To the Vanquished
The fall of the Solarian Republic
Prologue
1.
It is said that almost 3000 years ago when ancient Rome was defeated and sacked by the tribal Celts that the citizens of Rome where told the victors would leave upon a tribute of a thousand pounds of gold. As the city gathered the treasure, they cried out that the Celts where using faulty weights so as to increase the agreed upon amount of gold. The leader of the Celts, Brennus, then threw down his sword and proclaimed with contempt “Vae Victis.” Now the Romans would have to increase the amount to compensate for the weight of his sword. These words have come down through history from victor to loser, oppressor to the repressed, as Woe to the Vanquished.
The stories of the conquest of the powerful by the so called weak continue down through history, all the way to and including the colonial uprisings of 2432ad. The then mighty and powerful Solarian Republic did not want to recognize the sovereignty of the now mid rim worlds, nor did they want to accept them as equals. So 150 years ago war broke out, a devastating war of brother on brother, where attrition was the tactic of the day. The Solarian Legions were well trained, but could not hold against the onslaught of the colonies. Some say if the Republic had a war fighting navy and not just a transport service for the Legions, then the Republic would have won the war. They did not however and neither did the colonies, so the ground combat continued, with raids and assaults on sometimes barren worlds, and sometimes habitable planets. The massacre on Wolf 359 showed the brutality of the Legions when 100,000 colonists rebels where either killed or captured. The raids of Alpha Centaury and Proxima Century by Colonial Forces avenged those 100,000 soldiers and secured a strategic base only some 4 light years from Earth. Finally a push of forces into the Sol system forced the Solarian Senate to capitulate to the demands of the rebels. They did not want self rule anymore, but more surprisingly the wanted full membership into the Republic. To rebuild the Republic and enjoy the economic prosperity and the protection from a Republic Military, they wanted rights and privileges only afforded the citizens of the Republic, and in short they wanted a thousand pounds of treasure. At least this is what the leaders of the Sol system viewed it, and if the politicians of Earth did not guarantee these, they would sack and burn the home world of the Republic and Woe to the Vanquished.
They, the history books, say that the Republic Senate only agreed to the treaty because of the threat of the Kell, who looked at the strife in the Republic as a chance to expand their boarders. And since they did attack the Republic 10 years later, this is the popular view, but some suggest that simple reality donned on the Senate. With the added recourses of the colonies, a new age of expansion and prosperity emerged. And when the colonials entered the Republic they brought culture and ideas never before thought of in the older worlds. It was truly a great period of time for the Republic, but even the new senators from the new mid rim worlds could remember the atrocities of the war, and with the senators of the old worlds they put in place laws to bring about a new military with a navy capable of war, and not just transport of the Legions. The Legions were reformed and retrained into a frightening fighting force that is looked upon in dread. With the new military in place to ensure the protection of the Republic, the Senate settled down to more domestic practices, but always with an eye on the political climate on new colonies. Even though they won freedom, they did not want to go through another war of this magnitude, especially one of human on human.
And now, in the year 2576 it was all happening again, the powerful Republic was using draconian laws and taxes on the new colonies to suppress the recent desire to become equal among the their fellow humans. Rumors of the colonial militia training for war have put the Republic Navy into a frenzy of preparation and training. Indeed political strife was engulfing the worlds of the Republic, and the military has been force to bring order to various worlds. Demonstrators for and against the colonies were disrupting the peace of various worlds, and this is something that the leaders and politicians could not tolerate. Would war come again, and would there be a sword tossed on the pile of ransom either for the colonies or Republic, and who would be the Vanquished this time.
The analogy does not always fit, but more times than not it is accurate thought Commander Josh Taylor, Captain of the Solarian Republic Naval Gunship Nemesis. Training was everything for any military force, especially for something as large and complex as the Solarian Navy. But Commander Taylor did not like the premise. Predatory attacks against larger forces using only gun ships was his stock and trade, but the Admiralty was using him as a training tool to prepare for a possible attack against their own colonies, and that was not something Taylor wanted to see. Besides it had been two years since the massacre of the colonial rebels by the Legions at Ceti Minor. Five years since Colonial Representatives where allowed back in to the Senate. Did the Senate really have to add the weight of its sword to the concessions the colonists had to pay? Training to attack a bunch of colonist was not a worthy thing for the Navy to do, at least in Taylor’s esteemed opinion.
Alas, nobody of any note cared what the Commander thought. Taylor’s political views where not popular with his fellow officers and defiantly not with his superiors. In fact many things about Taylor where not popular with his superiors including his so called colonial sympathies, he just thought beating up on poor and under equipped colonist where not a proper if efficient use of the Fleet, Commander Taylor was a large proponent of the war by ambush philosophy. Again this was not a popular view among the Admiralty. Most were former captains of battle cruisers and command carriers. Their view of the battle field was liner. Fleets would line up in to formations and attack a similar fleet in a similar formation. Taylor’s thinking lead another way, in that if the opposing fleet could not maintain a formation or even get the vessels to the battle field to make a formation, then the battle is won. All this could be accomplished with small vessels not unlike the nemesis patrolling the battle line if not behind the line and ambushing enemy forces. However as one of his few friends had pointed out, it would deprive the leaders of the fleet a grand fleet action every admiral not only wanted but dreamed of, and therefore would be seen as not in accordance with the traditions and integrity of the Solarian Navy.
This line of thinking had always baffled Commander Taylor. In his mind political implications only belonged before and after a fight, never during one. But any epiphanies Taylor could have had on the subject were not to be. Commander Taylor was brought out of his deep and brooding thoughts back to reality with the sound of the Internal Comm. Unit. The horribly annoying sound coming from the box on the command console was quickly turned off by a flick of a switch and was replaced by the voice of the Chief of the Watch in the Comscan station in the compartment immediately behind the control room.
“Con, Scan.” Announced the voice over the comm..
“Go ahead Scan.” Replied the commander in a dead pan voice.
“Commander, we have a graviton distortion bearing 351 mark 32. Best estimate of range is 3.8 tk’s.” Replied the Chief. “Thank you Chief. Start a track and send the data over here please.” The almost automatic reply to the conversation came out of Taylor’s mouth with him barley knowing he said it.
The Commander of the Nemesis turned to his navigation officer. “Lt. Do you have the track yet?”
Lieutenant Commander Mira Tessgundo went to work at the Nav station. Punching away at the controls for the navigational display as she worked at her station, Taylor made the short walk from behind the helm were he had been standing to the display table. The control room of the gunship was small and cramped, and even the commanding officer had to squeeze past his crew while they did their jobs. He arrived at the display after forcefully pushing his way past the weapons officer and Ltcmdr Tessgundo.
The display table was just that. A large table 2 meters long and 1 meter wide that came out of the forward bulkhead and separated the helm from the navigation station, its placement in the center more forward portion of the control room ensured that all stations could use and refer to the data displayed on it. Taylor glanced at the screen on the unit and saw that the display showed the Cobac system that the Nemesis was currently in. The Cobac system was devoid of life, and consisted of 4 planets, 3 of witch were gas giants. The nav. display showed the ship was in a lose orbit around the third planet, Cobac 3 orbiting the systems star at 1.5 billion kilometers. He watched as the data on the screen changed to show a series of red circles, like a bull’s eye of old appear next to the fourth planet of the system. Cobac 4 was another gas giant of unremarkable size and composition, and was orbiting the local star about three trillion, eight hundred million kilometers from his current position.
“Can we confirm the contact Tess?” asked the Commander of the Nemesis. Ltcmdr Tessgundo continued attacking her controls for another moment before answering. “Yes sir, Gravitational flux is not natural; there is a defiant slide in progress. The tenetive position is consistent with a standard entry vector for the fleet.” She paused only to show a crooked smile, “I think Admiral Sanders has just entered the system sir.”
Despite how Commander Taylor wanted to reach across the nav display and kiss his nav. Officer and in truth the nav officer would not have minded in the least, a Commander did not display such emotion or favoritism in front of his crew. The crew, including the officers all new that their commander and their navigation officer had a relationship, what kind and the extent of was a matter of a large and ongoing debate, but they all knew it was something, and would not care if he did kiss her. Though despite his unpopular tactical and political thoughts, Commander Taylor was still a trained naval officer and would not overtly jeopardize the chain of command or the moral of his people. So his feelings would be put on hold for the moment and professionalism would take over for now. Besides when and if the celebration came later tonight in his cabin, it would not be for correctly guessing the system that Admiral Sanders would choose to use as a pivot point during his slide operations. The celebration would be if the Nemesis,
could successfully engage the Admirals task force and get away with it.
With a nod of his head to Mira, Taylor reached over and activated the Internal Comm. “Chief Freese, we need conformation on vessels and type on contact bearing 351 mark 32.”
The reply came after a few seconds of static over the Comm. “Sir, we are just starting to pick up plasma flares. Just a moment….
Sir, confirm three, I say again three plasma flares baring 356 Mark 31.”
“Thank you chief, can you make out vessel type?” asked the Commander.
Again Taylor had to wait a couple of seconds, as the chief tried to determine the type of ships that had just slid into real space.
“Con, Scan….. Best guess with current information is two; I say again two battle cruisers, with escorts. Those escorts are of medium size, so I would say they are frigates sir.”
“Good job Chief, stay on it for me please.” Commander Taylor switched off the Comm. Then turned to his weapons officer.
“Lt Mankley, bring us to battle stations please, and prep the tubes with 220 tactical.”
Lt Mankley snapped to attention much to the rest of the crew’s annoyance. “Aye sir bringing the ship to Battle Stations.”
The lighting of the control room dimmed and the regular quite was replaced with the droning of the alarm. The voice of Lt Makley sounded over the Comm. “Battle stations, repeat Battle stations, all crew report to Battle stations. THIS IS A DRILL. Battle stations.” Nobody really like Mankley, but he did know how to do his job and by the book. With in seconds of the order, the ship was brought up to battle stations.
“Sir, the ship has been brought to battle stations, and the forward launch tubes have been loaded with 220 tactical warheads simulated.” The weapons officer reported with a smug look showing his supposed superiority, again awarding him the disdain of most of the command crew. Commander Taylor practically ignored him, as he stepped closer to his nav officer.
“Is the Admiral holding position or is he breaking orbit?” Asked the commander.
Ltcmdr Tessgundo, swiping loose hair out of her face, glanced down at her displays for a moment. “Looks like he's going to swing around Cobac 4 once for a sensor scan, sir.” Still fighting to remove the loose hair from her vision.
“Commander, if we increase our orbital velocity, we can move to the light side and out of their scan before they clear the moons that are masking us for the moment.” Interjected the small and smug form of the weapons officer.
“So you think it would be best to hide for the moment and wait for a better opportunity to attack?” Asked Taylor as he studied the nav display. “Don’t you think we have all the advantages now, Lt.” He continued.
“Sir, I thought our orders were to act like pirates and colonists, meaning to hide until found. To directly attack this formation, would not be a realistic option for those types of forces.” Again with alleged superiority.
Some day this arrogance was going to get LT. Dennis Mankley into trouble, thought Taylor. Hell, this type of thinking that ran ramped through the entire fleet would get them all into trouble. He briefly thought to give his overbearing weapons officer a rebuke, but refrained if only to continue his own planning. He needed to show Mankley, and indeed Admiral Sanders, that they were vulnerable to an attack by small gun ships by using inflexible fleet formations. And he truly believed that if war came between the Republic and the colonies, that the colonial militia would be disparate enough to use such tactics. So called freedom fighters have little respect for traditions and expected behavior when it came to tactics and strategy.
“No Lt. I think we need to attack. They are using a tight formation too close to the planet, making an easy target if we came around those moons.” Said the Commander quietly and almost to himself. “Tess, start calculations for a slide from our present orbital position, to the fourth moon of Cobac 4.” Ordered Taylor. He was rewarded with smiles from the command crew except from Mankley, who obviously did not approve. To bad, some day when he was in command, something Taylor highly doubted, he could give the orders. He glanced at Mira, who was absolutely beaming, and could not help but smile in return. She was obviously happy that finally he could show Command that witch he had always said they were vulnerable. How many nights had he probably bored her to death with his rants on the subject. But to her credit she did nothing but support him, she was always there for him despite his never committing him to her. Taylor used the excuse that he was her commander, but that had not always been the fact. There was always something that he would point to why they could not marry or commit, not that Taylor was ever unfaithful to her. They were truly best of friends and complete and total companions but for some reason he could not elevate their relationship to the natural conclusion. A small comfort was that she was apparently willing to wait patiently for him. Commander Taylor was allowing himself to get distracted, he had a ship to run, a hyper space slide to prepare, and an attack to perform. Focus, he needed to focus, this was the only bad thing about his and Mira’s relationship. Here in the control room with her, he could bask in her beauty, her dark shin and dark eyes. Her long and always unkempt hair that flowed around her. Focus, must focus.
“Helm, make ready to break orbit for slide operations.” Said the commander while he was shaking his head, coming out of a momentary trance.
“Aye sir, standing ready to break orbit.” Replied the crewman at the helm.
Still studding the tactical situation on the nav display, Taylor asked the Chief of the Watch for the ships intercom. Holding the portable mic in his hand for a second or two to arrange his thoughts, he then reached down and pressed the enable button on the comm. unit and addressed the ship.
”All hands, this is the captain.” he began. “We have picked up a task force entering the system, and it is our intension to attack it. We will be commencing a slide soon to put us into position, and then we will attack and defeat the enemy. Even though this time the enemy is our friends.” he continued with a light voice. “As always I expect the best from you, not for me mind you, but for the proud name of the gun ship Nemesis.” and with this Commander Taylor replaced the mic back into its cradle, as a small cheer could be heard through the control room. Taylor knew that the crew liked these cheesy little speeches, why he did not know, but they liked them and so he gave them.
Replacing the mic the Commander turned to the Chief of the Watch at his station at the helm. “Break orbit please.”
“Aye sir, breaking orbit.” Replied the Chief. Taylor returned his attention to the nav station and started to read the initial calculations for the slide. “This should put us just on the light side of the moon a couple of thousand km’s from the Admiral with the moon still between us, sir.” Mira stated plainly, the look on her face showed the mild frustration that he would check her work.
“Good, if our timing is right, we should come around the planet side of the moon right behind them.” The Commander stated the obvious.
The whole command crew followed exactly what the Commander was doing except Lt. Mankley, who just had to put his two cents in. “Sir won’t the fleet pick up our grav emissions just like we picked up theirs.”
The sparkle in his eye denoting the fact that he thought he thought of something no one else thought of died a quick death under the darkening composure of his commander. “Lt. You are supposed to be my weapons officer, and in being my weapons officer you should know basic tactics. Not to mention basic tactical analytical skills.” This was the first time in a long while that Taylor could remember having to raise his voice in anger. “When the fleet detects our slide, the arrogance that you display and that they too have will make them believe that we are leaving the system. They will send their escorts to our position and try to determine our exit vector, so as to give chase. If we time this right, we will come around the fourth moon about the time they send their escorts away.”
Taylor took a breath, and calmed down a little and then said in a more normal voice. “We will then have a text book aft shot at a battle cruiser.” With this he started to smile devilishly “And I think after that I may be able to come up with another surprise for them.”
Mankley lowered his head to hide his rage. Imagine being scolded in front of the rest of the crew. Enlisted crew at that. The Commander did not have to do that. Some day he’s time would come and Lt Mankley would be there to enjoy it. He slipped out of his commander’s view to escape any more humiliation and went back to his duties.
The command center was a buzz of activity for few minutes while everyone prepare for the slide and attack. The gunship slipped out of orbit along its new course, and started out to deep space. Deep inside the vessels engines, energy started to build up and be deverted to the slide drive in preparation for the slide. The sensor arrays strained to detect anything of note before the ship left normal space and plunged into the deep realm of space time. And the crew worked as one to make it all happen, their training was superb and a testament to the ability of their commander. With in a couple minutes all was prepared, and ready.
As the last calculation was entered into the nav computer, Lt Tessgundo stood and motioned to her commander. “Sir the ship is ready for the slide operation. ETA to the slide point is one minute.”
“Very well, helm slide point in 60 seconds, stand by.” Taylor turned to his nav officer. “Make the announcement please.”
Tess reached over to the comm., and in a second her voice spread though the ship. “Attention, slide point in 45 seconds.”
The crew around the ship hurried around with last minute preparations before the slide. “Slide point in 20 seconds.” People all over the ship immediately stopped what they were doing and braced themselves. Early slide points where not unheard of, Lt Tessgundo was really good but who wanted to take chances like that. A slide in itself was not rough, but if they slide early, they could end up some where besides where they were supposed to be. To close to the planet, or the moon, and such could make for a bumpy ride.
“Slide point in 10….9….8….” as the nav officer continued the countdown, massive energy from the engines in the aft of the ship were deverted to the gravity generator at the front of the ship. Using the gravity well of Cobac 3 as a weak point in space time, the Nemesis’s gravity generators spat forth a pulse of gravity that opened up a hole in space time at a horrendous cost of energy. Burrowing and tunneling though space time for a fraction of a second until it came across the gravity well of Cobac 4, or more specifically the fourth moon of Cobac 4. The gravimetric pulse from the Nemesis exploded back into realspace completing a tunnel for the gunship to travel in.
Out side the small conical shaped vessel still by the planet Cobac 3, a flash of light shown like a beacon, blinding if one were to look at it. The flash of light signified the opening of a tunnel through space time that the gunship would use to traverse the almost 4 trillion km to the exit point. It was almost anti climatic when the ship reached the slide point. No massive doorway to another dimension appeared, not flash of psuedo motion, instead the gunship just disappeared and drooped out of real space taking the brilliant flash of light signifying the slide point with them. The trip though the space time tunnel took only a fraction of a second, so none of the wondrous views, and vistas would be seen. Besides, this was a gunship and did not have any windows, minus the small observation ports on the airlocks, to look out of. On civilian vessels, one could view the molten gray and blue colors of the slide tunnel on various observation decks, and it tended to be large attractions on cruise ships but not this time on this ship.
Almost before it started, the trip was done and the gunship Nemesis dropped into realspace on the light side of the fourth moon of Cobac 4. Once again its sensors reached out to detect anything of note to report to its users. In under a second the sensors verified the ships location as 26.2 meters off its programmed course. This Mira disregarded since the error rate of a slide of this sort was 1 km. Of the opposing fleet, the sensor scans could find nothing of since they would be just emerging on the light side of Cobac 4, and still on the other side of the moon.
“Sir, slide complete. Verifying position.” Even though Mira already knew they were where they were supposed to be, she waited a few moments before stating the confirmation. Even Commander Taylor did not like it when she immediately verified their location. “Verified sir, we are 2 thousand kms above the fourth moon of Cobac 4 with a velocity of 25kps. Orbital data coming in now, and transferring it to the helm.”
Taylor nodded his head towards Tess, and thought that she waited those few seconds to verify just to appease him and the rest of the crew. “Helm, bring us into a stable orbit, and bring the engines to stand by.”
“Aye sir, bringing her to a stable orbit at 2 thousand km and bringing engines to stand by.” Replied the Chief.
The Nemesis settled into orbit and on command shut down the engines and 90% of its active emissions rendering it an almost invisible lump hurtling towards the planet side of the moon. Not even navigational lights were seen as the gunship coasted along; all the while its passive sensors were trying their best to find the enemy.
Admiral Sanders stood at attention at the command station of the Solarian Battelcruiser Iron Glen looking out one of the few luxuries of the warship. A large view port in the front of the conning tower enabled him to see not only the bow of his ship, but off to the port he could see the Iron glen’s sister ship Sterling Bridge. He stood there with all the pomp and dignity he could muster in his dress uniform. The starched high neck affair worn by officers for hundreds of years, the dark blue in steep contrast to the silver and gold emblems and awards the Admiral had received in over 20 years of service in the navy. The Admiral truly admired the new Valle Forge class battle cruisers, besides being astatically pleasing, they were immensely powerful. With their 6 heavy pulse cannons, the Iron Glen could render a ship of similar size into sub atomic particles in a mere matter of minutes and these were just the primary weapons, the same affect could be arrived at by the missile launchers and smaller rapid fire pulse cannons onboard the ship. The Admiral was proud to command the two battle cruisers, proud to be a member of a navy that could build such wondrous vessels. The two battle cruisers and their smaller Paladin class frigates were on a mission to crush a small but irritating blip on the proud navy’s traditions. Admiral Sanders had often heard Commander Taylor’s ranting on untraditional warfare, and had instructed his superiors to discourage such thoughts. But the man would not be so easily dissuaded, so now the Admiral had to set up a small demonstration for Commander Taylor to show this young fool why his opinions amounted to nothing. Besides the act of hunting down a small vessel would be advantageous in the coming war with the colonist. Yes, there would be war, Sanders thought. It was just a matter of time before he was sent to destroy the pitiful colonial militia. After he destroyed the last starship of the colonies he could watch from the relative comfort in orbit as the Legions put down these ingrates. Continuing his musings, the Admiral did not see the Captain approach him from the Comscan station.
Clearing his throat, the Captain attracted his Admiral attention. “Sir, camscan has detected a gravitational disturbance in orbit around Cobac 3. Preliminary indications suggest a small vessel just slid.” Reported the Capt. In a deadpan voice.
“Ah, good Captain, good. Alert the Archer and the Marauder, and have them slid to Cobac 3 and conduct a search for plasma signs.” Commanded the Admiral.
Continuing the Admiral added, “Commander Taylor has detected us and has chosen to run; we will continue this orbit to see if he was foolish enough to stay in the system, have the escorts report any indication of course or trajectory immediately.”
Admiral Sanders waved his hand to dismiss his subordinate as the Capt. Snapped to attention and departed to relay the orders. Such an arrogant man, thought the Captain, but an up and coming arrogant man. If he, Captain Eduardo Guermo could just ride his coattails long enough he could have his own star on a flag, and command his own task force. Pleasing the Admiral was not so hard, just tell him what he wants to know, telling him something else and he will disregard it and think less of you for it. The bit of information that Capt. Guermo had just reported would undoubtedly please his superior greatly and in truth pleased him as well. He had never met this Commander Taylor, but to think that a 100meter long ship would prove a threat to his 832 meter battle cruiser was ridiculous.
Yes this young Commander was up for a surprise if he thought to attack this ship. Captain Guermo hurried off to the commscan station to send the orders with a spring in his step to often reserve for the over confident.
Since the slide over 10 minutes ago, the crew of the gunship Nemesis had gone about their duties quickly and quietly. In the command center the command crew sat hunched over their respective stations, concentrating on the job at hand and praying that no mistakes where made. The tension was palatable, and despite the fact that the environmental system was keeping the temperature at a constant 70 degree’s everyone was starting to sweat. They just sat there intent on doing their jobs, so when the annoying chime of the intercom came screeching over the speaker, everyone in the command center jumped as one.
“Con, Comscan!” yelled Chief Freese over the comm.
Attempting to get his hart back to its original location, Taylor punched the intercom enable button and replied, “Yes chief, do you have them?”
The excited Chief of the Watch in Comscan came back over the speaker immediately, his voice returning to a normal level as training and professionalism took over. “Sir, we detect a massive gravitational flux between Cobac 4 and this moon sir.”
The Commander jumped to his feet and started staring at the nav display. “Thanks Chief, the data is coming through now. Let me know the instant you can find some plasma flares. Good job.”
The Chief was already too busy searching for the flares to reply to the order and the comm went off with an audible click. Lt. Tessgundo leaned over to her commander and whispered, “Here we go.”
Commander Taylor looked over to the Chief of the Watch at the helm, “Chief bring us up to 1/8 power.” The chief repeated the order and soon the crew could feel the ship start to accelerate forward. The ship continued a gentle and graceful arc around the moon, ever closing on the yet unseen fleet and Admiral Sanders.
A warning tone sounded on the nav display, and Taylor was pleased to see Chief Freece was sending the raw data from comscan to the command center. As he watched the screen, two small dots appeared on the horizon of the moon some 4 thousand kms distant. Taylor looked up with a smile to see that Mira was too staring at him with a look of triumph.
“It worked,” she said. “He has sent the frigates to Cobac 3 and is continuing his orbit.” She beamed, wiping away a tuff of hair from her face.
“Alright everyone, we’re going in.” Announced Commander Taylor.
“Mr. Mankley, programs the 220 simulators to go inactive after launch, have them stay that way until 200 kms.” He then turning back to the helm without waiting for a reply from the weapons officer, “Helm, when we launch those missiles, I want a full burn to mask the launch signature.” And finally turning back to Mira, he added “Let me know when we are a thousand km away. Do we have an approximate velocity for them yet?” As she nodded he added, “With current information, what is the ETA of the missiles at a one thousand km launch point?”
“Commander, the ETA at that range is 22 seconds; their orbital velocity is roughly 20k’s.” Mira said quietly, after consulting her instruments.
“Very well, I think we are ready then. At a closure rate of about 5k’s we have a few minutes. At 1000 kilometers we will launch our attack.” Taylor remarked.
Taylor stood and thought back over his general plan for a moment certain that it would work, as he watched the red dot that represented his ship close on the enemy formation. At 1500 km Lt Cmdr. Tesscungo announced, “Sir approaching 1000 kilometers.”
“Weapons, stand by.” He ordered.
The seconds went by in quiet tension while the small vessel closed on the battle cruisers, when the Nemesis reached the predetermined range Commander Taylor simply said, “Fire 1 and 2.”
The Nemesis shook slightly as the weapons exited the ship, then the main engines kicked in on high reaching maximum output in a fraction of a second that would end with gun ship racing at almost 35 kilometers per second. A second and larger jolt went throughout the vessel as the small gunship leaped forward with sudden acceleration toward the red and gray swirl of Cobac 4 and for the first time the full effect of the gravity of the gas giant exerted itself on the Nemesis. This was the first time that the planet was visible to the gunship and its crew, its large mass dominating the view in all the displays, but the immediate concern was a small dot that was very slowly growing in the forward display, hard to see with the back drop of the swilling clouds that made up the gas giant.
“Charge the main gun, Lt. and commence firing at 200 kilometers.” Ordered the Commander.
“Aye sir, charging the main gun and setting it to low power simulation. Sir, the missiles are clear and have completed their course corrections and are continuing to target, ETA 16 seconds. 200 kilometers in 12 seconds, standing by to open fire with main gun.” Replied Lt. Manklely rapidly.
The AI of the Mark 220 anti ship missile took immediate notice of its surrounding as it launched out of the box like missile launcher on the bottom of the other wise sleek forward portion of the gunship. Instantly it detected its target using its forward inferred sensor. Checking itself with EM sensors it had a definite lock on the battle cruiser Iron Glen, not that the AI knew the name of the ship, but that did not matter for its mission.
One second after being expelled from the ship, the small engine of the Mark 220 ignited and the small missile shot forward towards its target. As programmed, its sensors calculated and corrected its course and then shut down to avoid detection. Continuing its acceleration toward its unsuspecting victim, the missile and its companion 40 meters off on the right bared down on the cruiser at a frightening rate. At the programmed distance of 200km and four seconds from target, the missile AI activated its onboard transmitter and all onboard sensors, effectively announcing its presence to its victim. The artificial intelligence of the weapon was not concerned though; the target did not at this point have enough time to react to its presence, so it continued its mission. Two seconds later it sent out its simulated battle damage transmission from its transmitter, and then activated its destruct mechanism. As the electronic screech emitted from the missile, internal explosive blew the weapon apart and released a fine cloud of debris that drifted across the battle cruiser harmlessly.
Only two seconds behind its missiles the gunship Nemesis streaked in at the slow to react cruiser and at 200km stated to fire its main gun. The large and only gun on the ship that gave the vessel its name, gunship, swung around and lined up with its target. Usually the gun would spit out bolts of plasma wrapped in a electro magnetic casing, but since this was only a simulation against a more or less friendly force, the gun was set to fire only low power EM pulses. Even then they had to make sure the power level was not too high, or else they could fry some systems on the cruiser.
In the four seconds the gunship needed to close the distance between itself and the battle cruiser, the crew got off 3 shots at the larger vessel, the bolts of EM energy only visible by a distortion of ambient light seen on the backdrop of the gas giant near by streaked over to the Iron Glen. The first shot skipped of the magnetic shields of the cruiser, being slightly of target, but the last two slammed into the cruiser straight through the magnetic shields that were not designed to stop it, if this was real and not a simulation the mag shields would help disperse the energy and heat through out the ship and minimize the damage but the real protection from these sorts of weapons laid in the heavy armor of the vessel, or at least if this was a real war shot. The EM pulses from the Nemesis accomplished nothing against the bigger ship except as being resisted by the computer aboard the colossal ship as a hit with no damage.
As the small gunship reached its targets and the simulated missiles sounded their simulated damage, the Nemesis banked hard and turned not port to continue its orbit of the moon, but starboard or in this case toward the gas giant and pass the other battle cruiser of the formation, inserted itself into a new orbit still accelerating. This unexpected maneuver was apparent by the small defensive turrets on the port side of the Iron Glen tuned to no avail for a shot, as their attacker continued away from both ships and out of range from a counterattack.
Standing on the bridge of the Iron Glen awaiting his victory, Admiral Sanders was surprised by the sudden blaring of the alarm. Looking around, and seeing the commotion on the bridge, and especial at the comscan station the Admiral decided to get a report on what ever the hell the alarm was about. Spying the Captain at the comscan station, the Admiral ordered a report effectively ending the conversation the Captain was obviously having with the Lt. and the enlisted tech at the station.
Captain Guermo took a deep breath bracing himself and reported, “Sir, it seems that the Nemesis swung around the fourth moon and launched a pair of missile simulators at us. We did not detect them because the Nemesis probably launched them either on the far side and let the orbital trajectory carry them over to us; or launched them right before they ignited their engines. They then made a strafing run using their pulse cannon. Their gun fire was ineffective, and probably just a distraction.”
Admiral Sanders glared at the Capt. And asked, “Did we destroy the gunship?”
“No sir, we were expecting them to continue in their orbit of the moon and avoid the Sterling Bridge, however it seems they cut across us and the Sterling Bridge and changed orbit to Cobac 4, sir.” Stated the Capt. Certain he was watching his career evaporate in front of his eyes. “This unexpected maneuver was not anticipated by our gun crew’s sir.”
“The computer simulator says our main engines are out, and we’ve sustain a 29% main power loss. We still have maneuverability, but the main engines are not operable. Estimated repair time is 2 weeks until main engine use; shall I request the Sterling Bridge to pursue the Nemesis?”
“And leave us vulnerable to another humiliating attack,” the Admiral almost screamed.
The Admiral looked about to explode, his face turning a deep shade of red either from rage or humiliation none could tell. He stood there quietly regaining his composure before saying, “No, this exercise is now finished. Send the Finnex code and disengage all simulated damage.” The Admiral started to storm off the bridge, stopped and turned around and continued with his orders, “Start calculations for a return to Fleet Base Epsilon, Capt.”
With that the Admiral left the bridge swearing revenge on one Commander Josh Taylor, leaving behind a bridge crew that stood there somewhat shocked at the events of the last few minutes.
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