+ 30 Seconds
The Canada
“The Empire ships are now in range of the ACE field!” reported Arik.
Stagg grimaced as the ship shook “Activate,”
“New contact!” shouted Arik interrupting.
“What?”
“IFF is identifying the vessel as the HSB Russia, they just exited a spatial rupture directly between us and the Empire fleet!”
“Open communications!”
“Radiation needs to clear, one moment!”
Stagg ground her teeth together but said nothing, waiting for Arik to initialize the connection.
“.. and.. now!”
“They’re broadcasting on standard channels,” said Arik.
The static on the smaller section of the forward display cleared, and breaking away from the tactical readout for a moment Stagg smiled.
“You glorious bastard!”
Through the image James smiled as well, “Nice to know you can still get into trouble, want to give me a short explanation?”
“Protect the planet, we’ve got a way to extend the ACE field for ten minutes, found some friendly aliens who are helping. They got the friendly IFF codes.”
“About the same here, we found some friendlies,” James pointed up and Arik magnified the image of the bridge on the sister ship showing the small ugly leathery skinned creature in the pod above James.
“Even managed to get a hold of a few kilograms of antimatter. Curtsey of one of your crew, Diana.”
“Really? So she’s only making more trouble.”
“Story behind why you left her?”
“Yep.”
“Let’s trade those later, right now we’re going to see how that dreadnaught likes a nice pile driver.”
Stagg’s grin only widened, “You have no idea how happy that makes me. Feel like sharing some of that antimatter?”
“We’ll launch you a pod after a few jumps. We’re a little vulnerable at the moment in no man’s land.”
“Got it.”
The Canada shook and Stagg glanced back up at the tactical display, they had just taken a hit from one of the smaller ships. With all shielding technology offline the hull of the ship was already beginning to heat.
“Arik, let’s hit one of those carriers, make sure those fighters have no home. Leave the dreadnaught to the Russia.”
“Yes Ma’am!”
The ship rotated lining up with one of the carriers, “fire!” shouted Stagg.
The kinetic round, only ten kilograms in weight already loaded into the chamber of the main gun of the Canada was quickly accelerated to nearly 5% the speed of light through the magnetic coils that spanned the length of the ship. Firing outwards into the vacuum of space the round soared towards the Empire armada, where most of the ships had just crossed into the area of magnetic disturbance where their shields were ineffective.
The mass of metal, heated and now a mas of energetic plasma slapped into the nose of the imperial carrier. Had the shields been up the round would have been absorbed in a flash of light and energy. The tactical officer on the bridge would have noted a 4% drop in shield capacity for ten minutes as the magnetic fields containing the focused plasma of the shields realigned. He would have noted that the kinetic rounds were draining more from the shield systems then the energy based weapons they were designed to mitigate, but was nothing to be worried about.
Without the shield though, the round slammed into the thin metal hull of the ship and continued forwards down the spine of the ship. Dependent on energy shielding the bulkheads and physical barriers of the Empire vessel were designed only to hold vacuum and the dangers of space at bay in the event of a breach when shields were not running. They were not designed to contain battle damage or defend and deflect physical objects.
The round tore through the entire length of the ship, barely slowing. As it exited near the third main engine of the craft the round continued forwards another fourteen kilometers where is slammed into the operational shields of the Singer and was quickly absorbed in a flash of light and energy.
Even as the crew of the carrier vessel tried to react and recover a burst of energy from the Valiant struck. Based on the doctrine of Imperial weapon designs, but modified by class C’s the energy weapon ate into the hull of the vessel completely dissociating every chemical bond in a burst of energy and light. As the captain of the vessel tried to recover, the entire bridge of the ship was atomized. He hadn’t even managed to issue a single order in regards to the first attack before he died in the second.
The last thought on his mind was that the Empire was doomed.
“Fire at will, targets of opportunity, Arik launch all warheads now!”
“With pleasure!”
The warheads in orbit of the planet, and primitive by even human standards, propelled by nothing more than simple ammonium perchlorate the solid rocket fuel fired.
Streaking towards the imperial fleet, the Dorvakian’s struggling to even comprehend that their shield technology was ineffective and that they were now at a disadvantage looked up in fear as death approached.
The Valiant
“Fuck me.” Breathed Klyn as he watched the battle unfold,
“You’re picking up bad habits,” muttered Edie similarly stunned.
“They’re defenseless.”
The Empire fleet had only moments ago been advancing in a coordinated formation, the dreadnaught at the center, battleships around her, and support ships on the outer edges in the classical imposing array of ships that had been used by the Empire during their many civil wars, and even more so during the pacification of planets.
The Vakurian’s recovering from their own nuclear war had managed to reactivate several satellite systems, and had spotted the Empire formation as they approached. 300 years ago the formation had been even more imposing composed of nearly 200 ships. Each ship weaker, and more massive than the lighter but more powerful ships in use by the Empire today it was more than a match for the species which had nearly destroyed itself.
Now that same formation was to their detriment.
Humanity during the Earth-Mars war had quickly learned that shrapnel from a kinetic impact during battle could be just as deadly as the impact itself. Without energy shielding to protect their ships and only physical armor, with weapons that could fire at a significant portion of the speed of light Humanity adopted a more fluid battle strategy. Spreading ships out across hundreds if not thousands of kilometers, only forming up closer when using their own vessels as shields for important assets in space like Aldrin station and Station in orbit of Mars itself.
Other aliens that had tried to resist them over the centuries, class B and C alike had simply never managed to advance to a technological state where they could compete. So the Empire assumed their strategy was valid. A strategy that had been employed by squabbling politicians in the midst of civil wars and against near defenceless aliens it was effective.
The two battle strategies being incongruous, one born from showmanship and equal footings in battle, and the other born from hard physics. The only advantage the Empire had was their energy shields, without them now the flaw in their strategy was readily apparent.
Close together a cascade effect from the first few shots of the Canada and the Russia’s main weapons destroyed the front line of ships. Those directly impacted were almost immediately disabled, and the ones hit by shrapnel and only barely able to generate internal fields to contain their atmospheres, the confidence of the Imperial fleet was shattered in less than ten seconds.
None on the ships had even heard about a battle like this, used to the slow slogging of bolts of energy weapons against energy shields the Imperial officers hardly even knew what had happened in less time then it took to issue orders.
“Let’s help them out,” said Edie.
“Target?” asked Klyn his eyes still locked on the destruction.
“The Singer, it’s caused enough grief for both of our species.”
“Yes Ma’am.”
Klyn quickly directed the weapons officer of the Valiant and the Spite. Lining up the modified energy weapons of both ancient ships on the even older vessel they quickly fired. Comparatively slowly to the human weapons the energy bolts streaked through space, weaving between two Empire ships as they tried to compensate for the lack of shields the bolts stuck home on the shields of the Empire vessel further back in the formation where it was quickly absorbed by the still operational shields.
“Damn it, focus on one of those battleships. The field must not reach that far. We have to destroy them before they figure that out,” ordered Edie.
Klyn’s ears went back in annoyance but he quickly complied, changing the targeting directive of both Vakurian ships. Within moments one of the cruisers exploded as half of the plasma containment system was ruptured, the Vakurian weapons disintegrating half of the system in a burst of light and energy.
“What about the dreadnaught?” asked Klyn.
Edie shrugged, “I’m leaving that to the Russia, given that they’re diving headlong at it I’m assuming they have more of a plan then simply ramming it.”
“You don’t want to get a shot in?”
“Oh I do, but let’s play support.”
“You’re usually the one advocating a more direct strategy, now you want to play support?”
“I’ve had it easy with you guys, nice ship, nice food, besides I got my licks in when the Empire attacked Phobos. Let’s give the rest of humanity some revenge.”
Klyn slowly nodded and the Vakurian crew watched as the Russia continued to accelerate towards the dreadnaught.
“Anyone want to guess about what the hell they’re going to do?” asked Ranlin as she watched the ship. It showed no signs of diverting course, lined up directly with the forward section of the ship where the bridge was positioned.
“I’m betting they have even less of an idea then we do,” said Ranlin as they all watched.
The Russia
“Arik has fired 90% of the remaining nuclear warheads, they’ll impact in ten! Now would be the best time to execute our maneuver I think!” said Megan from the engineering section of the Russia.
“Understood, I could use more power to engines!”
Megan turning to the power output of the fusion reactor frowned, bypassing the operational safeties for the system and dumping almost the full reaction energy into the system Megan increased the speed of the Russia by 20%.
“You are going to destroy the reaction chambers of the vacuum drives!” said Yern as he looked over the adjustments Megan had made.
“Will they burn out in the next twenty minutes?” aske Megan fixing her gaze on the small alien.
“No.”
“Then it’s irrelevant for now. All that matters is that we win and kick the Empire’s teeth in!”
Yern glanced at the data and then back at Megan, “I suppose so.”
“You’ve got extra power.”
“We noticed, anything in particular we need to worry about for the pile driver?”
“We might hit them afterwards, which doesn’t look like it’ll be to much of an issue. In any case I’m going to program the inertial dampers in the opposite direction after the jump, so everyone’s going to be shoved into their seats instead of out of them. Hang on.”
“Understood.” Said James.
The Russia shook and glancing at the tactical readout Megan noted they had just endured a direct blast of energy from the largest enemy ship. The heat dispersal systems which were supposed to operate for the entirety of an encounter were already nearing their maximum operational capacity.
“I’m changing the exit vector we need to dump some heat.”
“Where too?”
“The upper atmosphere of the planet.”
“That a good idea?”
“It’s a workable one.”
“Great.”
Megan smiled and said nothing else.
The Russia continued forwards, her engines well past maximum capacity as she continued to accelerate towards the dreadnaught.
“Yern, once we go through the spatial anomaly we’re going to divert full power away form the vacuum engines to the hydrogen engines got it?”
“Yes, what is this maneuver?”
“Didn’t look it over?”
“I did not have time, and as you said we were not expecting to have access to antimatter.”
Megan nodded, and the Russia shook again. They were now close enough to the enemy fleet that only the dreadnaught was able to fire on them without fear of hitting any of the other ships.
Most of the other ships in the were attempting to compensate for the lack of energy shields and scrambling to mount something resembling a defense, instead of attacking. Megan watched as another shot from the Canada hit a ship and it nearly shattered. Which was to say nothing bout the two alien ships which had weapons that seemed to be vaporizing complete sections of the enemy vessels causing them to explode as their energy systems were breached.
“What do you think happens to a ship when we open a spatial rupture inside of it’s hull?”
Yern was uncharacteristically silent for a moment, before a high pitched rapid series of squeaks audible even to the humans in engineering was quickly translated.
“Nothing good? I’m not sure exactly what will happen.”
Megan smiled, “Neither are we. We’re betting the same though, nothing good. Besides we’ll leave them a little present as well.”
“Humans are insane.”
“Thanks.”
The Russia continued forwards, now so close to the large dreadnaught they were inside they were clear of the main weapon’s firing arc only the smaller munitions and energy blasts were hitting the hull easily absorbed them even as the heat began to climb.
“We’re going to have to implement a better heat management strategy. We’re already losing secondary systems.” Noted Yern.
“Put it on the list.”
“Megan, we good?”
“Oh yeah.”
“Tom, pile drive.”
Once again the antimatter and strange matter was mixed inside the core of the Russia’s drive core and was quickly ejected.
Locked to local gravitational gradient of the planet below, and at a relative speed of zero in regards to the momentum of everything except that gravitational field the rift opened only two meters in front of the Imperial vessel.
If they had possessed shields the interaction would have been more than likely thrown out of balance, without them the dreadnaught plowed directly into the rupture. Locked to the gravitational field, and falling inwards towards the planet to the perspective of every ship in orbit it looked as if the rupture was moving up through the ship consuming it.
Had the Empire employed armoring similar to humanity it would have been useless, given that the rupture was not tearing at the atomic bonds of the structure but rather the space time it occupied. Their was at no amount of physical shielding was likely able to mitigate the effect.
The rupture tore a neat circular hole through the dreadnaught as it fell, the Russia flying upwards directly behind it, accelerating to pass inside of the rupture the human vessel was for a moment completely inside the Empire ship. As the rupture closed and the Russia disappeared from normal space a small device launched from the aft of the ship.
The nuclear bomb detonated inside the middle of the dreadnaught, and unlike those weapons that had detonated in the vacuum of space it had enough atmosphere and material to produce a characteristic fireball which bloomed outwards in every direction consuming the entire ship.
Once again passing into the void Megan looked around.
“Here, you’re going to want to vent the coolant as soon as you exit and before the next jump,” Said Ben his form ghostly and incoherent.
“Are you real?”
Ben smiled and leaned against the bulkhead even as the rest of the universe distorted, turning all of it out Megan kept her focus on him.
“I’m dead.”
Megan threw the tablet in her hand at him and it clattered to the floor. Megan yelped in pain as she slammed into the floor. Yern let out a pained squeak as one of her leg’s landed on top of him. The gravity of the planet which they were now only a kilometer or two above taking hold the Russia fell.
“Too close!” shouted James through the communication channel.
Staggering up to her feet, the servos slowly adjusting to the gravity of the planet Megan hit the coolant release and opened a dozen hull panels as the ship plummeted through the air.
“This is perfect! We can vent excess heat here!” shouted Megan as the Russia started to violently shake. Although designed to dip in and out of atmosphere’s human vessels were not aerodynamic or designed to land in combat conditions. The few ships that had done so during the Earth-Mars war had performed the feats as a last resort and had required large chemical boosters to reach low orbit again.
Not that those systems were needed with the antimatter drive.
“We’re not going this close again, Tom get us out of here!” shouted James over the whistling air of the ship falling.
“Aye!”
Megan glanced at the outer display watching as the segment of the dreadnaught they had pulled through with them, and much more massive then them continued to fall. It would hit the ocean of the planet in under ten seconds. She had no doubt that some of the aliens were still alive inside of it. Even if they survived the blast as the Russia once again opened a rift and returned to space, even if they could swim, even if their ship for some reason had watercraft in the section they had sheared off they were in the middle of the largest ocean on the planet.
They were going to die.
The drive once again activated, the antimatter strange matter mass was ejected from the lower portion of the vessel.
The Russia, already accustomed to the rifts dove into it. The blast that sounded as it closed and the remaining antimatter detonated could be heard around the world.
The Singer
[Vann] stared in horror at the explosion. Pieces of the dreadnaught flew outwards from it, and several of the other ships in close formation with the vessel were hit causing other chain reactions as their energy containment systems or weapons systems failed and the pent up energy was released.
“How?” asked [Syn] her voice shaky as she stared at the screen.
[Vann] closed his eyes, “Doesn’t matter, the fact is that it happened. We can work out the specifics later, [Sam] open a fleet wide channel put me through to every ship now!”
The analyst didn’t move her eyes locked on the hologram of the battlefield a horrified expression on her features.
“[Sam]!”
“Yes sir, sorry sir!”
She scrambled for the controls and quickly opened the channel to the rest of the fleet.
[Vann] stood, “This is Emperor [Vann], all cruisers perform an about face and form up on the Singer, the effective radius of the shield disabling technology is limited. Move out of it and signal ready to execute new maneuvers!”
The comm line crackled and sputtered.
“Yes Emperor!” chorused several captains of the lighter cruisers, who were serving primarily as the escorts quickly flipped around and began to move away from the planet. One of the carriers having been shielded by the mass of the dreadnaught slowly began to turn as well.
[Vann] looked at the battlefield for a moment and wincing prepared himself to give the order he had issued in dozens of simulations, those that [Charles] had designed and the ones that he had practiced with as a child and with teachers safe on the home world.
“All other vessels, cover their retreat!”
The massive battleships were to slow to change course now that they had committed to their direction of attack inertia being a factor. Most had already suffered critical amount of damage. They were not going to survive, not if the C1764’s seemed to be able to destroy a dreadnaught with ease.
The image of the C1764 station being used in much the same manner drifted across his mind.
“Can we perform a tachyon jump?” asked [Vann] turning to [Sam].
Tearing her eyes from the carnage [Sam] glanced at her tactical readout, “You want to retreat?”
“Answer!”
“No, the radiation is blocking out the tachyon beacons. It would take us [ten minutes] or so to get a lock and half of the cruisers wouldn’t even be able to do that!”
[Vann] ground his teeth together, “[Sam] transmit the maneuvers I designed during the drills to all retreating ships. For now inform all captains to spread themselves out and to try and get away from the field that’s disrupting shields. Do not retreat in a straight line, tell them to move as far away from the C ships as quickly as possible.”
“Yes sir.”
[Syn] collapsing into the seat beside [Vann] continued to watch as the larger ships of the 4th fleet continued to fall apart, “what about the other ships?”
[Vann] closed his eyes for a half second and remained silent.
“[Sam], find the edge of that field and collect the sensor data from the cruisers. Try and come up with a countermeasure.”
“I’m not even likely to get all of the sensor logs in [five minutes] let alone come up with a countermeasure anytime soon!”
[Vann] winced, “I’m aware, just try. Let’s see if we can’t get the C1764’s to fire at us. Try and target those commandeered ships, see if we can enrage them enough to lose focus.”
[Reece] glanced down at the young Emperor, “You don’t think that will work do you? They held off attacking until [Meral] led the fleet right into their trap. They’re not going to fire on us while they can destroy the ships without shields. They might be vengeful, and want to destroy this ship but as you’ve said they’re not foolish.”
“I have to try something.”
[Reece] slowly nodded, “I suppose so. A suggestion?”
“Yes?”
“The fighters, they’re agile enough to avoid the class C’s weapons for the most part.”
“They have point defense weapons the same as us, without shields the fighters would be torn apart.”
[Reece] shook his head, “The fighters will be useless in any case, they’re designed to combat other fighters. We still have our original mission to complete, it might be wasteful but they should be able to destroy most of the planet’s larger cities and infrastructure. Even if we must completely retreat now, with the loss of one carrier half of them will be abandoned.”
[Vann] looked at his bodyguard for a moment, “Shields can’t be activated in atmosphere, even if they weren’t somehow disabling them.”
“Emperor, you just ordered half of the fleet to defend the other half with their lives. Let’s not let that sacrifice be in vain. Distracted as they are now the class C’s will not be able to target the fighters as they move towards the planet. This will be the only opportunity before we both regroup.”
“[Sam], Issue the orders.”
For the first time in generations an imperial Emperor was at the forefront of a battle where the outcome was not certain. For the first time in generations the Empire was fighting an actual enemy, not slaughtering a species unable to defend itself, not participating in a petty squabble among peers.
The outcome of the battle would set the tone for generations to come, and encourage both sides to further push the boundaries of their technology and morality. A war of extinction, in the end only one would remain.
The Russia
James winced as the ship returned to normal space, the universe no longer tearing and flashing in front of him the man looked around his bridge.
“Tom?”
“We’re on target, 200 meters away from the port side of the Canada.”
“Megan, I want a drone ready to carry antimatter to them now. As much as your comfortable sending them. Two ships doing this should be more fun.”
“Any amount I send them to be useful will be deadly if breached.”
“We’ll move away as soon as you launch it, and continue attacking.”
“Yeah, about that it’s murdering the antimatter engine doing this many jumps so quickly. We’ve got maybe another thirty jumps with this engine. I didn’t get to look at the Yamato’s engines she did this. They need to be reinforced more.”
“Just give me those thirty jumps. If we haven’t won by then we aren’t going to.”
“Roger.”
“Transmission form the Canada,” said Tom as he put it up on a smaller screen.
“Well that was more effective then predicted,” said Stagg.
“Yeah, we’re sending you guys some antimatter. Let’s see how they like both of us pulling those.”
Stagg shook her head, “Nothing like a dramatic entrance. When they make a movie out of this no one will believe you jumped in right behind that wave of nukes.”
James shrugged, “What can I say, I like playing the knight in shining armor?”
Stagg snorted, “You wish. We were going to be doing fine without you. Grouped up like they are without shields our kinetics are ripping them to shreds!”
“You don’t happen to have any more nukes do you?”
The response was a sudden flash from in front of the ship. Several filters quickly fell over the visual feed and the communication line was filled with static for a moment.
“The chemical rockets are a little slow. Still effective though. That was the last of the borrowed nukes. From here on out we’ll be using our own stockpiles,” Said Arik as her avatar appeared in front of both Captains.
“What about the interference with the ACE field?” asked James.
“That’s already being circumvented. I just managed to decrypt a message that went out to all of the Empire ships. Those Vakurian’s have some amazing decryption protocols and you’ll never believe how long we’ve had contact with them,”
“Later Arik, play the message loop the Vakurian’s in as well.”
“Yes Ma’am!”
Arik’s digital avatar quickly saluted and the image from the bridge of the [Singer] quickly appeared. The older Humans all remembered the transmissions form the ship when it had been in orbit of Earth and Mars, the messages it had given.
The Captain of the ship had apparently been replaced though, Stagg recognized it as the same young Captain who had been in charge of the [Imperial].
“This is Emperor Vannalnaskara, all cruisers perform an about face and form up on the Singer, the effective field of the shield disabling technology is limited. Move out of it and signal ready to execute new maneuvers!”
“Emperor?” breathed James, looking closer. By human standards the young man looked like he was barely out of his teenage years if that.
“Records show him to be the Emperor, although he does not have absolute control. His power has been mostly symbolic, the Senate having control of most government operations given that both of his parents are recorded as having died when he was only three years old.” Said Arik.
“So he didn’t order the attack on Earth?” asked James.
“Well his signature is on it, although I’m not sure you could hold a six-year-old accountable.”
“Doesn’t matter. He’s valuable,” snapped Stagg.
“Agreed.”
“Think he’ll retreat if given the opportunity?”
Stagg frowned, “Arik, can you hack a line into their communications?”
“Nothing in real time, I can send a short message. They can respond and communicate as they did earlier.”
“Do it.”
Tom waved his hand and James turned to him.
“The antimatter drone is ready.”
“Send it, Stagg incoming.”
“Roger that, go ahead and jump away. There are a few stragglers inside the field still. Want to take care of them?”
“Gladly.”
The Russia turned and once again disappeared in a flash of annihilation.