SAW 1: Stars at War (19 page)

This turned some heads their way.

Prancort became suddenly aware that every officer—there sure
were a lot of them—loyal to their captain, now paid attention to their
conversation, although most acted like they didn't.

Prancort stiffened. What could he say to ease the situation?
"I am sorry, but six hundred thousand people have also lost their lives
because of me. That is the nature of war. Six hundred thousand have paid the
ultimate price of sacrificing to their specie's well-being."

"Sacrifice?" scowled Donovan. "Do you call
the act of bending to your every wish and whim an act of sacrifice to the
greater good?"

Prancort could feel the malicious mood in the room. It
sounded like a confrontation. Prancort realized he just walked into a trap. But
he is the admiral, damn it! While the fellow in front of him with robotic legs
was a captain! "No, but I try to fight for the greater good,"
Prancort countered.

"Do you?"

Prancort's eyes widened. "Captain Donovan, am I right
in assuming you are questioning my capabilities or just my intentions?"

The tension in the room felt intense. Some of the lower-ranking
officers looked perplexed at their superior and at their superior's superior.

Prancort stared straight at Donovan's eyes, almost sensing
his subordinate's thoughts. He knew the captain carefully considered what his
next words would be—as what he said could very well lead to terrible
consequences.

"No, sir," said Captain Donovan. "I am sorry,
Admiral. Not many people you've met have lost as much as me. Some have lost
their lives and thus, can never speak their mind, but I have lost my lower body
and am plagued with the ability to speak my ill feelings. Please forgive my
careless and rude manners."

"It's ok." Prancort lowered his shoulders. He
could feel the tension in the room disappearing as every officer returned their
attention to their posts.

"Thank you, sir. Not every day do I get to meet the man
who in my mind is the direct cause of my current state!" Donovan walked
close and whispered, "I will never be able to have children, again. My
wife is afraid of me. She thinks I am a machine."

Prancort nodded. "I understand." Taking a step
back, he pondered the situation. He felt for the man in front of him. Such is
the consequences of war. Such are the losses. Here is a man who lost everything
except his life.
Yet here I stand, completely full with only a dull
headache. I am very lucky.
There are millions of people, both in the
military and as civilians, who are not. "Nevertheless, captain. Every
officer must be willing to put their lives on the line to follow orders. It is
out of necessity or else our chain of command falls apart. Sacrifice is what
every officer must be willing to make. Although, I prefer there to be no
losses, the war against a venomous enemy prevents that. You must remember that.
Always.
"

"Well said, admiral. I will." Captain Donovan bowed.
His metal servos emitting a slight whirring sound.

"Now, let's get to it. We have much to plan before our
encounter with the second snake fleet."

Juggernaut Class Battleship
Asterix

Main holographic conference room, 1230 Hours

Every admiral within ten light-hours jammed the conference
room with their virtual presence. Through holoprojectors on the ceiling, the
entire nation's high command staff virtual linked into a room the size of a
mess hall.

Prancort knew everyone was here to tackle the problem of,
how
the stars could you defeat a snake fleet comprised of eight battleships and
thirteen carriers with just what they had—three human battleships, one fighter
carrier, and 1300 missiles with no means of FTL transport?
"Everyone,
I have an idea," he announced.

The group took a seat around the gigantic metal table. Soon,
silenced pervaded the room.

With Prancort the only one standing. "But first, how
goes the plan to convert civilian freighters to missile transports?"

Commodore Bresly stood up. "The imperial engineers say
that it's a completely possible feat, but the time to refit each transport will
depend on the transport, since not every commercial freighter is the
same."

"How much time?" said Prancort.

"Each transport could be augmented within two days minimal
to several weeks...using nanotechnology, of course."

"That's the Imperial Engineering Department's official
statement?"

"Yes," said Bresly.

Prancort closed his eyes, calculating how much time he
needed to delay the snake fleet, before he could lay the perfect trap... using
the retrofitted freighters loaded with missiles. "How long will it take to
retrofit 50% of the needed two hundred freighters?"

"Five days," Bresly said crisply.

Five days…not bad.
Prancort just needed to delay the
enemy fleet for five days. "Ok, here is my plan. We collect the missile
dumps from twenty systems that are closest to us and away from the snake
invasion route, we load our retrofitted freighters with these missiles, then
use the 14,000 missiles to destroy the snake starships…battleships and missile
carriers included.

The group stared at him.

"It's a simple plan," Prancort continued,
"But there are lot factors it depends upon. One, we need to be able to
keep the snake fleet away from FTL while our missiles move into position,
behind and flanking the enemy fleet. Two, we need to make sure enough missiles
survive the snake fighters to mortally damage the snake's second invasion
fleet. Three, we need enough time to delay the snake fleet somewhere, where
they won't mortally wound our production forces, which is their target for
their invasion, while our freighters become converted into missile transports.
Four—"

The table went into an uproar. Dozens of men and women
varied from appearances of excitement to concern, to critical disdain of the
idea.

"Sir!" one of the disdainful faces spoke, a rear
admiral named Kelli Mosbie, "I respectfully disagree! Emptying the
intersystem pickets from twenty star systems will expose those systems to
vulnerable attacks by any snake battleship, even just one light-cruiser. Once
the snake commander finds out all he—it—needs to do is split his fleet up,
sending one battle ship to each system and he'll do terrifying damage to that
system, we'll be exposing our systems to danger. And since we don't have enough
battleships to intercept—"

"I understand that." Prancort held his palm up
facing her, "But at this point in the war, and in this crucial stage, we
need to do whatever we can to take out that secondary invasion fleet, even if
it means something dangerous, like depleting our intersystem missile pickets. I
must remind you that if we don't destroy this fleet, the snake commander will
travel to each of our core worlds and bombard the orbital construction
facilities to pieces, irrelevant of the missile picket in that system. Only by
combining our missile pickets into one attack can we prevent this invasion from
destroying us irreversibly, if that means draining each system's picket—?"

"Sir! But when he finds out—" stammered Mosbie.

"It'll be too late," Prancort supplied.
I hope.
"That was my fourth factor…whether we can do this before he finds
out."

Murmurs scattered across the table.

"You're taking a lot of risks," said one heavy set
rear admiral. "I must respectfully go against this idea, sir."

"I second that," said another.

"Then," Prancort seethed, eyeing the long table,
"Give me a better alternative to preventing our core worlds from being
destroyed."

Silence.

Someone far away stood up. "We can delay the second
snake invasion fleet until help arrives from Admiral Prion's forces."

Prancort eyed the man. Commodore Weslayett, a tactical
officer. "For how long?  There’s a limit to how long we can delay the
second snake fleet. Once the snake commander of that fleet finds out we're just
trying to delay him and we have no intension of fighting a battle, he'll just
ignore us and head to the core worlds, whether we fight a battle using our
three battleships or not."

"I'm also against delaying the second invasion fleet in
hopes of Admiral Prion." The old Rear Admiral Wilks stood up. "We
don't know how Admiral Prion's battle fared. She could have lost for all we
know. In that case, we would have no military units retreating from that front
that we can use to defeat the second invasion fleet. And there's always the
case if we wait too long, the first invasion fleet will attack from the center,
having defeated Admiral Prion."

"I agree." Prancort nodded. "It's best to
risk a lot to destroy the second fleet fast, in case Admiral Prion failed to
defeat the first. If she failed, we'll have even more trouble on our hands
soon."

This time, the table wasn’t silent. Murmurs crept throughout
the table, interlaced with shouts of arguments. Many people were in discord
with each other over the risks and rewards of draining the intersystem missile
dumps, especially near the core worlds.

Amongst the shouting, Admiral Prancort closed his eyes. Aye,
what a desperate position to be in. Never in his academy days, did he think
he'd ever be in such desperation. To be forced to make a hard choice.

However, it’s an officer's duty to make hard choices, to be
there when that hard decision point came, and to live with the consequences, no
matter what happened. Captain Donovan who he just met in person remained as
living metal proof of this principle. There’s no sense in trying to change his
commanding ways now. "I've decided." Admiral Prancort's voice echoed
out, strong and solid.

The shouting and arguments ceased. The table was his.

"We
are
going to drain the intersystem missile
dumps, and we will beat this invasion fleet from the periphery."

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Star System KA1401, Outer core of the Viron Empire

Hiveship
Roro Cro-Drignon
, Fleet Command Nexus

Three Days Later

Arriving...

A
nother new
system, another new prey to destroy....

Inside the command room, Roro Cro-Drignon's mandibles
clicked in the dim toned-down light of KA1401 main sequence star artificially
holographed above. The holographic map showed another vibrant star system of
the human empire, with thousands of little fishes darting in and out of its
colossal orbital infrastructure.

This is a larger world. Almost a core world, but not
completely.

Roro's interface tank, by which his twenty-two legs
connected, continued to feed information into his hindbrain about the light
readings of the inner system. So many starships, so many targets ripe for the
taking. Yet, Roro knew that with limited resources, he couldn't take out all of
those targets, or even most of it. Most of the fishes would escape unscathed,
but the orbital construction docks...they would be destroyed...as they
must...for they were the target of the invasion.

This is why he was here. A new human system, a new place, to
wreck as much damage as he could to the human's ability to create new ships.

His hindbrain scanned the entire spectrum of the star
system, looking for things—starships and fortresses—that could put up a fight.

Surprising enough, there was one gigantic battle station
orbiting the fourth planet capable of destroying one of his battleships if Roro
wasn't careful. But without more information, Roro couldn't know how it would
fare against his entire fleet. He predicted and believed it wouldn't be able to
take on all eight of his battleships. He doubted it, but he'd need more
information.

As always, this system would be defended by what the humans
called a ‘missile picket’ as Roro witnessed immediately upon his emergence from
warp space, the appearance of a thousand small gravity waves accelerating
towards his fleet from in-system. The humans must have seen his fleet's grav
signatures, which would be detectable simultaneously with no lag ,

Except this time, the missiles came immediately, which meant
the human commander was quick, probably a higher ranked commander compared with
the previous system Roro just attacked. "Fighter groups one, two, and
three…intercept those missiles!" Immediately, Roro's commands raced
through his thought interface tank and down the Cell chain of command. So
quickly, that Roro instantly viewed his fighter groups detaching from his
carriers and heading on interception trajectories to take out those human
missiles.

He stared at the planets within the solar system.
Electromagnetic radiation emanated from all five planets, but most of it
concentrated on the fourth planet. That means, the fourth planet is the most
habited.

"All starships, fire kinetic kill particles at the
fourth planet! The other planets are not worthy of our fire!"

"Yes, master commander!" came the replies from his
inferiors on board all his ships.

Roro mused. Kinetic bombardment would probably destroy all
life on the fourth planet, but as for the orbital facilities, his main target,
he would have to get in close and start a laser fight, because they had
deflector shields that could bend his KK particles off course.

But first, he needed to destroy this orbital battle station
.

Star System Arachnia, Outer Core of the Viron Empire

Battle Station VSF
Von Heppner
, orbiting Fourth
Planet Cerebrus

Operations Room

At the same time...

"Kinetic-kill acceleration waves on scanners!"
yelled tactical. "Sir, what do we do?"

Commodore Arnolf Delacroix gazed at the holotank with
tightened fists on the railings. "Alert civilian command. Tell all
civilians to head to underground bunkers."

"Yes, sir!"

Commodore Delacroix closed his eyes. He couldn't believe it.
The snakes were here. But, then, how could he not have known? The snakes wanted
to destroy humanity's core worlds, and the quickest route was through this
system, Arachnia, or through its neighbor, Aubuff. Then, since they were coming
this way, they might as well destroy his system as well.

This meant, it would be Commodore Delacroix turn to take the
heat, to sacrifice his life in defense of his family, his friends and his race.

"Commodore," said comm, "Should we evacuate
the station? We can't beat all those snake starships, plus those thirteen
missile freighters look menacing."

"No," Delacroix answered. "No retreat. We
stay and fight. We'll take out as many of the snakes before they kill us."

He didn't add…
that's how it's done.
The Imperial
Engineers of high command didn't build this battle station, just so we could
ditch it and remote control it from far away at the first sign of the odds
being against us.
"We stand and fight," repeated Delacroix.

"Yes, sir."

"However," Delacroix added, "Tell all other
ships to make the quickest way out of the system and to safety."

"Yes, sir," said Comm.

"Ops, ready the messenger packets with updated
information on the snake fleet and retreat them to high command. Send them on
four separate routes."

"Yes, sir," said Ops.

Delacroix gazed at the holotank. Just how much of the snake
fleet could he take out? Using the system's missile picket and his own battle
station…he could take out maybe one or two snake capital ships, if he were
really lucky. After all, his twenty kilometer ball of a battle station wasn't
an eighty kilometer
Maximus Decimus
like the fleet command uses as their
flag ship. The VSF
Von Heppner
was about the size of Viron juggernaut.
Worse yet, it was immobile. If the snakes sent all their warships at him, he'd
be overwhelmed easily even so, a good chance remained that he could take out
one snake warship...

Among the commotion of the operations room, Delacroix
silently nodded to himself. That needed to be his goal—what he had to concentrate
on.

Just take out one snake battleship, even a small one.
Make it easier for fleet command to take on this snake fleet when they do
fight.

If they do fight...

Star System Arachnia, Outer Core of the Viron Empire

Fourth Planet Cerebrus

Marine Central Command Bunker, Southern Continent

Cerebrus, the fourth planet in the star system, and like
many habitable plants within the human empire, it maintained an earthlike
gravity of 1.2 G. With a warm climate and many plants and animal species…What
stellar cartographers called an Eden world, a precious gem of many gems within
human space.

Marine General Dayton Opheim loved his home. For many years,
it had been. Precisely why it sickened him to think of it as the target of
planetary kinetic bombardment. He didn't want to think the planet would soon
succumb to shockwaves from ultra-relativistic particles, nor did he want to see
those mile high walls of fire or enormous tidal waves.

The snakes were ruthless creatures. This planet isn’t even
among the list of planets they wanted to control, yet they still wanted to
eradicate every living creature on it. The snakes were monsters, cruel
unbending freaks, with no sense of compromise and full of animalistic
take-and-grab nature.

Which is why Brigadier General Opheim would do his best to
defend it if, and when…the snakes decided to land ground parties.

With a population of one million civilians, Cerebrus
warranted a marine garrison. Opheim was in charge of this marine garrison with
about ten thousand troops under his command. Really, a nonentity against fleet
combat numbers, it did allow Opheim some power in case, the snakes wanted to
control the land.

But the real question is—did the snakes want to even control
the planet's surface? Or were they okay with just bombarding the surface to
glass?

Either way, Brigadier General Opheim was safe. His command
bunker sat under twelve miles of hard rock, but he couldn't say the same about
the one million civilians...

The civilians owned underground bunkers themselves. Perhaps
not as deep, they would be protected when the kinetic rounds hit—sort of. Their
bunkers were in fact designed against kinetic rounds by an enemy fleet— unlike
those at Kolonides II. In general, the closer the planet was to the core
worlds, or the closer it was to the predicted snake invasion path from the
center borders, the stronger and deeper the bombardment bunkers were.

Here, in Cerebrus, the bunkers were of much higher quality
and deepness than Kolonides, which existed a periphery world.

Therefore, inside the command bunker, General Opheim felt
ready for anything the snake fleet would give him. He estimated over 70% of the
civilian forces and over 90% of his marine detachment would survive the initial
bombardment wave.

That’s a pretty good number...even though it meant 300,000
humans might die.

Also, and of course, General Opheim did have something for
the snakes if, and when, they decided to enter orbit around Cerebrus, his
planet as well.

Star System Arachnia, Outer Core of the Viron Empire

Battle Space

Eight snake warships, each kilometers wide, accelerated
inward towards the system's fourth planet. The largest of the snake starships…a
snake juggernaut, which served as flagship of fleet. This juggernaut, called
Cro-Drignon
,
accelerated at the center of the snake battle wall . This formation was not out
of any caution or fear of losing, Roro Cro-Drignon simply wanted his fleet to
be in the best reception formation, when they began exchanging laser shots with
the only battle-capable unit the humans had in the system, the twenty-five
kilometer round battle station—the humans called VSF
Von Heppner
.

An hour ago, from the other side of the system, the human
battle station called
Von Heppner
launched a thousand missiles at the
snake fleet. In order to counterattack the human's system's missile picket,
Roro Cro-Drignon then launched three squadrons of snake fighter-interceptors,
totaling 3400 miniature grav waves.

An hour later, at present time, the human missiles
intertwined with the snake fighters. The snake fighters lasered away three
hundred human missiles before the missiles exited the snake fighters' laser
range, which meant seven hundred human missiles remained on course. When the
seven hundred missiles entered the snake capital ships' point defense-laser
envelope, another two hundred missiles were destroyed. When the snake starships
then launched electronic countermeasures, another hundred lost tracking
permanently. When the four hundred remaining human missiles entered the snakes'
counter missile and flak range, another two hundred human missiles died. The
remaining two hundred human missiles smashed into a snake light-cruiser from
the front.

Twenty gigatons of explosive power combined with forty
gigatons of kinetic energy, blasting waves of raw superheated plasma into the
snake's frontal armor. This time, the light-cruiser did not have enough armor
to protect all its vital systems. Fireballs rushed through corridors and entire
hull sections exploded. Immediately, it stopped its acceleration and just drifted
inward from out system, like a limping animal.

Inside the human battle station
Von Heppner
, the
command crew cheered.

However, this was just one part of the battle. The humans
had no more missiles.

On the other side of the system, snake kinetic kill slugs
launched hours ago, slammed into the inhabited planet of Cerebrus, destroying
its surface much like the destruction of Kolonides II a week earlier. Walls of
fire rings expanded from the epicenters of the blasts, vaporizing anything in
its path.

On the planet, over eighty percent of the one million humans
survived the blasts because of the strength of their underground bunkers. The
numbers were well above predicted estimates by General Opheim's staff.

From his underground bunkers, General Opheim watched the
snake fleet decelerate. Of course, the enemy had to slow down in order to come
into stationary orbit with Cerebrus to hammer away at the orbital facilities.