Date Point: February 6, 2437

Warpspace

Onboard PCS Mistral

Oscar sighed, he couldn’t believe his luck. Or well his lack thereof. The ‘mutt’ sat on his bed tapping away at some kind of educational video. His purple eyes flashed, narrowing with concentration. “Got a problem kid?”

“No father.”

“What did I say about calling me that?”

“To not to,” Oswald said dejectedly. Oscar winced at the tone of his voice and clapped his hands together.

“Here’s the deal kiddo, I’m fine with you calling me that as long as you stop calling Yang ‘mom’. It’s just weird and my girlfriend would kill me if she found out.”

He beamed at him, “Ok dad.”

Shaking his head Oscar pulled out his revolver and began field stripping it. The antique metal parts came apart like legos and he hummed a tune to himself as he worked. Once every part had been meticulously cleaned and polished he began the slow process of reassembly. First came the trigger group, then the cylinder and hammer. It was a much simpler and faster process than the more modern firearms used by most. Those required advanced electronics and tools to clean and maintain. Which in Oscar’s opinion was just too much hassle.

He reached for the last piece, the pin that held the wheel in place. It was gone. He frowned and looked around for it, not finding it on the bed. Kneeling down, he scanned the deck. It was meticulously clean, courtesy of the Mistral’s robotic workers. Shaking his head he stood up, to find Oswald sucking on something.

“Oswald, buddy…” he said, trying and failing to keep the anger out of his voice, “what’s in your mouth?’’

The ankle-biter looked up, panic showing in his eyes. He took a quick gulp of air and swallowed. Oscar’s eyebrows almost shot off his face.

“Nothing.” the kid said, guilt written all across his face.

“Oswald?” he warned.

“Yes father?” he said, batting his purple eyes, gushing with innocence and insincerity.

Oscar shook his head, “I promise I won’t be mad, but you need to tell the truth to me. Did you take a metal pin from the bed?”

“I’m not saying anything without mom.” Oswald huffed, “mom will help me.”

“Yang wasn’t even here!” the door slid open.

“Who wasn’t here?” Yang asked, stepping into his quarters. Oswald’s eyes lit up.

“Mama!” he squealed and jumped up, latching himself to her leg.

She stumbled back a step before reaching down and lifting him up into the air, “Hey Ozzy!”

The child giggled and waved his arms around, she tossed him on the bed before noticing the pissed-off expression on Oscar’s face, “what’s with the long face?”

“Little shithead ate a piece of my gun.” He scowled, Yang cuffed him over the head, “Ow! What was that for?”

“Don’t swear in front of our kid.” she hissed.

“OUR KID?!”

“Don’t you yell at me!”

“That’s not our child!”

“Go tell that to the Boss!”

“I will!”

“Good!” They glared at each other, almost nose to nose.

“Yeah! Mommy and Daddy are fighting!” Oswald clapped his hands together, swinging his legs on the edge of the bed.

/-/

The 3D printer hummed as it slowly spat out an exact replica of the center pin that Oswald had eaten. A quick visit to the sickbay had quickly proved the child’s guilt. Yang had shaken her head with disappointment that had the child on the verge of tears.

“You just going to wait here for it to print?” a man asked, Oscar, glanced at the nametag on his shirt. “J.T.” He wore engineering patches on his shoulders and his slacks were covered in oil stains.

“Yeah.”

“You know how long that’s going to take right?” he asked skeptically.

“Nah, but it's only a cylinder pin so it can’t be that long.”

The seasoned engineer sighed, “that’s going to be a five-hour print.”

“What! Why?”

“Because printers are slow, even the industrial-sized ones they got in the Belt take months to print out a ship. Never mind the massive energy requirements.”

“Oh… I guess I’ll be going then, thanks.”

“Yeah whatever, I’ll send you a call when it’s done. Irons right?” Oscar nodded and headed for the armory.

The benches in the armory were surprisingly packed, dozens of marines sat around chatting or reading manuals for their newly acquired gear. Several of them nodded to him as he passed by. He checked out his suit and began putting it on when a short redheaded girl slid up beside him.

“Hey there,” she said in a rather high-pitched voice, “so you’re Oscar Irons?”

He looked down at her, green eyes meeting stormy grey ones. “That’s me.”

“Cool, so are you and Yang like together or something?”

“WHAT!” he shouted, the entire place went silent.

“Yeah are you?” one of the marines asked.

“We gotta know if we’ve still got a chance.” another added.

“C’mon man, save some for the rest of us.”

Oscar shook his head vehemently, “no way in hell!”

Once again the room went silent, they judged him with disbelieving stares, “why not?”

“Does she have a dick or something?”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Ewww!”

“What?”

______________________________________________________________________

Li stood at the very front of the formation, much to his despair and grief. On the raised stage thirteen men kneeled with hands cuffed behind their backs and bags over their heads. A soldier in Captain’s stripes stomped around the condemned men.

“These cowardly individuals attempted to hijack a military transport to desert the army and abandoned humanity! The price of desertion is death, do not forget this. Let them be a reminder to all those who would even think of turning their backs on their fellow man. For when you fight in the name of all Tera, it is likely you will die. But if you betray the Terran race, I guarantee you there is not a rock in this galaxy that is far enough or well-protected enough to keep you safe.” The captain pulled out a plasma pistol, racking its slide, “With the power of martial law bestowed upon me by Admiral Zhang Bao, I sentence you to death.”

Behind the men, twelve other soldiers stepped forth. The safeties on their rifles clicked off as they raised them to the heads of the whimpering deserters. Li could tell at least one of them was screaming for mercy, but the soundproof bags covering their heads kept them silent. They squirmed and thrashed but their restraints held.

As one, the soldiers fired, the reports from their guns echoed down the silent deck. Thirteen bodies hit the floor and blood began to pool around them. Behind him, he could hear at least one person sob quietly.

The captain turned to face them, helmet glowing with red energy. “You are dismissed.”

The assembled conscripts snapped crisp salutes before marching out of the deck and back to their duty stations where they would continue their training. They would wake up after a six-hour sleep cycle to run around the station with a hundred pounds of munitions and supplies on their bodies to both strengthen their bodies and prepare the station for the coming battle. After three hours of grueling labor, a quick meal was served consisting of cold water and whatever slop the cooks could put together. The thirty minutes after their meal was the only free time allotted to them. Usually spent chatting about how awful their lives were and reminiscing about how good they’d used to have it. From there they would train, train in the use of different firearms, repair tools, and basic first aid.

“Are we ever going to be issued our own guns?” Zeng asked the private in charge snorted.

“You’ll be lucky if they even send you out with ammo, let alone a gun.”

“So what will we fight with?”

“Fight?” the soldier laughed, “you won’t be fighting anything. Or at least you better hope you don’t have to.”

“So why train us?”

It shrugged, “I don’t know, it’s not my place to ask questions like that. But if I were in your shoes, I’d try and get at least some kind of weapon as fast as I could.”

“You could give us one of yours,” Li suggested hopefully.

“Not on your worthless lives.” the soldier shook its head, “plus, it’s the end of your shift anyways. Go back to your barracks and get some sleep. You never know when the next time you’ll get to sleep without the sounds of war in the background will be.”

______________________________________________________________________

“Damn it they jumped again!” the tactical officer slammed her hand on the console. “Sir, we’ve lost sight of them.”

Yi Sun-Lin smiled at the younger officer, “patience Lieutenant.”

“Captain, I don't understand. We could have jumped well within range of the MARS cannon every single time. Why have we not attacked yet?”

“Tell me, Commander Li, what would happen if we exited warpspace in the middle of their fleet? Do you trust this ship's armor to keep us safe? Do you truly believe that we could fight off almost a hundred ships? Do you think that we could fight them off unscathed?”

She remained silent.

“Yes their technology is antiquated, yes their society is primitive, and yes they are not Terran. However, that does not mean that they do not possess an animalistic cunning. If we just jumped into range on a whim, they would flee. As we are far from any gravitational body, both sides have the ability to jump with impunity. The only limiting factor to how many times our opponents can jump is how many gigawatts of power they can produce.”

“So you are forcing them to jump away from us, draining their ability to make further maneuvers?”

“Correct, and from what the good doctor tells me. Their jump drives have a finite number of jumps they can safely make.”

“But I distinctly remember the Admiral telling you to destroy the Xeno fleet. By baiting them, you are giving them the chance to run away.”

He shook his head, “that is not what the Admiral said. He told me to deal with their fleet. Not destroy it. I highly doubt that a fleet of ships that outdated could make the journey all the way to Long Kou from Arcadia unassisted. Personally, I would not be surprised if this fleet is only a diversion or a trap.”

“So what will we do about it?”

“Wait.”

“For what?” Yi opened his mouth to respond when another officer cut them off.

“Sir, the fleets reappeared. They’re in the asteroid belt.”

“That.” he said and stood up, “Navigation, I want a jump programmed for us to exit right next to their capital ship. And I mean right next to it, so close that they don’t have the time to get their shields up. Don’t give me some chicken shit response about regulation and safety.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Weapons, I want the cannons next to the starboard belt armor loaded with Starfall shells. We’re going to give them a good ol’ broadside with the main guns.”

“We’ll be ready Captain.”

“Good. Comms, get me Captain Xu on the line.”

“PAC Shen Zhen on your display.”

“Captain, you are to set your warp drives to exit on the opposite side of the asteroid belt from us. We believe that the Xeno fleet needs to recharge or replace their jump drives and is hiding inside of the asteroid belt. The Hansan will jump into the fray, while the ShenZhen will pick off any who might try to run. Is that understood?”

“Yes Captain.” the robotic translation routine replied, the feed cut off moments later.

“Sir, the starboard rail guns are loaded and ready, MARS cannons are at 99% charge, and the PDC’s are spun up and good to go.”

“Warp jump is calculated and ready for your signal.”

“Very well, navigation whenever you're ready..”

“Aye sir.” the ship rumbled softly as it passed through the event horizon and into warp space. Yi felt his stomach flop as the strange dread and euphoria passed through his body. He shivered, steeling his nerves.

“Comms, get me the 1MC.”

“Yes sir.” a few moments later, “Your live sir.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, soldiers and sailors, this is your captain speaking. Let me keep this brief, in about seven minutes we will be jumping into what might be the first-ever battle between the PAC and a professional alien navy. Let us do our nation justice and make our families proud to have raised such brave men and women. Terra forever!”

The next five minutes were spent in near silence as sailors performed their duties. Weapons were checked and rechecked, munitions were held at the ready. Spacesuits were sealed and damage control prepared to deal with anything short of a reactor losing containment.

“Warp transition in ten, ni-”

“Prepare to fire the starboard cannons.”

“-Five, four, three, two, one.” the ship glided out of warp space, moving at barely a meter a second. Trails of thick purple gas spewed into real space, bathing the area in radiation and light. The holo display lit up as systems were restored. Right off the starboard side of the Hansan sat a massive Xeno battleship.

“FIRE!”

Fifty turrets, each with three high-velocity rail guns fired in sync. One hundred and fifty armor piercing high explosive rounds slammed point-blank into its exposed flank. The rounds punched the half a meter thick hull with ease, sending shrapnel out in a cone. After traveling a preset distance, they exploded. They left massive holes on the inside of the ship. Their plasma cores exploding, turning metal and biologicals into superheated gas.

It took exactly five and a half seconds for the auto-loaders to reload the cannons. A second salvo hit several meters above where the first had. Parts of the battleship burst open, explosions rocking the entire thing. In the third salvo, a round hit either a munitions magazine or the reactor containment unit. It didn’t matter.

A massive silent fireball shook the ship cracking it in two. Nuclear hellfire engulfed both lengths as the shockwave traveled through empty space and slammed into the Hansan. Yi’s eyes shifted back to the holo, red icons blinked angrily. A dozen dilapidated cruisers swarmed towards the gleaming Terran warship.

Alarms blared as the ship was lazed by multiple targeting instruments. The Hansan automatically began evasive maneuvers. But it was far too little, far too late. The Xenos fired, rail gun rounds crossing the distance in seconds. Yi gripped his seat as they pounded away at the battlecruiser. Shells glanced off or failed to make it through the well-armored ship. Few managed to penetrate the six-meter thick titanium hull. Those that did only managed to break through the first layer, causing superficial damage.

The crew of the Hansan didn’t need their captain to tell them to fire back. The quad MARS cannons mounted on the ship’s spine fired. A massive 2,000-ton slug zipped across space, passing straight through several asteroids before taking out a cruiser. PDC’s lit up the space between ships. 75mm rounds filling the void, creating a wall of tungsten penetrators. The cruisers attempted to dodge around them but that only bled their acceleration. The ship's own railguns retaliated with deathly accurate fire. The far more advanced Terran ballistics computers taking out ancient Xeno cruisers with ease.

The remaining warships, mostly comprised of destroyers and corvettes, retreated. They raced from through the asteroid belt and right into the path of the Shen Zhen.

Yi smiled as the Terran warship leisurely picked off the remaining Xenos. It felt good when things went according to plan. The smile quickly disappeared as more alarms blared at him.

“Sir, we’re picking up some weird energy readings.”

His eyes darted to the holo, several new ships appeared on the display. They widened as the computer tagged them as a Rokoran task force. Four ships, three cruisers labeled Bandit’s 2-4, and a massive spear-shaped ship eight kilometers long labeled Bandit 1. The cruisers were doing hard burns, decelerating and turning towards the Hansan.

“Sir, we’re being hailed by the ShenZhen.”

“Put it up on my display.”

“Captain Yi, the Xeno fleet has been dealt with as per your orders. Do you require assistance?”

“That would be greatly appreciated. We’ve never faced anything like this, so better safe than sorry.”

“Of course Captain, en route now.” the connection cut off.

“What’s the charge on our MARS cannons?”

“MARS Cannons 1-3 are at 66% charge, Cannon 4 is fully operational.”

“That will have to do for now. Get me firing solutions on the cruisers, don’t let them out of your sights. They’ve got some pretty advanced stealth tech onboard.”

“Ignore the cruisers, for now, we don’t know what Bandit 1 is capable of. For all we know, that could be one massive MARS cannon equivalent.”

“Aye, sir.”

“Captain, the ShenZhen has just made a warp transition. Estimated time before re-entry is fourteen minutes.”

“What! Why did they jump?”

The tactical officer spoke into his headset talking to his backroom, “undetermined.”

“Sir, we're receiving a report from the ShenZhen.” she paused for a moment, “no that can’t be right.” she hissed quietly into her headset, “recheck the connec- you did?”

“Officer, just give me the news.”

“Yes captain,” she swallowed, “the ShenZhen was boarded and hostile troops had made their way almost to the bridge before they jumped. Current status is unknown.”

“How is that possible?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out.”

“Fine, then we shall be doing this alone. Weapons, do we have a firing solution on Bandit 1?”

“Aye captain, MARS cannons 3 and 4 are locked in on the bandit.”

“Fire when ready.”

“Firing!” the ship shuddered and the lights flickered for a moment. Then three seconds later, it shuddered again. Twin bolts of red arked across space, disappearing in a flash of light as they hit the ship. The crew waited with held breaths as the damage analysis came in.

As the sensors cleared up, the crew groaned. The large warship was perfectly intact. The only evidence that it had ever been hit was the traces of exotic matter and the flickering energy readings of Xeno shield tech.

“We didn’t even scratch them!”

“How long’s the reload on those cannons?”

“Thirty seconds.”

“Fire cannons 1 and 2.”

“But the cruisers.”

“Forget them, they won’t be in range for another five minutes.”

“Aye sir, MARS cannons 1 and 2 are ready to fire.”

“Fire.”

“Firing!” two more rounds spat out of the front of the ship, they splashed against the ship’s shields without making so much as a dent in it.

“How strong are those shields?” he wondered in amazement, “That thing must have massive energy banks. There wouldn’t be any space to place a MARS gun on that thing.”

“How much longer before those cruisers get into range?”

“They are currently in range of the MARS cannons. In two minutes they will be close enough for our long-range missiles and rail guns.”

“Notify me when they are in range. In the meantime, keep firing at that thing. If we can’t break through their shields, we can always just force them to keep it up the entire time. That’ll leave them blind and unable to shoot back.”

“Aye sir.” the gunner said, a steady rhythm of MARS rounds followed. One shot every fifteen seconds.

“Sir the cruisers are in range.” The three cruisers shot towards the Hansan in a V formation.

“Target the one in the middle. Hit it with everything we’ve got.”

A hail of fire flew towards the cruisers, more firepower than the entire Xeno fleet had managed to scrape together, flew towards the lead ship at a fraction of light speed. Mere meters before collision, the cruiser vanished in a flurry of radiation. It reappeared a second later, still perfectly information.

“Look alive gentlemen, these aren’t our run-of-the-mill xeno’s,” Yi warned as the Hansan continued to fire. As one of the three ships pulsed. The radiation counter on his display spiked and a millisecond later a new set of alarms began sounding.

“Sir! We’ve sustained damage to bulkheads A2 through K55.” he winced, they must have been using some seriously powerful weapons to be able to punch holes through that much armor. Still, the Hansan was built to take punishment and deal it out twice as hard.

“Any real damage?”

“Negative, engineering says they’ll get the leaks patched in five. Power’s already being rewired to affected areas.”

“Tactical, if we launched missiles now how long would it be before they reached the cruisers moving at our current velocities?”

The tactical officer did some momentary calculations, “four minutes and eighteen seconds on the dot sir.”

“When those cruisers jump, how far do they jump, and long is it before they reappear?”

The tactical officer spoke with his backroom before rattling off some obscenely large numbers. “Weapons put those into the ballistics computers on the missiles. Set them to blow right after ships reappear, we don’t want to give them any time to make another jump.”

“Missiles are green across the board.”

Yi was silent for a moment, “Very well. Weapons, this is a nuclear weapons arming order. Ready missile tubes one and two for firing.”

“Aye sir, nuclear weapons arming order received and verified.”

“Set both to maximum direct yields.”

“Missiles one and two are set to maximum yields, 500 megatons.”

“Launch missiles at designated coordinates on my mark.”

“Launch on your mark.”

“Launch,” Yi ordered. Two incredibly expensive and high-tech thermonuclear bombs slid out of their launch tubes. They hissed through space as the magnetic accelerators wound down. Each was about the size of a small car about a hundred times as heavy.

Noticing the confused look on his first mate's face he explained, “we’re going to force the cruisers to jump into range of the missiles.”

“How?” she whispered.

“Every time we’ve fired at them they jump, and after they jump their shields go offline. So if we can bait them to jump inside the range of those nukes then we can take them out in one go.”

Satisfied, she nodded and returned to her station. The three cruisers kept on gaining speed and soon enough began firing salvos at the battlecruiser. Sporadic and seemingly random shots became focused and consistent. Each laser managed to burn deeper into the Hansan’s armored deck.

“Keep the bow armor facing them.” Yi ordered, “if they manage to land a hit to the side it’ll go straight through the ship, armor be damned.”

As one of the xeno’s fired, three bomb-pumped lasers combined to become one that bit deep into the upper decks. The lights inside the CIC flickered and the ship shook.

“Sir, damage report indicates that gravity has been cut from Decks A, B, and C. Electrical failure is to be expected. Engineering is already on site, time till full systems restoration is estimated to be two hours.”

He gritted his teeth. If that many decks had lost power then the casualties must be into the dozens. “Are the reactors still working at one hundred percent?”

“Aye sir, reactors are green across the board.” another shot shook the ship, “scratch that. Reactor three is offline, full system reboot is in progress.”

“They are cutting us to bits!”

Aloud he spoke, “how much longer before those ships are in the blast radius of those missiles?”

“One minute and twelve seconds.”

“Is that taking into consideration the distance they will jump?”

“Aye captain.”

“Very well,” he rubbed his eyes, he was going to receive so much shit for this, “engineering, uncap the limiters on all active reactors. I want every fucking gun on this ship firing on those three cruisers. We need to make all of them jump at the same time or else this will not work.”

He could see the disbelief in the engineering officer’s eyes. Uncapping the reactors was a very, very risky move. If anything went wrong, the entire ship could be turned into nothing more than an expanding cloud of gas in less than a millisecond. “Y-y-yes, sir.”

The officer punched in several different authorization codes, talking to his backroom the entire time. When he was done, he muttered a prayer and confirmed the change. The difference was immediately noticeable, the humming inside the ship became much louder. The MARS cannons charged faster and the railguns firing rate increased drastically. Firepower of such a magnitude that the xeno’s had never even fathomed to be possible of one ship, poured from the Hansan.

/-/

On the other side of the battlefield, the Rokoran commander snarled. It was an arrogant snarl. The alien turned to its inferiors, “this is why the prey species stand no chance. Even when they have the advantage of firepower they fail to win. They are weak, as are the other races of this galaxy. A mere class ten species that will become nothing more than another footnote in history.”

“Yes Ship-Lord.” the crew hissed reverently, “all praise the All-Father.”

“Jump Operator, evade the incoming attack.”

“It will be done, Ship-Lord.” it bowed its head. The alien watched with its nine eyes as the storm of railgun darts, MARS rounds, and PDC sabots flew ever closer. When the first round hit the very outermost shields, it hit the jumpdrive.

The ships disappeared in a flash almost simultaneously. All systems cut off for exactly one second before the ships reappeared. The systems quickly rebooted and the ship automatically scanned the area. Perfectly in time for the ship, AI’s to register the presence of twin suns expanding towards them.

/-/

“Direct hit!” the tactical officer shouted jubilantly. “Splash Bandits 2-4, nothing’s surviving that.” A collective sigh of relief could be heard from the entire crew. The two nuclear fireballs kept on expanding, lighting the asteroid belt like a flashlight in a dark room.

“Let’s get moving before that EMP hits us,” Yi said, “Navigation, plot a course back to the fleet. We’re done here.”

“Aye sir.” the navigator tore his eyes from the display.

“What of Bandit 1?”

“Forget it, we’re in no shape to be fighting off something that big,” Yi said and the ship passed the event horizon and into Warp space.