USS Cherry Barb, far side of Europa

“Transmission is on its way, in the clear and as loud as possible. Any ships near Europa will have heard that.”

“Well done Lieutenant.” Responded Captain Frazer as he looked at the main sensor display on the Cherry Barb.

Below the Cherry Barb was Europa, behind and to the left the Cherry Barb was the main Leviathan force. In front of them was the remains of the Behemoth drifting aimlessly in space. Although the last they had seen of it the Behemoth had been in several large pieces it was now in 4 extremely large pieces with hundreds of chunks the size of skyscrapers drifting around them.

“Sir, we have movement. On the far side of the Behemoth Guppy we spotted is moving towards us. Guppy designated Alpha is 150 000 kilometers away.” The Pounds said.

“Lieutenant Brown full acceleration ahead, keep the Behemoth between us and the Guppies if you can.”

“Ahead sir?”

“There is no way we can decelerate and turn around before they reach us. Weapons, switch us from the nuke tipped slugs to the light rounds, wide spread until they within 50 000 kilometers. Let’s see what our weapons can do to them.”

Nuclear tipped rail gun rounds were technically banned by several treaties that had been signed by all major powers. They were prohibited under the idea that a solid slug hitting the earth at 1% of light speed would be devastating enough, if it were nuclear tipped a single rail gun round would be potentially cataclysmic.

The treaties banned all unguided munitions that lacked a firing computer from having a nuclear warhead. Ideally nuclear missiles would not hit the earth by accident, but if they did, they could be programmed so that they did not explode.

The Nuclear tipped rail gun rounds got around this by having a basic targeting computer inside of them ensuring they would only explode against or near their targets. Although the warhead was not particularly large being only 5 kilotons. While very small, with a contact detonation and if a ship used all 8 of their nuke rounds in quick succession even a stealth ship could destroy or at the very least heavily damage even Dreadnoughts.

However, because they only had 8 of the nuclear tipped rounds, and enemies had the nasty habit of dodging shots they saw coming Commander Frazer was not willing to risk using them until he could be guaranteed a hit, so they were using their standard light rail gun rounds instead.

As the Cherry Barb Accelerated towards the Behemoth attempting to keep the bulk of the enemy ship between the Guppy and themselves their guns spoke in anger for the first time, launching two and then two more light rounds towards the place their distant enemy was hopefully going to be. When the shots were barely 400 kilometers from their enemy the canisters exploded sending a handful of small depleted uranium balls hurtling towards their enemy. If Commander Frazer had been hoping for scores of damage he was sorely disappointed. Although a few of the balls did hit the Guppy and penetrate into the first few layers of its flesh it was causing less damage than most micro meteors.

The Guppy accelerated as it moved between the largest pieces of the Behemoth, dodging out of the way of the largest chunks and simply crashing straight through some of the smallest of pieces.

Unable to get a clear view of the Cherry Barb because of the debris the Guppy held its fire as the Cherry Barb fired at it and missed with most of its munitions.

Every 2 seconds the auto loaders on the Cherry Barb finished their work and the guns launched another 4 rounds towards their enemy but unfortunately despite several glancing hits barely even any scratches could be seen on their enemy.

Just as the Guppy was clearing most of the debris field from the Behemoth, 6 jagged holes opened on the Guppies face. For a brief moment the Cherry Barbs hull flared red as 2 of the lasers found their hull scoring deep gouges in the aft of the ship before they managed to break sight lines from the Guppy by flying behind the Behemoth. Unfortunately, unlike its larger cousin’s stealth ships were very lightly armored and the gouges went deep into the hull.

“Damage report!”

“Damage to our aft sections stealth plating, outer hull has been compromised, but the inner hull is holding. Cryo tubing is non-responsive and we’re leaking oxygen. The superstructure of the ship itself appears to be undamaged as well as engines and weapons.” Pounds shouted over the ringing of the alarms on the bridge.

“Pounds deal with the damage control teams.”

Looking at the data on main screen Commander Frazer tried to guess where the Guppy would come from. From their current position it would take the Guppy as few as 5 minutes before it would cross under the Behemoth and have a clear shot.

“Weapons, switch back to the Nuke rounds, and make ready the nuclear missiles.” With only 8 shots available to them they could not afford a miss, but with the amount of damage caused by even that brief exposure to the Guppies weapons Commander Frazer didn’t see any alternative but to bring out their most effective weapons.

Looking at the data collected by his ship Frazer displayed the entirety of the Behemoth on his display. The Cherry Barbs position was represented by a blinking light on the underside of the Behemoth and a blinking red light represented the last known location of the Guppy.

Flying this close to such a large object was presenting its own challenges aside from the hostiles hunting them. Space was massive and aside from docking it was not expected for ships to be flying close to anything, let alone flying near an object rolling through space surrounded by debris while traveling at the speeds their ship was moving at. If their Navigator made one small miscalculation their ship would crash into one of a hundred objects large enough to destroy their ship or even the Behemoth itself.

Looking at the display Commander Frazer noted their enemies last position and drew a line with his eyes charted the shortest distance between their enemy and themselves. If their enemy followed the most direct path that is where it would appear, 3 kilometers on the Cherry Barbs starboard side. Frazer thought, marking a spot in his mind, that was close enough that rail gun rounds would travel the distance almost instantly. The big problem would be if he was wrong and their target appeared anywhere else. It would only take a small course change for the Leviathan to be a dozen kilometers on either side of that point. If it was not where they expected they would need time to find their target, track the target, lock on and then fire. His crew was excellent but that still took time, and if his enemy was a little faster on the draw there would be no second attempt.

What he needed was an edge, a way to know where the enemy was coming from, or some kind of distraction to split its focus when it was here. It certainly wasn’t helping that there were dozens of pieces of debris larger than the Cherry Barb and one wrong move could have them smash straight into one.

“Lieutenant Brown, begin slowing us down, as quickly as possible.”

“Yes Sir, we will be going as slow as we can as fast as we can.” He said, most of the crew was fortunately already in their crash couches and the few damage control teams should have been ready for sudden changes in the ships orientation, but even if they weren’t it wasn’t like they had any other choice. The Cherry Barb flipped end over end and the main thrusters, silent for months now burst into life.

A long plume of plasma spat out behind the Cherry Barb as her velocity started to slow immediately.

“How long until we are slowed to the same relative velocity of the Behemoth?”

“7 minutes sir, less if I risk burning the engines out.”

“Don’t break my ship Lieutenant.”

With their main thrusters now firing the Cherry Barb was now literally lighting a signal flare telling everyone near them where they were. Even after they stopped firing their main thrusters, they could not achieve stealth again until their engines cooled, otherwise the heat from their engines would cause them to stick out on any scanner like a sore thumb.

“That will be fine Mr. Brown, there is a large piece of debris near our flight path. I want you to angle us so that it is between us and this point for as long as possible,” Commander Frazer said indicating the area he hoped the Guppy would appear at. “Rotate the ship so that our turrets are peaking out from underneath it. Weapons I want you to point the guns at that point and use the slinger to disperse mines around that spot, one mine 3 km away from that point on either side of it. The Guppy should be coming around that corner in a few minutes. When they do don’t salvo fire the guns, just fire them one at a time. We do not have a lot of nuke rounds and I don’t want to waste them.”

“Sir, due to the shape of the debris, we only have one turret with a clear shot, the rear turret is blocked.” The weapons officer said.

Commander Fraser only nodded to indicate that he heard.

As the seconds ticked by the crew watched the spot where Commander Frazer predicted the Guppy would appear, every second the Cherry Barb slipped further and further out of cover as her engines attempted to match the course and speed of the debris. After 50 seconds the tension started to become unbearable. At 55 seconds even the veteran crew started to crack from the pressure as tried to focus on their duties. At 1 minute and 15 seconds the Guppy appeared almost two kilometers from where Commander Frazer hoped it would. The Guppy was traveling extremely quickly, every weapon it had firing at the Cherry Barb directly in front of it.

The Guppies lasers aim was unerringly accurate, whatever senses they had allowed them to ignore the Cherry Barbs plasma exhaust and shoot at exactly where the Cherry Barb. Fortunately, the chunk of Behemoth was still in-between the two. As soon as it realized its mistake it shifted targets, its lasers scoring a long line in the viscera and organs of the Behemoth as all six of its weapons tracked along the debris searching for its quarry. This gave the Cherry barb the time it needed.

The weapons officer not needing to wait for the order detonated both of the mines in his haste. While only one was close enough to the Guppy to damage it, the mine was able to burn away a half a meter of flesh on the back of the Guppy. This cause the Guppy to lose some control of its course and its aim faltered, just for a moment.

Just long enough.

The Cherry Barbs guns spoke. With their position behind the chunk of Behemoth only one of their gun turrets were free to fire, fortunately they were so close to their target the rail gun rounds crossed the void of space to their target almost instantly.

The first round impacted the Guppy on the right side of what could be called its face. The round penetrated the first several inches of the Guppies hull before the onboard computer detonated the small warhead.

In space nuclear explosions were far less impressive than in an atmosphere. Without oxygen to burn there was no large fire ball or shockwave, just a release of energy, most of which was wasted not hitting their target.

With the contact detonation the outer hull of the front Guppy exploded outward as the liquid of the Guppy vaporized. Three seconds later the second shot was fired. This one missed the Guppy by a scant few meters. Fortunately, the relatively simple onboard computer realised it was going to miss its intended target and detonated just as it started passing by the Guppy.

Even just a hundred meters away from the Guppy the nuclear explosion did far less damage than the first. Some of the flesh near the back of the Guppy became scorched and blackened, but aside from that there was not a lot of damage.

With the nuclear explosion the Guppy stopped firing its weapons for a few moments and the crew was able to get a good look at their enemy. A 50 meter section of flesh on what could be called its face was melted off, the twisted melted remains of three of it’s weapons were hanging off the front of the Guppy uselessly, muscles were visible and began to bulge and fall out, and underneath several meters of the melted armor a smooth white inner hull was visible.

“Weapons once more!”

The Cherry Barbs auto loaders had already moved 2 more nuclear rounds into their rail guns and the weapons officer manually fired the gun. In the time it took the officer to do this the Guppy reacted as well and turned so that its undamaged side was facing it’s enemy powering up its weapons.

The Guppy attempted to lock onto the only visible part of its enemy, the Cherry Barbs turret. The Guppy started firing all of its remaining weapons when the the 3rd and then 4th rail gun rounds slammed into it.

The first round landed dead center at the front of the ship. The energy from the explosion boiling off the thick hull as the viscous red liquid Commander Frazer had begun to associate with critical damage to the Guppy began pouring out of the hull. The Second round landed along the body of the Guppy on it’s left side near the aft section causing another explosion of gore and viscera to bloom out.

The positioning could not have been better if it had been planned. The first nuclear round had scoured a rough circle 30 meters in diameter almost clear of its outer skin leaving its entire face a blackened mess with chunks of flesh hanging off of it and leaking fluids. The second round scoured the aft section of its skin and bones in a rough circle 50 meters in diameter leaving thick ropey muscles visible and even more fluid pouring from the open wounds.

Unfortunately the Cherry Barb did not escape unharmed. All three of the lasers were able to hit their target, one of the two turrets of the Cherry Barb and the only one that currently had a clear shot.

Even three lasers working together wouldn’t have been enough to pierce the thick armor on a cruiser so quickly. Stealth ships however had the bare minimum of armor and the three lasers were able to melt through the armor and cause and explosion that destroyed the turret in a matter of moments.

The long thick strands of flesh that made up the rear of the creature were blackened and smoking, large chunks were missing and several chunks floating away, but even damaged the creature was not dead.

Slowly it began to rotate towards the Cherry Barb, its final laser glowing with a bright red light as it powered on.

“Missiles!” Shouted Commander Fraser.

Not bothering to respond the weapons officer simply launched two of the four missiles the Cherry Barb possessed. Much larger than the small nuclear weapons crammed into the rail gun rounds these were multi kiloton warheads capable of destroying cities.

As they were accelerated out of the Cherry Barb on their magnetic launchers the Guppies movements became less sluggish, less confused, faster. Its laser spoke again this time destroying both of the missiles in moments, one of them only a few hundred meters from the creature.

By now the Cherry Barb had drifted out from behind the debris shielding it, almost half of its nuclear arsenal had been used, and their enemy was still capable of firing and maneuvering.

“Get us out of here Brown!” The commander shouted.

The Cherry Barb flipped end over end once more and began accelerating away as fast as they could. As soon as they were clear of the Behemoth they began turning up towards it trying to put it between them and their enemy. They were not fast enough. The single laser scored a long gash along the bottom of the hull, not able to cut cleanly through the hull it nonetheless caused small fires and damaged sensitive electronics on the ship.

As the Cherry Barb finally cleared the Behemoth it started moving in the other direction skimming along the surface of the creature.

“Put a mine there! If it follows us I want it to run right into it.”

A moment later the soft thump of the slinger could be felt in the ship as the mine exited the ship, a moment too late. The mine was left several kilometers away from were the commander had wanted it to be.

As the Cherry Barb skimmed along the surface of the Behemoth only a few dozen meters above the city sized they were finally able to get a good look at the terrain in front of them. Hundreds of tentacles stretched in front of them like a horrific forest made up of flesh with pustules and suction cups on them waving in a non-existent breeze. Most of the tentacles were only 40 to 50 meters long and only a meter or two thick but many were two or three times that in length and almost as thick as the Cherry Barb Herself.

Just as the crew was starting to think the Guppy had finally died of its injuries the Guppy turned the corner at speed keeping low to the Behemoth almost skimming its surface. As it came into view it immediately started firing at the Cherry Barb with its last weapon. The Cherry Barb was able to take evasive action behind a massive tentacle in front of it and the Guppy pursued the Ship.

The Guppies course took it within half a kilometer mine the Cherry Barb launched. Realizing that the creature would not get any closer to it the onboard computer detonated the mine.

Unlike the extremely small nuclear warhead on the nuclear rail gun rounds the mines were several megatons and packed far more punch. Unfortunately, a contact detonation was still vastly preferable to simply being near their target.

Most of the energy in the detonation was lost, radiating away from the Guppy but the energy that did hit it boiled off 2 meters worth of flesh and several of the tentacles on the less damaged side of the Guppy.

Undeterred by the damage it continued its pursuit; its laser firing wildly in front of it connecting more with the Behemoth than the Cherry Barb.

The two adversaries sped along the Behemoth weaving between the tentacles narrowly avoiding crashing directly into them.

As the Cherry Barb approached another large tentacle Commander Frazer said “Pass this tentacle on its port side, ready the remaining turret to aim at the starboard side of the tentacle.”

As the ship approached the tentacle a nuclear mine was launched behind it at a velocity calculated to ensure the mine was stationary relative to the Behemoth.

The Guppy close enough to detect the mine using whatever method it had of sensing objects in front of it pulled to its starboard side passing the tentacle, directly into the sights of the Cherry Barbs guns.

Both of the guns on the turret fired at the same time, both nuclear tipped slugs slammed into the Guppy a scant few meters from each other direct hits on its face. When the radiation cleared the white inner hull of the Guppy was cracked and blood was poring out of a hole in its face. Its laser was however still firing.

A lucky shot managed to hit the slinger port directly where the mines were launched from and the laser bypassed all of the Cherry Barbs armor as it cut directly through several decks of the ship.

“Fire again!”

The weapons officer needed no extra prompting as the last two nuclear tipped rail gun rounds managed to hit dead center of the Guppy once more. The rounds actually managed to punch through the hull and penetrate into the soft core of the Guppy, a moment later the explosion cause the Guppy to explode in a shower of gore and viscera as the nuclear weapons blew the creature into thousands of pieces no larger than a human head which then began to crystalize in the harsh environment of space.

The Cherry Barb although victorious was not unscathed. The Guppies final attack had pierced her right in the slinger bay. Bypassing even her thin armor had allowed the laser to pierce the slinger itself as well as several decks, magazine storage and even an unfortunate crew member who burst into flames with the hit. Fortunately, the slingers mines did not detonate and the damage while severe would not destroy the ship immediately. The fires that started in its wake however might if the crew were unable to get them under control.