This is a very short story (which is one I think Simon was referring to in the Rigellian thread). Its from several years ago and relates to an earlier stage in the Rigellian Campaign when things were looking rather bleak
The Rigellian Supermonitor, Finest Hour, ponderously pulled out of Earth orbit, engaged its cloak, and headed for the Einstein-Rosen Gate. For fifteen minutes, Imperial Swordsman Asoto stood rigidly at attention on Finest Hour’s flag bridge and watched the blue-white disk of Earth as it grew smaller in the holograph tank, only to suddenly enlarge as the next degree of magnification automatically kicked in. Behind him, his staff watched in fascinated horror.
“Ten seconds before we see it” whispered operations officer Masayoshi to no one in particular, “although in reality its already happened.”
The HoloTank dimmed to protect the eyes of the watching Rigellians as the Earth exploded into a billion glowing shards. A cold shiver ran through Asoto’s body as he watched the destruction of the Third Imperial Capital. Was it really twenty years since he stood on the bridge of the fleeing destroyer Caledonian and watched Kapaluan missiles devastate his homeworld? Rigel, the first and greatest of the Imperial Capitals, reduced to radioactive ruin after the Kapaluan fleet smashed through everything the Rigellian Empire could throw at them.
Eden was declared the new capital and the Rigellians fought every inch of the way as the Kapaluans spread through the core systems like a plague. The Octopi could no longer help. Their Empire lay smashed between the triple onslaught of the Andromedans, the Kapaluans and the Midgard Confederation. Only scattered remnants of the once proud Octopi remained, huddled together awaiting their inevitable destruction. The Dragon capital was already a barren planet and their battered fleet was being slowly crushed to death between the Kapaluans and the Andromedans. The other allied races, the Azticans, UPA and Sun Kingdom, were desperately defending their borders and could not come to the Rigellians' aid.
Asoto’s mind catalogued the fates which had brought about the Fall of the Empire. If the Kapaluans and the Andromedans had fought each other instead of allying against the Rigellians and the Octopi, or if the Midgard Confederation had proven friend instead of foe, history may have turned out differently. Even faced with such titanic foes, the Rigellians fought with renewed ferocity and desperation and finally halted the Kapaluans at the gates of Eden as the first Rigellian monitors entered the battle. Elsewhere in the Empire, the advance of the Andromedans was slowed and finally stopped. The Empire heaved a collective sigh of relief and began to believe survival was possible. Then the Schaladari returned.
Perhaps if the Empire had not been so committed on the existing fronts, there might have been more resistance but with no reserves to speak of, there was nothing that could be done against the vast Schaladari Leviathans; each one twice the size of a monitor and armed with massively destructive weapons that Rigellian technology could not hope to duplicate. They brought with them a weapon which could destroy whole planets and used it to massacre countless billions. Resistance throughout the Empire collapsed and all the Empire’s foes surged forward. Eden fell quickly and once again Kapaluan missiles annihilated the Imperial Capital. Earth, on the rim of the Empire and of enormous historical significance, was declared the new capital and all surviving Rigellian forces began to fall back toward it, frantically trying to buy a few more months or years of life for the Empire.
The Schaladari had no need for alliances and obliterated any Andromedan or Kapaluan fleet they encountered. Ironically, it was the battles fought between the Empire’s three deadliest enemies which bought the time for the Rigellians to catch their breath and build up their defences. However, even though they slowed down the Schaladari they could not completely stop them. For years, the Empire’s finest warriors sacrificed themselves in their millions, knowing that ultimately there was no hope of survival. As all hope seemed lost, an old theory proposed by two humans of Earth origin was revived and turned into a desperate, last ditch attempt to avoid annihilation. The experiment began as an attempt to build an artificial warp point through which the Rigellians could escape before destroying it behind them but it turned into something more. Perhaps time itself could be mastered.
The construction of the Einstein-Rosen Gate consumed a great deal of Earth’s resources and weakened the defences of the last few systems remaining. Even so, it still represented the Empire’s only real, if slim, chance of survival. The Supermonitor Finest Hour was constructed with only one purpose in mind. To take technology, and more importantly information, into the past to change the history of the Empire. As the completion date of the gate drew ever closer, the Schaladari broke through the last lines of defences and entered the Sol System. Finest Hour was given her orders to proceed, even though the Gate was not yet tested and final calculations not yet made. With the irradiated debris of the Earth tumbling in its wake and Schaladarian missiles homing at incredible speed, the last flagship of the Imperial Rigellian Empire vanished into the gate and into history.
Steve
