by Kal Spriggs
“Tactical, what can you tell me about the inbound birds?”
“They're big, sir,” Lieutenant Perkins said and Alannis bit back a smile at his goofy expression, “Honkin' big birds. Their radar profile is at least eight times bigger than one of our Mark V’s.”
Alannis blanched a bit at that. Each Mark V contained a five hundred grams of antiprotons and protons in a magnetic containment matrix designed to collide them to maximize yield. The possibility that these missiles might contain eight times the explosive power... And that's even assuming they carry antimatter, the Ghornath Empire didn't make use of it.
“Those far stations launched on us too,” Captain Beeson said. “Which indicates they have range. Forrest, how confident are you on intercepting these birds?” The furthest stations were over two million kilometers distant. If those missiles had that kind of endurance, then who knew what other capabilities they had?
“They're big, sir, but they're still fast,” he replied. “They might be big enough to mount jamming systems or even defensive screens.”
“I take your meaning,” Captain Beeson nodded, “But we need to see what capabilities these things have. The first salvo will reach us in fifteen minutes and the next one after that at twenty minutes... navigation, you're still working on a jump?”
“Sir,” Lieutenant Forsberg nodded. “We've plotted it, it'll take a few more minutes to update.”
“Run the update for eighteen minutes,” Captain Beeson said. “Forrest, jamming systems active as those missiles come in on final acquisition. Don't hold back on our interceptor missiles, either.” In final acquisition, the missiles should be most vulnerable to jamming.
“Sir,” Forrest gave a nod. And while I trust him, Alannis thought to herself, I wish I was the one at the controls.
“Leader Chuni, could you try to message the defense platforms? It may respond to a Ghornath voice,” Captain Beeson said.
“I will try,” Chuni said. She leaned over her console as Alannis opened a channel for her. They waited for a long moment without response.
“Nothing, Captain,” Alannis said.
“Missiles coming in, sir,” Forrest said. Alannis admired how calm he sounded as he and Scott Yamahito directed preparations. As the missiles drew within a hundred thousand kilometers, they launched their interceptors. Alannis saw that they hadn't held back, they'd launched the Constellation's entire external racks. Sixteen interceptor missiles lanced out, their fast but short ranged drives designed to push their small payloads into close proximity.
“Aw, shit,” Forrest said as two of the inbound missiles detonated... and two vast cones of laser fire lanced out. “We just lost fifty percent of our interceptors,” Forrest said, even as the remaining interceptors went in on their attack runs.
Alannis hated feeling like a passenger as other people fought the ship. She could barely stand it, she wanted to rush over and push Scott off his controls and take over... yet this was her assigned place.
Fifteen of the inbound missiles died, the remaining twenty-one inbound continued.
“Final acquisition, initiating jamming pattern.”
Alannis put her communications systems into safe mode as the jamming systems came online. They were significantly improved over the jamming systems of even the Dreyfus Fleet. From what she understood, they'd integrated designs and signals from the alien ships found on Halcyon, one of the handful of technology improvements they'd been able to successfully integrate.
The jamming emitters were located at various areas around the hull, with a mix of broad spectrum and narrow band emitters. The reason she had to put her communications systems into safe mode was because otherwise they'd be burned out by the broad spectrum jamming. The intent of the tight-band jammers was to actively blind the sensors of the missiles while the broad spectrum emitters, operating in sequence, made it difficult to locate the precise location of the ship itself, casting “shadows” that should generate misses.
On her tiny screen, she couldn't make out individual missiles, but she could get a grasp for the overall situation. At least half of the inbound missiles lost acquisition, either blinded by the jamming or spoofed and sent after a phantom image.
She couldn't see the pulse cannon batteries firing, either, but she did see Forrest's fingers fly across his console as the last ten missiles came on their final attack run.
They flashed across the last ten thousand kilometers faster than the human brain could register, but the firing priorities and commands that tactical had prepared went into action. Eight of those missiles died to that fire, but the last two came in through the fire.
One of them detonated just short of the Constellation, either fooled at the last minute by jamming or detonating prematurely through some hardware fault. That one's warhead detonated with a shockwave that still shook the entire ship like a dog with a rat. The other missile wasn't a missile at all, but an attack drone that fired into them from close range until the interceptor fire finally killed it.
Alannis's seat restraints bit painfully into her shoulders and she felt the smart-gel of the seat lock down around her neck. Damage alarms wailed throughout the bridge as Alannis focused on updating the XO with her systems status.
“Multiple hits to starboard,” she heard the XO say. “Damage to starboard emitters, starboard external missile racks are destroyed. Compartments twenty-six, thirty-seven, fifty, and fifty-three are open to space. Starboard defense screen is down.”
“That's enough of that,” Captain Beeson said. “Navigation, status?”
“Shadow space coordinates coming online in fifteen seconds, sir,” Lieutenant Forsberg said.
“Good,” Captain Beeson said. “Helm, take us out of here.”
***
“So, what did we learn?” Daniel asked of his officers. Besides don't mess with those defenses, he thought to himself.
“Those missiles are nasty pieces of work,” Rory said cheerfully.
“Yes,” Feliks nodded, “in fact, I would estimate that they were designed to fight much tougher targets, battleships or dreadnoughts, perhaps even supercapital ships.”
“Most definitely,” Rory nodded, “in fact, I give it a seventy--”
“Hmm, ninety percent, most definitely,” Feliks said.
“Ninety, really?” Rory cocked his head at his fellow. “Well, okay, I'd give it an eighty-five percent chance that a direct hit by the warhead that detonated prematurely would have destroyed the vessel entirely.”
“What yield did we get off of it?” Daniel asked as he checked Ensign Perkins' notes.
“Oh, that's just it, it wasn't a detonation as we'd normally consider one at all!” Rory said excitedly. “Feliks and I will be studying it for weeks, maybe months! Those bastards who said we're not real scientists, they'll be eating their own livers when we publish a paper on phased exotic matter incoherence.”
Well, it does sound rather incoherent to me, Daniel thought absently. “What was it, in laymans terms?”
“It is a very sophisticated exotic matter pulse, what I would call a gluan plasma or glasma warhead.” Feliks said.
"Okay, so this whole exotic particle generation technology originates with the Ghornath or possibly their Protectors," Rory said. "Exotic particles behave in non-rational fashions compared to normal matter. So you end up with behaviors that don't follow standard physics. That's part of what makes the exotic particle cannons so devastating, they cause effects that distort the physics grid around them. What that warhead contained was essentially a condensed exotic particle liquid stored in a quantum matrix. I think it even contained raw quarkium matter, though that will require some serious analysis to decide." Rory gave a proud smile, "It's really quite clever."
"Yes, but what does it do?" Daniel asked.
"As the condensed liquid expands, it generates magnetic forces, gravitic forces, and broad spectrum electromagnetic radiation," Feliks said. "Which is why it strongly resembled an explosion. In general terms, it would appear th
e equivalent of a six hundred megaton nuclear detonation."
"Six hundred?" Someone asked incredulously.
"In appearance, yes," Rory said running a hand through his thinning hair. "In reality, it's even more destructive than that. The additional forces coming off the evaporating liquid... the shear forces are enough to split atoms, what they can do to the structure of a ship even at moderate range. This weapon is absolutely devastating, it's brilliant."
"Call them Liquidators," Forrest said shaking his head. "That's what they can do, liquidate an entire planet."
Rory nodded, "I like that, and it’s catchy..."
"One of these 'Liquidators' could possibly destroy a battleship or dreadnought," Feliks said. "A single warhead could crack a planetoid in half, wipe out an entire biosphere." He gave a thin-lipped smile, "We'll be careful about what parts of the science we make public, of course."
***
Fields of Targonis
The Sacred Stars
January 1, 2408
Another day another system, Daniel thought to himself.
"Well?" Daniel asked.
"Three massive orbital installations, some additional drone traffic," Lieutenant Cassat replied. "We're seeing major cities on the planet and some activity there, though not as much..."
"Farming world," Daniel nodded at where Chuni sat. "Have they noticed our presence, yet?"
They should be out of range of even the massive missiles, the Liquidators as Forrest had dubbed them. Granted that was all an estimate based off their accelerations and the range that the stations had fired at, but it was a guess that Daniel felt confident with.
"No, sir," Lieutenant Cassat said.
"Same comm traffic?" Daniel asked.
"Yes, sir, minimal standby traffic, nothing more," Ensign Giovanni said. She's underutilized at communications, he thought to himself, though she's also managing the Marine Platoon, so it balances out for now.
Once they got back, with the inevitable personnel rotations that came with the return from a cruise, he'd need to talk with the XO about shifting her to another department. Navigation or tactical, he thought, I'm certain Commander Bowder will have an opinion on either one.
"Leader Chuni, unless you've any objections, I think we'll bypass this system," Daniel said with a nod at the lone Ghornath on the bridge. When she gave a nod in reply he continued, "In fact, navigation, how confident do you feel about bypassing the other systems?"
Lieutenant Forsberg looked nervous, "Sir, we've made these jumps because the distance is relatively short. From here to the Throne of Kopal Pesh is a three light-year jump. Without mapping shadow space, we could be significantly off in our coordinates, we can't localize exactly where we'll arrive with any degree of certainty."
"But we don't have much to go on anyway," Daniel said and Lieutenant Forsberg nodded. Surveying new routes was always more than a little problematic, especially without a proficient psychic pilot. Chuni might have that ability, but she hadn't shown any urge to use it since their jump from the Akris system. She might well be untrained, in which case it would be less risky in the long term to utilize the navigational computer. He considered it for a long moment, "And our enemies might well already have mapped this star cluster. If they have, then the longer we spend jumping from one point to another, the greater the chance that they'll be waiting for us at the end."
"Our destination is the Throne of Kopal Pesh. Plot us a course, Lieutenant Forsberg."
***
The Throne of Kopal Pesh
The Sacred Stars
January 3, 2408
The Constellation shuddered as it emerged from shadow space. It was just enough to tell Daniel that they'd gotten lucky, that their jump coordinates and velocity hadn't been off enough to shred their ship in what was very near a blind jump. Only a ten percent chance of that, Daniel reminded himself. After all, they'd mapped the general region of shadow space with their first couple jumps. It was only the small eddies and other fine features of shadow space that could have tripped them up.
"Status?" Daniel asked.
"We're plotting our location now, sir," Lieutenant Forsberg said.
Daniel felt his shoulders square as the system map populated. The star and planets appeared first, then gradually more detail filled in. They were here, he knew, they had made an impossible journey to a place of myth. Yet he could feel it in the pit of his stomach, things were far from over.
***
The Gardens of Maar
The Sacred Stars
January 3, 2408
The humans have arrived, the scout commander informed him.
The consciousness that thought of himself as Hunter felt rage boil up inside. After Sidewinder had failed to stop the human ship and then allowed the slave-race vessel to flee, Hunter had sent Sidewinder and his surviving vessels back to their base. His advice to Minder had been to purge the crews. The failure on Sidewinder's part to stop the human ship was far graver a sin than allowing the slave-race vessel to escape. Minder has always had a soft spot for Sidewinder, Hunter thought bitterly.
Hunter had used Sidewinder's knowledge of the cluster to position his fleet to intercept the humans at the fourth system in the cluster. The only good thing about their presence was that they had opened the portal, so Hunter’s fleet hadn’t had to maneuver through the tiny chinks in the shadow space barrier. It had taken them over a thousand solar cycles to discover those winding paths, and even taking their time they still lost ships making that transit.
Now it appeared that his ambush attempt had proven futile. The human vessel had bypassed the system entirely. Now they would have hours to make observations and study the artifacts there.
At least they cannot activate them, he thought with relief, though if they escape the system or transmit their data to their allies, then it might prove dangerous enough.
Worst, he had but two ships in the final system to stop them. If they try to board the node, he sent, land your drones and stop them. The two scout vessels he had dispatched carried hundreds of their drone warriors. Those should overwhelm any humans who boarded the node.
All vessels, Hunter sent to his fleet, prepare to jump.
If the humans delayed long enough, he would trap them and destroy them. Then he would do what he had begun in the Gebreynr system: he would hunt down the remnants of the slave-race and eradicate them. Every ship, every colony. Minder had pulled him away from that before, but in Hunter's opinion, it was Minder's mercy which had led to all this in the first place.
Mercy had no place in their task. They would destroy all threats and if Minder didn't agree after this potential disaster, then Hunter would go above him.
And then, he thought, once we've wiped out the slave-race, we can return our attention to the humans.
***
The Throne of Kopal Pesh
The Sacred Stars
January 4, 2409
"That's very interesting," Daniel said staring at the display.
It had been very clear from their arrival at the system which of the two inhabitable planets was the capital of the ancient Ghornath realm. While the more distant planet had a number of orbital structures and defenses, those around Kopal Pesh dwarfed anything they had seen to date. Massive stations hung in orbit around it, along with a huge orbital ring, tethered to the planet like spokes on a wheel.
It had taken them over six hours to draw closer to the planet, part of that being the need to match relative velocity to the star since their jump had left them gradually falling "behind" the rest of the system.
Now, though, they were close enough to have detailed visuals to go with their other sensor data. One of these stations is not like the other ones, Daniel thought to himself, one of these stations does not belong. The children's rhyme seemed oddly appropriate given the stark differences.
The Ghornath stations were obviously alien, big, angular platforms with oddly-shaped docking bays and a very archaic, almost gothic feel to their designs.
The station in position over Kopal Pesh's northern pole, however, was of markedly different design. For one thing, it utterly dwarfed the hard, angular structures of the Ghornath. For another, it had a hauntingly beautiful design, one of graceful curves and an almost-organic appearance.
And if that wasn't enough, the station wasn't in orbit and there was no sign of propulsive force, yet it hung perfectly over the northern pole of the planet.
"Rory, Feliks, any thoughts about our little friend here?"
"It is the Throne of Kopal Pesh," Chuni said before either scientist could speak. "The Protectors built it in order to communicate with my people. It is there that the Emperors ruled over our worlds." She took a deep breath, "It is there that we need to go."
"You're sure?" Daniel asked.
Chuni nodded, "That is where we will find answers."
Commander Bowder scowled, "Sir, those defenses will eat us alive before we can even get within weapons range. I suggest we withdraw."
Daniel considered the problem for a long moment. How did they reach the Throne itself without facing the defensive elements? "Rory, Feliks, you two are being awfully quiet."
"There's not very much that we can say," Rory replied. There was an edge to his voice, though, and Daniel knew something wasn't quite right. "This structure, it's obviously not of Ghornath origin, it's possibly built by whoever their Protectors are..."
"Possibly?" Daniel asked.
"Well, it's of different design from the Gate," Rory said. "So who knows, really? I'd recommend caution, though. I mean, we don't know what we don't know here."
"It would not be a bad thing to perhaps study it remotely," Feliks said. "After all, we haven't any senior-ranking Ghornath aboard. We could conclude this reconnaissance mission and then let the Ghornath what we have learned."
