SAW 1: Stars at War (15 page)

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Human Juggernaut
Western Star

Temporary Flag Bridge

T
he bridge of
the juggernaut
Western Star
looked like a mission control theater. Rows
of displays paired with officers manning them. Dozens of officers on each of
the five rows. Captain Jacobs stood above and behind the last row, watching
everything below and ahead of him, which also included a main holographic tank
that hovered above the room's center.

The situation with the snakes looked like a big puzzle. The
humans were simply outnumbered. Now, with the Battle Fortress gone, the humans
lost their biggest weapon—this didn't mean they didn't possessed technology
that gave them an advantage.

Human starships were generally quicker, and they could move
backwards. Their laser armament was weaker, but they did have shields. The
longer the battle lasted, the more their shields could replenish.

There has to be a way...
Captain Jacobs surmised. But
whatever he did, he’d better do it fast, because the humans were losing ships
by the minute.

True, the admiral could be dead, but what about the snake
commander? What if we kill him? But we don't know where he is.

The white-bearded Captain Jacobs shook his head. This wasn't
the way to go. He couldn't hinge the entire battle on being able to destroy
someone whose location he didn't know.

Only one thing left to do, he must coordinate his fleet's
attacks on certain vulnerable enemy units. He needed to concentrate his
firepower, all the while, avoid being shot in the rear and sides by the enemy
fleet. The second objective would be damn difficult. Starships, both allied and
enemy, scattered everywhere, with vulnerable sides pointed to enemies on every
direction.

The battlefield contained fifty arrows designating ships.
Each arrow pointed in random directions. At least, this is how it felt to
Jacobs when he gazed at the human battleships.

Ah, what to do? What to do?
To a bystander, it looked
impossible. But Captain Jacobs wasn't clueless. He’d graduated from Gregor
Academy and had been taught how to fight fleet battles.

One simple algorithm decided whether you should move or turn
a ship. If, by turning or moving, will you get into a new position where you
can damage the enemy, more than they can damage you?

Captain Jacobs studied the puzzle that was the 3D battlemap.
Yes, there were
. Immediately, he could see some adjustments he could
make to the human fleet. He didn't have the control interface the Admiral had
in her flag bridge, he would make the adjustments by messaging the captains of
the ships he wanted to move, using the fleet's net, of course.

He pushed a button. "Captain Dajax, this is the
temporary fleet commander. Please move the
Ragnorak
a thousand
kilometers to starboard and face the battle's center."

"Yes, sir," came the crisp reply.

Jacobs pushed another button, this time to another ship.
"Captain Fernandez? This is the fleet commander. Please turn the
Battleaxe
seventy degrees to starboard and shoot snake juggernaut A9."

"Yes, sir," the voice on the link replied.

Now, that wasn't so hard
…Jacobs held onto the
microphone and pushed another button.

Gamma Wing

Mark Four Space Fighter ‘Zeta-1’

Wing Commander's Cockpit

There were only fifty pilots left in her wing. Snake point
defense lasers killed the rest. In a period of ten minutes, she sacrificed one
hundred lives—to do what? To knock out one hundred and twenty or so grazer
mounts from that snake cruiser she’d been harassing for so long?

Pilots who would never see home, again, or the carrier which
had been their home away from home. Pilots with lives, families and friends.

Bobbi felt she may be going insane. She giggled. She
supposed she should be happy—happy, the little odds of surviving had been
enough to keep her alive. One thousand pilots existed in her wing at the
beginning. Now, only fifty remained, including her. The survivors were numeric
miracles. If they got out of this alive, they would surely be rewarded for
their sacrifice, if not their bravery and perseverance.

She must get them out alive. She spoke into the wing's net.
"Okay guys, time to retreat! Break off! Zigzag the way back to the
carriers! We can do no more damage here. Not anything significant with our
numbers. Good luck, crew. God speed."

"Roger!" came the elated replies.

Bobbi tilted her fighter at a point in space away from the
snake warship, away from the battle. Then, she punched her gravity emitters
into max acceleration.

Inside that dark cockpit, she heard a
Clunk!

Something happened. A shock rang throughout her cockpit.

What the stars could it be now?

She punched up a diagnostic window on her screen.
Instantaneously, her onboard computer displayed the damage report. Her forward
gravity emitter damaged by snake point defense laser fire.

Damn!

Bobbi tried to analyze the extent of the damage, and
realized she would never get main propulsion online unless she got to a
carrier.
A carrier! Sort of like how to become a chicken without first being
an egg.

Perspiration dripped down into the insides of her helmet.

If she couldn't accelerate her way out of here, her
remaining velocity would bring her trajectory into the point defense envelope
of that—snake juggernaut!

Desperation. So afraid. Fear crawled up her spine and filled
her head. She felt like exploding with fear.

If she couldn't fix it and get her grav drive online, she
would be killed by point defense lasers.

What do I do? What do I do? I can't move. I can't hide.

Wait! I can!

Snake sensor technology must be a lot like human tech. For
objects 50,000 kilometers away, the snakes probably used gravity-wave scanners.
After all, no one could detect a twenty-meter object 50,000 kilometers away by
using light refractions or radar...at least not in an immediate timeframe. So,
if the snakes relied on grav wave scanning to target small enemy craft—she had
a hunch. If they truly relied on it above all else, she could simply turn off
her grav emitters and the snakes might think she got hit by PD laser fire.

Bobbi tapped commands into her consoles and punched the
button. Suddenly, her entire fighter went into shut down mode. All the
electronics turned off, except for life support.

She would wait. Wait until the battle was over. Wait until
humanity had won... if they won.

Hopefully this will work?
Bobbi’s craft entered the
PD envelope of a snake juggernaut.

Human Juggernaut
Western Star

Temporary Flag Bridge

The theatre-like bridge brimmed with activity since it
became the flag bridge of the fleet. Officers hollered to each other in excited
voices while starring into computer displays. First Officer Davis gaped at
Captain Jacobs in awe. The man seemed so cool, sitting there in his captain's
chair and calmly voicing commands to his starships. Didn't Jacobs know he now
controlled the human fleet and the future of humanity depended on him? Didn't
he know the battle situation was desperate like hell?

Davis, who stood behind his captain, looked at the 3D
battlemap ahead with nervousness and curiosity. The captain frightened him. All
the years he'd been with the man, he couldn't believe how calm his captain
looked, considering how much was at stake.
He had to be hiding his anxiety.
The man must be pushing it all away.

Some leaders are naturally born, I’ve hear that before.
Such confidence in the face of such responsibility! I'm in the presence of a
genius!

That, or a man who doesn't understand the danger and
extremity of the situation.

Then, not only did Captain Jacobs take command of a perilous
situation, he avoided disaster by using numerous tricks, turning disaster into
a stalemate.

Captain Jacobs...the man of the hour. A talent only found
when all seemed to be lost.
In admiration, Davis stared at the captain in
the far back. Then, he turned his attention back towards the first two rows of
computer displays which controlled the ship. The ship now became primarily
Davis's responsibility, since the captain concentrated on the fleet….

….Senior Captain Jacobs barked out commands to his fleet.
His bridge kept molding, shifting, taking control of the fleet on the spot. It
looked beautiful from his vantage point above and behind it all.

However—it wasn't enough.

His ships dodged, twisted, and flanked the enemy starships
in a massive dogfight, but they simply weren't killing enough to make the
battle a victory. It was enough to turn it into a stalemate. In the last
fifteen minutes, he lost four battleships, while killing five snake starships.
Now, there were 17 human starships fighting 24 snakes.

Now, of course, retreat was not an option. Accelerating away
from the battlefield with your backs turned towards the enemy would be utter
suicide. Accelerating away while forward-facing the enemy would never succeed
either, because the enemy ships could accelerate forward faster than you could
accelerate backwards.

So, what in the stars could he do?

There’s only thing Jacobs could do. He needed to do
better…to try harder. There was no other choice. How could he have known the
snakes would kill the entire command staff and he'd be the one to volunteer?

Though, Jacobs knew he
must
volunteer, because the
human fleet was in peril and no one else would accept command. The only other
option would be to make that brave, little Wing Commander fleet leader, and
stars knew, she didn't have the equipment inside her little cockpit to do it.
Now when he thought of her, where is she? Bobbi Duke probably retreated to her
carrier by now.

Jacobs shook his head. He must concentrate on the task at
hand. "Fleet commander Jacobs to heavy-cruiser
Hell's Fury
,"
he said into his mic.

"Yes, captain?" a voice on the net from 30,000
kilometers away.

"Align yourself with the heavy-cruiser
Bellopheron
and light-cruiser
Lightning's Razor
to form a wall by using all three
positions, with each ship facing inward towards the center of the
battlefield."

"But that will leave us open to rear attacks by snake
A14 and A22."

"It's fine. You will suffer minimum damage compared to
not turning."

A pause. "Yes, sir. Turning as ordered."

Jacobs sat back into his chair and stared into the holotank,
analyzing it. Yes, his tactics were working. Just enough. He kept doing just
enough to equalize a numerically superior enemy in terms of the ratio of losses
and kills. All while he continuously scanned for the perfect move, the Holy
Grail which would win the battle. Jacobs sighed. The solution eluded him.

He kept searching and it
must
be there.

The game seemed like three-dimensional chess, except
everything moved in real time. Jacobs was a legend at chess. Surely, if anyone
could find the ultimate solution, he could.
Yet...

While the minutes passed by, and the numbers on both sides
dwindled, Jacobs found himself wincing every time a human starship was lost. He
still ordered his ships around to adapt to the new situation, but that
indefinable ultimate solution never reached his mind.

Years from now, he knew, he would disparage himself. Why
didn't I think of that particular move? Why did I fail to see it? Yet, for all
he would later do, he still failed to find a move to change the tide.

14 human starships to 20 snakes.

10 humans to 14 snakes.

5 humans to 8 snakes.

Jacobs continued loosing ships at the same percentage rate
as the enemy. Since the enemy started with more ships, the enemy lost more as
the minutes ticked by. Eventually, he resigned into thinking he did his best,
that his best was just enough to equal the enemy, despite being numerically
inferior.

T
hen, it hit him. There!

But why now?
Almost too late! The battlefield shrunk
to much smaller stage now. There were only five human ships still operational
to the snakes' eight. The crumbled wreckage of numerous starships, both alien
and friendly, and hundreds of thousands of personnel lay solemn on the
battlefield.

Still, it was worth a shot. Anything to gain an advantage,
even at this late in the game.

"Starships Hell's Fury and Agamemnon, accelerate backwards
until you are able to shoot the sides of snake cruisers A14 and A19."

"Yes, sir."

A simple maneuver. By retreating the two starships
Hell's
Fury
and
Agamemnon
back towards the outer perimeter of the
battlefield, it prevented enemy starships from firing on their rears and
allowed the remaining five human starships to encircle the enemy fleet. This
wouldn't be possible if it were not for the fact the human starships could
accelerate backwards without changing the direction they faced. Snake starships
could not duplicate the maneuver.

On the holotank, he witnessed his starships performing the
task. Brilliantly, the trap was set. "It's over," mouthed Jacobs.

The remaining eight snakes were encircled. Human starships
began targeting the snakes' backs and sides without being done the same way.
The perfect encirclement…human starships forward faced and surrounded a snake
fleet from all sides.

Naturally, the snakes' losses increased substantially. One
exploded. Seven more to go.

Two dead. Six more to go.

Then the snake fleet pushed in an attempt to break out of
the encirclement. All six ships tilted towards a gap—one Jacobs couldn't close
with his five ships—and the snakes boosted in that direction. However, this
meant they were forced to forward face that direction, leaving their rears
exposed to Jacob's fire.