelerate all our missiles on a straight line towards the snake battleships, instead of curving around to hit their backs? Won't our missiles gain enough speed, so they would be harder to shoot down by their fighters?"