(YCSF Lessons Paid For, Maccara Gateway, Maccara
System, Free Worlds Alliance)
Shipleader Irata Rhih was, as the humans would say, bored.
The fleet had been buzzing the last few weeks, as the news that the Black Star
Company, out of the Confederacy, had declared a formal Corporate War against
the Yathru Corporation. Oh, corporate wars were fairly common in the Alliance,
but they never involved the major players, like Yathru. At most, it would be a
subsidiary fighting, not the main corporation. So, the news that the
corporation as a whole was going to be involved in the war was a big thing.
It wasn’t just that Yathru itself was going to be fighting
that got the rumor mill stirring, but who they were up against. The Black Star
Company was widely regarded amongst the management types as being upstart
newcomers. Somehow, they had ridden a wave of success to making a big name for
themselves in the Confederacy, and had gotten too uppity. They needed to be cut
down to size.
Or, at least, that was the view of the executives. In the ranks
of the Fleet, however, the rumors were going in a much different direction.
Unlike the corporate officers, the security groups had more face to face
contact with groups outside the Corporation, or the Alliance. Moreover, they
paid attention to the stories about military matters. Who had the biggest guns,
and how they used them, was a vital part of living long enough to retire, after
all.
The Black Star Company may have been many things, but, if
even half the stories about them were true, they were not a group that she
wanted to be facing in a pitched battle. The executives were still discussing
plans for economic warfare against Black Star, and arranging attack teams to
hunt Black Star shipping. The Fleet had come to the dreadful certainty that
they would have no need to go seeking out Black Star, now that the preparatory
period for the Corporate War was over. Save for the most diehard loyalists to
the corporation, not a soul thought that Black Star was actually going to wait
for them to come and fight on Black Star’s turf, or that Black Star would use
financial trickery against them.
No, this war would be settled through force. And the Yathru
Corporation simply didn’t have the kind of force necessary to fight off Black
Star. Not in a straight fight, at least.
Which brought her to why she and her ship, a frigate that had
been cutting edge twenty years ago, when it was built for the Alliance-Imperial
war, were sitting by the Maccara Gateway, along with the other guardians, scanning
every ship that came through the gateway. It was dull, boring work, but it
needed to be done. Even the executives weren’t so thick as to believe that they
could just leave the Gateway unguarded.
By the Abyss, the rumor was that they intended to launch assault
forces through the Gateway to the so-called ‘Amazon’ system. The idea being
that, then, they could fly normally to the Star’s Reach system and strike at
the heart of Black Star’s operations. To Rhih, it just sounded like a great way
of committing suicide.
But the Gateway still needed to be guarded, even after the
assault force went through, so the Lessons Paid For would remain in Maccara
along with the Home Fleet when the assault ships and mercenaries shipped out. And
there would be plenty of mercenaries. The word around the fleet was that
Corporate was even hiring the Kul’tirans to try and stick it to Black Star. Of
course, the Kul’tirans didn’t really have a great track record against Black
Star, either. Now, if only…
“Unscheduled Gateway activation!”
Her internal musing was cut off by the announcement from her
Sensor Second. “Report!”
“Address matches the one recorded for Star’s Reach!”
Star’s Reach? Surely, they couldn’t be that arrogant? “Shields
up! All point defense to full. All hands to battle stations.”
She had barely gotten the orders out of her mouth when the screen
began lighting up with more sensor readings. She didn’t need the Sensor Second
to tell her what they meant. Missiles incoming. Lots of missiles, being fired
through the Gateway.
(Main Control Room, Drez Station, Yathru Corporate Security
Fleet Headquarters, in orbit of Maccara Prime)
“What is happening?” Fleet Leader Chikzazz Zess snarled at
the menials who were manning the sensor stations. She had been working on the
plans for attacking Black Star when what seemed like all the alarms in existence
began going off at once.
“Fleet Leader! The guardian defense platform and ships guarding
the Gateway are under missile attack! The defense platform has been destroyed.
Three of the five guardian ships are just gone. Profit Margin is
disabled, and venting atmosphere. Lessons Paid For is maneuvering away
from the Gateway, shields at 24%.”
“Damn it! Where is the gate coming from?”
“Star’s Reach, Fleet Leader.”
“Damn it all to the infinite abyss! We’ve been outplayed. Full
power to shields. All hands to battle stations! All ships, all stations to go
to active sensors, maximum gain! There is a cloaked spotter out there, guiding
the missiles through!”
Across the system, every Yathru ship, every station, every
drone or satellite large enough to mount a sensor suite, whether they were
civilian or corporate security, switched on their active sensors, blanketing
the system in enough noise that it was impossible for any cloaked or stealthed
ship to remain in hiding. Even the best stealth technology still had to obey
certain rules of physics. If you were inside the universe, then spotting your
ship was simply a matter of pumping enough energy out there that you got a hit,
no matter what.
“CONTACT! MANY CONTACTS!” The sensor officer’s voice yelled
out. “Computer counts fifty-eight unidentified contacts! Bearing two-one-four-mark-five
by three-five-four-mark-five. Range six thousand kilometers and closing fast!”
Zess frowned. That was just over twenty light-seconds away,
and charging almost straight ‘down’ from above the ecliptic. How the hell had
they gotten so close, without being seen? They had spies at all the other known
Gateways, save for Star’s Reach. There should have been no way that a fleet
this size could possibly slip past the spies.
The sensor officer yelled out again, once more disrupting
her thoughts. “Fighters! Fighter launch detected! Bloody abyss, there have to
be ten squadrons launching!”
Fleet Leader Chikzazz Zess had thought that this would be a
corporate war, like any other. Maybe not like any other, but following the same
basic tenets. Now, she was starting to believe that Yathru had made a grave
tactical error.
“Wait, what is that? OH SHIT! KINETICS ON INBOUND
TRAJECTORY!”
The sensor officer on duty aboard Drez Station noticed the
kinetics when they were five seconds out. Shock and lack of practice slowed the
weapons officer’s reaction time to a full second. Training point defense on the
objects took two seconds. The beam weapons the station used for point defense
could fire at a relatively quick five shots per second. However, the software
was designed to target fighters, conventional missiles, and asteroids, not
objects hurtling forward at relative velocities of 50% of the speed of light!
Drez Station sported shields twice as strong as a
superdreadnought’s. A superdreadnought could shrug off three, maybe four of the
impacts from a Black Star ship’s main weapon, and remain in the fight. Six
simultaneous impacts would kill even a modern superdreadnought outright. Drez
station was hit by twenty-eight shots, all timed to land within 0.02 seconds of
each other.
The best that could be said about the fate of the people
aboard is that at least it was quick.
(YCSF Lessons Paid For, Maccara Gateway, Maccara
System, Free Worlds Alliance)
Shipleader Irata Rhih was desperately praying to whatever
powers would listen that she could go back to being simply bored. One moment,
she had been engaging in simple guard duty. The next, she was doing everything
she could to try and stay alive.
The missiles had poured out of the Gateway in a torrent, two
hundred and fifty in total. The defense platform never even managed to get
their shields up, or activate their point defense, before taking fifty of the
ship-killer missiles straight to their hull. The Contract Law, Tariff
Setter, and Greener Pastures had at least left their point defense
on automatic, but it hadn’t helped, not against the twenty missiles each had
been targeted by.
The Profit Margin and her Lessons Paid For, at
least, had managed to get their shields and point defense on-line, and were
able to begin evasive maneuvers. Unfortunately for the Profit Margin,
they had simply been too close to the Gateway, and hadn’t had enough time to
maneuver. The frigate had managed to shoot down or evade twelve of the twenty
missiles, but eight had been enough to gut the ship’s aft section, leaving it
drifting, without power, and venting atmosphere. The best that could be said
for it was that the reactor had not suffered a catastrophic failure. Yet.
Her Lessons Paid For hadn’t fared much better,
however. They had been the furthest from the Gateway at the time, but that only
gave them a couple seconds more time to maneuver. They managed to shoot down
seven missiles, and evade eight more. Rolling the ship as they engaged in
maneuvers, the remaining five missiles only scored glancing blows, and never in
the same section of shielding, allowing her to spread the load, at least a
little. She was down to 24% on the shields, but the rough treatment had already
caused several systems to go offline.
“Damage report!”
“Inertial dampening at 57%. Hull breach in deck four,
section three, port side! Port-side point defense is offline! Casualties
reported, sickbay ready for patients. We have radiation warnings in the
compromised section. Looks like one or more of the missiles that got through
was a nuke of some kind.”
Rhih nodded. “Very well. Bring us around! I want starboard shields
facing the Gateway until repairs are completed. Communications! Do we have any
word from Command?”
“Ship Leader,” the Sensor Second cut in, “Active sensors
detecting a massive number of enemy ships, on an intercept course for Drez
Station! It is the Black Star Fleet! Fighters launching from carriers, looks
like ten whole squadrons!”
“Of course, it is,” muttered Rhih. Who else would it be, after
that sneak attack through the Gateway? And it would be just her luck to get
caught up in the battle like this.
Still, it could be worse. She could have been one of the Ship
Leaders who were too close to the Gateway. Or she could have been off duty, and
her Ship Second, while a capable administrator, did not make decisions quickly,
even in emergencies. In either case, she would have been dead already, along
with her ship.
“SHIP LEADER!” The sudden note of fear in the Sensor Second’s
voice caught her attention, her gaze snapping over to focus on the young
officer. “Drez Station is just gone, Ship Leader! It has been completely
destroyed! No escape pods detected, and, given the size of the debris, it is
unlikely that there are any survivors.”
“Comms, status of the rest of the fleet?”
“The situation is confused, Ship Leader. No one knows who is
in charge, with the Fleet Leader dead. Leader of Ships Rodix of the Total Package
and Leader of Ships Krih of the Theater of Pain are both attempting to assume
control of the fleet, and the situation. Beyond that, there are simultaneous
calls for both evacuation and to stand and fight.”
The Sensor Second called out again. “Ship Leader, tarpit
traps have been dropped, blanketing the system!”
More oh so wonderful news. This was starting at bad, and
getting worse by the minute. “What are the Black Stars doing?”
“They appear to have broken into four formations. Two are
heading towards Maccara Prime. Probable Marine ships, so likely conducting
landing operations, goal unknown. The other two are splitting, to engage the
Home and Assault fleets simultaneously.”
Taking a breath, Rhih considered her options. There weren’t
really any. They did not have weaponry that could turn the tide. They couldn’t
run, and they couldn’t get close enough to the battle to do any good before it
was done. It was not the most enviable of positions.
“All stop. Shut down all power except Life Support and
sensors. Have damage crews work on restoring our shields and point defense, as
best they can. Tell them to leave the repairs to our communications array until
last.”
“But sir, the communications array is undam—” I quelled the communications
officer with my patented death glare. “Oh. I see. Yes, I will tell them to leave
the array for last, as you command.”
Ship Leader Irata Rhih was glad. She would have hated to
have to summarily execute the officer, but sometimes needs mattered more than
desires. Especially when the underworld god was in control. Maybe if they could
just act like a hole in space, no one would notice them until the winning side
was readily apparent. She just wanted to go back to boring, damn it!
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Be sure to read my published works!
Frozen Soul series (Sci-Fi Supervillain story):
Frozen Soul - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071R125QT
Tales of the Void Traveler - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06ZZ52G37
Memoirs of a Supervillain - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R9NWS8J
Rules-Free VRMMO Life (Dark Fantasy GameLit):
Volume 1 - Tutorial
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071VPRNDB
Omnibus 1 - Volumes 1-4
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0774T354XBook I - Game Start https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071LT5WGL
Omnibus I - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077X2KR7Y
City of Champions Online (Superhero GameLit):
Issue I - Origin Stories https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075SHXQS1
Lewd Dungeon (Dungeon Core GameLit):
Book 1 - Welcome to the Apocalypse https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BB34DHF
Omnibus 1 - Books 1-4 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FBPF6HR
SCI Stories (Dark Supervillain story):
Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RL93VQN
Winterborn (Dark Fantasy LitRPG):
Book 1 - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B082S3S3K8
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