20:37 (Kyoto Alpha Time)
Sunday, October 18, 4021
Bridge of the light cruiser KARAKAN
Covering Force, outer asteroid belt
‘’All our ships are now in position, hidden behind asteroids, and are ready for action, Admiral.’’
Vice-Admiral Li Yonan nodded his head to acknowledge the report from his operations officer before returning his attention to the main tactical situation display sphere, where a dozen ships were seen flying in a carefully planned pattern near the mouth of the Morg inter-dimensional tunnel.
‘’How long before Teno’s frigates are finished mining the mouth of the Morg’s tunnel?’’
‘’About ten minutes, Admiral.’’
‘’Good! Tell Captain Teno to get the hell out of there the moment she is finished seeding her mines. The Morgs could start appearing at any time now.’’
‘’Yes, Admiral!’’
20:43 (Kyoto Alpha Time)
Command bridge, frigate H.S.S. CORINTHIA
Near the mouth of the Morg inter-dimensional tunnel
‘’We have just launched our last mines, Captain.’’
‘’Excellent! Give two more minutes for our other frigates to take their distances before arming the mines. Pilot, get us back towards the asteroids!’’
Navy Captain Yoko Teno hid her nervousness as best she could as her frigate turned around to join back the other ships of the covering force, hidden among the nearby asteroid belt. The Morgs could appear at any time now in the mouth of their tunnel while her frigates were still in the open and vulnerable. A shout of alarm from one of her sensors operators suddenly made her stiffen in her armored command chair.
‘’CONTACT! NUMEROUS SHIPS JUST APPEARED IN THE MOUTH OF THE MORG TUNNEL. MORE SHIPS ARE NOW APPEARING AT A FAST RATE.’’
‘’MAX, ALERT THE FLEET!’’ Shouted at once Teno to her communications officer before looking at her pilot. ‘’PILOT, GET US OUT OF HERE AS FAST AS YOU CAN. WEAPONS OFFICER, OPEN FIRE AT WILL ON THE NEAREST MORG SHIPS.’’
Her second in command, Commander Borel Karpan, realizing something, gave her a horrified look.
‘’Captain, the mines: we are still in their danger radius! If we wait to arm them, the Morgs will be able to pass unmolested, but if we arm them now, we will most probably get blown up by our own mines.’’
Teno felt her blood freeze on hearing those words. Karpan was too right about that, but she could not let in good conscience dozens of enemy ships clear the mouth of the tunnel unimpeded. There was only one thing she could do now.
‘’ARM THE MINES, NOW!’’
Over eighty of the some 1,700 black cylinders floating in the vacuum of space at the entrance of the Morg tunnel suddenly started moving, accelerating at an incredible rate towards the ships they detected within their effective range of action. Designed to be extremely difficult to detect, each mine was armed with a five megaton thermonuclear warhead and was nearly impossible to avoid once it had acquired a target. A total of 57 heavy Morg combat ships and three Human frigates were vaporized in a series of blinding flashes. Nine more Morg ships and one Human frigate suffered heavy damages from nearby nuclear detonations, while four Morg ships managed to clear the minefield intact.
20:46 (Kyoto Alpha Time)
Command bridge of the frigate H.S.S. CORINTHIA
The hurricane created on the bridge by the explosive decompression finally calmed down, all the air in the bridge complex having been sucked out into space. Borel Karpan looked at his control panel but had difficulty to focus his eyes, while he could barely stop himself from vomiting inside his sealed spacesuit. The reason for his illness became too clear to him when he was able to read his radiation detector.
‘’Cap…Captain, we…we have absorbed a dose of 57 grays{1} inside the bridge. Captain?’’
Not getting a response from Teno, Karpan turned his head towards the command chair. He then had to swallow a lump that formed in his throat when he saw that Yoko Teno was inert in her chair, a large metallic fragment piercing her spacesuit at the level of her abdomen.
20:49 (Kyoto Alpha Time)
Command bridge of the light cruiser H.S.S. KARAKAN
‘’We are getting no response from the CORINTHIA, Admiral. The frigate is drifting in space and none of its escape pods came out.’’
Li Yonan’s heart tightened on hearing that: over 240 men and women had just paid with their lives while following his orders to mine the mouth of the Morg tunnel. It was now up to him and the remainder of his ships to make sure that their sacrifice had not been in vain.
‘’Rear-Admiral Jibril, take your remaining frigates and destroy the four Morg ships that managed to go through our minefield. Sensors, what is the status of our mines?’’
‘’Of our 1,696 mines originally sown, 83 went active and detonated, sir. Correction: seven more mines just detonated against new Morg ships that have emerged from the tunnel. We presently have 32 still intact heavy Morg ships that have come out of the tunnel, with more joining them at a fast rate.’’
‘’Thank you! Tactical Officer, order our interceptors to start attacking the Morgs near the mouth of the tunnel. Have them proceed by successive waves of divisions, with thirty seconds of spacing between the waves. They are to shoot a quarter of their missiles per attack but make sure that they stay away from the danger radius of our mines.’’
20:54 (Kyoto Alpha Time)
Interceptor AC3027, Covering Force
The voice of their division commander, Iegi Minamoto, vibrated in the helmet headsets of the crew of the hundred meter-long interceptor as it rushed towards the enemy ships.
‘’Division Delta, adopt individual zigzag courses and accelerate at your maximum rate now! Fire your missiles from maximum range, then concentrate the fire of your disintegrator guns on the Morg first rank command ship presently in our flight path. You will turn away at my signal, or just before entering our minefield. Our main force should be opening fire soon with their synchrotron batteries. Good luck to all!’’
The interceptor, along with the seventeen other similar attack craft of its division, was armed with two heavy weapons batteries situated at the tips of two of the four cruciform bulges around its ovoid main hull, plus forty missile launch tubes. Controlled by their fire control computer, ten of the missiles flew out of their tubes, shaking briefly the eight crewmembers sealed inside their spacesuits. A few seconds later, blinding rays of violet light started bracketing the interceptor.
‘’Three Morg battleships are spraying us with their antimatter cannons.’’ Announced Jorge Canseco, the weapons officer of the interceptor.
‘’I’m going in manual control mode!’’ Replied the pilot and commander of the interceptor, Robert Busson, before starting to shake his craft around in order to put off the fire from the Morg gunners. His tactic seemed to work, with the antimatter beam fire becoming less dense around his interceptor.
‘’We are now within disintegrator range!’’ Announced Canseco before pushing his firing button. ‘’Firing in continuous mode from now: it’s free!’’
Two thick blue beams came out of his disintegrator guns, to which were added the rays from the seventeen other interceptors. One Morg battleship was hit after one second of fire, a disintegrator beam vaporizing a wide band of its external hull. More beams then added their destructive power to the first one, causing more external damage before digging inside the battleship. A blinding flash of light announced the destruction of the Morg battleship after four seconds of firing. Just as their division commander was ordering them to break contact, with Robert Busson then pulling up brutally his interceptor, an intense flash of light covered most of the right half of their holographic screens.
‘’Are we hit?’’ Asked anxiously Busson. Dyy Jonan, the flight engineer, shook her head.
‘’Negative! Some of our sensors have however been temporarily blinded. The explosion was coming from another interceptor.’’
Their hearts beating fast, the eight crewmembers watched their screens as they flew away from the enemy fleet to give space to another interceptor division to attack. Their missiles then started to find their marks, exploding near or against a number of Morg battleships. A radio report from their division commander to Admiral Yonan soon informed them of the results of their attack.
‘’Division Delta to KARAKAN. We have now broken contact with the enemy and are returning in formation. Fourteen Morg battleships have been destroyed, but we lost the AC3014.’’
‘’JACK! NOOO!’’
Busson turned his head inside his helmet to look at Sylvia Morgan, one of his sensors specialist, and saw that she was now crying inside her spacesuit: Jack Frasier was Sylvia’s husband. Tightening his fists, Busson then concentrated back on his flying. They were certainly going to have to mourn many more deaths before the end of this battle.
21:04 (Kyoto Alpha Time)
Command bridge of the battleship IRON DUKE
Main Force
‘’Admiral, Vice-Admiral Yonan is reporting that he has been engaging the enemy for nine minutes now. To date, 108 enemy ships have been destroyed and twelve others damaged. Admiral Yonan lost himself six frigates and two interceptors.’’
Sam Burnside simply nodded his head, keeping an inscrutable face while watching the tactical displays. The graying officer was a partisan of the old school of leadership: a calm and deliberate leader was in his opinion the best remedy for the nerves of his subalterns when the going got rough. Internally, Burnside was very satisfied with the results of the efforts of the covering force. It was now time to give to Li Yonan some well deserved fire support.
‘’To all ships of the Main Force, open fire with your synchrotron batteries. Continuous fire at maximum power on the Morg fleet.’’
A violet beam with a diameter of four meters shot out of the muzzle of a gigantic cannon mounted in a bow casemate of the battleship, imitated by 105 other battleships and by the flagship, the INVINCIBLE. The latter, a converted asteroid with a length of six kilometers and a maximum diameter of four kilometers, was equipped with five super synchrotron cannons with a total power nearly equaling the combined power of the batteries of the 106 battleships of Admiral Burnside. Over 900 terawatts per second of penetrating radiation started to rain continuously on the Morg fleet.
21:05 (Kyoto Alpha Time)
Command post of the Morg flagship
The Morg Master Pilot didn’t like at all the way this battle was going: the expected surprise effect had not played out as planned. Instead, the Morg Empire was now facing an enemy fleet of unprecedented power. Also, the cursed automated nuclear mines of the Humans had sown confusion among his armada, confusion that the human vermin was using with way too much success to his taste. However, final victory was not in doubt: his fleet still crushed the Humans with a numerical advantage of more than fifteen to one. The Master Pilot, who would have looked to a Human like a giant spider covered with a thick gray fur, pulled out a long tongue to activate a contact on his command couch. A high-pitched whistle interrupted him before he could address his subalterns, making him grumble with irritation.
‘’The threat alarm? What is going on now?’’
One of his eight eyes then noticed that the display screens now showed the space outside his ship to be bathed in a violet glow. The frontal screen soon started filling with parasites, to then go entirely dark, to the Master Pilot’s fury.
‘’TACTICAL CONDUCTOR, REPORT AT ONCE!’’
The designated Morg hurried to his couch and rested his belly on the deck in sign of respect.
‘’Master Pilot, the Humans are bombarding our fleet with concentrated radiations of an intensity never encountered before. Our sensors are starting to fail one by one and I thus ordered our forward sensors to be masked. At the present exposure rate, our least protected ships, our troop transports, will receive lethal radiation exposures in less than nine ergos.’’
‘’Where is that bombardment coming from? From the group of Humans hiding in the asteroid belt?’’
‘’Negative, Master Pilot! It is coming from the enemy heavy ships which are blocking the direct route to the fourth planet. What are your orders, Master Pilot?’’
‘’We can’t risk losing our invasion troops because of this. Have our troop transports and our surface bombardment force, escorted by half of our light units, leave the formation immediately. They will then turn the right flank of the enemy heavy ships to attack the fourth planet. The other half of our light ships will disperse the enemy hiding in the asteroid field. Our first rank ships will engage the enemy heavy units. Execution!’’
The Tactical Conductor hurried back at once to his own control couch to transmit the orders around the fleet. However, communicating with the transport ships and light units to coordinate their actions took him a couple of minutes, with more minutes for the designated ships to start separating from the fleet, time that eventually cost the Morgs dearly.
21:06 (Kyoto Alpha Time)
Command bridge of the light cruiser KARAKAN
Covering Force
‘’To all the units of the Covering Force, this is Admiral Yonan! Advance immediately to the periphery of the radiation field bathing the Morg fleet and open fire at will with your disintegrators. Do not fire missiles: their electronics would not resist the radiations.’’
The occasion was too good to miss, thought Li. The enemy was presently nearly blinded by the synchrotron radiations and unable to fire with any precision on his ships. He looked down at his sensors officer, seated one platform lower than his level.
‘’What is the intensity of the radiation field enveloping the enemy fleet, Lieutenant Egberd?’’
‘’Approximately two grays per square meter per second, Admiral. Their smaller ships will not be able to withstand this kind of exposure for very long.’’
‘’Excellent! Be ready to greet them warmly if they try to exit the radiation field.’’
Nearly 400 frigates and interceptors quickly moved to position themselves on the right flank of the Morg fleet, just outside the zone bathed by synchrotron radiations. Once in position, they started firing relentlessly on the Morgs with their disintegrator cannons. The Morg returned a furious fire, but their shooting proved to be lacking totally in accuracy. However, a simple brush by a beam of Morg antimatter was enough to completely destroy a Human ship, while the disintegrators took many precious seconds to burn through the hulls of the enemy ships and penetrate to their core to cause significant damages. Li Yonan followed with growing impatience the exchange of fire, to finally call the Main Force after twelve minutes.
‘’Admiral Burnside, this is Yonan. I would like you to cut for fifteen seconds your synchrotron fire, time for me to deliver a massive missile salvo from point blank range in the heart of the enemy fleet.’’
‘’That could be risky, Yonan: this could allow the Morgs time to adjust their fire against your ships.’’
‘’I consider that risk acceptable, Admiral: their sensors must be half burned out by now.’’
‘’Hum… Very well! Be ready to fire your missiles in exactly one minute.’’
Cutting the radio link with Burnside, Yonan then hurried to pass his instructions to his subordinates and prepare for a missile salvo. When the synchrotron fire stopped, nearly 20,000 missiles raced out at once towards the Morg fleet. The Morgs took a few precious seconds to see that the synchrotron fire had stopped and to unmask their surviving sensors. Five more seconds were needed for them to recalculate their fire control solution and point their batteries and activate their anti-missile defenses. In all, the Morgs had only three seconds to deliver an effective fire before the impact of the Human missiles. The following three seconds signed the destruction of over 5,000 heavy Morg ships in an orgy of nuclear explosions. Those same three seconds in turn allowed the firing from 7,000 Morg ships to vaporize 346 of Vice-Admiral Yonan’s ships. Only the resumption of the synchrotron fire by the Main Force saved the Covering Force from total destruction.
21:21 (Kyoto Alpha Time)
Combat operations center, H.S.S. INVINCIBLE
Main Force
Lex Garth tightened his fists as he watched the bloody finale of the covering phase of the battle on his tactical display sphere. The Morg fleet had been eviscerated, but at the cost of over 4,000 dead, including Li Yonan. Only 34 interceptors and six frigates, all short of ammunition, had escaped the massacre. Looking at one of his aides, Garth told him to take notes.
‘’Send the surviving ships of the Covering Force to our logistical support flotilla in orbit around Alpha IV and have them rearmed and resupplied as fast as they can before joining the six battleships assigned to escort the MARCO POLO towards Earth. Prepare as well an encoded message and send it via a relay probe to Vice-Admiral Konovalov. We are detecting what seems to be the enemy amphibious assault force in the process of detaching itself from the main enemy fleet. Tell Konovalov to stay hidden for the moment but to be ready to greet warmly that enemy amphibious force. I will pretend to be too busy with the Morg battleships to be able to block their path. If he miscalculates his move, then the fourth planet will be cooked.’’
As his aide hurried away to pass his instructions, Garth resumed his study of the tactical display sphere. The INVINCIBLE and the 106 battleships of Sam Burnside were still faced by nearly a thousand Morg heavy ships, while 3,000 more enemy ships were now starting a wide flanking movement to the right. One, then a second dot marking the position of a Human battleship disappeared from the display sphere in the next few seconds, making Garth swear to himself: the enemy seemed to have found a way to adjust its fire despite the continuing synchrotron fire. He thought bitterly that he could very well end up being too busy to block the path of the enemy amphibious assault force.
21:58 (Kyoto Alpha Time)
Command bridge of the heavy cruiser H.S.S. KATANA
Ambush Force
‘’Admiral, could you come examine the data link viewer? Something curious is happening with the Morgs.’’
Instantly worried about some possible bad surprise from the Morgs, Andrei Konovalov hurried to the side of his operations officer, a small, delicate woman in her thirties. He examined for a moment the screen displaying the movements of the Morg amphibious assault force, which was not very far on the opposite side of the star he was using to hide. Another hour and the enemy force was going to be behind the Main Force of Admiral Garth. He however didn’t see anything particular at first and looked at his subaltern.
‘’What should I look for, Captain Kenotsu?’’
‘’The individual movements of the Morg ships are bizarre, erratic, and two Morg troop transports just collided with each other. It is as if we are looking at a bunch of drunken soldiers trying to walk in cadence.’’
That rendered Konovalov perplex for a moment and he examined the course of a few individual Morg ships before an explanation came to his mind, making him grin with glee.
‘’It is not the Morgs who are drunk, Captain Kenotsu: it is their navigation computers that are drunk from our synchrotron radiation bombardment.’’
‘’But, that could mean that their fire control computers would be equally incapable of pointing accurately their weapons, right?’’
‘’Correct! And since their computers are normally the most heavily protected systems on their ships, like in ours, that can only mean that the Morg crews must be presently dying from radiation exposure.’’
‘’The Morgs are trying to bluff us, Admiral?’’ exclaimed Kenotsu, not able to believe that lucky break.
‘’Not much bluffing us than simply delaying the inevitable. The Morgs, now unable to invade our system with troops that are in the process of dying, will probably try instead to get their revenge by devastating our planets. Get me immediately a line with Admiral Garth!’’
21:58 (Kyoto Alpha Time)
Combat operations center, H.S.S. INVINCIBLE
The whole structure of the converted asteroid shook violently for two seconds from the last hit by a Morg antimatter beam. Once the rumble from the explosion had quieted down, Garth resumed his video conversation with the system’s Grand Administrator, whose image on the holographic screen reflected the state of utter physical fatigue.
‘’I am sorry for the interruption, sir. The Morgs are now shooting at us from nearly point blank. As I was saying, the MARCO POLO should take off as soon as possible: we won’t be able to contain the enemy for much longer.’’
Djael Anaker nodded his head in understanding before replying in a tired tone.
‘’The latest report from Commodore Ferguson said that he was going to be able to take off in a bit less than three hours. Captain Grant, my special liaison officer, assures me that we simply can’t go faster. What are the chances of my planet and my citizens in the underground shelters to survive a Morg bombardment, Admiral?’’
Lex Garth did his best to hide his dread then, but he still owed Anaker the truth.
‘’Nil, unfortunately, sir! The antimatter weapons of the Morgs with literally split open your planet, especially now that they have lost any hope of occupying it.’’
Anaker lowered his head in sadness and his voice became a near whisper.
‘’The MARCO POLO, along with the two civilian cargo ships that just arrived from Alpha Centauri B-III with more refugees in cryogenic sleep, is thus the only hope left for the survival of the Centaurian race. Pass my sincere admiration to all your crews for their bravery and their devotion. Good luck, Admiral Garth!’’
‘’And good luck to you as well, Grand Administrator Anaker.’’
Garth kept looking for a moment at the now empty viewing display, then turned his head towards an aide.
‘’Send the attack signal to Vice-Admiral Konovalov now! His target: the enemy amphibious assault force.’’
22:02 (Kyoto Alpha Time)
Orbit of Alpha Centauri A
Seventy-two Human cruisers, rushing at maximum acceleration from their hiding place behind Alpha Centauri A, suddenly appeared in the rear of the Morg amphibious assault force, catching it in a sandwich with the Main Force of Admiral Garth. After a moment of stupor, the commander of the Morg escort ships ordered the majority of his cruisers to face the newcomers, while the assault ships continued on their way to the fourth planet. Severely handicapped by their degraded computers and their sick crews, the Morg cruisers fared badly against the massive missile salvo fired by the Human cruisers of Konovalov’s force. Over two thirds of the Morg cruisers were evaporated before they could even fire back once, with the Morg survivors then finding themselves in the middle of a ferocious close quarters battle. The commander of the Morg troopships, believing that he had just won a respite that would allow him to get to the fourth planet to bombard it, increased further his speed towards his objective, widening further the distance between his troopships and his escort cruisers. Konovalov’s remaining 54 cruisers, accompanied by 340 interceptors, then came out from behind Alpha Centauri A and fell hard on the 1,700 Morg troopships and their handful of escort cruisers. Completely outclassed in a fight against combat ships and also affected heavily by radiations, the Morg troopships were massacred without pity in less than six minutes. Sixteen million Morg soldiers soon disappeared in an orgy of thermonuclear explosions. Once the Morg amphibious force had been totally eliminated at very little cost to themselves, the victorious Human cruisers and interceptors then joined forces with the other cruisers of the Ambush Force. The last ship of the Morg assault force exploded twelve minutes later.
22:28 (Kyoto Alpha Time)
Command bridge of the heavy cruiser KATANA
Ambush Force
‘’Confirm that there are no remaining Morg ships in this sector!’’
‘’Confirmed, Admiral! There is nothing but debris left of the Morg assault force.’’
Kenotsu’s answer was then followed by a series of reports on losses and battle damages. Konovalov felt much better after receiving those reports: he had lost only eight cruisers and eleven interceptors in exchange for the destruction of nearly 3,000 Morg ships. Facing a tactical display sphere where the battle between Admiral Garth’s Main Force and the heavy Morg units was shown, he then couldn’t help make a grimace: Garth was left with only 43 battleships and the INVINCIBLE to face over 300 Morg ships of the line. The synchrotron batteries were only firing occasionally, while missiles and disintegrator cannons did most of the work now. The Human battleships also seemed to be nearly out of missiles. It was time to do something about that.
‘’To all the ships of the Ambush Force, this is Vice-Admiral Konovalov speaking! We will now attack the left flank of the enemy heavy units to try to reduce the pressure on our battleships. Adopt a dispersed flat disk formation, the interceptors in the outer positions, and be prepared to fire half of your remaining missiles in a fleet salvo.’’
The Morg heavy ships, having their hands full already with the tenacious battleships of Garth’s Main Force and with many of their sensors damaged by synchrotron radiations, had trouble facing Konovalov’s flank attack. Over a third of the Morgs’ ships of the line were destroyed by the massive missile salvo from the Ambush Force. Having seen what had happened to Li Yonan’s Covering Force, Konovalov had no taste to engage in a long range slugfest with the enemy and he rushed in at top acceleration. Merging with the enemy fleet, Konovalov’s interceptors multiplied lightning attack passes among the Morg ships, flying in zigzag like madmen while firing. The Human weapon of choice then in such a point blank engagement was the impulse cannon, also known in previous centuries as an electro-magnetic rail gun, a weapon normally reserved for combat inside planetary atmospheres. Firing projectiles with muzzle velocities of over thirty kilometers per second, the impulse cannon could fire solid, explosive or anti-proton-loaded shells, with the last type of projectile able to destroy a ship in one shot. Their relatively low muzzle velocity was however compensated by a high rate of fire and by the very short distances at which the impulse cannons were used. The battle quickly looked like a confusing, mortal dance between bears and bees, with the darkness of space illuminated at intervals by the detonation of projectiles, the explosion of ships and even by cataclysmic collisions between ships.
The battle went on for over forty minutes and stopped only for lack of Morg combatants. In the immense cloud of debris now floating in space a few light minutes away from Alpha Centauri A-IV, there was left intact or damaged only 68 Human ships: nineteen battleships, two heavy cruisers, nine light cruisers and 34 interceptors. The remains of the H.S.S. INVINCIBLE lay among the other debris of the battle. The Human survivors, exhausted and shocked by the ferocity of the battle they had just won, then took the time to exchange handshakes and accolades. Vice-Admiral Konovalov, who was now the most senior commander left alive on his KATANA full of holes, immediately ordered his surviving ships to rearm, especially preoccupied by the low stocks of missiles left on his ships. Six ammunition transport ships from the fleet’s support division quickly came forward and started replenishing at once the missile magazines of the combat ships. The rearmament was still in progress two hours later when Konovalov received a message from Rear-Admiral Juarez, who was still in orbit around the fourth planet with his Reserve Force.
‘’Vice-Admiral Konovalov, this is Juarez. I am afraid that I have a bad news for you: our orbital stations are now detecting a second Morg armada emerging from the inter-dimensional tunnel.’’