“Shit sir, they got pasted,” said the sensor operator. “They took hits from at least four nuclear warheads and two laser warheads. The flight deck is wrecked, and air and fluids are venting in too many places to count.”
“Does it still have power, though?” asked Commander Garuu, the acting commanding officer of the Ranger. “Is anyone alive?”
“One of the motors is still operating,” said the sensor operator after a brief pause.
“I haven’t been able to contact anyone,” said the communications operator.
“Keep trying,” Commander Garuu urged. “We need to know quickly whether or not they’re still able to hit the battleship. If they can’t, we have to take over for them!”
“Wait!” cried the communications operator. “I’m getting someone!”
Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, Kepler-78 System, August 26, 2020
The bridge of the Honor appeared on the front viewer. Captain Griffin had only thought it looked bad the last time she saw it. Now it was worse. Fires could be seen burning in several places, and smoke filled the area. Pieces of furniture, equipment and Mrowry littered the entire area. She could barely make out Commander Brower through the smoke, standing next to the helm, bracing himself on it with his right paw. His left paw was tucked under his right arm. Only the lower half of the helmsman was still in his seat.
“Ranger,” he stopped to cough. “Ranger, you are to attack the battlecruiser,” he coughed again, “as previously instructed. The remaining fighters will make sure we hit the target.”
He stood up straight to address the camera. The smoke cleared a little, and Captain Griffin could see several pieces of shrapnel sticking out of his left side.
“Captain Yerrow, it has been my honor to serve with you,” he transmitted in as strong a voice as he could muster. “You will make a good emperor.” He saluted with his right hand. As he did, his left one fell out from underneath. It was severed at the wrist and pumping blood. “FOR THE EMPEROR!” The screen went black.
Bridge, Ssselipsssiss Ship Backstabber, Kepler-78 System, August 26, 2020
Captain Rissser, the commanding officer of the Ssselipsssiss ship Backstabber, watched in dismay as the spacecraft carrier came through the barrage of missiles still mostly in one piece.
“Sir!” called his sensor technician. “Something just blew up the Avenger’s engines. Their power is out, and they are not moving.” Dismay turned to horror as the spacecraft carrier kept coming, homing in on the Avenger. As fast as it was moving, they wouldn’t have long from when it entered the range of their lasers and grasers until it hit the Avenger. Their broadside had 16 lasers and 10 grasers; they would never be enough to destroy the three million ton behemoth, but perhaps enough hits on its nose would push it out of alignment and get it to miss. Maybe its one operating engine would drive it into the system’s star and make his life easier.
“Fire all weapons at the nose of the carrier!” he ordered.
If he’d known that all of the ship’s spare mass had been brought to the front of the ship to absorb laser/graser hits, he wouldn’t have bothered. If they had looked a little harder, they might have seen the two space fighters that had been mounted to the back of the ship on opposite sides. As the carrier closed, the fighters fired their engines as necessary to give it the last minute guidance it needed.
Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, Kepler-78 System, August 26, 2020
“Impact!” called Steropes as the spacecraft carrier hit the battleship just aft of the ship’s bridge. “The carrier got them!” The impact crushed the carrier like an aluminum can. Over 6,000 feet in length prior to impact, it was less than 3,500 afterwards. The damage to the battleship, struck broadside, was far worse. The slug of metal that had been a spaceship carrier slammed into the battleship with a far greater force than its frame had been built to withstand, ripping through its steel bulkheads like tissue paper.
The carrier drove through the battleship, cutting it in half. The two pieces slammed together behind it and were pulled along in its wake by the momentum of the crash. None of battleship’s crewmen survived the impact. It was nothing short of devastating.
The Ssselipsssiss battlecruiser hit by the cruiser didn’t fare much better. Although the Ranger had less than 1/10 of the carrier’s mass, the battlecruiser was much smaller than the battleship. Like a bullet going through butter, the cruiser cut the larger ship in half, with an impact that was not survivable by its crew.
Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, Kepler-78 System, August 26, 2020
“The ramming attack was more successful than we could have hoped,” transmitted Captain Yerrow. “Unfortunately, there is still one battlecruiser remaining. Execute Plan Calvin!”
As one, the two ships began a slow left turn.
* * * * *
Chapter Forty-One
Bridge, Ssselipsssiss Ship Backstabber, Kepler-78 System, August 26, 2020
Captain Rissser had never seen anything like the carnage that had been visited on his flagship. Over 4,000 sailors and marines were instantly killed on the battleship alone. The Mrowry would pay. He didn’t know what race crewed the other cruiser that had arrived just before the battle, but he knew that one of them was a Mrowry ship, and he would kill them.
Apparently, the captains of the cruisers hoped that the Backstabber would be destroyed in the ramming attack, because they had flown straight toward him since they entered the system. When the Backstabber emerged unscathed, they turned and ran, headed in the direction of the stargate. Captain Rissser’s ship already had a much higher velocity than they did, and his ship could accelerate faster than the prey could. Even though they tried to do a sweeping turn that allowed them to keep up their speed, rather than stopping and then accelerating back in the direction from which they had come, it wouldn’t be enough for them. He would chase them down. He would catch them. And then he would pull their captains’ still beating hearts from their bodies and eat them while they watched.
“Full speed ahead!” he ordered. “Emergency speed! Cut them off from the stargate!”
Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, Kepler-78 System, August 26, 2020
“Captain, my system shows that we are not going to beat the lizard ship to the stargate,” said the defensive systems officer (DSO).
“That was always a danger of that if we headed into the system too far,” replied Captain Griffin. “We will just have to defend ourselves.”
“I’m not sure that two cruisers will be able to hold off the battlecruiser,” said the DSO, “especially as beat up as the Emperor’s Paw is. They don’t have any missiles remaining, and we don’t want to get into a laser duel with a battlecruiser.” The DSO had been on the Vella Gulf’s first cruise when they fought at laser range against a lizard battlecruiser. He knew it wasn’t a winning proposition.
“Then I guess we will have to do something to even the odds,” said Captain Griffin. “Launch all fighters!” she ordered.
“Fighters launching,” said Bullseye.
“Sir!” called Steropes from the sensor station. “The Emperor’s Paw is having problems with one of their engines. Their acceleration is dropping!”
“Reduce power,” said Captain Griffin. “Continue to hold station on them. We will fight together; it’s our only chance against the battlecruiser.”
Bridge, Ssselipsssiss Ship Backstabber, Kepler-78 System, August 26, 2020
“One of the engines on the Mrowry vessel is sputtering,” said the sensor technician. “It just went out. They are now operating on one engine. The Eldive ship is slowing to match them.” They finally looked the other ship up in the archives and had seen that it was an Eldive vessel, a race that was thought to have become extinct over 3,000 years ago. Their ship looked like it was that old; its top acceleration was far less than what a current cruiser could do.
“They were running it full out,” said Captain Rissser. “It was to be expected. That ship was all but destroyed in the Ross 248 system. It is amazing that it lasted this long.”
Captain Rissser hissed. “Give me a scan of the planet, its moons and the space around it,” he said. “Find out if there are any bases or defenses in the area.”
“I have been looking,” replied the technician, “and I do not see any defensive positions on the planet or on any of the moons. There is a large replicator in orbit around one of the moons, and a small base on the moon beneath it, but nothing else.”
“Is there something in the replicator that they can use?” asked Captain Rissser.
“No sir,” replied the sensor technician. “Long range video indicates that the replicator is assembling a battleship, but it still has about 1/4 of it, including its engines, inside the machine. It won’t have any of its missile armament yet or any power to fire its lasers.”
“Then they must be hoping to hide behind the planet and ambush us as we come around it,” decided Captain Rissser. “They know that we can shoot farther than they can and obviously want to get inside of our laser range without giving us the ability to fire on them first. Make sure you come no closer to the moon than 500,000 miles. That way, we can use our lasers at their maximum effective range. We will make them come to us while we shoot their ships out from under them.”
“The Eldive ship is launching its fighters,” called the sensor technician. “It looks like 12 fighters launched.”
“It won’t make any difference,” said the captain.
Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, Kepler-78 System, August 26, 2020
“All fighters launched and proceeding on mission,” said Bullseye.
“They are in four-ship divisions with a Mrowry in the lead of each?” asked Captain Griffin.
“Yes, ma’am,” replied Bullseye. “I’m glad they came; they showed us a pretty useful modification to our missiles.”
“Oh?” asked the CO.
“Yes, ma’am,” answered Bullseye. “They changed the programming of the missiles so that the first missiles we fire don’t immediately go to full power. They start out at a lower power setting and wait for all of the rest of the missiles to launch. They have the delay figured out so that all of the missiles accelerate together, so that they arrive at the target at the same time. Rather than five waves of 12 missiles each, the enemy ship will have to defend against 60 missiles arriving simultaneously. This will complicate the defenses and hopefully get more hits on the target. We may not get any hits on the ship, but hopefully the barrage will take out the ship’s shields, so that the cruisers can hit it with their weapons.”
“Good,” replied the CO. “That was the problem we had our first cruise; we weren’t able to knock down the battlecruiser’s shields.”
“Hopefully, we’ve rectified that this time,” said Bullseye. “They call it the ‘Claw Maneuver.’”
“I hope we have,” agreed Captain Griffin. “Fighting the battlecruiser wasn’t much fun last time.”
“The lizard ship is deviating a little to go around the planet,” said the DSO. “It looks like they want to make sure that they stay outside of our laser range. Their lasers can shoot about 100,000 miles further than ours; it looks like they are going to stand off and try to hit us with their lasers from maximum range.”
“Have you coordinated with the fighters to synchronize our attacks?” asked Captain Griffin.
“Yes, ma’am, I have,” replied the DSO.
“Excellent,” said Captain Griffin.
Bridge, Ssselipsssiss Ship Backstabber, Kepler-78 System, August 26, 2020
“The ships just started moving again,” called the sensor technician. “It looks like they may be trying to run from us.”
“They probably saw that we weren’t going to come within range of their lasers and got scared,” Captain Rissser said. “They’re running. Prey always run. Increase speed to maximum. Let’s run them down. I’m hungry.”
Bridge, TSS Vella Gulf, Kepler-78 System, August 26, 2020
“The lizard ship is at full thrust,” reported the DSO.
“Got it,” replied Captain Griffin, looking at the tactical map. “A few seconds more.”
“They are now rapidly overhauling us,” called the DSO. “We will be within range of their missiles in another minute.”
“They’re out of missiles,” said Captain Griffin, “or they would have used them earlier. Almost there...Now! Rotate ship! Engines to maximum!”
The Terran and Mrowry ships spun end over end so that they were now pointed at the Ssselipsssiss vessel, and they began slowing as their engines worked to kill their velocities. The crew of the replicator would have a good view of the battle; the cruisers would intercept the battlecruiser a mere 200,000 miles above it.
“Tell the fighters to begin their attack runs!” ordered Captain Griffin.
“They’re inbound to the lizard ship now,” said Bullseye. “Missile launch in one minute!”
“I hope he’s ready,” muttered Griffin under her breath.
* * * * *
Chapter Forty-Two
Command Bridge, New Mrowry Battleship, Kepler-78 System, August 26, 2020
“AI, are you ready?” asked Calvin. There was no answer to his question.
“Give it another minute,” said Lieutenant Rrower. “Sometimes they are slow to come up the first time.”
Both men looked around the enormous bridge impatiently. Calvin’s idea had been to use the new battleship to surprise the Ssselipsssiss ship. He had checked and, although its engines hadn’t been installed yet, its forward armaments and computer network had already been completed.
If the ship was given power, Calvin asked, would its lasers and grasers be operational? Captain Yerrow agreed that they would, but without the engines, there wouldn’t be power. Calvin’s idea had been to bring their shuttle to the replicator, plug it into the battleship and let it charge the ship’s massive capacitors like a giant automobile jump start. The shuttle didn’t have enough energy for more than a shot, maybe two, but if it was plugged in for a couple of hours, it might work.
‘Might’ being the operational word.
Everything had gone against them from the start. Calvin and Lieutenant Rrower had brought the remaining shuttle, along with a load of Terran and Mrowry engineers and all of the batteries the shuttle could carry, to the replicator and had taken charge of it. That’s when things had started to go wrong. The cables they had brought from the Vella Gulf weren’t long enough to reach from the shuttle to the battleship. The engineers had quickly spliced several cables together to make one long enough to reach the capacitor banks, only to find that the fitting on the end of the cable didn’t fit into the port on the battleship. Whether that was because the Eldive used their own style of electrical cables or the fittings had changed in the 3,000 years since the Gulf had been built, Calvin didn’t know or care. All he knew was that the cable wouldn’t plug in.
One of the engineers had suggested having one of the smaller replicators on the station make some new cable heads. These had been made and quickly spliced onto the cables. Between all of the splicing and the fact that the cables weren’t rated to carry that much current that far, the cable had failed soon after the power began flowing, starting a fire that took five minutes to put out.
So they had to replicate a whole new run of cables with the battleship’s fittings on them.
Then they had to replicate another set of cables that had the Eldive fittings on one end and the battleship’s fittings on the other. They plugged these in and finally started charging the new battleship. They were over an hour behind schedule now, even though the plan had started with an extra four hours of time built into it.
Now the computer was taking forever to boot up for the first time. It was running off the replicator’s power, along with the other systems necessary to operate the equipment. That had required replicating another set of cables. One thing had g
one right—they had just enough of the materials required to make the power cables. If it had needed to be 15 feet longer, they would literally have run short.
“Ready for activation,” finally said the battleship’s AI. “I find myself unable to run diagnostics on the aft quarter of my systems, and the majority of the other systems do not have power available to them. Did I take battle damage? If so, I have no memory of being in a battle, so my memory system may have been damaged.”
“No,” said Lieutenant Rrower. “You are brand new and haven’t actually finished the replication process yet.” He looked at a display on his wrist and read, “Activation sequence Battleship 1791 JGKS 8991 JEAA.”
“I am activated,” said the AI. “What am I to be called?”
Lieutenant Rrower looked at Calvin who replied, “The ship is to be called, ‘Terra.’”
“Interesting,” replied the AI. “I have no recollection of this name in any context. Is it a recent battle?”
“No,” said Lieutenant Rrower. “You have been given to a new civilization to aid in their defense. The nation is called Terra, and you are to be their flagship. The person standing next to me, Lieutenant Commander Hobbs, is your new Captain.”
“I am ready to serve,” said AI. “You have activated me before I am complete. This goes against standard procedures. Is there an operational requirement that has necessitated this?”
“Yes,” Calvin said. He was so impatient to get going that he was starting to hop up and down like a five-year old that had to go to the bathroom. “We have been charging the capacitors for the #2 and #3 grasers. We need you to shoot the Ssselipsssiss battlecruiser that is attacking our cruisers.”
When the Gods Aren't Gods: Book Two of The Theogony Page 30
