by B. V. Larson
“Every bomb they throw out there, exploding nothing but space, is a bomb we won’t have to feel right here on this station,” I said.
Finally Welter regarded me seriously. He didn’t seem to have been cheered up in the slightest by my attempt to put a bright face on things. I frowned, perhaps my bridge crew was getting to know me too well.
“Sir,” Welter said, “I’ve done some calculations. The fireball of concentric explosions will engulf us in less than three minutes if it continues at this pace. What a simple expedient they may have uncovered. Why come to our side of the ring and do battle when they can simply bomb us out of existence from long range?”
“Why indeed?” I muttered. I crossed my arms and watched the show with the rest of them. There was nothing else to do, really.
Marvin was the first to notice when the incoming missile stopped their relentless intrusion into the Eden system. “The volley has ended. The closest detonations were more than a fifty thousand miles from the station. We’re in the clear, sir.”
I smiled grimly. They’d thrown a heavy blow and decidedly removed our forward minefield, but I still had my flying pulses of mines and plenty more firepower in the station itself. I did find myself wishing we were up to full strength, however.
“Excellent,” I said. “Hopefully, they don’t have much left in reserve.”
We all knew it was a faint hope. Standard Macro tactics involved throwing no more than fifty percent of all the missile stocks a given fleet had in any given storm of missiles. The thought that they could release that much firepower a second time was terrifying.
“What is the status of all defensive systems?” I asked.
“Everything is a go, sir,” Welter said crisply. “The minefield at the ring has been taken out, of course. But everything else is green and battle-ready.”
I frowned, thinking hard. Why would they blast so hard right at the outset? By our best calculations, the enemy was still nearly an hour out from the ring. Our data was old, of course, as we’d pulled back the scouts before they could become targets. My frown deepened at that thought.
“Commander,” I snapped at Welter, “calculate the Macro position if they have increased speed.”
“At what pace of acceleration, sir? For how long?”
“What if they flew at us at maximum burn ever since our scouts retreated to our side of the ring? Where would they be right now?”
Welter’s eyes widened. I could tell he was catching on. Working his fingers deftly on his touchscreen, I saw big yellow numbers flashing under them. He turned up to me thirty seconds later.
“Right here sir, right now. They could be on us. But they will coming in too fast, too—”
I wasn’t listening any more. I signaled Sandra, who linked me to the PA system. “Now hear this, all hands, we are about to undergo a very high speed attack from the direction of the ring. I want everyone in full battlesuits with their hands on the triggers of a railgun battery! Move people, battle stations. This is not a drill!”
Even Marvin seemed surprised. I’d earned a half-dozen of his cameras and a wide-eyed stare from Sandra before everyone kicked into action. That took a second, a long second, but I supposed everyone took a moment to change gears.
All over the ship I heard servos whine and big arms rattle as they took aim with their weaponry. I busied myself at the holotank, checking out the position of my next orbital shower of mines. It was close—less than seven minutes out. I figured at their rate of approach we wouldn’t get more than one shot at them. I ordered the mines in the swarm to fire their tiny guidance engines to increase speed.
Marvin saw what I was doing and objected. “You’re pushing the mine swarm too fast, sir,” he said. “The next gravity bumper won’t be able to catch them. They won’t be able to make another orbit of Hel.”
“I don’t think that’s going to matter, Marvin.”
I pointed toward the holotank, but I really didn’t need to. Everyone was looking and gasping. Marvin turned himself toward it, putting every camera he had on the three-dimensional image depicted there. His arms clattered and rasped on the deckplates. Only one of his cameras was still looking at me. That single electronic eye rose up higher, staring.
I didn’t have time to puzzle about what Marvin was thinking, and I didn’t much care. The holotank emitted a blood-red glow now as the first new contacts appeared. The Macro ships were coming through the ring, flooding into the Eden system.
“The Macros have come to the battle early, and it’s time to give them our warmest reception,” I boomed. “All batteries, FIRE!”
Outside, space lit up with flashing darts of plasma. I felt the entire battle station shudder under my boots in reaction to the release of tremendous energies on the surface.
In the silent void, with little or no friction to worry about, railguns could be very effective. Our systems were very advanced, super-cooled and powered by magnetic forces the physicists back on Earth could only dream about. Normal railguns operated on the principle of extreme magnetic fields being used to propel a projectile to great speeds in a very short amount of time. If you’ve ever tried to push two magnets of matched polarity together, you’ve witnessed the concept of a railgun in action. The idea is based upon the application of electrical power to produce powerful magnetic fields. Since anyone could use magnets to attract or repel ferrous objects then, theoretically, one could build a super powerful magnet to repel an object to the speed of a bullet. The nice thing about the principal was its expandability. Bigger, more powerful magnets and bigger, more powerful projectiles created even greater killing power.
The natural vacuum of space made railguns even more viable. We had no air to get in the way of projectiles, and no gravity to pull them off course. Even better, once launched a railgun pellet is pretty close to invisible. Unlike missiles or beams, ballistic weaponry is difficult to detect in space and even harder to shoot down.
I’d invested heavily in railgun technology on the battle station. Our railguns were in fact more powerful than the prototypes experimented with back on Earth could ever have been. The key to this improvement was the use of gravity plates. Instead of using only magnetic forces, we pushed the huge bullets by causing them to fall away from the gravity plates. It was as if we were dropping the projectiles on the heads of our enemies—in any direction we chose.
I’d considered creating a railgun powered entirely by gravity-repellers, but hadn’t perfected any of the designs yet. Our systems at this point remained hybrids, and I was sure they were far from perfect. They did, however, quickly and quietly launch a projectile at great speed. As far as I was concerned, that was enough.
The battle station’s lighting systems dimmed when the first volley was ejected. For a split-second, every ounce of power we had went to the railguns and they were greedy for more. Down in the depths of the station I knew skinny black arms of metal were loading the next projectiles, slamming them into place and locking them magnetically so they were suspended between the rails and ready to fire. When the lights went green again, each battery fired.
Some of the batteries seemed to operate more smoothly than others and thus had a faster rate of fire. Most took somewhere around eight seconds to reload. A few could move up to a seven-second cycle. The asynchronous rate of fire wasn’t optimal, but I didn’t try to fix it. I ordered everyone to put as much metal into the path of the enemy as they could, as fast as they could. My only wish was that I’d started firing thirty seconds earlier. Some of the ships were going to be breaking off and evading the barrage.
On the holotank screen, I saw our projectiles as yellow slivers, the enemy ships as red wedges and cylinders. So far, they weren’t firing more missiles at us, but that may have meant they were holding their fire for even closer range.
“They’re moving fast, sir,” Welter said, reading a dozen screens at once. “Some are breaking off, moving out of our cone of fire. The bulk of them is still plowing straight into us. Should I fire our he
avy lasers, sir?”
I hesitated. The ring was within effective range for my three heavy beam weapons, but I didn’t want to have them show themselves immediately and get targeted. Beam weapons on a stationary platform were very vulnerable, and I knew I might see a target I would rather have them take out in the next minute or so. On the other hand, if they sat idle in this high-speed battle they might as well have been knocked out already.
I struggled to get into my battle suit, as did everyone else who hadn’t listened to my orders previously. I didn’t really like clanking around in the thing when inside a vessel, but while out in open space or on a hostile planet, it made you feel like a god.
“Target the heavy lasers on the outlying ships, the ones that are flying off at random angles. Take them out one at a time.”
New green lines snapped into existence as the lasers lanced out after their prey. For this type of weaponry, we were in close range. The holotank shifted a moment later, as the enemy reacted to my play. A shower of new tiny contacts appeared: missiles.
“Dammit!” I said, “I knew they’d go for my big lasers the second I revealed them.”
“They’ll get in a few minutes of firing time, Kyle,” Sandra said. She stood supportively near me. I liked the sentiment, but I was still gnashing my teeth about losing the big lasers. I’d wanted to take out their dreadnaught with them if I had the chance. We hadn’t seen the big ship yet, but it was only a matter of time.
The lasers were doing nasty work out there. We’d ranged them carefully, and each pulsing ripple of fire that lanced out finished a cruiser, ripping through the decks and as often as not igniting the engine core. Ships flashed and winked out of existence with regularity.
“Why haven’t they fired any more missiles, sir?” Welter asked, staring with me as the battle played out.
“There’s only one reason I can think of,” I said. “And I don’t like it.”
“They want to take this station for themselves, rather than destroying it,” Marvin said. His tone and interruptive delivery reminded me of every know-it-all kid back in school.
“You really think so?” Sandra asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “Marvin’s probably right. They’re shooting at our weapons, not pouring fire onto the station itself. They must have a reason. Just think about it from their point of view: if they can take this station, they can control this gate permanently. They’re trying to knock out our weapons without permanently damaging this station.”
“We can’t let them do that, Kyle,” Sandra said.
“I know. If it looks bad, we’ll blow the whole thing up.”
Everyone on the bridge looked grim, except Marvin, who looked alarmed. “Colonel Riggs, sir?”
“What?”
“Shouldn’t we call for an early evacuation if the plan includes self-destruction? To achieve a minimum safe distance will require several minutes under fire.”
I laughed harshly. “What’s the matter robot? Don’t you believe in going down with your ship?”
“No, sir.”
I shook my head and turned my attention back to the holotank. There had to be a way out of this—but there wasn’t. We were in for a long, hard battle. Once the punches started landing, we would have few options. Escape wouldn’t really be possible, at least not until the enemy had made one deadly pass.
I got an idea, and connected to the PA directly via my battlesuit’s helmet controls. “Heavy laser one, cease fire. I repeat, cease fire.”
People glanced at me in surprise, but no one said anything like “Are you crazy?” I imagined they knew it wouldn’t do them any good.
“Heavy Laser Two, fire one more shot, then shut down and button up. I want you to put that clam-shell shielding over the projector as fast as you can. Laser Three—keep firing until the station takes a hit, then shut down immediately and cover up.”
“What are you doing, Kyle?”
“Making it look like they took out our lasers. If they think they’re down, they won’t shoot at them anymore.”
She frowned, but nodded and turned back to her screens.
“Sir, our railgun pellets are reaching the enemy line,” Welter said. “The central mass of the enemy fleet is taking it hard.”
A flashing counter began to change. It had been ticking down in slow increments, counting the enemy vessels. Mostly it had been rising as more and more wriggled their way through the ring and into the Eden system. Now that our heavy guns had finally landed a blow, the little blue number began dropping—fast.
Before I knew it, we’d killed twenty ships. Eight seconds later, the number was twenty-six. That’s when the enemy figured out we were serious and changed tactics again. I’d been worried about this part.
“Wow,” Welter breathed, staring at the destruction. “We’re smashing them. They keep coming, pouring into our line of fire. They must have thought we were helpless.”
“It’s not over yet,” I muttered.
They released a new wave of missiles, a massive barrage.
“The enemy has changed their minds,” Marvin said. “I don’t think they plan to capture this station any longer.”
I chuckled grimly. “I agree, Captain Obvious. They plan to smash us now. Welter, it is now time for you to work your magic.”
He looked at me blankly. “Sir?”
“Fire up the jets and turn this barrel around.”
Welter smiled for the first time all day. “An excellent idea, sir.”
The missiles crept toward us. The enemy ships were more than half-way here, and even though they were slowing down, it was clear they were going to blow right by us. They had come in so fast, they couldn’t brake enough to stop their forward momentum. In response, Welter set the entire station to spinning on its axis. The big backside of the station was all dark armor. We hadn’t bothered to activate the weapons there.
“We’ll take a beating,” I said, “But with luck, we’ll still have power and all our active guns. When they pass, they’ll be back in range again.”
Sandra grinned at me. “If we live another hour, I’m going kiss you and call you a genius all over again.”
“So noted.”
We didn’t have long to wait. Like a massive boulder, our station spun around slowly, but steadily. By the time the first hard missile strikes overwhelmed our defensive lasers and went off, they struck against a wall of rock layered with metals and shock-resistant struts. The station rolled and creaked. It felt and sounded like someone was beating on the walls with sledge hammers.
“The outer rock layer is down to eighty-one percent,” Welter told me. “That was just the first flock of missiles. We don’t have much other than defensive lasers on the backside, sir. They can pound down our armor with impunity.”
“Not really,” I said. “They’re moving too fast, and can’t slow down fast enough. They have to slip past us or crash right into us.”
“Second barrage is closing in now, Colonel.”
I bared my teeth inside my helmet. “Tell anyone in the aft section we’re likely to spring a leak back there.”
“I think they already know that, Kyle,” Sandra said. “Why aren’t the missiles swinging around and getting our weapons on the far side?”
“They can’t,” I said. “They’re moving too fast. The best they can do is smash into our armor and hope to blast their way through.”
“It feels like they just might manage it,” Welter said, holding onto the edge of the holotank for support. “The exterior rock layer is down to forty-four percent.”
The deck swayed under all of us. I couldn’t help but look around at the walls as the bombardment continued. They looked solid enough, but I knew that wasn’t fooling anyone. One direct hit in this sector and we would all be history, despite collapsed armor, battlesuits—everything.
Most of the missiles were shot down, but the few that made it past our defenses made up for the rest. They kept slamming into the station, blasting glowing craters in our armor. I
was glad they weren’t armed with EMP warheads, as the Crustacean suicide ship had been. Maybe that weapon wasn’t in the Macro arsenal for a good reason: it could accidentally kill Macros just as easily as nanites.
All our cameras on the side facing the ring were quickly destroyed, but we had remote probes in far orbit over Hel and could still see the mounting damage. I frowned at the destruction, wondering if they would get through after all. My concerns grew when a new target appeared in the holotank. It was big, bulbous and depicted by the nanite cloud in glowing red. Welter didn’t have to tell me what it was, but he identified them anyway.
“The enemy dreadnaught is now in-system, Colonel.”
-7-
Once our station had turned its armored backside to the ring, we could no longer fire at the incoming enemy, but they couldn’t easily hit anything vital, either. Soon, the outlying ships that had survived our railguns and beams slid past us. These were classic Macro cruisers, shaped like arrowheads with one heavy gun turret in the belly of each ship. These guns had been pounding us as they flew by, and swiveled to hammer us at point-blank range as they slid around to our front section again.
“Range is under one thousand miles, sir,” Welter said. “We could fire now, and interpolate their positions.”
I shook my head. “Wait until they are right on our flanks and fire then. I don’t want to fire early. Wait until they can’t evade. They’ll zero our weapons mounts, but they’ll take some hard hits doing so.”
Remote passive sensors reported in blips that the enemy had taken a serious beating coming through the ring into our concentrated railgun fire. The trick of this entire station was based on the simple fact that any vessel entering the Eden system from the Thor system had to fly through a relatively narrow doughnut hole, about ten kilometers wide. This meant that if we saturated that zone with flying shrapnel, everything that came through it for an extended period would be destroyed.
The plan had worked, but not perfectly. The Macros had accelerated their attack, meaning that we hadn’t fire early enough to catch their first ships. More importantly, we had only a fraction of our guns operating. About thirty cruisers and the enemy dreadnaught had pushed into the ring and survived. Still, the enemy losses were staggering.