Ramming Speed Read online

the troops mentally ready for combat. Now it was time to make good on his pledge to them.

  The fleet reformed into two compact spheres, one inside the other. The outer sphere was comprised mostly of Hastati class cruisers. These were excellent ships capable of both dealing out and withstanding copious volumes of punishment. The inner circle was made up of Onager class vessels. These ships were slow and lightly armored but what they lacked in those areas they more than made up for in weaponry.

  Onagers were armed with a ridiculous complement of pulse concussion launchers. These weapons were not at all accurate, but they unleashed a devastating amount of damage over a large area. Hastelloy planned to use the Onagers as artillery pieces firing from a safe distance while the outer sphere of Hastati cruisers kept the enemy away from the fragile ships.

  Hastelloy opened a new channel to the outer layer of ships. “I’ve grouped you into teams of five vessels and designated one as lead. That ship will pick the target and the entire team will focus their fire on it. You all know concentration of fire knocks out ships, not random shooting. Be sure not to venture too far from your assigned positions, we need to protect the Onagers. Now get to it and good hunting.”

  With his orders given, the fleet now organized, and the men sufficiently roused for the task, Hastelloy focused his attention on the strategic battle map. He smiled upon seeing one last Alpha ships foolish enough to follow their targets into the new formation get destroyed. The focused fire was having the desired effect.

  The random dots representing the Alpha ships began grouping together. ‘Oh no you don’t’ Hastelloy thought. He promptly ordered the Onagers to bombard those locations exclusively.

  The effect was immediate and devastating. The Alpha instantly took a more scattered formation and moved in on the sphere of Novi ships. They were concentrating their attacks but it would not be nearly as effective in a scattered formation.

  The Novi sphere of ships made Hastelloy’s job of repelling the attackers relatively easy through the use of interior reinforcement lines. If an area needed help, ships were called from a section not under attack and got there almost immediately since they could travel in a straight line from one point to another. If the Alpha tried to exploit the hole left by the missing ships, they needed to go all the way around the Novi formation and Hastelloy’s keen strategic eye could easily spot these shifts and new points of attack.

  The battle was going well, but eventually the Alpha commander would wise up and send in all his ships to attack all points along the sphere at once to overrun the Novi with their sheer strength of numbers. It was a crude but effective tactic given the circumstance. Something miraculous needed to happen and fast to hold off defeat.

  While Hastelloy studied the map he noticed one consistent pattern. There was a group of 100 ships that never engaged. They changed positions, mixed with other vessels, but ultimately never took part in the attacks. The Alpha command ship must be part of that group he reasoned.

  Hastelloy quickly set to work issuing new orders to the fleet as his heart threatened to pound its way out of his chest with anticipation. Nothing in combat was as exciting as discovering something your opponent didn’t want you to know and exploiting it to the fullest.

  Hastelloy waited patiently as the Alpha came at his ships with wave after wave of complex but easily repelled attacks thanks to the ease of interior reinforcement movement the Novi fleet enjoyed. Finally, Hastelloy saw it. The Alpha fleet completely scattered and was preparing to assault them all at once. ‘I love it when a plan comes together’ Hastelloy thought as he located the magic group of 100 vessels containing the Alpha command ship.

  Hastelloy opened a channel to the fleet. “Execute.” With the single word uttered, the fleet sprang into motion. The point of the sphere formation farthest from the Alpha command group moved at full speed going directly at the targeted ships. The rest of the sphere followed like dominoes from back to front. On Hastelloy’s screen it looked like the Novi formation turned inside out. The Novi fleet was on top of the Alpha command group in the blink of an eye and mercilessly annihilated anything in its path.

  Hastelloy didn’t have time to celebrate his tactical victory. The remaining Alpha ships were intent on following their commander’s dying order to engage them with every ship at every point. Their attacks would be far less effective without a command ship, but the Novi were still outnumbered two to one and the battle had now degraded into a disorganized melee. It was up to the individual attack groups working together, and the battle maneuver programs coded into the ship computers to do their work.

  Both the Alpha and Novi learned long ago that managing close quarters space combat was better left to a computer. A ship’s central computer was the only thing capable of calculating speeds, angles of attack, locations of shield vulnerabilities, and paths of other ships around, all the while keeping the ship orientated away from an attacker to hide weaknesses.

  All of these variables compounded together were incomprehensibly complex but the central computer could manage and react instantly to them. In the end, close quarters space combat came down to how well some tech geek thousands of light years away did his programming job. The crews were quite literally just along for the ride.

  As it turned out, the Novi programmers earned their pay. After hours of relentless combat the numerical advantage the Alpha fleet enjoyed was all but eliminated. The cost was great however. Hastelloy ordered his remaining ships to form up at his rally point. The mighty fifth fleet was reduced to just four vessels: one Hastati cruiser, Two Onagers, and his unarmed collector ship.

  The Alpha fleet was in only marginally better shape with five moderately damaged attack ships left, plus the accursed constrictor ship that still trapped them there. The Novi and Alpha crafts hung silently in space as if engaging in an old-fashioned staring contest.

  “Hmmm,” Hastelloy sighed thoughtfully. “Not too scared to leave, but not confident enough to attack again. Who’s going to blink first?”

  “I don’t follow you sir,” Valnor responded. “We’re trapped here thanks to that density field. There’s nothing for us to do but fight.”

  “Maybe not,” Hastelloy said as he opened a communication channel with the lead Alpha ship.

  “Let’s do something different here today,” Hastelloy transmitted. “Let’s at least get to know the people we’re trying to kill before attempting to do so.”

  Dead silence was the only reply. Better than laughter Hastelloy figured.

  “It’s a shame really that the Novi and Alpha have stopped talking and simply open fire when we see the other. It’s been that way for generations and will probably continue for generations. Maybe that can change. What do you have to lose? My ships can’t go anywhere. If you don’t like what you hear, we can always commence trying to kill one another some more.”

  This time a harsh series of barks broke the silence. The computer translated the Alpha captain’s response, “Agreed.”

  Hastelloy stood and handed a data pad to ensign Valnor. “Make sure every ship receives these orders and make the necessary preparations while we talk with our friends out there. Hastelloy then gestured for Gallono to join him in the conference room.

  The two men entered a small room adjacent to the bridge and were greeted by the intimidating sight of two seven foot tall beings with the head of a K-9 on a stout, muscular frame. Hastelloy and Gallono casually walked through the holographic projections of the two Alphas and took their seats at the conference table. Over on the Alpha ship the two leaders sat down and stared across the table at virtual representations of their Novi adversaries.

  This was Hastelloy’s first time speaking with an Alpha, so he was more than a little distracted by the bizarre site of the hologram’s mouth silently moving one way forming words in his language while the computer translated them into the Novan language. Fighting back a chuckle was not difficult when the meaning of the
words hit home.

  “It’s out of morbid curiosity that I’m listening to you. Say your piece and then we’ll complete our victory by destroying that infernal Nexus device,” the Alpha captain said while sporting an acerbic attitude.

  “Victory?” Hastelloy spat back. “Even with the benefit of surprise and outnumbering us four to one your fleet still got annihilated. A few more victories like that and you’ll be well on your way to losing this war. Let’s face facts. We wouldn’t be talking right now if you felt confident in your eventual victory. You still have the advantage though, so I might be open to terms of surrender that result in the Nexus device safely returning to my people.”

  The Alpha leader dropped his arrogant smirk, but allowed a sly grin to remain. “Do you know where I come from?”

  Hastelloy regarded the question with a mocking smile, “A dark and scary place no doubt. Full of horned fairytale creatures with pitchforks and such.”

  “No! I, Captain Goron, come from a womb; I am of a natural birth. Some perverse machine spat you out, and continues to do so. Your technology allows you to fly into battle and blow everything to bits, including yourselves, with reckless abandon. The result is always brave Alpha warriors dying for the cause while you cowards