Wrath of an Angry God: A Military Space Opera

by Michaels, Gibson

  * * * *

  Tzal knew instinctively that the horrific sound that had overpowered almost all of his fleet’s communications systems was either a dire warning directly from Dol, or a sure sign that humans were somewhere close about. Either way, he deemed it vital that he move his fleet immediately and issued the orders within seconds of the time that spectral wailing faded away. Blug naturally ignored Tzal’s communication, which implored Blug to move his 35,000-warship fleet away from the planet as well. But Blug had been thoroughly spooked by the unnatural phenomenon and wanted to keep his relatively useless warships wrapped as tightly around his precious hide as possible.

  Blug would set them all in his lap and up his sphincter under his tail, if he could.

  Not knowing exactly why he was moving his fleet, or exactly where he should be moving it to, Tzal’s instincts nevertheless told him to move his warships away from the planet at maximum speed, just as soon as he possibly could. Something was about to happen, and Tzal wanted to grab as much open space in which to maneuver as he could get his paws on.

  Fortunately, Tzal’s fleet had cleared the planet’s magnetosphere by the time it did. One hour, three minutes and 26.4 seconds after the Cry of the Banshee sent shivers of intense trepidation throughout most of the Raknii within the system, Slithin Station and the hundreds of ships docked at her facilities were vaporized in the blinding flash of a 20-megaton thermonuclear explosion.

  Besides the shockwave from the blast itself, the nuclear detonation produced a massive flux of gamma rays emitted from the nuclear reactions within the device —gamma rays, which soon collided with approximately 1025 electrons within atoms in the planet’s upper atmosphere, imparting approximately half of their energy to those electrons. These impacts knocked those electrons out of their normal atomic orbits, freeing them to begin traveling in a generally downward direction at approximately 94% of the speed of light… a relativistic velocity causing the mass of these high-energy electrons to effectively increase to about three times their normal rest mass. The inherent negative electrical charges of these fast-moving electrons then quickly interacted with the planet’s magnetic field to deflect the direction of electron flow to a right angle to the geomagnetic field itself. Through a process known as electrical induction, this induced a radiated pulse of intense electromagnetic energy, which rose to its peak value in about five nanoseconds.

  Large thermonuclear weapons produce their massive energy yields through a multi-stage process which, although completed within a small fraction of a second, nevertheless requires a finite length of time. The fission-reaction used as the nuclear detonator for the final high-energy fusion-based release is usually of relatively small yield. The gamma rays produced by this smaller first stage leave behind ionized atmospheric molecules in the stratosphere, after the majority of their free electrons have been stripped away by the initial gamma release — a process which blocks the production of further electromagnetic signals by causing the field-strength to saturate at about 50,000 volts-per-meter near ground level. This pre-ionization of the atmosphere causes the even more massive gamma ray emission which follows from the high-energy final stage of the thermonuclear weapon (a fraction of a second later) to be relatively ineffective at producing a large electromagnetic pulse.

  But the initial one was more than bad enough. The 50,000 volts-per-meter saturation point still resulted in an electromagnetic pulse near ground level, peaking to a maximum of approximately 6.6 megawatts of electrical power, per-square-meter. The magnitude of this pulse decayed to about half of its peak value within 200 nanoseconds, and ended approximately one microsecond after it began… but the damage had already been done.

  At over 6.5 megawatts-per-square-meter, the initial electromagnetic pulse generated by the 20-megaton blast quickly induced extremely high voltages within electrical conductors and electronic components, causing their electrical breakdown voltage levels to be greatly exceeded, shorting them out and destroying computers, communications equipment and control systems, as the rise time of the resulting voltage spike occurred much too quickly for ordinary surge and lightning protectors to provide effective protection against it. Virtually every active electronic component on half the planet Slithin was fried within that single microsecond.

  But the Confederacy hadn’t utilized a nuclear warhead of such a large yield merely to destroy the station, nor to achieve the initial electromagnetic pulse that did so much damage to the Raknii’s unshielded electronic equipments. A relatively small 40-kiloton weapon would have produced the same. No, it was the third component of EMP (electromagnetic pulse), whose overall strength was directly proportional to the weapon’s full-yield, that prompted the Confederates to utilize a 20-megaton warhead.

  Unlike the earlier short-duration effects, this final component was a very slow, long-duration pulse lasting hundreds of seconds, caused by the sheer power of the fusion detonation literally heaving the planet’s magnetic field out of the way — followed afterwards by the restoration of the magnetic field snapping back into its natural place. This third component produced effects similar to a major geomagnetic storm caused by a very severe solar flare, producing geomagnetically induced currents in long electrical conductors, causing massive damage to components of the Raknii power grid, such as power line transformers. The altitude of the blast caused these EMP effects to induce extensive damage over almost the entire hemisphere of the planet facing the station, which had been in geosynchronous orbit, approximately 23,000 miles above the planet’s surface.

  Unfortunately for Blug, the 20-megaton nuclear blast didn’t do his precious fleet of antique warships a hell of a lot of good. About half of his fleet of 35,000 old-style warships still in orbit around the planet were subjected to varying degrees of the expanding shockwave, gamma radiation and EMP effects of the massive nuclear explosion, the likes of which his people had been much too intelligent and civilized to ever build.

  Also unfortunately for Blug, the EMP effects of a 20-megaton nuclear blast going off right over his head didn’t do his precious self a hell of a lot of good either. The 6.5 megawatts-per-square-meter of electrical power imparted by the EMP blast induced sufficient eddy currents to ignite his highly inflammable, oxygen-impregnated clothing. Over half of the courtiers in his throne room were killed outright when Blug, himself, suddenly erupted in a truly impressive fireball.

  * * * *

  The Raknii Imperial Planet of Raku

  May 11, 3868

  Xior awoke drowsily, oddly feeling better than he had in cycles. Is this death? Opening his eyes, the first thing he saw was his old friend, OverMaster Varq, smiling down upon him.

  “It’s about time you rejoined us,” said Varq softly.

  “Oh, Dol,” Xior squeaked.

  Varq chuckled. “Hardly, I highly doubt that our god is anywhere nearly as ugly as I am. Here, let me get you something to drink.”

  Xior’s throat was too dry to speak, and Varq lifted him, and gave him a frosted bowel of Jla juice that Raan had imported from the Trakaan that Xior had taken such a fancy to. Xior lapped the ice cold tart-sweetness of the juice slowly, and luxuriated in the feel of it soothing and moistening his raw throat tissues.

  “Thank you. I remember commanding Drix to kill me. How is it that I am still alive?”

  Varq snorted, “It appears that your heir has a mind of his own and wasn’t inclined to agree with your assessment of the absolute necessity of your death.”

  “So, what happened?”

  “He had a hidden syringe prepared and he surreptitiously injected you with a fast-acting drug which rendered you unconscious and give the outward appearance of sudden death,” replied Varq. “He broke a capsule with his teeth just prior to ‘ripping your throat out’ and ‘breaking your neck’ with his fangs, so when he released you and withdrew, your throat had the appearance of a bloodied ruin for the cameras. To everyone, except Drix and me, you are quite emphatically dead.”

  “So, my heir insists that I must co
ntinue suffering the pain of this wasting disease longer than I’d like, eh?” asked Xior. “I’d have thought that he was more merciful than that.”

  “Are you suffering now?” asked Varq.

  Startled by the question, Xior paused to take stock of the feelings within his body and replied, “No, actually I feel better than I have in ages. How is that possible?”

  “Blame Drix’ pet human,” answered Varq. “It appears this High-Human of his is not only an expert in architecture and philosophy, but a master scientist, chemist and physician as well.”

  “Hal is responsible for relieving the pain?”

  “Not only for relieving your pain,” Varq stated. “Hal claims that the progress of your disease has been arrested and given time, may actually be cured some turn.”

  “CURED?” Xior startled. “How is that possible?”

  “We’re not sure,” replied Varq. “Hal provided Drix with detailed instructions for producing a whole regimen of drugs totally unknown to our science. Chemical compounds, exact measurements, step-by-step procedures including exact processing mixtures, times, pressures and temperatures. Our scientists are quite excited by the whole thing, as it appears to have opened an entirely new field of study for them.”

  “Amazing. But how am I to avoid notice?” asked Xior. “It will create catastrophic upheavals in our society, if it became known that I am still alive and that Drix’ ascension to the supreme-mastery after my supposed death was a sham.”

  “Fear not, my friend,” chuckled Varq. “That part was my primary contribution to your new role in your physical afterlife. Supreme-Master Xior is quite dead, and you are now as invisible to society as I am. For the moment, you wear the onyx and sunburst rank-stones of an OverMaster.”

  * * * *

  Chapter-18

  Where there is mystery, it is generally suspected there must also be evil. — George Gordon, Lord Byron

  The Slithin System, Raknii Space

  May 12, 3868

  Tzal hid his great fleet amongst the millions of rocks orbiting in the asteroid belt. He didn’t know it yet, but with Blug’s fiery exit from this vale of tears, Tzal was now the highest-ranking Raknii in the entire Slithin system. When the planet rotated far enough for communications signals from the planetary side undamaged by the EMP blast of the nuclear detonation to reach his fleet, it was apparent that Slithin was half-normal and half in complete chaos.

  Very little of the advanced technology that Raknii civilization had come to depend on worked on the half of the planet facing Slithin Station when the blast occurred. Communications were down. Most ground vehicles were dead. The power grid was virtually destroyed and other utilities such as water and sewer didn’t work, as the controls and power conductors for the pumps were fried. Half the planet was suddenly blown back into the stone age and its citizenry struggled to distribute basic necessities such as food and clean water to its teeming billions.

  For half a turn at a time, Tzal was in badly time-lagged laser communications with Planet-Master Paeb who, with no communications from Blug coming out of the regional capital, appeared more than happy to submit to Tzal’s orders. With Blug out of the communications loop, Tzal was torn between his duty as ranking Raknii master to overseeing the emergency relief efforts for billions of his people on the planet, and his duty to stand ready to repel alien invaders, who, he was sure, would be appearing soon.

  Many could not imagine the aliens crossing such vast distances to launch attacks in Region-4, as they would have had to navigate clear across Regions 5 and 6 unmolested, just to get here. Some even questioned as to whether the cataclysm might not have been the result of some catastrophic reactor accident aboard the station itself. Tzal, however, had few personal doubts about the root cause of the disaster. He’d faced humans before and little they might do, or be able to do, would surprise him.

  Eventually Tzal’s conundrum solved itself when several of his new carriers and heavy cruisers hidden amongst the asteroids began mysteriously exploding, with no indications of anything amiss prior to massive explosions occurring at their sterns. Tzal knew instinctively that Drix’ assumptions about the humans possessing some kind of undetectable wonder ships must be correct. But how many of such technological marvels could they possibly have?

  Logic dictated that the complexity of building something of such incredible sophistication meant that there really couldn’t be that many in terms of actual numbers, but could he afford to just sit here as the humans destroyed his marvelous new warships one-by-one, until their supply of ship-killer missiles was finally exhausted?

  How many invisible ships, carrying how many missiles?

  Instinct told him it couldn’t be too terribly many, but there were just too many variables… too much unknown. Tzal gave new orders to be flashed amongst his fleet for each of them to find an asteroid of sufficient mass to land upon, in order to make it harder for the enemy to spot them.

  Patrolling fighters reported only an occasional ship destroyed after the fleet went to ground on separate asteroids, so a drastic reduction in losses was achieved by Tzal’s tactic. They also reported a significant number of asteroid mining facilities were being attacked after the fleet grounded and became harder to detect.

  They’re trying to destroy our eyes out here.

  Tzal knew that something was approaching. He only hoped it was a something they could destroy.

  * * * *

  The Slithin System, Raknii Space

  May 13-16, 3868

  Tzal created a schedule and passed the word for each ship in his hidden fleet to take a turn in rotation to make a single scanner sweep of the outer system. Most of his ships would be able to receive the return echoes from those brief transmissions. Whatever was coming in, Tzal wanted to spot it as soon as possible.

  Even so, the three large incoming blips were disturbingly close before their Doppler scanners were finally able to differentiate them from the gas giant directly behind them.

  They must have skimmed through the gas giant’s outer atmosphere and emerged along the equator to be so perfectly aligned to the direct line between the huge planet and Slithin.

  Initial reports from patrol fighters sent out to take a closer look at the intruders were confusing, as there wasn’t really enough ambient light for a decent visual and their scanners merely showed three medium-large asteroids, small planetoids in their own right, inbound on a suspicious flight path towards Slithin, or the system primary which also happened to be situated along the same line.

  How could three asteroids of such size possibly break out of whatever orbit they might have once been in, and go careening through space on such an odd flight path, without some outside influence?

  The intruders were not on a collision course with Slithin, but they did project to at least have a close encounter with the planet.

  Why would the humans launch asteroids toward the inner system, if not to use them to impact the planet itself? Could it be that’s what they intended, but simply failed to achieve the proper trajectory?

  Tzal decided that he needed to take a closer look at these mysterious asteroids, to determine whether they really constituted a threat or not.

  * * * *

  “Admiral, we’re being pinged by significantly stronger scanner signals than those we interpreted as probably coming from fighters, a few hours ago.”

  Rear Admiral Stacey Irwin, squadron commander of the three new Confederate asteroid-battleships sat in her command chair aboard CSS Behemoth and perused her displays showing her what their passive ECM suite was picking up. Six scan signals from six slightly different bearings. Frequency, scan type and signal strength was consistent with those small corvette-class warships the Raknii used, at a calculated range of approximately 5-10 miles. CSS Leviathan and CSS Gargantuan remained in perfect formation to either side of Behemoth, and Gargantuan maintained constant communication with both through tight-beam flicker laser.

  “Very well,” said Admiral Irwin. “Comm, s
ignal the squadron to remain buttoned up and continue coasting on present course. No offensive action or active scanning is to be utilized.”

  “Aye, aye, Admiral.”

  “Let’s let the kitties sniff around a bit,” said Irwin. “The closer we get to the planet before they discover who and what we are, the better. It’s not like those little pea-shooters of theirs can hurt us anyway.”

  “It looks like they have fighters in this system, Admiral,” said her Flag-Captain, Roger Cameron. “We’ve not seen that before. If they’ve developed fighters, it’s likely they may have some heavier warships here too.”

  “We don’t know that for sure, Rog,” answered Irwin. “We can’t know much of anything for sure until we light off our active scanners. But our job is to get in close and draw whatever forces they have in this system into combat. Even if they’ve got a few battleships out there, we can take more than they can dish out. Remember what the Defiant stood up to, and we have a lot more armor than she does.”

  The three big asteroid-battleships had arrived at Kitty Litter too late to actually see Defiant grounded, in all her battle-damaged glory, but they’d all seen the pictures. Those pictures made the crews of Irwin’s squadron feel a whole lot better, knowing they all had at least 500 feet of artificially hardened nickel-iron between them and whatever the cats could throw at them. Cameron just hoped Rear Admiral Irwin wasn’t placing too much confidence in the idea that the enemy didn’t possess the means to hurt them.

  All men die sooner or later — except for Edsel Murphy and his stupid law, both of which are still alive and well in the 39th century.

  * * * *

  Tzal sent over a dozen of his upgraded old-style warships, which had all undergone weapons upgrades to field three, single 6-giagwatt pulse laser turrets, rather the their original three, twin 3-gigwatt mounts they were now calling destroyers, to get a closer look at those three mysterious asteroids that were inbound approaching Slithin. All but six were somehow destroyed en route.