by PP Corcoran
In the display, the enemy globes accelerated toward the fleet. Protected now by their dampening fields. Ai closed his eyes and his mind to the chaos that was erupting around him on the flag bridge as officers rushed to prepare for the close-quarter battle that was imminent. Ai’s eyelids snapped open as he came to a decision and his finger stabbed down on his armrest controls. Once more, the face of Gavin Glandinning appeared in his display.
“Admiral. The enemy has activated dampening fields at the heart of each of the attacking globes. I need those fields taken down. Split your four cruisers into two pairs. Identify the enemy ships with the dampening buoys and destroy them at all costs. If you do not then there is a very real chance that we may be forced to withdraw.”
On the bridge of the Horizon, the grave face of Gavin Glandinning stared back into the holo pickup. Gavin had seen the globes form up. The computers estimated that each globe consisted of some 400 smaller ships around a tight core of a half dozen mixed Buzzards and Vultures. To fold into the heart of the globe with only another cruiser for support would be tantamount to signing his own death warrant. The look in Jing’s eyes showed that the senior admiral was well aware of what he was asking of Glandinning and his crews.
“Understood, sir.”
There was nothing more for Ai to say as the link to Glandinning was cut. Godspeed, Gavin.
#
Gavin Glandinning tightened the straps of his seat and placed a hand on top of his helmet in its rack on the side of the chair as he gave a silent prayer that the experimental armor on Horizon and her sister ships would be enough for them to survive in the maelstrom of fire that he was about to send them into. Gavin steadied his voice as he gave the order.
“Navigation, fold when ready.”
TDF Horizon and her consort, Daybreak, disappeared from normal space only to blink back into existence a moment later, surrounded by enemy ships. The enemy gunners must have been expecting them, for Horizon’s systems were still stabilizing themselves as the first lasers and grazers fired on her. If Gavin had ever been at the epicenter of an earthquake, then this is what it would feel like. The Horizon bucked like a wild stallion as the meta-materials in the experimental battle armor fought to bend and twist the mind-numbing power of the enemy fire.
The meta-materials developed by Moore and his teams were designed to reflect energy away from a ship’s hull. The way Jeff Moore had explained it to Gavin was for him to imagine that he had stuck a straw into a glass of water. The parts above and below the water point in slightly different directions. That's a positive refractive index, and is the case for nearly all materials.
A negative refractive index occurs if you try to stick the straw into the water and it bounces back at the exact but opposite angle it enters the water. Now imagine the straw is instead a powerful laser. A ship made of conventional materials struck by such a laser would be sliced in half. But a ship made with meta-materials would reflect the beam. And the more powerful the beam, the stronger the reflection would be. The breakthrough had been that, like all optical meta-materials, their unique properties work only if the size of the structure is smaller than the wavelength of light being used. The Persai advances in nano-technology had allowed the teams at Zarmina to develop these microscopic structures. Hence the meta-material coating Horizon should in theory reflect any coherent light weapon used against it. Great in theory. Time to see if it actually worked in practice.
“The armor is holding, Admiral. We have a firing solution on the buoy. Engaging now with primary grazers… target destroyed.”
Gavin pumped his fist in the air. “Great shooting, Guns. Navigation, let’s get the hell out of here. Take us to target two.”
Horizon and Daybreak disappeared once more into the safety of fold space.
In less time than it took to realize it had happened, the two cruisers re-appeared in the center of the second globe. And once more, the pummeling started.
As Horizon’s systems stabilized, Gavin noticed that Daybreak wasn’t where she should be. Whatever had happened she had emerged from fold space out of position and her current location was closer to the small ships that formed the outer edge of the globe. Without hesitation, three of the smaller enemy ships darted toward her. Daybreak attempted to maneuver away but the enemy was simply too close. Short-range missiles fired desperately and laser defensive clusters fired frantically, but Daybreak’s defenses were swamped and within seconds Gavin felt his heart chill as the friendly blue icon of TDF Daybreak briefly blinked red before disappearing altogether.
The lieutenant at tactical was too engrossed in her own small battle to notice the loss of Daybreak and her crew. “Target identified. Firing now! Target destroyed.”
Without waiting for an order, the navigator engaged the cruiser’s gravity drive and took the Horizon safely away.
#
On the Resolution, a relieved cheer went up as the enemy’s dampening fields went down and even Ai struggled to keep his relief in check. In the holo cube the enemy ships raced on and the distance to the first two globes was now such that his longer-range GD missiles would be wasted on them. This fight was about to get down and dirty.
“Tactical, target the fleet’s remaining GD missiles on globes three and four. Maximum effort. Order the Agis destroyers to slow their speed enough that they move into the defensive fire envelopes of their respective capital ships. Signal the Benii. I want the remaining Freibas to engage globes one and two and punch a hole through the small craft to allow us to close with the remaining enemy warships. The fleet will execute fire plan Gamma on my order.”
AI ignored his subordinates’ acknowledgments of his orders as he tapped a control on his chair and the face of John Radford appeared in his holo cube.
“Admiral Radford. It’s my intention to allow our remaining GD missiles to take care of globes three and four. Unfortunately, that means we’ll have to engage globes one and two directly. You will take command of half the fleet while I retain the remainder. The Benii will clear a way for our ships into the heart of each globe while the Agis hold off the Kamikazes.”
Ai looked into the impassive eyes of the commander of Third Fleet. “It’s not going to be pretty, John, and we will take casualties. Hold to your course and we will be victorious.”
John nodded once slowly in understanding before replying in the only way he knew how. “Aye-aye, sir.” It would only be later that John realized that for the one and only time he could remember Admiral Ai Jing, the most senior admiral in the Commonwealth, had called him by his given name.
With the link cut, Ai gave the order he knew would commit his ships and crews to their greatest battle. “Communications. Fire plan Gamma. Execute! Execute!”
The vast Commonwealth armada broke into two parts and each headed for an enemy globe. The Benii Freibas took up position in front like the tip of a spear and Agis destroyers hugged close to their designated battleships like Remora fish attaching themselves to sharks.
The Freibas reached firing range and missiles leapt from weapons rails and flashed toward the enemy small craft. Space itself seemed to disappear as fire ravaged the outer edges of the enemy globes. The enemy small craft were packed so closely together that as one exploded, it would invariably cause another to explode sympathetically. As the Freibas peeled away, they left a gaping hole in the enemy globe, which the Commonwealth ships forged through. Enemy small craft maneuvered radically to reorient themselves into position from which to fling themselves on their prey, but as the opposing forces slammed together and inter-penetrated, short-range weapons fired, ripping and tearing with titanic fury, extinguishing the small craft like moths in a candle’s flame.
Now it was time for the big guns of the battleships to fire and uncountable amounts of coherent light energy crisscrossed the emptiness of space as grazers, lasers, and plasma cannon fired continuously. Ships from either side staggered under the weight of fire being exchanged and systems were blinded by the explosions of multi-megaton munitions
as hundreds of thousands of tons of starship turned itself into nothing more than lifeless, spinning hulks of junk. For what seemed like hours but was really only minutes, each side hacked away at the other then, like a butterfly exploding from a chrysalis, the Commonwealth fleets burst from the rear of the enemy globes. In their wake was not one surviving enemy capital ship. Like hungry wolves, the Freibas fell on the remaining small craft that were still attempting to immolate themselves and whatever Commonwealth ship they could reach. The Benii pilots had learned their lesson. Instead of closing with the nuclear-equipped small craft, they attacked in packs. Their combined fire guaranteed a hit even at extreme range and as the main Commonwealth fleet re-formed, the last vestiges of enemy space-borne threats was destroyed.
#
The flag bridge of TDF Resolution was strangely still as all eyes were on the snow-shrouded planet in the main holo cube. Durav lay at their mercy but it had come at a price in the blood of their fellow ship mates. Three more Bismarcks and five Nemesis battleships had been lost in the last cataclysmic battle. More had been left bleeding air and leaving a trail of debris behind them as damage control teams fought to save their ships. But now. At last. With Durav below them, it all seemed worth it.
Ai Jing allowed himself a moment of satisfaction as he slowly looked around the battered flag bridge. The damage repair teams had managed to find and repair the damage done by the enemy grazer, which had penetrated the Resolution’s armor and caused the explosive decompression that had killed his tactical officer and nearly all his team. Ai spared a glance at the younger-than-should-be lieutenant who was his last remaining trained tactical officer. The lieutenant had been blown off her feet by the impact of the grazer but had had the good sense to have attached her helmet to her leg by its strap so when the flag bridge had decompressed and the life-giving oxygen had fled into space, she had survived. Not that a helmet would have done anyone else in the tactical team any good. The grazer had passed right through their section and where it touched, nothing survived. Eight crew member had simply ceased to exist in the blink of an eye. As the last of the oxygen escaped into space, the young lieutenant had dusted herself off and brought up one of the secondary engineering terminals and re-configured it to allow the ship to carry on the fight. As Ai continued to watch, the lieutenant tentatively touched her left shoulder. Ai suspected that it was at the very least dislocated, but when the medics arrived on the bridge, she shrugged off their ministrations and carried on. Ai would ensure that her dedication would be rewarded once they returned home. Ai gave himself a shake. Back to business.
“Is Third Fleet in position, tactical?”
“Yes, sir. All fleet units now report ready to begin the bombardment.”
Ai gave a satisfied grunt. With the enemy space threat negated, he dispersed the fleet. Commonwealth ships now sat in high orbit above every major city. Industrial targets had been quickly identified and Ai ordered them destroyed with Kinetic Energy Missiles. The use of KEMs would produce the same destruction as an equivalent nuclear missile strike but with a lot less collateral damage. Ai was here to destroy the Others’ ability to wage war, not to lay waste to the planet.
“Very well. Begin the bombardment.”
#
Deep inside a mountain, the High Coltus opened a file and reviewed its instructions. In the way only a dispassionate electronic intelligence could do, it put into place the orders that would ensure its own destruction.
#
Lieutenant Martha Grey fought to ignore the dull pain in her left shoulder as her terminal demanded her attention. The sensors had detected a massive power build-up in the planet’s northern continent. Martha forced her left arm to bend to her will as she punched commands into the terminal, suppressing the urge to swear loudly at the pain her movements caused her. The computer displayed the results and they weren’t what Martha had expected. She brought the area up on the tactical display and turned to face Admiral Jing, who sat as unmoving as a stone statue in his command chair.
“Admiral. Sensors are indicating a power build-up in a mountainous area on the northern continent.”
“A buried weapons system?”
Martha shook her head. “The computer is calling it a communications array, sir. The computers are still working on it, sir but the array appears to be massive. At least several square kilometers in size.”
Jing was staring at her incredulously when he remembered a briefing paper he had read somewhere that had identified a powerful ULF signal that had been generated by some kind of central computer system on enemy ships. This signal had supposedly been responsible for killing the ship’s crews. Jing’s mind reeled in horror at the thought that entered his brain. No. It couldn’t be. Ai lunged out of his seat shouting as he did so.
“Emergency re-tasking! Any ship within range is to fire on that mountain. Nuclear weapons are authorized!”
The shouted order had barely left his lips when the sensor board lit up with the release of a powerful ULF signal. The signal raced around Durav and wherever it passed, the Chosen People felt an intense pain emanating from the Gift Stone. The pain was only fleeting and they were dead before their bodies touched the ground. Beneath each and every Atistes, house of the Creator, a building found in every village and city, the nuclear demolition charge was activated. The entire surface of Durav was wracked by nuclear detonations. Any member of the Chosen People not touched by the ULF signal died in rolling nuclear fire. The last act of the unfeeling High Coltus was to activate the thermobaric devices spread throughout its mountain complex. Within seconds, there was nothing left but ashes.
Aboard the orbiting Commonwealth fleet, a blanket of stunned silence settled. Ai Jing slumped into his seat, not trusting his trembling legs to hold him. In the holo cube, he watched as Durav and its entire population died in front of his eyes. Slowly a question formed in his brain. Why?
#
Systems long lying dormant were fed power and slowly came to life as the ever-watching sensors had registered the ULF signal from the planet below. The drive engines throbbed with power as the camouflaging dust and debris that had accumulated over the centuries were cleared from the hull by the freshly awakened repulsion systems. More power flowed to the engines and as the levels reached acceptability, the ship breached the moon’s surface and accelerated rapidly until it entered fold space and vanished.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
More Questions than Answers
CARSON CITY – EARTH – SOL SYSTEM
The steady beeping of the computer eventually broke through the tired dreams of Ensign Terrance Wilson. The beeping brought Terrance swimming slowly back to wakefulness. How long had he been asleep? Terrance regarded the clock on the wall of his small office through narrowed eyes. What had seemed like an age had actually only been an hour. Making the effort, he raised himself out of his seat and poured himself a cup of coffee from the carafe in the corner of his office. The coffee was steaming hot. Sometime during his sleep, some Good Samaritan must’ve come in and topped it up, for he was sure he had finished the last dregs of the coffee hours before. Looking down at his rumpled uniform, Terrance ran a hand through his hair and gulped the coffee in a vain attempt to kick his tired brain into action.
Settling himself back in front of his terminal, he tapped a key to bring up the results of his latest computer search of the Saiph database. The news of the destruction of Durav at what appeared to be their own hands had been met with both a sense of relief and disbelief throughout the Commonwealth. Admiral Jing had been hailed as a hero on his return to Earth but in every news vid that Terrance had seen, Jing emphasized the bravery of his men in the battle that had raged as the Others had fought to stop the Commonwealth fleet from reaching Durav and the humanity that they were still demonstrating as they conducted search-and-rescue operations throughout the system, in particular in the asteroid belt, as they tried to convince the remaining enemy outposts that the Commonwealth had been victorious and they should lay down their
arms and surrender. It was with growing despair that marine boarding parties were finding that the Others had chosen death rather than capture. There was a growing sense of realization amongst the upper echelons of the government and the population in general that what the Commonwealth was watching was the extinction of an entire race at their own hands. All, seemingly, in the belief of this Creator and the path of the Ehita. A supposedly holy crusade to cleanse the stars of everything not of the Creator in preparation for his return.
Terrance put the thoughts to one side as the computer brought up its results and Terrance stopped in his tracks. The fresh coffee in his hand forgotten. Displayed in the center of the screen was a black circle with a red X at its center. Beside it was a phrase in Saiph and below that an English translation. The translation said “Military Prisoner.”
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About the Author
Paul Corcoran was born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland in 1967. He joined the British Army in 1985 at the grand old age of seventeen and a half. After completing his initial training he joined the British Army's elite parachute force, 5 Airborne Brigade spending four years there until moving on to various intelligence and signals units for the remainder of his twenty plus years’ service. During his career he served in many areas of operations including: Africa, the Balkans, Central America, Northern Ireland, the Middle East and South East Asia. He continues to work in the security field and write part-time.
He has been a fan of science fiction since school days, although, his reading taste has developed to include all things military, past, future and alternate history. He began writing his own stories in 2013 and published his debut science fiction novel DISCOVERY OF THE SAIPH in 2014.
