Thunder & Lightning

by Christopher Nuttall

  An hour passed as the fleet grew closer, and closer, to Earth. He could see the world through the view displayed by the camera; it was very different than their own homeworld, the world they’d left a long time ago. The researchers claimed that the Oghaldzon could live on Earth without any serious problems; he could only hope that they were right. If humans were all as stubborn as the ones fighting madly in space to prevent him from seizing the planet, the Oghaldzon could find themselves spending a Grand Cycle trying to cure the human race of its madness. It was a duty, the closest the Oghaldzon could conceive of to a holy duty, but it was going to be difficult.

  The tactical display changed again; a handful of Earth-based defence sites had been revealed, launching some projectiles into orbit through what the researchers suspected was a mass driver or launch rail. Dataka issued calm orders; when the fleet entered orbit properly, they would target the bases on the ground and anything else that looked dangerous or military. It was a shame that the human captives had refused to discuss matters concerning precise details of their governments, but it hardly mattered; in a war against ThrillKill and MemeKill, extermination of hostile leaders was permitted, indeed required. Dataka had a suspicion that the concept didn’t quite apply to humanity, but he would carry out his duty; short of summoning a general conclave and putting the matter before every Oghaldzon in the fleet, there was nothing he could do to change the consensus.

  “I have preliminary landing sites marked out,” Takalak-Researcher-Seeker said, his voice clicking though the intercom and into Dataka’s ears. The researcher wasn’t permitted on the bridge during combat; he would have lost his ability to understand the human race if he thought of them as enemies to kill or be killed by them. “Most of them are near to significant human populations and locations of tactical importance.”

  Dataka clicked in understanding. They’d planned in general terms, but knowing exactly what they were going to do was always much more useful; they had known plenty of general information about Earth from the broadcasts, but little of it had been as specific and up-to-date as they had wanted – needed – to know. The humans could not be allowed time to react to their sudden capture of LEO; they would have to be attacked at once, an orbital bombardment followed by the landing craft coming down in their hundreds. If the humans had time to react, they might be able to intercept the alien craft as they descended…and that would be a disaster. The human broadcasts might have discussed technology that was as near to magic as the rationalist Oghaldzon had ever considered, but the Oghaldzon were bound by the same laws as the humans. Failure at the wrong moment would cost thousands of lives; the entire war would be within shouting distance of being lost along with them.

  “Good,” he said. “Ensure that precise coordinates and the details of the landing zones are provided to the landing force commanders.”

  “I obey,” Takalak said.

  “As a secondary note, have alternate landing site details prepared as well,” Dataka ordered. If he knew the Senior Researcher, he would have prepared dozens of possible landing sites and only targeted the five most promising sites on the planet. Earth was an irrational world; with so much of its surface covered in water, the landing forces would not necessarily be able to give each other support. “If we find that one landing site is unsuitable, we must change plans as quickly as possible.”

  He dismissed Takalak and turned back to the display. The fleet was preparing now for the final engagement, directly against the human orbital stations and their defences…and the handful of remaining human spacecraft. Both sides were now locked in a death grip; there was no time to advance towards the human moon or the fleeing spacecraft, not when everything would depend upon how quickly both sides reacted to fleeting opportunities to hurt the other. The Oghaldzon would aim to sweep orbit; the humans, too, would be trying to destroy them or at the very least prevent them from holding too great a command of the skies.

  For an instant, the battle seemed to pause, and then, once again, the fleet advanced.

  In a very real sense, it had never stopped.

  * * *

  “You bastards, you blew it all up,” Captain Sidney Bush snapped. “You fucking sons of bitches!”

  He was watching history die. Something – the analysts’ safe on Earth suspected that it had been an iron projectile or a micro-meteor, fired through a mass driver – had struck Orbit One, smashing the station’s habitat ring and punching a hole right through the main body of the habitat. The habitat, which spun to provide gravity, was tearing itself apart; hundreds of people would be dying right that second…and Bush was helpless. The debris was staggering; much would fall down towards Earth, but other chunks would go into permanent orbit, providing a serious problem for the defenders. Bush had seen simulations of the expected Great Power war, where debris cut the human race off from space, permanently, but the aliens were something else. He was sure they had done it on purpose.

  “Helm, keep watching for any incoming debris and melt it if it poses a danger,” he snapped, keeping his temper under control. The USS Constitution had been assigned to assist in the defence of some of the remaining industrial stations; so far, the aliens had killed two and shattered Orbit One. It was unlikely they would be threatened by the debris – most would be going into the wrong orbit – but so many proven facts had been recently shattered that Bush was feeling cautious. “Tactical, find me something to kill!”

  The alien craft had surrounded Earth, their smaller warships probing down towards the planet, firing as they came. The radars around Earth were pumping out search pattern after search pattern; stealth had been abandoned as soon as the aliens had revealed the mass drivers, useless against ships, but all-too-effective against the immobile stations. The stations were now trying desperately to coordinate their defence; Bush had the nasty feeling that the aliens intended them to keep trying to cover an impossible target, while the aliens completed their own dirty work somewhere else on the battlefield. The Constitution had been paired with a Chinese warship for the battle, but the Chinese ship had been destroyed when the aliens had expanded their own attack, leaving the Constitution alone.

  “They’re firing more missiles down towards the stations,” the tactical officer reported. Bush cursed; the tactical command network was breaking down. He hadn’t liked the thought of submitting his ship to the commands of a Russian, or a Chinese, or even a European, but he would have been happier if the ranking officers from those Great Powers had survived. The Russian space defence station had been blown apart by a nuclear hit; the Chinese Admiral had been on one of his ships and died with it. The entire tactical position was fatal for ships like the Constitution; Bush found himself looking for options…

  “We have orders from command,” the communications officer said. Bush glanced over at his console hopefully; the communications network’s failure had meant that commands had had to be rerouted through dozens of smaller stations. “We’re to link up with the remaining ships and engage the alien fleet directly.”

  Good, Bush thought. He issued orders quickly; the defence of the industrial stations – which were now sitting ducks for enemy attack – would have to be left with the automated systems. They hadn’t exactly covered themselves in glory; he’d had to order his ship to keep making rapid, but minute course changes to avoid an alien gunner with a rail gun getting lucky and destroying his ship. The automated platforms were targeted and picked off almost as soon as they fired.

  “Drive engaged,” the helm officer said. This close to the planet, they didn’t dare ramp up the fusion drive to its full power, a legacy of old fears about what might happen if a fusion drive was used near Earth. Scientists swore blind that nothing would happen, but no one wanted to find hard evidence the easy way. “We’re moving on the engaged course…”

  There were only nine warships left in orbit, two of them American, two of them Russian, and the others divided up among the other Great and Minor Powers. The Japanese ship had been extremely lucky; struck wi
th a rail gun, but somehow the damage had been confined to one module and had been contained. The Captains conferred, exchanged seniority, and confirmed a commander; the little flotilla headed towards the alien fleet. The aliens had spread out their fleet, just to provide additional targeting options; if Command was actually right, the humans would have a chance to bite off a handful of alien ships for less risk than they were already facing. Bush had to smile at the final line; they were already in danger…and by triggering their fusion drives, they had told the aliens exactly where they were. Even as the fleet started to coast and altered course, the alien warships altered their own course, heading right towards the human ships.

  Bush had studied at Cape Canaveral Space Combat Academy, but one thing everyone knew for sure was that space combat was very much an unexplored field. In theory, they would pass through the enemy formation, firing missiles and lasers at them, and break contact very quickly. In practice…well in practice, anything could happen.

  The fleet advanced and the aliens spread out; a moment passed, and both sides started to launch missiles. The tactical display lit up as missiles lanced from the alien craft; moments later, their own missiles advanced on the alien craft.

  “Concentrate fire on one or two craft,” the commander ordered.

  Bush nodded; one thing that was clear, the alien point defence was better than the human point defence. They had to overload the alien defences if there was to be any hope of scoring a hit. The alien missiles were coming closer; the human craft linked their defences together and engaged them with lasers. It required a ten-second burn to damage the alien missiles, and some of the missiles were smart enough to actually dodge…

  Or, he thought wryly, they’re all that smart and some of them just ran out of fuel.

  “Four missiles down,” the tactical officer said. He cursed. “The Aluka just took a hit; she’s gone, Captain; the Bismarck just got hit as well and blown apart…”

  The tactical display screamed a warning; a missile was bearing down on them at very high speed. Seconds before it would have detonated, the lasers killed it, blasting it into a cloud of superhot dust; Bush allowed himself a moment of relief as he watched the aliens try to shoot down their missiles. Five fell, six fell…a seventh missile entered engagement range of the alien craft and detonated, blowing the alien craft into radioactive plasma.

  “Hit,” the tactical officer reported. Bush smiled; the survivors of the small formation would be arguing endlessly over whose missile had actually killed the alien craft. “Captain, we have…”

  An alien nuclear missile detonated far too close to the Constitution.

  There were no survivors.

  * * *

  “Bring up the remaining mass drivers, let them have it,” Admiral Thompson ordered, all too aware that the battle was going badly. The aliens had picked off most of the automated weapons platforms; the handful left had been ordered not to engage until they found a suitable target. The aliens had almost wiped out the industrial stations; had they intended to cripple humanity’s economy, or had they thought that the industrial stations were defence stations? It didn’t matter; the truth was that while they were hurting the aliens, it was becoming all too clear that the human race was losing.

  “Firing,” one of the operators said. The mass drivers normally launched cargos towards the moon, bulky solid items that no one would care if they were damaged; now, they were launching projectiles towards the alien craft, they drew fire almost at once; the aliens launched missiles at them, trying to kill them before a heavy cargo capsule could slam into one of their ships at a speed that would vaporise it. “Impact in twenty seconds…”

  They’d hit three of the big alien craft. It hadn’t been enough.

  “Admiral,” another operator snapped. “I think we’re being targeted directly!”

  Defence One had never been spun up, or even converted into a proper habitat; the RSF had moved it into orbit so that it could be slowly mined and then finally converted into more British space habitats and spacecraft for the planned expansion of the colonies out in the solar system. It was also the best-protected station in space; the defence command had been constructed right in the centre of the asteroid, protected by tons of rock and metal.

  “Order the point defence to engage,” he snapped. A nuke might not kill them, but it would damage equipment and shatter what remained of the communications network. It would also strip the defences completely bare. “I want to…”

  A projectile, composed of solid rock, slammed into Defence One. The weapon had been perfectly placed; before anyone realised the danger, the massive asteroid started to fragment…and rain over the Earth. The sky was falling…

  Chapter Twenty: The Battle of Earth, Round Three

  Eastern Seaboard, USA

  “Mr. President,” Colonel Garth said, “I think we have a serious problem.”

  Cardona looked up at him, feeling an insane urge to laugh. He fought it down; the last thing the nation needed was its Chief Executive descending into giggles when it was fighting for its very life, along with the other Great Powers. No one had surrendered, no one had run…and they were losing. Entire chunks of the orbital defence network had vanished completely; the President knew exactly what that meant. Even if the aliens vanished tomorrow, the American Nation was finished as a Great Power; the only consolation was that the other Great Powers would be in the same boat.

  “We have a lot of problems,” Cardona said. He’d told the nation that he was going to be watching from the White House, overriding the Secret Service’s objections; the country was on the verge of panic. If the President had fled Washington, there was no way that it could be kept secret, and there would be chaos. Millions of people would try to flee the cities, and blood would be shed very quickly, perhaps even triggering civil unrest on a massive scale. “What’s happening?”

  Garth tapped the display; a large object was shattering in Earth orbit…and descending. “The aliens have been targeting most of our space facilities, including the asteroids we brought into Earth orbit and started to mine,” he said. “Several of the asteroids are now starting to break up and fall out of orbit, onto the planet.”

  The President stared at him. “How many?”

  “All of them are falling,” Garth said. His gaze was distracted for a moment by the developing images. “Several of the habitats have shattered into smaller chunks of rock” – the President said a silent prayer of thanks that they had evacuated almost all of the civilian population from the asteroid habitats – “and most of those will burn up in the atmosphere. The mining rocks, however, will definitely hit the ground fairly quickly…and there were seven of those in orbit.”

  The President felt his blood run cold. The danger from asteroids had been one of the – public – reasons behind basing weapons in space; they’d all seen simulations of asteroid impacts and the disastrous effects they would have on the planet below. A single small asteroid would be completely devastating in the short term; if all seven hit the surface of Earth, the aliens wouldn’t be needed to complete the ruin of human civilisation…it dawned on him that that might have been exactly what the aliens wanted.

  “The aliens,” he said. “Did they do this on purpose?”

  “I don’t know,” Garth said. “They might have intended to destroy the asteroids without realising exactly what they were, because we were using most of them to coordinate our defences. They might also have intended to shatter the asteroids and simply got their math wrong.”

  The President ran his hands though his hair. “Never mind,” he said. “Can we nuke the asteroids as they come down?”

  “Not any longer,” Garth said. “One of the asteroids, we think, will come down somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. A habitat, breaking up, will shatter somewhere over Central America; odds are that only a few chunks will make it to Earth. We think that most of the others will come down in the Eastern Hemisphere somewhere, but there will still be serious effects…”

 
; “If the Atlantic Ocean asteroid has an effect,” Cardona said. The sheer potential for disaster struck him as he started to stand up. “My God; we have to warn everyone, get them out of the danger zone…we have to warn the other nations, let them know that disaster is coming…”

  Garth’s eyes were wide with horror. “There’s no time,” he said. “The first impact will be in twenty minutes, maximum.”

  Secret Service Special Agent Jane Claymore, the head of his personal detail, came over almost at a run. “Mr. President, we have to get you out of here,” she snapped. “It’s too dangerous for you to remain here.”

  Garth shook his head. “When that asteroid comes down, everything in the air is going to be swatted,” he said. “The bunker here will be the safest place; it’s secure enough so that even if the city is destroyed, the bunker itself will not be breached.”

  Claymore glared at him. “And what happens if the asteroid comes down on the bunker?”

  Garth gave her a droll smile. “Then we’re screwed,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”

  The President held up a hand. “I'm staying,” he said, firmly. He had to set a good example. “Coordinate with Continental Command; warn people to seek shelter, high ground, whatever it takes--” he paused “--what effects can we expect?”

  Garth scowled. “Major ones,” he said. “The impact will toss up tidal waves right across the eastern seaboard and the other countries bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Tons of water will be vaporised and dumped into the atmosphere, so we can expect very heavy rainfall for a few weeks; the shockwave may even alter items such as the Gulf Stream, with uncertain long-term future results. If any come down on land, we could be looking at massive impact fatalities, shockwaves, earthquakes…”