Starship Conquistador (Conquest of Stars Book 1) (12 page)

    “I know of no other Starfleet in the
galaxy that has 10 MTs as their standard yield,” Antrar said.

    “Kind of makes sense,” Barryett said,
“They want to disguise their identity and we know the standard yields for all
the galactic powers’ weapons.”

    “Enemy One, Two and Three, launching a
rocket each,” Horyett said.

    “One rocket?” Raptor looked at Horyett
with bewilderment.

    “Sorry Com,” Horyett said, “Not rockets
but appear to be Micro Black Hole Weapons. Our gravitron scanners are going
awry.”

    “They have MBH weapons too?” Raptor
stood up from his chair, “No outlaw spaceships possess those. It has to be a
state power.”

    “We are long past the time to think of
them as pirates, raiders and such space junk,” Antrar said, “There are perhaps
four empires in the galaxy who can make MBH weapons and one of them is ours.”

    “Com. Raptor, Starship engines are
consuming higher and higher fuel to keep up the speed,” Flyptar said.

    “Cut fuel, let Starship decelerate to
5,000 lights,” Raptor said, “Horyett, give me technical readings on the MBH
weapons.” 

    “I can read out the numbers…”

    “Tell me in words…”

    “They are powerful but we can escape
their gravity pull rapidly with a sudden jerk forward,” Horyett replied.

    “That would consume a lot of fuel and
we have a long journey ahead,” Raptor said.

    “We can wait out the depletion of
gravity weapon’s energy,” Barryett said, “Their own fuel will be running out,
but it means another round of battle.”

    “Com Antrar, any advice?” Raptor asked.

    “This is far more serious,” Antrar
said, “than I had thought earlier. We can try to destroy MBH Weapons with
concentrated lasers. We colloquially refer to them as Micro-Black Holes but
they are actually just machines that generate intense gravity fields for a
short duration.”

    “Not short enough,” Barryett said.

    “Smash the machine and their gravity
field rapidly dissipates into space,” Antrar continued, “We can try launching
rockets but the outcome is uncertain as they are likely to be thrown off-target
by the mangled gravity fields of Micro-Black Hole machines and the three
Starships right behind. We can use concentrated lasers but then our LaserStorm
defense system’s operations will be severely degraded and they will launch
another round of rockets. They have already depleted our supply of Repeller
counter-rockets.”

    “Textbook battle operations, wouldn’t
you say Com. Antrar?” VC Barryett asked.

    “Question is: whose textbook?” Antrar
replied.

    “Com Raptor, Starship is at 5,000
lights,” Flyptar said, “permission to restart fuel increase.”

    “Permission granted, restart fuel
upload to the engines,” Raptor said, “Hold steady at 5,000 lights.”

    “We can expect them to launch once they
have closed sufficient distance,” VC Barryett said, “Com Raptor, we must do
something.”

    “You are right,” Raptor said, “Capitan
Alvina, concentrated lasers on the MBH machines. Switch to manual targeting and
firing.”

    “Concentrated lasers,” Alvina said to
her officer assistant and they started adjusting the settings on the computers.

    “Laser Operators taking position,”
assistant laser officer Pulf said.

    “They are going to fire rockets
regardless,” Raptor said to Antrar who nodded, “It’s a common factor in all the
equations.”

    “Sir, laser firing commencing,
targeting MBH weapons,” Alvina said.

    “Good, keep me updated every time a
target is destroyed,” Raptor said. The lasers were less affected by the gravity
than material objects like rockets, nevertheless light shifted too. Raptor
hoped that their lasers would take out the gravity-weapon machines before the
enemy felt close enough to launch another barrage of rockets.

    “Sir, a lucky shot, laser struck and
shattered one MBH weapon,” Alvina said.

    “Great,” Raptor said.

    “Why lucky?” Tollvyk asked.

    “Col. most of our laser shots are
wildly off mark, the operators are veering closer but will take time
calibrating on target,” Alvina said.

    “Why not let the computer target them?”
Tollvyk asked.

    “Alvina?” Raptor said. This was the
first time he had anything resembling a conversation with her and he wanted to
keep it going.

    “Sir???” she was intently watching her
computer screen and hadn’t heard the question.

    “Explain to Col. why we try to avoid
computer targeting of lasers with MBH weapons.”

    “Colonel Tollvyk,” Alvina looked up
from her screen and turned to him, “Computer aims for perfection in targeting
and in this case it means it will try to adjust for gravity fields whose math
can overload the computer with complex calculations,” she continued, “But if
the MBH Weapons are made to vary the strength of their gravity fields then the
computers may not be able to calculate a target solution in time and its shots
will be really off mark.”

    “Very good Capitan Alvina, you know
your stuff,” Raptor said.

    “Thank you, sir,” she beamed a wide
smile at him and Raptor felt a pang of desire. He turned away from her
otherwise he would not be able to concentrate on the battle at hands.

    “Horyett is that what the enemy weapons
are doing?” Raptor asked.

    “Yes sir, varying gravitational
intensity a thousand times a second,” Horyett said, “But within a narrow
range.”

    “Just like our MBH weapons,” Antrar
said.

    “Com Raptor, Enemy One and Three are
pulling away,” Horyett said.             Raptor looked up from his computer to
the large display screen, “What the hell? Why aren’t they firing rockets?
Moving away from our rear will deprive their rockets of the extra boost they
could get from the pull of micro-black hole weapons.”

    “Enemy two is holding steady on our
tail,” Horyett said, “Enemy One is accelerating but heading 45 degrees to our
left, Enemy Three is heading 45 degrees to our right.”

    “They are accelerating past us as they
get away from the weaponized gravity,” Tollvyk said, “There is at least that
advantage for them.”

    “VC Barryett, what’s the matter,”
Raptor said when he saw Barryett staring at Com. Antrar with his jaw wide open.

    “Don’t you recognize this battle
maneuver, Com Raptor,” Barryett said then motioned towards Antrar with his
chin.

    “Antrar’s Triangle Entrapment. How is
that possible?” Raptor startled as the realization flashed across his mind,
“Com Antrar, this is tactic that you used at the Battle of Kalahar!”

     “It sure looks like that,” Antrar
said.

    “This is the next chapter in space
warfare textbook for Starfire commanders,” Barryett said, “Com Antrar created
it, but it is a state secret. How did they find out?”

    “Worry about that later,” Antrar said,
“If they are doing what I did many years ago, they will lay a barrage of rockets
and a field of laser in your front and the enemy spaceship chasing you from the
back will unleash a similar attack of rockets.”

    “When?” Raptor asked.

    “As soon as the triangle is complete,”
Antrar said.

    There was no reason to even ask that
question, Raptor knew the answer as did everybody in the room. Once the three
enemy ships formed a triangle that included their own spaceship, they would
begin their attack. This was textbook, had been taught to all of them since
Antrar had made it famous at the battle that raised him to a war hero.

    “Commodore Raptor, Enemy One and Three
have changed their bearings to zero degree straight ahead, now parallel to us,
accelerating to overtake us,” Horyett said.

    “How long before they overtake,” Raptor
asked.

    “Ten minutes, give or take,” Antrar
chirped in looking at the display screen.

    “Ten minutes and 50 seconds,” Horyett
said.

    “Close enough,” Antrar exclaimed.

    “How long after that till they begin
the attack?” Raptor asked.

    “Anytime really, it’s a tradeoff
between launching too early and having the target spaceship escape straight
ahead before the rockets reach it and too late if you destroy the MBH weapons
and accelerate with full energy.”

    “Anytime between 2 to 5 minutes,” VC
Barryett said.

    “That was my suggestion at the seminars
I taught,” Antrar said.

    “I was there, sir,” Barryett said.

    “Capitan Alvina, how is the laser
firing going?” Raptor asked.

    “We are trying sir, but we are just not
hitting the two targets,” Alvina said with desperation in her voice.

    “Com. Antrar, you created this tactic,
you must have a counter,” Col. Tollvyk said.

    “Unfortunately, I became so involved in
teaching and perfecting it that I never deemed to find a counter,” Antrar said,
“Never occurred to me that it would leak to an unknown enemy.”    

    “VC Barryett, we need your battle
experience now, recommend a plan of action for us,” Raptor said.

    “It’s difficult sir,” Barryett said,
“We can go supernova and unload all of our rockets, spacefighters and
superweapons, but that just ruins our entire mission ahead. We will need those
to help Nestorians against the mysterious alien invaders.”

    “That is absolutely the last
desperation maneuver,” Raptor said, “Then our mission will have failed before
it even began and we will have to return home disgraced.”

    “I agree,” Barryett said, “we can
attempt to withstand the attack by switching all the energy to the shields when
they launch. That is risky, it could damage this starship irreparably, but in
all likelihood their weaponry will have been too severely depleted for them to
launch a third, big attack.”

    “Worse,” Raptor said, “We return home
failures and with a Starship damaged on its very first mission.”

    Barryett shrugged.

    Raptor looked at Antrar who said, “I am
sorry.” Antrar himself was vexed at not being able to help. If they survived,
his reputation for tactical brilliance would take a hit.

    “Enemy One and Three approaching
overtake,” Horyett said, “T minus 2 minutes.”

    “We needed a warrior like Col.
Sthykar,” Tollvyk said shaking his head.

    Raptor turned his neck to look at
Tollvyk and said, “Col. Sthykar and other ancient heroes. What would they do?”

    Raptor looked around at the room. The
first fragments of an idea arrived in his mind and started coalescing towards a
coherent plan.

    “Alright,” Com. Raptor nodded with
determination. Him, like every other kid, had read the stories of the ancient
heroes. The legends who faced overwhelming odds but pulled out a victory by a
caution to winds, jump over cliff, spit on death stunt.    

    “Alright,” Raptor repeated himself as
the entire room including Barryett and Antrar looked at him. The idea in his
mind was not yet a coherent whole but it would have to become so in real time
battle.

    “Offload Falcon,” Raptor said.

    “Offloading battle program Falcon,” AI
officer Zurryvk said.

    “Load Battle Command program
Berserker,” Raptor said.

    “Loading battle program known as
Berserker,” Zurryvk looked up at Raptor while punching in the commands.
Berserker was a battle AI for experimental tactics and was not recommended in
actual combat.

    “Berserker, ready to fight, sir,” the
Artificial Intelligence’s voice came over the speaker.

    “Berserker, stand by,” Raptor said
though he knew the AI was ready at all times at full attention without any need
for prodding.

    “Enemy One and Three reaching
overtake,” Horyett said, “T minus 10 seconds.”

    “Capitan Alvina, cut all lasers, but
hold at concentrated firing?” Raptor said.

    “But sir, we are close, just…” Alvina
started to protest.

    “Execute the damn order,” Raptor said
and there was a pin drop silence in the room.

    “Yes sir,” Alvina stuttered and then
said, “Lasers stopped, holding on concentrated.”

    “Enemy One and Three have overtaken us
in our parallels,” Horyett said, “now pulling ahead.”

    “Hold steady,” Raptor said.

    “Sir, now might be the time to try out
this starship’s absolute-max,” Flyptar said, “Switch all energy to the engines
and throw a forward jerk using emergency atomic thrusters.”

    “Negative, flight officer,” Raptor
said, “hold steady.”

    “T plus one minute,” Horyett said.

    “Hold steady,” Raptor was trying to
calm his nerves as much as he was trying to keep his crew calm.