by Lee Guo
“I see,” Vin said. “So that’s the plan, then? We keep our missiles in reserve, so they can attack the K-ships when they come out and hope that we destroy enough K-ships that our turrets and fortresses can stand a chance this time against their armada?”
People murmured around the table, but no one objected or suggested a better idea.
Finally, Hayet nodded. “It seems so, your majesty.”
The discussion around the table continued for some more time, but nothing major concerning military combat came about. Ultimately, the issue of how to evacuate Earth came to surface.
Vin knew he didn’t have to tell anyone that if the battle of Earth was lost, the same fate would happen to Earth as did happen to the surface population of Vegas III. Therefore, he asked one officer, “How goes the evacuation of Earth?”
“It is proceeding at the quickest pace,” General Wilbur answered. “Every civilian and military ship that isn’t taking part in the coming battle is taking part in the evacuation… We estimate we’ll be able to save 25 million civilians before the Garolan fleet arrives.”
Vin nodded. 25 million was a paltry number compared to the total population of Earth, which was 89 billion, but that number was better than nothing. Certainly, it was better than the number of evacuees from Vegas III, which was 4 million. Suddenly, his thoughts turned toward Maylene. He shook it away, knowing that Maylene and his mother were safe as far as possible away from the future areas of battle by boarding his own yacht.
Envy’s Curse
Private Messaging Room
“Please tell me good news, Kal.” Vin stared at the hologram of the Palace AI, set within a garden background.
“I am sorry, my Majesty. I have none to give,” Kal responded .
“None?”
“I have been wholly unsuccessful, sir.”
Vin stared at the Palace AI. He couldn’t believe it. How spineless were his allies! The moment they felt fear, they ran rather than aid Vin in his struggle. “Are you sure you tried all of them?”
“Yes, sir. All of them,” the Palace AI admitted.
“What did the Lansharans say?”
“They said their current military structure was still in reorganizational shock after their civil war.”
“And the Quorans?”
“The Quorans state that their long range tankers are currently out of commission and as a result, their fleet is incapable of making the distance to our aid.”
Vin blinked. “That’s another excuse! Everyone knows helium-3 tankers are centuries old. Everything runs on zero point generators or antimatter now…”
“As I said, my Majesty, they all are afraid of the wrath of the Garolans.”
Vin felt furious. He wanted to slam his fist into the walls. What use was a Non-Aggression and Multiple Defense Pact if your allies quit the moment they see an opportunity for self-preservation? Vin seethed . “I’m sure you did well, Kal. I’m sure you did your best. It’s these completely spineless allies that are the trouble.”
Kal was silent. For an AI, he was more than capable of human emotions and human logic. “I am sorry, my King.”
“It’s okay. Keep trying,” Vin said. His next thoughts were of Maylene. “Kal, I’m going to talk to Maylene next. Make sure you leave the Palace on Earth before the Garolan fleet arrives. I’m certain they will target our palace with priority targeting. I doubt our shields can hold against concentrated attacks like that.”
“I will leave as ordered, my Majesty.”
“Good,” Vin said. “Good bye for now, Kal.”
“Good bye, my King.” The hologram disappeared. The palace gardens disappeared as well.
Vin stated new commands into the Hologram room, and the connection with Maylene’s Yacht was made within seconds.
A minute later, Maylene appeared in front of him, dressed in imperial beige – typical civilian clothing of an upper class citizen. Behind her, the background of a small hologram room appeared, with all the holoprojectors mounted everywhere. “Vin,” Maylene greeted. “Thank the heavens, I can finally talk to you. The battle didn’t go well.”
“It didn’t,” Vin concurred.
“I saw it on the news. People on Earth are panicking,” Maylene admitted. “They are afraid what happened to Vegas III will happen to Earth. Is it true, Vin? Is it true that Earth is doomed?”
“I don’t know,” Vin replied. “We’re trying our best. But there’s a good chance we’ll fail… that Hayet and I will lose the battle of Earth. How are you?”
“How do you think I am?” Maylene countered. “I am privileged to be on the King’s Yacht, to be out of danger.”
“Listen, Maylene. I’ve ordered the captain of Manifest Destiny to follow the escape fleet. You’ll remain out of danger and guarded with the rest of the exodus fleet.”
Maylene nodded. “Thank you, Vin.”
“Whatever happens, I will make sure you stay alive. I will try to stay alive also, so we can live together even if—if the worst happens to humanity.”
Maylene nodded, again. Then, she stood up, with assertiveness in her eyes. “… Then promise me, Vin. Promise me you won’t go down in the Battle of Earth. Promise me you won’t go down fighting for your dynasty. Promise me that you’ll also survive.”
Vin gulped. He wasn’t ready to make that promise, mostly because he wasn’t ready to face the absolute worst scenario. “I promise…”
***
When he disconnected half an hour later, Vin suddenly felt the greatest feeling of doom he had ever felt. He felt hopelessness. Talking with Maylene had not helped. It just made his fears more real. While he continued standing in that little hologram room, with the holoprojectors powered down, he felt completely drained. The unbearable truth had hit him. His reign may very well be the last reign in a long line of Kings within the Parchant Dynasty. His entire Dynasty may fall within the next few days with the fall of Earth. What could he do? What could he hope for that wasn’t the unbearable truth?
I may be the last king to bear the Parchant name, but I’ll go down fighting…?
It was intolerable. The emotions within him, the likely future end-results that spurned these emotions were intolerable. Humanity could not fall! The Parchant Dynasty could not end. Yet in all likelihood, it appeared it would.
Vin walked out of the Hologram Room in a mess, muttering to himself in a way that astonished his guards.
Chapter 13
Earth Orbit
Envy’s Curse
Bridge
“Then it is settled?” Vin asked.
“Yes, my Majesty,” General Wilbur answered, appearing as a hologram on the bridge of the Envy’s Curse. “I will take the exodus fleet comprising of escapees from Earth and Proxima Centauri as well as the remaining civilian ships that escaped Vegas III and I will head towards the Galactic Centre. I will slow at intermittent intervals to exchange communications with you as long as you are still alive. We will continue moving at fastest speed until we reach a distance of 20,000 light years and then we will wait a year to see if we have been followed. Then, we will settle on a good habitable world of my choosing, as per your orders.”
Vin nodded. “Good luck, General Wilbur. No one else is better fit to command such a task.”
“Good luck to you, your Majesty. May you win the coming battle, so that my task is redundant. Farewell.” The hologram blinked away.
Vin gazed around the chamber, again. The bridge was in its heyday. Officers manned the stations. Holograms of essential schematics hovered in view. As for the fleet, the central holomap showed the remaining 650 warships of the human fleet as ready. Nowhere else in the galaxy did Vin feel more in control of his fate than on this bridge with Admiral Hayet.
Admiral Hayet… the man in charge of the battle. He would once again be central to humanity’s perseverance or defeat. Vin glanced at the man sitting beside him.
Hayet saw his glance and glanced back, nodding.
For a moment, Vin felt a strange new
sudden camaraderie with his leading flag admiral – a friendship and relationship created by being in the thickest of fights together, and of facing the same dilemmas together – one that transcended age or socioeconomic background, one that made both of them very much human – a bond that could only be created by battle.
Vin knew at that moment that his only option had to be to nod back. He had wanted to hear another status report given directly by the fleet admiral, but he compromised by not breaking the cool silence he enjoyed with the man.
This is it. All our preparations have made us arrive at this point. Every decision we’ve made has brought us here. The height of resolve. The pinnacle of survival. The zenith of humankind.
He stared back at the battlemap. All those friendly dots, soon to be filled with enemy dots. Now, all he had to do was wait.
Chapter 14
8 hours later…
Sol
Oort Cloud
Space was infinitely quiet. The same quiet before a storm. Then all of a sudden 2600 alien warships translated into Sol’s outer perimeter from zero-space. The enormous light show of their translation could be seen from millions of miles away. The Garolan Armada stood there, silent, scanning the system for any developments, comparing their scans with what their earlier sensor probes had seen. They knew the humans in the system were no match, yet they confidently waited for High Admiral Vargasithisisagwa’s command…
Sol
Throneship Predator’s Claw
Bridge
“We have arrived, your excellency!”
“Full sensor sweep of the system!” Vargasithisisagwa ordered. “Any signs of changes?”
It took minutes for the information from the scans to come back, but when it did, it only took milliseconds for Vargasithisisagwa’s cranial interface to send the information from the scans directly into his prefrontal lobe. He saw the remaining human ships orbiting in wait around the third planet, the one they called Earth. He saw the 8000 zero point turrets surrounding the planet, each fully powered with the human equivalent of zero point shielding. And he saw the not one but two fortress stations in orbit around the planet, each fully capable of protecting the planet’s industrial and shipbuilding infrastructure from a normal assault.
But, Vargasithisisagwa gloated, his assault was anything but normal.
Through tachyon particle scans, he could see the power generation level of each of the stationary objects within the system. Earth was indeed their homeworld, for on the planet, each of its cities had activated their zero point shields to prevent kinetic bombardment damage – multitudes more than any previous planet he had encountered. But no matter! His fleet would destroy them once he got within range and once he overpowered the stationary defenses.
As for the human warships in orbit, he would no doubt swat them like flies just like the last major battle.
This was it… the endgame. The destruction of their homeworld would destroy all human power within the galaxy, both literally and symbolically. Without the human pestilence, Insectoid domination would have no opposition. A new era was upon us!
“All swarms, advance!” he yelled. “The Era of Humanity is over!”
Earth Orbit
Envy’s Curse
Bridge
“Here they come!” Fleet Admiral Hayet called out. “Deploy the missile pods! Launch all missiles!”
Vin’s entire body shook with anxiety and an even worse emotion – fear. Would the same tragedy happen here, as did Vegas III?
The ultimate battle is here.
Once we lose the shipyards and industrial orbital infrastructure around Earth – it’s game over. There will be no way to win the war if we lose 50% of our warship production power. The Garolans will be able to overproduce us even if they lose their whole fleet here.
The 89 billion souls on Earth… Without them, we won’t be able to man any new ships, and we’ll lose an overwhelming proportion of our R and D, let alone our civilian population. Without Earth, there is no human kingdom.
Vin hesitated with fear, then nodded at Hayet. “Go with the plan, Admiral. May we have the best of luck.”
“May fortune also favor us, my Majesty,” Hayet replied.
Please hold…Vin prayed silently, grinding his teeth and staring at the abyss. Please let the turrets and battlefortresses hold.
10 hours later…
Sol
The Insectoid fleet zoomed through space. When they reached the final stretch towards Earth, they decelerated, so that their fleet would not run past the planet.
Admiral Vargasithisisagwa, sitting atop his golden throne, knew that the human missiles were not intended for attacking his warships, so instead of forming a ball, he organized the Garolan fleet into a wedge formation, clearly intent on breaking through the stationary objects protecting Earth.
The distance between the two warring powers closed even further…
Earth Orbit
Envy’s Curse
Bridge
“All warships, move to the center of their attack,” Fleet Admiral Hayet instructed on the communication net.
“Yes, sir,” the replies echoed back.
Vin watched the holomap, perspiring inside his armor. His suit’s auto-cleaning nanites went to work, cleansing the sweat off his skin. He saw everything on the holomap. The enemy fleet looked staggering, like a behemoth with overwhelming power. Inside the flag bridge, there was a stony silence as men and women waited for the inevitable. Would things change this time? Would the new numbers of stationary defenses hold despite having much less human warships to reinforce it?
Then, Vin heard Hayet say over the net, “Message to all stationary guns and ships, fire all laser and zero point cannons the moment the enemy comes within range! Fire!”
Sol
Battlespace
Simultaneously -- upon reaching 70,000 miles from Earth, Vargasithisisagwa gave the order to fire. “All swarms, fire!”
Immediately, the two opposing fleets lasered each other. Space exploded as laser beams slammed into zero point shields. For a while, there was nothing but a hail of laser fire between the two nations, but as the distances closed, the two opponents began firing their zero point cannons at each other. That’s when the real destruction began.
Upon entering the zero point cannon range of the stationary turrets, the Garolan fleet fired its zp cannons at the human forces. In response, almost all of Earth’s 8000 stationary turrets fired their zero point cannons, as did the two human fortresses. Zero point blasts splashed into zero point shields on both sides. Millions of gigatons of TNT exchanged between the two adversaries.
Each Earth turret fired the equivalent of 180 gigatons of TNT per blast, which was more than enough to overwhelm the zp shields of the Garolan warships when done synchronously with other turrets. In addition, the two human fortresses’ zero point blasts fired at the equivalent yield of 280 gigatons – they were true supercannons. This was more energy than the fortress weapons at Vegas III. The Garolan fleet was dazed by human firepower -- its ships falling at a significantly faster pace than in the last battle.
Immediately, within the first 40 seconds of the zero point blast exchange, eighty-three Garolan warships blew up due to being overwhelmed by concentrated human zp power.
At the same time, four hundred and twenty human turrets were also destroyed in the same fashion – their zero point shields not being able to withstand the Garolan’s concentrated priority targeting.
Earth Orbit
Envy’s Curse
Bridge
For a moment inside the busy flag bridge, Vin thought the defenses were going to hold. It’s working.. Yes, it’s true that we’re losing far more turrets for every enemy starship, but we have far more turrets…
“Sir!” the sensor Lieutenant called out, “They’re ejecting their K-ships from the hulls of their war vessels!”
Vin glanced at Hayet who sat to his left.
Hayet nodded, clearly expecting this. “All missile
s, begin your attack runs, now! All ships, turrets, and fortresses, attack the enemy K-ships the moment they enter range!”
Let’s get those K-ships. Vin stood still as he watched. Hopefully, we’ll take them down before they cause too much trouble. I hope this works. If not…
Sol
Battlespace
Throughout the Garolan fleet, the hulls of warships opened up so that hidden Kamikaze ships could escape the bodies of their parents. The scene looked like insects giving birth, the armored membranes of both parent and child gave an eerie alien appearance to any human witnessing the event. Once out of their parents’ body, the Garolan K-ships accelerated to suicide speed towards the human turrets and the two battle fortresses. Their antimatter bellies were well protected against any human frontal attack, but nevertheless, the human units around Earth fired into the K-ships, taking many down.
Meanwhile, much further away from the battle, upon receiving the order from Admiral Hayet, the ball of 80,000 human missiles that surrounded the Garolan fleet accelerated to attack runs. They sped to attack velocities, their gravitic drives adding more kinetic energy in addition to their antimatter bellies.
The Garolans saw this, and in response, to protect their K-ships, the Garolans launched their point defense phaser platforms from their warships. The platforms sped out in front of the Garolan fleet, obvious to any human commander that it would protect the targets – Garolan K-ships – from the human missiles.
And then, with the dies cast from both sides, there was nothing left except fate…
Earth Orbit
Envy’s Curse
Bridge
