Worldwar: Throwing the Balance

[spartasman]

So, disregarding my ILLUSTRIOUS history of posting fiction here, I proudly (or squeamishly, take your pick) present a new story. Feel free to leave reviews and, naturally, criticize it until it bleeds.

Disclaimer: Worldwar and all related materials are the property of Harry Turtledove

-----<}Worldwar: Throwing the Balance{>-----

Fleetlord Atvar strode briskly into the command station of the invasion fleet bannership 127th Emperor Hetto. Officers stiffened in their seats as he came in. But for the way his eye turrets swiveled in their sockets, one to the left, the other to the right, he ignored them. Yet had any been so foolish as to omit the proper respect, he would have noticed--and remembered.

The attention of his officers meant little to Atvar at the present moment, though.

Just as the hologram - which Atvar had studied incessantly on the Fleet's journey - of Tosev 3 had looked like a world floating in space, so the world itself, seen through an armorglass window resembled nothing so much as a holographic image. But to get round to its other side now, Atvar would have to wait for the 127th Emperor Hetto to finish half an orbit.

The fleetlord glared down at the planet below. He had been glaring at it ever since the fleet arrived, one of his own years before. No one in all the vast history of the Race had ever been handed such a poisonous dilemma. The assembled shiplords stood waiting for Atvar to give them their orders. His the responsibility, his the rewards--and the risks.

"The natives of Tosev 3 are more technologically advanced than we believed they would be when we undertook this expedition," he said, seeing if gross understatement would pry a reaction from them.

As one, they dipped their heads slightly in assent. Atvar tightened his jaws--would that he might bite down on his officers' necks. They were going to give him no help at all. His the responsibility. A burden that had begun to weigh heavily on Atvar as the full scope of the situation they now faced had been revealed.

Atvar said, "The Tosevites appear at the moment to be fighting several wars among themselves. History tells us their disunity will work to our advantage." Ancient history, he thought; the Empire had had a single rule so long that no one had any practice playing on the politics of disunion. But the manuals said such a thing was possible, and the manuals generally knew what they were talking about. Of course, the manuals held no precedent to the situation at hand, a fact that further disturbed Atvar.

Kirel assumed the stooping posture of respect, a polite way to show he wished to speak. Atvar turned both eyes on him, relieved someone would say at least part of what he thought. The shiplord of the 127th Emperor Hetto said, "Is it certain we can successfully overcome the Tosevites, Fleetlord? Along with radio and radar, they have aircraft of their own, as well as armored fighting vehicles--our probes have shown them clearly."

"But these weapons are far inferior to ours of similar types. The probes also show this clearly." That was Straha, shiplord of the 206th Emperor Yower. He ranked next highest among the shiplords after Kirel, and wanted to surpass him one day.

Kirel knew of Straha's ambitions, too. He abandoned the posture of respect to scowl at his rival. "A great many of these weapons are in action, however, and more being manufactured all the time. Our supplies are limited to those we have fetched across the light-years."

"Have the Tosevites atomics?" Straha jeered. "If other measures fail, we can batter them into submission." "Thereby reducing the value of the planet to the colonists who will follow us," Kirel said.

"What would you have us do?" Straha said. "Boost for home, having accomplished nothing?
" "It is within the fleetlord's power," Kirel said stubbornly.

He was right; abandoning the invasion was within Atvar's power. No censure would fall on him if he started back--no official censure. But instead of being remembered through all the ages as Atvar Worldconqueror, an epithet only two in the long history of the Race had borne before him, he would go down in the annals as Atvar Worldfleer, a title he would be the first to assume, but hardly one he craved.

But, on the reverse, the decision before him was one that he could hardly say he relished. When the first signs that something was awry had presented themselves, Atvar had attempted to ignore them in the hopes that it was simply a malfunction in the sensor arrays. The memory of a communications officer presenting him with the first evidence of artificial radio transmissions coming from Tosev 3 struck him. The communications Subleader, Erewlo, had nearly run away while he had presented the information, and indeed had run when Atvar had sent him away in a rage fueled by incomprehension and, though he would never admit it, fear.

The situation was far beyond anything that had planned for. Perhaps that, of all things, disturbed Atvar most. The Race was a meticulous species, slow to move and careful to plan. It was that sense of stability that had led Atvar, and indeed the entire Empire, to believe that in the 800 years between the Race's last probe of Tosev 3 and the conquest that was now in motion would have little at all to do with the conquest of the planet. After all, the only other species that the Race had encountered in their expansion and conquest had been near enough to the Race's temperament as to make no difference. Surely that meant it was the norm for all intelligent species!

And yet, as Atvar once again cast the gaze of both his eye turrets at the planet beneath him, all of the cautious nature and careful planning of the Race seemed to shatter into meaninglessness. By some fluke in evolution, the Tosevites had somehow become a much more aggressive and, Atvar shuddered, quick developing species.

His the Risk.

Sensing the apprehension in Atvar, Straha proffered, "exalted Fleetlord, the situation is far beyond anything we had expected, but we must attempt something, for the sake of the Emperor."

At the mention of the Emperor, Atvar and all of the officers gathered lowered their gaze in respect in the traditional show of honor. But as Atvar's eye turrets swung upward, a sudden thought occurred to him. "None of our contingencies cover the situation at hand, the unpredictability of the situation is far beyond anything we are equipped to handle. We can not afford to make hasty decisions".

THAT had prickled the officers into responsiveness. In the Race, to call someone hasty or rash was nearly as bad an insult as could be conjured. Straha seemed to take personal offense to the slight, and his quick rebuttal went more to prove to Atvar that hastiness in the situation would be a mistake. Straha said, "and what would you have us do, return to cold sleep and wait for the Emperor to give us fresh orders! In the time that could take, who knows how much the situation could change again!"

Though he had certainly made a good point, the sheer audacity of the shiplord to challenge Atvar so openly angered him to where he had to restrain himself from openly berating Straha in front of the gathered Shiplords. But now that Straha had said it first, Atvar's solution was now an easier matter to put forward.

"This expedition is to conquer Tosev 3 in the name of the Emperor, not for ourselves! We are not prepared for what now lies ahead of us, we must defer our judgment to that of the Emperor. Only he will now what to do in our situation."

Now that he had come out and said it, Atvar felt relief lift the burden that had been hanging over him for over a year now. Straha was scowling deeply, and many of the Shiplords Atvar remembered as having belonged to his faction looked nervous at the hostile situation.

"The troops are to be returned to cold sleep, as well as the majority of the personnel. We will send the message back to the Emperor and await His command. When the colonization fleet arrives, we shall re-evaluate the situation."

The assembled Shiplords were looking deflated now. They had, Atvar realized, been looking forward to the conquest of Tosev 3. No matter, it would have to wait now, if it ever happened at all. In the meantime, Atvar had a new idea form in his head, one that caused both of his eye turrets to turn on Shiplord Straha. "Shiplord, since you have seemed so interested in the situation on Tosev 3, you are hereby appointed to observe the planet while the rest of the fleet is in cold sleep."

Straha was looking shocked now, but that was soon replaced by a look of near-uncontained anger. The Shiplords surrounding him backed away.

"By your command, Exalted Fleetlord" he grated out, his claws clenched at his waist.

Atvar gave a wary nod, he himself alarmed by the attitude of the Shiplord. Perhaps the years spent in observation of the planet below would serve to temper him better; that was certainly what Atvar hoped for, anyway. In the meantime, the arrangements for re-entering cold sleep needed to be made, and the message to the Emperor needed to be composed and sent as soon as possible. Yes, his the risk, but now, at least, the responsibility no longer threatened to crush him.

"Dismissed", the Fleetlord hissed.

[Mew]

Well, this is actually an interesting concept. Not sure how original and the title reminds me a bit too much of the 'Discovering the Balance' serie but still, I shall be watching this and see how it goes.

The story is not exactly clear on a number of points though.

1: In what year do the fic take place or at least, the first chapter? Same as the original story?

2: Since the ships did not get detected, how far are they from Earth?


Those are the two points I wonder regarding the story.

[Simon_Jester]

Spartasman is basing the titles off the series of four Worldwar novels by Harry Turtledove, all of which take the form "[something] the Balance." Any resemblance to "Discovering the Balance" is purely coincidental.

The first chapter is purely an alternate scene based on the first chapter of "In the Balance" going differently, and is based heavily on that chapter. Fully original material comes later...

[Night_stalker]

Well, I wonder how advanced humanity is at this point. The novels have the Race meet humans with WWII tech, but will this continue with that tradition, or not?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

If you've used the original arrival date, standing pat would allow folks on the ground to see the orbiting starships and give the space program a big boost (postwar) or alter the course of the war as astronomers spread the word about what they're seeing, depending on what you want to do.

[spartasman]

In the Original Worldwar novels, Turtledove places the conquest fleets arrival around 1940-41, and the invasion in 1942. The fleet arrives at the same time, and Atvars decision is roughly in mid-late 1941.

As for them being noticed, Turtledove never really gave any hints as to if they were spotted coming in or not, but for this story there will be at least some people noticing them leaving.

[von Neufeld]

So, I would expect that not much happens until 16th July 1945?

[spartasman]

More like June 1966

Remember, the plan is to wait for the Emperors reply. A message to Home takes around 12 years to get there, and 12 years back for the reply to reach Earth, so the Race has 24 years to wait.

[von Neufeld]

More like June 1966

Remember, the plan is to wait for the Emperors reply. A message to Home takes around 12 years to get there, and 12 years back for the reply to reach Earth, so the Race has 24 years to wait.

Would Straha really do nothing after the nukes have been detonated? Wouldn't that be a reason to awake Atvar?

[Mew]

That is a good point that von Neufeld brought up.

Radio transmissions are one thing but nuclear explosions are another. Especially that they should be slightly... err... hard to miss. In fact, it should be very interesting to see Straha's overall attitude and state when Atvar awaken. Straha got to see humanity more in detail (or in slightly better detail) and see such things as the nukes going off while Atvar didn't.


Also, another question...

Any approximative idea of your ability to make updates? Once a week, once per two weeks? Just want to know what to expect of this particular story.

[spartasman]

What you have to understand is that in the Race orders from higher up are a big thing. The entire concept of the Empire is loyalty from below, and responsibility from above. Atvar gave very specific orders and Straha, belligerent as he is, would be unwilling to circumvent them even for the advent of the human nuclear age. Besides, Atvar has already passed the buck of responsibility up to the next highest level, so Straha would most likely reason that nothing would be done anyway.

I should be able to update once or twice every week, but real life does take precedent. I'll post another chapter up tonight, but I wouldn't expect anything for another couple of days.

[Simon_Jester]

Now that this is pointed out, Spartasman, it's a relevant concern. If any Lizard would seriously consider violating a direct order on his own initiative for the sake of making sure his commanding officer is kept fully informed, it would be Straha.

But even Straha... I can honestly see him just sitting there and keeping watch. Not least because his preferred solution of nuking the Tosevites into submission will still work quite well when everyone wakes up, even if the Tosevites have nukes of their own. He might expect that this is the best way to force Atvar to do what he proposes, which makes Atvar look foolish and may give him long term political advantages.

[spartasman]

Straha, Shiplord of the 206th Emperor Yower, slumped back into the familiar chair of his personal office. Tiredly, he shifted one eye turret to look at the watch embedded into the wall in front of him; the other, he closed.

Almost lethargically, Straha pulled himself upright, allowing his tail stump to rest comfortably in the seat. Both eye turrets turned downwards, giving the multitude of papers and forms before him a short glance before diverting his attention to the screen of the computer terminal that rested to the left of him.

Straha was not pleased.

When the conquest fleet had first arrived in the Tosev system nearly 48 Home years before, Straha had been positively excited about the inevitable invasion of Tosev 3. Of course, when it had become apparent that the the Tosevites had acquired a higher level of technology than what had been expected, Straha had been slightly derailed in his excitement. He had still expected the conquest to go ahead as planned, for the infantrymales and landcruisers of the race to crush and destroy their Tosevite counterparts, for the Race's killercraft to shoot down the primitive aircraft that were operated by the natives. His expectations, however, had all been misplaced.

"48 years" Straha spoke to no one in particular, "48 Emperor-cursed years wasted."

When Straha had first been given the assignment to observe the Tosevites while the rest of the Fleet went back into cold sleep, Straha had had to constrain himself from openly insulting Atvar. Had he known what laid before him, however, Straha knew that he would have tried his best to claw the Fleetlord's throat out.

In the 48 Home years - roughly half of a Tosevite year - since he had begun his observation, the true horror of what lay before him had nearly driven him mad. To see a species develop technology, and to improve upon it, so quickly...

Straha opened his mouth in laughter, but the noiseless laugh of the Race only seemed to add mirth to his situation. Straha had watched video transmission from the Tosevites, and had found the noise-filled laugh of the natives to be an extremely stupid gesture. As time had worn on, however, the laughs of the Tosevite actors had become torture; Straha could feel the Tosevites mocking him with their stupid laughs. Eventually, he had stopped watching the Tosevite transmissions altogether, delegating the important intelligence work to one of his subordinates entirely.

Straha shifted an eye turret to look back at the watch again, noting that he still had half a day-tenth before his scheduled meeting with the Fleetlords of both the Conquest and Colonization Fleets. That thought nearly caused Straha to cringe. Atvar was enough of a bother, but his foolishness could be countered with Straha's support amongst the Shiplords; the Colonization Fleet's Fleetlord, Reffet, could not be dealt with so easily.

'Fools, both of them' he thought silently, his hands beginning to sift through the papers on his desk with the unconscious ease of years of monotonous repetition.

Finding the report he was looking for, Straha placed it in a corner of his desk where he would compile the necessary information for his next meeting. This one was supposed to detail the surveillance probes that had been sent to Earth, and any vital information that they might have gathered. The form that Straha had just set aside, however, did not detail any such information.

Over the years, certain points of interest had drawn special observation from the probes. Most of these places were military installations operated by the two major competing not-empires on the planet, the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, but a few others had arisen. This particular form detailed the loss of all probes due to malfunctions and hostile action; Straha marked proudly that the latter category was more populated than the former.

After years of his probes going unnoticed, Straha had begun to fear that the Tosevites might stumble upon his observations, and had pulled his probes ever higher into the atmosphere of Tosev 3. However, when Straha had found the need for a closer look at a target, it had been necessary to send probes down lower to the surface than he would have otherwise preferred. Some of those low-flying probes had been detected by the Tosevites' radar, and several had been intercepted. All of those had been completely destroyed, their self-destruct mechanisms finishing the job that the killercraft of whatever nation the probe had been flying over had started. Only on two occasions had the probe not been confirmed destroyed by Straha, and to his own discomfort, one of them had been due to a malfunction.

The Race's technology was specifically built not to fail. Centuries of careful research and development went into every piece of technology before being slowly integrated into the Race's society. That one of the probes would fail was nearly an impossibility. But it had become a reality, and a nightmare for Straha. The probe had been sent to observe an area of the United States that was being used to test that not-empire's nuclear weapons, something that had garnered the attention of Straha. The probe had been above the arid scrub land that dominated that area, and had suffered an engine malfunction that had caused it to crash.

Straha still worried about what had happened over Roswell. The government of the United States had quickly collected whatever debris they could, and their high military presence precluded Straha sending down a retrieval team. Straha was fairly certain that the Tosevites knew the Race was there. They had simply had too long to observe the skies, too much evidence that presented itself for them to not notice the massive fleet in orbit around Tosev IV; and with the arrival of the colonization fleet, he knew that the combined fleets must have stuck out like a sore claw.

Both Atvar and Reffet had neglected his calls to relocate the fleet so as to remain undetected, and Straha knew that the Tosevites could not remain ignorant of the Race forever, if they had not been discovered already.

Continuing to go through the papers, Straha picked up a small red folder, taking a moment to look at it with both eye turrets before before setting it in its own space, apart from everything else. THAT particular folder held one of Straha's invasion contingencies, one that he himself had spent years creating. He had several such plans already prepared to be reviewed by Atvar, but that was one that he felt especially proud of.

The 48 Home years between the Fleet's arrival and his present situation had been rife with opportunities to plan, opportunities which Straha had not squandered. Dozens of plans had been compiled, changed, discarded, and re-written; so many so that Straha had lost count of them all. He had, with idle horror, watched the various not-empires of Tosev 3 build ever more powerful weapons. Yet, of all the machines of war that the natives had developed, only one truly gripped his liver in fear; their atomics. The Race's atomic bombs had first been built during the wars of unification, 100,000 years ago. The highest yield that had been needed, and approved to sustain the habitability of Home, had been able to level entire cities. On Tosev 3, however, the natives knew none of the restraint that the Race had shown in their development of atomic weapons. Bombs, orders of magnitude greater than the Race's, had been constructed and tested on the planet below. The sheer size of some of them was enough to almost make Straha advocate the abandonment of the conquest, something that had surprised him the first time he had thought it.

But the conquest must continue, and like it or not, Straha was one of the only members of the Race with enough knowledge to attempt it successfully. With that thought, Straha gathered all of the necessary forms and reports into a folder and clipped it shut. With an outstretched claw, Straha depressed a small button embedded into his desk. "Horres, inform the Fleetlords that I shall be with them shortly", he spoke to his adjutant, who acknowledged his order with the familiarity of one who had dealt with a Shiplord for forty-eight continuous years. Straha trusted Horres, possibly more than he trusted anyone else, even his friends back on Home; but the long observation of Tosev 3 had bred a strong camaraderie amongst the 'condemned', as they had all become known as.

Rising from his seat, Straha snatched the folder from his desk, walking out the office's automatic door. As he passed Horres, his adjutant stiffened in the traditional sign of respect of a superior, "The Fleetlords are expecting you, sir", he said. Straha nodded his head before walking out into the corridor inside the ship.

[Night_stalker]

Wait, Area 51 does have aliens in it? I KNEW IT! Incidnetally, what Earth year is this? I think its about 1980 something, but I can't be sure.

[xt828]

From memory the Race first rocked up in about 1942ish, and their year is equal to about half one of ours, so it's probably around 1966 or so.

One question I would ask is how long-lived the lizards are, and how they react to age in peers - given their rather static society, I would imagine that age is seen as a source of status, and Straha now has nearly fifty Race-years on his peers. Would this give added weight to his observations, or would they dismiss him?

Spartasman, are there any major divergences in the development of the great powers, given that they are most likely aware of the invasion fleet? Are the Soviet and American space programs more advanced than in our history? Is the British one still afloat? How did Straha and his crew react to Sputnik and the beginning of the space age? For that matter, how many lizards were kept awake with Straha - you'd think that fifty of their years would have a severe impact on their ability to wage war.

[Night_stalker]

Can't wait to see how the invasion fares against the US and the USSR working together.

[CaptainChewbacca]

I dunno, it might be rather easy for the Race to trigger a massive nuclear war on earth, and then we're all fucked.

[Simon_Jester]

By the way, I am acting as spartasman's proofreader for this work, so I'm in a good position to answer questions in lieu of the author.

From memory the Race first rocked up in about 1942ish, and their year is equal to about half one of ours, so it's probably around 1966 or so.

Correct.

One question I would ask is how long-lived the lizards are, and how they react to age in peers - given their rather static society, I would imagine that age is seen as a source of status, and Straha now has nearly fifty Race-years on his peers. Would this give added weight to his observations, or would they dismiss him?

They are fairly long lived, and extremely conscious of social status, so... not much.

Spartasman, are there any major divergences in the development of the great powers, given that they are most likely aware of the invasion fleet? Are the Soviet and American space programs more advanced than in our history? Is the British one still afloat? How did Straha and his crew react to Sputnik and the beginning of the space age? For that matter, how many lizards were kept awake with Straha - you'd think that fifty of their years would have a severe impact on their ability to wage war.

This is an extremely good series of questions.

[Teebs]

I dunno, it might be rather easy for the Race to trigger a massive nuclear war on earth, and then we're all fucked.

Based on the not unreasonable assumption that the major world governments are aware of the Race's presence it might be harder than in the real world because they'd presumably have taken such a possibility into account.

[TimothyC]

Even if Technological development is not accelerated by the race's space fleet in orbit around Mars. by 1966 the USAF could have a near-permanent manned presence in orbit with MOLs and Dyna-soars. The US would also have a limited national defense against orbital weapons. I would also imagine that the SUPER-SAGE sites would be built, all of which make any race invasion of North America dicey at best, and suicide at worst.

Edit: Sweden. They had the beginnings of a nuclear program in the 50's and 60's, and took the amount of time needed to build the program on the national debate whether or not to have the program. I could see them deciding that they need nukes in this time line. Now we've got four nuclear powers in Europe.

[Night_stalker]

The Race is about to find out just how many nuclear missles the earth has! After all once we launch them at their landing ships, they'll know how advanced we truly are!

[spartasman]

Spartasman, are there any major divergences in the development of the great powers, given that they are most likely aware of the invasion fleet? Are the Soviet and American space programs more advanced than in our history? Is the British one still afloat? How did Straha and his crew react to Sputnik and the beginning of the space age? For that matter, how many lizards were kept awake with Straha - you'd think that fifty of their years would have a severe impact on their ability to wage war.

For the sake of the story, the governments of Earth will be taking a "Men in Black" approach to this. There are certainly countermeasures and weapons being designed and built to fight off an alien invasion, but it is mostly hush-hush kinda stuff.

The only Lizards that were kept awake were skeleton crews for all the ships, and a personal crew for Straha to help gather intelligence. Somewhere around one thousand seems to be a good number.

By the way TimothyC, I am not familiar with SUPER-SAGE, and any search I do only turns up info on genetic research. Do you have a source or something about it?

[TimothyC]

SAGE was "Semi Automatic Ground Environment", or the Command & Control side of Continental Air Defense Command. There were a whole host of SAGE sites built, but only one (CFB North Bay) was hardened to SUPER-SAGE levels, mostly because it was the backup for the Cheyenne Mt complex, as well as being the air defense command center for Canadian airspace.

One thing I didn't drive home is that several times in the early 1960's production of NIKE-ZEUS was delayed, and finally canceled. If plans had gone forward, the US could have had several hundred more nuclear armed surface-to-LEO systems online (other than the THOR system, which was picked over NIKE-ZEUS for Anti-satellite work in 1966). The truth is the race is going to lose - and badly if they go up against anything in North America. I do admit that I was getting some dates wrong with the Dyna-soar but it did have the first flight planned for 1966, so prior to that point any Manned Orbiting Laboratories would have been crewed via Gemini capsules, but if there is an alien fleet over Mars, I would guess that the bomber version of Dyna-soar would be pushed up.

[Simon_Jester]

The Race is about to find out just how many nuclear missles the earth has! After all once we launch them at their landing ships, they'll know how advanced we truly are!

That said, their counter-missile capabilities are good, and will be even more effective when they have effectively uncontested control of high orbit (Dyna-Soars and space stations notwithstanding, we can't possibly contest high orbit against a fleet of alien starships in 1966. LEO, maybe, but not high orbit).

Given the sheer size of the Lizard fleet, I honestly wouldn't put it past them to manage to stand off attacks launched against them in orbit. Some of their ships would take hits, but they're much larger and better armored than anything we've ever put into space; it's going to take very close range nuclear initiations or a LOT of orbital-velocity shrapnel to destroy each invasion ship, and at a conservative estimate there are 200 to 250 ships to engage.

[spartasman]

Given the sheer size of the Lizard fleet, I honestly wouldn't put it past them to manage to stand off attacks launched against them in orbit. Some of their ships would take hits, but they're much larger and better armored than anything we've ever put into space; it's going to take very close range nuclear initiations or a LOT of orbital-velocity shrapnel to destroy each invasion ship, and at a conservative estimate there are 200 to 250 ships to engage.

IIRC, the U.S. was able to take out several of the Races colonization ships with only one nuke when they arrived in 1964, both the conquest and colonization fleets' ships are of comparable durability due to the Lizards standardizing their design and their inability to foresee the need to prepare for space warfare. Now, given the fact that the Lizards never anticipated having to defend their ships, they also do not have any anti-missile capabilities, they would have to rely on ground-based anti-missile batteries, at least until they can weld them onto their ships.