Theogony 3: Terra Stands Alone (16 page)

They had chased off the food source’s pitifully few ships,
and Captain Bullig savored a hatchling with a smile. Although an unpleasant surprise for the first several battleships that went through the stargate, it had been a fierce and surprisingly vicious fight to gain entry into the system. Totally enjoyable. His smaller craft were now scouring the remains of the ships that had been destroyed to gather the rest of the harvest. He was especially looking forward to seeing what the new food source tasted like. The battlecruiser they had destroyed should yield many samples. Hopefully, some were still relatively intact after the explosive decompression of the ship. He hadn’t meant to hit it
quite
that hard...but the destruction of the battlecruiser had been impressive and would be a memory that the food source would take back with them to their home system to make them fight better next time.

“Aren’t we going to give chase?” asked his
new XO. “We could probably destroy at least another one or two of them before they get away.”

“No,” replied
Bullig, savoring another hatchling as he enjoyed the afterglow of battle. “Let them take back word of our great victory to their system, where they can cower in fear until we are ready to finish them. I’m sure the destruction of their battlecruiser will be great for morale when it is played on their news services.” Like a cat with a mouse, he wanted to play with them for a while. Like the cat, he realized that once he destroyed his prey, all of the fun would be gone from it forever.

He smiled outwardly, although he knew
he was going to have to send back for more ships to break into the food source’s home star system. The Overlord would not be pleased with that, but it was necessary; if they had this many defenses in the outer system, they would have even more in their home system. Maybe even enough to destroy a dreadnought. He needed more ships. Perhaps he should send some samples of the food source to the Overlord to make sure he got the ships he wanted. It would take a little longer than he had planned before they could conduct the next attack, giving the food source more time to prepare, but that was all right. Without the challenge, where was the fun? He just needed to figure out a way to keep from dying in the next assault. What was the good of conquest, if you weren’t around for the pillage and plunder that inevitably followed?

“The minions have returned, Captain,” said the communicator.

“Good,” Captain Bullig replied. “Bring them here.”

He needed to learn more about the
next system to prepare for the assault. As the command ship for the Drakul fleet, the
Destruction of Olympos
had a few members of the feeder races that it carried to do the things the Drakuls either could not or would not do. Playing with computers was one of those things, so he had sent some of the minions to the battlecruiser he had destroyed to see what they could learn about the new feeder race.

The first group he sent had reported that they weren’t able to break into the computer system onboard the battlecruiser.
After he had eaten two of them in front of the others, the rest of the group decided they would like to go back and try again. Apparently, watching their comrades get consumed jogged something loose in their minds, giving them new ideas for how to get into the computer systems.

His master at arms brought two of the worm creatures onto the bridge. They were shaking in fear. He
chuckled, deep in his throat. This is what he lived for.

“So, were you sufficiently motivated to break into the
ir systems this time?” he asked the taller of the Hooolongs.

“Yes, your lordship,”
replied the Hooolong. Its four eyes looked in four directions at once, unconsciously looking for a way to escape the danger it knew it was in. None of the eyes looked at Bullig, and he laughed again. “We were able to break into the Terran’s computer system.”

“Wait,”
Bullig said, stopping him. “The Terran’s computer system?”

The Hooolong moved its head in a circular motion, indicating assent. “Their main planet is called Terra in their language. They consider themselves to be Terrans.”

“What did you find in their computer systems?” asked Captain Bullig.

“We found a message to the ship called ‘
Septar,’ which we believe was one of the ships that fled the system,” said the smaller of the two. “The message ordered them to continue bringing mines to the stargate until the minefield was at least twice as strong as the one in Ross 154, which we believe is the system we are currently in. We tried to cross-check this with the ship’s ephemeris, but it was damaged beyond salvation.”

Captain
Bullig made a hungry noise at the back of his throat.

“And that’s why we searched the bridge,” the taller
Hooolong said quickly, “until we found a star chart, which confirmed that we are in Ross 154. The message that we found was two months old, so we do not know what happened in the interim, but as of two months ago, the minefield in the next system was supposed to be at least twice as strong as this one. It also referenced box launchers; there were supposed to be three times as many of them.”

Hmmm...thoug
ht Captain Bullig...twice as many mines and three times the number of box launchers. Based on the number of ships defending Ross 154, he didn’t expect that there would be many ships in the next system. Even though the enemy forces had been vastly inferior in this system, they had still managed to inflict a number of losses on his force.

“Good,” he said, looking at the taller one. “I will let you live.”

Both of the Hooolongs slumped in relief. “I only said that one,” Bullig said. Before the smaller Hooolong could move, he grabbed it and bit through the large artery below its eyes. Slurping happily, he continued to work out his plan to capture the next system...Terra. He could do it with the ships he had, but there would be a large number of casualties, and he didn’t want to be one of them. The Overlord had been specific that Bullig was to be in command of the first ship into that system. He would be, but for him to survive the assault he would need a few more ships...

* * * * *

“System entry,” Sara said, having picked up the habit from Steropes. “This is the HD 10180 system, which includes the Archon planet of Malak. It has two stargates in addition to the
stargate we used to enter the system. The first of these goes on to the Gliese 777 system, and the other goes into 54 Piscium. Both of these systems are inhabited. The Archon fleet is currently stationed around the stargate to the 54 Piscium system.”

“Holy shit,” said Calvin, looking at the
tactical plot as the information came in on the assembled Archon fleet and its flagship, the super dreadnought
Holy Word
. “That thing is enormous! You could put the entire Terran fleet into one end of the
Holy Word,
and it would rattle around inside it. And there are three more almost as large!” Three miles long, the ship massed over 10 million tons and was over half a mile wide. Most of the bridge crew was speechless. They had thought that the
Terra
was immense. Until now. “They have ships like that,” he continued, “and
they
can’t break into the Olympos system?” He shook his head and then added simply, “fuck.”

“Indeed,” Steropes said. “What you aren’t taking into consideration is that each ship has to go through the gate one at a time. As the super dreadnought emerges, I imagine that the Drakuls have a similar collection of vessels on the other side of the stargate waiting to turn it into
scrap. This fleet is enormous and could do a devastating amount of damage if it could get into the next system. The problem is getting it into the system unscathed.”

Calvin looked at the hologram of the defenses arrayed
around the stargate. “What are these things?” he asked, pointing at a collection of things that looked like asteroids.

“They are orbital fortresses,” said Lieutenant Rrower, who had been to the front previously. “They are asteroids that have been hollowed out and turned into fixed battle stations. They can absorb a lot of damage and still remain functional, as all of their important systems are buried deep
inside.”

“
Couldn’t the Archons send one of those through to precede an assault? They would be great for breaking into a system.”

“It wouldn’t work,” Lieutenant Rrower said shaking his head. “They have small engines for station keeping but not big enough to go through the stargate. Additionally, they are too wide to go through.
Pieces of it would get cut off if they tried it.”

“OK,” agreed Calvin, “I
f you can’t take them through the stargate, I understand why you would have them form a ring in front of the stargate. But what about this group that is right in front of the stargate? It would seem that a ship entering the system would run right into them.”

Lieutenant Rrower showed his teeth in the Mrowry version of a smile. “Exactly,” he said. “Early on in the war, the Drakuls tried to come through the stargate at a significant portion of the speed of light. That way, they
hoped to break through the minefield and away from all of the ships that were positioned nearby.”

“Isn’t that dangerous?” Captain Sheppard asked.

“Very much so,” agreed Lieutenant Rrower. “The margin for error is very small. If you miss the entryway even a little bit, the stargate will slice your ship apart.”

“Did it work?” asked Calvin.

“Actually, it did,” replied Lieutenant Rrower. “Five ships made it through. If the Drakuls had been prepared to exploit the opening, they could have done some significant damage. As it was, they only sent through cruisers, and the Archons were able to track them all down and destroy them. It was lucky that they weren’t ground assault ships, or the planet would have suffered greatly. One cruiser did fire a number of missiles at the planet from long range. Most were intercepted, but two made it to the planet. I understand there was a significant loss of life.”

“After that, they moved some asteroids to block the stargate?” Calvin asked.

“Yes,” Lieutenant Rrower replied. “A couple of weeks later the Drakuls tried to send another battle group through. The battleship that came through first did an excellent job of destroying the first asteroid when it ran into the rock at almost half of the speed of light. The ship was completely flattened. The next couple of crews misjudged their entrance, and only portions of their ships came through the stargate. By the time the fourth ship came through, the Archons already had the next asteroid in place.”

Calvin
studied the plot a little longer and then asked, “Are there also asteroids in front of the stargate on the Olympos side of it?”

“Umm, no, I don’t think so,” Lieutenant Rrower said. “The star is very close to the stargate in the Olympos system.
Very
close. If you try to go too fast through the stargate, you’re probably going to run into the star. Any of the largest ships, like the dreadnoughts and super dreadnoughts, are too massive to make the turn if they come out going fast. Their momentum will take them right into the star. That’s why the system is so easy for the Drakuls to defend; every ship has to come through slowly, making them very susceptible to the defenders and the minefield there. It’s also why the Drakuls only sent cruisers through the first time they tried their high speed entrances. Getting by the star and into the stargate at that speed is incredibly dangerous. It takes both skill and a large portion of luck.”

“Sir,” called the communications officer, “the
Holy Word
just called. They asked if you could shuttle over to meet with Grand Admiral Michael.”

“Please tell them that we are on our way,” replied Captain Sheppard. He looked around the bridge. “We’ve come a long way for this conference. Let’s not keep the grand admiral waiting!”

The Terran delegation filed into the conference room onboard the
Holy Word
, the flagship of Grand Admiral Michael. All of them were in a bad mood. They could feel that they were wasting the Archons’ time, which would have been better spent preparing the defenses of the system. Calvin looked around the room disconsolately. It was bigger than a similar Terran conference room. The table in the room would have seated close to 30 Terrans comfortably, but was only made for 20 Archons. Although the Archons were only a little larger than the average Terran, the Archons’ wings took up a lot of extra space.

A
n Archon wearing the uniform of a grand admiral entered the room, followed by nine others of lesser ranks. He took a seat at the end of the table and indicated that everyone should be seated. “Welcome to the front lines,” the Archon said in a deep voice. “I am Grand Admiral Michael, the admiral in charge of this front. As I understand it, ye have come looking for aid in thy own fight against the Drakuls. Unfortunately, I do not have aid to give. A week ago, maybe, but not anymore.”

His aura overwhelmed the
Terrans listening to him; they were crushed.

“Why is that?” asked Captain Sheppard
, fighting his feelings. “What changed?”

Grand Admiral Michael looked to one of his staff and nodded. “I am Captain
Raziel,” replied the Archon Michael nodded to. “I run fleet intelligence.” He paused and then continued, “A couple of days ago, a deep reconnaissance ship returned from a survey behind the Drakul lines. What the crew found was very disturbing.”

Captain Raziel’s aura was nearly as strong as Grand Admiral Michael’s, and all of
the Terrans found themselves worrying about what the ship found.

“The reconnaissance ship discovered that the Drakuls were building a new orbital fortress,” the intelligence officer continued. “
The station is a hollowed out asteroid, to which they have added a large number of lasers and missile sites. We’ve seen them build things like this before, but this fortress is different because it has four stargate-capable engines, and it is smaller than their normal fortresses. Usually, the Drakuls modify large asteroids so they can withstand a lot of damage. This asteroid is only two miles in diameter. If ye put these two facts together, it looks like they intend to send it through the stargate.”

“Wait a second, sir,” interrupted Calvin. “I didn’t think that the Drakuls did anything innovative. Did something change?”

The intelligence officer looked intently at Calvin, as if sizing him up, before nodding his head as if conceding a point. “Yes,” he finally said. “Something has changed with them. This is only the latest in a string of new concepts and improvements they’ve come up with. We don’t know whether they have become smarter themselves, or whether some new entity is helping them, but this is just the latest example of Drakul innovation. They have built an asteroid fortress that is mobile, and we believe they are going to use it to attack into this system.”

“If they can get it through the stargate,” Captain Sheppard said, “what effect will it have on the war?”

“It is enormous,” said Captain Raziel. “There are so many weapons systems on it, if they can get it through the stargate with even ha
lf of them intact, it will break the blockade here.”

“And that,” interjected Grand Admiral Michael, “is precisely why
we cannot afford to loan you any ships. We need every one of them here in order to try to stop this monstrosity when it comes through the gate.”

“
Can’t you do something else, besides just sitting here waiting for it to show up?” asked Calvin, not wanting to give into the feelings of despair washing over him. “How about attacking through the stargate and destroying it before they’re ready?”

“
That is not possible,” Grand Admiral Michael replied, causing another wave of hopelessness to hit the Terrans. “They have too many ships waiting on the other side of the stargate, in addition to an enormous minefield. We have enough mine clearance vessels that we could probably neutralize the minefield; unfortunately, they have enough major ships gathered around the stargate that they could destroy our ships as we came through the stargate one at a time.”

“How about going through two or three at a time?” asked Commander Anita Collins, the
Gulf’s
executive officer. “Has that been tried?”

“No!” said
Grand Admiral Michael. “Nor will it. In order to get the amount of ships that we would need in there, we would have to try to send four dreadnoughts through the stargate simultaneously. They wouldn’t fit. Even if we only tried to send two ships at a time, the odds are nearly 100% that they would interpenetrate on their emergence. We will
not
attempt that.”

“Then there must be something else that can be done,” Calvin said. “You can’t just sit here and wait for them to come to you!”

“That is exactly what we
must
do,” said Grand Admiral Michael. “Our defenses are thickest here, and they will have to come in one at a time. Additionally, our shipbuilding industry is working to produce more ships, and we have recalled all of the ships we can from our outlying systems. We will meet them here, and we will do everything we can to stop them.”

“We have virtually no chance
of destroying their fortress,” said Captain Raziel. He passed some reconnaissance photos down the table. As the photos reached Calvin, he saw that they were somewhat blurry, although he didn’t know whether that was due to a limitation of the camera, or whether the Archons had blurred the photos to not give away any of their intelligence capabilities. 

“
Here’s what we know,” continued Captain Raziel. “First, the asteroid is covered in some kind of metal. We don’t know how thick the armor is, but we believe the metal is extremely dense and at least several feet thick. They have weaponized it to a great extent, with five-meter anti-ship lasers and smaller anti-missile lasers mounted all across its surface. We have estimated there are over 500 of the larger lasers and at least 1,000 anti-missile lasers. There are also more than 500 hatches on the asteroid that we believe are for missile launchers; the number of missiles that the asteroid can hold is probably in the tens of thousands. Our fleet cannot hope to destroy it; all we can hope to do is destroy the rest of their fleet and buy some time for Mrowry aid to get here.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but
I do not believe there will be any aid coming from the Mrowry,” said Lieutenant Rrower. If he was intimidated by being the most junior officer at the table, he didn’t show it. “We were just at Grrrnow, and I spoke with my grandfather, the emperor. Something is driving the Ssselipsssiss into us, and they are pressing us like they never have before. We don’t have so much as a frigate to send to aid the Terrans, and they were responsible for saving our crown prince.”

“If
thou could not send any assistance to a nation thou were honor-bound to aid,” Grand Admiral Michael replied, “then it is unlikely that any will be coming to assist us. Without aid, unfortunately, there is little chance that we can stop the Drakuls. We are doomed.”

“We can’t just assume that,” said Calvin,
fighting the despair that threatened to overwhelm him. “We have got to do something about it. We can’t wait for them to come here and attack us when they’re ready, we’ve got to take the fight to them and hit them when they’re not. We’ve got to hit them now!”

“
Thou art asking us to do something that we have not been able to do in many years,” Grand Admiral Michael said. “Thou art asking us to break into the Olympos system, a system that the Drakuls have reinforced like no other. We need to defeat their minefield, as well as the fleet that was assembled for the sole purpose of holding us out. Then, with all of the forces that survived, we need to go destroy an orbital fortress that is beyond our ability to destroy, even if we had the whole fleet. It cannot be done.”

“I don’t know about that,” said Calvin. “I have an idea.”

“An idea?” asked the grand admiral in disbelief. “Thou, who have little knowledge of the situation, little appreciation for the forces involved in this battle, and a minimal combat ability? Thou hast an idea?” He laughed. “By all means, mighty warrior, do tell us how thou thinks all of this is possible.”

“Well, sir, I don’t think that we can beat their minefield or fleet, and certainly our cruiser is not up to the task of destroying the asteroid in a stand up fight any more than your fleet is,” Calvin replied. “You have already made it clear that confronting them head-on is the wrong way to go about it.”

“And thou hast some other way?” asked Captain Raziel. The feeling of despair lightened a little as a wave of hope went through the room.

“I do,” said Calvin. “I have a plan that I think will work; I just need a little time to discuss it with my commanding officer and our ship’s AI.”