“What! Mars dares to attack us! Those dogs will pay for their insolence. Send Task Force Omega to attack their shipyards while the Fleet defends our borders.”
“Yes, sir.”
-----
Three hours later, two admirals were having a conference through the Comm-Net.
“Are you sure that’s the right strategy? Mars must have more ships than that!”
“Our intelligence reports state otherwise.”
“You know that intelligence agents can make mistakes and that the reports have been wrong in the past. I still think that Mars must have more ships than that.”
“Then what would you do?”
“I would send a decoy force to battle the fleets we know about while sending the real fleet to cripple their shipyards and research facilities. We all know that if we inflict enough damage on them, then they will have to stop fighting, especially if that damage is purely military with few civilian casualties.”
“That’s a good idea. How large would the decoy force have to be? Would it be a suicide force or an actual fleet?”
“I’d say make the decoy force out of speedy and heavily armed frigates. The main force should be made up of our cruisers, battleships, and carriers.”
“So the decoy force is a suicide force?”
“Kind of, but not really. Their aim is to lead the Martian fleets on a wild goose chase while our main fleet destroys their infrastructure.”
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“That is a very good plan! I’ll present it to the prime minister when I see him tomorrow.”
=============
As the OPA prepared to attack Mars, the martians were under attack themselves by ships from Earth.
“Launch all torpedoes! Fire batteries one and two at 12.2.31 and battery four at 195.12.355”, the captain of the Martian battleship, the Corporation shouted.
“Sir, Battery four has broken down.”
“Our shields are getting extremely low, sir!”
“Send repair crews to battery four. What percentage, Ensign?”
“Twelve percent and dropping quickly! Sir!”
“Spin-up the reserve shield generator.”
“Sir, our shields will be gone by the time it is finished spinning up!”
“Then pray that we’ll live until it does. Helmsman, activate the reverse thrusters! Let’s try to disengage.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Also, send a message to high command telling them what happened here, in case they don’t know.”
“Sent, sir!”
As soon as the ensign said that, a rumbling started, along with a screeching whine and many alarms.
“Sir, the fusion reactor is going critical!”
“There’s nothing we can do. We tried our best and we took five battleships, six cruisers, and a carrier with us. I’ll see you in whatever heaven you believe in.”
Then the ship exploded.