August 23, 2134, 049 hours, Sol System
The leading Dregluk ship of Dregluk Alpha-1 was just 840,000 kilometers behind the Federation ships when they jumped into the Solar System. At their rate of advance they should jump through just 208 seconds behind the Federation ships. Admiral Law ordered the three anti-missile boats to break off and head out-system. They were slightly slower than the fastest remaining ship in Dregluk Alpha-1, and perhaps if they headed out-system, away from Earth, they’d be able to escape. In the meantime, the Bihar and the Mars fled towards the Earth and its missile defense envelope. Admiral Law and all of the other Federation crewers on the five ships that just jumped in watched the jump point as they sped away. The timer counted down and, as the human crews watched, the Dregluk failed to appear.
Admiral Law felt nothing as he realized that the scout in the Washington system was doomed. He had to get his two major combatants back to safety, and the scout was a small price to pay if it could lure the Dregluk away.
Seven minutes after the Federation ships entered the Sol system, the first Dregluk ship transited in behind them. Admiral Law quickly asked his staff for an analysis of the situation, and within minutes course plots came up on the display, with relative speeds and intersection points marked. The news wasn’t good. The Federation ships had separated into four groups, as follows:
(Note: mkm stands for “million Kilometers”)
Main Group (Bihar, Mars), 1.7 mkm’s in-system from the jump point, on course for Earth. Speed 4,144 kps, ETA 22 hours.
Group #2 (3xAMM Boats), 1.86 mkm’s out-system from the jump point, headed for outer system. Speed 3,913 kps
Group #3 (Scout), 2.8 mkm’s out-system of the jump point, headed for the outer system. Speed 3,600 kps
Group #4 (2xMissile Boats, 2xFrigates), 6.3 mkm’s in-system of the jump point, on course for Earth. Speed 4,000 kps, ETA 15.5 hours.
His group, composed of the Mars and the Bihar, would be caught short of Earth by Dregluk Alpha-2 if the Dregluk ships took a least time course for Earth. The lead ship of Dregluk-Alpha-1 was headed for Earth but wouldn’t be able to catch his ships unless they managed to repair their engines. Eleven minutes later the second ship in Dregluk Alpha-1 entered the Solar system.
Admiral Law watched as the plot updated. This Dregluk ship had a speed of 4,408 kps, and it immediately turned to pursue Federation Group #2, which was headed out-system. The plot showed that the Dregluk ship’s course will intersect that of the missile boats in nine hours. A minute later the last ship in Dregluk Alpha-1 enters the Solar system. This ship has a speed of 3,909 kps and also goes into pursuit of Federation Group #2.
Dregluk Bravo and Charlie groups are still in the Washington system, and are not projected to arrive at in the Solar system for three days. Two hours later Dregluk Alpha-2 enters the Solar system on schedule, and immediately goes into pursuit of the lone Federation scout fleeing from the jump point towards the outer system.
Just over three hours later Admiral Law and the crews of the Bihar and the Mars were forced to watch as the Dregluk ship pursuing the anti-missile boats caught up with them, shrugged of the last of their AMM’s, and pounded the small ships into scrap. The Dregluk ship had managed to significantly cut down the pursuit time as it had repaired at least one of its engines. After destroying the anti-missile boats the Dregluk ship turns to support Dregluk Alpha-2 in pursuit of the scout. The Dregluk ship pursuing the Federation main group has also repaired its engines, making it faster than the fleeing Federation ships, but the gap between it and its targets has widened enough that it cannot overtake short of Earth. In addition, Dregluk Alpha-2’s pursuit of the scout has put it out of position to overtake the Federation’s main force, meaning that the Mars, Bihar, and the missile boats and frigates will reach the safety of Earth before the Dregluk can over take them.
Another three and a half hours pass as the human and Dregluk ships race across the system. The Federation main group had just overtaken the slower missile ships when Admiral Law realizes that his luck has run out. The Dregluk ship pursuing them has increased its speed to 4,328 kps, faster than both of the Federation group and moreover, fast enough to catch them short of Earth. After staring at the plot for a short time, Admiral Law makes his decision. The two Federation groups merge and turn away from Earth, across the system. If the Dregluk are focused on Earth then this will take his ships out of their way and allow them to return to Earth after the PDC’s have dealt with the lone Dregluk ship. Unfortunately, that is not to be. Their Dregluk pursuer continues to display its singlemindedness and changes course to follow the fleeing Federation ships. Shortly after that the crew of the fleeing scout abandons ship just ahead of entering their pursuer’s weapons range, and the ships of Dregluk Alpha-1 and Dregluk Alpha-2 turn towards Earth.
Thirteen minutes later the lead Dregluk ship is within AMM range of the combined Federation group. Admiral Law had been watching the plot carefully, waiting for this moment. He turned to the weapons officer. “Open fire!”
The Bihar lurched as ten AMM’s sped away. They didn’t have a lot of AMM’s left, and he was gambling on damaging the pursuing Dregluk ship enough to slow it. That was all they needed, just a couple of hundred kps knocked of that thing’s speed. The Federation group managed to launch a massive salvo of forty AMM’s by using every launcher they had, including offensive launchers. Unfortunately, that salvo comprised more than half of their remaining AMM’s. As the first massive salvo raced away, Admiral Law programmed the follow-up fire mission for the fleet’s remaining 30 AMM’s. The Federation ships went to independent fire and in short order exhausted their remaining stocks of missiles. Everything now depended on the seventy AMM’s racing towards the approaching Dregluk ship.
The first salvo races in and wreathes the massive Dregluk ship in explosions. The bridge crew of the Bihar holds their breath as the Dregluk dreadnought emerges from the explosions, then cheers ring out across the deck as the plot updates. The Dregluk ship has suffered multiple hull breaches and has been slowed to 3,769 kps. The cheering rises to a roar when the second salvo roars in and causes three secondary explosions, one of which is massive. The Dregluk ship, clearly staggered, loses its active sensors after the last big explosion. By the time the last AMM goes home the Dregluk ship is steadily falling behind with a maximum speed that has been reduced to 3,211 kps.
Admiral Law watches the plot as the crew cheers around him. He let them celebrate, but all he could think about was how much punishment that Dregluk ship had absorbed. Those damned ships were almost unstoppable.
At its closest the Dregluk ship had closed to a bare 1.1 mkm’s, now the range is steadily rising again. With the threat mitigated, at least for now, Admiral Law orders his ships to resume their course to Earth.
One and a half hours later the lead Dregluk ship repairs an engine and increases its speed to 3,349 kps. Five hours later the Dregluk ship restores its active sensors. Over the next five hours later the lead Dregluk ship increases its speed several times, but now the Federation group is within Bludgeon missile range of Earth, and thus safe. The Federation crews on board the six Federation ships are too tired from the long chase to celebrate.
Two hours later, with the Bihar just 10.2 mkm’s from Earth, ten Bludgeon missiles are launched from a PDC on Earth at the lead Dregluk ship, which is well within missile range. The ten missiles end the long chase, permanently. Seventeen minutes later the remains of the Federation’s attack fleet arrive over Earth. Admiral Law expects to be relieved of duty upon arrival, but there are no messages from the Board, merely directives to prepare for the defense of Earth.
Twenty-eight minutes later the four ships of Dregluk Alpha-2 reached 40 mkm’s of Earth, just within Bludgeon missile range. Four PDC’s each launch fifteen missiles at the incoming ships. The missiles take almost thirty minutes to reach their targets, and when they do the destruction is total. None of the 9,550 ton ships of Dregluk Alpha-2 appear to have mounted CIWS, and none of them withstood more than nine Bludgeon missiles. The last two ships of Dregluk Alpha-1 are 115 mkm’s out and approaching.
Earth Defense Command allows the two wounded ships in Dregluk Alpha-1 to approach to 20 mkm’s before firing twenty older Excalibur planetary defense missiles at the Dregluk ships. The Excalibur is the same size as the Bludgeon, and carries a similar strength 24 warhead, but has half the range and two thirds the speed of a Bludgeon. In addition, the Excalibur has no armor or ECM. Earth Defense Command is growing concerned about availability of the Bludgeon ASM’s and has decided to use the Excalibur’s to finish off the wounded Dregluk ships. The results are disappointing. Between them, the two wounded Dregluk ships shoot down fourteen of the twenty missiles, and neither of the ships is destroyed by the salvo. The PDC’s promptly launch another thirty Excalibur missiles at the two ships, which shoot down eighteen and again survive the salvo. At this point the ships are just 10 mkm’s from Earth, and while both have been reduced to under 3,000 kps, they are both still coming. Earth Defense Command turns them over to the Fleet, and Admiral Law orders his ships to begin launching Thunderbolt II’s, of which they have a relative abundance. The officers and crew of the Federation ships and PDC’s watch in awe as the Dregluk ships absorb everything the fleet throws at them and continue to advance. Finally, after taking everything the fleet could throw at them for quite some time, the two Dregluk ships exploded. They didn’t reach weapons range of Earth, but they had approached a lot closer than they should have. Still, the Solar system is now clear of Dregluk, and will be for two and a half days.
August 24, 2134
On board the Bihar…
Admiral Law looked at himself in the mirror and wondered what he should be seeing. He had finally gotten some sleep, after the last Dregluk ship exploded, and had eaten and showered. He had thought that washing all of the fear and stress off of him after the events of the past day might be a step towards feeling normal, but instead he felt even more detached. He knew he should be feeling something. He was personally responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Federation crew persons and the loss of multiple ships, and yet he felt nothing. He had almost been looking forward to arriving in Earth orbit because he had been sure that the Board would have him arrested, which was what he was sure that he deserved. Instead there had been silence from the Board itself, and every inquiry to the Board or to Militia HQ merely led to repeated commands to prepare the fleet for battle. After a lengthy time spent staring at his reflection, he turned and left his quarters. There were preparations to make.
Federation Board Command Center, outside of Detroit…
“Maybe we should move our command center to Mars. The colony there…”
CEO Allen sneered at George Little. “Run away? To Mars?” She waived around the room. “Here we are at the center of the Solar System’s defenses. The missile defense center on Mars isn’t even complete yet and you want to run there?”
George Little paled and sagged back into his chair. Oscar Hunt put his hand on Little’s shoulder and stood. “Now Sarah, George is just trying to find solutions and alternatives. It seems to us that as the Earth is at the center of the Dregluk Imperium’s focus, it might make sense to move to someplace that is, well, outside of that focus.”
CEO Allen stared hard at Hunt for a few seconds, then relaxed. “I know, Oscar.” She waived him to his seat and took hers. “Look, these last couple of days has been hard on all of us, but all we have to do is make it through the next three days and we are free and clear.”
Charlotte Potts frowned. “Free and clear? And anyway, do you think it is such a sure thing that we are going to get through the next couple of days. There are an awful lot of Dregluk ships on their way here after all.”
CEO Allen smiled. “OF course, I’m sure. Our planetary defenses will wipe them out. You all saw Admiral Law’s report. The Dregluk are implacable, sure, but they have no tactical sense. They haven’t done anything to consolidate their forces, even when it would make the difference between victory and defeat. And they keep marching into our missiles! Aside from short range missile defenses they have nothing that can stop our missiles, and nothing to match them. We’ll destroy them one by one, and then, once the fleet is built up, we’ll hunt them down.”
Oscar and George were looking a little better. William was keeping to himself but didn’t look like he was going to panic at any second. Charlotte, though, continued to frown. “Just because we haven’t seen any Dregluk missiles doesn’t mean they don’t have any.” As head of the Solar System’s premier R&D corporation, she knew that as well as anyone. “And what about Law? He lost all of those ships and put back our timetable for moving against the Obscura. I want him removed!”
CEO Allen shook her head. “I agree, but we can’t move yet. We still have twenty-nine Dregluk ships headed towards us. Removing Admiral Law right now could lead to confusion and inefficiency in the fleet’s command structure at the very time that we need them.”
Potts frowned. “But…”
CEO Allen raised her hand. “Don’t worry, once the battle is done he’s out. We’ll have to find someone else, but one way or another he’s out.”
CEO Wright, who had been silently watching the antics of his fellow CEO’s, now spoke. “Sarah, what about our defenses? Are we going to be able to get Foster’s “Final Line” PDC’s up and running before the Dregluk arrive?”
CEO Allen didn’t have to consult her notes. This was her project, and she knew its progress well. “We will have ten of the new Final Line missile bases online before the Dregluk arrive. That will give us the capability to launch fifty additional planetary missiles in one salvo, if necessary.” She smiled. “Our defenses are strong. The Dregluk are doomed!”
Meanwhile, in a prison in a remote area…
Joe Foster looked up as a guard entered his cell. He smiled as he recognized Blake Gordon, one of the friendlier of his guards. “Blake! What’s up?”
Officer Gordon smiled. “We’re moving you, Joe. You’ve got a new room.” Gordon waived for Foster to follow him and led him out. Two guards fell into step behind him and they made their way across the prison.
Foster gaped when they entered what he guessed was his new room. The room was much larger than his old cell, and there were displays mounted on the wall and a workstation with a built-in computer in the center of the room. He turned to his escorts. “What the hell is going on, Blake?”
Officer Gordon smiled. “Those guys that visited you before, the officers? They arranged for this with the prison administration. They said you needed to see what was going to be happening. That you might be of some use.”
Foster looked at the equipment incredulously for a few seconds. Behind him, officer Gordon dismissed the other two guards and stepped closer to Foster. “Joe, I know there is something going on.” He looked around to see if anyone was close enough to hear, then turned back to Foster. “Look. Those Feddie boys, they aren’t saying anything, but we all saw the light show in the sky in May, and now another one just yesterday. The rumor mill says that it’s aliens, and that they are shooting at us.” Gordon looked around again and then stepped closer to Foster. “The rumors say that you tried to stop this, and that that’s why you are here. Is it true?”
Foster thought for a second. “Blake, sometimes rumors are just rumors, you know that.” As he spoke, Foster shook his head, in contradiction to what he was saying.
Gordon gave him a long, hard look, then ushered Foster into his room. “Well, you’d best get to it, Joe. I’ll be around if you need me.”
Foster entered his new cell as Blake Gordon closed the door behind him. After a few minutes of experimenting he found that he had nearly unlimited access to the Federation Militia’s computer network, but that he was very limited in the data he could send out. It seemed that, at least for now, someone wanted him to be able to watch as the upcoming battle unfolded but didn’t want him communicating with anyone.
Twenty-eight hours later…
“Sir, report from the Mars!”
Admiral Law signaled his ensign to continue with her duties and turned and activated his console’s viewer. Captain Freya Wallace’s scowling visage appeared. “We’ve got a problem. We just picked up Dregluk survivors from one of the 10,000-ton hulks out here. During the standard interrogations one of the Dregluk admitted to being a missile technician. We got enough out of him to rough out the missile design that they were carrying.”
Admiral Law felt the blood draining from his face. Their entire defense plan was predicated on the fact that the Dregluk didn’t use missiles. If they did…
Captain Wallace saw his reaction and held up her hand. “It’s not that bad.” She grimaced. “At least, not yet. The missile they were carrying had a range of only 500,000 kilometers. Our tech & Intel guys are calling it a ‘sprint missile’. The damned thing has a top speed of 36,000 kps, way to fast for our Aegis II AMM’s to intercept. Its got a decent sized warhead, and sensor capability as well. Our patrol cruisers would have a hard time with this thing, but our missile ships out range them. The intel guys are calling it a Dunkerque anti-ship missile.”
Admiral Law had gathered his wits as she spoke. “That missile isn’t going to be a threat to Earth, or, at least, its not going to effect the long-range missile duel. But…”
Captain Wallace’s eyes glittered. “But…if they’ve got one kind of missile, what are the odds that they have others?”
Admiral Wallace shook himself. “Do me a favor, Freya, keep this to yourself. We can’t do anything about this in the time we’ve got left. There will be plenty of time to study these missiles after the battle.”
“If we survive.”
Admiral Law nodded. “If we survive. Law out.”
August 26, 2134
The eight ships of Dregluk Bravo entered the Solar system right on time, followed three hours later by the twenty-one ships of Dregluk Charlie. The defenders of Earth huddled at their consoles, watching the Dregluk with fear, resolution, or both.
Joe Foster, in his prison cell, sat at his console with his displays set to show the system plot from the Earth out to the jump point to the Washington system. The two groups of Dregluk ships were represented by red icons steadily forging towards Earth. Three hours after Dregluk Charlie entered the system, Dregluk Bravo, which was now around 215 mkm’s from Earth, turned back towards the jump point. Foster stiffened as he watched the display. Either the Dregluk were behaving incomprehensibly, again, or…he frantically typed out a message and sent it through one of the few communications ports he had available.
Lieutenant Commander Hargreaves paled as he read the message that popped up on his console. He stared at it briefly, then looked around the command center. All of the officers present were trying to come to terms with the meaning for the apparent withdrawal of the lead Dregluk force, but, in the main, the primary emotion seemed to be relief. He got up and walked over to Admiral Law, cutting through the officers surrounding the Militia’s commander. “Admiral, I have an intel evaluation from Team Zulu.”
Admiral Law turned and his eyes narrowed as he considered the situation. He waived for Hargreaves to follow him and they moved away from the main plot. When they were out of earshot of the crowd of officers around the system plot, he nodded for Hargreaves to continue.
“Sir, Joe sent me a message. It said only – prepare for missile attack.”
“Damn it!” Admiral Law nodded and turned back to the system plot. “All right, everyone!” He shouted to make himself heard over the babble of voices. The noise died out quickly as everyone turned to look at the Admiral. “It’s possible that the Dregluk have turned back for their own reasons, but its also possible that they’ve just launched a missile assault and have turned back to return to their base and reload.” You could have heard a pin drop as the noise in the room dropped to nothing. “Commander O’Sullivan, send a probable missile attack warning to the Planetary Defense Command. Lt. Commander Summers, coordinate with the CO’s of the Militia ships in orbit and ensure that their magazines are topped off with AMM’s.” The noise level began rising as the staff got to work. Admiral Law continued issuing orders as he got his command ready for the battle.
August 26, 2134, 0949 hours
Joe Foster was still crouched over his console when the display in front of him chimed and highlighted an icon that had just appeared. The voice prompt he had set up spoke: “Passive sensor contact. Multiple in-bound targets, range 42.7 mkm’s, speed 36,000 kps. Refining data.”
Foster sat back, profoundly unhappy to have been proved right. After a few seconds the console spoke again. “Update, second group of inbound contacts detected. Both groups are composed of 72 discrete contacts. ETA to Earth, 19.76 minutes.”
Foster watched as a new group of missiles appeared at irregular intervals of five to twenty-five seconds. Most of the groups were composed of 72 missiles, but some salvoes were fragmented, for some reason. After ten minutes and twenty seconds the stream of missiles came to an end.
While the stream of missiles headed towards the Earth, Foster punched up an analysis of the Earth’s missile defenses. There were five Aegis PDC’s on Earth and two on the Moon. Each Aegis PDC had three fire controls and thirty AMM launchers with a cycle time of five seconds. The base readouts currently showed that all seven bases had a full loadout of 695 Aegis II AMM’s. The Militia fleet in orbit currently had four ships with AMM launchers, the Mars with four, the Bihar with ten, and two FFG’s each with one. The fleet’s AMM launchers had a cycle time of ten seconds, and there were 327 AMM’s in their magazines. In addition, there were reserve AMM’s in storage dumps on the Earth and on the Moon as well.
Foster then punched up an analysis of the effectiveness of an Aegis II AMM against the performance profile of the incoming missiles. The results were not encouraging. The Aegis II had a top speed of 32,000 kps and a maximum range of 1.3 mkm’s. At the rate that the enemy missiles were approaching, they’d spend just thirty-six seconds in the engagement envelope of the Aegis II’s, meaning that, considering travel times, the defensive missile bases would only get two intercept chances against the incoming missiles, maybe three. The computer was giving an Aegis II AMM an approximate 15% chance of intercepting the Dregluk missiles, which meant that even if the defenders launched five AMM’s per incoming missile, they’d only have an approximate 50% chance of destroying the incoming missile.
Foster leaned back in his chair and stared at the incoming stream of missiles. There were going to be leakers, and this was going to get ugly. As the missiles approached, Foster got to work on a list of recommendations for improving Earth’s anti-missile defense capability. Just in case they survived.
At 1007 Earth’s PDC’s began launching AMM’s at the incoming missiles. Unfortunately, the Moon was poorly placed for missile defense, sitting behind and to one side of the Earth, so the initial launches were all from the Earth and its orbiting ships. Civilian ships and the Federation’s freighters had long since been ordered to clear the area. The scene was awe-inspiring to the civilians in the same hemisphere as the Aegis bases. The bases had gone to rapid fire, launching a new salvo of defensive missiles every five seconds. To the onlookers it was as if a near continuous stream of light was shooting into the heavens.
The Federation’s defenses were set to fire three AMM’s at each incoming missile, and Earth’s launchers were at full capacity trying to launch enough missiles to saturate the incoming waves. For many of the Federation’s citizens this was their first warning that something was going on, as the Earth-based defense PDC’s began ripple firing their missiles. The cracks of the missiles first going supersonic and then hypersonic became a continuous roar as the bases responded to the incoming missiles.
Foster watched in his cell as the first groups of missiles and AMM’s merged. When the explosions cleared the computer displayed the results. The human defense missiles were achieving a 19% hit ratio, which was better than expected but no where good enough. The seconds sped by as the leading edge of the Dregluk missile wave approached and then broke over Earth. The ships in orbit managed to destroy several of the missiles as they raced past, but only a scattered few, and the remainder raced passed them and exploded on the surface of the planet.
Foster’s display dutifully displayed information gained from the impacts. The missiles had relatively weak warheads, strength 3, and had been targeted on an offensive PDC, which had survived only armor damage. Foster’s eyes were on the collateral damage, though. Twelve missiles had gotten through everything the defenses could throw at them, and those twelve missiles had killed millions of people. He sat back in his chair. He had warned the Board. The Dregluk were almost certainly going to strike at their planetary defenses, and with most weaponry this meant collateral damage. Millions would die, and the public not only didn’t know an attack was coming, they didn’t even know that the Federation had made contact with two different alien races. If they managed to survive this attack, Foster was fairly sure that an outraged populace would burn the Federation Board at the stake, at the very least. He watched the second Dregluk salvo slam home on Earth’s surface. If they survived.
In the Federation Militia’s command center, Admiral Foster was taking a call from the Board. “Admiral Law, do something! This is a disaster!”
Admiral Law braced to attention. “Yes ma’am!” Turning to his staff, he yelled – “Set the fire controls to maximum saturation of incoming missiles. Five AMM’s to one incoming missile!” The staff raced to obey as the Admiral watched the seemingly endless wave of missiles breaking over the Earth. Behind him, forgotten, the Federation Board argued amongst themselves, each accusing the other of being at fault.
The Earth’s defensive PDC’s increased their rate of fire and Admiral Law leaned forward as the outgoing anti-missiles began taking out the Dregluk offensive missiles. There was cheering in the command center when the fourth salvo of Dregluk missiles was stopped short of the Earth, but then three missiles from the fifth wave got through and hit the Tennessee, a jump cruiser in the yards for a refit. The big ship’s armor was scored. Admiral Law felt mixed emotions when he realized that the Dregluk targeting had shifted. He didn’t want civilians to die, but his fleet was vulnerable. The PDC’s had massive amounts of armor to protect them, but his fleet didn’t.
Ten missiles got through from the sixth salvo, heavily damaging a North Carolina class jump ship in the yards for refit. The Dregluk targeting for the next salvo shifted and the eighteen leakers streaked in and hit an Aegis anti-missile base, destroying a fire control through shock damage and causing significant collateral damage.
“Admiral, the fleet is running low on AMM’s. Earth Defense Command reports that their bases are running low on Aegis II’s, and that they are restocking with older Aegis AMM’s.”
Admiral Law scowled. This was rapidly becoming an impossible situation. They were only about halfway through the attack and already they had burned through thousands of AMM’s. And, while switching over to the older Aegis AMM’s was better than nothing, the older AMM’s would have an even harder time intercepting the fast Dregluk missiles.
The next several salvoes are targeted on orbiting ships. An explorer that had recently been converted to a missile barge was damaged, as was an FFG in refit. A second FFG was completely destroyed by the alien missiles.
The tenth salvo split up into three groups, one targeted on the Earth, the second targeted on the Moon, and the third racing between the two, targeted on the fleeing civilian ships that had left the Earth when the missiles came into detection range. All of the missiles in this wave were destroyed, but some of the missiles in the next wave, all targeted on the Moon, got through and slammed into a terraforming ship. That caused the Board to begin screaming at Admiral Law, again, but he ignored them and closed the communications link. He was pretty sure he was screwed no matter what happened, and he needed to concentrate. He had kept the terraformers in orbit over the Moon specifically so that they might absorb some of the missiles that otherwise would have been aimed at his ships. And it was working. If the Board didn’t like it they could fire him. Or shoot him. He didn’t really care anymore.
One of the defensive PDC’s on the Earth began launching the older Aegis AMM’s, its stocks of the more advanced AMM’s having run out. Six leakers from the twelfth salvo slammed into another terraformer as the remaining PDC’s on Earth switched to the slower Aegis AMM’s. There were eighteen leakers from the next salvo, and a terraformer was completely destroyed by the onslaught. The older Aegis missiles were having a hard time even catching the fast Dregluk missiles, much less destroying them. The next salvo is targeted on civilian freighters orbiting the Moon, and several are destroyed.
The next several waves are targeted at ships orbiting the Moon, or which are fleeing away from the Moon. The sixteenth salvo, though, is targeted on a Lunar PDC. The PDC suffers minor shock damage, and seventy-two automated mines are destroyed, but the bulk of the Lunar population is in shelters and there are no deaths.
The next four salvoes are targeted on the shipyards in orbit over Earth. Eighty-nine missiles from the four waves get through the defenses. The damages are relatively minor considering the number of missiles that got through. Two slipways in a yard building terraformers are destroyed, two slipways building missile boats are destroyed, and a new shipyard devoted to the new 1,000 ton interceptor class ships is destroyed.
With that the attack is over. At least for now. Admiral Law and his people are absorbed with trying to pick up the pieces. His two remaining active ships, the Mars and the Bihar, are dispatched to pick up life pods from the ships destroyed around the Earth and the Moon. In addition, they are coordinating with Earth Defense Command to redistribute the remaining AMM’s to all remaining units.
Ever since Admiral Law cut them off the Board has remained silent in their command center outside of Detroit, much to the relief of everyone. For his part, Joe Foster has been busy collating information gained about the Dregluk missile attack and formulating plans for dealing with future attacks, should they survive this one. In spite of the ships lost in orbit, Earth’s offensive strength survived the attack unscathed. If the remaining Dregluk ships continue to close the odds are that the PDC’s will be able to handle them. If the Dregluk have expended all of their missiles.
At 1053 hours Earth’s sensors detect a new wave of missiles headed for Earth. These contacts are larger than the missiles of the first attack, and slower. There are 230 missiles in the lead group, speed 25,971 kps. Admiral Law recalls his ships from their rescue duties, and Earth’s remaining stocks of missiles are redistributed between the PDC’s and the orbiting ships. The incoming missiles continue to appear on the sensors for 620 seconds, for a total of 4,189 missiles total. Desperation sets in among Earth’s defenders. There is a grand total of 4,501 defensive missiles left.
Admiral Law looked around his command center. Officers were yelling at each other and pointing at the plot. The comm channels had gone wild, and it was obvious that Earth Defense Command had gone into meltdown. They were staring at their doom and everyone knew it. He could feel the despair himself, but…his eyes were drawn to the incoming missile wave. They had a duty. “Stop! Damn it, Stop!” At the crack of his voice the yelling in the command center stopped and the officers and technicians turned towards the Admiral. Panicked babbling could still be heard from the communications lines, but aside from that the room was silent. He flung out an arm, pointing plot which was showing a huge stream of missiles heading directly for Earth. “Those missiles are coming, and they are coming no matter what we do.” He walked forward until he stood in front of the plot. “No matter what we do now millions are going to die, we know that. But we can still make a difference. We can do our best to stop as many of those missiles as we can. We can do our jobs!” His voice had risen to a roar. “We can protect the people of the Earth, and make sure there is something left after this attack. Something left that can rebuild and take the fight to the Dregluk!” He looked around the room and saw that on many of the faces fear was being replaced by resolve. “We can do our jobs! And if this is our final moment, then we can damn well make it our finest moment!”
The room broke into cheers as the officers turned to consoles and began coordinating the defense of Earth. Admiral Law walked into his office and prepared to do for Earth Defense Command what he had just done for his staff. They didn’t have much time.
At 1125 hours the first AMM’s are launched from Earth. The few remaining Aegis II AMM’s are quickly used up and the defenders are forced to rely on older Aegis AMM’s from almost the first. The fact that the Dregluk missiles of this wave are slower than the ones in the first attack help, but not enough. From the first massive numbers of missiles get through the defenses to strike their targets, and nuclear fireballs begin to blossom all across the Earth and its orbital space. Earth’s defense missiles achieve an incredible 40% interception rate as Earth’s defenders are forged into a team, working as one, under Admiral Law. The Board has gone silent in its bunker, and Earth Defense Command has rallied to Admiral Law’s clarion cry for the defense of the Earth.
The first targets of the Dregluk missiles are Earth’s PDC’s. While none of the PDC’s suffer an armor breach, two suffer damage from the massive shocks that rain down on them as they are pounded. The collateral damage to the surrounding areas is immense. The Dregluk are using big warheads and millions die in the onslaught. There is a tidal wave of destruction as missiles rain down on the Earth. Just by random chance, the Federation Board’s command center was completely destroyed by a stray missile. The bunker underneath was destroyed as well, decapitating the Federation and Earth’s leading corporations. Nearly 26 million people died along with the Board as Earth’s defenders strive to stop the incoming missiles.
Ships in the orbital yards for refit come under fire early and many are destroyed by the deluge of missiles. The jump cruiser Bihar, Admiral Law’s flagship, came under fire in the fourth wave, but the ship’s luck continued to hold and her shields remained up after the explosions cleared. The Mars came under fire next and the big ship suffered under the avalanche of missiles. When the explosions cleared the ship was still under way, but it was reporting multiple armor breaches and heavy internal damage.
It was at this point that the Lunar PDC’s ran out of AMM’s. Dregluk missiles continued to pelt targets across the Earth and in orbit. In the sixth wave Earth’s anti-missile bases came under fire, and although their armor held they all suffered minor internal damage from shock. In orbit the Federation’s last scout fell to the deluge of missiles, disappearing in an intense explosion at the center of multiple missile blasts. As the attack went on the Dregluk missiles shifted their focus to the units orbiting the Earth, and numerous ships were destroyed, fighting to the last.
Ultimately the Dregluk missiles shifted their focus to the Moon. Civilian ships that had returned to shelter in the Moons orbit were the first to die, followed by the terraformers orbiting the Moon. The attack then changed to focus on the Lunar PDC’s. By this point Earth’s defenses were faltering as the defensive missiles ran low. Two of the three Lunar PDC’s were destroyed by the Dregluk missiles, and the third was damaged. As the PDC’s were destroyed Dregluk missiles began raining down across Copernicus crater, nearly destroying the entire settlement.
The last wave of Dregluk missiles spent itself on the orbit shipyards, destroying two slipways building patrol cruisers.
Throughout the attack Admiral Law was in constant motion, issuing orders and coordinating actions between the fleet and the EDC. To him the attack seemed to last forever, but when the command center fell silent he looked up at the chronometer and saw that it had lasted for only six minutes. He peered at the system plot. Eight of the smaller ships from Dregluk Charlie were still headed in the general direction of the Earth, although their course was off to one side of the planet. Two ships from Dregluk-Bravo were also headed towards Earth, while the remainder of both groups were headed back towards the jump point. He focused on the Dregluk ships, trying to divine their intentions, but his concentration was broken when Lt. Commander Hargreaves approached him.
“Sir, we have a problem.”
Admiral Law chuckled mirthlessly and waived carelessly around the room. “We have a lot of problems, Ewan.”
Hargreaves shook his head. “No, I mean an immediate problem. The Moon got plastered in those last salvoes. Copernicus is as good as gone, and whoever’s left over there is panicking. They are broadcasting, in the clear, to everyone in the system that they surrender to the Dregluk and will do whatever they need to do to avoid further bombardment. The last PDC on the Moon is damaged and has gone over to them. I get the feeling that their command staff was killed in the battle and whoever’s left there doesn’t really know what they are doing. Whatever is going on, they’ve commandeered ships in Lunar orbit and are trying to reach the Dregluk fleet to surrender to them. They are calling on all other colonies and the Earth to surrender alongside them and to end this.”
Admiral Law shook his head. They had barely survived the attack, and now this. “What does the Board have to say about this?”
Hargreaves hesitated. “Uh, sir, their command center was hit early in the attack, remember? We’ve dispatched crews to the area, but it’ll be some time before we can determine if anyone is still alive. They got plastered pretty hard.”
Admiral Law called up an orbital view of the Detroit area and winced. The entire city had been plastered by nuclear warheads. The devastation was unthinkable. Till now.
Admiral Law stood still for a second, considering the situation, then he walked slowly over to the plot and leaned over it. The information on the plot wasn’t encouraging. They had gotten plastered, sure enough. But they weren’t out of it yet. Not by a long shot. “Put me on broadcast, in the clear. I want everyone to hear this.” At a tech’s questioning look, he nodded. “Everyone. Civilian and military alike. In the clear. Send it to the outer colonies as well.”
He waited until a tech signaled that they were ready, then stepped forward into view of the pickup. “I am Admiral Law, commanding officer of the Federation Militia. In the absence of the Federation Board and CEO, I am assuming temporary command of all military forces in the Solar System. We have been attacked by an alien race known as the Dregluk. Most of you don’t know who or what they are, and that will be addressed in the coming days. Secrets have been kept, too many and for too long. In the meantime, though, we have to deal with the situation we have in front of us. To those of you on the Moon that have reached out to the Dregluk, stand down! Cease all transmissions and return all ships to orbit. Do so now. If you don’t turn back within two minutes I will open fire and destroy any ship still headed out-system. Admiral Law out.”
Two minutes passed without any changes. The lunatics in charge on the Moon continued to broadcast to anyone that would listen, and the ships continued to move away from the Earth and the Moon, headed out-system towards the Dregluk fleet. Admiral Law watched as the chrono counted past two minutes, silently hoping that whoever was in charge on the Moon would come to their senses. The voice from the Moon continued to plead for surrender to the Dregluk, and the ships continued towards the Dregluk fleet. Finally, Law ground out the order. “Open fire.”
EDC, which had acknowledged Law’s assumption of command immediately, launched missiles targeted at the lone remaining PDC on the Moon and one of the ships. The voice from the Moon faltered, and then stopped when both targets were destroyed. Two of the remaining three ships turned back to the Moon immediately, and then a new voice called out. “We give up! Don’t bomb us any more, for god’s sake! We just want someone to help us!”
Admiral Law nodded and gestured for an open line again. “Very well. Help is on the way. But first we all need to survive whatever the Dregluk have left. We’ll be there as soon as we can.” Admiral Law stood silently for a minute as the command center staff bustled around him. Finally, he nodded to himself and beckoned Lt. Commander Hargreaves over. “Ewan, I have a job for you. Take a squad of security troopers and get over to that place that they are holding Joe Foster. Spring him and get him back here right away. We’ve got a lot of work to do.” Hargreaves walked out of the command center as Admiral Law turned to his operations chief. “Lucas, those Dregluk ships heading across the system are going to be a problem. Their projected course takes them outside of Earth’s missile envelope, and who knows what they are up to. We need to stop them.”
Commander Stevens looked pensive, and then consulted his tablet. “Well, all we have operational at this time that could catch them is the 1st Missile Boat Squadron. They have the speed, but they’ve got no anti-missile capability.” He swiped his tablet a couple of times, then nodded. “We could send the Bihar with them. She’d slow them down, but she could cover them with her missile defenses.”
Admiral Law walked over to the plot and frowned, studying the dispositions of the various forces displayed. After a few seconds he shook his head. “No, we can’t risk the Bihar out there.”
Commander Stevens started. “But sir! That would leave them uncovered!”
Admiral Law continued staring at the plot. “I know.” He turned and looked Stevens in the eyes. “I know what I am telling them to do. The Bihar would slow them down too much, and besides, we can’t afford to send the Bihar out with AMM’s that will likely be needed here.” He turned back to the plot. “Those Dregluk ships are going someplace, and I want them stopped. Missile One is the only group we’ve got, so they are up. Let them know.”
Commander Stevens took a step back and saluted, then turned away. Admiral Law continued to watch the plot, trying to divine the intent of the Dregluk ships that were still approaching the Earth.
Just over an hour later alarms began ringing in the command center yet again. The long ordeal wasn’t over. This attack was composed of tiny missiles barely three times larger than the Federation’s AMM’s. The small Dregluk missiles were hard to detect, and as a result they got relatively close before the Earth’s sensors picked them up.
Once again, the Earth’s population cowered in fear as anti-missile missiles roared away from Earth to intercept the death reaching out for them. The first four waves of missiles were targeted on Earth’s offensive PDC’s. The Earth’s defensive missiles, fired late and slower than the incoming missiles, only managed to take out a few of the incoming missiles, but fortunately the small Dregluk missiles had equally small warheads. The PDC’s weathered the attack without additional damage, but collateral damage killed millions. The Dregluk targeting shifted to a jump cruiser being refitted, causing internal damage, and then to a North Carolina class jump ship, which was wiped out. The attacking missiles then shifted to target the PDC’s again, causing minor armor damage, and a converted exploration ship in orbit. The new Defender class missile barge survived the attack, although its shields were depleted. The next several waves targeted the orbital shipyards, but the Dregluk missiles were too small to cause significant damage.
It was after this attack that Lt. Commander Hargreaves returned with Joe Foster. Admiral Law met him in his office, which was located off of the command center’s main room. The office had big windows through which the occupants could look down on the command center and its bustling activity, and that was where Foster found the Admiral as he was ushered into his sanctum. As he entered the room he could see that Law’s face was haggard, and that he looked like he hadn’t slept in days. “Alex, you look like hell. How are you holding up?”
Admiral Law turned from the window and moved forward to shake Foster’s hand. “I won’t lie, it has been hell. What do you know?”
“Well, I assume I’ve got you to thank for the setup they had for me at the prison?”
Admiral Law nodded and gestured at a chair, then took one himself. “That was me, with Ewan’s help.”
Foster nodded. “Ewan filled me in on a lot on the way over. I assume that my being here has something to do with the fact that the Board is gone?”
Admiral Law nodded. “Joe, I won’t beat around the bush, I need you. The Earth needs you. Everything is chaos right now. Initial information is that around two hundred million have died in the attacks on Earth and the Moon, and that number is going to go up by a lot over the next several days.” He leaned forward and rubbed his face. “Here’s the thing. In the chaos after the big attack, I basically took over. No one knew what was going on, the Board was gone, Copernicus was gutted, and everyone was panicking. I went public with the whole thing and assumed command. I could feel everything flying apart in the aftermath of the worst disaster in the last couple of centuries, so I did what I had to.” He shook his head and leaned back. “Thing is, all I meant to do was bring all the military forces under my control so I could coordinate the defense efforts. That had to be done or we weren’t going to survive. Fortunately, everyone was scared enough of the Dregluk that they all fell in line right away. I was worried about Earth Defense Command but with the Board gone they fell right in line. What I didn’t count on, though, was that we’d start hearing from the various corporations and regional governments out there. They saw my broadcast and they jumped right on board. The thing is, either they’ve suffered grievously from the bombardment, or they want to help those who have.” He leaned forward, looking at Foster intensely. “Joe, I need you to handle that, while I get our defenses back in shape. Someone needs to coordinate the civilians, and to coordinate whatever assistance we can give them. That’s got to be you. You are going to have a lot of credibility in the coming days, once the truth about the Board and their mishandling of the Dregluk gets out, and that will help you manage the civilians. I’ll give you whatever I can, but I need to focus on what’s going on in there.” He gestured to the command center just as an alert popped up on his communicator. He swiped it and Lt. Commander Hargreaves began talking.
“Sir, you’d better get down here. Missile One is under attack.”
“Damn it! Joe, get to it, I have to deal with this.” Law ran out of the office, leaving Joe Foster with the weight of the world resting on his shoulders.
Seconds later Admiral Law entered the command center, and Hargreaves met him at the door. “The missiles appeared out of nowhere. Two boats are gone, three damaged and dead in space. One boat is intact.”
By then they were at the plot table. Admiral Law could see that his gamble had failed. “Ewan, tell the surviving boat to rescue the survivors and turn back. There’s nothing more that they can do.” Lt. Commander Hargreaves nodded and moved away to send the orders. Four minutes later he returned. “Sir, Lt. Commander Burton on board the MB-012 has, well, she has refused your orders. She says that they will continue with the attack.”
“God damn it!” Law slammed his hand down on the plot table. The sharp crack brought silence to the command center for a few seconds, until the noise began picking back up. “Tell her to…” He trailed off and looked at the plot table for a few seconds, then turned to Hargreaves. “I’ll respond.” They moved over to the pickup at the comms station. “Lt. Commander Burton, this is Admiral Law. You and your people have the thanks of the people of Earth! Go with god. Law out.” He turned and walked away, Hargreaves following.
“Do you think that they’ll make a difference, sir?”
Law was back at the plot table. “Hell no. But they are going to get swatted no matter what they do, and damn me if I won’t support a commander that’s going to get swatted attacking an enemy, rather than running away.”
Thirty minutes later Lt. Commander Burton’s missile boat was destroyed by a salvo of Dregluk missiles. Shortly after that the crews aboard the crippled missile boats abandoned ship as missiles approached. Shortly after that the eight ships from Dregluk Charlie that had been arcing across the system turned and began heading directly towards the Earth. They were 140 mkm’s out at this point.
Over the next several hours the Earth suffered under sporadic and relatively light missile attacks from the Dregluk. They wouldn’t have been much of a threat had the Earth’s defenses been in better shape, but there were few anti-missile missiles left and the fleet had been gutted. Some of the Dregluk missiles were targeted on Earth-based PDC’s, while others were targeted on Earth’s cities. The last missile fell at 2225 hours on the 26th. At that point the eight ships of Dregluk Charlie were just 55 mkm’s from Earth, nearly within range of the Federation’s Bludgeon missiles, but that was their closest approach. All Dregluk ships in the Solar system were now headed out-system, towards the jump point to Washington.
On August 27th, at 1550 hours, the last Dregluk ship transited out the Solar System. Six hours later Admiral Law dispatched the Bihar to pick up the life pods from the ships destroyed away from Earth during the Dregluk incursion. The Mars and the other damaged units are moved into the yards for repair, leaving the Bihar and three older missile boats as the only functional units in the Federation Militia.
