by Lee Guo
The resulting destructive payload – 20 gigaton per missile -- slammed into the zero point shields of the Garolan warships, doing much, much less damage than they would have otherwise had been. Throughout the alien fleet, ships experienced minor damage. Minor.
And then, the human missiles were gone.
Just like that.
Main Human Fleet
Envy’s Curse
Bridge
That was it? Vin wondered. All 40,000 missiles had been expended away just like that? He couldn’t believe that all that navtron upgraded antimatter missiles had already been used up. How many Garolan warships did they take out? Fifty? Maybe seventy?
He stared at the damage readouts on the Garolan fleet from the missile attack. It was true. Only sixty-eight had been completely wiped out. About two hundred had suffered extensive outer hull and armor damage, but that was it. That was the greatest extent of the damage from the missiles.
Vin swallowed heavily. “What do we do, Admiral?”
Fleet Admiral Hayet was silent.
Vin couldn’t tell what he was thinking inside his armor.
Finally, the Admiral spoke, “I… I don’t know, your Majesty. I think—we must continue with the plan.”
Vin slowly nodded. “Go ahead, Admiral.”
“All ships, intercept the enemy fleet and engage!” Hayet shouted.
Vin gulped, again. He stared at the battlefield in silence. Why did he have such a really bad feeling about what was to come?
Battle Fortress Tri Epsilon
In orbit around Vega III
No! Commodore Willock curled his hands into fists. He couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe how the enemy made his missiles become so weak and innocuous!
Well… at least he still had his turrets and the zeropoint cannons on his battlefortress!
He gazed at the battlefield with desperate eyes. His turrets and fortress cannons were still firing with maximum power – the ones that were still surviving that is!
Then he gazed at the human war fleet commanded by Admiral Hayet. It was coming within range of the Garolan fleet as well, to add its weapons to his turrets and fortress cannons. Willock wondered, was this all enough to beat back the alien fleet without his missiles? He had relied on his missiles being able to damage far more, but now that they were expended, he had only the fortress, his cannons, and the fleet to rely on. Was this enough?
He didn’t know for sure. He only hoped. He quickly examined the holographic data before him.
Out of the five thousand turrets surrounding the planet, only 2,900 were still operational. Out of the 400 supercannons onboard the fortress, all of them were working in perfect order. In fact, the enemy fleet seemed to be focusing their firepower on the immobile turrets and avoiding the fortress altogether, which made Willock very curious. If they wanted to do that, why didn’t they approach from a vector that avoided engagement with the fortress?
As for the damage the enemy fleet had sustained so far, out of the 2,800 hundred warships that started out in the enemy fleet, 2,600 were still operational. About 400 of them suffered heavy damage of some sort… Then there was the 1080 fresh human starships that was about to enter combat range with the enemy fleet.
Was this enough to repel the invaders?
Willock didn’t know, couldn’t know, but at the rate in which he was losing his turrets, he was certain it would be a tight battle at best, or a loss and a forced retreat of the main fleet at worst.
In that case, Willock would be stranded and killed if he wasn’t dead already. He gulped down saliva and stared at the hologrid for what was to come. His fate was now no longer in his control…
Garolan Battlefleet
Throneship Predator’s Claw
Bridge
Now, is the time! High Admiral Vargasithisisagwa chittered from atop his throne. “All war vessels, launch singularity bombs at the immobile objects!”
Main Human Fleet
Envy’s Curse
Bridge
Vin stood up and gasped. “What the hell is that?”
“I—do not know!” exclaimed Admiral Hayet, standing up beside Vin.
Vin saw them. The forward sections of at least half of the enemy ships seemed to open up, and each ejected out a smaller pod-like vessel. The smaller things that ejected out looked like spermzoa. Immediately, they sped at a seemingly quick pace towards Vegas III’s turrets and battle fortress.
He could only fantasize what was in those things. From the looks of it, they were kamikaze ships, or K-ships. “Admiral,” Vin said, “I don’t know what those things are carrying, but we have to shoot them down!”
Hayet nodded. “I agree, sir! Transmitting orders to the fleet! I don’t know what they are, but I sure don’t want to find out!”
Within seconds, every turret and fortress cannon began shooting at the squid like objects.
Above Vegas III
Battlespace
The humans fired. Every cannon onboard every immobile turret, every supercannon onboard the fortress, and every shipboard cannon fired at the newly ejected kamikaze ships that accelerated to a quick speed towards the immobile objects surrounding the planet. The K-ships ignored the human ships, because the Garolan commander knew the K-ships would never be able to chase the human warships down. Instead, the K-ships aimed at the turrets and the star fortress.
Hundreds of K-ships were taken down. Once they were destroyed, their antimatter containment pods ignited with normal matter, and the following self-detonated explosion collapsed the singularity triggers that set off an even more massive explosion that reached over a 1000 gigatons of TNT per K-ship. The explosions set off a massive firework display that illuminated the orbital space above Vegas III.
But even as hundreds of these well-armored and well-shielded K-ships were destroyed, hundreds more eventually seeped through the human counterfire and reached their targets.
Those that did reach their targets detonated their singularity cores and blew away the immobile human target it was designed to kill.
Hundreds of orbital human zero point turrets exploded in dazzling fury as they were wiped off the universe as clearly their zero-point deflectors could not deflect the overwhelmingly massive amount of energy from these k-ships.
And worse, the human battlefortress orbiting Vegas III was hit by not one but four of these alien K-ships, each of which detonated their 1000 gigaton payloads at point blank range. The battlefortress’s enormous shields fell just like the turrets’ fell – they also could not withstand the blow of this massively surging amounts of destructive energy.
The battlefortress was overwhelmed. Entire hull sections blew away into nothingness. White-hot fires tore through the battlefortress’s innards. Its outer surface was annihilated and all of its zero point cannon ports were destroyed. Within seconds, parts of the battlefortress exploded. Bang! Bang! - killing life and crews on board…
Battle Fortress Tri Epsilon
In orbit around Vega III
CNC
Willock couldn’t believe it. Every part of his battle fortress redzoned. Shields failed. Particle magnetic screens collapsed. Containment breeches across the board. His lasers and zpcs were dead. Nothing he had could stop more of those alien kamikaze ships from ramming his station.
And even if he could, it didn’t matter. He was out. He didn’t have any lasers or zero point cannons left to make a difference in the battle.
The entire deck buckled to the stress as more internal detonations rocked the CNC chamber.
“All personnel onboard, vacate to escape pods!” he shouted, before another blow blew away half the ceiling.
When Willock came back to senses, he heard screaming throughout the chamber…
Main Human Fleet
Envy’s Curse
Bridge
“Sir! The battle fortress has been neutralized! 80% of all stationary zero point turrets are nonfunctional!” the comm ensign yelled. “The Battlefortress is no longer communicat
ing on any t-bands! The communication link has been severed!”
Vin saw Hayet slam his armored fist into his armpad. For the longest moments, the Fleet Admiral said nothing, but Vin knew what was going on in the Admiral’s brain. The unthinkable loss was happening. Another retreat had to be sounded.
“Retreat,” worded the Admiral carefully.
And then there was silence on the bridge of the Flagship.
In Orbit around Vegas III
In the next few minutes, the alien fleet ravaged the leftovers of the planet’s defenses.
For every turret not destroyed by the Garolan K-ship attack, the remaining were destroyed by overwhelming force by the ships of the Garolan fleet.
While the remaining surviving human ships hastily turned tails and ran -- knowing that they were no match against the alien force now that the planet’s turrets and battlefortress had become debris – many of the human ships could not run fast enough. Many were destroyed when their rears began to facing the enemy. Many more were critically injured and suffered drive failure, and were hunted down due to their immobility.
Out of 898 human ships that began the retreat, only 620 made it out of the system.
Out of 5000 turrets that began the battle, 0 remained operational near its end.
The battlefortress was destroyed within minutes after the human ships vacated the area around the planet. The fate of Commodore Willock was unknown.
By the end of the day, the system and the planet became entirely uncontested and Garolan controlled. Then, the Garolan fleet then proceeded with the most detestable act of destruction yet – they fired on the planet and its 12 billion inhabitants.
The planet had raised its city shields in response to this attack, but the Garolan warships overwhelmed the shields of each city by concentrated zero point fire. One by one, each city was wiped off the face of the planet – its inhabitants… men, women, and children… annihilated in gigaton blasts. By the end of the day, there was no major city on the planet left for the Garolan fleet to detonate its singularity bursts. The planet’s countryside was burned by the ensuing fires that spread from the epicenter of the blasts. The planet’s surface became glass.
Billion of humans were devoured by raw heat within hours of concentrated attack by the Garolan warfleet.
Civilization on Vegas III was no more.
Chapter 11
Star System Vegas
Throneship Predator’s Claw
Bridge
High Admiral Vargasithisisagwa grinned in delight at the report. All life had been extinguished within the system. Every major colony. Every outpost. Every orbital station. Every human speck within the star system had been destroyed by his hunter killer ships.
This was true war, the type that Vargasithisisagwa had been planning and desiring for ages. According to his plan, every single human survivor would be wiped out within a year as his fleet went from human system to system to extinguish the human flame.
How could the Great Creator be kinder to him, knowing that he would be the one to carry out the destruction of a race of pests that had conflicted with his own specie’s interests for half a millennium?
Yes, he felt honored that he would be the one to carry out the duty, to perform his utmost for his specie’s well-being and preservation, and if that well-being required the death of another that was in conflict, then so be it.
He would carry out his duty – he would. It had to be him, thought Vargasithisisagwa as his frontal mandibles clicked.
The Creator is kind, indeed! To honor a mere Larvae such as me with the task! And I will perform it with the passion that is given to me by the Hive Empress! From now on, Insectoid civilization will prevail! A new Era will begin, one with the end of Humanoid civilization, as it is known!
He chittered, his saliva drooling down his mandibles. He glanced at the system on his holopad that the humans called Vegas and what his race called KA47822. The system was now barren of human life. He had done his duty.
Now, he turned his attention towards the next major human system… the one the humans called Sol, with their main planet, Earth, their mother world. Yes, he would ravage Sol next, and knowing that the humans had nothing to stop him, he would make quick work of the system in much the same fashion he did to Vegas…
Human Fleet, Interstellar Space
Envy’s Curse
Officer’s Quarters
So many people dead! Vin still couldn’t believe the numbers. A major core world had been destroyed, all life eradicated. This was not any type of civilized war the Garolans had shown before. This time, they were in it to destroy his species – his! And he was the king that would witness the fall!
So many people dead! Mothers, fathers, grandchildren, men, women, everything – Vin had heard their screams, he had seen the news broadcasts as the Insectoids exterminated Vega III’s city by city, he had witnessed the hopeless panic of an entire world all up until their fatal destruction! And he could do nothing! Not for them, not for himself who watched them die, and if his defeated logic was correct, not for soon to be-destroyed Earth.
How had the Garolans surpassed human technology so well? It seemed the Garolans had every counter for every human trick. The humans had missiles. The Garolans had antimissile platforms and Inertial shields. The humans had turrets and a battlefortress. The Garolans had K-ships that could take them out. Hell. The humans had zero point cannons. The Garolans had much more powerful zero point cannons and shields. The Garolans had everything, and if logic that the past could predict the future, they would have all the right counters when the battle of Earth started.
How, in the world, in the galaxy, in the universe, could he defeat such a race with a fleet that was so prepared?
He stared at the black ceiling and was completely clueless. As hard as he tried to dig his mind, nothing came up. Then again, he wasn’t a military officer, but even if he wasn’t, he was extremely knowledgeable as he was very informed by the command staff on all aspects of the military decision making. And if he couldn’t come up with a solution…
He only wondered what Admiral Hayet and what the other flag officers thought.
Tomorrow, he thought, tomorrow he will find out when they met in that holographic conference room, again.
For now, he tried to get some sleep.
But he couldn’t.
He closed his eyes and only saw people screaming.
Chapter 12
10 hours later…
Envy’s Curse
Holoconference Room
“The conference is in session,” Admiral Hayet announced. Immediately, a holographic insect like K-ship hovered in front of every member. “What the hell do we do about those K-ships?”
The room went silent. The commodores and admirals that sat around the circular table were voiceless.
Then, one spoke, “If we had the time to produce new ships, the obvious solution is that we make K-ships of our own – provided we have the time, of course.”
“We don’t have the time,” Hayet interjected. “Worse, the Garolans know it, and are going to press against Earth to make sure we don’t have the time.”
“Then, we’re doomed, sir,” that same Vice Admiral concluded.
Hayet hissed. “Our missiles are next to useless as long as they have those antimissile platforms and inertial shields. And our ships cannot defeat their ships on a weight by weight basis. So, we can only rely on our turrets and fortresses that we have surrounding Earth, but our turrets and fortresses are useless once the enemy fire off their K-ships at them. Therefore, we have nothing that can defeat that force. Does anyone have a plan to counter such threats?”
Pause.
“Our missiles,” one commodore said. “If we cannot use them to attack their ships, we can put them in reserve to attack their K-ships when they launch.”
There was a murmur of agreement around the table.
“But how do you know their K-ships won’t be protected by their missile defense platforms
and how do you know their K-ships don’t have Inertial Shields?” one admiral asked.
“We don’t,” the commodore answered.
“I see,” Hayet said. He seemed to think about it for a long time. Then, he added, “It’s worth a shot. As long as we can prevent them from destroying our stationary objects surrounding Earth using their K-ships, our turrets and fortresses can possibly defend Earth from their ships. As long as that happens, Earth and its major production sites will be safe.”
“Are our stationary objects enough to defend Earth against their ships even if the K-ship threat is neutralized?” Vin asked.
“Well,” Hayet manipulated the controls. Immediately, in front of everyone at the round table, Earth, and its defensive satellite turrets appeared. “Earth has 8000 defensive zp turrets and two battle fortresses. 3000 more turrets compared to Vegas III. According to the recording we had of the Vegas III battle before their K-ship attack, the turrets and fortresses around Vegas III were doing bad. The loss rate in enemy ships and loss rate in our turrets were quite uneven, with us losing far more turrets than they did ships… of course, that was to count in the fact that we even had a fortress around Vegas III.”
“So we cannot defend Earth with our 8000 turrets, fortresses, and our remaining ships in our fleet alone even if the enemy’s K-ships didn’t exist?” Vin stated.
The fleet admiral paused a moment. “Well, this time we have more turrets and more fortresses. But qualitatively, we have the same units that we had in the last battle, so yes, you are right, your majesty.”
Vin sat, his eyes vacantly stared at the holos in front of him. “What if we leave some of our missiles to attack their ships instead of attacking the k-ships?”
“Their ships have inertial shields, sir,” Hayet rebutted. “Attacking their ships with our 80,000 missiles is useless. It’s best to save them, so that they can be used against their K-ships.”
