June 3, 2277 United Nations Space Force HQ Gettysburg

444 Days Remain

Fleet Admiral Joachim Moser sat with his officers, across from them sat the Secretary General of the United Nations, Fu Li Wei, and his many ministers. The meeting, intending to discuss the best course of action in the wake of the events at New Kolkata, was going poorly. Things had begun with a dark tone due to the recent revelation of the Ivo genocide on New Kolkata. Then the meeting had gotten down to serious discussion and things had unraveled from there.

The Diplomatic Minister was arguing with one of Moser's admirals, and the argument was getting heated.

"Our only realistic chance of this war ending well for us is to bring the Ivos to the table. Their technological superiority is too great to expect otherwise." said the minister.

"You'd have us negotiate with these things? They massacred thousands of people, not in collateral damage or accidental killings, but in intentional extermination! You can't negotiate with something like that. We need to take the fight to the Ivos. We've shown our neighbors that victory is possible, if we press our advantage now then they will rally around us. These atrocities show that the Ivos are a threat even to them." replied the admiral.

The two went on, with others occasionally chiming in, until Secretary General Fu interrupted.

"Fleet Admiral, you've been silent on the matter thus far. Please, give us your thoughts." he said.

Moser took a moment to think before he spoke.

"I agree and disagree with both sides of this debate. I agree that we can't realistically expect a true military victory from this conflict, however I also believe that it would be unrealistic to expect a diplomatic solution with beings who glass our worlds and exterminate our people. Especially considering the results of our efforts at negotiation prior to this war." The admiral and those that agreed with him seemed to perk up at these words, until Moser turned his gaze on them.

"This does not, however, mean that I agree with you, either. The assumption that the wider galactic community will join us due to the atrocities was proven false during the Diln war, when our cities were bombed into ruin and our people carted away as slaves as our neighbors did nothing. While I agree that we are in a better position strategically than we were previously, it would be very unwise to assume we have the enemy on the backfoot. The Ivos have been a spacefaring civilization for millennia, it is very unlikely that eighty warships represented the greater part of their fleet. Even if I'm wrong, and the Ivos have a stunted fleet, the casualty rates of our own forces, largely due to their beam weapons, would be completely unsustainable on an extended campaign. We lost 52% of our entire fleet, and about 30% of the personnel of the entire space force in the battle over New Kolkata."

The Ivo beam weapons were the stuff of nightmares for an astronaut. A highly accurate, long-range weapon that instantly killed almost any target it made contact with. Many of the ships from the battle over New Kolkata had been killed by the beam cannons long before they could even get in range to fire. The mention of this massive tactical advantage was enough to make every military officer present nervous.

The Secretary General refocused the subject. "Speaking of those beam weapons, what has the study of the recovered Ivo tech gained us?" he said, addressing Doctor Alicia Nagumo, the researcher in charge of the project.

The woman seemed surprised at the question, and her response had a slightly nervous tone to it. "Uh, well, we've more or less figured out what those weapons are. They're Casaba Howitzers. Really advanced ones."

"Could you explain what those are, for those of us without the benefit of a military education?" The Secretary General asked patiently.

Nagumo spoke again hastily. "It's a hypothetical weapon concept, devised in the 20th century. As you may know, nuclear weapons are not as effective in the vacuum of space, as the lack of air means there is no shockwave from the explosion, and the unfocused nature of a nuclear bomb's energy release means that much of its damage potential is simply shot out into space uselessly, away from the target. A Casaba Howitzer is a nuclear bomb that focuses all of its energy into a beam, a 'nuclear lance' if you will. Not as much raw power as a normal bomb, but it makes up for it by having all of its energy be focused on the target."

One of Moser's admirals spoke then. "I remember this from my military history course in my academy days. The Casaba is a warhead, to be mounted on a missile. Not a fixed weapon emplacement."

Nagumo smiled and nodded. "Correct. The explosion would likely do as much damage to the user as the target. Unfortunately, the Ivos seem to have found a way around this problem, as their beam weapons are essentially anti-matter based Casaba Howitzers, mounted on a fixed weapon emplacement. And before you ask, no, we don't have the faintest idea how they don't blow themselves up every time they fire the weapon."

Another admiral spoke up. "What are our chances of adapting their other weaponry for our own use?"

"Unlikely, to put it mildly. The main obstacle is the power requirement. They were all designed to use anti-matter, either as an energy source, or as an ammunition in the case of those bombs. Our best bets are their lasers. While we obviously can't replicate their much higher range and firepower without an anti-matter power source, we can learn much from the engineering of them. We could conceivably improve our laser technology with this, but it would take time."

This time the Secretary General spoke, interrupting. "They use anti-matter as ammunition. They must surely have more advanced methods of production than any other species in known space if they are able to use anti-matter so casually."

Nagumo nodded again. "Yes, and it's even more advanced than you think. Everything military, from their ships down to their handheld lasers, is powered by anti-matter."

All present in the room sat in stunned silence at that. Anti-matter was a precious commodity in interstellar civilization. It was an exceptionally useful energy storage device, meeting the enormous immediate energy requirements for entering or leaving Dark Space, and trace amounts of it were necessary for modern fusion reactors to function. Most ships, however, just used it as an incredibly advanced capacitor with everything else being powered by fusion, or other less expensive energy sources. That the Ivos used the precious resource so frivolously suggested an incredible production capacity for it. Even with the majority of Mercury's surface dedicated to turning solar energy into anti-matter, humanity's total annual production of the stuff was measured in kilograms.

It was a sobering thought.

Nagumo seemed eager to change the subject, and spoke again. "We've also learned some things about the Ivos themselves. For example, their ships appear to be heavily automated, to the point where we believe their frigates could likely function with only about six crewmen. However, our analysis of the wreckage suggests that they appear to carry a standard complement of around twenty. More than three times as much as they need. This suggests that they work in shifts, which means we now have evidence suggesting that Ivos require sleep... Oh! And food. We found organic matter that was not from an Ivo in the wreckage of some of their ships."

An awkward silence filled the room for several moments too long at the not particularly necessary information. The Secretary General made an effort to move things along. "Thank you, Doctor. Now, Fleet Admiral, I imagine we would all like to hear the results the military's analysis of the recent battle."

Moser inclined his head to the Secretary General, and began to speak. "While I am in favor of exploring the possibilities of Ivo technology, it must be a secondary priority to the rebuilding of our fleet. ...No, not just rebuilding, but redesigning."

He definitely had everyone's attention now

"We took significant casualties. Many of our most powerful ships were mission-killed by the beam cannons before they could even fire a shot."

"Your point?" said the Secretary General.

"Our ships and tactics were designed around facing the Diln, and based on the advice and doctrines of our neighbors. Species of a similar tech-level to ourselves. Against those foes, having heavy ships with large spinal mounts is the most cost effective strategy, as we can expect some level of survivability against their weapons. Against the Ivos and their beam cannons, things are different. It doesn't matter how large or well armed a ship is, it falls to the beams all the same. Our battleships represent an investment of eight billion UN notes and over 800 personnel. Our frigate represent an investment of roughly one and a half billion UN notes and about 110 personnel. Yet, they both are put out of action by a single anti-matter lance. For the cost of one battleship we can build five frigates and change. Their vast tactical superiority has reduced our battles to arithmetic, and the math does not look good for us."

"You'd have us build nothing but frigates? We'd be at a disadvantage against our other neighbors then, surely? Well, at least we'd be fast..." mused the Secretary General.

"Frigates and destroyers, yes. And that's actually a common misconception. Space is not the ocean. Bigger ships have bigger engines and more delta-v, so, while a frigate might beat a battleship in a very short sprint it will rapidly be overtaken once the battleship is able to get up to its full acceleration. In fact, a battleship is superior in almost every way to its smaller counterparts. The only reason we, or any civilization, build those small ships is economics. I'm not proposing the optimal solution. The optimal solution would be to build nothing but battleships, however we do not have the money, personnel, or time to do so. This is the best option available to us."

Many of the faces Moser made eye contact with appeared unconvinced. Fortunately, the Secretary General was not one of those faces. The man looked Moser in the eye and nodded. "My administration will do its best to meet the needs of the military in this trying time."

Moser gave an amused smile in return. "Well, that's good, because this is far from the only thing we need. For starters, there's the crippling personnel shortage, we'll need to quadruple our recruitment to even come close to replacing our losses, and that's just the military side. It will take another army's worth of civilian employees to meet our logistical needs, not to mention..."

The conversation continued for a time, with the Fleet Admiral explaining at length the Herculean tasks that were needed to bring humanity to a position where it could defend itself. In the back of Moser's mind, an ugly thought wormed its way into his mind. It was an unconscionable idea, one that had been eating its way to the front of his mind more and more since the war began.

That it was all for nothing.