Origins (5 page)

Hastelloy redirected his
attention to the fleet tactical display built into his command chair.  The situation was not good.  The Alpha wouldn’t approach an organized fleet of this size without a well thought out attack plan.  The trick now was to figure out what that plan might be.  He held onto that thought as the first readings came in. 

Twenty-five ships appeared around the fleet forming a geodesic sphere pattern with several million miles between each ship.  Why were they staggering these ships around the fleet, what was the strategy?  All Admiral Tridget needed to do was focus the fleet on one of those points to break free.  It would take some time, however, for the fleet to reach them since they were well out of weapons range.

“Tonwen, can you identify the class of ships that just appeared?” Hastelloy asked.

The science officer’s reply was not at all comforting.  “All 25 ships are the same configuration, but we have not encountered this type of Alpha craft before.  It is odd.  I do not see any weapons systems onboard the ships, but I am detecting massive generators throughout the vessels.  Whatever these ships do, it consumes a remarkable amount of power.”

Hastelloy was puzzled by Tonwen’s analysis.  His collector class ship was also basically unarmed because the Nexus consumed enormous quantities of the ship’s energy leaving virtually no power to operate any weapons systems.  What could use so much power on those ships, their own version of a Nexus device perhaps?  He didn’t have long to ponder the question before a more immediate problem presented itself.

“Captain, are you seeing this?” Gallono asked.  “I’m detecting roughly 4,000 Alpha war ships coming through space folds.  They have the entire fleet surrounded.”

Before Hastelloy had a free moment to respond, Tonwen shouted, “Captain I need you over here right away.” Since Tonwen would not have interrupted for nothing, his was the more pressing matter. Hastelloy sprung to his feet and dashed over to the science station to investigate Tonwen’s alarming request. 

“I am reading enormous mass density fields coming from those first 25 ships,” Tonwen reported.  “In a few seconds they are going to look like massive planets to our ship’s sensors.  We cannot space fold if our sensors think a solid object is between us and our destination point.  Their spherical pattern of deployment has the fleet completely surrounded.  We have no way to escape this attack; this battle is going to be to the end.”

Hastelloy paced back to the command chair cursing under his breath.  The Alpha just took the Novi to school in the most basic military maxim, ‘find a way to turn your opponent's greatest strength into a weakness.’  This new technology achieved that goal brilliantly. 

For over 10,000 years Novi fleets were free to engage the Alpha without fear of death thanks to the presence of the Nexus device; only ships were lost, never lives of the crews.  How frustrating that must be for the Alpha, Hastelloy pondered.  Even when they managed to win a battle, as long as the collector ship escaped, the Alpha soon saw the exact same officers again, and again, and again. 

The Nexus allowed Novi crews to be utterly fearless in their fighting.  Now, for the first time in thousands of years, the threat of death was real for both sides.  This of course gave the Alpha a tremendous advantage since their crews already knew and embraced the fear of dying.  In contrast, Hastelloy had a sinking feeling the Novi crews would be paralyzed by it.  The Novi’s biggest strength was now transformed into a debilitating weakness.  Hastelloy took his seat in disgust.

“Admiral Tridget just ordered the fleet to space fold back to the Beta system, Captain; what should I do?” the helmsman asked with fear oozing from every syllable.

“Tonwen, inform the command ship of your findings concerning the fleets inability to retreat.  Like it or not, this battle is going to take place on the Alpha commander’s terms,” Hastelloy said to his science officer. 

Next Hastelloy looked over to the engineering station and issued orders.  “Tomal, see if you can squeeze any more speed out of our engines.  We’re going to need everything you have and more to keep up with this fight.”

“What good will collecting lives in the Nexus do if we can’t escape with them?” Valnor shrieked as his voice cracked from panic.  The first evidence of paralysis through fear was on display front and center on his bridge.  Hastelloy didn’t have time to coddle his rookie pilot.  This panic attack needed to be shut down immediately. 

“Valnor, I don’t have time to say this nicely so I’ll just have to do it with all the rough edges still attached.”  For effect, Hastelloy stood and stated with all the force of an enraged drill sergeant, “Stop pissing yourself and act like a man who has his balls attached.  Sit up straight!  The only way we die here today is if we lose this battle, which is made infinitely easier for the Alpha if you shut down.  Now do your duty.”

Valnor shook his head, sat up straight in his seat and gave a crisp reply, “Aye, Captain.”

With that issue resolved, Hastelloy directed his attention to Gallono.  He was about to issue orders to his first officer but was cut off by the sight of the man standing with his hands wrapped around his groin.  “Dare I ask, Gallono?”

“What do you mean?  I'm just checking that I attached my balls properly this morning.  I’m pleased to report I did,” Gallono stated sardonically as he gave a reassuring wink to the young helmsman.

Hastelloy let out a soft chuckle and inclined his head towards Gallono, indicating his approval of the effort to lighten the mood and relieve the tension they all were feeling.  “Thank you for the status report; now would you please put those hands to better use and man the fleet status screen for me.  Make sure we’re within range of any ship about to be destroyed.  My attention will be on the strategic map of the battle evaluating the overall momentum of the fight.

Without another word, Gallono changed his display screen to pull up the status of every ship in the fleet.  “The Alpha are beginning to engage our ships.  They’re focusing on the Admiral’s command ship.  Also, the troop transports at the rear of our formation are coming under heavy attack. This could present a problem.  The two points of attack are too far apart for us to cover them both.  I’ll let you know if a decision needs to be made.”

Tonwen chimed in, “Admiral Tridget just canceled his order to space fold out of here and informed the fleet that we are now trapped.  He’s issued orders for all ships to engage the enemy at will.”

“Well that was an inspiring pep talk for the troops wasn’t it?” Gallono stated dryly as he rolled his eyes.

Never in all his years of military service had Hastelloy heard such a profoundly stupid order from a superior officer.  The only chance the fleet had was to form up and come at the enemy with a shared defense and focused counter attack when the opportunity presented itself.  Focusing fire from multiple ships on a single target was the only way to start chipping away at the Alpha’s numerical advantage.  Telling everyone to just start shooting at random ships would accomplish nothing except a crushing defeat.  It was clear Admiral Tridget had succumbed to his fear, just like Valnor, except no one was there to slap him back to reality.

As if the insane orders were not evidence enough of the Admiral’s incapacity, the image of the Thorin being pummeled on its broad panels made it official.  The crew was not even trying to maneuver the ship to only present the narrow profile to its attackers.  What’s more, only a fraction of the weapons systems were firing; it just sat there paralyzed.  The magnificent battle cruiser was doomed due to the panic stricken inaction of its crew.  “We’re about to lose the Thorin.  Move us into Nexus range,” Hastelloy ordered.

“Sir, the troop transports are about to be destroyed,” Gallono came with an update.

“Ignore my last and set course for the transports.  Engage, Valnor; now.  Those ships carry over two million soldiers, the Thorin has a crew of 100,000.  We need to serve the greater good,” Hastelloy ordered with conviction.

The Lazarus arrived in time to collect the crews of the relatively defenseless troop transport ships.  As Valnor turned the ship about to head toward the Thorin, the mammoth vessel burst into a ball of fire that quickly dissipated revealing only a debris field where the fleet’s command ship once hovered.

Hastelloy would not miss Admiral Tridget and his nonexistent leadership, but losing the Thorin was like losing his own child.  His blood was up and it was time, once again, to show the Alpha what he was capable of doing to them.  He spent a few seconds working up a fleet deployment profile on his command consol, and then he had Gallono open a communication channel to reach every speaker on every ship in the fleet. 

“This is Captain Hastelloy.  The Admiral’s command ship has been destroyed. I am assuming command of the fleet.  I’ve just transmitted new orders.  Fall back to your assigned positions immediately.”

Hastelloy was heartened to see on his display that the fleet was responding to his command in rapid order.  “I’ll keep this brief, but to soldiers like us few words are just as good as many.  You know me.  I commanded this fleet for the past 100 years and this is not just any fleet, this is the fifth fleet.  We are liberators of the Beta system, and vanquishers of an entire Alpha fleet in battle.  Our foe is not worthy of your fear; they have not earned it.  THEY are the ones pissing themselves because they now face the legendary fifth fleet of the Novi.  The Alpha fleet may have numbers but we have each other.  Fighting together as a unified force is how we’ll win this day.  Believe in yourself, believe in everyone around you, and believe in me. It is a distinct honor to lead you in battle once again.  This day will be ours!”  With that Hastelloy closed the channel.

Hastelloy swore he could almost hear the manly battle cries coming across the vacuum of space from his fleet.  Gallono pound
ed his fist on his console and shouted; “Now that is how it’s done.  Give me something to kill because I am ready for war!”

Hastelloy let a confident grin cross his face.  It had been a while, but he could still channel his inner barbarian and get the troops mentally ready for combat.  Now it was time to make good on his pledge. 

The fleet reformed into two compact spheres, one inside the other.  The outer sphere was comprised mostly of Hastati class cruisers.  These were excellent ships capable of both dealing out and withstanding large amounts of punishment.  The inner circle was made up of Onager class vessels.  These ships were slow and lightly armored, but what they lacked in those areas they more than made up for in weaponry. 

Onagers were armed with a ridiculous complement of pulse concussion launchers.  These weapons were not at all accurate, but they gave out a
devastating amount of damage over a very large area.  Hastelloy planned to use the Onagers as artillery pieces firing from a safe distance while the outer sphere of Hastati cruisers kept the enemy away from the fragile ships.

Hastelloy opened a new comm. channel to the outer layer of ships.  “I’ve grouped you into teams of five vessels and designated one as lead.  That ship will pick the target and the entire team will focus their fire on it.  You all know concentration of fire knocks out ships, not random shooting.  Be sure not to venture too far from your assigned positions, we need to protect the Onagers at all cost.  Now get to it and good hunting.”

With his orders given, the fleet now organized, and the men sufficiently roused for the task at hand, Hastelloy focused his attention on the strategic battle map.  He smiled as he watched the last of the Alpha ships foolish enough to follow their targets into the new formation get destroyed.  The focused fire was having the desired effect. 

The random dots representing Alpha ships were beginning to group together.  ‘Oh no you don’t,’ Hastelloy thought, and promptly ordered the Onagers to bombard those locations exclusively.

The effect was immediate and devastating.  The Alpha instantly took a more scattered formation and moved in on the sphere of Novi ships.  They were concentrating their attacks but it would not be nearly as effective in a scattered pattern. 

The sphere formation made Hastelloy’s job of repelling the attackers relatively easy through the use of interior reinforcement lines.  If an area needed help, ships were called from a section not under attack and got there almost immediately since they could travel in a straight line from one point to another.  If the Alpha tried to exploit the hole left by the missing ships, they needed to go all the way around the Novi formation and Hastelloy’s keen strategic eye could easily spot these shifts and new points of attack.

The battle was going well, but eventually the Alpha commander would wise up and send all his ships to attack all points along the sphere at once to overrun the Novi with sheer strength of numbers.  It was a crude but effective tactic given the circumstance.  Something profound needed to happen fast to hold off defeat. 

While Hastelloy studied the map he noticed one consistent pattern.  There was a group of about 100 ships that didn’t engage.  They changed positions, mixed with other ships, but ultimately never took part in the attacks.  The Alpha command ship must be part of that group he reasoned. 

As his heart began to pound with anticipation, Hastelloy quickly set to work issuing new orders to the fleet.  Nothing in combat was as exciting as discovering something your opponent did not want you to know and exploiting it to the fullest.