God’s Hammer led the way in, the point of a tight phalanx of nine battle cruisers, shields at maximum intensity and weapons fully charged. As space warped around them under the influence of their sub light engines, they swung into the planet’s null gravity sphere between it and its medium sized moon.
“There's comm traffic from the planet, sir.” The communication’s officer tersely reported, his fingers dancing over his virtual interface. Taking her eyes off the image of the planet looming on the bridge’s massive main display, the captain turned them to the communications station.
“Translation?” She asked and the officer’s fingers danced silently for a brief moment over the shifting plane of light and shapes.
“They’re saying we’ve invaded their sovereign territory and command that we cease all hostile acts and withdraw or we will be fired upon.”
The captain looked at the tactical station, its displays tasked to monitoring the planet’s defenses. Flashing lights marking the orbital platforms powering up were already multiplying across the display watching the planet itself, data she took in, in a glance.
“Maintain your heading, navigation.” She rasped after the slightest hesitation, returning her gaze to the communications station.
“Their tech is over 500 years in our past. They’re no match for us.”
Massive squares of pressed metal, plastic and glass, each 100 metres in diameter, the weapons platforms, numbering in the thousands, hung in high geosynchronous orbit over the planet’s muddy surface. With shivers of motion and the dance of lights marking systems activating, each began to come alive as power was pulled from long lasting nuclear batteries to send energy to sensor and targeting arrays. Arrays that quickly swung around to locate the incoming Aggregate vanguard, feeding telemetry to the mechanisms that aimed massive particle cannons and mass drivers. Those weapons came online, their heavy barrels silently moving in the vacuum of space to lock on the rapidly advancing vessels, still only silver dots on their visual scanners.
At the same time, rocket batteries on the moon came alive as commands were sent from control stations on the planet, every holding a dozen 10 metre long rockets tipped with nuclear devastation along with targeting equipment. Commands received, they began lifting from their subsurface silos in silent sprays of lunar dust, pivoting around to find the enemy fleet. And square kilometre, after square kilometre of the moon’s surface went from dusty gray to black as the rocket arsenal lifted out of the ground and came online to begin to actively target.
“Rocket batteries are targeting the vanguard, sir.” Tactical announced as one of her displays tasked with watching the moon began to light up. Fingers danced across shifting light.
“And near planet platforms in high orbit are scanning us.”
Nodding, her expression thoughtful, the captain looked over at Navigation.
“Position of the shield squadrons?”
“Moving in now, sir.” Navigation announced.
Armored with ablative ceramic over their metallic hulls, the cruisers in the shield squadrons looked a bit more bulky than the sleek, kilometre long silver cigars that were the vanguard cruisers. It would be their job to keep the rockets off the vanguard long enough for the quantum cannons to be assembled and deployed.
Grouped in staggered clusters, the shield cruisers swung out from behind the vanguard and into position, putting themselves between the rocket batteries and God’s Hammer and her sisters. Just in time;
“Power spikes.” Tactical abruptly announced. She twisted to look at the captain.
“We have incoming ordnance!”
YOU ARE READING
Tempus Fugit
Science Fiction'If What Was can be undone, then What Will Be will Never Be.' So speak the Temporal Seers, after witnessing the destruction of their world in a vision of the future. Using this as their guide, the Aggregate's Silver Council sends Admiral Vit Barka...
