Gravity Wars: Saturn Protocol, page 23
“Anyone else care to comment on that?” asked Hayes.
No one else did. Anderson had stated the obvious fact.
“Very well,” Hayes said. “That’s my thought as well. Is there any objections to heading straight into the cloud into the enemy’s guts?”
The captains glanced at the other faces on the screens. Every one of them seemed grimly determined.
“It looks like we have a consensus,” Hayes said. “Clearly, the enemy expects us to head into the cloud.”
“Excuse me, Admiral,” Anderson said. “Maybe that’s just it.”
“What is?” asked Hayes.
“The enemy wants us to skirt around,” Anderson said. “That’s why they put up the cloud, to bluff us. That means we should blow straight through it and get to Titan as fast as we can and unleash hell on their colony.”
Hayes dipped her head in acknowledgement of the idea. “It’s either that or the enemy has something waiting for us in the cloud. I suspect there are mines waiting, if nothing else. Therefore, unless there are any other suggestions, I am going to order a long-range missile assault to clear the front part of the cloud with nuclear detonations.”
A few of the captains murmured in agreement with the idea. There was a reason for this.
For years, each of them had studied the first Orion attack in the Saturn system. They did not have any black-ice bombardments to make this time. Everything was dedicated to a bold massed assault smashing everything in their path.
Thus, several hours later, each of the Orion ships shifted or tilted, taking the pusher plates out of direct line with the cloud.
The first salvo of missiles launched from the Orion ships in a staggered formation and zoomed for the aerosol cloud. Afterward, each Orion ship jinked in case the enemy had fired their damned railgun again. Some time after that, they once more aimed the heavy pusher plates at the cloud.
There was no better armor on the Orion ships than the incredible pusher plates. If the enemy destroyed the plates, the ships would lose motive power. But no hull plating was as thick as these pusher plates.
***
Behind that aerosol cloud, Chief Marshal Assur continued to issue orders. New drones sprayed to thicken the cloud. The three smaller warships deployed mines in the aerosols and then backed away to the nearest moon.
All the while, the 1.06 billion ton one-kilometer-diameter asteroid built up velocity. Its giant engines provided thrust as the entire asteroid shook because of it. The asteroid ever so slowly maneuvered from Enceladus toward the aerosol cloud in the distance.
***
Now the Earth missiles reached the front of the aerosol cloud, disappearing into it. Seconds later, the warheads detonated. The nuclear blasts and heat devoured aerosols and detonated the nearest Valiant mines. More missiles dove into the aerosol mass and devoured more as they detonated.
No enemy missiles leaped from the cloud at the approaching Orion ships. Instead, more Earth missiles launched from the Orion ships and headed for the cloud.
“I don’t like this,” Hayes said, as the Ajax neared the original beginning of the cloud. “We haven’t detonated anything we didn’t expect. What are the aliens planning for us?”
Earth sensor drones reached the cloud, entering it. They did not find new data, but more aerosols ahead.
“Here goes nothing,” Admiral Hayes said.
The Ajax and other Orion ships entered the nimbus of the aerosol cloud. In minutes, they would reach the main cloud as they continued straight for Titan. The plan was to hammer Titan into submission with nuclear payloads and land space marines. If nothing else happened, it looked like they were about to win a fantastic victory. They had lost two Orion ships at the very start, but—
“Sir!”
“What is it?” asked Hayes, startled from her musings.
“What the hell is that?”
Hayes craned over, looking at a sensor operator’s display. A grainy feed showed a massive asteroid.
“My readings show the object is at least a kilometer in diameter,” the operator said.
Admiral Hayes squinted thoughtfully.
“That couldn’t have been there before,” the operator said. “We would have seen it. I don’t remember seeing that.”
“Is that what the aliens were hiding from us?” Hayes asked quietly.
“You have a message, Admiral,” the communications officer said.
“Put it on my display,” Hayes said.
Captain Anderson appeared on the screen. “Admiral, that asteroid is moving toward us.”
“What?” Hayes said.
“The asteroid has velocity,” Anderson said.
“Shit,” Hayes said, realizing Anderson was right. “The asteroid has nuclear fusion reactors and thrusters. Hit it with everything. Turn it into rubble.”
The six Orion ships headed for the mobile asteroid as the huge asteroid headed for them.
***
On the Enkidu, Assur knew that the key to the battle was the mobile asteroid. He also had one shot from the railgun on Iapetus in reserve. If he fired it now, there wouldn’t be another for at least 12 hours, more like 14 hours.
Nuclear missiles began slamming against the asteroid and detonating. Vast chunks of ice and stone vaporized and blew away. The asteroid shook, but it continued heading at the Orion ships. Just as importantly, the nuclear payloads didn’t destroy the asteroid’s integrity… yet.
Time passed as the Orion ships closed with the asteroid and as nuclear bombardments repeatedly struck the massed mixture of rock and ice.
Assur’s ships maneuvered from behind the nearest moon and launched a salvo of missiles along with EW pods. They sped through the aerosols toward the side of the Orion ships.
Missiles and counter-missiles flew and detonated from each side. The ordnance carefully built up in the last several years burned up now in accelerated usage. The fate of nations often depended on a battle. Today, the fate of races did, and this was the critical half hour of the fight.
The mobile asteroid base came within Orion ship railgun range. Should Hayes order the Orion ships to face the enemy and fire the railguns? Then she divined the enemy’s plan.
“Keep your pusher plates aimed at the asteroid. As the asteroid passes your ship, keep aiming the pusher plate at it. The base must be trying to reach our softer hulls. We can’t let it do that.”
The Valiants had cracked the Earth code. Soon, Assur realized this was it. Therefore, he ordered his small fleet to charge the Orion ships.
As the Orion ships and mobile asteroid base passed each other, the 100,000-ton vessels turned their pusher plates to keep them between the asteroid and ship.
Heavy missiles began launching from the asteroid. Orion ship railguns fired when the pusher plate didn’t move fast enough. The mobile asteroid hammered the Orion ships.
Then, at Assur’s orders, the one shot from the railgun on Iapetus launched.
In a crazy cauldron of nuclear detonations, and firing railguns and particle cannons, the asteroid base shuddered catastrophically. The engines and thrusters from the Dreadnought were destroyed as railguns and nukes obliterated them. Launch silos and particle-beam cannons on the asteroid also disappeared in the horror. However, one Orion ship after another succumbed under a staggering volume of thermonuclear explosions. These were much bigger than the small kiloton explosions that the pusher plates could absorb. The monstrous explosions first cracked the plates and then blew through the broken parts into the interior of the ships.
While that occurred, the 20,000-kilogram iron ball smashed through Admiral Hayes’ Ajax Orion Ship, taking it out of the battle.
The asteroid shuddered again under the nuclear pounding and began to splinter, as five large chunks appeared where there had been a single huge asteroid.
Had Earth achieved victory?
-52-
Only two Orion ships limped past the destroyed mobile base and continued toward Titan.
The WCS Indra and WCS Shaka were the last of the fleet. The ships, though formidable, were now battered and damaged, drifting through the aerosol cloud.
Approaching with menacing intent were the massive Enkidu and three Guardian-class ships. Their black hulls absorbing the scant light, making them appear as shadows in the aerosols. The Enkidu and Guardians were armed with particle-beam cannons and missiles.
Captain Chandra stood on the bridge of the Indra, his face etched with determination. The displays showed the approaching alien ships, their trajectories converging on the beleaguered Orion vessels.
“Status report,” he said.
“Captain, railguns are operational but at reduced capacity,” Lieutenant Harper replied. “Missile silos two and four are offline. Point defense systems are functional but strained. We’re down to our last few counter-missiles.”
Chandra nodded. “Prepare all remaining weapons. We’ll make our stand. We won’t go down without a fight.”
On the bridge of the Enkidu, Assur observed the Orion ships. The Enkidu’s sensors had detected the damage to the Orion ships. Destroy these two, and the battle was won.
Assur gave his orders.
The Guardian-class ships moved into position as they spread out to encircle the Indra and Shaka. The Enkidu held back, its massive particle-beam cannons charging for the first salvo.
The Indra’s railguns sent a stream of high-velocity projectiles towards the nearest Guardian. The rounds struck the ship’s armored hull, creating a series of sparks and minor hull breaches, but the damage was superficial.
“Return fire,” Assur ordered.
The Enkidu’s particle beams lanced out, brilliant streams of coherent light that cut through the thinning aerosols with deadly precision. The beams struck the Indra, slicing through hull and into the space marine sections and igniting secondary explosions within. The Orion ship shuddered under the impact, internal alarms blaring.
“Hull breach on deck three,” Harper shouted, as the ship buckled.
The Shaka fired a volley of missiles, hoping to break the Guardians’ formation. The missiles streaked toward their targets, but the Guardian-class ships deployed countermeasures, detonating the enemy missiles.
The Guardians returned fire, their own missiles homing in on the weakened Shaka. The missiles breached the hull and tore through vital systems. Fires erupted along the length of the Orion ship.
Captain Chandra knew they were outmatched, but he refused to surrender. “Target the big bastard with everything we’ve got left. If we go down, we take them with us.”
The Indra’s remaining railguns and missile launchers focused on the Enkidu. Projectiles and warheads streaked through aerosol- thickened space. Counter-missiles and point defense guns destroyed the missiles, but railgun projectiles hit. The Enkidu shuddered under the onslaught, but its armored hull held.
Assur watched as the Enkidu’s particle beams fired again, this time in a concentrated barrage. The beams cut through the Indra’s weakened hull, splitting the ship. Explosions rippled along its length, and the mighty Orion ship began to break up.
“Shaka is going critical!” a voice screamed over the intercom. The second Orion ship, crippled and burning, succumbed to the relentless missile assault by the Guardians. Its reactors, damaged and unstable, reached a critical point and detonated in a flash.
In the aftermath, Assur heard the crackle of static from the dying ships’ communications. The Indra and Shaka were gone, reduced to drifting wreckage.
One Guardian-class ship, caught too close to the Shaka’s final explosion, had sustained heavy damage. Its hull was scarred and breached, internal fires visible through the gashes in its structure. It drifted, leaking atmosphere and energy, but it was still operational.
On the bridge of the Enkidu, Assur surveyed the scene. “Casualty report.”
“Minimal damage to the Enkidu,” a subordinate reported. “One Guardian heavily damaged but still functional. No significant losses.”
Assur nodded. “Begin salvage operations. Recover what we can from the human ships.”
The Enkidu and the Guardians moved to collect the wreckage, their victory complete.
In the end, two Orion ships were not enough against the superior Valiant weaponry.
The terrible Second Battle of Titan had gone in the Valiants’ favor, although it had destroyed the engines and thrusters that rightly belonged on the waiting skeleton of the Dreadnought. The humans had failed to win the war with one swift and mighty blow. Equally important, the fleet of Valiant vessels was still intact.
“This,” Assur said from his command chair on the Enkidu, “is a momentous victory. Now,” he told his officers, “we can target Earth with our railgun and begin to cripple their industrial capacity.”
-53-
Two weeks after the monumental Second Battle of Saturn, Chief Marshal Assur was on Titan. He sat in on a strategy session as the members argued over what they should target first. Assur sat with his legs thrust out and his ankles crossed as he listened.
It had been a week since he last took a pill. He felt groggy, maybe even a little listless, but the glow of his fantastic victory and the cheering that the Valiants had given him for days on end kept him alert. He had even walked among the populace with only a few of his guards around him. People had touched him and clapped him on the shoulders. It was a grand and giddy feeling.
He listened to the strategy session with only half an ear.
It was too bad his mother wasn’t here to witness all this. Imagine wanting to beg the Earthers for peace when the Valiants were so clearly the superior race. Maybe it had been a close-run battle. But sometimes in these contests, it was at the very beginning that everything was touch-and-go. Then the side that gained an advantage would turn that into the game changer.
The luck that often affected these kinds of contests would not matter so much now. Beginning luck was usually the most important kind.
Oh yes, Assur knew luck often had a place in these things. A great commander such as himself tried to plan for luck, but sometimes luck or unluckiness happened at the worst possible moment anyway. The mobile asteroid base had lasted just long enough. The second strike with the railgun destroying the seventh Orion ship had also been critical. The Earthers could have figured out how to react quicker and made a better plan against the railgun. Perhaps the ion thrusters on the second iron projectile had just enough thrust to destroy the second Orion ship. That extra Orion ship might have been enough to turn the balance the other way.
However, that no longer mattered as the Valiants had achieved a monumental victory. They had destroyed eight Orion ships without losing any of their own. Yes, the mobile base was gone, which in essence meant the engines and thrusters intended for the Dreadnought.
However, Earth was busily trying to construct eight more Orion ships. The next Orion ships wouldn’t make the same mistakes, eluding any railgun projectiles because they would know what to watch for.
Assur straightened.
The strategy members were reaching the conclusion he had seen from the beginning. Destroying Earth’s industrial base was critical. Destroying the next fleet of Orion ships before the parts could lift off and assemble in orbit would mean everything. If they could destroy those Orion ships there, it would give the Valiants a longer window to extend the industrial base in the Saturn system.
Assur was considering sending robotic ships to the Jupiter system to begin construction there.
With this victory, they had gotten a leg up on the Earthers and now they were going to expand at an exponential rate. They could construct another asteroid mobile base and fit it with giant thrusters and engines. This time, they might strengthen the asteroid so it could move faster without damaging the integrity of the asteroid itself.
The asteroid had barely been big enough. It had remained intact long enough to launch its great barrage at close range against the Orion ships.
That might have been a piece of luck. So many things could have gone wrong. But they hadn’t.
Now the Valiants would crush the humans. It was all but certain. If the long-range shots from Iapetus struck the intended targets on Earth, that would be glorious indeed.
“Chief Marshal Assur, we have our recommendation to give you.”
“I am listening,” Assur said, lowering his voice slightly.
The chief member presented the targeting schedule, which nearly matched his own. Because they held him in such esteem, he allowed them to keep their targeting schedule. He would show them grace as they had shown him grace. He had earned it, of course. He had earned it.
It still troubled Assur that he had to kill his mother. But she had outlived her usefulness. As for the beauty, she probably would have stabbed him at night in bed after he had satisfied her multiple times. Still, killing her had been unfortunate.
Assur stood.
“This is a great day. The targets have been selected and soon the railgun shall fire. After the first shot fires, we will wait 400 days to see whether it hits its target. In that time, we shall launch a fusillade of shots and bring the Earthers to their knees, doing it with the railgun alone. This was the opening we needed. This is the opening we have. The old gods are seeing us through as I bring this war to a sudden and fast finish.”
-54-
The iron projectile lay nestled within the massive railgun’s maw on the frigid surface of Iapetus. Valiant technicians, clad in spacesuits, made final adjustments to the projectile and the railgun. The countdown clock ticked away the last few seconds, its numbers glowing in the dim light of the control room.
As the countdown reached zero, an electrical hum built into a thunderous roar. The electromagnetic coils lining the railgun’s barrel activated in a rapid, sequential burst. The entire assembly vibrated due to the energy being unleashed. The ground around the railgun trembled, sending ripples through the moon’s icy crust.
With a deafening crack, the 20,000-kilogram iron projectile broke free from its 200-kilometer cradle. Propelled at an incredible velocity, it shot into space at 34,722 meters per second.
