SAW 1: Stars at War (3 page)

Donovan's
Asterix
now became but a speck of dust
among the giants. Laser beams slammed across the void in a kaleidoscope of
movement. Starships tried to weave in and out through the chasm's walls in an
attempt to get flanking shots while using asteroids as cover.

Somewhere, off in the distance, a gigantic flash occurred,
and everyone inside
Asterix
's bridge watched as an antimatter roach…a
snake K-ship, detonated beside two human starships. The blast skewered the big
and powerful
Argonan
's shields and wrecked into its inner hull. Donovan
didn't need sensors to tell that the
Argonan
was neutralized. Its tag
team buddy, a human heavy-cruiser named
Presario
, also limped like a
dead animal. Within seconds, the snakes inside the chasm preyed on the two
limpers until they literally broke apart.

A message flashed on Donovan's armrest, from Admiral
Prancort, it read, "Watch out for K-ships!" If this fact wasn't
already deadly apparent, the message solidified it.

CHAPTER FOUR

Flag Bridge, Mobile Battle Fortress VSF
Epsilon
Decimus

P
rancort needed
to win. He had to. He must beat this monster, this opponent from the other
side. Prancort rarely lost in any fleet simulation. Back at the Academy...

Concentrate! Concentrate, Prancort de
Gaulle!

Victory is always possible! You just have to find the
solution!

The solution was Block D-9-D. A big organic chasm, where it
was  much easier to control his units in there because there were so few
asteroids, and he could essentially think of the entire battle there as one.

Block D-9-D...

Besides, it existed a vital transport route. Control of ‘the
chasm’ would allow anyone to attack the nearby Blocks with ease. But by holy
science, the K-ships were wrecking his strategy! He needed to concentrate on
the K-ships and simultaneously focus on his original game plan, but he
couldn't.

Concentrate harder!

Worse, his forces were weak—already sixty percent of his
pre-battle forces were dead, compared to only fifty percent of the snake's. Did
he have enough firepower to hold D-9-D? It would be the only way he could still
win, even after all those K-ship attacks.

It suddenly dawned to him—he’d already lost sixty percent of
his fleet. It was nowhere near his previous optimistic estimates by any margin.
The original game plan was kaput! He realized that even if he were to win the
battle now, it would be at most a pyrrhic victory where the costs were so high,
it wouldn't have been worth it.

Prancort gripped the damn railing and closed his eyes. He
could only work with what he’d been left with now. Even if he’d already lost so
much, he still had to perform his best.

D-9-D... the chasm...

He must take D-9-D, but he didn't have enough ships.

But wait!
Prancort slapped his head. He did have the
battle station! "Captain!"

"Yes, admiral!"a bearded man below answered.

"Move us to Block D-9-D."

"We gonna find ourselves some meat, admiral?"

"You bet, captain."

Inside the Cylinder

Bridge, Juggernaut VSF
Asterix

Fear crept through Donovan's veins like black lava. The idea
that a suicidal bomb-filled roach could come from anywhere and do devastation
on any flotilla of starships felt—unsettling. His eyes cautiously scanned
everywhere among the vast numbers of dots and projections.

Then, his armrest beeped.
Message from Admiral Prancort
.
"Juggernauts
Pusan, Asterix
, and
Javelin
…combine with heavy
cruisers
Beaumont
and
Oxion
, then move on the surface of the
cylinder. Light cruisers
Halek, Ferriera,
and
Proclyon
will
screen for K-ships during the flanking maneuver. With exception to
Asterix
,
all starships will be moving at flank speed.
Asterix
will guard the
rear. Proceed to coordinates 442,756,212 of Block D-9-D."

Wow, that was a lot of ships! Literally, a fifth of all
ships in the Block—a major maneuver and if it didn't work, a great deal would
be lost.
Hmm... Donovan thought. The purpose was to get flanking position
on the Snake units scattered across the cylinder, particularly the big glob of
ten enemy warships on the other side's wall.
Boy!
What Donovan would do
to sneak up a human-owned K-ship on that blob!

Unfortunately, humans didn't have any K-ships. So, he would
be forced to settle with a flanking position. This must be the purpose, right?
But why did Prancort assign
Asterix
the rear? The admiral must be aware
of
Asterix
's reactor problem and that
Asterix
could only move at
half speed!

Donovan suddenly felt awe at how much information the
admiral was observant of to even be aware of
Asterix
's reactors.
"Helm…Move  us to coordinates 442,756,212 on the distant side of the
chasm."

"But that'll put us in direct enemy fire!"

"No, not through a direct line. Maneuver us on the
outside of the chasm's walls."

"Outside of the cylinder? Aye, sir."

First officer Rajek stood beside him. "Aren't there a
lot of enemy ships outside the cylinder, sir?"

"We'll be moving along with a flotilla of eight ships,
including ours. We'll be well guarded."

"But why assign us to be part of this flanking
maneuver? We've got reactor problems," Rajek interjected.

"It must be because we're closest despite our reactor
mess. Take a look at the orders."

Commander Rajek glanced at them. "Hmm…I see."

"Helm, go!"

Flag Bridge, Mobile Battle Fortress

VSF Epsilon Decimus

Prancort didn't like the fact that the only way he could win
would be by out flanking his opponent, but his race had shorter, nimbler ships
and he needed to press his advantage over the opponent's larger, more muscular
ships.

The good news was now, he only had to monitor a much fewer
number of ‘battle spaces’ simultaneously. It would allow him to concentrate
better on the ones he did monitor, which mostly, involved the ‘chasm’ battle of
D-9-D. All his remaining starships were coalescing at or around this point,
such as the neighboring Blocks. This would be the most crucial moment of the
battle, and he needed his attention to be undivided in order to win.

He could win, right?

The persistent threat of those K-ships occupied the back of
his mind, but now he commanded his lighter units to guard against it, and as
much as he wanted to worry, it would be up to them to keep his bigger assets
safe. Prancort could not occupy his time scanning for small asteroids that
looked like a K-ship in hiding.

This would be the best strategy…The most optimal strategy.
But would it be enough to win?

Prancort glanced to his right at Prion.

The woman stood, staring right back at him. The battle
fortress's massive gravitic engines droned in the background, blending with the
constant voices of the bridge crew below. "I don't know," she mused.
"I don't know if it will work. But it's our best shot."

"Me, neither," Prancort, glanced back to his
displays. When he looked over at Prion again, the woman was tapping into her
controls. "Hopefully, we'll get there in time…
Hopefully
."

On the outer asteroid wall of the Cylinder

Bridge, Juggernaut VSF
Asterix
Senior Captain Donovan
saw his
Asterix
on the holomap trailing behind the other seven starships
of his convoy…in a daring flanking maneuver. The problem with such a maneuver
would be that even if they succeeded in getting to flanking position, it would
mean these same ships wouldn't be firing on the enemies inside the cylinder, as
they needed to move on the outside of the chasm. So, if it did work, it’d
better pay off extremely well. They needed maneuver all their ships in a
flanking position quickly, and then do devastating damage once there.

The problem was… enemy ships were outside the cylinder, and
the admiral knew they were out there, so it would be a very risky maneuver with
much randomized rewards. But maybe the admiral knew more than Donovan did. He
had to trust the admiral, even if he, a starship captain, didn't have faith in
the tactic.

The bridge seemed quiet and calm, despite the turmoil of the
previous battles they already suffered. Everyone on the bridge would get a
reward for this, Donovan knew, because they’d already lasted so long, against
so many. But what were rewards in comparison to the knowledge of their actions
impacting the fleet's well-being, as well as humanity's?

All the more reason for Donovan to focus. He and his crew
already went through so much, it would be—anti-climatic to fail the grand fleet
at its crucial moment.  "Shield status?" he called.

"We've recovered 20% during the battle while no one was
shooting at us," said DC.

"Weapon's status?"

"187 forward laser mounts still functional," Carly
at weapons answered, "I've got twenty functional mounts in the rear, and
about sixty on our sides."

"Reactors and gravitic engines?"

"Half power on both, sir," helm responded.

"Thank you." Donovan stared on ahead at the map.
The enemy hadn't moved any starships to intercept yet, but—
Wait!
His
eyes opened wide. He saw what was happening. The enemy was opening a gigantic
hole for his flotilla of eight ships to walk into. Purposely, and then, when
his flotilla of flankers walked too deep into the trap, the enemy would close
the hole.

Immediately, Donovan typed a letter to Admiral Prancort on
his armpad. "Admiral, this is a trap."

He got no reply. Seconds passed.

Then, finally, a message came back: "I know. Continue
on course."

Donovan felt perplexed. He wrote another letter. "With
all due respects, why are we walking into it?"

The admiral wrote back, "In order for us to win, you
must succeed."

Donovan sat back into his chair—and blinked.

Succeed.

Against that?

I must prepare for an attack from all sides. The enemy is
waiting for us, yet the Admiral knows this and wants us to beat them
.
Donovan laughed.

The bridge crew around him turned to stare at him.

"Nothing," Donovan retorted, "I'm sorry.
Return to your posts."

"Something funny, captain?" commander Rajek asked.

"Just what the admiral wants us to do. He wants us to
walk into the devil's maw. And he needs us to break through it."

Around the bridge, many officers gasped.

"What do we do?" helm asked.

"Be vigilant, of course," said Donovan.
"Helm, continue...on course."

Six minutes later...

"Captain!" weapons called out, "Four snake
heavy-cruisers are coming in from the front of our flotilla!"

"I see them. Shoot them down!"

"Captain, two snake lighties are coming from
above!"

"Shoot them with our side laser mounts. We can't turn
towards them or we'll lose forward acceleration! Comm, alert the other
ships!"

"They see them," said Comm. "They're
shooting."

"Comm, tell them to concentrate fire! Tell them to
concentrate fire on snake D19!"

"Aye, sir!"

All around
Asterix
, a gigantic laser war crisscrossed
in between the snake ‘trappers’ converging on the flotilla and the eight human
ships themselves.
Asterix
stayed in the rear. X-ray and gamma ray beams
were not seeable, but the dust that turned into plasma was. Rather than shoot
randomly, all human starships of the flotilla agreed to synchronize their fire
on a single enemy at a time.

Donovan's judgment made him de facto squadron leader, as
they blasted away a snake heavy three hundred kilometers in front.

A massive battle ensued, much like all the battles in the
past, except this was only one part of a larger battle, involving many
starships, both inside and outside the cylinder.

Fire! Fire! Fire!

Explosions. Hull fragments. Death.

Within minutes, it became obvious. Despite the enemy fire,
the flotilla continued zooming past fiery wrecks of snake starships and
asteroids of the cylinder below.

The eight human ships, including
Asterix
, kept
shooting at the snake interceptors—the humans were winning. Minute by minute,
human laser fire mowed down snake starships crossing their path.

The bridge crew cheered each time.

Donovan blinked and held his breath.
This can't be it—I
can see a snake juggernaut eight hundred kilometers away, hiding behind that
asteroid. Then, I can see three other snake heavies behind that asteroid
cluster above, sitting idle. They have more to attack us with. Why are they
holding back? Why not use them, too? Attack all at once! First military maxim
is concentration of strength!

Yet, the enemy wasn't attacking with all its strength.

Donovan suddenly wondered if the enemy commander might be
suffering from some type of insectoid aneurysm or perhaps, overwhelmed with
tasks...from elsewhere.
Prancort is a genius!

"Captain, look!" helm pointed out, "One
K-ship—coming in from the left, 45 degrees from our forward axis!"

Donovan veered his gaze to the side of the holomap. He could
see it now! The dreaded roach-like K-ship—there!
Holy science, those damn
things look just like asteroids, until their gravity emitting legs sprout, and
then they look like disfigured roaches. I could have sworn it was an asteroid.
"All side laser mounts, shoot it down! Helm, turn our ship towards it and
fire with our forward laser mounts!"

"Yes, sir! Firing!"

"Turning!"

"Comm," said Donovan, "tell the
flotilla!"

"Yes, sir!"

Suddenly, six human starships in the flotilla fired at the
roach, only four hundred kilometers away. The combined power of six starships'
1600 laser mounts overwhelmed the little creature at point-blank range. It
exploded prematurely. The antimatter shockwave spasmed and collided with
additional rocks and dust, creating a blast wave that smashed into the
flotilla's shields now—as harmless as it could be.

Asterix's shields barely dwindled because of the range. Nor,
did it affect the other ships in the flotilla.

"We got 'em!" weapons shouted.

"Keep on the look out!" Donovan warned.

"Sir, three snake heavies above and behind, they're
moving behind us!"

Outside the Cylinder

Command Nexus, Heavy Cruiser CE Gro-Banok

Squadron commander Gro-Banok eyed his prey below. Cell
protocol designated the ships by the name of the commander. Thus, squadron
leader Gro-Banok's ship was called
Gro-Banok
. Additionally, when the
commander changed, the ship's designation changed as well.