by Angel Bright
It was explicitly mentioned in the agreement that Earth was a trading partner of the Solar Federation and nothing more. The politicians understood that but hid the reality from their voters. They demonstrated only their own majesty. But it was difficult to hide from the employees of the BWU Corporation the truth about the selling of its subsidiaries and offices, about the declining production on the planet itself, and about the discontinued deliveries of raw materials from the Gambling Ring. Earth’s closure in the area of Earth’s outer space started becoming noticeable.
31 Ceres—War with the Horners
Beautiful Ceres was a new and exciting world and wonderful with its Jupiter nights. Flashy caravans of transport ships and shuttles flew over clear seas, green reefs, and man-made continents. We had plans for a maximum of one million colonists, but the number of people who had arrived to date exceeded five million, and some of them said they would bring their families.
Nolen, accompanied by a huge staff of administrators and bunch of supporters, was urgently organizing architectural bureaus for urban planning, engineering-construction organizations, businessmen, and entrepreneurs seeking assistance for creating industrial parks, warehouses, and residential and industrial buildings.
There was panic when the deliveries of huge amounts of cement began. I admired this early entrepreneur momentarily monopolizing the market for building materials in one go. Monstrous amounts of cargo were flooding us from space. The entrepreneurs had waited for us to start the colonization of the asteroid and had accumulated storage reserves. I had no idea that so many people had gathered in Jupiter’s treasury and how deeply they had considered the most rational use of the situation. The greatest treasures of the solar system were accumulated in the rings of Saturn and the Gambling Ring. The free treasures circled in their orbits; people could virtually reach out, take as much as they wanted, and store it in orbit around Ceres and the closest satellites. I withdrew my battle fleet farther from Jupiter’s orbital temptations and the Gambling Ring to protect it in spite of the arisen discontent.
I was still in the flagship aircraft carrier, and I was enjoying the new unmanned fighters when the command room announced a high level of readiness. Unfamiliar flying objects had arrived and were moving toward the designated boundaries of the Solar Federation. I hustled into the command helm. On the holographic picture were six objects in an ideal, compressed group crossing the yellow stripe of the pre-fronted space, cruising at sub-light speed. The commander of the flagship ordered two aircraft carriers to be moved to positions suitable for firing. He outlined routs for starting the firing by comparing the data provided by the observation and computing centers of the ship. I was not convinced they would be able to hit something from the fast group or even if firing in this situation were necessary, but no one could interfere when the chief marshal of the fleet had given a battle command. The aircraft carriers could produce only one shot each from their powerful bow turrets in the brief moment of maximum closeness to the targets.
I was curious to witness this battle training with the new toys.
Remote observation through space was slower, and we could observe and comment on the taking of positions and the moment of shooting, the accuracy of matching the point of overtaking, in order for the target and the striking beam to meet. It was an extremely difficult mathematical construction even for modern computers, especially if we considered the shooting was from a million kilometers away. Even the energy beam was influenced when it crossed a space rich with nonhomogeneous energy fields. I thought of a sniper shooting through a whirlwind. I hoped the military personnel had become good in these calculations.
The group of unknown ships was moving through the space all the way into the red zone. If these ships’ speed had been lower, our fighters would already be taking off.
I remembered the time when we did a similar attack at a similar speed, and I waited for something like that. At that point, we had already started launching our fighters, but these people were doing nothing.
Maybe they were ordinary passersby or doing reconnaissance of combat capabilities. I tried to share my insight with the chief marshal, but the observer shouted.
“Fire!”
I had been expecting it later and was surprised. Whatever the strangers’ goal, they had already achieved it, and we had taken the bait.
I heard a clear call: “Earth, Earth, Earth…here is Taliano, the Corba system, the Kerrani Federation. The Corba system is calling Earth.”
My attention sharpened. “Earth is listening, Corba system.”
“Black ships…dozens…they crushed the federal fleet…are now destroying our battleships.”
“Taliano, why are you contacting Earth?”
“We trust only you.”
“Are there any non-damaged ships of the federation that can fire?”
“We have a lot, but it’s a total chaos. Without us, the planets—”
“Shut up! Prepare to write down.”
“I’m on the computer. Ready!”
“Write down F 1492 APO 2396 W 3. Did you record?”
“Yes. F 1492 APO 2396 W 3.”
“Correct. Give this code to an armaments officer. Tell them to reconfigure the blaster frequencies. Immediately! Tell the other warships, too. Urgent! Save the fleet, Taliano!”
“I understand. I’m going!”
“Marshal Kreps, combat alert! The most modern aircraft carriers will go first. The Horners are leading a large-scale attack on the Kerrani Federation. Should they destroy the fleet, the insectoids will have food and new nests for breeding—huge nests and prospects in the heart of the star branch. We are their food, Kreps. We are the nests for their larvae.”
“Target struck!” screamed the operative officer. “We have eliminated at least one.”
Beginners always had luck. I watched the bright spot from the explosion and realized my fears were confirmed. This combat group was designed to prevent us from engaging in more important combat operations. We were far away, but we were dangerous. We were more dangerous than the empire’s Unified Fleet.
“Marshal Kreps, the Clementina aircraft carrier will stay here to deal with these cockroaches. They are here, and they always explode so nicely when we hit them. The remaining thirty-five will leave in an hour. You will direct the defense of the Solar Federation. All planetary batteries are to be put on constant combat alert in full strength.”
“Yes, sir! I’d like to be with you.”
“You have professional experience, and I am counting on you. I’ll constantly keep in touch with your headquarters. You saw we can destroy them.”
“I wish you luck!”
“You, too. For the first time, we will fight on two fronts.”
The operative officer cut in. “Fearless reports it is ready.”
I teleported the fleet in groups of two carriers at thirty-minute intervals. We were the last to arrive on the battlefield with the minifrigate Fearless. The battle was low in the orbit around the central Planet Corba. Hundreds of battleships of different classes maneuvered vigorously in a limited space. We determined the positions of aircraft carriers from our fleet according to the empty space freed around them. They actively used the fire of all their batteries when they found an undamaged black ship, and our fleet of fighters explored all the clusters of destroyed ships spinning in orbit. There were hundreds that had been destroyed by the Kerrani Unified Fleet. The black ships burned as if depressurized. They self-destructed.
I tried to contact Taliano, and he responded instantly.
“Do you detect any black ships anywhere?” I asked.
“No, sir. No one is left. Everybody was burned. They never retreated.”
“Taliano, I would like to congratulate you for the decision to ask for our help.”
“Please, come here, sir! I never leave the flagship Beraritz. Sir, you turned the battle around. Armaments Officer Saliano did not believe me at first and yelled at me, but after reading your message several times, he
decided there was something familiar and reset the nearest blaster. One of the black ships had pressed us, and our volleys could not penetrate its protective field. Saliano fired, and its protective field collapsed. A few more volleys hit it, and it exploded. Saliano went to the command room, and he began to give commands to the entire fleet, sir. To the entire fleet! Even the most senior commander went silent while Saliano ordered the resetting of the batteries and the order of the series. In about an hour, about a dozen of the black ships burst into flames, and then your shuttles attacked and swept off the rest of them. There are already legends being told about you on the ship, sir.”
“Taliano, we’ll meet. We are now leaving because we have a bit more work to do. I’ll find you.”
I started collecting my fleet. This proved to be quite difficult because fighters were scattered over long distances, and this turned out to be a major attraction for the United Navy of Kerrani when our aircraft carriers opened their air-deck covers and the fighters themselves began to automatically take up their nests. The first three aircraft carriers that collected their full complement of fighters teleported immediately home to reinforce the Earth Defense.
Fateful adventures awaited.
The threat was real, and it came from Alpha Centauri.
End of book one.
Book two
DEFENSE DAYS
Book two
DEFENSE DAYS
On board the flagship Enderagor, which had a leading position in the Third Diamond group, Streptor Wo was observing the irrational attack of the miniature battleship that looked like an imperial navy ship. The release of swarms of fighters through the open casing was an enormous surprise to him, startling because of its senselessness. It seemed to be a kind of self-sacrifice, since they would be wiped out in seconds by the perfect Blacks.
“Zender Tui, please remind me after the battle to fire the ziter of this ship, if he’s still alive! Stay in formation! Send a message to the ships to stay in formation at all costs! This ziter has doomed himself! We will all end up dead if we try to save him!”
“Streptor, just look how the small ones fight!”
Streptor Wo turned to the screen, and all the tentacles along his chin contracted in surprise. More than ten suns were shining brightly in the stream of the Black ships. The small ship twisted sharply upwards so that the Black ships chasing it became excellent targets.
“Keep repulsing the attack of the main group of Black ships!” ordered Streptor Wo, and the four guns of the nearby gun turret started rattling above his head...
Book three
COMBAT FOR SUPREMACY
Book three
COMBAT FOR SUPREMACY
They are not what I was afraid of! They control minds! Sapient beings are just toys in the attack of their goal-oriented mind! They are powerful, energetic, and diligent creatures. They are the only ones who are teleported away from the imperial battle squadrons before the total destruction of the flagships. Ship crews are valuable.
Not a single member of the crew of the mini-frigate Fearless gave up on the challenge of the reconnaissance mission to Tonem, the third planet in the Nunu Etema star system of the constellation Pisces. In terms of our idea of a galactic hell, it was a strange place. An indistinguishable red sun, covered with a dark shroud of dust and ashes, and three medium sized planets slowly rotated around the star. The outer planet turned out to be inhabitable.
Even the ship’s powerful radar could barely break through the clouds of cosmic dust swirling around in the orbital shadow of the planet. Bright flashes of lightning outlined the collision of the electrified dust balls, emanating like a signaling beacon from the dark planet.
