by Doug Farren
What gave him even more pride was the ship’s name. Even though the original Yamato had been a battleship, this space carrier was worthy to carry the name. Being full blooded Japanese, he could not feel any prouder than to be commanding this particular vessel.
The Yamato was the centerpiece of a very impressive battle group. Eight Thor class battleships, ten Exeter class heavy cruisers and ten Enterprise class light cruisers completed the group’s compliment of ships. The Yamato battle group was working in concert with the Washington battle group which consisted of an identical array of warships. Each carrier was loaded with 72 Defender class fighters and 12 Hammerhead class, FTL capable, heavy fighters.
“The ship is at condition yellow,” the executive officer reported from his post in CIC.
A few minutes later, the communications operator reported that the rest of the fleet was also at condition yellow.
“Captain,” the navigator looked up from his computer console. “Based on the known gravimetric distortion near the Tholtaran base, and assuming we do not encounter any hostiles prior to reaching the target, I estimate we will be within weapons range in ten hours forty minutes.”
For nearly three hours the Human fleet burned a hole in space as it closed the distance to the Tholtaran base. The fighter pilots received their final briefings while their ships went through final checks and weapons load. Coffee was consumed by the gallon and people nervously joked as they tried not to dwell on the coming battle. Despite the victory at Olympus, the crew was well aware of the fact that the Tholtarans were in possession of superior weapons and shields. There was also the knowledge that they were not attacking a small fleet of ships but a well defended Tholtaran base.
“Captain, we are being hailed by the base.”
“Ignore them.”
An hour before the anticipated battle, Admiral Stockman appeared on the bridge. “Status?”
The captain had been conferring with his executive officer when the admiral had appeared. Dismissing the XO he turned his full attention to the admiral. “The fleet is ready sir. We are one hour from weapons range and I was just about to put the ship at general quarters. Long-range sensors have detected two large cruisers in orbit above the moon upon which the base is built. The Tholtarans have been warning us with threats of destruction ever since we ignored their first hails.”
“Only two? Very well captain. Put the fleet at battle stations and proceed with your attack. I will be in CIC.”
As the admiral departed, the loud call to battle stations sounded throughout every ship of the fleet. Thirty minutes later, the fighters were launched. Half of them formed a protective envelope around the carrier while the other half formed twelve groups of three fighters each spread throughout the fleet. The two fleets then split with one heading directly toward the base and the other heading off to one side of the moon.
The admiral’s battle strategy called for the Yamato battle group to remain in formation as it bore down on the enemy base. The Washington battle group was to approach the moon from a different angle, keeping the Tholtaran base below the horizon at all times.
“Tholtaran cruisers are keeping their distance,” the tactical station reported as the fleet prepared to attack. “The base’s shield is up and weapon systems are active. Weapons range in four…wait a minute…incoming missiles!”
The situation board lit up with a hoard of red indicators seeming to have appeared out of nowhere from behind the fleet. Many were already very close giving the ships only seconds to react. The computers aboard each of the fleet’s ships identified the threat and targeted the missiles for destruction. Invisible beams of energy reached out like searchlights but instead of illuminating a target, these beams were meant to kill.
The Tholtaran missiles were proving very difficult to destroy. Each was protected by a weak shield strong enough to deflect the normal anti-missile defense laser. The tactical computers instantly compensated by directing more firepower against each missile.
The admiral scanned his situation board briefly then ordered. “Identify the source of those missiles. See if you can’t get a lock via a direct scan. Dispatch fighters and two light cruisers to search and destroy if the targets are still a threat.”
A few seconds later ten red targets appeared on the display. The tags identified them as cloaked objects of some kind capable of eluding a normal scan but detectable by a direct scan from a narrow, high powered, active scanning beam. The tactical computer analyzed the data from the scans and determined that the targets had expended their complement of missiles. The targets were downgraded and assigned a yellow color.
The Tholtaran missiles displayed another tactical trick that the Humans had not seen before. As their numbers were reduced, the remaining missiles apparently communicated amongst themselves and reassigned some of them to new targets. This characteristic assured that a target would be struck by the greatest number of missiles possible but not too many.
Admiral Stockman watched with the detached mental frame of a hardened military commander as the enemy missiles breached the fleet’s defenses and impacted the shields of six warships. The shields of four of them, three battleships and two heavy cruisers, failed instantly under the punishment of hundreds of megatons of nuclear fury; the crews never even had time to scream. The battleship Vermont sustained heavy damage and was given permission to withdraw. The sixth ship sustained only minor damage to her outer hull. The Tholtarans had drawn first blood and underneath his calm exterior the admiral was seething.
At a distance of four thousand kilometers, the guns of the Tholtaran base tested the strength of the Human shields. Rods of coherent, invisible energy raced through space at the speed of light and smashed into the shields of several ships. The deflected energy became visible and fifteen ships were bathed in intense, multicolored light. The tactical computers analyzed the effect the weapons had on the shields and displayed a summary of the tactical threat on the admiral’s master display.
The admiral looked at the data. “My God those are big guns! Alert all ships that we will execute the attack plan at a distance of two thousand kilometers.”
The orders went out and the fleet adjusted its deceleration so that it would come to a relative halt at a distance of two thousand kilometers from the Tholtaran base. At that distance, the Tholtarans would have to direct a large number of individual guns at a single ship and maintain their current rate of fire for many long seconds before any damage could be done. A few minutes later, the Yamato battle group reached the designated distance and a pre-programmed attack sequence was initiated.
The Washington battle group did not stop at the two thousand kilometer mark, but instead continued toward the moon. The base, however, could no longer target them since the Human ships were located over the horizon.
“Tholtaran cruisers are moving to intercept the Washington,” one of the tactical operators informed the admiral. “All ships report ready to begin the attack.”
“Very well,” Admiral Stockman replied maintaining an unemotional tone of voice. “Initiate bombardment.”
Every ship simultaneously opened fire with their main and secondary guns. Virtually all Human energy weapons were based on some type of laser technology. The largest were the MBL-HV Mark ones with a continuous rated output power of one point two gigawatts. When operated in pulsed mode these weapons could deliver up to six gigawatts of peak power. Fifty-six such beams blasted down upon the Tholtaran shield. The less powerful secondary lasers along with a hail of kinetic energy weapons such as the AT/RG 411D dual-barrel rail-gun and hundreds of missiles added their firepower in an attempt to blast through the unyielding shield.
The Tholtaran shield blazed with the incandescent glow of deflected energy. Kilometer long arcs of plasma discharged themselves into the surrounding ground causing huge glowing holes to appear. The earth surrounding the shield was heated to the melting point causing the base to be surrounded by a glowing, red-hot ring of molten rock. Despite the impressive pyrote
chnic display, the shield held back everything the fleet could throw at it without any leakage.
Throughout the fleet, pinpoints of light formed at the business end of the sledgehammers. The crackling, sparkling, spheres of magnetic force grew in size and power. Each sphere was supercharged with counter-rotating, separated streams of protons and anti-protons almost to the point of destabilizing the intricate interlocked magnetic lines of force. While the sledgehammers were charging, the Tholtarans sprung a surprise on the Humans.
The base’s main weapons concentrated their firepower on three of the fleet’s battleships. At first, the Oklahoma’s shield flared into blazing denial as it successfully fended off the concentrated attack. But, within a few seconds it started to leak and some of the destructive energy began to heat up the ship’s armor. The ship’s computer automatically began to roll the ship to distribute the heat evenly across the hull. Made visible only by the imaging sensors of the fleet’s external monitors, the Tholtaran weapons briefly pulsed. For two seconds their power output increased by over ten percent.
The Oklahoma’s nearly overloaded shield could not deflect any more energy. One of the beams broke through and struck the ship’s hull with barely unrestrained power. The armor instantly puffed into gas without having time to melt opening a gaping hole into the battleship’s interior. During its two seconds of victory, the Tholtaran weapon chewed through four bulkheads vaporizing equipment, men, and furniture. Because of the ship’s rotation, the weapon left a deep, glowing gash across the outer hull. On the bridge, alarms began flashing indicating the hull had been breached in multiple locations.
The Oklahoma’s captain reacted and quickly ordered his ship to withdraw. As the damaged battleship attempted to back away from the battle, the Tholtaran beams maintained a relentless lock on it. The ship’s computer halted the roll in order to keep the damaged side of the ship away from the enemy beams. The armor facing the weapons began to overheat and soften. Fifteen seconds later the Tholtaran weapons pulsed again.
The Tholtaran beam that broke through this time impacted a charging sledgehammer instantly melting the weapon. The soliton which had been building in power within the weapon’s structure, however, survived. It struck the side of the Oklahoma as if it had been fired at it. The detonation destroyed the anti-proton containment field. The released anti-protons annihilated themselves with their normal matter counterparts. The resulting explosion destroyed almost a third of the entire ship. Seconds later, the battleship broke into several pieces as the shield failed.
The other two ships suffered a similar fate. “Battleships Oklahoma, Texas, and Vermont have been destroyed,” the tactical coordinator announced.
The Tholtaran weapons did not waste any time on further rendering the defeated ships lifeless. The moment each target ship’s shield failed, the beams shifted their attention to a fresh target. By this time, however, the sledgehammers had reached full power and with a single electronic command from the central tactical computer aboard the Yamato they were all launched.
The Tholtarans had never before encountered such a weapon. The sight of 44, unidentifiable, glowing balls of crackling energy being fired upon them must have sent shivers running down the their spines. When fired, the sledgehammers traveled at a speed of nearly three percent the speed of light covering the distance between the fleet and the base in under a quarter of a second.
The Enterprise class light cruisers each sported two type SLV-12 sledgehammers with a full power yield equivalent to that of a 1.05 megaton thermonuclear bomb. All the other ships mounted the larger SLV-30’s with a full power yield of 1.92 megatons. The heavy cruisers had two; the battleships and the carrier were each equipped with four of these incredible weapons. The total firepower raining down upon the Tholtaran base from the sledgehammers was equivalent to nearly seventy megatons. No weapon possessed by Human or Tholtaran science could intercept the deadly spheres.
On the other side of the moon, the Tholtaran cruisers approached the Washington battle group. As they approached, the sledgehammers started to power up. Confident in their superiority and oblivious to the type of firepower possessed by the Humans, the Tholtaran ships bore down on the attackers. They opened fire the moment they were within range. Eight incredibly powerful microwave lasers reached out from each of the two cruisers striking two Human heavy cruisers. The shields resisted with all their strength but, in the end, the Tholtaran weapons were simply too powerful.
In a little over five seconds, the unfortunate targets began to experience failures in their protective armor. Like a baked potato in a microwave oven, the Human ships were stripped of their armor then cooked from the outside in until so many systems had failed that the ships simply died. The shields were still intact, but no operational weapon systems existed. The Tholtaran weapons shifted to another pair of targets. A couple seconds later, a missile magazine aboard the Coral Beach exploded blowing the entire ship apart. The Brisbon drifted away, blind and unable to communicate, with several areas of the hull still glowing a dull red.
As the Tholtaran heavy battle cruisers locked their sights on two more Human heavy cruisers, the Humans retaliated with a storm of sledgehammers. With the exception of the sledgehammer, technology was on the side of the Tholtarans. Their shields were stronger; their weapons were more powerful; their sensors were keener. The sledgehammer, however, provided the Humans with the means of delivering an unstoppable, high energy punch to any chosen target.
Like a swarm of angry, glowing, bees, the sledgehammers converged on their targets along with every available directed energy weapon in the Human fleet. The shields of the two heavy cruisers may have actually resisted the onslaught for a microsecond or so but they were woefully inadequate against the energies unleashed against them. The incredibly resilient armor plating of the Tholtaran ships vaporized and exploded. The weaker bulkheads, frame members, and support beams making up the ship literally disintegrated. Two white glowing balls of plasma were all that remained of the two once mighty Tholtaran heavy cruisers.
The enemy, however, had had time to destroy four of the battle group’s ten heavy cruisers. With the enemy ships destroyed, the fleet continued on with its primary mission. In rapid succession, three waves of missiles were fired. Five hundred and twelve missiles could be fired from every available ship remaining in the battle group. Each missile carried a five megaton warhead.
Originally designed for extreme acceleration in space, the missiles had been modified while the fleet had been en route to the Tholtaran base. The propulsion systems were throttled back and the electronic brains had been programmed so they behaved like cruise missiles. The missiles dropped toward the moon then flew above the surface at a height of only ten meters.
The tortured, but still holding, base shield wavered under impact of dozens of sledgehammers. Under such a titanic load, the shield began to leak and some of the lasers managed to break through. One hit a Tholtaran weapon causing an uncontrollable discharge of its main power accumulator. There was a tremendous explosion and a small crater appeared.
The victory was short-lived though as the energy of the sledgehammers dissipated and the shield once again protected the base. Admiral Stockman was getting worried, he was losing ships at a higher than anticipated rate. He was about to order his rapidly thinning fleet to back off when he received word that the missiles from the Washington battle group had been fired and were on their way. Sixty-three seconds and four destroyed ships later the missiles screamed over the horizon.
The sensors of the Tholtaran base had obviously picked up the new threat as was evidenced by the shift in anti-missile fire. While en route, the three groups of missiles had adjusted their individual trajectories so that they now constituted a single group approaching the base from a wide array of directions. One thousand five hundred and thirty six missiles traveling at high speed from multiple directions (in addition to the missiles being launched by the Yamato’s battle group) overwhelmed the base’s defenses. Thirty seven missile
s were lost. The remaining hit their mark and detonated.
It is impossible to describe the visual impression of what happened next to the Tholtaran base. Thermonuclear warheads do not generate the well-known mushroom cloud when they detonate in a vacuum. Instead, they create a spherical ball of destruction looking more like a miniature sun. Fifteen hundred intensely bright suns appeared where the Tholtaran base stood.
The Tholtaran shield, like Human built shields, was capable of briefly deflecting far more energy for a short period of time than it could under continuous attack. Seven point five gigatons of nuclear death, however, was an astronomical amount of energy to deflect.
The moment the first warhead detonated the main tactical computer aboard the Yamato, which had been in charge of coordinating the entire battle, ordered all available sledgehammers, fully charged or not, to be fired. They arrived at their designated target a quarter second later to add their energy to the already expanding, incredibly bright, hemispherical shaped dome of radioactive plasma which had once been a Tholtaran base.
The Tholtaran base had been completely vaporized. So powerful was the blast that the sensors of the fleet were briefly overloaded. When he could once again see what was happening the admiral was shocked to see an expanding sphere of glowing, rapidly cooling, radioactive material, several kilometers in diameter rising from the surface of the moon. An enormous, red-hot crater over ten kilometers in diameter and two kilometers deep marked the previous location of the base.
“Stand down from battle stations,” the admiral ordered. “Inform command that the target has been destroyed. Commence search and rescue.”
