The time was 0550 local and the base was just beginning to come alive. Far out in space, a drive wake detector picked up the unmistakable signs of a ship moving under faster than light drive. The finding was analyzed by the onboard computer and classified as Chroniech in origin. The rather simple machine looked up the protocol in its database and executed the instructions it found there.
The Tortanathut defense base alarm sounded automatically the instant the signal from the tracking station arrived. Commander Forstiba had been on her way to the command center following an early breakfast when the alarm went off. She quickened her pace and burst through the door fifteen seconds later. The long-range tactical display, which had automatically been activated, was speckled with red icons and more were appearing every second.
Before she had taken in the full scope of what was happening she issued her first command, “Vector the fleet to intercept. Arm all defense stations and move them to optimal defense positions. Inform fleet command that we are under attack.”
Taking her station, the Commander took a minute to assess the situation in more detail. Omel were usually known to be calm individuals even when faced with an emotionally charged situation. As Forstiba absorbed the tactical analysis of the situation her heart rate went up and sweat started to form over her entire body. Her hands were shaking as she put in the call to the Planetary Governor.
The emergency channel guaranteed direct access to the Planetary Governor no matter where he was any time of the day or night. The moment the Governor’s face appeared on the screen Forstiba gave him the bad news. “Governor, this is Commander Forstiba at Tortanathut defense command. We have detected 533 Chroniech warships heading this way. Although we will try to intercept them, we are hopelessly outnumbered. I suggest you order an immediate evacuation of all major cities and get as many people off planet as possible.”
The Governor’s first response was of denial. The thought of any sentient race attacking a large civilian population was unthinkable. “Transmit our surrender and stand down your forces Commander,” he replied. “It is obvious that we cannot win this battle. There is no sense in your people dying for a hopeless cause. We will take whatever terms they offer.”
Commander Forstiba was dumbfounded. To her it was obvious that the Planetary Governor had lost his mind. Anger clouded her vision as she realized the Governor would be taking no action to try to save at least some of the people on Tortanathut.
Her voice quivering with rage she replied, “These are Chroniech Governor! They are here to exterminate us. They will kill every man, woman and child on Tortanathut without any regrets. They will accept no surrender nor will they take prisoners. Either you issue the evacuation orders or I shall do so.”
“How dare you… ”
Forstiba reached out and killed the connection. Turning to her communications operator she said, “Activate the planetary wide emergency network. Order an immediate evacuation of all cities and order all spacecraft capable of leaving the system to take as many people aboard as possible and to depart as soon as they are filled to capacity.”
The operator seemed to hesitate for barely a second but quickly turned to carry out the order when the Commander practically shouted, “Do it!”
Many civilians find it hard to understand just how vast space is. The Chroniech fleet had been detected at a distance of 1.8 light years from Tortanathut and was approaching at a speed of 4,800 times the speed of light. Even at that fantastic velocity it would take the Chroniech fleet over four hours to arrive. This included the time lost because the fleet had to slow down as it entered the star system and the time traveled under sublight drive. There was plenty of time to evacuate a lot of people.
Deep in space, the Alliance fleet abandoned their patrol routes and headed toward the approaching Chroniech. The mood was somber. Each and every member of each and every ship knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this would be their last battle. The battle fleet approaching them was over twice the size as the one that had beat down the defenses of Almaranus, one of the most heavily defended worlds in the Alliance. But, with the lives of 6.3 billion people at stake, the fleet was going to do their damnedest to take out as many Chroniech ships as possible. Hopefully, the planetary defense stations could take care of the rest.
Sixteen Mishpa interceptors laid down a series of gravity mines then took positions to stop any Chroniech vessels that the mines might miss. The Chroniech, however, had other plans. Instead of waiting for the Alliance to force an engagement, they dropped out of stardrive and waited.
The Alliance fleet popped into normal space well outside of weapons range in order to match velocities and to firm up their attack formation. Tactical computers chewed through tens of thousands of combat scenarios in an attempt to determine the best overall strategy. None had more than a 1% chance of success. The computers chose the best and the fleet moved to engage.
The first action was the firing of all available anti-ship missiles from all Alliance ships at a distance of 143,000 kilometers. Each missile had been assigned a specific target with at least 300 missiles being assigned to each of the 30 selected targets. The missiles accelerated away from the fleet at 3,000 Earth gravities until their fuel was exhausted four minutes later. They then coasted the rest of the way. The hope was that the fast moving missiles would be very difficult to detect, intercept, and destroy. They coasted for a little over 58,300 miles traveling at a speed of 705 kilometers per second. But the missiles were not alone.
Six ships in the fleet had originally been designed for planetary assault but had been modified for long range inter-fleet combat operations. Mounted along the entire two kilometer length of each ship were four gravitic mass drivers capable of accelerating a half kilogram mass of iridium to 12% light speed. The projectiles were impossible to track and impacted with a kinetic energy equivalent of 77 kilotons.
Built by the Lamaltans, the planetary assault platforms were unique in almost every category. Even though the mass drivers were equipped with counter gravity fields, the forces generated by the gun’s operation required them to be tremendously strong. The four guns composed nearly half the weight of the ship. Most of the rest of the mass was taken up by the giant fusion generators needed to power the unique weapons.
These kinetic energy weapons (or KEWs) were perfect for destroying planetary targets without leaving any residual radiation. They were also effective against shielded warships, but were incredibly difficult to accurately target. This was because the giant grav-guns were immobile and the entire ship had to be moved to aim them.
Kinetic energy weapons used to be quite effective against shielded warships. The momentum of the impactor was transferred through the shield fields to the generator. If the generator was not mounted and supported properly, and it was struck with a sufficiently large, fast moving object, the generator could be torn from its mounts.
Modern shields were specifically designed to spread any impact energy over the surface of the shield. They also had a small amount of spring to further absorb material impacts. This had rendered all but the highest energy KEWs ineffective. Since the high energy weapons were physically large and difficult to target they were no longer used in fleet combat but some races still employed them in the planetary bombardment role.
Working together, the ships fired all their rail guns at a single target area. Twenty-four KEWs sped off into space heading into the thickest part of the Chroniech fleet. Targeting a specific ship at 143,000 kilometers was nearly impossible so the Alliance was shooting blindly into the enemy fleet.
Four seconds later the KEWs slammed into the shield of the battle’s first victim. Nineteen KEWs hit the shield of a Chroniech light cruiser depositing 1,463 kilotons of kinetic energy into the ship’s shield. Three of them passed through the weakened shield and impacted the hull.
Kinetic energy weapons behave differently than weapons carrying an explosive warhead. This does not, however, mean they are less effective. Even though their speed had been greatly reduced by the passage through the shield the three slugs of iridium still carried more than enough energy to take out the cruiser.
Each slug blew a hole through the armor and deep into the ship creating a super-hot line of expanding plasma. The air surrounding this plasma was instantly heated to nearly 2,000 degrees. The pressure surge caused by this hot air blew entire compartments apart and incinerated everything for several meters in every direction. The hull plating blew outward expanding the entrance hole from a few centimeters to several meters.
Molten metal and shrapnel flew through passageways destroying everything in its path. One of the KEWs made a direct hit into a fully charged power accumulator causing it to explode with the force of a small atomic bomb. The entire front third of the ship seemed to swell as the internal pressure built up. Unable to contain the expanding gases created by the explosion the ship’s hull ruptured in multiple places spewing the contents of what was left of the ship into space.
“Cruiser AX-151 has been destroyed,” the command ship’s tactical officer reported to the Chroniech Fleet Commander.
“We are outside their known weapon's range,” the incredulous Commander replied. “What type of weapon was used?”
The officer scanned his displays and replied, “YV-776 has recorded a shield impact of an object traveling in excess of 10% light speed. They have sustained minor damage to their primary shield generator suspension. I believe they are using a kinetic energy weapon.”
“At this range they must be firing blindly. Move the fleet to within weapons range and find out which ships are the source. Target and destroy them.”
The gravitic mass drivers were capable of firing a slug once every 28 seconds. This limitation was imposed on them by the extreme power requirements and the ability to keep the field generators from melting. The guns were being pushed to their limits.
The second wave of KEWs slammed into the Chroniech fleet. Three of them simultaneously struck the shield of a super destroyer. The incredible kinetic energy delivered by those small iridium slugs literally ripped the shield generator from its supporting structure. The generator crashed into the nearby fusion reactor that powered it crushing the reactor’s power output cables. The short circuit overloaded the power accumulators causing one of them to explode.
Superheated plasma from the accumulator explosion burned its way into the ship’s interior destroying everything it touched and igniting secondary fires. The entire 615 kiloton mass of the super destroyer reverberated with the explosion. The secondary shield generator instantly sprang to life keeping the damaged ship protected.
“Super destroyer PR-832 hit by kinetic projectiles – primary shield generator destroyed. Heavy damage reported. Cruiser LZ-011 damaged and is without shield. Long range scans have identified six vessels as the source of the kinetic energy weapons. The ships are not advancing along with the rest of the Alliance fleet and are staying out of weapons range.”
The Chroniech commander considered his options. The new Alliance weapon was becoming an annoyance and had to be dealt with. “Dispatch three super destroyers to intercept and destroy the kinetic energy platforms.”
Three ships broke formation and headed toward the modified assault platforms. The intense gravitational fields from the gravitic guns interfered with the sublight drive of the unique ships causing them to move sluggishly. It also interfered with the ship’s ability to generate a good shield making it virtually defenseless while the guns were in operation.
Even if the guns had been powered down, the old ships were simply too slow to outrun the more advanced Chroniech warships. They kept firing up until the last possible moment. Just before the Chroniech came within weapons range the platforms powered down their guns and engaged their stardrive. Considering how old they were and the fact that their weapons could not be accurately targeted they had done very well.
A lot was starting to happen and the tactical officer continued his steady report to the Fleet Commander. “Cruiser AX-444 destroyed. The kinetic energy platforms have engaged their stardrive and are fleeing the area. We are now within weapons range of the main Alliance fleet. All weapons have commenced firing.”
Even though they had the technology to construct a virtual reality command center where the Fleet Commander could interact with the tactical information as if he was an omnipotent being, the Chroniech chose not to employ it. They preferred to be in personal contact with their fleet operations center and to receive verbal updates. The Fleet Commander did utilize a large holographic display to view the battle situation but he got most of his information from a specified tactical station.
As with the Alliance, the Chroniech utilized a tightly linked tactical data network. A central command and control computer interpreted the Fleet Commander’s general orders and created ship movement instructions as well as directing the targeting of the fleets main guns. Secondary weapons and the close in weapon systems (or CIWS) were under the control of the individual ships.
Beam weapons reached out from both fleets testing each others defenses. The tactical computers, already primed with the known capabilities of their opponents, analyzed the results of the preliminary shots and updated their databases. The Chroniech were surprised to discover that several Alliance ships had had their primary guns upgraded.
The Alliance received a bigger surprise when the 15 new Prinara class Chroniech master battleships opened fire. At a distance of 68,000 kilometers all 15 master battleships took aim at a different Alliance ship with their primary weapon. In the past, at this range, all but the heaviest weapons could be deflected by most Alliance shields.
Aboard the Omel heavy battleship
Ovithre,
the tactical officer excitedly said, “Shield loading at 97%! Hull temperature is rising.”