“What has that superpowered psychopath done now?” I ask no one in particular as a flash of energy erupts after the Admiral’s fighter traversed the enemy fleet. The view screen seems to indicate the ships are collapsing together when the view screen flickers off.
“Alaris, are the forward camera’s broken?”
“No Commodore, there are some interactions occurring in the enemy fleet that are decidedly not physics based. To the point it might induce reality dysphoria in the crew, which may prove detrimental to the Human psyche.”
Even the ship is willful. I swear Humanity is doomed. “Describe it to me then?”
“The combined processes of Mab, Titania and I are working on potential explanations. Until that occurs, I refuse to speculate. Visual displays will be available in twenty seconds.”
Now that is interesting. Three hyper intelligent AI collectives don’t know what happened? Magic is clearly involved, but why the confusion? I expand my HUD readout to collate the battlefield before the visuals cut out and I order a reload of all torpedo tubes and initiate the Ripple Cannon on this ship. If whatever the Mad Admiral has done took their shields down, Alaris’ favorite toy might turn a few inside out.
“Commodore, I am obligated to warn you, that while the first discharge of the cannon is already stored in charged capacitors, a second shot will require 37% of remaining aether stores.”
I don’t intend to waste that energy, as a fighting retreat was projected at 23% stores in warp and munitions. Accounting for a 30% drain on return fire during said retreat, we don’t have the power to spare.
“Admiral, enemy ballistic and energy weapon batteries are being primed. Current shield priority will have difficulty managing multiple hits from both weapons.”
“Ensign Church, begin evasive pattern bravo until visual is returned. Employ lateral shifts as needed.” Mr. Church replies back and taps his console with both hands.
I should probably reserve the thruster fuel, but the shifts are more likely to avoid ballistic trajectories than a typical COG turn and nose-vector burn. Granted, the ripple drive onboard is very responsive, but lateral control was not included. We have to use plasma vortex thrusters for that, which take a toll on our aether reserves.
“Commodore, I am putting a warp lock on the ship while the Ripple Canon is coiling. Theoretically, relative anchors should not translate through non-dimensional space. Current projections on what happens to the energy stored in the fabric of space are not favorable to the ship or its inhabitants.”
“Understood, Alaris. If a fighting retreat is necessary, we will fire the cannon and warp after the discharge.” Alaris pings me in affirmation and the view screen comes back at the same moment.
What I see is hard to process. The seven ships of the Herrat fleet are now much closer together, and the Galilei-side ship is now in pieces that appear to have been extruded through the rest of the fleet, with a debris blow-out on the final ship somehow statically attached to its hull. If that wasn’t enough, none of the enemy hulls are straight and they all carry signs of melting.
Temporarily caught in the strangeness of it all, their energy weapons snap me out of my stupor as they flash against our shields.
“All ships, target forward energy weapons. Test for shields then send synchronous torpedo volleys on a single ship at a time. Evasive pattern bravo.”
“Roger, Commodore.” I hear from the Captains of Mab and Titania. Galilei replies with an array timeline and torpedoes ready.
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Ballistic weapons flash from enemy hulls and several discharge rocket-type devices from hidden hatches. Ensign Church changes our trajectory after the ballistic launch and I ask Alaris to anticipate the track of the rockets. The target is made obvious seconds later as their chemical propulsion turns towards Galilei and the large laser cannon.
/Galilei, DE CDRE, are you primed for evac?/
\Negative CDRE, A-M inventory 15%, below the viable warp threshold. Our warp boosting runes are not made to provide warp capability on their own, nor do we have the power available to try and force it while the laser capacitors are charging\
/Copy, Galilei, use A-M inventory for propulsion if needed/
He pings me and starts spinning the Galilei immediately. I warn the other ships to clear Galilei’s projected thrust vector and focus on our weapons arrays.
Our laser arrays have little affect on the hulls of the enemy ships without some prolonged firing schemes that aren’t good for the arrays. I push a desire for a focus pattern of fire to my Weapons Officer and let him work the problem.
It seems irresponsible to have such benign energy weapons aboard these cruisers when our torpedoes are full-on ship breakers. It makes me wonder why Astorian weapons makers haven’t developed a way to weaponize plasma, it conveying more heat and having a sticky factor.
It should be noted, the Empress is one of the premier weapons manufacturers as well.
I don’t want to hear it. It’s just maddening that half our arsenal is barely effective and we need to end this conflict as soon as possible so our completely overwhelmed fleet can respond to the other fires I’m responsible for!
I find myself breathing heavily in frustration. Perhaps I should retire after this, Admiral Astoria would probably love that.
“Keep an eye out for enemy fighters and move to broadside, their ability to maneuver seems compromised. Lets test that.”
Alaris chirps and I know she’s repeating my orders. My helmsman is already complying and Galilei is dumping gasses in prep for an alarmingly dangerous “routine” propulsion maneuver. How were five powerful countries convinced that this was an acceptable way to push people through space?
As the rockets get perilously close, antimatter reactions begin to flash and ripple space behind the massive ship, pushing it away from the rockets as the rockets too are pushed away from the explosions. Thank god. Our clunkiest ship is escaping.
“Alaris, how fast can we move to a firing position where the Ripple Cannon can hit three or more ships?”
“With human limits, 10-15 minutes.”
I direct the fleet to position 50% of available shuttles to enhance missile and torpedo defense and to deploy up to 70% of torpedo payloads to cripple their weapons systems. With some basic napkin math, that should buy us ten minutes.
“All hands, prepare for high acceleration.” While I ordered bridge and engineering personnel to have their HAB suits on, I need the rest of the crew to start actively resisting the ‘G’s so that we can fire when we get there.
\CDRE, Mab, shields on Titania shields back online, but her avatar is being fused to the system to maintain it’s integrity, leaving Titania’s higher functions compromised. Currently interfacing with her cluster AI’s directly.\
/Can her AI’s not report directly?/
\They speak in an encrypted shorthand that we have to translate into definable language. Alaris is busy collating reports and sensor readings, so the task is mine to relay Titania’s reports. That said, her aether reserves are at 47% and her primary reactor is operated at 85% capacity to enable the work-around.\
/Copy, thanks Mab/
It still feels odd saying the names of fairy queens when discussing my fleet.
So our, torpedoes are nearly half gone, our lasers are seemingly ineffective, and we essentially get one shot with our special weapon now that Galilei is retreating. How can I get some more power on target. Wait, Galilei essentially focuses multiple arrays because it is impractical to make one huge laser. Can we do that too?
“Alaris, how many of our lasers would it take to be effective against those hulls?”
“At least four on the same spot, but the results would be unpredictable as the shielding and magnetic anomalies around those ships are more likely to scatter many smaller beams than a more intense single beam.”
“Then lets build us some floating mirror balls like what Galilei has to focus her array.”
“That . . . could definitely work. I will begin fabricating a downsized model. Should I have Mab and Titania do the same?”
“Yes, but for Titania, only if the power to the fabricators can be run off the auxiliary reactor.”
Alaris pings me and the brief shudder of large machinery starting at the same time ripples through the ship.
We need a force multiplier right now, something that doesn’t leave our torpedo inventories bone dry. If this works, we will be able to dismantle their abilities system by system without the need to board them, but even if it doesn’t, their ships don’t seem capable of following our retreat at the moment. Whatever the Admiral did, she seems to have severely compromised their ability to maneuver, and that just might be what keeps the Empire ahead in this fight.