by Isaac Hooke
“So they fired them after all,” Robert said.
“Mostly to defend themselves, apparently,” Jonathan answered.
The vice admiral tapped in. “Jonathan, have the Raptor attempt communications.”
Jonathan sent the order to Wethersfield.
A moment later Ensign Lewis reported the resultant gamma ray emissions from the Raptor.
“Now we wait,” Jonathan said.
Not unsurprisingly, the Elder ship refused to answer.
The admiral called the expected conference. When she told them her battle plan for the attack run, for once she asked for opinions, rather than simply telling the captains what she wanted to do.
“The strategy your advisers have come up with is sound,” Captain Bane said. “But perhaps we should delay a while longer. At least until we have achieved communication with one of the colonies. They can tell us what to expect when we attack the enemy, and help us further refine our tactics. Because right now, we’re essentially going up against an unknown. If the fog of war could be represented in some material form, it would be that ship. And if you don’t want to wait while our repeaters expand throughout the system, we can steer the fleet for Mars, or another intact colony, to expedite that process.”
“There isn’t time,” Admiral Ford said. “We don’t know how long the Elder have been shooting that beam into the planet. Earth could be hours away from destruction. If we turn back now, and make for Mars or another colony, we might regret it for the rest of our days. Better to attack than wait for the scavengers to break away and pursue us. So no, we cannot wait. I intend to proceed directly toward Earth. Any other opinions or suggestions?”
No one else had anything to add, so she ended the conference and distributed the orders. Jonathan accepted his from the vice admiral, and he personally passed on the individual orders to the members of Task Group 72.5 that served under him, as well as those intended for the Raakarr to the Raptor.
The fleet assumed a double-decker sickle formation for the attack run. The curve faced inward toward the target. The forty human vessels composed the bottom level, the twenty-seven Raakarr the top. The intention was to make a single flyby, with as many of the heavy lasers and particle beams coming into firing range at the same time as possible. Since only a single pass was planned for the moment, no fighters were launched from either group. The goal was firstly to test the defenses of the Elder, and secondly to gauge the effectiveness of the human and Raakarr weaponry against them. Four separate, equidistant spots were targeted along the circumference of the craft. If the weapons were successful in breaching the hull in those places, computations indicated that the Möbius strip would completely break apart. Those computations were based on the assumption that the hull samples taken from the ancient Elder wreckages discovered in human territory were typical of the materials used in their craft.
The three remaining laser ships of the Raakarr had an upper range limit of about one hundred fifty thousand kilometers, but the admiral wanted to maximize the damage potential so she held off firing until the fleet reached the fifty thousand kilometer mark. After crossing that range, Jonathan ordered the Raptor to have the laser ships unleash their beams at the aforementioned portions of the Elder vessel’s hull. The laser ships fired directly, as there was no need for them to separate into their different segments given the admiral’s designs. The firing interval was limited only by the nearby Raakarr ships, which powered the lasers with their particle beams; as the latter required a two minute recharge, the Raakarr took turns powering the craft.
Unfortunately, though they managed to unleash the lasers once every thirty seconds, no damage whatsoever was detected on the Elder vessel’s hull. Nonetheless, the Raakarr continued to fire.
The tense moments ticked past.
It was assumed that the Elder ship wouldn’t deviate from its geostationary orbit above the Earth, because that would interrupt its beam attack upon the planet; instead, the scavenger ships were predicted to form some sort of defense to protect the mothership. Sure enough, as the fleet grew to within thirty thousand kilometers of the Elder vessel, scavengers began to break away from their low Earth orbit to intercept. However, there were surprisingly few among their ranks. The majority of the hundred or so ships remained in geostationary orbit above the planet. Jonathan counted only three approaching vessels against the fleet’s sixty-seven.
A bit overconfident, are they? Then again, perhaps it is we who are overconfident.
“Launch the weapons in proscribed pattern 1A,” the admiral announced over the fleet comm.
That was basically an order to ignore the scavengers, as all patterns starting with “1” targeted the Elder ship only.
The bottom layer of the double-decker sickle launched a thick spray of mortars, followed by nukes and missiles—roughly half the non-replenishable stock left in the fleet’s inventory.
“Captain Dallas, have a pyramid, two darts, and a Reach class vessel break away from the Raakarr,” Admiral Ford said. “They are to intercept and distract those three scavengers in a separate flyby, and rendezvous with the fleet afterward.”
Jonathan relayed the order to Barrick, and the requested four Raakarr vessels broke formation, heading on an intercept course with the incoming scavengers.
“The Elder ship is not making any movements to avoid the incoming barrage,” Lewis said. “It’s like they don’t care. Wait. It’s firing a particle beam of some kind. A very, very thin beam. It strikes a mortar for about five hundred milliseconds, then moves on to the next. Several seconds later, the struck mortars break apart.” She paused. “That beam is hitting missiles now, too. The same thing is happening. The kinetic kills and nukes aren’t detonating, they’re just dissolving...”
Jonathan studied the tactical display. Many of the yellow dots representing the launched weapons were vanishing. But many more remained intact, and would impact momentarily.
The first mortars struck the Elder ship, followed by nukes and kinetic kills. Bright flashes filled the external video feed.
“Ops, update me,” Jonathan said.
“Only about half of our weapons got through,” Lewis said. “Those that did struck the four designated spots on the hull. We’ve done some damage, but... it’s mostly superficial.”
Jonathan swiveled his chair toward her. “What are you saying? We haven’t damaged it at all? Despite all those nukes?”
“Unfortunately no,” the ensign replied. “We’ll need the equivalent of planet killers if we want to do any real damage.”
“And last I heard,” Robert said. “The United Systems used up its last one destroying a certain homeworld.”
“The Elder particle beam is focusing on our ships now,” the ensign said. “The beam concentrates on a given vessel for a few seconds longer than it did for the mortars and nukes, before moving on to another ship. The ships that beam has touched are slowly dissolving around the impact area, like the mortars and nukes before them.”
“So that particle beam is the equivalent of a disintegration bomb,” Jonathan said. He sat up, noticing a stream of red dots emerging from the Elder ship on the tactical display. “What are those? Fighters? Super-suits? Or...”
“I’m not sure,” Lewis said. “Wait, the CDC tells me they are indeed the humanoids in super-suits.”
In the Elder galaxy, the away team had encountered humanoids clad in yellow-white super-suits while exploring an icy greenhouse planet. The humanoids had appeared to be guarding the Elder offspring.
“Essentially fighters, then,” Jonathan said. “All right. Activate point defenses.”
The point defenses likely wouldn’t harm them, nor would the Vipers, because unfortunately the super-suits utilized an energy defense similar to the Raakarr darkness shields, and required lasers of a certain frequency to penetrate.
The chief scientist, Connie Myers, had designed modifications to the squad level-weapons systems to allow for realtime frequency testing and penetration. Jonathan had talke
d with her about it shortly after the Elder vessel was sighted, and she was confident her modifications would still work against the super-suits if the Elder employed them. But those mods didn’t work for the Viper lasers, nor the mag-rail point defenses, which utilized slugs. The mods did however function for the Cobra models found aboard mechs and Avengers, and the laser rifles that the MOTHs and Centurions wielded. Jonathan had shared the news with the fleet during the captain’s conference.
Since the fleet was only doing a single flyby for the moment, launching any mechs or Avengers now was a death sentence to the involved AIs or pilots. But if those humanoids pursued for any distance, then the order was bound to come.
“Several ships in the formation are taking super-suit damage,” Lewis said. “It’s the equivalent of concentrated laser attacks.”
“What about us?”
“One of them just made a strafing run,” Lewis said. “We’ve got a gash along our starboard side. Several breaches on deck fifteen. Nothing critical was struck. A cargo bay... a storage compartment.” She looked up. “The fleet is nearing the closest point of the flyby. Fifteen thousand kilometers.”
“Lazur, are we able to contact any Earth bases yet?” Jonathan asked.
“Negative,” the comm officer replied. “The interference is too strong here. It seems to be sourced from the Elder ship.”
“Hopefully it will lift once we do some damage,” Robert said.
“Fire lasers and particle beams,” Admiral Ford announced over the fleet comm. “Pattern 1B.”
Jonathan relayed the order to Miko, and the Raptor.
The two types of beams fired, concentrating on the four targeted portions of the hull that the nukes and missiles had struck. With the lasers and particle beams focused like that, the damage taken by an ordinary vessel would have been devastating.
But on the external camera, all Jonathan saw was the Elder hull blacken slightly in places.
fifteen
What happened?” Jonathan said.
“Again, we definitely did something,” Lewis said. “But for the most part, it looks superficial. We’ve burned the outer layer of their hull. Like burning the icing on a donut.”
The flyby was complete.
Jonathan glanced at the tactical display. The dots representing the super-suits that had passed by the fleet were rapidly decelerating and turning around. It seemed a little too fast to belong to the realm of classical physics.
“Are those suits obeying Newtonian physics?” Jonathan asked.
“Sort of,” Lewis said. “Gravity waves indicate a slight spatial compression and expansion in front and behind them, but it’s nowhere as strong as what we’ve observed with the scavengers, and the Elder vessel itself. They’re running Alcubierre lite.”
“What about that particle beam from the Elder ship?” Jonathan asked. “Has it let up?”
“Now that the fleet has passed, it’s stopped firing, yes,” Lewis said. She glanced at him. “The CDC was wrong, sir. The mortars and missiles struck by that beam? They’re weren’t dissolving, but slowly rearranging. At the molecular level. And they’ve been gathering together, clumping to other elementary debris. Something new seems to be coalescing out of them. The ships struck by that beam are exhibiting the same behavior. Though they’re not clumping with anything else. They’re just transforming.”
“What are you talking about?” Jonathan asked.
“Ships are dropping out of formation,” Miko said. “Raakarr and United Systems alike.”
Jonathan switched to the rearmost camera. He saw that vessels were indeed leaving the sickle shape. Three bright flashes made him blink.
“The Atlantis self-destructed,” Ensign Lewis said. “The Harangue, too. And several of the Raakarr.”
Good-bye Captains Tabari and Brown.
Another flash came from the bunch.
“Which ship was that?” Jonathan said.
Before the ensign could answer, the vice admiral came over the line, fleet-wide, and Jonathan waved her to silence.
“We’ve lost the Renegade,” Levieson said. “The flagship is gone. Admiral Ford went down with her ship. The Leviathan will follow shortly. We’ve been struck by the Elder beam. We thought it was merely some kind of particle weapon. We were dearly mistaken.”
The vice admiral coughed raggedly, as if the air on the bridge was running out, or polluted. Jonathan quickly piped the feed to the bridge circuit, so the officers could hear.
“They’re not particles,” Levieson continued. “They’re nanobots. Trillions of them. They’re feeding off the ship, reproducing, and transforming our hull, our bulkheads, our bodies, as they progress like a rampant disease from deck to deck. We’re decelerating, trying to put some distance between ourselves and the rest of the fleet, so that we can self-destruct without harming the rest of you.”
He paused for long moments.
“They’ve reached the Leviathan’s bridge,” the vice admiral finally said. “The bulkheads are swaying like they’re alive. It’s not a sight I’d wish on any man, captain or no. I’m faced with a scenario that every CO dreads: the no-win. I have to lock down the ship, issue the order to self-destruct. No lifepods can be allowed to launch: we can’t risk this disease spreading to the rest of you.
“I’m placing Captain Jonathan Dallas in command of the fleet. He has demonstrated leadership and heroism in the face of adversity. And he has dealt with these aliens and their ilk before. Humanity faces its own no-win. If anyone can find a way to overcome that scenario, it is him. Follow him well. Follow—” His voice distorted and the transmission cut out.
“The Leviathan self destructed, sir,” Lewis said.
Jonathan stared at the tactical display, too stunned to speak.
I wanted to be the flagship commander. But not like this. Never like this.
“The Callaway is now in command of the battle group,” Miko said. “Your orders, Captain?”
The lieutenant’s voice snapped Jonathan backed to attention. He had a fleet to save.
“Continue on present course,” Jonathan said. “Let’s put as much distance from the planet as we can.” It was all he could think of at the moment. He just wanted to get the fleet the hell out of there.
“Ops, how many of our ships did we lose in the flyby?” Jonathan asked.
“Fifteen United Systems vessels, and seven Raakarr,” the ensign replied. “Including the three laser ships.”
Jonathan was hoping the latter long-range ships had survived. An unfortunate loss. A part of his mind noted that he felt little remorse for fallen vessels other than from a strategic standpoint. He had grown hardened to death and destruction during his latest tour of duty. How could he not, given all he had seen?
Though he supposed it helped that he hadn’t been in command of the overall fleet when those losses occurred.
But I am now.
“Did all of our ships self-destruct?” Jonathan asked.
“All the Raakarr did, yes, but only twelve among the United Systems managed to complete the procedure.”
“Do we know what the nanobots did to the survivors?”
“They’ve formed three new scavenger ships,” Lewis said. “A fourth has just materialized as well, from the debris of the affected nukes and mortars.”
He glanced at the rearmost camera. In place of the lost ships, nukes, and mortars, were indeed four new scavenger ships.
“I wonder what happened to the human crews?” Miko said.
“You heard Levieson,” Jonathan said. “The nanobots used the raw materials of everything aboard to create these new ships. Everything.”
“They must be autonomous,” Robert said.
“They would have to be,” Jonathan replied. “The nanobots likely form some sort of cloud AI or hive intelligence that guides the ships.”
“Well at least now we know why they were herding us all this time,” Miko said. “Rather than destroying our ships, they’d much rather have the Elder convert us into more
of them. Why put our craft to waste, after all?”
Jonathan nodded absently. He wasn’t sure that was entirely the reason. Still, the notion that most of those vessels out there were former United Systems ships nauseated him. Their crews, broken down into molecular components to build bulkheads and decks...
“The super-suits are returning to the Elder ship,” Ensign Lewis announced.
“What about the four new scavengers?” Jonathan asked.
“They’re breaking off their pursuit as well...” Lewis replied. “Decelerating, as if they intend to join the other scavengers in orbit.”
Jonathan searched the tactical display for something else. “What about the four Raakarr we sent to distract the original three scavengers that left orbit to intercept us?”
“None of the four Raakar ships survived,” Lewis said. “But they did manage to terminate one of the scavengers.”
A somewhat fair trade, given that the pyramid ship the admiral had ordered him to include with the four was among the most powerful the Raakarr had.
“Incidentally,” the ensign continued. “Those scavengers are also decelerating and returning toward Earth. None of them are pursuing.”
Jonathan furrowed his brow. “A bit odd, but I’ll take it.” He noticed that the moon was almost directly ahead on the tactical display. Perhaps it was a mistake to continue on the same course.
“I’m a bit leery that there might be an ambush waiting for us behind the moon,” Robert said.
“I was just having the same thought,” Jonathan said.
“It would explain why they let us go so easily,” Robert said.
Jonathan nodded. “Miko, order the fleet to give the moon a wide berth.”
The course vectors of the fleet updated.
“Captain,” Lewis said. “The five Elk-controlled ships with us are decelerating.”
“Wethersfield, get those ships in line,” Jonathan sent.
Barrick was the one who answered. “Valor says they’re not responding.”
“They’ve decided they’re on the wrong side,” Robert said.
