It was somewhat of an unconventional flight, with unlimited missile launch capability and a relatively small amount of ships. I was pretty sure we weren’t going to have a problem winning, even more so since I’d had Diana reprogram the missiles to take out targets of opportunity. She’d told me weeks ago to think of them more as weapons platforms than missiles, I felt a little foolish I hadn’t thought of it until the last minute. I also wondered if I wasn’t missing something equally as obvious.
Granted, twenty-four thousand fighters acting as a shield around a hundred and twenty large warships, or maybe I should call them carriers, changed that a bit.
“What do we know about the enemy’s missiles?” I asked, a few moments before they’d pass each other at the halfway point.
Diana shook her head, “They appear to be standard missiles. They’re unshielded and carrying a small amount of anti-matter.”
Explosions started to fill the hologram, bright flashes of light in an incredibly large sphere around the station at one light minute out. I wasn’t too worried the explosions would take out our missiles in return, they were shielded, and although relatively close an eighth of a light second was still thousands of miles. The matter of the missile of course fell apart, but the anti-matter reacted differently to the beam. The amount of destruction was shocking.
When the explosions cleared, there were still one point two million missiles moving toward the enemy, and not one was approaching our station or the thirty-six ships.
I shivered, and hoped I was a good custodian of such terrible weapons. My ambitions were simple, and not to rule, I just wanted my own corner of things and not to be attacked. Was that too much to ask? I was sure they’d set me straight if I ever went too far.
“I wonder if they’re checking their pants right about now.”
Jayna snickered.
Diana said in a Cassie voice, “That’s not very presidential.”
Everyone laughed, including Cassie.
I sighed, “They’ve got twenty minutes, maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll surrender.”
A couple of minutes later we got our answer, when they launched over four million missiles. They also sent their unmanned ships with them.
“Thoughts?”
Jessica said, “It seems clear, they’re hoping the twenty-four thousand ships can knock out enough of our missiles to not only let most of their four million through, but thin them out enough for their ships point defense to take out whatever’s left.”
I ran some numbers in my head. It wouldn’t be exactly right, but when dealing with millions of something, being off by a few thousand won’t matter all that much to the end result.
“They’ll be able to take out about half of them, before our missiles destroy their ships from range, and maybe a quarter of their missiles as they fly by. That’s still more than enough on the other end to take out their hundred and twenty ships.”
Diana asked, “What?”
She could always tell when I had an idea. She hadn’t asked me what I said, but what I was thinking.
I smirked, “We should have given them energy beams too. If they had energy beams, they wouldn’t be outranged for the seven eighths of a light second difference. I’m sure they could support one turret, of any of our beam weapons. Then they could switch back to the far more effective disintegration beam when they get in range. Not just for this weird situation, they’d be far more effective at taking out enemy missile barrages. Speaking of which, how fast can we make that happen?”
It was too late at that point for the million missiles in transit. The one hundred takeover missiles were connected to the ship via entangled particles, and I could control them to take over a ship they crash into. But, the other missiles were not. Once given orders and launched they were just automated platforms run by software with their own sensors and weapons.
Of course, I could transmit new orders, I just couldn’t update their software.
Diana tilted her head, “Not long, if we use the stations software again. It’s point defense uses beams, but it’ll switch over to the deadlier weapon at the closer range.”
“Well, you’ve got about forty minutes, maybe a little longer.”
Diana nodded, and got to work upgrading the missiles for the second time this battle. Really, I was dissatisfied at that point in calling them missiles. Offensive mini-platforms was probably a much better name for them.
“Why forty minutes?” Jayna asked.
“Because I’m going to launch another two million of them to act as point defense against the enemy’s missiles that will get through. Between that, our thirty-six ships, and the station itself, we’ll easily stand off the three million or so missiles that will get through our remaining missiles near the enemy. Once taken out, we can power down the missiles to a distributed power configuration and recall them back to the ship.”
Cassie grinned, “That’s brilliant. Does anyone else feel like they’re cheating?”
I laughed, “Blame Diana, totally her fault we won’t even get scratched.”
Diana mock glared, but it quickly turned into another blush.
It went about as I’d predicted, ten minutes later. The missiles were moving extremely fast, and once reaching the one light-second range the enemy’s twenty-four thousand ships opened up, and destroyed one missile every two seconds. They gutted almost five hundred thousand of my missiles before the range closed to an eighth of a light second, and then they were just gone. Without anti-matter in the small fighter ships, they just fell apart unto dust.
Of the four million enemy missiles, they got in three more strikes instead of the two I’d estimated, which took out about one and a half million missiles, so there were still two and a half million moving our way.
The seven hundred thousand missiles we had left would be more than enough to finish the job… In just five minutes. A part of me, the laudable part, hoped the enemy would surrender, and I’d be able to spare the crews. There was also a part of me that hoped they didn’t, because they surely wouldn’t have given me mercy or quarter if the shoe was on the other foot.
Diana said, “Done.”
I snorted, “You still have thirty minutes.”
She giggled.
I launched two million missiles, or mini-platforms, but they only flew out a couple of thousand miles around the station, maybe a thousand past the ships, and then held station. I was more than positive when the two and half million missiles arrived in about forty-five minutes, not one of my ships or the station would need to fire. I also knew the enemy wouldn’t be around to see the level of their failure, since their time was up, very shortly. Of course, their bosses would, on Earth.
“I feel silly calling them missiles. Let’s change the shape of them to little ships, and we’ll call them mini-platforms.”
No one answered me, as the hologram lit up with explosions as our missiles closed range. The hundred and twenty enemy ships took out a lot, but far less than their fighter shield had been capable of. About half really, or a little less. They took out close to three hundred thousand missiles, but that left four hundred thousand coming in range.
They opened fire as they passed the ships, and one hundred and eight ships just turned to dust, their shields completely worthless. The disintegration beam missiles immediately began to decelerate, and they’d get back to the station in three hours.
A moment later anti-matter explosions lit up the hologram on the last twelve. I aborted the rest of the missiles when a gravity missile slipped through the downed shields and killed the crews. The timing was somewhat difficult, and eight of them were erased from existence. The other four however, received one of the control missiles as it slammed into the ship.
Over half their mass had been destroyed, but there was more than enough left for me to connect through their systems with my magic via entanglement, and back to their top secret command center. The first thing I did was download all the data I could connect to, and I reviewed it quickly.
No doubt, the entangled communicator wasn’t part of that system as a safeguard.
I snorted.
Diana tilted her head.
“Sorry love, it looks like I didn’t need to take over your toys after all.”
The command and control center was in the other system, of course it was. Which meant, I made the two ships that stayed back to protect the system my bitch, spaced the crews, and ran scans for any ships not in the command and control system. When I found the missing scout ship that started this mess, the only thing not connected and independent, I opened fire with my two new warships and removed it from existence.
I checked the software, and outside of the carrier configuration with unmanned shield fighters there really wasn’t anything new. Regardless, I sent that configuration to Diana, and added it to our own systems, even if I was using something very similar already with the thirty-six ships and mini-platforms.
Last but not least, I destroyed the outpost by self-destructing the ships. I’d had to do it that way, if I’d destroyed the command post first, I’d have lost connection to the ships, which would’ve been bad.
Well, not last. Because then I reconfigured what was left of the four ships in our solar system, and I started them moving toward the station. They were mine now, and after combining they’d amount to two more ships. I did take the time to rework their security however, they wouldn’t be capable of weapons use outside of our solar system, and they were locked down like all the other ships. Maybe I’d sell them, I wasn’t sure yet.
I decided to leave the twenty-four ships in our lab system there, as a future surprise if needed. Except… I started them building again, so they’d be the largest sized warships when they were finished. So, thirty-eight large warships in SOL, and twenty-four large warships in our lab system. When they were done in about two weeks, closer to ten days actually.
As expected, the last two point five million missiles were destroyed quite easily by our mini-platform defense, and they returned to the station.
Jessica said, “We’re being hailed, I think we just frightened our allies.”
“Answer it.”
The same three captains appeared above the holographic command table.
I smiled, “Once again I thank you and your governments for the support. The new technology you’ve seen in action is a relatively new development. In fact, some tweaking has been done to them today, after seeing them in action. Please let your governments know that all these upgrades will soon be available for your ships if they want them, they will also be standard on any new warships we sell. In addition to the shielded mini-offensive platforms and new beam technology you saw in action today, there are also upgrades in power generation that will make the current fusion reactors obsolete.”
Nadia asked, “You intend to share this technology?”
I nodded, “Of course. It will just make us better able to defend our world as allies.”
Nadia said, “Along with the fact that we couldn’t use them against you.”
I smiled, “I can admit that. I suppose that does make it easier for me to share my advancements freely. Or, sell them. It seems prudent given human nature. No country on Earth would share their most advanced weapons systems with every other country. In Astraeus’s case, we can get around that with the limitations imposed in the firmware. And gladly so, as our joint fleet’s purpose is to protect our world. Our worlds.”
Nadia nodded, and the other two captains promised to pass on my message.
It was true enough, but I really wasn’t looking forward to the time when they licked the problem, and they were all producing their own nanites. I supposed I’d have to learn to live with the possibility of betrayal, and I’d build up those relationships to hedge my bets. I doubted I’d ever truly trust the U.S. though. It was hard to trust someone that didn’t trust you, and who was mad at you for not laying down and dying.
That kind of thinking was insane, wasn’t it?
Perhaps I was just naïve, but I really did believe that. We were all in the same boat, we couldn’t afford to argue up here in space, not surrounded by so many enemies. I imagined the colonies would have it easier that way, since they’d all be from the same place. Still, I think most average Americans would agree with me, unfortunately the most weren’t in power.
I tilted my head, and I sent the four ships in another direction instead of the station. To Earth. Call it melodramatic, but there was a certain symmetry and justice in using the weapons meant to kill me, to forward my war…
It was an ugly thing, but it had to be done. It was more than apparent to me they’d never see me as a world power, and having the ordinance of a first world country, unless I used it at least once. Not to defend and put up with their hypocritical rhetoric, but offensively. Since Cassie looked fierce, and didn’t snap my neck, I’d have to say she agreed with me. Diana wasn’t happy about it, but she also thought it was necessary. If anything, Jessica and Jayna thought I was too nice about it, avoiding deaths the way I was, even against the enemy’s military.
As wars went, it wasn’t much of a war.
I held the orbitals, and the three countries had absolutely nothing that could harm the ships in orbit, much less reach the station at the Lagrange point on the other side of the moon. All they had was hypocritical and spiteful rhetoric, and in a war outside of political discourse and stupidity, that meant absolutely nothing.
The ships arrived in orbit about the same time our civilian levels of the station returned and rejoined the space station. We were one piece again. I also had taken the time to work up an upgrade and modify the new ships, adding the mini-platforms and vacuum energy nanites. The latter went into all the non-military designs as well. It didn’t take long.
The ships fired anti-matter missiles, without creating the anti-matter. Essentially, turning them into kinetic warheads that devasted large swaths of military bases and equipment, though I refrained from impacting anywhere near populated areas, it certainly made my point.
Germany and England surrendered within the hour. They’d gotten greedy, and had taken a chance, thinking to wield weapons in space that weren’t limited by partnering with the U.S. and their build project in secret. Now that it had fallen through, and the U.S. didn’t have any space assets save in their colony system and locked down by my firmware, they had no real reason to continue with it. After all, they really had nothing against me personally, they were just taking advantage of the United States leaders’ insanity and fears.
The two countries also put pressure on the U.S. to relent, acknowledge me, and their U.N. ambassadors demanded we be accepted into the U.N. through press releases, since the U.N. wasn’t in session.
My old country, that I loved, didn’t relent for days. I moved extremely slowly, but estimated I’d caused hundreds of billions of dollars of damage to their military infrastructure.
At the end of it all, Astraeus was recognized by the U.N., and a part of it.
I had no real illusions. Sure, they couldn’t get up to their past antics, but I also knew I still needed to worry about black-ops groups and political sniping. Since I had no stake on the world itself at that point, outside of protecting it, I didn’t really give a crap. Still, overall the station, what we’d done for the world, and the horrific actions of trying to destroy us despite that, meant there were a lot of people that approved of us.
I called those that did, the sane people.
It took us about a week before we felt everything was on an even keel. The new technology, the geneticist research, our updated sales information for ships and equipment, as well as our defenses. We’d even sent down an ambassador to the U.N.
All in all, I hated that it was necessary, but it accomplished our goals, and unlike other wars not one life was spent outside of those lost in their offensive fleet. Just… trashed a whole lot of money’s worth of stuff on their bases. In playground parlance, they’d started it, and I’d had to bloody their nose to get them to stop. It was what it w
as.
Point being, Diana and I were more than ready for that vacation. Two days in a resort where she could be pampered, and we can spend time alone and having fun. Then a five-day romantic cruise for two, of the solar system’s planets in one of the higher scale yachts I had for sale. It’d been a hell of a crazy four months, closer to six including from when I was recruited, and all the craziness started.
It was time to unwind, and to relax a bit. Even presidents got vacations, and in truth Cassie ran most of the government, and my sister could handle any sales through our company. Sure, I was needed, but a week off wouldn’t end the world either. Of course, if an emergency did happen, I’d be reachable.
Chapter Thirteen - Interlude
Jevis grunted as he acknowledged the alert on his console, and he brought up the data.
The other races in the empire had no idea just how closely they were watched. The stealth probe project was completely separated from the rest of their military.
It was an advantage in the pre-spaceflight solar systems with intelligent life to have a scout there. A visible scout. It would prevent the barbaric races throughout the galaxy from attacking early, or taking advantage of a primitive society, which was against the law and would end in their destruction.
Not out of any morality, but the most aggressive species would destroy themselves before reaching spaceflight. It was better that way, the predators that did make it were bad enough. Plus, the great game and the gambling would come to an end, if new species weren’t allowed to rise and be challenged in a proper manner.
Of course, the Grays needed to give those races an outlet, fully suppressing instincts that powerful would lead to failure of control, which is where the rules had first come in. Before their race had risen to dominance in the fifty galaxies, owning the entire andromeda galaxy outright and controlling the other fifty through subtle pressures, war out in space was a constant thing. Civilizations would rise and fall from week to week. It’d been chaos.
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