SAW 1: Stars at War

by Lee Guo

  Bobbi tapped commands into her consoles and punched the button. Suddenly, her entire fighter went into shut down mode. All the electronics turned off, except for life support.

  She would wait. Wait until the battle was over. Wait until humanity had won... if they won.

  Hopefully this will work? Bobbi’s craft entered the PD envelope of a snake juggernaut.

  Human Juggernaut Western Star

  Temporary Flag Bridge

  The theatre-like bridge brimmed with activity since it became the flag bridge of the fleet. Officers hollered to each other in excited voices while starring into computer displays. First Officer Davis gaped at Captain Jacobs in awe. The man seemed so cool, sitting there in his captain's chair and calmly voicing commands to his starships. Didn't Jacobs know he now controlled the human fleet and the future of humanity depended on him? Didn't he know the battle situation was desperate like hell?

  Davis, who stood behind his captain, looked at the 3D battlemap ahead with nervousness and curiosity. The captain frightened him. All the years he'd been with the man, he couldn't believe how calm his captain looked, considering how much was at stake. He had to be hiding his anxiety. The man must be pushing it all away.

  Some leaders are naturally born, I’ve hear that before. Such confidence in the face of such responsibility! I'm in the presence of a genius!

  That, or a man who doesn't understand the danger and extremity of the situation.

  Then, not only did Captain Jacobs take command of a perilous situation, he avoided disaster by using numerous tricks, turning disaster into a stalemate.

  Captain Jacobs...the man of the hour. A talent only found when all seemed to be lost. In admiration, Davis stared at the captain in the far back. Then, he turned his attention back towards the first two rows of computer displays which controlled the ship. The ship now became primarily Davis's responsibility, since the captain concentrated on the fleet….

  ….Senior Captain Jacobs barked out commands to his fleet. His bridge kept molding, shifting, taking control of the fleet on the spot. It looked beautiful from his vantage point above and behind it all.

  However—it wasn't enough.

  His ships dodged, twisted, and flanked the enemy starships in a massive dogfight, but they simply weren't killing enough to make the battle a victory. It was enough to turn it into a stalemate. In the last fifteen minutes, he lost four battleships, while killing five snake starships. Now, there were 17 human starships fighting 24 snakes.

  Now, of course, retreat was not an option. Accelerating away from the battlefield with your backs turned towards the enemy would be utter suicide. Accelerating away while forward-facing the enemy would never succeed either, because the enemy ships could accelerate forward faster than you could accelerate backwards.

  So, what in the stars could he do?

  There’s only thing Jacobs could do. He needed to do better…to try harder. There was no other choice. How could he have known the snakes would kill the entire command staff and he'd be the one to volunteer?

  Though, Jacobs knew he must volunteer, because the human fleet was in peril and no one else would accept command. The only other option would be to make that brave, little Wing Commander fleet leader, and stars knew, she didn't have the equipment inside her little cockpit to do it. Now when he thought of her, where is she? Bobbi Duke probably retreated to her carrier by now.

  Jacobs shook his head. He must concentrate on the task at hand. "Fleet commander Jacobs to heavy-cruiser Hell's Fury," he said into his mic.

  "Yes, captain?" a voice on the net from 30,000 kilometers away.

  "Align yourself with the heavy-cruiser Bellopheron and light-cruiser Lightning's Razor to form a wall by using all three positions, with each ship facing inward towards the center of the battlefield."

  "But that will leave us open to rear attacks by snake A14 and A22."

  "It's fine. You will suffer minimum damage compared to not turning."

  A pause. "Yes, sir. Turning as ordered."

  Jacobs sat back into his chair and stared into the holotank, analyzing it. Yes, his tactics were working. Just enough. He kept doing just enough to equalize a numerically superior enemy in terms of the ratio of losses and kills. All while he continuously scanned for the perfect move, the Holy Grail which would win the battle. Jacobs sighed. The solution eluded him.

  He kept searching and it must be there.

  The game seemed like three-dimensional chess, except everything moved in real time. Jacobs was a legend at chess. Surely, if anyone could find the ultimate solution, he could. Yet...

  While the minutes passed by, and the numbers on both sides dwindled, Jacobs found himself wincing every time a human starship was lost. He still ordered his ships around to adapt to the new situation, but that indefinable ultimate solution never reached his mind.

  Years from now, he knew, he would disparage himself. Why didn't I think of that particular move? Why did I fail to see it? Yet, for all he would later do, he still failed to find a move to change the tide.

  14 human starships to 20 snakes.

  10 humans to 14 snakes.

  5 humans to 8 snakes.

  Jacobs continued loosing ships at the same percentage rate as the enemy. Since the enemy started with more ships, the enemy lost more as the minutes ticked by. Eventually, he resigned into thinking he did his best, that his best was just enough to equal the enemy, despite being numerically inferior.

  Then, it hit him. There!

  But why now? Almost too late! The battlefield shrunk to much smaller stage now. There were only five human ships still operational to the snakes' eight. The crumbled wreckage of numerous starships, both alien and friendly, and hundreds of thousands of personnel lay solemn on the battlefield.

  Still, it was worth a shot. Anything to gain an advantage, even at this late in the game.

  "Starships Hell's Fury and Agamemnon, accelerate backwards until you are able to shoot the sides of snake cruisers A14 and A19."

  "Yes, sir."

  A simple maneuver. By retreating the two starships Hell's Fury and Agamemnon back towards the outer perimeter of the battlefield, it prevented enemy starships from firing on their rears and allowed the remaining five human starships to encircle the enemy fleet. This wouldn't be possible if it were not for the fact the human starships could accelerate backwards without changing the direction they faced. Snake starships could not duplicate the maneuver.

  On the holotank, he witnessed his starships performing the task. Brilliantly, the trap was set. "It's over," mouthed Jacobs.

  The remaining eight snakes were encircled. Human starships began targeting the snakes' backs and sides without being done the same way. The perfect encirclement…human starships forward faced and surrounded a snake fleet from all sides.

  Naturally, the snakes' losses increased substantially. One exploded. Seven more to go.

  Two dead. Six more to go.

  Then the snake fleet pushed in an attempt to break out of the encirclement. All six ships tilted towards a gap—one Jacobs couldn't close with his five ships—and the snakes boosted in that direction. However, this meant they were forced to forward face that direction, leaving their rears exposed to Jacob's fire.

  Jacobs understood it….a tradeoff. Rather than be encircled and annihilated, they chose to leave the battlefield and at the same time…temporarily expose their rears to human fire.

  However, to everyone who saw the retreat on the main holotank, it looked fantastic. Officers yelled in enthusiasm. Techs managing the rows of monitors jumped with excitement.

  "All ships," yelled Jacobs into the fleet net, "Fire into their exposed rear! Chase them for as long as possible!"

  During the chase, one more snake starship exploded. Though, once the enemy fleet reached a certain distance, the snakes stopped accelerating away and turned 180 degrees to forward face the human chasers. Once again, the two fleets forward faced each other, separated by 80,000 kilometers.

  Looking
at the holotank, Jacobs winced. This wasn’t a good position for the human fleet to be in. The human starships weren't good at a front-front slugging match, not against snake ships.

  "All ships…accelerate backwards," Jacobs directed to his fleet.

  "We're disengaging, captain?" said First Officer Davis, who now stood beside him.

  "Oh, yes, there's no way we can damage more than what we'll suffer in a front-front laser slugging match. It'll take forever to close the distance again, to the point where we can shoot side and rear shots and by then, the damage will be done by the front-front slugging match."

  "I see. You're the boss, captain." Davis smiled. "Excellent move, that encirclement."

  "Thank you." Jacobs couldn't smile himself. So many ships and crew had been lost. If only he’d found the solution earlier...

  While Jacobs glared at the holotank, he visualized the snake commander…wherever he was, if he, it, survived at all…choosing not to pursue. The snake fleet did exactly that. They did not accelerate forward to cancel Jacob's fleet accelerating backwards. They just stood there while Jacob's fleet accelerated away. Then, when both fleets exited extreme laser range from one another, the snake ships turned about face and accelerated in the opposite direction, off the battlefield.

  I guess they had enough, too…the white-haired Jacobs shook his head.

  In this way, the Battle of Hephaestus ended.

  Captain Jacobs sat back in his seat—truly a battle of annihilation. He wanted to commend the snakes on their bravery, just as he needed to commend his own survivors.

  However, with five snake starships still alive and five human starships still alive, it wasn't entirely over, either. Jacobs needed to take advantage of the temporary pause to do something useful. "All fleet units, send out the Search and Rescue tugs. We have to tend the wounded and the survivors."

  It occurred to Jacobs—now was the time to find out who lived and who died. Admiral Prion and Admiral Kirkeis, are you two still alive?

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Gamma Wing

  Mark Four Space Fighter ‘Zeta-1’

  Wing Commander's Cockpit

  Bobbi survived. By stars, she survived. Her grav wave disappearing trick worked. She knew it worked ten minutes in, when she hadn't been blasted to pieces by the snake juggernaut, after she felt certain she entered its PD laser envelope.

  For the rest of the battle, she calmly waited. Using passive sensors, she monitored the battle without emitting a single bit of information, except what light and electromagnetic radiation reflected off her twenty-meter hull.

  In utter fascination, she witnessed the entire annihilation of both fleets down to five ships each.

  The discipline involved amazed her. Her enemies and her allies were truly super soldiers. Once committed, they did not rout.

  Which she couldn't say for the human fighter wings, though understandable how the human fighter wings ran away. They were getting marginal gains while sustaining heavy losses by snake PD lasers. Still, she couldn't stop thinking about how so many pilots panicked when the shit hit the fan...

  Inside that dark cockpit, she booted her main power plant to life. Her fighter's fusion plants ignited. On her instruments, she pressed a button, opening a channel to the fleet's SAR net. "Wing Commander Bobbi Duke to search and rescue operations. My gravity emitters have been damaged. I need pickup."

  A moment passed. Then a voice came through her helmet, "Hold on Zeta-1. Rescue tugs on their way. Glad you made it."

  Bobbi felt a wash of relief. I made it. She survived the most vicious battle of her life, against all odds. "Thank you SAR command. I'll be waiting."

  Mobile Battle Fortress Epsilon Decimus

  Flag Bridge

  Vice Admiral Kirkeis was supposed to die. By all odds, his body should’ve been sprayed across the room—a mesh of fragmented body parts, splattered goo and burned blood.

  Yet, while thinking of what he should be, he fully knew he wasn’t all of that.

  The flag bridge of the Battle Fortress burned. The air wasn't breathable. The walls filled with wide gaping holes, a product of the starship's rampant energy fireballs and exploding metal fragments. On his helmet's net, he could hear the moaning of soon-to-be deceased crewmen.

  Medical personnel, dressed in white padded uniforms, scattered across the room, working on survivors. One such female walked close by. She peered down on him.

  "I'm alive," he said.

  "V-vice admiral?" The medic's eyes widened. "Help! The Vice Admiral is alive!

  Soon enough, four medics rushed to gather around him. They lifted his body onto a stretcher. As they carried him away from all the flaming carnage, Kirkeis choked. "Wait, is the battle over?"

  "Sir," the lead medic answered, "You're not physically fit to command. But yes, it's over. Scuttlebutt says the snakes have retreated behind a far moon."

  "Then, we've won?"

  The lead medic whispered, "I don't know."

  "And Admiral Prion?"

  The medic shook his head.

  "What happened to her?" whispered Kirkeis. "Tell me she's alive."

  The medic gazed down sadly. "She lost too much blood. We did not get to her fast enough. We failed. I failed. You're the highest ranking officer now, sir."

  Prion is dead? "Why didn't you get here in time? You could have saved her!"

  "I am sorry! The station was in a mess. Many urgent requests came in at the same time!"

  "More urgent than the highest ranking officer in the fleet?" yelled Kirkeis.

  "I am sorry, sir! It just wasn't possible to get to her fast enough. Now, if you will excuse me, we must get you to the med bay and save your life!" The lead medic glanced briefly at his distraught subordinates, who monitored his vitals and continued pushing him on the cart. "I'm sorry." The lead medic hurried away, disappearing from Kirkeis' narrow vision.

  Kirkeis stared up at the chrome metal ceiling as his cart hovered through the ship's corridors. He balled his fists.

  "Sir," said one of the medics controlling the cart behind him, "It's best you don't strain yourself. Please be calm."

  How could he be calm? So many people were dead. People important to him. Admiral Prion...Gilbert...Brigum... He’d seen his comrades at the table blown to bits. Only he survived...

  It wasn't fair! How only he survived the luck of the draw. Why must he live and the entire command staff die?

  At least, we didn't lose the battle, thought Kirkeis. At least, we fouled the snake admiral's plans. That, in itself, was a victory altogether.

  Kirkeis let his fist relax. Everyone did ok. The human fleet did ok. Whoever took command of the fleet did ok. It was unnecessary to hope for too much. It’s more important to work with what one had.

  Soon. When I'm better, I'll have another chance at it. Soon.

  With that, Kirkeis let his mind slip to exhaustion and sleep.

  Battle Statistics

  Battle of Hephaestus

  Date: 4091 AD (Galactic Year 1720), October 16th

  Result: Indecisive

  Belligerents: First Viron Empire (Modern Day Humans) / Cell Khanate (Insectoid Centipedia)

  Leaders (FVE) : Admiral Prion de Caille, Vice Admiral Kirkeis, Rear Admiral Gilbert, Commodore Brigum

  Leaders (Cell) : Second Master Commander Cro-Grombak

  Motivations (FVE) : Territorial Defense

  Motivations (Cell) : distraction, annihilation of the human fleet

  Strength (FVE) :

  55 capital ships (1.5 billion tons) / 590,000 Humans

  22 missile ships - 22,000 capital ship missiles/ 5,000 Humans

  10 light fighter carriers + 5 heavy fighter carriers - 24,000 fighters, / 30,000 Humans

  Strength (Cell) :

  72 capital ships (21 billion tons) / 2 Million Insectoids

  30 missile ships - 21,000 missiles/ 6,000 Insectoids

  30 fighter carriers - 32,000 fighters / 45,000 Insectoids

  Losses (FVE) : 50 capital ships ( 1.4 bi
llion tons) / all missiles destroyed / 17,000 pilots and fighters dead / 502,000 Humans dead / 80,403 Injured / 0 Captured / Admiral Prion de Caille, Rear Admiral Gilbert, Commodore Brigum—deceased

  Losses (Cell) : 67 Warships (19 billion tons) / all missiles destroyed / 32,000 pilots and fighters dead / 0.8 Million Insectoids Dead / 320,599 Injured / 0 Captured

  Part of : Early Insectoid Expansion Campaign (Show)

  Act 3

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Star System KA924, Periphery of the Viron Empire

  Second Cell Invasion Fleet

  Hiveship Roro Cro-Drignon

  Fleet Command Nexus

  Master Commander Roro Cro-Drignon's two forward mandibles clicked in excitement. His body slithered through the giant spherical command room. Using twenty-two legs, he moved closer to his command interface, at the very center of fleet's Nexus Chamber.

  Hundreds of lower-ranking officers in the outer spherical layers bowed to him in respect as he proceeded.

  Once he arrived at the center, his limbs and mandibles dug into the platform's soft-gelled interface layer, allowing his entire body to send commands to his fleet. In addition, nanite-augmented wires linked his brain with the warship's central computer, essentially making the warship take on his name, Roro Cro-Drignon.

  He could see and hear everything inside and outside of him, including the system's red star twenty million kilometers away. System KA924's star was a small red dwarf with a quarter as much mass as his race's birth world. The humans called it Kolonides, for whatever odd reason their weak culture deemed fitting.