Admiral Barrissi stood on the command balcony of the Imperial Carrier IMS Bringer of War. His hands rested on the well worn wood of the banister. Below stood the bridge of the ship, commanded by Captain Hipple, who he considered one of the finest Captains in the Imperium.
The bridge display wrapped around the forward wall and was easily seen from his vantage point. Information flooded the corners of the video that showed what was ahead of the vessel. He could easily see this information through his neural implants, but he preferred to look at the bridge screen.
His fleet’s current losses were over two hundred, many of which were from the cleverly laid mine field in the arrival corridor to Birmingham. Those were new, and unexpected, someone in the Rebellion was capable of thinking and breathing at the same time. He relished the challenge of a worthy opponent.
But that was not to be, his orders were to bring the Imperial scientific advisor to rebellion space to test a new weapon. His mouth turned down into a frown at the thought of what this device was capable of. He called down from the balcony, which was unnecessary as he could have easily messaged Captain Hipple with his implants, but he preferred doing things this way. “Captain, set a course for the Birmingham star, have all vessels load their special payload.”
Captain Hipple stood from his chair, spun, and gave the Admiral a crisp salute, “Aye Sir, let us get this over with.”
With the order given he turned to the Imperial scientific advisor, his name floated above his head thanks to his implant’s augmented reality. It showed him as Daniel Usaff, who looked every bit the stereotypical scientist.
From his white lab coat, to his glasses, which did not improve his eye sight, but were instead implant replacements. Perhaps he was incompatible with the Imperial models? To his unkempt shaggy brown hair, he was exactly what Barrissi thought he should look like.
He turned to face the Imperial advisor, who stood with a tablet at the balcony watching the screen in fascination. “I take it that was your first battle?”
Daniel pushed his glasses further up his nose before answering the Admiral, “Um, yes. We lost over two hundred ships. The villainous rebel forces lost three times that many. It was coldly brutal, but we prevailed in the end.”
The Admiral nodded, watching as the screen turned towards the faint star. “Those rebel ships were not true warships. They were pickets, merely meant to slow us down. You may call them villainous if you desire, but those were brave men and women who manned those vessels. They knew they stood no chance against us, but they stood their ground anyways.”
Daniel simply nodded, looking down to his tablet. “I just received word from long range intelligence that the planet of Birmingham was indeed evacuated. This will indeed be the ideal system to test our new weapon.”
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The frown returned to the Admiral’s face, “Yes, and this Cleave Torpedo will open up a rip in local space-time and destroy an entire system?”
The science advisor nodded his head, “That is correct, it is essentially a mass multiplier. It will condense the mass at the core of the star until it falls beyond that of a black hole and the falling singularity will rip space-time itself. In theory, that is.”
This caused a raised eye-brow from the Admiral, “In theory you say? So there is a chance that this experiment will not work?”
Daniel shook his head, “No Admiral, the maths behind it are sound, but the practical application is unknown. We will be firing seven hundred and twenty two of the Cleave torpedoes into the core. The maths are a little fuzzy as to whether that will be too many, or too few. It will work either way.”
The Admiral shrugged, perhaps this new weapon would fail, he certainly hoped it would. The destruction of entire planetary systems was abominable, but he was ordered to carry this out by the Emperor himself, he had no choice. Had he the time he would have put into place people to sabotage the new weapons, but alas he did not.
As he mused the ship shuddered as its ripple drive came online. In mere seconds they would be in orbit of the star of the Birmingham system. He turned from the screen to the scientific advisor, who still looked down at this tablet. “My ships will be in orbit of the star very shortly Doctor Usaff, do you or your team need more time before launching the torpedoes?”
Doctor Usaff shook his head, “No Admiral, we have set their destination and timer already, once you are in position you may commence fire.”
Admiral Barrissi nodded, then spoke in his usual commanding voice, “Captain Hipple, you may direct the fleet to fire when ready.”
Captain Hipple stood from his chair as the fleet came out of warp five light seconds from the star. After having the weapons officer network all ships he gave the order to fire.
The next order given was to activate the ripple drives setting a course for Imperial space. They did not want to be here when space-time was ripped open.
Admiral Barrissi turned back to Doctor Ussaf, just as the ship started shuddering from the ripple drive, “Did it work?”
The screen below showed space ripple, like a stone thrown into a pond on a moonlit night, then the ship seemed to stretch, then the stars around the ship became streaks of light.
The Doctor looked up from his tablet excitedly, “It worked! The mass in the core is multiplying exponentially! The core has become so dense it has now become a black hole and is continuing to grow. I wish the probes we left on the outskirts of the system had better sensors, but by this point the explosion from the outer layers of the star will have been of kilonova levels of power.”
The Admiral checked his implants to see the information from the probes coming in. He understood many of the basic principles behind how the Cleave Torpedo worked, but he did not understand the complex physics that were happening. “Did it achieve a tear in space-time?”
The scientific advisor paused a moment, “Yes, and it is expanding at a geometric rate. This should not be happening, the rip should have closed picoseconds after happening. How can it be expanding?”
The Admiral whipped his head around to Doctor Usaff, “What do you mean it is expanding? Expanding by how much?”
The science advisor didn’t notice the outburst from the Admiral, he was engrossed in the data from his tablet. “He watched the information all the way up to the probes at the edge of the stellar system being consumed by the literal nothing-ness of the rip. He dropped his arms to his sides, still clutching his tablet. He uttered a single word. “Oops.”