SAW 1: Stars at War (4 page)

To outsiders, it seemed to be a difficult naming system that
constantly shifted, but to Cells, who lived their entire life in a class
hierarchy, attaching commander's names to starships was not difficult. It was
made even easier, since some classes were born to become mated with their ships.

Banok could now see on the Cell holographic display, which
stood in a crevice at the very center of the command nexus. Railings kept all
the fellow insectoids from sliding into the blue-green display.

This is very good, very good, indeed.
Master Commander
Roro Cro-Drignon purposely kept him and his two heavy-cruisers in reserve, high
above the
flanker fleet
of eight human ships, in hopes of ambushing them
when they passed and their backs were exposed. Better yet, they could not turn
to face him, or they wouldn’t reach their destination, and if they did turn,
other Cell ships from their front would then have firing arcs on the humans'
rears.

It was a perfect plan. The human ‘flankers’ become flanked
themselves. "All units,
Gro-Zelsor
,
Gro-Camod
, head downward.
We will shoot the humans in the backs!"

"Yesss, squadron leader," came two replies in
Gro-Banok's anterior lobe.

"Companion Insectoids, fire on their rears at the
earliest opportunity!"

The prey was there with their backs turned. Yes, master commander
is a truly gifted warrior, indeed!

Normally, the Cell instinct would be to attack with
everything as fast as possible, to overwhelm the opponent. Such was the
strategy often used during mating competitions and ancient clan warfare. But
Master Commander Cro-Drignon taught an entirely different strategy. He taught
patience and cunning, trickery and counter planning. The very reason why Master
Commander was chosen to the task by all eight ‘warlords’ of the Cell Empire.

Squadron leader Gro-Banok felt glad. Glad, such a
distinguished member of his race existed. How could the Cell Empire lose
against these human worms with such talent as Cro-Drignon in our leadership?
The
Master Commander would take us to victory! Their land is ours! Territory goes
to the strongest clan, such as it was, such as it will be!

"We are in position, squadron leader. Shall I
fire?" said a minion.

"Fire! Are you a predator or a rat?" he hissed
back.

The heavy-cruiser
Gro-Banok
and his two companion
cruisers opened fire on the human flotilla below. Eight hundred gamma ray
lasers jammed intense energy into the rear of a human light-cruiser. The
cruiser's shields spasmed the majority of the initial blast, but within
seconds, it splattered away. The next wave of grazers slammed into the weakly
armored rear of the human vessel. The energy ricocheted inside the
light-cruiser, blowing entire fragments like razor sharp glass inside a
mammal's body. The human light-cruiser stopped accelerating and exploded.

On the Outside Asteroid Wall of the Cylinder

Bridge, Juggernaut VSF
Asterix

"The
Fierrera
is gone, sir!" Comm advised,
"It's not responding, anymore. I can't hail it!"

Donovan watched the
Fierrera
, or what was left of the
Fierrera
, as two giant chunks sped left and right.

He then, studied her assailants and grimaced. So, this was
the reason those three heavy-cruisers stood idle behind that asteroid
cluster—to get  rear and side shots on us! Worse yet, every captain in the
flotilla knew that to turn towards those three rear snakes would be suicide. If
you turned, the snakes in front would get you.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

Such was the power of a two-sided attack. It would’ve been
best to have everyone turned in one direction, so only one of your assailant
groups—in this case, the three snake heavy-cruisers behind—would get rear
shots.

Who would be next? It would be up to fate, and the whim
of your enemies.

CHAPTER FIVE

Flag Bridge, Mobile Battle Fortress VSF
Epsilon
Decimus

A
dmiral
Prancort watched a volley of snake grazer fire cut the backside of the
light-cruiser
Halek
, which then dropped acceleration. It meant reactor
trouble. This wasn’t good. Any rear hits would not be good. Human ships were
designed, so their forward armor would be toughest, precisely because in most scenarios,
combatants would be hundreds of thousands of kilometers away and most of the
time, they would be forward-facing each other. Side-facing engagements were
few, and rear-facing engagements were rarest. It seemed in a proto-stellar
asteroid field that was less the case. Though, even here, it would be still
advantageous to concentrate most of your armor in front, because
forward-forward confrontations occurred much more often.

Obviously, snake starships were designed the same way.

The human light-cruiser
Halek
took more hits to the
rear, then it exploded in a massive containment breach—it, too, joined the line
of debris that came from the
Fierrera
.

No, Prancort could not take much more of this. At this rate,
the flanking flotilla would get destroyed and there would be nothing left to do
anything at the destination.

Luckily, he called all of his forces into Block D-9-D and
the surrounding blocks. This meant, there were some reinforcements coming
towards the cylinder from the top. They were too far away to get inside the
cylinder and play a part of the battle inside, but they did have, or soon would
have, line of sight on those three snakes.

Luckily, the snakes also possessed weak rear and side armor.

Above the Cylinder

Bridge, Light Cruiser VSF
Harrington

Captain Elise de Manchu grinned in her padded suit as her
light-cruiser
Harrington
gained line of sight on the three snake heavies
below. Hers was a fast ship, and not unexpectedly, she made her way quickly to
the relevant battlefield. "Fire at the lead snake!" she ordered.

"Which one is that—ma'am?" weapons asked

"The middle one!”
Dummy.

"Yes, ma'am. Firing!"

The Harrington's cruiser-sized lasers beamed into the
top-rear section of the enemy heavy cruiser below. On her holomap, she saw
explosions dotting the massive hunchback. Not a devastating shot, since it came
from a light-cruiser, but it did get their attention, and hopefully, it would
pull them away from attacking those six remaining human vessels far below.
Prancort's
orders.
Her job would be to prevent those three snake heavies from
annihilating the flanking flotilla.

One of the snake heavies turned to meet her.

"Shield status?"

"54%, ma'am," DC responded.

"Good." Elise nodded.

The
Harrington
was a new ship, and its shield
emitters were the most efficient in the fleet. It recharged the shields fast,
especially after that last encounter, where shield saturation dropped to the
single digits.

Elise shuddered. She almost lost her life and her crew in
that one. Battle is an amazing gamble, and she ‘d won—that time.

"They're firing, ma'am!" weapons advised.

Below, the ‘leader’ snake finished turning a 180 and beamed
all 250 grazers into
Harrington
's forward shields. Her shields splashed,
but despite all that, she could still see the three snakes clearly on her
holomap, as their location and orientation seemed to laser into her ship from a
probe network.

"Shields at 36% and dropping, ma'am!" said DC.

"Weapons, switch laser target away from the forward
facing ship and at any of the ones still exposing their rear," she ordered

"Which one?"weapons replied.

"Anyone! The left, Carl!"

"Y—yes, ma'am."

Elise shook her head. How did this officer get into her
bridge? It was impossible to correct now…she returned her attention at the
three snakes below.

Suddenly, she felt a ping of fear.
Real fear.
Even if
she managed to get all three snakes below turned to face her, her ship was
doomed. She was only a light-cruiser, which didn't fare well at all, with not
one but three snake heavies.

Then, she realized that Prancort's flanking flotilla's
destination was so vital that he’d sacrificed her to get there. Despite all the
years of officer school's drilling of sacrifice and duty, she still wanted to
yell at Admiral Prancort.

You rascal!

"Ma'am, we got company!" helm advised.

"I know, lieutenant. The second snake is turning
towards us."

"No, ma'am! Look behind us!"

Two human vessels: a destroyer and a heavy-cruiser stepped
into position beside Elise's
Harrington
. She grinned in sheer joy as the
two vessels laser beamed the third unturned snake. The beams smacked the
snake's rear, and since they came from a heavy-cruiser, vast fireballs and
plumes caused rippling explosions to billow out.

"Carl, target the unturned snake heavy," Elise
ordered.

"Yes, ma'am."

Harrington's forward lasers added to the onslaught ,slicing
the unturned heavy's back. The snake wretched and exploded in an overloaded
reactor mess that threw a gigantic half-kilometer fragment into the neighboring
snake.

Excellent! Now we’re even! Three human starships, a
heavy-cruiser, a light-cruiser, and a destroyer, against two damaged snake
heavies—a battle Elise hoped for.

"Ma'am! We got company!" said helm again.

Elise smiled. She watched behind her ship and didn't see
any.
Where are they?
Then, she realized the officer didn't mean good
company. She peered above her, about 80 degrees from her forward axis, and knew
from that direction the news would be bad. A red holoblip. And not just a small
holoblip, but a giant one. A snake juggernaut aimed at her trio ‘squadron’ and
fired juggernaut-sized grazers that slashed into the human destroyer beside
her. The destroyer didn't even front-face the juggernaut as the grazers dove
into its side armor.

Explosions rippled through the human destroyer's tiny hull,
tearing through its top armor like it was nothing, shattering its energy
stores. The
Bellophoron
disappeared in a flash of light. And all its
1000 crewmen.

Debris ricocheted off Elise's hull. She could hear it.
Clang!
Clang!
I'm next,
thought Elise.
Fourth Military Maxim: when all
enemies have the same attack-to-weight ratio, kill the easy targets first.
"Helm! Turn us to face that juggernaut!" yelled Elise.

No—too late. Even if she completed her turn, she'd be
exposing her belly armor to the two snake heavies in front of her. In a split
second, she realized she was doomed, as juggernaut-sized grazer beams crashed
into her cruiser's top.

Above the Cylinder

Bridge, Juggernaut VSF
Asterix

We're there!
Donovan watched at the battle above and
behind him, realizing that the two human vessels,
Harrington
and
Camilla
,
had no chance of survival. But they’d done their job. They turned the three
snake heavies away from shooting at his flotilla's rear.

Donovan wished he could give a moment of silence to all who
commanded those two ships, but battle didn't give him time. He barked orders to
decelerate the Asterix, so it could slide through the cylinder's asteroid wall
and reach their destination…a flanking position on the enemy units inside the
cylinder.

The holomap showed all the remaining five members of his
flotilla also decelerating  in an attempt to seep through the asteroid wall
below.

I hope the battle down there hasn't finished, because
it's payoff time.

Above the Cylinder

Command Nexus, Suicide Ship CE
Cha-mungnum

Cha-mungnum's mandibles clicked in delight. The Master
Commander’s plan had been perfect.

He saw the five ship human flotilla. Their attempts to
decelerate, so they could weave in between the asteroids of the cylinder’s top
wall in order to gain flanking position on those twenty Cell ships below…might
seem like a success. But they didn't know about Cha-mungnum. The Master
Commander perfectly positioned
Cha-Mungnum
to destroy the flotilla. What
made it even better—the enemy could not see him.

The ‘Cha’ in his name designated a subset of the warrior
caste. From the beginning of Cell civilization, his subcaste were the scouts,
the ones whose self-sacrifice was relied on by the other castes. Now, he fit
that role perfectly…a suicider…commanding a ship loaded with fifty-thousand
roaring’s of antimatter.

He felt glad. Glad, to do his duty for his clan, for his
species. His ship, also called
Cha-Mungnum
, only required twenty
insectoids to man. But when detonated, the provided the positioning was
perfect, and it could kill thousands of multitudes more. But who cares? They
were the enemy. They competed for territory and thus, should be thought of as
prey.

Cha-Mungnum's mandibles clicked. His twenty-two limbs
inputted orders into the ship, thereby taking it out of ‘camouflage’ mode.

The ship
Cha-Mungnum
suddenly sprouted legs. Legs
which created a gravity field, pulling his ship—previously an innocuous
asteroid—directly at the sweet spot of the human flotilla.

Above the Cylinder

Bridge, Juggernaut VSF
Asterix

What the hell is that?
Recognition sparked in
Donovan.

NO! NO!

It was so damn close! It was right there, right in the
middle of the flotilla, or where the five-ship fleet would be in seconds!

"Comm!" Donovan called. "Tell the fucking
flotilla to shoot that thing! Weapons! Shoot it down! Shoot it down!"

"But we'll hit our ships!" weapons countered.

"It doesn't matt—" The K-ship exploded right in
front of the five ship fleet. The massive white antimatter shockwave expanded
at near light-speed. The leading human juggernauts
Pusan
and
Javelin
disappeared inside the shockwave. Seeing two twenty-kilometer starships
vaporize into plasma would have unsettled Donovan, but he didn't have time to
react as the blast flung
Asterix
like a ship in a typhoon. The next two
heavy-cruisers
Oxion
and
Beaumont
, both occupying the middle of
the flotilla, rippled with explosions. Entire sections of their forward hull
blew away into debris.

Donovan was lucky. The
Asterix
held the rear of the
flotilla. Even luckier, it somewhat trailed behind the other four ships, since
its reactors were at half, and so were its gravitic engines. When
Oxion
and
Beaumont
expanded into superheated chunky debris,
Asterix
remained whole.

Though, it didn’t mean it hadn’t taken a beating.

"Shields are wiped out!" said DC.

"Of course! What do you think?" Donovan retorted.
"Helm, do we have gravitics?"

"Gravitic engines are—are—operational!" helm
exclaimed, clearly amazed.

"Turn us down! Descend into the chasm in between those
two asteroids!"  What amazed Donovan was how the antimatter shockwave,
despite sending part of every subsystem into red-red-black, did accomplish
something extraordinary. It completely nullified
Asterix
's forward
momentum.

Definitely, something Donovan needed, since every snake
starship within three hundred kilometers would be targeting him.

"I've finished turning," helm advised. "I'm
descending!"

"Go!" Donovan shouted.