章 11: Because Someone Had to [ Part 2 ]

By MachDhai

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The children were quiet, all watching their teacher, or glancing at their kil'tan classmate. They were young and knew little of the conflict that had torn the known galaxy asunder so many years ago. They knew it only as the Liberation Wars, or the Great Rebellion. It was celebrated annually, with great gatherings and moments of silence to honor the war dead and to appreciate the liberties and freedoms gained. To lament the horrors of the past, and what had been lost.

The kil'tan child was silent, its secondary manipulators scratching at its carapace underbelly with nervous energy. "How?"

"It took the Council two of their years to assemble a fleet to deal with the Humans. But the Humans had been preparing even before their ambassador spoke to the Senate."

"I beg forgiveness, Councillor. But is it wise for someone of such importance as yourself to accompany the fleet? We know little of the Terran military capabilities." The Grand Admiral of the Punitive Fleet stood next to the seated Silliunce councilor.

The fleet had finished assembling and was navigating its way across the gravity well of an unnamed dead star. One hundred and seventeen vessels from the various Senate species had gathered in their independent squadrons. They were only minutes from making their first jump into what was believed to be Terran-controlled space, the location of the First Contact between the Terran merchant-marine and a Council patrol ship.

"They have been space-faring for only four hundred years. The Silliunce have ruled the stars for thousands. Whatever these Humans may believe, their place among the stars shall be at our feet." The Councillor's tone was dismissive and irritated. Irritated that the Admiral commanded four Silliunce battleships and their associated escorts and support vessels. It would prove more than enough to...

"ADMIRAL! Multiple energy spikes ahead! There are..." The bridge of the Admiral's command ship erupted in sudden activity as reports started to come in. "Sensors are down-!" Through the looming windows of the command deck, the flashes of dozens of ships dropping out of FTL could be seen.

"Hunter's Roar reports unidentified targets and weapons locks! There are unknown ships all around us!"

"What is going on?!" The Grand Admiral stalked into the center of the command deck as the confusion continued. The crew worked diligently to find an answer for the Admiral, but strange reports continued to flood their terminals.

"Kinetic penetrations starboard! Casualties reported on the Soaring Wind!" A barrage of contact reports were streaming in from various ships of the Punitive Fleet.

"All guns target and fire at all viable targets!" The Admiral barked the order as he became overwhelmed by the total lack of information he was being provided with, and even as he finished speaking, the battleship shuddered as weapons fire impacted the heavily armored hull.

"Hull breach, gun decks!"

"Casualty reports coming in!"

"More unidentified targets! Gun decks targeting and returning fire!"

The Councillor sat unmoving, frozen with rage. The Grand Punitive Fleet was being made fools of, and there was nothing he could do about it. Not that that mattered to him; with each shudder of the ship's hull and confused, useless report by the command stations, he found himself just a bit closer to simply striking the Grand Admiral down and ordering a withdrawal of the fleet.

"Sir! Emergency call from the Malicious! They have been boarded. They have lost control of engineering and the central computer!"

And then suddenly, everything stopped. "Admiral! System security has identified an unknown signal and blocked it. Systems are coming back online now!"

The Admiral turned towards the speaker; the ship's onboard computer technician rarely had anything to say during combat maneuvers, "What are you talking about?!"

"There are a series of micro-satellites around the fleet, Admiral. They were inert, and the computer wrote them off as simple debris. They activated when we came into range, and they began attacking our systems." The technician shrank in his chair, expecting the admiral, or more likely the Councillor, to explode with rage at the discovery.

There was a moment of silence as the bridge crew struggled to clear the remaining errors and sensor ghosts from their systems. The Grand Admiral could only glare out the windows of his ship towards where the FTL flash of what must have been the human fleet had entered the system.

"What is the situation?" The Silliunce councilor addressed the sensors operator, who was frantically trying to clear the errors in the ship's sensors.

"There are... there are no enemy ships around us, Councillor. The fleet was firing on itself..."

The Councillor rose from his seat and approached the sensor operator's station, and the crew member only had time to realize someone had approached before the Councillor had grabbed the crewman's throat from behind, clawed fingers digging into the leathery hide with ease. Blood sprayed across the terminal, followed by thick strands of viscera as the operator's throat was torn free and flicked upon the terminal. His death was slow.

The Admiral and much of the bridge crew remained silent as their dying crew member thrashed on the floor in a quickly widening puddle of blood, and the Councillor stalked back to his seat. But before he could sit, the communication operator suddenly spun around.

The Grand Admiral stared at the display, his mind racing to understand, again, what was happening. Every ship in the fleet displayed some degree of battle damage, and his communications officer was in a heated argument with the captain of the Malicious over the fake report of having been boarded.

The bridge door opened and a fresh crewman darted to the sensor station, coldly dragging their dead predecessor out of the way before setting to work. "Enemy ships ahead and closing fast! I am having trouble fixing their positions, sir. They are employing active and passive stealth measures."

"Admiral to the Fleet. I've nothing to say that the politicians haven't already. Today, we fire the first shots in a war we have been preparing for for years. You know your duty, and what's at stake. Do your children proud."

The Human Admiral, a stately woman of steel-grey hair and sharp features, stood on the bridge of the Independence, the largest carrier in the Terran fleet. The ship's captain continued to see to the vessel's preparations for the coming battle.

The Admiral surveyed the fleet on a holographic display; fifty warships, the best Humanity could produce, were arrayed in their formations, and the carrier group was deploying squadrons of strike craft. They were outnumbered more than two-to-one. The Punitive Fleet had almost three times the tonnage of their fleet and would employ tactics and formations that had been proven in combat for centuries.

But, they were fractured. Each Senate species ship operated as an independent entity rather than an extension of the whole. The Grand Admiral would be commanding the ship on which they rode, as well as dictating orders to the rest of the fleet. Orders would then be interpreted differently by every Sub-Admiral, who in turn commanded their ship and their fleet. They would be slow to respond to changes in the battle.

The opening salvo from the Human fleet came in the form of more electronic warfare. The Admiral glanced to her left, to the holographic display of the ship's combat AI, modeled after the ancient goddess Athena, who was coordinating with the five other combat AIs of the fleet. They barraged the Punitive Fleet with signals and false readings, actively infiltrating their communications network, and wreaking havoc on their fleet's ability to function coherently.

The second salvo was kinetic. Torpedoes leaped ahead, arcing high above or below the plane the Punitive Fleet was arrayed along, before coming to a stop and going dark, waiting to pounce when Athena and her siblings gave the signal.

Depleted uranium penetrators were launched at fractions of the speed of light, flashing across the void towards the enemy fleet, meant more to force the enemy out of formation than to strike the enemy ships.

Waves of strike craft fanned out ahead of the Human fleet, racing towards the reeling Council fleet, carrying payloads of high-yield nuclear warheads that would soon seed the battle space with pulses of electromagnetic radiation, both to further scramble the enemy's sensors and to obscure the advance of the human fleet.

The ensuing battle was brief and bloody. In only a few short hours, the Punitive Fleet was shattered, two-thirds of its numbers crippled or destroyed. But Humanity had underestimated the Senate species' dedication to the Council's directives. Or perhaps their fear of reprisal for failure.

Where damaged Human ships would withdraw, Senate vessels were just as likely to launch themselves forward with suicidal intent, ramming Human ships or dying in the effort. Over half the Human fleet was lost in the battle, often with all hands.

A dozen Senate ships sacrificed themselves to cover the retreat of the Grand Admiral's flagship, although by that point the Silliunce Councillor had assumed personal command, after killing the Grand Admiral of course.

It was a victory for the young upstarts, but a Pyrrhic one, and set the tone for the conflict to come.