SAW 1: Stars at War

by Lee Guo

  Next…the entire snake fleet fired back.

  The snake battle wall fired their grazers in unison at about five times the energy payload as the battle station 's. This quickly drained Delacroix's shields.

  Inside the command room, Delacroix heard DC say, "Shields at 50%! Falling…40%!"

  Delacroix gazed at the holotank. His shields were being ravaged. He could imagine the typical blue-green shield splattering everywhere.

  This was not good. Soon, his station would be shieldless. Then—everyone would die. Human armor couldn't compare to snake armor.

  Yet, Delacroix knew this would happen. But the reality of it happening, the speed of it, never dawned on him until now.

  "Shields at 30%!" said DC.

  "Have we damaged that light-cruiser we've been shooting?" Delacroix yelled at tactical.

  "Checking," tactical answered, "...no, sir. Its forward armor is heavily damaged, but we've only just started firing. I see no signs of severe internal damage or containment failure or wounds to its propulsion, power grids, or weapons. I estimate we need to keep firing for another two minutes before we'll see severe damage."

  "We don't have two minutes," Delacroix whispered.

  "Sir?"

  "Keep firing, Jerry."

  "Yes, sir."

  So we're all dead. Might as well try to save the crew. "Ops, order all hands to abandon the station."

  "We're ditching the station, commodore?" Ops asked.

  "Doesn't look like we have a choice. We can't damage any of their ships, because of their frontal armor, and we're about to take it once our shield saturation goes to nil."

  "Aye, sir. Abandoning the station." Ops pressed a button. "All hands abandon—"

  "Commodore, look below! The planet!" said Tactical.

  Star System Arachnia, Outer Core of the Viron Empire

  Fourth Planet Cerebrus

  Marine Central Command Bunker, Southern Continent

  "All surface batteries, fire!" General Opheim ordered into the mic.

  It took three minutes for the underground laser mounts to open up into attack mode. They had been closed in order to protect them from orbital bombardment. Once they opened up, the laser cannons aimed at the snake fleet high above.

  Now…they were ready. All thirty of them, positioned sporadically across the southern continent, fired into space above. Thirty fortress-sized laser beams dove upwards at light speed, each one hitting a snake warship from the side.

  Inside the command bunker, Opheim watched as his few but powerful lasers smacked into the snake fleet above.

  Side shots! That's gotta unsettle them! Opheim rubbed his nose.

  He could imagine the surprise for the snake commander up there, realizing the ground was shooting up at them. "Fire! Keep firing!" shouted Opheim. "Don't let up! Don't let those snake bastards have a moment of peace after what they've done to my planet!"

  Star System KA1401, Outer core of the Viron Empire

  Orbiting Fourth Planet Cerebrus

  Hiveship Roro Cro-Drignon, Fleet Command Nexus

  Surprise and pain funneled into Roro's hindbrain as he literally felt the laser beams from the planet hit his fleet in the side. He felt them, as they were his ships, as if he were one with his fleet, which he was.

  Should he turn his fleet? Was there enough flanking fire to warrant a turn? If he turned, the battle station in front would be able to shoot his sides.

  No, he shouldn't turn. As painful as it was to watch, there was not enough fire from the planet to warrant a turn. If he turned, he would receive more damage by exposing new side armor to the battle station.

  The best choice would be to destroy the battle station first.

  Fire!

  A little bit more...soon, the battle station's shields would be depleted, and it would be crumbling debris.

  Star System Arachnia, Outer Core of the Viron Empire

  Battle station VSF Von Heppner, Orbiting Cerebrus

  Operations Room

  Way to go, General Opheim! Delacroix grinned.

  Around him, officers cheered as the ground laser batteries hit the snake fleet from the side.

  Delacroix wanted to yell with them, but he couldn't quite bring himself to join them.

  The situation hadn’t drastically changed. Soon, he and his crew would be dead once his shields collapsed.

  "Do we continue abandoning the station, sir?" said Ops.

  "Of course. Abandon the station. All non-command crew to escape pods."

  "Yes, sir."

  "ALL NON COMMAND CREWMEN TO ESCAPE PODS," Ops repeated on speakers.

  "Shield status, DC?" Delacroix gazed at a brown haired man behind him.

  "Shields at 10%...5%."

  "Stars," said Delacroix. "Well, I guess this is it."

  "Shields saturation at 0!" DC shouted.

  The ground shook as the hull buckled to laser hits.

  We're shieldless!

  On the holomap, Delacroix watched as hundreds of escape shuttles began jettisoning away from the station, amidst the snake fleet's laser assault.

  I hope the snakes don't shoot unarmed evacuees.

  On the holomap, one by one, the escape shuttles disappeared by laser fire. Hundreds of his crewmen died, were dying—because the snake guns fired on them!

  The ground he stood on shook, again. He could hear metal tearing as laser hits smashed through corridors and vaporized hull metal. His battle station took on the blows like a true warship. Delacroix felt immensely proud of the Von Heppner, but he knew its time was at an end. "DC? Report!" said Delacroix, among the rocking.

  "Section 9 to 23, red-red orange!" said DC. "Section 5-8, red-red black! I'm reading massive power fluctuations! We could blow any second, sir!"

  "Fusion plant containment?" barked Delacroix.

  "Extremely critically damaged!"

  "Shut it down! Let's keep ourselves alive as long as possible, so they shoot at us instead of the escape shuttles!"

  "Yes, sir!"

  "Weapons! How are our laser mounts?"

  "40% green!"

  "Keep shooting at that snake lighty! Make every shot count!"

  "Yes, sir."

  Soon, the operations room became a mess of yelling and desperation. Silently, to himself, Delacroix thought, I guess this is it. I'm about to go down as vibrant as any starship captain in days past. Down with the ship. My third and last command, the Von Heppner.

  Amongst the thundering and explosions inside the room, Delacroix stood up from his central command chair. "It's been an honor to serve with all of you."

  His command crew, for a moment, did not notice him, then one by one they stopped what they were doing and saluted back.

  "An honor!" came the shouts.

  Star System Arachnia, Outer Core of the Viron Empire

  Fourth Planet Cerebrus

  Marine Central Command Bunker, Southern Continent

  In ancient Greek mythology, a Cerberus was a multi-headed dog that guarded the entrance to hades. In the modern galactic colonization era, the name Cerberus became Cerebrus, meaning a planet that guarded its star, the source of all life on the planet, and by causation, the source of all death.

  Thus, when the Von Heppner exploded, General Opheim knew a prophecy became true. One head had already fallen. The battle station's crew had done its job. Now, it was Opheim's turn to die.

  Inside the command bunker, Opheim watched as gigantic kilometer wide pieces of the battle station fell down from the sky like shrapnel. The battle station Von Heppner exploded in the most fantastic array of colors. A true guardian's death, pondered Opheim, as the entire sky glowed with glittering pieces of burning metal in the most spectacular firework display ever seen from horizon to horizon.

  Now, on the main holotank, the seven snake starships turned their attention towards the ground, having killed their first obstacle in the sky. Now, they forward faced their frontal armor at the planet.

  …And they fired.

  Instantane
ously, the ground shook as laser beams from high above rained on the various military targets on the southern continent. One by one, Opheim's laser batteries malfunctioned and died.

  "Keep firing at the snakes above!" Opheim screamed to his weapons officer. The situation wasn't so bad. Besides, he had other laser batteries on other continents.

  For all Opheim knew, the snakes would have to destroy every surface laser on the planet before silencing him. That, or they needed to know exactly where he was located. Well, they didn't.

  Keep shooting at me, you bastards! You can't hit me. I'm underground!

  They would have to destroy all twenty kilometers of the south continent's surface to get him, Opheim gloated.

  Then, suddenly, the snakes’ firing stopped.

  "Why have they stopped?" said Opheim.

  "New grav waves out system. They're large!" said a sensor tech.

  Opheim gazed at the far boundaries of the holotank. He needed to zoom out forty times before he saw it. Four gigantic gravity waves emerging from warp space. They were huge, many kilometers wide! Were they snakes?

  The leading gravity field was twenty-five kilometers in diameter. Another was ten. Still, another was five. And far behind those came a two kilometer field.

  Opheim needed to thank the stars for gravity field scanning technology, which could detect gravity waves instantaneously, meaning it wasn't limited by the speed of light. "Who are they?"

  "Gravity signatures indicate—they're ours!" the sensor tech cheered.

  He waited…and waited as he watched the holomap. Finally, the snake starships turned tail and accelerated away from the planet.

  "Hooray!" All the techs and junior officers in the command bunker cheered.

  The Battle of Cerebrus is over, thought Opheim. It’s finally over…Opheim gripped his computer console tightly with satisfaction.

  Still true though. The snake fleet hadn't been destroyed. They’d just been...diverted, but could anyone say that every member of his command staff hadn't done their duty?

  The snakes were gone, enough to be blissful about. "Farewell, humanity's nemesis. May we battle another day," said General Opheim.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Star System Arachnia, Outer Core of the Viron Empire

  Flag Bridge, Juggernaut VSF Asterix

  At the perimeter of the star's gravity well…

  "Looks like the human forces are taking a beating, sir," the sensor tech advised.

  Prancort starred at the holoimages of the battle above the fourth planet. The images were an hour old, meaning Prancort's fleet of four starships was just over a billon kilometers away from the area of intense fighting.

  If he’d only arrived earlier, he could have changed all that—too late now.

  Staring at the images, it seemed not difficult to tell what would happen—what might have happened already. The snake fleet must have ravaged the battle station around the fourth planet, and judging from the gravity wave emissions, the seven snake warships must have turned on the planet themselves.

  However, the gravity wave emissions also told something else. Prancort's appearance altered the sequences of events. Instead of attacking the planet, the seven snake gravity waves now seemed to pause in their task. They were...a bit clueless as to what to do. Should they continue attacking the planet's surface lasers? Should they make ready to engage Prancort's fleet? Should they destroy the orbital infrastructure while the planet could still shoot at them from below?

  It seemed Prancort's appearance surprised the snake forces. Then, of course, there is that eighth snake starship, a light-cruiser, which skidded off the path, because of apparent propulsion malfunction.

  For a second, Prancort wondered if he should take advantage of the snakes' surprise, but then he realized that with any action he took, the snake commander would have many hours to devise a counterstrategy, and since the snakes wielded far more firepower from their arsenal, nothing Prancort did could defeat this snake fleet...for now.

  No, it would be best to follow the prearranged plan...to delay the coming battle as long as possible, until his newly converted missile freighters were ready to engage.

  Star System KA1401, Outer core of the Viron Empire

  Orbiting Fourth Planet Cerebrus

  Hiveship Roro Cro-Drignon, Fleet Command Nexus

  The four new warships at the outer edge of the system's gravity well puzzled Roro.

  What are they doing? Roro wondered as his mandibles clicked. Why aren't they accelerating in?

  This puzzled Roro, until he realized those four warships composed their entire fleet. No new grav waves appeared. Then, those four would be no match to his seven warships, plus the thirteen carriers he held in reserve.

  The more he thought about it, the more he realized those four new warships were just sitting there, taunting him to make a move.

  That was fine. Roro was nothing except aggressive.

  Is this their entire fleet? Is this all they have?

  If so, then the destruction of this fleet, of the sole mobile defensive units the humans had, would be the same as victory. Once he destroyed it, he could raid any human system he wanted, including the core worlds!

  "All starships, accelerate towards the new enemy. Tear them apart!" Roro ordered his sub commanders.

  Star System Arachnia, Outer Core of the Viron Empire

  At the perimeter of the star's gravity well

  Flag Bridge, Juggernaut VSF Asterix

  Captain Donovan looked ecstatic. "We've got them hooked! Now, let's warp out of here before they actually take us out!"

  "Not yet." Prancort eyed the holotank. "Wait until they're a little bit closer. I want to dangle ourselves as bait a little bit longer before we pull away."

  Donovan lowered his shoulders. "But sir, will that give us enough—margin of error?"

  "I think five hours is enough, unless snake warp technology is faster than ours, in which case we're screwed no matter how much time we give ourselves."

  "I see…"

  "In fact…" Prancort leaned forward in his chair. "Tell the crews to start resting shifts. Once the chase begins in FTL, it's going to wear us all down. It's best that everyone starts out rested."

  "All ships, sir?"

  "That's right. All ships."

  Flag Bridge, Juggernaut VSF Asterix

  5 hours later...

  Prancort stood up from his chair beside the captain's. "All ships. Activate warp matrix! Head towards galactic coordinates 190, 48: the center boarders." Prancort turned to whisper to Donovan, "Let's hope the enemy chases us in that direction. I certainly don't want to lead them towards our core worlds."

  "Frankly, sir, I'm more worried about their warp tech. If it's faster than ours, they'll be able to overtake us out, no matter where we run. Then, we're screwed and our whole plan falls apart."

  "You're right…Let's hope it's not fast enough to overtake our head start."

  Hours later. Interstellar Space…

  "Snake fleet has entered warp behind us," said the sensor tech. "All twenty snake starships have entered warp."

  "How fast?" Prancort asked.

  "Twenty K times the speed of light—hold on, thirty times—snake fleet's warp bubble is accelerating...forty times... fifty times..."

  Prancort sighed. Detecting warp fields is very much the same as detecting gravity waves, when not in warp, except the distances were much larger. Typically, a starship could detect another warp field as much as ten light-months away, a much longer distance than gravity wave detection, which limited to a single light-hour or two at best.

  However, if the snakes could accelerate their warp bubble to as much as eighty thousand times the speed of light, he would be in trouble. Human warships could only accelerate to seventy-five thousand. Luckily, Prancort kept his fingers crossed. Let's hope they can't."What's their FTL speed, now?"

  "Sixty-two K times the speed of light. Sixty-three. Their acceleration is decreasing. I think they're hitting a thres
hold. 63.5 K. No more increase."

  "Good…" Prancort clasped his hands together. "Slow us down to seventy thousand times the speed of light. Let's not have them think we're getting away from them."

  Donovan raised an eyebrow. "Won't that be too obvious, sir? Won't that speed reduction cause them to think we're just baiting them to chase us?"

  "But if we get away, they won't be able to chase us at all," Prancort rebutted.

  "True…" Donovan nodded.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Hiveship Roro Cro-Drignon, Fleet Command Nexus

  20 hours later...

  Interstellar Space

  It's no use. Roro's mandibles clicked miserably.

  The prey is trapping me...they have no intention of stopping, so we can fight. This is a game to delay battle, thought Roro. But to delay me for what? What is the nature of their trap?

  Roro felt tired. For nearly a day, he chased the prey with his twenty ships, but not once, did the distance actually dwindle. It became obvious the prey possessed better, faster warp technology. The prey wanted to intentionally delay battle…what were they delaying for?

  Danger sense once again, rushed through Roro’s hindbrain. He realized he didn’t have much time before the prey attacked with whatever the prey was delaying battle for.

  If this was the case, Roro had to do as much damage to the Prey’s production assets before time was up. Only, Roro didn’t know how much time he had. He could have a little or a lot. Though certainly, chasing the prey’s fleet with no hopes of attaining battle is a poor use of time.

  Worse, as much as Roro wanted to believe in his own strength, he needed sleep. He required sustenance, too, and not of the type that fed to him through the gel interface.

  He must make a decision now.

  He sent a thought command to his entire command chain.

  "Yes, master commander," said every member of his fleet.

  Immediately, Roro felt his starship decelerating.

  FTL speed dropped from 50,000 times the speed of light to 40,000. 30,000.