by Lee Guo
“Are we killing enough of them?” Vin asked.
“It’s too early to tell, your Majesty,” Hayet answered. “But I’m optimistic.”
Vin dared to watch the holomap of the planet’s orbital battle. Every cannon from every human ship or war object was now firing into the K-ships. The human missiles were coming, too. They would arrive in less than a minute. The aliens had already ejected their antimissile phaser platforms to protect their K-ships from the human missile runs…
But what if?
“Admiral!” Vin exclaimed. “What if we attack the enemy’s antimissile platforms with our turrets and warships, instead? Wouldn’t that give our missiles more of a chance to make it through their defensive antimissile screens?”
A pause. “Great sudden idea, your Majesty!” Hayet replied, then, louder, on another channel. “All ships and stationary turrets, fire on the Garolan point defense platforms when they come within range. Destroy them to allow our missiles to hit the K-ships those platforms are protecting.”
“Yes, sir!” came back the replies on the net.
Sol
Battlespace
Suddenly, the human zero point cannon fire switched targets -- away from the K-ships to the antimissile platforms protecting the K-ships.
The Garolan antimissile platforms were weakly defended platforms, used only for several minutes when an enemy’s missile wave approached. Thus, they were designed to survive for only several minutes. As the human weapon fire rained down on those platforms, the platforms fell by the dozen each second. After several minutes, out of 2400 antimissile platforms, only 400 survived.
And then the missiles were there.
Throneship Predator’s Claw
Bridge
Admiral Vargasithisisagwa stood up from his throne in shock. “No!”
His antimissile platforms were falling… falling!
At this rate, all of the human missiles – or at least the vast majority – would get through!
Terrible! Vargasithisisagwa tongue slithered. How terrible that he didn’t predict that move!
Now his precious K-ships would be vulnerable to missile attack, and since they didn’t have antimissile phaser platforms nor inertial shields to protect them, the damage would be devastating to his little suicide ships.
Vargasithisisagwa immediately laid down and began planning for an alternative strategy, pushing his prefrontal cortex into overdrive to discover what to do next…
He searched and searched, knowing that his suicide ships were useless. He could retract them. No, it was too late to divert their course.
And then, so calmly, he found the solution.
It was so simple. He would lose a lot of ships, but Earth would still be a lifeless wreck by the end of the day.
My fallback plan… The Garolan Admiral concluded. The Swarm still has enough power to overwhelm your defenses and turn your mother world into ash!
Sol
Battlespace
All 80,000 human missiles sped at full kinetic velocities into the 1300 K-ships – each k-ship moved at suicide speed – but since the missiles moved much faster, they intercepted the suicide ships and the majority of the missiles detonated their antimatter payload along with their singularity blast cores. Each missile carried 20 gigatons of TNT worth of antimatter. Their singularity cores added 5 gigatons to the blast. And then their kinetic energy added another 30 gigatons.
Since the Garolans had only 400 antimissile platforms at this point of the battle, only a small minority of the human missiles were intercepted. The vast majority of the 64,000 remaining human missiles smashed into jthe K-ships and since the K-ships were not equipped with inertial shields, each missile’s full kinetic energy added to its destructive payload – universally detonating over 3.5 million gigatons of explosive energy within seconds above Earth.
The K-ships were wiped out – not a single k-ship reached the human turrets or battlefortress.
The explosive firework – millions of gigatons of explosive energy not just from missile detonation but from the K-ships themselves -- ignited the skies above Earth, creating a vast volume of deadly particles hazardous to anyone on the surface who wasn’t already protected underneath a radiation shield. It was the greatest cataclysm of explosions the Earth had ever seen, and catastrophically deadly, too…
Earth Orbit
Envy’s Curse
Bridge
“Score!” Vin yelled.
The bridge erupted into a cheer. Throughout the fleet, there was cheering over the net.
“It worked!” people said.
“We have a chance now!” others cried.
“Excellent idea, your majesty,” Fleet Admiral Hayet congratulated on the net. “But, hold on, the battle is not over. All ships and stationary guns, fire on the Garolan warships using my priority targeting! Let them have it!”
Was this it? Vin wondered, sitting beside the Fleet Admiral. Was this the turning point in the battle? Could the stationary objects and mobile warships hold against the Garolan armada, now that nothing was threatened by K-ships?
Excitement and energy coursed Vin’s veins – excitement about winning. It looked like victory was finally within sight – within the realm of possibility. Could Earth be saved? Could his throne be saved? Could Maylene become his queen – not in exile in some estranged escape ship but on Earth – in the Imperial Palace?
Suddenly, these thoughts sped through his brain and he felt giddy. Then, he returned his attention onto the battle, leaving those thoughts alone. He gazed at the holomap. There were 6400 zp turrets still functioning. The two battlefortresses were undamaged. The Garolans’ 2600 warships had suffered 200 or so losses. How would the battle go now that the K-ship threat was out of the question?
His attention shifted to Hayet.
The Admiral was busy actively directing the battle, and this time didn’t notice him.
“Fire! Fire!” People were yelling over the command net.
Without being able to influence the battle further, Vin gazed at the holomap with renewed hope.
Throneship Predator’s Claw
Bridge
Admiral Vargasithisisagwa watched as another swarmship exploded with all insectoids lost.
And his K-ships were gone. Just gone.
It was devastating news -- his tongue slithered, but, he reminded himself -- sitting atop that throne -- not all was lost.
He still had his fleet -- his strong fleet. He could still take out all the humans’ stationary defenses with his fleet – it just wouldn’t be as fast as with his K-ships. But the humans’ defenses would still go down.
Vargasithisisagwa knew he would suffer far more damage to his fleet now with his K-ships out of the question but his ships could still overwhelm the enemy defenses. The speed and number of destroyed weapons on both sides so far showed that.
The battle was not lost. The human’s home planet would still suffer the same fate as did Vegas III.
It would just take longer to grind them down, Vargasithisisagwa knew…
10 minutes later…
Envy’s Curse
Bridge
For the past ten minutes, Vin watched as another turret blew up, then another at an alarming rate.
Something about the speed in which they fell greatly unsettled him.
It was still a number game… After all this time, it was still a numbers game! Vin slammed his fist into his arm rest.
The Garolans had a qualitative and quantitative advantage and they used it. For every single Garolan ship killed, seven or eight human turrets were neutralized in the same fashion.
Then, Vin realized the true horror of this reality. At this rate, Earth would be depleted of turrets with a significant force of Garolan warships left over!
He was still going to lose!
Vin quickly glanced at Hayet and wondered if the Flag Admiral thought the same thing. “Admiral!” Vin called over the private net. “Surely, there must be something we can do? Isn’t there? Isn’t there
?”
The Admiral glanced back and shook his head.
The Admiral’s line was silent.
That was when Vin knew the worst was about to come.
There must be something I…we can do. We neutralized their K-ship threat with my sudden idea, isn’t there a possibility we can neutralize their warship threat with a new sudden idea as well?
Damn it! Vin suddenly wished he hadn’t use all his antimatter missiles on those k-ships – he wished he had held some in reserve. Then, he could have used them on the warships! But damn it! The missiles were gone!
What to do? What to do?
He spared another glance at Admiral Hayet, pleading with his eyes despite knowing that his helmet blocked any facial expression from being seen. “Admiral! We must do something!” he said over the private line.
Hayet was silent, again. Then, he spoke, “Your majesty, I’m afraid I’m at wits end…”
Vin looked at the Admiral, then he looked back the holomap. Another dozen turrets down. Then another.
“No…” Vin whispered. “No…”
Earth Orbit
Battlespace
The battle raged above the Earth -- a slugfest.
Thousands of beings died every minute. Thousands more screamed as they witnessed everything around them blow up. Superheated plasma expanded every time an object suffered a direct impact by a zp burst. It was hell.
At this point of the battle, for every Garolan warship that exploded, tens of human stationary guns malfunctioned from the enemy’s gigaton blasts.
These same gigaton explosions pierced through zero point shields and broke through armor. Hulls disintegrated. Reaction chambers were penetrated.
On both sides, units collapsed and exploded but slowly… slowly… it became apparent that the Garolan armada would overwhelm the Earth forces and as the human lost more and more material, this inequality became more severe and caused the human loses to become relatively greater.
The two human battlefortresses fired their supercannons but they were numerically few. In due course, it became apparent to all the observers that it would soon be only the fortresses and the human warships left in the fight.
Soon, the Garolans would be winning by a landslide.
Envy’s Curse
Bridge
Vin folded his hands against his face. He couldn’t feel his palms as his helmet armor blocked the sensation, but he still couldn’t stop the intuitive desire to plant his face in his palms.
He had been so close! It even looked like he had a chance. It looked like his trick with the retargeting had worked. But it was all gone. Gone were his hopes of preventing his dynasty’s fall. Gone were his hopes of stopping Earth’s destruction.
He opened his eyes and gazed at the holomap and once again, he was reminded of how severe his loses were compared to the enemy. 4600 human turrets destroyed. 400 enemy warships dead. The Gods! If he wanted to win, he would have needed twice as many turrets to begin with! At this rate, he would lose all his turrets within the next half hour – and only put a minor dent in the enemy’s forces.
What must he do? What could he do to prevent that?
“My Majesty,” a calm voice said on the private net, “as much as I’d like to stay and fight, I’m going to have to call for a retreat.”
“No!” Vin yelled. “We have to stand and fight! Earth cannot fall! The Parchant Dynasty cannot end tonight!”
“My Majesty…” Hayet said, “we can’t accomplish anything by staying here. Our warships will simply be whittled down. We could even lose the flagship. If we die, who will lead the fleet or the resistance?”
“No!” Vin shouted. “No!”
The Admiral was silent.
“No…” Vin pleaded. “Please…”
Hayet paused for the longest time, then said, “As you wish, sir. We’ll stay here a bit longer. But I don’t know what we can accomplish by doing so.”
Vin nodded in appreciation. He didn’t know what he was getting into, either. But he had to stay. If there was the smallest chance he could turn this around—then, he had to stay. Leaving would be giving it all up. There had to be some way to turn it around, to save Earth, wasn’t there? Even if he couldn’t see what it was?
Wasn’t there?
Earth Orbit
Battlespace
The Garolan swarm fired its enhanced zero point cannons into the struggling human defenders, blasting away turret after turret in enormous white-hot explosions above the skies of Earth.
These human turrets fell at an alarming pace – one by one their inner workings collapsed due to battle damage – and then, without energy to power their zero point shields, they were vaporized. 4000 surviving turrets became 3500… then 3000… then 2500.
And as more and more turrets fell, the Garolan war machine was able to send out a fury of destruction unparalleled by their human counterparts.
The humans in the battle had seen all this before, they had seen defeat, and they knew what was coming. The dread in the human fleet turned into panic, then, irrationality. Ship by ship requested to leave Earth’s orbit, but they were reminded by Admiral Hayet that they were defending their motherworld, and that they would do so as long as the King commanded them to…
… As the raging battle continued, it destroyed the human survivors’ hopes for a true hold. It appeared to all that the overwhelmed forces of humanity were about suffer true annihilation to the last man.
10 minutes later…
Envy’s Curse
Bridge
“No!” Vin shouted. “No!”
He couldn’t understand himself. Every turret was about to be wiped out and the fleet was still there. Why were they still there? Why was he acting so irrational? Why was he allowing his irrationality to command the sole remaining human elements into a last stand for destruction? He was panicking. He was nervous. He felt anxious and overwhelmed by grief. And pain. And loss. And defeat – to know that he had been outsmarted by this fiend of an enemy commander. This insectoid that had been planning for Vin’s destruction – his kingdom’s destruction – for who knew how many years… and the shame and humiliation for losing to such an ambitious alien’s brutal satisfaction and the guilt of knowing he should have done better to upset this plan, to have sniffed it out before it was too late. And now he was dead – his entire kingdom was dead – and so were everyone that relied on him and all the men and women who fought for the symbol of the crown.
He was about to throw away all the remaining human remnants and he knew it, yet he couldn’t control it because he was too overcome with fear of his loss becoming reality. So much that he was unwilling to believe this reality – so much that he was willing to sacrifice his men and to believe that this sacrifice was necessary to fight for a last ditch battle with impossible odds.
Impossible.
He knew it was impossible, yet he was still willing to gamble to beat it.
No. Not Earth. Earth could not fall. Must not fall.
“My Majesty…” Hayet said.
“No,” Vin reminded him.
“Our turrets are gone, my Majesty. Every one of them have been neutralized. Now it’s just us and the planetary fortresses.”
“It’s fine,” Vin answered soothingly. “We will prevail. My will alone will drive us.”
Hayet was silent, again.
No doubt, the Admiral thinks I am delirious. And I am.
An eerie calm filled Vin’s body, a calm that was created by being emotionally drained. He was dead. Disaster had already fallen. There was nothing he could do about the far past, or even the immediate past, but no matter what logic told him to do, what logic said was the right thing to do, he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t pull out.
So, he just sat there, eyeing the bridge, watching the holomonitors as the Garolans diverted their attacks away from the destroyed turrets to the battlefortresses orbiting Earth. He saw the blows of singularity bursts as they were shot out of the 1800 enemy warships and went straigh
t into the forward shields of the two fortresses. He saw the fortresses take the concentrated blows on a level that they were never designed to withstand – saw how the enemy’s singularity blasts overpowered defensive shields and slammed into the fortresses armor – saw the fortresses fire back with whatever main cannons they had, which took down several of the enemy ships but by far not enough to prevent the fortresses’ doom – saw the explosions inside the battlefortresses as the blasts blew apart section by section – and he watched as massive armor plates blew away from the fortresses themselves – and witnessed the fortresses’ main guns stop firing.
They’re dead, thought Vin.
The first one to go was fortress Alpha. Alpha exploded in the greatest detonation, flinging hundreds of millions of tons of metal in every direction, the blast wave which destroyed several enemy ships – and then there was Beta, which broke apart into two. The minor piece exploded in a dazzling fury but the major piece careened and turned like a raging bull in 0-gravity with secondary explosions spraying debris in every direction.
The fortresses were dead.
And now, the only things that defended Earth were Vin’s warships, hopelessly outmanned, outnumbered, and outgunned.
Vin turned and gazed at Hayet and knew the Admiral was gazing back with pleading eyes, despite neither one of them being able to see the other’s face due the helmet armor – and then Vin gazed back at the holomap at his own meager ships ready to go to the slaughter the moment the enemy turned their firepower towards the next logical target – and the enemy did.
“All ships, protect the flagship,” Hayet said on another comm channel. “We must keep the king alive or we’ll lose the chain of command and our hopes for survival and resistance.”
“Yes, sir,” the voices on the other channel replied.
Vin watched the holomap as ships dove to protect the flagship – him. They interweaved themselves in front of his flagship to take the fire, all the while firing back but dealing no or insignificant damage.
