by Lee Guo
"Five days," Bresly said crisply.
Five days…not bad. Prancort just needed to delay the enemy fleet for five days. "Ok, here is my plan. We collect the missile dumps from twenty systems that are closest to us and away from the snake invasion route, we load our retrofitted freighters with these missiles, then use the 14,000 missiles to destroy the snake starships…battleships and missile carriers included.
The group stared at him.
"It's a simple plan," Prancort continued, "But there are lot factors it depends upon. One, we need to be able to keep the snake fleet away from FTL while our missiles move into position, behind and flanking the enemy fleet. Two, we need to make sure enough missiles survive the snake fighters to mortally damage the snake's second invasion fleet. Three, we need enough time to delay the snake fleet somewhere, where they won't mortally wound our production forces, which is their target for their invasion, while our freighters become converted into missile transports. Four—"
The table went into an uproar. Dozens of men and women varied from appearances of excitement to concern, to critical disdain of the idea.
"Sir!" one of the disdainful faces spoke, a rear admiral named Kelli Mosbie, "I respectfully disagree! Emptying the intersystem pickets from twenty star systems will expose those systems to vulnerable attacks by any snake battleship, even just one light-cruiser. Once the snake commander finds out all he—it—needs to do is split his fleet up, sending one battle ship to each system and he'll do terrifying damage to that system, we'll be exposing our systems to danger. And since we don't have enough battleships to intercept—"
"I understand that." Prancort held his palm up facing her, "But at this point in the war, and in this crucial stage, we need to do whatever we can to take out that secondary invasion fleet, even if it means something dangerous, like depleting our intersystem missile pickets. I must remind you that if we don't destroy this fleet, the snake commander will travel to each of our core worlds and bombard the orbital construction facilities to pieces, irrelevant of the missile picket in that system. Only by combining our missile pickets into one attack can we prevent this invasion from destroying us irreversibly, if that means draining each system's picket—?"
"Sir! But when he finds out—" stammered Mosbie.
"It'll be too late," Prancort supplied. I hope. "That was my fourth factor…whether we can do this before he finds out."
Murmurs scattered across the table.
"You're taking a lot of risks," said one heavy set rear admiral. "I must respectfully go against this idea, sir."
"I second that," said another.
"Then," Prancort seethed, eyeing the long table, "Give me a better alternative to preventing our core worlds from being destroyed."
Silence.
Someone far away stood up. "We can delay the second snake invasion fleet until help arrives from Admiral Prion's forces."
Prancort eyed the man. Commodore Weslayett, a tactical officer. "For how long? There’s a limit to how long we can delay the second snake fleet. Once the snake commander of that fleet finds out we're just trying to delay him and we have no intension of fighting a battle, he'll just ignore us and head to the core worlds, whether we fight a battle using our three battleships or not."
"I'm also against delaying the second invasion fleet in hopes of Admiral Prion." The old Rear Admiral Wilks stood up. "We don't know how Admiral Prion's battle fared. She could have lost for all we know. In that case, we would have no military units retreating from that front that we can use to defeat the second invasion fleet. And there's always the case if we wait too long, the first invasion fleet will attack from the center, having defeated Admiral Prion."
"I agree." Prancort nodded. "It's best to risk a lot to destroy the second fleet fast, in case Admiral Prion failed to defeat the first. If she failed, we'll have even more trouble on our hands soon."
This time, the table wasn’t silent. Murmurs crept throughout the table, interlaced with shouts of arguments. Many people were in discord with each other over the risks and rewards of draining the intersystem missile dumps, especially near the core worlds.
Amongst the shouting, Admiral Prancort closed his eyes. Aye, what a desperate position to be in. Never in his academy days, did he think he'd ever be in such desperation. To be forced to make a hard choice.
However, it’s an officer's duty to make hard choices, to be there when that hard decision point came, and to live with the consequences, no matter what happened. Captain Donovan who he just met in person remained as living metal proof of this principle. There’s no sense in trying to change his commanding ways now. "I've decided." Admiral Prancort's voice echoed out, strong and solid.
The shouting and arguments ceased. The table was his.
"We are going to drain the intersystem missile dumps, and we will beat this invasion fleet from the periphery."
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Star System KA1401, Outer core of the Viron Empire
Hiveship Roro Cro-Drignon, Fleet Command Nexus
Three Days Later
Arriving...
Another new system, another new prey to destroy....
Inside the command room, Roro Cro-Drignon's mandibles clicked in the dim toned-down light of KA1401 main sequence star artificially holographed above. The holographic map showed another vibrant star system of the human empire, with thousands of little fishes darting in and out of its colossal orbital infrastructure.
This is a larger world. Almost a core world, but not completely.
Roro's interface tank, by which his twenty-two legs connected, continued to feed information into his hindbrain about the light readings of the inner system. So many starships, so many targets ripe for the taking. Yet, Roro knew that with limited resources, he couldn't take out all of those targets, or even most of it. Most of the fishes would escape unscathed, but the orbital construction docks...they would be destroyed...as they must...for they were the target of the invasion.
This is why he was here. A new human system, a new place, to wreck as much damage as he could to the human's ability to create new ships.
His hindbrain scanned the entire spectrum of the star system, looking for things—starships and fortresses—that could put up a fight.
Surprising enough, there was one gigantic battle station orbiting the fourth planet capable of destroying one of his battleships if Roro wasn't careful. But without more information, Roro couldn't know how it would fare against his entire fleet. He predicted and believed it wouldn't be able to take on all eight of his battleships. He doubted it, but he'd need more information.
As always, this system would be defended by what the humans called a ‘missile picket’ as Roro witnessed immediately upon his emergence from warp space, the appearance of a thousand small gravity waves accelerating towards his fleet from in-system. The humans must have seen his fleet's grav signatures, which would be detectable simultaneously with no lag ,
Except this time, the missiles came immediately, which meant the human commander was quick, probably a higher ranked commander compared with the previous system Roro just attacked. "Fighter groups one, two, and three…intercept those missiles!" Immediately, Roro's commands raced through his thought interface tank and down the Cell chain of command. So quickly, that Roro instantly viewed his fighter groups detaching from his carriers and heading on interception trajectories to take out those human missiles.
He stared at the planets within the solar system. Electromagnetic radiation emanated from all five planets, but most of it concentrated on the fourth planet. That means, the fourth planet is the most habited.
"All starships, fire kinetic kill particles at the fourth planet! The other planets are not worthy of our fire!"
"Yes, master commander!" came the replies from his inferiors on board all his ships.
Roro mused. Kinetic bombardment would probably destroy all life on the fourth planet, but as for the orbital facilities, his main target, he would have to get in close and star
t a laser fight, because they had deflector shields that could bend his KK particles off course.
But first, he needed to destroy this orbital battle station .
Star System Arachnia, Outer Core of the Viron Empire
Battle Station VSF Von Heppner, orbiting Fourth Planet Cerebrus
Operations Room
At the same time...
"Kinetic-kill acceleration waves on scanners!" yelled tactical. "Sir, what do we do?"
Commodore Arnolf Delacroix gazed at the holotank with tightened fists on the railings. "Alert civilian command. Tell all civilians to head to underground bunkers."
"Yes, sir!"
Commodore Delacroix closed his eyes. He couldn't believe it. The snakes were here. But, then, how could he not have known? The snakes wanted to destroy humanity's core worlds, and the quickest route was through this system, Arachnia, or through its neighbor, Aubuff. Then, since they were coming this way, they might as well destroy his system as well.
This meant, it would be Commodore Delacroix turn to take the heat, to sacrifice his life in defense of his family, his friends and his race.
"Commodore," said comm, "Should we evacuate the station? We can't beat all those snake starships, plus those thirteen missile freighters look menacing."
"No," Delacroix answered. "No retreat. We stay and fight. We'll take out as many of the snakes before they kill us."
He didn't add…that's how it's done. The Imperial Engineers of high command didn't build this battle station, just so we could ditch it and remote control it from far away at the first sign of the odds being against us. "We stand and fight," repeated Delacroix.
"Yes, sir."
"However," Delacroix added, "Tell all other ships to make the quickest way out of the system and to safety."
"Yes, sir," said Comm.
"Ops, ready the messenger packets with updated information on the snake fleet and retreat them to high command. Send them on four separate routes."
"Yes, sir," said Ops.
Delacroix gazed at the holotank. Just how much of the snake fleet could he take out? Using the system's missile picket and his own battle station…he could take out maybe one or two snake capital ships, if he were really lucky. After all, his twenty kilometer ball of a battle station wasn't an eighty kilometer Maximus Decimus like the fleet command uses as their flag ship. The VSF Von Heppner was about the size of Viron juggernaut. Worse yet, it was immobile. If the snakes sent all their warships at him, he'd be overwhelmed easily even so, a good chance remained that he could take out one snake warship...
Among the commotion of the operations room, Delacroix silently nodded to himself. That needed to be his goal—what he had to concentrate on.
Just take out one snake battleship, even a small one. Make it easier for fleet command to take on this snake fleet when they do fight.
If they do fight...
Star System Arachnia, Outer Core of the Viron Empire
Fourth Planet Cerebrus
Marine Central Command Bunker, Southern Continent
Cerebrus, the fourth planet in the star system, and like many habitable plants within the human empire, it maintained an earthlike gravity of 1.2 G. With a warm climate and many plants and animal species…What stellar cartographers called an Eden world, a precious gem of many gems within human space.
Marine General Dayton Opheim loved his home. For many years, it had been. Precisely why it sickened him to think of it as the target of planetary kinetic bombardment. He didn't want to think the planet would soon succumb to shockwaves from ultra-relativistic particles, nor did he want to see those mile high walls of fire or enormous tidal waves.
The snakes were ruthless creatures. This planet isn’t even among the list of planets they wanted to control, yet they still wanted to eradicate every living creature on it. The snakes were monsters, cruel unbending freaks, with no sense of compromise and full of animalistic take-and-grab nature.
Which is why Brigadier General Opheim would do his best to defend it if, and when…the snakes decided to land ground parties.
With a population of one million civilians, Cerebrus warranted a marine garrison. Opheim was in charge of this marine garrison with about ten thousand troops under his command. Really, a nonentity against fleet combat numbers, it did allow Opheim some power in case, the snakes wanted to control the land.
But the real question is—did the snakes want to even control the planet's surface? Or were they okay with just bombarding the surface to glass?
Either way, Brigadier General Opheim was safe. His command bunker sat under twelve miles of hard rock, but he couldn't say the same about the one million civilians...
The civilians owned underground bunkers themselves. Perhaps not as deep, they would be protected when the kinetic rounds hit—sort of. Their bunkers were in fact designed against kinetic rounds by an enemy fleet— unlike those at Kolonides II. In general, the closer the planet was to the core worlds, or the closer it was to the predicted snake invasion path from the center borders, the stronger and deeper the bombardment bunkers were.
Here, in Cerebrus, the bunkers were of much higher quality and deepness than Kolonides, which existed a periphery world.
Therefore, inside the command bunker, General Opheim felt ready for anything the snake fleet would give him. He estimated over 70% of the civilian forces and over 90% of his marine detachment would survive the initial bombardment wave.
That’s a pretty good number...even though it meant 300,000 humans might die.
Also, and of course, General Opheim did have something for the snakes if, and when, they decided to enter orbit around Cerebrus, his planet as well.
Star System Arachnia, Outer Core of the Viron Empire
Battle Space
Eight snake warships, each kilometers wide, accelerated inward towards the system's fourth planet. The largest of the snake starships…a snake juggernaut, which served as flagship of fleet. This juggernaut, called Cro-Drignon, accelerated at the center of the snake battle wall . This formation was not out of any caution or fear of losing, Roro Cro-Drignon simply wanted his fleet to be in the best reception formation, when they began exchanging laser shots with the only battle-capable unit the humans had in the system, the twenty-five kilometer round battle station—the humans called VSF Von Heppner.
An hour ago, from the other side of the system, the human battle station called Von Heppner launched a thousand missiles at the snake fleet. In order to counterattack the human's system's missile picket, Roro Cro-Drignon then launched three squadrons of snake fighter-interceptors, totaling 3400 miniature grav waves.
An hour later, at present time, the human missiles intertwined with the snake fighters. The snake fighters lasered away three hundred human missiles before the missiles exited the snake fighters' laser range, which meant seven hundred human missiles remained on course. When the seven hundred missiles entered the snake capital ships' point defense-laser envelope, another two hundred missiles were destroyed. When the snake starships then launched electronic countermeasures, another hundred lost tracking permanently. When the four hundred remaining human missiles entered the snakes' counter missile and flak range, another two hundred human missiles died. The remaining two hundred human missiles smashed into a snake light-cruiser from the front.
Twenty gigatons of explosive power combined with forty gigatons of kinetic energy, blasting waves of raw superheated plasma into the snake's frontal armor. This time, the light-cruiser did not have enough armor to protect all its vital systems. Fireballs rushed through corridors and entire hull sections exploded. Immediately, it stopped its acceleration and just drifted inward from out system, like a limping animal.
Inside the human battle station Von Heppner, the command crew cheered.
However, this was just one part of the battle. The humans had no more missiles.
On the other side of the system, snake kinetic kill slugs launched hours ago, slammed into the inhabited planet of Cerebrus, destroying
its surface much like the destruction of Kolonides II a week earlier. Walls of fire rings expanded from the epicenters of the blasts, vaporizing anything in its path.
On the planet, over eighty percent of the one million humans survived the blasts because of the strength of their underground bunkers. The numbers were well above predicted estimates by General Opheim's staff.
From his underground bunkers, General Opheim watched the snake fleet decelerate. Of course, the enemy had to slow down in order to come into stationary orbit with Cerebrus to hammer away at the orbital facilities.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Star System Arachnia, Outer Core of the Viron Empire
Battle station VSF Von Heppner, orbiting Cerebrus
Operations Room
6 hours later...
"Seven snake ships entering our laser envelope...now!" said tactical.
"All lasers, fire! Target that small light-cruiser!" Commodore Delacroix ordered, eyeing the snake battle wall, as it was displayed inside the room-sized holotank.
"Aye, sir, firing!"tactical responded.
On the holotank, Delacroix's battle station's lasers crisscrossed with those of the snake fleet. The operations room rumbled with laser hits to the station's outer structure.
Inside the rumbling structure, Delacroix steadily held onto his armrests. So, the laser war has begun. I wonder how long we'll last?
While he scanned the holotank, he saw his battle station 's 200 juggernaut-sized laser guns spit x-rays into the frontal armor of the snake light-cruiser. The vast amount of energy collided on the snake lighty's frontal armor, exploding entire plates into plasma. The enemy ship's frontal hull splintered in every direction. As more and more of his laser beams dug inward, more beams found vulnerable holes created by previous beams.
