by Sid Kar
“His sensors might be showing him the same data as ours, albeit in a much limited manner,” Hedgewyk said, “He must have realized that it’s crippled.”
“Then why is he wasting time on it?” Raptor asked.
“Bastard wants to steal credit, what else,” Tollvyk opined.
“I am afraid, I have to concur with the colonel,” Barryett said.
“Do these Nestorians need every battle tactic spelled out to them?” Raptor said, “Don’t they realize on their own how much of a prize a captured enemy spaceship would be.”
“That’s Capitan Agnosis Wornus of Nestorian Battleship Defender,” communications officer Dorrvyk said, “he is sending a communique to us identifying himself as a friendly and asking us to not fire upon him.”
“Reply: do not fire at Mercurian ship and cut out of here at once,” Raptor said.
“Too late,” Horyett said, “Scanner shows that his spacecraft has launched four rockets.”
“I told you,” Tollvyk said, “we should light up his tail with some laser to school him.”
“Please tell me those rockets will not penetrate…” Raptor’s words hung in the air for capitan Agnosis had also spotted the gap made by the Plasma Arc on Mercurian Two and aimed all his rockets to go right through it. With all the defensive systems shut down, the four rockets flew right inside, struck the broken fuel conduit now spilling the intensive, radioactive fuel and exploded, lighting up the whole spaceship and breaking it into many pieces.
“A real yahoo that pilot,” Barryett shrugged his shoulders, “Can’t say I haven’t seen jokers like that amongst our spacefighter squadrons during my long years.”
“He is sending congratulations to us,” Dorrvyk said, “and requesting permission to dock.”
“Permission to dock?” Raptor was livid but calmed himself, “Alright, Dorrvyk tell him permission granted.”
While Dorrvyk sent out the reply to Agnosis, Raptor turned to one of his secondary screens and punched in the code for Capitan Styx, the officer in charge of the Starship Guards. His face was displayed two seconds later.
“Capitan Styx, a Nestorian pilot will be docking,” Raptor said, “As soon as he is on board, arrest him and restrain him physically till further notice.”
Styx was startled a bit. Arresting a Nestorian officer would not just be a military act, but a political one too. But in the middle of battle, he was not going to question his commander’s judgement.
“Yes sir, I will have him in chains,” Styx replied and Raptor turned off the display.
“You should have told him to cane that clown,” Tollvyk said.
“I will see him thrown out of Nestorian Army,” Raptor said, “but later. Now let’s get that Mercurian Three.”
The remaining Mercurian battleship must have been unnerved at the sight of the destruction wrought by Conquistador and it slowly started to retreat. Raptor watched it slowly back away while firing rockets and lasers that were increasingly ineffective.
“Move us into the orbital space,” Raptor said, “I want to gain altitude on him.”
“Gaining altitude and closing distance with Mercurian Three,” Flyptar replied.
“This is it,” Raptor said, “Col. Tollvyk launch the Ober Rockets on standby.”
“Fifty Ober Rockets launched,” Tollvyk said.
“Fire the Micro Black Hole Weapon in the tail of our rockets,” Raptor said, “But do not activate it yet and program it to break off from the rockets and sustain below the enemy spaceship.”
“MBH Weapon fired and away,” Garyett replied, “presently in deactivated state.”
“Capitan Zurryvk, unload the battle AI Ravager and upload the battle AI known as Berserker,” Raptor said.
“Dumping Ravager, loading battle AI known as Berserker,” Zurryvk replied. Berserker was the battle command program with wild and unorthodox tactics and maneuvers encoded in its algorithms.
Berserker spoke: ‘Berserker reporting for combat duty.’
“Commodore,” VC Barryett chipped in before Raptor could order the battle AI, “If you are thinking of doing what I am guessing, consider that the enemy spaceship may not have proper collision avoidance system.”
“Conceded,” Raptor replied, “But we do. And it is unlikely since Mercurian battleships are far more advanced than Nestorian ships that possess it. And I intend to pull out and away at the last minute.”
Meanwhile the Starfirian rockets had flown down towards the atmosphere and then swung around upwards and headed towards the Mercurian battleship. The battleship turned its nose downward to bring more laser cannons to bear upon the rockets and forty-seven were destroyed in mid-air and the remaining three struck the shield causing slight damage.
The MBH weapon stayed put much further below and was obscured from Mercurian ship’s scanners by all the broken pieces of rockets falling down into the clouds.
“Flyptar, how are we doing on the altitude,” Raptor asked.
“We are in the low orbit of Nestor,” Flyptar replied, “Nearly vertical, but need seven more degrees of correction to be straight above the enemy.”
“That is good enough,” Raptor said, “Berserker; plot a course heading straight into Mercurian Three’s rear hull at rapid acceleration with a last minute jerk to break us away clean. Dispatch to flight control section’s terminals.”
Berserker replied: ‘plotting the course and preparing the flight path and acceleration schedule. A warning sir, our collision aversion systems will kick in automatically and our spaceship may spin and rotate.’
“Noted,” Raptor entered a code on his terminal and switched on the starship wide broadcasting system, “Attention crew of Starship Conquistador. This is your Commodore speaking and I am ordering everyone to immediately secure themselves at place. We may experience significant turbulence.”
The command room members who were standing or walking hastened to their seats and everyone scrambled to fasten their seat belts. Raptor pulled down two belts from the top of his chair on either side, crossed them over his chest and affixed them to the buckles near the waist on the opposite ends.
“Flyptar, execute Berserker’s flight plan,” Raptor said, “Dive on the enemy. Dive now.”
“Diving on preprogrammed schedule,” Flyptar replied, “Brace for possible collision.”
Mercurian Three was just beginning to turn its forward nose upwards after destroying the rockets when Starship Conquistador rapidly accelerated towards it. The alarms started ringing abroad the Mercurian vessel and its commanders frantically maneuvered in a state of shock. They could not believe that the enemy was planning on a suicidal-homicidal strike when he was in no desperate situation. Before the Mercurian flight officers and navigators could turn their spaceship, the Conquistador was on to them and headed straight for its rear hull. Mercurian battleship’s collision avoidance system took over and rapidly dived the ship straight down towards the planet as that was the best move to avoid the accident as calculated by its computers.
On Starship Conquistador too the Battle AI Berserker took over flight controls at the last moments and kicked in an emergency forward jerk that threw Conquistador ahead of Mercurian ship’s rear hull and averted physical contact. However, Conquistador’s automatic collision aversion systems kicked in too. They were strictly off limits to battle AI’s or even the crew and could not be tampered with or overridden without a great deal of difficulty. The collision system computers booted the battle AI out of the starship flight controls just after it had sent the command for the forward jerk and the mechanical safety machines turned Conquistador on its rear axis to convert the forward momentum into angular, rotational momentum that made the starship tumble over its vertical axis safely ahead of the Mercurian battleship’s astern.
“Garyett, activate the MBH weapon now, right now, and send it crashing to the planet,” Raptor yelled when the command room and the entire starship was flipping over upside down as the ship’s flight systems worked furiously to overcome t
he rotational spin.
“MBH weapon activated,” Garyett replied after he pressed the button for activation, “launched it towards the ground”. Raptor and Barryett were both sitting with override switches to take over the weapon but Garyett came through. Their heads were spinning but they had been through this exact type of space combat training and knew how to concentrate on the operations using muscle memory and concentration of thought. This would not have been a problem in space where the artificial gravity generated by the spaceship kept the bottom always under their feet, but planet Nestor’s gravity easily overwhelmed the starship’s. The starship was stabilized soon thereafter.
“A fully paid for roller coaster ride courtesy of Starfire Army,” Tollvyk chuckled while he shook cobwebs out of his head.
“A few more moments of it and we would be seeing the star field right in this room,” Barryett said as he held his head with both hands.
“Flyptar, yank us out of the orbit and into space,” Raptor said, “I don’t want us to waste fuel countering our own gravity weapon’s pull.”
Flyptar and the junior flight officers boosted the speed and changed the course of Starship Conquistador out into the space.
Meanwhile, the Mercurian battleship was headed to the planet on automatic controls. After the danger of collision had passed, the Mercurian flight officers switched the controls back to manual just when the Starfirian Gravity Weapon was activated on full power and its artificial concentrated gravity kicked in with a powerful jolt and suctioned the Mercurian Battleship towards it. The Mercurian officers were at lost to understand the phenomenon because the downward tug on their ship was significantly higher than the combined pull of Nestor’s gravity and their own momentum. They tried to pull the battleship horizontal but to no avail as the Micro-Black Hole weapon dragged it down further and further below at higher and higher velocity.
Finally, the MBH weapon smashed into the ground and its gravity was instantly dissipated but by then it was too late and soon thereafter the Mercurian Battleship crashed into the rocky surface and shattered to bits and pieces on impact leaving behind a deep and wide crater and a massive fireball from the explosion that reached hundreds of meters in the sky.
“Mercurian Three is gone,” Barryett remarked looking at the scanner readings on his display.
“Hedgewyk, give me the total battle report,” Raptor said.
Capitan Hedgewyk collected all the signals from all the scanners and sensors and fed them to multiple battle analysis programs that each applied a distinct criteria to evaluate the progression and to forecast the eventual outcome of the battle. He forwarded the results to all the senior officers’ terminals.
“Vice-Commodore, it seems like the Nestorians are taking a real beating out there,” Raptor said, “After the initial success of their arguably brilliant deception taking two enemy spaceships right out of the battle, they have performed poorly thereafter. If not for their higher number of ships, the Mercurians would have likely taken Nestor in our absence.”
“I agree sir, the Mercurians are far more advanced than these people we have to protect,” Barryett said, “I am afraid if Mercurians have another fleet out there, we are going to have to fight the next battle for them.”
“We are the X-Factor in this battle equation,” Tollvyk said, “Mercurians didn’t count on our presence here. Let’s push this to the hilt.”
“What are you suggesting Toll?” Raptor asked.
“Let’s charge the Mercurian battleships engaged against the main Nestorian fleet under General Bakus out there,” Tollvyk said.
Raptor looked at the gravitron display. He was aware of the huge battle taking place much further away in space. He looked at the live database of the ship’s arsenal. He was also aware of the rapid depletion of their weaponry and fuel supplies.
“Flyptar, bring us in the rear of the Mercurian fleet,” Raptor said.
“On our way,” Flyptar replied.
“VC Barryett, I am thinking we should try to run the Mercurians off,” Raptor said, “And wait for the Sixth Frontier Fleet to arrive and reinforce us.”
“I agree sir,” Barryett replied, “I never liked or even understood the idea of sending a single starship, even a new and amazingly powerful one such as this, all alone to defend a protectorate. The Empire’s policy has always been to send at least three starships for every mission.”
“Thus the Emperor should hear of this,” Tollvyk said.
Raptor and Barryett said nothing to this but only looked at each other for a few seconds. Both of them knew that jumping over so many ranks and going straight to the Emperor was considered bad form and rudeness and disrespect towards Army’s hierarchy. Barryett just shrugged and turned back to look out into the space meanwhile Raptor turned his attention to the flight data.
“Commodore Raptor, two Mercurian ships are breaking off the battle and turning around towards us,” Horyett said.
“I don’t want to waste energy on them, but I do want to relieve Gen. Bakus,” Raptor said, “VC Barryett, what do you suggest?”
“Run to the Sun?” Barryett said.
“Yes, let’s do that,” Raptor said, “Flyptar put us on the path to this system’s star at accelerating speed but make sure that the two Mercurians are able to keep pace.”
“Yes sir, turning to the sun,” Flyptar replied.
Starship Conquistador turned to the star of Nestor system and sped off straight towards it. The two Mercurian spaceships hesitated a few seconds and then followed it. The Mercurians tried hard to catch it but every time they closed distance, Conquistador just accelerated some more, as if playing a game and toying with its pursuers, letting them come closer in hope and then effortlessly speeding away from them.
The heat and light became more and more intense as they flew ever closer to the star’s surface. Finally, Raptor ordered the metallic plates drawn over the command room to curtain off the transparent diamond shield and to avoid the intense luminosity from ruining their eyes.
The Mercurians kept up the pursuit and Conquistador kept flying ever closer to the star. The strain from the heat started taking its toll on the surface of all three ships and the metal began melting.
“Hold steady,” Raptor said. If he turned around now he would provide the Mercurians a clear shot to let loose tens or even hundreds of rockets at him. He had taken the risk and now he had to see it through.
“Star’s gravitational force is approaching no return horizon,” Horyett said.
“How much longer to the no return boundary?” Raptor asked.
“Five minutes and thirty seconds,” Horyett replied.
“Hold steady,” Raptor said, “They have to give up soon.”
The chase continued for two more minutes. After one more minute Raptor was ready to turn around and open up with full force of his rockets and lasers and settle it with a showdown after all.
“Tollvyk, stack two hundred Ober Rockets on standby, equal distribution against targets,” Raptor said.
“Rockets on standby,” Tollvyk said, “Commodore, are you sure you want to use up that many?”
“If they don’t quit, I have no choice,” Raptor said, “A hundred rockets aimed at each might give us an opening to make a run back unimpeded.”
“No return horizon in two minutes and thirty seconds,” Horyett said.
Raptor wanted to turn around but begged himself for one more minute. The Mercurians kept on the tail. Perhaps the Mercurian metallurgical science was far ahead of them but he knew from their ship’s operations that their engines were not. Their no return horizon had to be much earlier than for Conquistador.
The crew sat stunned with sweat forming both due to the fear of what lay ahead and the rapidly rising temperature of the room.
“Activate cooling gases,” Raptor ordered.
“Cooling gases circulating,” VC Barryett replied.
The temperature held steady for a few seconds but once again began to rise. Barryett kept increasing the
circulation of the cooling gases let out from the storages but they could not keep the temperature constant.
“No return horizon in one minute and thirty seconds,” Horyett said.
“Commodore,” Tollvyk pleaded, “Raptor, my friend, we are going to be vaporized,” he squealed in desperation.
“Be quiet,” Raptor said wiping sweat off his brow, “They can’t continue longer.”
“Neither can we,” Barryett said as he turned around and fixed his gaze on Raptor.
“No return horizon in one min…” Horyett began to speak then quickly yelled, “Mercurians have broken off pursuit. Mercurians have broken off pursuit.” He repeated himself a couple more times as if to goad Commodore into rapid action.
“Break the course!” Raptor said, “Back to space.”
“Yes sir,” Flyptar replied with a smile but even before Raptor could finish his sentence the flight control section had begun turning Conquistador around and after a few seconds it was headed back on an exact 180 degree path away from the star.
Raptor relaxed back in his seat and smiled at his crew, “Boys,” he said and then looked at Capitan Alvina and gave her a wink, “and girls. You should have faith in our mechanical engineers. A spaceship’s commander cannot destroy his ship in a fit of madness. There are automatic fail safes that would have seized control of this ship before the no return horizon was even reached and turned it around.”
“Would you have liked to subject those mechanisms to a live test, Commodore,” Barryett grinned.
“Probably not,” Raptor said.
‘Run to Sun’ was an old and standard tactic to throw off pursuit that was taught to the new Starfirian spaceship officers and crew. It could be a dangerous tactic under a stubborn commander if the spaceship itself didn’t have fail safes to turn around automatically before its melting point was reached or before the star’s gravity became overwhelmingly powerful. All Starfirian Army spaceships had such mechanisms manufactured right into their core structure.
“Where are those Mercurians now?” Raptor asked.