Chapter 5

Subject: Admiral Nilson

The cruiser squadron was making a full burn towards the orbit of Oasis V, a gas giant just outside the system’s rocky asteroid belt. The former rift gate sat just over 4 light hours from Oasis III, and a series of medium confidence sensor return tracks painted by the Bastion’s computer found the Adversary in a boxy formation heading straight down the well. Oasis V was Nilson’s first initial guess for an interception point, and it looked like he was right. 

“We’ve checked and double checked the data. The Adversary ships deployed anti-missile countermeasures AFTER the missiles deployed their boosters on both missile barrages. The Palisade cold launched their missiles because they had to; those missiles are way out of spec for the missile tubes on those older ships.” Lieutenant Commander Estevez, the ships intel officer, would probably qualify as a genius, and was Nilson’s most trusted senior officer. She’d pored over every detail of the engagement between Russo’s condemned squadron and the Adversary, and cross checked everything with the tactical staff across the whole flotilla. “We can’t really tell what kill zone range is for that beam weapon. Unfortunately, they didn’t miss any shots in the first engagement. I can’t tell how far the beam might travel before losing coherence.”

“Are they Hegemony ships? They have beam weapons.” Nilson mused, cupping his face with his hands. The burn to Oasis V was almost over after three days of full thrust. He’d barely slept, choosing instead to test just how much coffee the human body could tolerate. 

“No, I don’t believe so. The Hegemony uses gamma and microwave lasers- maser beams. The beams from the Adversary ships seemed to be primarily in the UV spectrum, but pulsed rapidly and varied somewhat with every pulse. It was a very strange weapon; not the kind of tech we encountered during the Great Incursion, or any of the smaller border conflicts with any of the other known alien species.”

“Plus they came out of rift space,” Nilson added. “We don’t know of anybody that can do that. Just us.”

“Right, just us.” Estevez remarked thoughtfully, trailing off. They both sat in silence for a moment, enjoying it while they had the opportunity. 

“It’s almost time to get started, Estevez. I’m going to need you in this one,” Nilson meant for it to sound like a call to action, but instead it felt pleading. 

“We have a good plan, Admiral.” Estevez smiled, turned, and walked out of the Admiral’s office. Nilson frowned, drained his coffee and walked out of the office onto the command deck. 

“Commander Davis!” Nilson barked. The Bastion’s XO looked at him curiously. “Get me a cup of coffee. Your whole job for the whole battle is to make sure there’s an unending stream of caffeine available to me.” Davis sneered and mumbled out a half-assed yes sir. Nilson kept walking until he was standing amidst the combat information display. 

Nilson manipulated the display until it showed the battle space around Oasis V and a stretch of space further out to where the formation of Adversary ships were. The cruisers had flown in a formation that Nilson hoped had concealed the true size of the squadron, and had terminated the formation by flipping the cruisers a hundred and eighty degrees so the main engines were facing the Adversary, and pulsing them in a mockery of a false deceleration burn meant to wash out the enemy sensors and hide the fact that two destroyers running dark had dropped out of the formation towards the far side of the gas giant. Nilson wasn’t sure the alien’s sensors could be washed out, but it was worth a shot.

In space warfare, there’s a concept called the ‘kill zone’. It’s the maximum effective distance for a weapon based on a set of defined variables. If a warship fires a gun at an enemy ship, light from the projectile will get to the enemy before the actual projectile does. If there’s enough time between the enemy seeing the projectile coming and it physically getting there, the ship can simply move out of the way. How maneuverable the enemy ship is, how good its sensors are, and how fast it can react are all variables, as is how fast the projectile is moving. A light-speed weapon, like the beam weapons the Adversary has employed, has a maximum kill zone of however far the beam can stay coherent. By the time the light hits it’s target’s sensors, the beam is already there. It’s not like that with the kinetic weapons the Dominion fields.

Nilson overlaid the spherical kill zone estimates and eyed the various projected maximum ranges for the weapons aboard each ship. No one knew what the Adversary ships were capable of, so the kill zones on the display were an estimate, but the Adversary ships were certainly fast as hell. He knew that if was to have any chance at winning, he’d have to catch them by surprise on this first engagement. A slugging match between those ships and his was destined to be a disaster. Those beam weapons are a captain’s worst nightmare.

“Tactical, we’re in range for the next part of this. Coordinate missile release with the rest of the squadron when you’re ready.” Despite the uncertainty, Nilson felt good. This felt good. 

“First salvo away sir!” The tactical officer responded. “All ships in the squadron confirming release!”

On the display, Nilson could see green icons blooming from each of his ships. Missiles, cold launched. The patrol cruisers that made up the bulk of his fleet didn’t have the range with their coilguns to snipe at the Adversary to any effect, nor did they have the armor to fight up close. This was going to have to be an overwhelming hit and run. The engine plumes from the ships ‘decelerating’, as it appeared, would hopefully hide the missile launches, and the cold launch meant they were almost invisible. They’d drift at the speed they were dropped until Nilson gave them the order to burn like hell at the Adversary ships. 

Another salvo dropped, then another, then another. Nilson watched until three-quarters of the entire combat load of ship to ship and point defense missiles had been gently pushed out of each ship into a cloud of kinetic death. Nilson’s energy and anticipation had climbed with each volley of missiles until it had reached a fever pitch.

“Helm! Flip and burn along the planned course!” The orders came out fast and clipped. Nilson could feel the adrenaline starting to flow. Space combat was probably like ground combat, Nilson thought. Days of waiting, then seconds of pure chaos as the battle unfolded. Those chaos seconds were approaching fast. 

“Sir!” Intel officer Estevez, her voice higher than normal, apparently caught up in the excitement, spouted, “All squadron elements have acknowledged our signal and are proceeding along the attack route!”

Nilson took a deep breath. He was psyching everyone out with his nervous energy. Deep breath, count to five, then release for five seconds… Nilson blew out a breath in three seconds and then tried to convince himself that not breathing for the last two seconds counted as exhaling. The ship groaned and the engines roared. The lights on the command deck dimmed slightly as the artificial gravity drew extra power to keep everyone upright.

The kill zone line on the display grew closer, but the enemy kill zone was likely much, much further than his own. That’s okay, the kinetic impactors from the main guns are more chaff than anything else during the next part. 

“Tactical, fire main guns! Coordinate railgun fire with the helmsman so we don’t get off course. Intel, start updating kill zone data as you see it. Comms! Send a message to all squadron elements to drive course at full speed and fire!” Nilson’s attempt at calm failed. A chorus of aye’s erupted from the workstations. 

The four ships of Nilson’s squadron had broken apart like two halves, attempting to flank the enemy with fire and force them into a tight formation. The kinetic impactors from the rail and coilguns were meant to be in front of the Adversary, along their path of travel.

The Adversary, in their bizarre box formation, hardly responded at first, and then the formation split apart with each ship accelerating well beyond the limits of any human ship. They each flew in a different direction, changing course instantly. No deceleration. No turning arc. Just a sudden ninety degree shift towards another direction. 

Nilson had hoped a wall of steel and tungsten would make them decelerate, instead it made them act crazy. “Tactical!” Nilson barked, before taking a breath and repeating, “tactical, fire at targets of opportunity, comms, signal the rest of the squadron to do the same.” Nilson flashed a look at Estevez, who raised her arms in an ‘I don’t know’ shrug. Nilson looked at his display and watched the battle space start to order itself. 

The Adversary ships formed into three groups of two ships each. Two darted off on an oblique course from the battle, apparently bugging out entirely. Another two turned to meet Bastion and it’s companion patrol cruiser, Percheron. The final two turned to split down the middle, but to Nilson’s great interest, were accelerating towards the wall of missiles, despite the ships being turned to face the other two patrol cruisers at a forty degree angle from their vector. They didn’t see the missiles AND they can travel at full speed despite their orientation.

All of the human ships fired as fast as their guns would fire. Adversary ships moved precisely to avoid the fire. The kill zone projection shrank slightly with every missed salvo as Estevez’s team tried to guess how close they’d have to be before the Adversary couldn’t just move out of the way anymore. The squadron inched closer, firing and angling. The Adversary had to be in range to use their beams by now, but they hadn’t yet. Why?

“Comms!” Nilson was shouting “Get those destroyers in pursuit of the two that bugged out!” 

“Aye!” The comms officer responded. 

“Tactical, get the missiles in the fight!” Nilson eyed his coffee cup on whatever nearby flat surface he’d left it on. He grabbed it and took a long pull, hoping the simple act would ground him a bit. It kind of helped. Sort of. 

Seconds after giving the order, the missile cloud bloomed into action. The missiles had been placed to hit the whole formation dead on, but now the Adversary was scattered around the battle space and only two ships were left in the path, but they were caught dead to rights. The first wave of missiles were the point defense variety, designed to kill or confuse enemy missiles. Half of their payloads split into a barrage of decoy rockets, flying in random directions. The other half detonated their payloads to reveal a storm of ball bearings, grapeshot munitions. At speed they’d decimate an enemy missile, but stood no chance against the angled heavy armor of a human warship; only time would tell their effect against the Adversary. 

The entire first wave was meant to confuse the Adversary point defense, and that it did. All four of the Adversary ships launched a series of small projectiles that twisted and corkscrewed and detonated into small pulses of energy that sent decoy rockets and ball bearings flying off into the void. Some of the weird Adversary point defense things targeted the second wave of missiles, the ship killers, but there weren’t nearly enough. Ship killer missiles rocked through the debris storm and hit the two Adversary ships that had tried to run down the middle. The optical display washed out as a barrage of nuclear explosions mixed with whatever hellish energy propelled the demon ships from beyond the rift.

“Two kills!” The tactical officer proclaimed. Someone started cheering. 

“Kills confirmed,” Estevez stated flatly, too caught up in the battle data to show excitement. 

“Nav, have the other half of our squad-“ Nilson started and was abruptly stopped by the unfolding events on the display. The Bastion and the Percheron were facing down two Adversary ships, firing their guns like crazy to keep them off balance. Both Adversary ships suddenly stopped dodging impactors, halting in space before them. One fired it’s beam weapon into the front of Percheron, the forward momentum of the ship pushing its way through the beam. The beam was completely unfazed by the mass of the ship and split the Percheron down the middle lengthwise. 

The massive spinally mounted twin railguns of the Bastion were firing at the maximum rate, consuming huge amounts of stored energy. And good thing too, just as the Percheron met it’s fate, a double tap of railgun darts hit the Adversary ship aimed at the Bastion, killing it, but leaving the other alien ship perilously close to an out-of-position Bastion.

“NAV! Have the rest of the squadron come about and fuck this last one up! Tactical, re-task all the surviving missiles on this thing before it fires again!”

A chorus of manic ayes sounded across the bridge.

Oh shit, Nilson thought, staring at the Adversary ship on his display, we’re right in it’s kill zone.

“Helm! Divert counter-spinward twenty degrees and drive course emergency speed! Tactical! Target that ship and loose everything at it, point defenses too!”

Nilson knew he should be getting reports from his staff on that last kill and the loss of the Percheron, but everything was happened so goddamn fast.

The Adversary suddenly darted directly perpendicular to the missile cloud from the first wave of missiles. Those missiles had been re-tasked and were now flying an awkward arc to try to hit the remaining Adversary ship while also accounting for their inertia. The Adversary fired a seemingly endless wave of the point defense projectiles while sliding through space sideways. It was uncanny. The Adversary point defenses flew like swarm of bees, absolutely no coordination between each other apparent from the outside. 

Contact between the point defense and the missiles this second time decisively landed in the Adversary’s favor. Pulses from the detonating projectiles caused the warheads in the ship killers to detonate prematurely. They were so close to each other at this point that the detonation of one ship killer missile set off a chain reaction that killed another half dozen. The few that made it through were immediately run down by the swarm of point defenses and taken out of the fight. 

Nilson watched the Adversary dance through space with white knuckle fascination. The crew of the alien ship, if it had a crew, had apparently decided that the Bastion, with it’s railguns aimed away from it and burning to get out of range of the death beam, was no longer the pressing threat. Instead, the two patrol cruisers that had turned and started burning down on it were the problem to be solved. 

Nilson realized what was happening and chided himself for being reactive. This battle hadn’t gone according to the plan at all, but he was still up, having traded one ship for three of theirs. He needed to be positioning for the next kill shot, not trying to run. 

“Helm, flip us 180 and line up the railguns with that bastard. Tactical, fire when able.” Nilson stopped and look at each person while he spoke. The eye contact was reassuring. 

“Sir,” Estevez had something, “it looks like the alien ships can’t maneuver rapidly like they have been to dodge impactors and fire their beam weapon at the same time. They always stop before firing. If we can keep them dodging impactors we can use that to delay their firing.” 

The realization opened an entirely new world of opportunity for Nilson. That’s how we beat em! “Tactical! You heard the Lieutenant Commander! Don’t let them rest!” Nilson ordered, smiling now. 

“Aye sir!” Tactical responded. 

“Admiral, ship capacitors are at twenty-five percent,” the engineering liaison officer said, “should I disable non-critical systems?”

“Good idea, cut power to non-critical systems. Keep gravity where it matters,” Nilson responded, making a mental note to commend the young officer after the battle, if they survived. “We need those guns firing nonstop.”

The Bastion had two types of guns. Coilguns, which were electromagnetic accelerators firing tungsten slugs, operated on turrets which studded the hull. They could aim in any direction, and could fire quickly. But, the relative velocity of their projectiles is low. Low enough that at the distance they were from the Adversary, they could be avoided passively and with little effort. The railguns on the other hand, had barrels which ran almost the full length of the ship. They fired much larger tungsten darts at incredible speeds. But, the entire ship had to be lined up to take a shot. 

As the Bastion rotated it fired missiles. The pair of patrol cruisers coming up on the lone Adversary ship fired missiles and coilguns as well. They didn’t have railguns. The Adversary launched swarms of point defense projectiles, which Estevez had tagged ‘Seekers' on the battle display. The Adversary had learned from it’s engagements, and the seekers avoided the smaller point defense missiles loaded with decoy rockets and grapeshot munitions. Ship killer missiles were their target, and accuracy through volume simply wasn’t possible this time around. Missiles harmlessly detonated in the vacuum as quickly as they were launched. None were getting through.

The Adversary lined up on one of the approaching patrol cruisers and fired it’s beam. The beam evaporated a path from the front to back of the human warship. The beam pulsed and zig-zagged, opening a void straight through to the warship’s reactor. The patrol cruiser instantly disappeared into a flash of energy, it’s mass and crew ablated into an expanding cloud of subatomic particles. The Adversary twisted, lining up with the second patrol cruiser. It fired, but right as the beam began to coalesce and pulse it’s death song, two railgun darts penetrated the heart of the Adversary’s ship. The beam fired again, but missed this time as the Adversary was ripped into pieces. Two more railgun darts hit the biggest chunk of the adversary, and the beam went silent. 

“Confirmed kill,” Estevez said.