SAW 1: Stars at War (12 page)

On the holomap, she watched as 19800 separate grav signatures
closed in on her battleships. "Commodore Brigum! Tell our reserve fighters
to intercept those missiles!"

"Yes, admiral."

The reserve fighters. Out of 9000 fighters, 3000 were used
to attack the enemy's back, to drive the enemy missiles out. Once the missiles
came out of hiding, the remaining 6000 reserve fighters would intercept. Prion
kept those reserve fighters in between the two battleship walls, but outside
the snake's PD laser range. Their purpose would be to take down as many enemy
missiles before they impacted on her battle wall 's front.

Immediately, 6000 new grav signatures, allied, sped to
intercept the 19800 missiles heading her way.

Gamma Wing

Mark Four Space Fighter  ‘Zeta-1’

Wing Commander's Cockpit

Bobbi stared at the staggering loss counts on her panel.
From the start, prior to the battle, she had over 1000 pilots—1000 fighters in
her wing! Now, after three battles, she had 197 fighters. A loss of over 80%!
The main losses came from that first battle, in which her wing fought an enemy
fighter wing, while being overwhelmed 3 to 1!

So many people dead. Zeek. Harry. Carmen. Illaries. All
squadron leaders…All dead. She’d trained with them, bled with them, and even
had sex with them. Now, they were all debris, expanding outward from a twenty
thousand kilometer battlefield radius.

Bobbi sighed. Such was the nature of defending against
insectoid territorial aggression. Those who fight are those who die, but
without them, humanity had no chance. Only the talented, the strong, the
capable are selected to make up a pool who became military martyrs.

Now, inside that lonely cockpit, she finally understood the
true nature of her occupation and its fickle mortality.

Her helmet peeped. Orders from the top, directly from
Commodore Brigum, told her the mission. “Intercept the snake capital ship
missiles! Don’t let them hit our warships!” said the commodore.

"Alright, guys," Bobbi spoke into her wing's net,
"Let's take down those snake missiles."

"Why don't they leave us alone? We have had enough
already!" moaned a voice.

Bobbi didn't know whether to respond to that. How could
someone say such a thing? True, whoever said it had gone through three battles,
and survived. "There's a war to fight," Bobbi stated simply.
"It's not over until the enemy is beaten! Form up on me! Watch out for
snake point defense! Don't get in range of their PD screens! Let's take out
those missiles! Every missile we take out, means one less that won't strike our
battleships! If you care about our battleship crews, you'll sacrifice your life
for them!"

Bobbi winced. She knew it wasn't good to ask them to
sacrifice their lives, even if the slogan for the Fighter Corps was
Engage,
Persevere, Sacrifice
.

Silence.

For the next five minutes, her 197 fighters zoomed at
maximum accel at around 500 Gs into snake PD range. Bobbi cringed. She knew it
wasn't safe to get inside the snake's battleship wall's point defense laser
screens, but in order to take out the most amount of missiles, she had to order
her wing in there, where they'd have the maximum amount of time to shoot down
the missiles.

Abrupt-like, her cockpit flared with laser lock alarms as
thousands of laser beams from snake battleships zoomed silent invisible paths
into her fighter wing. "Alright guys, once we're in range of the snake missiles
heading the opposite way. Fire at earliest opportunity!"

"Firing!" said the voices on the net.

Immediately, laser beams from her fighters zipped across
thousands of kilometers into the snake missile squadrons.

One by one, her remaining 197 fighters began to die.
196...195...194...

"Shoot them down!" yelled Bobbi.

Bobbi's targeting computer locked onto the missiles and
Bobbi jammed the firing key.
Fire! Fire! Take that!

One by one, the snake missiles dropped off the gravity
scanners. Their deaths reported to Bobbi's sensors as silently as her own
fighters' deaths.  "Alright guys…reverse course! Accelerate away from the
PD screens. Keep shooting those missiles behind us. Let's not get too close to
those PD lasers."

While she searched around her fighter, using her sensors and
displays, she saw thousands of other human fighters turning around and
accelerating backwards.

Over 6000 human fighters, but dropping rapidly due to snake
PD lasers, now headed on a course parallel to the snake missiles, while firing
at them as the distance closed.

Bobbi felt glad that it wasn't just her squadron inside
those PD screens or she would be toast.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Mobile Battle Fortress
Epsilon Decimus

Flag Bridge

P
rion watched
as her 6000 fighters sniped the enemy missiles ahead of her battle wall . Even
as hundreds of enemy missiles disappeared from the grav map, thousands sped
inward. Her battleships were prepared. They forward faced those incoming
missiles. All of them were ready to take the blow to their forward armor and
shields.

Though not before...

Her battleships, too, had anti-missile countermeasures.

"All battleships, you are free to shoot the missiles as
soon as they enter range." Prion watched as all 55 human ships opened up
their point-defense lasers on the incoming missile squadrons.

The human PD laser screen slashed into the snake missiles
with fury. Hundreds of snake missiles disappeared from the grav chart. Making
sure the PD lasers didn't fire on her own fighters, she told her captains to
only shoot when they had line-of-sight on the missiles, as long as her fighters
weren't in the way.

On the holomap, the 19,000 snake missiles became 18,000,
then 17,000.

"Fleet, launch electronic countermeasures," Prion
gave the next order.

Two hundred battle space drones exited her starships. Their
fake gravity drives resembled human cruisers and juggernauts. Prion hoped these
duds would divert some of the snake missiles towards fake targets.

"Admiral, there’s something wrong," Vice Admiral
Kirkeis called from behind her.

"What is it? Are the ECM drones not working?"

"No, ma'am," interjected Kirkeis. "They're
working. They're working too well. The enemy missiles are scattering towards
these drones, and targets that don't exist."

"They're aiming towards targets that don't exist?
Hmm…"

"Their vectors are very odd, as if they intend to
miss."

Prion paused. "There's nothing I can do. I cannot move
my battleships, or rotate them to not forward face those missiles. As long as
they're not aiming at my battleships, that just gives me more time to shoot
them down." Prion gazed back at the holomap display.
Counter missile
range.
"Fleet, launch all anti-missile missiles.”

In response to her words, every ship in her fleet launched
mini missiles designed to take down those snake capital ship missiles. Launched
through packets, they ejected out of her battleships' armor folds and hovered
momentarily before ‘sprouting hairs.’ Each packet shot forth hundreds of mini
missiles armed with 200-400 kiloton nukes. These mini missiles sprouted in the
direction of the incoming snake missiles.

Within minutes, they zoomed into the snake missile squadrons
and proximity detonated. Human computer technology surpassed snakes. The
counter-missiles' quantum computer cores could extrapolate snake missile
trajectories far better, and thus detonated their 300 kiloton warheads much
closer. Out of 17,000 snake missiles, only 7000 passed the human
counter-missile phase.

…Then those 7000 missiles hit the human's flak. Walls of
expanding plasma tore into the remaining missiles, sending shockwaves of super
velocity particles that ate into the missiles' guidance and structural systems.
Thousands of snake missiles spasmed and died in the blasts. The 4,000 remaining
missiles that got through headed straight for the human battle wall of
starships, and missed.

Completely missed.

Every single one of those snake missiles failed to hit her
starships’ fronts.

Inside the flag bridge, Admiral Prion de Caille cursed in
surprise. "Where are they going? Why aren't they slamming into our forward
armor and shields?" The missiles are circumnavigating our starships
altogether! Do they intend to proximity detonate, thus damaging our sides and
rears? But a proximity detonation would cause far less damage than a direct
hit!

One by one, then by dozens, the snake missiles passed
through her battle wall. Not one of them touched her battleships' forward
shields.

"Shoot them down! Shoot them down! Fire flak! Fire
point defense lasers! Admiral Brigum, tell the fighters to keep chasing them, wherever
they're going!"
This is perfect! If they pass through my battle wall,
and not hit my forward shields, then they'll have to turn around before hitting
my aft, at which point they'll be destroyed by my flak, point-defense and
fighters combined!

The snake commander is stupid...

Or, he is hiding something.

Where are those missiles going?
They all accelerated
past her wall of battleships, into her rear.

Then, one by one, they detonated, far outside of even
proximity detonation range.

Suddenly, damage alarms triggered across her fleet.

"Ma'am," said Kirkeis, "the
Light's
Aribdis
is registering aft hits from laser fire."

For a moment, Prion stood there, silent and confused, and
then it hit her. Laser warheads! Nuclear pumped laser warheads. Of course! It was
totally possible the snakes had mastered laser technology to the point where
they could detonate nukes and filter all that energy into a single-use laser
beam! That's why the missiles sped past her front, to get laser shots at her
rear!

"Tell the fleet to turn around—No
!" I can't
order my battle wall to rotate to face the missiles in my rear. If I do that,
the snake battle wall ahead will get side shots and rear shots after I turn!
Gah, what do I do?

Now, she realized why the snakes never bothered with positioning
or setting up their laser missiles at the rear of her fleet. They never needed
missile supremacy or fighter supremacy because their missiles could hit any
side of her battle wall with ease. "There was no need to setup their
missiles behind us. They are laser warheads!" she realized aloud.

What could she do to prevent all that damage from impacting
her rear? In a split second, Prion realized there was nothing she could do. She
had to take the damage, just as the snake commander was forced to take rear
hits from her missiles because his battle wall was pinned down by the opposing
battle wall .

The fact of how she would soon lose so many ships dawned on
her...

Human Battle Wall , Right Flank

Heavy-cruiser
Light's Aribdis

Bridge

Snake nuke pumped laser beams struck
Light Aribdis
's
aft, splattering blue-green shield ions in every direction.

Inside the bridge, Captain Serano sat at the center of a
hurricane of activity.

"Hits to the rear! Shields at 30% and falling!"
said DC. "Those bomb-pumped lasers are hell, sir!"

"My stars, they're targeting us!" Captain Serano
exclaimed.

"It's probably because we're on the flank," said
his first officer.

It made sense, thought Serano. Everything made sense.
Destroy the flank, so the enemy battle wall could surround.

As long as his shields were up, those laser beams did no
damage to his hull, whether it came from the aft or front. But shields were
being drained at this very moment. Once shields came down, any of those hits to
his rear from those missiles would do devastating damage.

Serano couldn't imagine being cannon fodder, again. In the
battle of Orasis V, his ship had been the first human vessel to be taken out.
Now, after a month of refits and repairs, he would once again, face disaster.
His ship! His
Light's Aribdis
!

He couldn't let it happen, again. Yet, his shields were
dropping this very second. Soon, they would be gone. "Helm, turn us to
face those laser heads from our rear."

"Sir," said his exec, "The turn will expose
us to side fire from the enemy battle wall. We'll be a vulnerable target!"

"It doesn't matter! If we don't turn, the snake laser
warheads from those missiles will destroy our rear!"

"Sir," said the first officer, "I
respectfully disagree. We must follow Admiral Prion's plans, even if we are to
be rear shot by snake missiles!"

"Noted…Helm, perform the maneuver. Turn us 180
degrees."

"Yes, sir," said helm.

The
Light's Aribdis
turned. In that split second, 200
snake laser warheads behind Light's Aribdis detonated. The bomb-pumped grazer
beams smashed into the heavy-cruiser's sides closer to its aft. The snakes'
bomb-pumped grazers, much stronger than their normal capital ship grazers, with
the power of snake fortress lasers. Those 200 beams blasted the heavy-cruiser's
innards into plasma.

Meanwhile, ahead of
Light's Aribdis
, several of the
snake captains on the opposing battle wall noticed the
Light's Aribdis
turn and expose the cruiser's less armored side. The snake captains
concentrated their fire into Serano's right armor.

More grazer beams smashed into the heavy-cruiser. With so
much raw energy from the right, combined with bomb-pumped laser beams from the
left, the starship exploded into expanding gas and debris. Captain Serano and
all his 4000 plus crew died in a gas cloud of vaporized plasma. The
occasionally body fragment spewed out of the explosion into the cold void.

Mobile Battle Fortress
Epsilon Decimus

Flag Bridge

Prion put her palms on her forehead in frustration.

The main holotank showed the snake missiles concentrating
their bomb-pumped laser fire into Prion's flanks. Every second, a human
starship exploded with all hands lost. Her battle wall, now resembled a flat
circle with holes on the parameters where the missiles had eaten her ships.

Damn those nuke-pumped missile warheads! Damn them for
slashing in our rears!

Her flanking starships couldn't turn, or else like
Light's
Aribdis
, they'd be shot by the opposing battle wall. As a result, they were
forced to take the beating by laser warheads into their vulnerable rears.

Thousands died. Starship after starship fell. Now, Prion
could feel what it was like for the snakes to be forced to take missile fire
from the rear without being able to do anything.

15...16...human ships. Lost forever in the infinite vacuum.
Disabled and scattered like debris. Their lights on the holomap blinking off.

So much death—so much destruction—what could a lonely
admiral like Prion do?

"Admiral Prion!" Kirkeis called to her.

Prion shook her head.
Right!
She needed to
concentrate on the battle. Could she still win? Now, when the holomap showed 30
humans ships versus 50 snakes? The odds didn't look good at all.

Prion's first instinct was to run. Whatever she decided,
she’d better decide fast, because things were changing. "All
starships," she announced, "Accelerate backwards! Pull away from the
enemy's battle wall!"

"We're retreating?" said Commodore Brigum.

Prion nodded. Human ships were built one distinguishing
quality. They could go back or go forward. If they accelerated backwards,
they'd only have a percentage of their full acceleration. But anything was
better than nothing. Prion knew for sure she couldn't actually turn her battle
wall  to rear face the snake's battle wall . Not at this distance. It would be
suicide. So, she back-peddled.

Could she do it fast enough?

On the holomap, her battle wall receded. Then—within split
seconds, the snake fleet responded! The enemy battle wall accelerated forward
toward hers, negating her newly created separation.

They're following me. They won't let me get away. And if
I turn my ships and run at full speed, I'll expose my rears to their lasers.
"My stars—I can't disengage. I knew this beforehand and now it's biting
me."

None of her admirals said a thing. They all knew what the
risks were. They’d even warned her that it would be an all-in battle, yet she
persisted. Now, she paid the price. But how could she have known the snakes had
laser warheads on their missiles?

Prion shook her head. What could she do now? She couldn't
disengage, so she had to fight it out. Normally, under ideal conditions, where
she hadn't lost so many battleships to laser warheads, she would have had a
chance. Now though, after losing 16 battleships...She sighed. "I guess I
have no choice."

Behind her, her three flagstaff members gazed at her. Admiral
Kirkeis nodded.

"All ships," she announced, "Ahead full.
Let's engage in close quarters! Begin the dogfight! Stratify the battle
wall!"

On her holotank, she saw her thirty warships creating depth
by forming layers…A frontal layer, then a middle layer where her Battle
Fortress was, then a back layer.

Since she couldn't disengage, she would fight it out, but if
she wanted a chance to win—no, she had no chance—but if she wanted to damage
the enemy most, now was the time to stratify her fleet with depth layers, so
when she interweaved with the enemy battle wall…she would have rear and side
shot opportunities.

Prion blinked. On the holotank, she also saw the enemy fleet
adding depth to their battle wall in preparation for her attack.
Smart
bastard.
Now, the snake battle wall resembled four battle wall s, layer
after layer. They were going to receive her attack.

They're forming perfectly, like they were expecting this.
My stars, I'm heading into a trap. A carefully planned out trap!
With
nothing she could do, Prion panicked. She couldn't run. Like a cornered animal,
she needed to attack. But if she attacked, she would certainly lose. Or would
she? If she didn't attack, she
would
absolutely lose. If she attacked
and interweaved her forces, there might be a chance, however minor.

It would have to be done perfectly.

"Admiral Brigum, order the fighters to engage the snake
battleships!"

"Ma'am! But that will expose them to snake point
defense fire!"