“That’s true, but their sensors will see through our cloaks now, so they have solved that problem.”
It was over an hour later, and I relaxed slightly when they started to decelerate. Unless they changed their mind, they planned to come to a full stop just outside of missile range. Perhaps they’d make their demands at that time. I didn’t imagine they’d take that tactic if they didn’t plan to talk to me first. Even better, they’d be outside of their missile range for a minute or two before they closed, which would give us the advantage. Unfortunately, they’d close that distance and get off a missile barrage long before our shielded missiles reached them. It wasn’t that much of an advantage, we’d just kill them before dying spectacularly two minutes later if they launched enough ordinance.
Of course, from a dead stop, at the edge of missile range, it changed all the numbers. It’d take our missiles just under an hour to cross the distance, and the last light second when they finally reached us would be a whole lot less than five minutes.
Five more hours. I really hated waiting, and I kept second guessing myself and our plans.
Diana and Jayna had left the command center, and they came back in fifteen minutes with a plate piled with sandwiches, and a six pack of soda.
“I love you.”
She just smirked, and we all dug in.
An hour before they arrived, we had the fleet of large warship-probes surrounding us in every direction. Much like last time when we detached a part of the station, those would be the mass we’d sacrifice to keep the main station intact, and to avoid a quick destruction.
I’d subtly moved the softball probes in position at their predicted arrival point, but as I’d feared their point defense reached out and destroyed them all before they got within a half light second, much less a few hundred feet. My magic was unknown to the masses, but I was sure the command crews of those ships had been thoroughly briefed to keep any tech far from their ships, if not completely why that was necessary.
“I think I have an idea, the missile platforms can fire a beam once per second, is it possible to program them to sensor target secondary targets, before they reach an eighth of a light second range to their primary target?”
Diana asked, “What are you thinking?”
I shrugged, “If I launch one point two million missiles, about halfway they’ll cross paths with the enemy’s volley. I was thinking until they’re in range with the enemy ship, that would be one point two million independent weapon platforms with a single disintegrating beam weapon. They could take out if not all, most of the enemy’s missiles as they fly past each other.”
Diana tilted her head, “That… I’m thinking with that idea we don’t even need the thirty-six warships as protection at all.”
I snorted, “Better not to count on any one idea, but I take your point. We have thirty minutes to reprogram them to take targets of opportunity before they reach the primary target assigned by this ship.”
Diana sat down at a console, and she got to work.
“Normally I’d say we didn’t have the time, but all we have to do is add the point defense software of this space station to the missile platform software, and make sure the disparate functions are prioritized correctly. Give me ten minutes. Are we using the new missile exclusively?”
“I was going to send half, and the rest split by gravity and anti-matter at a one to five ratio. Given this new development, I’m going to send ninety percent of the new missile, and target one ship out of ten in the twelve groups with the older ordinance, even if more powerful and shielded. We have to ensure at least one ship survives to get the information we need, and twelve chances at that seem pretty good. I can make sure some of the missiles abort if needed, so we don’t fully destroy those ships.
“I’ll also be launching a hundred takeover missiles that will trail the offensive strike, ten for each ship targeted. Hopefully, I’ll be able to use my magic through it to snag at least one of the ships.”
Jayna said, “You realize that you’re assuming their missile capabilities are what all of ours were four months ago, they could’ve upgraded too.”
I frowned, “They don’t have Diana.”
Diana blushed.
I added, “But… you make a good point. Still, nothing we can do about it until they launch, and we can scan their missiles for their capacity or any changes. That’ll give us a few minutes heads up if we need it, and hopefully if they are more advanced the point defense missile idea will make it a moot point. Unless they’ve discovered the same exact disintegration beam, and they have effective shields against it, anything else shouldn’t have that large an impact.”
Cassie said, “Realistically it’s doubtful, if we look at the suspected timeline. The command crew of the scout that went to tattle on the Sonex didn’t have a scientist in it. They would’ve been ordered to build what was available from the templates Diana created and were left in the system. Their scientists could have been working on something, on paper, and sent updates when they sent the command crews, but most likely they’re bending all their efforts on how to create their own nanites with their best scientists.”
Diana said, “Maybe not, we’re not doing that. Of course, we have Scott who can do it with his magic if it was needed, but we’re not even close to having the infrastructure and ability to make a new one without the old ones and energy to matter converters. I suppose that’s an easy way to do it, create an energy to matter converter, and feed it the nanite structure. Of course, even that technology is several iterations of tools away for us at present. It’ll be a while, before we overcome the block of needing nanites to make more nanites, simply because making the energy to matter device is impossible without nanites.”
She sighed, and stretched as she stood up, “Software’s ready, and I uploaded it to all the missiles.”
“Thanks. Let’s hope that does it.”
Diana shook her head, “You just thought up a way to completely make mass and power calculations in battle meaningless, unless the enemy gains the same technology.”
Maybe, but I wasn’t ready to relax yet.
The last fifteen minutes crawled, as a hundred and twenty ships came to a stop, in twelve groups of ten surrounding the station at just over two light minutes distance. To my surprise, they opened up several landing bays, and hundreds of fighter sized craft left the ships. According to the scan, they most likely had two reactors, with two independent weapons. At a guess, they probably had a few missiles as well, but they were too small to carry many.
The small ships took up a defensive shield position around their mother ships, and given the amount of humans the enemy had picked up with ten shuttles, they were no doubt unmanned. This must be their next iteration of the separate mass idea, the ships would be additional protection, both stopping missiles with their point defense and with their own mass if necessary. No doubt they could swarm and attack as well. Each ship had two hundred fighters, which meant they could take down an additional four hundred missiles every two seconds, and if need be sacrifice themselves to take out an additional two hundred.
Of course, they could only take down a hundred of our missiles, it would take their full power to overcome our missile platform’s shields. Still, that was more than triple the amount of missiles they could defend against than expected. Ironically, given the missiles faster speeds after accelerating for an hour at six hundred gravities, I didn’t have to adjust my decided payload from earlier. One point two million would still be more than enough.
Obviously, they did have a few upgrades from the last battle, hopefully that was the extent of their surprises for us. It also became clear why they hadn’t called yet, they’d wanted me to sweat, and then worry with this latest surprise.
Jessica said, “We’re getting a call from Earth on our operations line. I suspect it’s them, to prevent the two-minute light lag, they’re probably routing through their systems, then over Earth’s internet to route into ours.”
I n
odded, “Answer it.”
The screen popped on, and it showed the bridge of one of the ships. It was telling, it was obviously a command ship, though I couldn’t guess which one. Point was, I saw high ranking military men in U.S., German, and England uniforms of service. That actually made things easier.
Cassie was set to feed it all to the news, at a five-minute lag.
“This is President Akin, may I ask who’s calling?”
I sounded amused, and confident, and hoped that shook them, but they didn’t look worried at all.
“Admiral James here. Despite the surprise of your illegal fleet, you are outmatched.”
I nodded, and questioned, “Illegal? I don’t think so. This station is an independent country, what is it you want admiral, I’m a busy man and don’t have all day?”
Cassie gave me a look, as if to say, don’t be an asshole, this will make the news later.
The admiral said, “The United States does not recognize you as a country, and we know it to be a pitiful attempt to hide behind politics. You are in fact nothing but a terrorist, who stole technology from the country you professed to serve. You will surrender immediately, turn yourself and your station over unconditionally, which rightfully belongs to the United States, and you will be afforded a military trial. No lives will be lost, but press your ridiculous assertions, and we will utterly destroy you.”
I snorted, “Right, in politics it’s good to lie big. I suppose in truth we should turn over all our toys, after all, the Grays own it, don’t they admiral? The United states, and the two other countries associated with this farce, are the only countries that deny our status. I’m done playing games, if you haven’t noticed, the population of my country is safe on the other side of Earth.
“Your arrogance astounds me Admiral. I don’t even meet the definition of terrorist. I saved the world with my efforts. The most ironic thing of all admiral, would be that this station would belong to the United States, if an out of control General hadn’t decided to kill me. All I’m guilty of is self-defense. A country doesn’t have a right to murder their own citizens out of hand, without a trial, or even a charge. Damned right I went my own way, and if I hadn’t the world would be destroyed, and humanity would be no more.”
I took a breath, and shook my head, “There’s no point to this conversation, you know my stance, it’s been in the news the last four months, and most of the world is on my side in this. Let me ask you admiral, are you sure you want to do this? You could set up shop, protect Earth and your colony with that lovely fleet of yours, and even be my competition. I have no ill will toward the people of my former country, just the hypocritical murderers that pursue my death.”
The admiral shook his head, “There is no choice, my orders are clear on this, and come from the leaders of the United States, England, and Germany.”
I nodded, “Very well admiral. In that case, I have no choice. This now, is an official declaration of war, which will shortly be provided to the media. Astraeus is at war with the United States, England, and Germany. I will accept your countries’ conditional surrender at any time. The conditions are as follows, you will acknowledge me as a country, treat me with dignity and follow international laws, and demand my acceptance into the U.N. But don’t worry admiral, I won’t start attacking the surface until after I’ve removed your fleet.”
We’d talked about it a lot, once that was done the assholes would have to stop coming for me. Oh, they could still send assassins I supposed, and probably would, but the outright attacks would stop, they wouldn’t be able to justify it anymore. Unless the senate declared war, but I doubt that would happen.
The admiral said, “You can’t be serious.”
I said, “From you admiral, I’ll accept an unconditional surrender only. We’re done talking. Either they’ve lied to you, or you’re as divorced from reality as most leaders are. I’m a world power to be reckoned with, and I run my own country, and all I’ve ever done is defend the Earth at my own peril. It’s that simple, really. Don’t forget, you just bought a colony ship from me, I find it interesting that your three countries would buy from a terrorist. I’m done playing games, this is the end of the hypocrisy, one way or the other.”
I hung up, and I launched our missiles. One point two million was a lot, but it was less than ten percent of my ordinance. I’d only fire more, if it became necessary. The enemy fired missiles two minutes later, but they came to a stop again once they were in range and missiles were launched. Each of their ships sent out two hundred thousand missiles, which added up to twice what we’d sent.
I was fairly confident our missiles could get all of them. That was only two each, and they’d be in range of each other for a lot longer than four seconds.
Cassie criticized, “Not terrible, but world leaders aren’t wise asses, and don’t use flippancy.”
“Yes, maam,” I said in a faux ashamed voice.
She giggled, “Stop that.”
It was a bit silly, but it helped with the nervous energy.
Chapter Twelve
Jessica said, “Umm, we have a development.”
I raised an eyebrow, and looked at the hologram of the battle, then noticed it. Thirty of the small warships, and three of the ten larger warships were moving in our direction. Each larger ship led a formation of ten of the others.
Jessica said, “We’re being hailed, by the three large warships. Russia, China, and Israel.”
I frowned, “Answer it, put us on a party line.”
She nodded.
“This is president Akin, the four of us are on the same call.”
There was a moment of silence, then a heavily accented Russian voice said, “This is Captain Nadia Petrovna. We have been directed to assist you against the foolishness of the United States and their allies in this matter. Though we cannot fire upon their ships, we can shoot down missiles. I suspect it is a political maneuver more than anything, to make a statement, but we can help a little.”
The Chinese and Israeli captain said much the same thing.
“Thank you, captains. The gesture is more than appreciated from your governments.”
We all hung up.
It was kind of a surreal moment, two of the assisting countries had always been the competitors in my mind, as a citizen of the U.S. I still love the U.S. though, it was just the damned idiots in charge, who couldn’t let things go. I supposed I wasn’t all that surprised, it was the combination of pride, fear, and ambition that emboldened them so. Oh, and let’s not forget about arrogance, they saw me as a rogue citizen, so much so that they couldn’t see the obvious.
Still, it’d be a mistake to think them idiots, they were just blinded by the past, history, and a need to be in control.
“So, are we going to make any of these advances available for purchase as upgrades to the ships. They can’t attack us, and while betrayal might always be a concern, the true danger is outside of our solar system, so the stronger our allies in protecting Earth the better. Still, against any other alien race, besides the grays, even the old tech is a huge edge.”
Cassie frowned, “As long as it was locked down, they can’t use their current ships against us or Earth either. As long as we hold that edge, I don’t see how it would matter. Diana?”
Diana sighed, “Giving them shielded missiles, and the beams, means giving them powered nanites. No more gas station.”
I laughed, “We’re diversified enough to survive, I think. The only question is what we’ll do with all the reactors we have. Can they be repurposed? I’d planned to cycle them out as we made new ships, but if we make new ships with the distributed powered nanite scheme there’s no point in keeping them at all. In that case, I should just initiate the upgrade now and shut down all our reactors.”
I added, “We also wouldn’t have to use the lesser power sources for shuttles or other ships that go to the surface in atmosphere for safety. We could just turn off… say ninety percent of the distributed nanites. Even if the
few that were left did blow, it wouldn’t cause a whole lot of damage, not even to the ship much less the surroundings. It’d also still be more than enough power for a low G atmospheric entry and landing.”
Cassie nodded, “I think that’s probably the best way to go on it, honestly. Given all we’ve discussed, our initial impulse to keep it all to ourselves seems rather paranoid and controlling. As long as the ships are locked down, we can’t be betrayed, and the nanites are un-hackable to our science at this point, save your magic.”
Paranoid and controlling, she was right, and I didn’t want to slip into the same blind stupidity as the U.S. was at the moment. At least, their top paranoid advisors and the president.
I grunted, “I’ll take care of it, after the battle, and update our ship and object sales interface to include all the new toys. The probe fleet here and in the ships in the lab system are already using the new way. I suppose it would even be safer, without all that raw hydrogen on the station. The station won’t lose any mass, but it’ll also be maybe a third smaller, as those empty pockets go away. Unless someone has objections, or suggestions?”
No one did, so I added it all to my to-do list.
Diana answered, “I’m not sure, just shut them all down and put them in storage, then dump the hydrogen. I’m sure a highly thermoelectric and superconductor cores will come in handy for something, at some point. If nothing else, the technology has nothing to do with the nanites or advanced weapons systems, we could always sell them to a merchant of another race.”
Huh, that was a good idea, put them in storage it was.
Jayna said, “I’ll work on some ads, and press releases. Obviously, not for the weapons tech, but the rest of it that’ll go in our commercial and private ship sales.”
I nodded, and silence fell as our eyes were drawn back to the status hologram over the command table. It’d still be almost twenty minutes before the missiles passed each other at the halfway point. The last half of the trip would only take twenty minutes, almost a full forty for the first half, at the constant acceleration…
Astraeus Station Page 11
