by Ryk Brown
“Yes, sir,” the commander answered.
* * *
“We have good tracks on six contacts,” the Lunar Rail Gun Array’s tracking officer reported, “five hostiles and one friendly. They’ll be in firing range in six minutes.”
“That one would be the Reliant,” the weapons officer answered as he examined the tracking display. “Let’s concentrate our fire on either side of center. Overlapping conical patterns on all guns. Try to keep our fire out of the center for the first minute. That will give the Reliant a chance to break off and get the hell out of our firing solution.”
“And if she doesn’t, sir?” the tracking officer wondered.
“Then she’s going to get pounded just like the rest of them,” the weapons officer said coldly.
“Sir?”
“Can’t be helped. Her captain knows what he’s flying into, Lieutenant. If he can get out of the way, he will. But those enemy ships are headed our way, and if we don’t take them out before they get here, we’re all fucked, not just that one ship.”
The lieutenant swallowed hard, thinking about the men and women on the Reliant. If they failed to get out of the way in time, it was doubtful any of them would survive. The LRGA’s ten rail guns were designed to fire massive projectiles at incredible velocities. The projectiles would fragment into thousands of smaller, yet still significantly sized, projectiles farther downrange on their way to the target area. They would blanket the area with enough kinetic energy to turn a ship, or even ships, into dust in minutes. It was a frightening thought. All the lieutenant could bring himself to say was, “Yes, sir.”
* * *
“Taking fire from targets one and six!” Lieutenant Calloway reported as he held onto the tactical station to keep from falling.
Captain Yahi held on tight. The Reliant shook even more violently as hundreds of projectiles pounded away at either side of his ship. “Now! Full burn!” he ordered.
“Full burn, aye!” Ensign Stewart answered as he activated the main engines and brought the throttles up swiftly.
The Reliant continued to coast backwards toward Earth as her eight massive engines on her aft end began to glow a soft amber. The glow quickly grew in intensity until the glare was white-hot and massive, obscuring her entire back end from view. The two Jung cruisers on either side of the Reliant began to slip past her as she started to decelerate sharply, drawing closer to the other three pursuing vessels.
“Mains at full thrust!” Ensign Stewart reported.
Captain Yahi could feel the ship shake under the stress of her engines as they burned at full power, slowing the massive ship at a surprising rate. “Combat, fire all missiles on targets one and six!” the captain called over the comm-set. “Send as many multi-warhead nukes as you can at them, Commander!” There was no response from Commander Denker in combat. Captain Yahi was unconcerned, as he knew that his executive officer was busy carrying out his orders at the moment, and there was no time to spare. Within seconds, the targets on either side would slip far enough away that their point-defense systems would have plenty of time to intercept and destroy the Reliant’s missile barrage.
“Missiles away!” Lieutenant Calloway announced from the tactical station. “Eight missiles to each side! Impact in three seconds!”
“Starboard camera! Main view screen!” the captain ordered. The main view screen switched just as the Reliant’s missiles struck the enemy ship slipping past her on her starboard side. The target’s point-defenses managed to take out four of the Reliant’s incoming missiles, but the other four got past, one of which carried sixteen miniature nuclear warheads that had begun to spread out just moments after the missile had left its launch rails. Four of the tiny warheads missed their target, having spread so far apart that they sailed right over the cruiser. The other twelve were a different story and reported as such in brilliant flashes of white light.
“Direct hits!” Lieutenant Calloway shouted.
“Port target?” the captain wondered.
“Three missiles struck target six, sir. None of them nukes. She was farther away than target one. She’s taken damage, but she’s still in the fight.”
“Damn. Combat, fire four more nukes into target one!”
“Aye, sir!” Commander Denker answered over the comm-set, jubilation in his voice. The Reliant was about to register her second kill. “Firing four nukes at target one.”
“Target one has lost all power and maneuvering, sir!” Lieutenant Legasse reported from the sensor station. “She’s drifting into the LRGA’s firing solution!”
“Target six is rotating!” Lieutenant Calloway reported from the tactical station. “She’s turning around to decelerate!”
“She’s trying to stay with us,” the captain mumbled. “She wants to pound us.”
“Missiles away,” Lieutenant Calloway reported. “Impact in five seconds.”
Captain Yahi watched the main view screen, which still showed the view from the Reliant’s starboard camera. Four detonations flashed, obscuring all view of the drifting enemy cruiser. When the flashes subsided, there was nothing but chunks of debris spreading out in different directions as they continued to drift toward the LRGA’s field of fire.
“Range on targets two, four, and five is closing rapidly!” Lieutenant Calloway reported.
“Time to LRGA range?” the captain asked.
“Three minutes,” Lieutenant Calloway answered.
“Maintain your course and burn,” the captain ordered, “but slip down in altitude relative to the targets. Take your time, son. Don’t make it look intentional. Then, on my command, pitch our nose down and to starboard, so we’ll descend relative to the LRGA’s firing solution. If we wait until the last second, those ships won’t have time to get out of the way before they run into the LRGA’s field of fire.”
* * *
“Targets will be in range in three minutes!” the LRGA’s tracking officer reported.
“It will take two minutes for our rounds to reach them,” the weapons officer stated. “All guns stand by to commence firing in one minute.”
“Aye, sir,” the range officer acknowledge. “All guns standing by to fire.”
The weapons officer took a deep breath and let it out slowly. He had been assigned to the Lunar Rail Gun Array for two months—just after she had become operational. While they had already fired the guns several times during training exercises, he had expected to get far more practice before actually using them in combat, especially at their maximum range for accurate targeting. Those approaching targets were still so far out that it took time for the sensors to return a targeting image from them. That meant they had to aim their weapons based on where they expected the targets to be several minutes later, when their projectiles would be in the vicinity of their targets. It was for this reason they chose to fire their rounds in a conical pattern in order to maximize their chances of a successful hit. Unfortunately, it also increased their chances of striking the Reliant. He kept telling himself that the Reliant’s captain knew this and would do what he could to get out of the way of friendly fire. What they were seeing on their tracking displays was thirty seconds old, and for all he knew, the Reliant had already moved out of the way. At least he hoped so.
He looked at the time display on the wall as it counted down the last two seconds to the time he had already chosen to fire. “All guns,” he said and then paused, “fire!”
The ten massive rail guns on the surface of the moon began firing, the vibrations from their rails causing lunar dust to vibrate and bounce, floating up several inches from the surface before settling back down and being bounced up again. Blue flashes traveled up each gun’s rails in a split second as the rails propelled the projectiles into space. Within seconds, a few dozen rounds had been launched. All of those rounds would break apart in another
minute, spreading out into a field of a thousand smaller projectiles, each with enough kinetic energy to pass completely through the hull of any ship unlucky enough to find itself in the path of destruction.
Deep within the Earth’s moon, inside the LRGA’s fire-control center, the weapons officer couldn’t help but smile, knowing that at least one, if not several, of the Jung ships would be obliterated in less than two minutes. If they were lucky, all of them might fall into their trap. Great pains had been taken to keep the presence of the LRGA a secret, disguising the project as a tracking station designed to provide earlier, more accurate warning of an incursion into their system. The deception had been so successful that most personnel had arrived on the moon still expecting to be working at a tracking station. He had thought he was on his way to join up with the Volkov on patrol, when he found himself on the moon in command of guns that he previously had not known existed. The running joke at the time had been that an assignment to the lunar tracking station was punishment for low scores at the academy. Now, his command to fire might very well be the one that saved the Earth.
“Contacts!” the tracking officer reported with surprise. “Coming in from the far side of the moon!”
“What?” the weapons officer cried, his smile instantly fading. “Where?”
“Behind us, sir!”
The weapons officer quickly looked at the tracking display, noticing the four icons on the opposite side from the other five enemy targets they were already firing on.
“Four Jung frigates!” the tracking officer reported. “Coming in low on our horizon!”
“Cease fire on guns one, two, nine, and ten. Have them come about and engage the new targets! Quickly!”
“Targets are firing!” the tracking officer reported.
“Guns one, two, nine, and ten have disengaged and are rotating!” another technician reported.
“Thirty-two missiles inbound!” the tracking officer cried out with great alarm. “Fifteen seconds to impact!”
The weapons officer looked at the status displays for all the guns located along the top edge of the wall. The two guns on either end of the array were not even one-quarter of the way around in their attempt to retarget the new contacts. “Oh, my God,” he mumbled. “They’ll never make it in time.” He looked at the expressions of his staff, every one of which were looking back at him with pale faces and wide-eyed fear. “They must have known all along,” he said softly. “Somehow, they must have known.”
They were the last words he would ever speak.
Pairs of Jung missiles slammed into the ten massive rail guns on the surface of the moon, their detonations tearing the guns apart. The powerful explosions hurled pieces of the guns several kilometers downrange before they slammed back down onto the lunar surface.
The other twelve missiles split off into six pairs, each finding their targets with precision. Power stations, mining facilities, fabrication plants, even housing and flight operations were all targeted.
The last pair of missiles found their target as well, piercing the outer walls of the command structure, exploding from within. The fireball flashed inside the building as it consumed the oxygen, then quickly disappeared as the structure blew apart and the vacuum of the lunar surface instantly smothered the flames.
* * *
“Target six is entering the LRGA’s firing solution!” Lieutenant Calloway reported from the Reliant’s tactical station.
“Put target six on screen and magnify!” the captain ordered. The sixth Jung cruiser appeared on the view screen, her engines blazing as she attempted to match the Reliant’s rate of deceleration and remain close. A large chunk of the cruiser’s starboard upper hull blew away, followed by several flashes of light from deep within her as secondary explosions were ignited. Then another chunk flew away, and another. Within seconds, the Jung cruiser came apart in a rapid series of explosions as more projectiles from the LRGA tore through her. Finally, a projectile found her reactor, and she exploded in a brilliant flash of light.
“Helm, pitch down and starboard!” Captain Yahi ordered.
“Pitching down and starboard, aye!” Ensign Stewart answered smartly as he began the maneuver.
“How long until the other targets reach the kill zone?” the captain asked.
“Thirty seconds!” Lieutenant Calloway reported.
“They’re pitching down to change course,” Lieutenant Legasse reported from the sensor station.
“Do they have time?” the captain asked.
“No, sir! They weren’t decelerating! They were still coasting bow first!”
“They’ll have to pitch down before they burn!” Ensign Stewart added. “Their only chance is to pitch over stern first and burn angled downward like us! It will take them fifteen seconds just to flip over!”
“Yes!” Captain Yahi exclaimed. The trap had worked just like Admiral Galiardi had planned all along. The EDF was about to destroy six heavily armed Jung cruisers without losing a single warship. He only hoped the remaining three Jung cruisers would not have time to transmit a warning to other ships that might come at a later date.
“How are we doing?” the captain asked. “Are we going to clear the kill zone?”
“Yes, sir!” Ensign Erbe answered from the navigator’s station. “But not by much!”
“Fifteen seconds!” Lieutenant Legasse announced. “They’ve almost rotated,” he added.
“Too little, too late,” the captain said to himself.
“Targets have fired their main drives to begin deceleration!” the lieutenant added. “Ten seconds to the kill zone!”
“Tactical map to port view screen. Put the last three targets up on the main screen, split windows.” The captain looked up as his request was granted. The port view screen showed the tactical map with the estimated flight path of the three remaining Jung cruisers cutting across the bottom edge of the LRGA’s field of fire. He looked at the images of the three enemy ships that, at any moment, would be cut to pieces just like the first one.
“Five seconds to kill zone,” Lieutenant Legasse reported. “Three……two……one……zero.”
Captain Yahi and the entire bridge crew stared at the main view screen, waiting for the destruction of their pursuers to begin. A second passed, then two, then three. Ten seconds later, the captain turned to the sensor operator, a concerned look on his face. “Double-check your calculations,” he ordered.
The lieutenant did as requested. “I don’t understand, sir. They should be in the kill zone already. Scanning the area.”
Captain Yahi waited, holding his breath for several seconds.
“Oh, my God,” Lieutenant Legasse said, shock on his face. “There are no more projectiles.”
“What?” Captain Yahi asked.
“They’ve stopped firing, sir,” the lieutenant said.
“Remaining ships are firing missiles!” Lieutenant Calloway reported from the tactical station. “Twenty-four missiles inbound! Time to impact: one minute!”
“Combat! All mini-rail guns switch to point-defense mode!” the captain called over his comm-set. “Lock missiles on all targets. Full nuclear! Fire at will! Repeat! Fire at will!”
“Point-defenses firing!” Lieutenant Calloway reported. “They’re getting in close again! They’re firing their guns as well!”
“Sensors! Scan the LRGA!” Captain Yahi ordered. “Helm, flip us back over, bow to our flight path and full burn! We need distance!”
“Pitching back over! Bow to flight path and full burn, aye!” the helmsman answered as he took action.
“Captain! The LRGA is gone!” Lieutenant Legasse exclaimed in disbelief.
“What?”
“I’ve got four more targets coming out from behind the moon! Jung frigates!” He turned away from his sensor displa
ys to face his captain. “They must have taken out the guns on the moon, sir.”
“Damn it!” Captain Yahi exclaimed. “How did they know?!”
“Four missiles made it past our point-defenses!” Lieutenant Calloway reported. His complexion turned pale as he realized their fate. “Impact in ten seconds!”
“All hands brace for impact!” Captain Yahi ordered.
Four Jung missiles struck the Reliant from behind, two directly in her stern drive section, one in her upper maneuvering pod, and one in the underside of her hull. The two that struck her engines instantly knocked them out, their fires dying in the resulting explosion as pieces of her engine nozzles went flying out in all directions. The upper maneuvering pod came apart and exploded, pieces of its housing slamming into the topside of her hull and causing secondary explosions within. The last missile, the one that struck her underside, found one of the massive ship’s propellant tanks, the explosion igniting the tank’s contents. The force of the explosion broke the ship in half just behind her midsection, with multiple secondary explosions breaking her aft section into two more pieces. Seconds later, eight more missiles slammed into both her forward and aft sections, which were already separated by nearly a hundred meters of open space. After the blinding flashes of light cleared, there was nothing recognizable left of the UES Reliant. Only pieces and bodies scattering about in all directions.
* * *
“Admiral! We’ve lost all contact with the LRGA!” one of Admiral Galiardi’s senior officers working in the Fleet command center reported. “No comms, no telemetry, nothing!”
