Titan Battle, page 23
That… would require some type of leap of faith in human technology and battle tactics — some type of new weapon had to exist that Thorim didn't even have as of right now. A new generation of human weapons had to be developed so that they could compensate for current enemy defensive capabilities. And all this had to happen while humanity was taking on the onslaught to its home system.
Was it even possible? Was it realistic?
An old idea approached Thorim, something that he found so abhorrent. Thorim thought — that if all else failed in this battle — he would surrender rather than see Earth annihilated. It had to be his last option, if all else failed…
Thorim frowned, feeling disgusted. That'll be the day. Maybe if all else failed, and Earth looks like it'll be destroyed, I might… I might…
I can't condemn the entire planet and all its population to death because of my ego and my will, can I? At least this way, I can fight knowing that all the humans on the planet won't be exterminated.
… But will the enemy accept my surrender? Will they not blow up the planet anyway, like they did to all the others?
I don't know, damn it! Better to make sure that we don't reach that point, that we try our best to repel the invaders from our system.
And that means I have to make the best decisions when it comes time.
That's right, Jason. Concentrate on one thing at a time. This battle!
He looked at the pixelmap, again. The swarm of human fighters were just about finished with section D18. The computer predictions were correct. They had suffered extreme casualties coming in, and it looked like the same coming out. But the good news was that D18 had also suffered extreme damage. The cavity in its armor was now massive.
But… was it enough? Was he making enough progress on D18 with his fighters? Would he have to be forced to throw a third bombing run at D18, where his fighters would be thrown into the maw of the enemy fleet, again?
And was the combined attack from both his fighters and his pulsar guns doing damage fast enough? Or would the enemy fortress still exist as a powerful threat… even after his fighters lost all their numbers to enemy point defense beams after a third and fourth bombing run… and even after his pulsars lost their shields and were forced to retreat?
Times like this, I'm glad I have the computer.
"Computer," asked Thorim, "what is the current damage status of D18? How many tons of armor have we destroyed and how much is left?"
"Calculating…" said the computer. "Position D18 of the enemy fortress has lost a total of 32 million metric tons of armor out of 44 million metric tons."
"I see. How much has the second bombing run destroyed?"
"Our second fighter wave has destroyed 5 million metric tons."
"Ok. Now answer this, computer. Can you predict how much more time our pulsar class battleships can continue firing on D18 before suffering shield depletion by the incoming fire from the enemy capital ships sent to attack our pulsar-classes?"
"Calculating… our pulsar-class battleships have roughly 3 more minutes before they must retreat according to your parameters."
Now here's the main question. It all comes down to this. "Computer, will we do enough damage on position D18 so that we damage the enemy fortress's power core before our pulsars are forced to retreat due to shield depletion and before our fighter numbers become negligible due to fighter losses?"
"Calculating," said the computer. "Calculation complete. The answer is negative."
"Why?" said Thorim.
The computer continued, "Because, even while evasively sliding, the shields on all five pulsar-class battleships will not be able to hold long enough to finish cutting through D18. Because of that, we will be forced to rely on our fighters to bomb D18, but the numbers of our fighters will be wilted down into negligible numbers after the fifth bombing run. The incision on D18 will be forever incomplete."
Thorim blinked. Damn! Damn it! "What… what if we keep our pulsar battleships firing on D18 even after their shields deplete?"
"That would not be advisable."
Thorim thought about it. No, it would not. I can't risk losing my pulsars by forcing them to fire on D18 even after shield depletion. If I lose my pulsars, there's no way I can kill off all those enemy warships. The pulsars are my wild card. They can fire on enemy assets from outside of the maximum firing range of any enemy weapon.
He blinked, again, thinking hard. I can't believe it! After all this time… all this struggle… to take down that fortress, both before and after D18, and we have to give up? All that fire on the fortress… a complete waste?
How can the universe be this unfortunate? Thorim blinked once more. And did I make the worst mistake in the entire battle by focusing my fire on the fortress?
He shook his head. I almost want to ignore the computer's calculations and continue firing at the fortress. Damn it! Only 12 million metric tons left! So close!
Yet… if I do that, I risk… no, I ensure… that my pulsar classes will face destruction, including my flagship.
So… damn! All that work for nothing!
Thorim sighed and caressed his chin. So now what?
He reclined his body on his command chair. There seems to be only one option left — stop attacking the enemy fortress altogether. That means I can finally withdraw my pulsar-classes out of weapon's range of the enemy's capital ships sent to attack them. As for my fighters… I suppose they can bomb a different target that's not D18 and destroy that. And as for my sole remaining star fortress… well…
So, once again, I condemn another five thousand souls to death. I suppose it's not as bad as it seems, since I've already lost 600 billion… but, damn, those are five thousand extremely well trained crews that are not replaceable in a war at this stage.
Once again, the enemy succeeded in chipping away at me.
He shook his head. In other words, I pretty much have to give up the battle of the wormhole exit. I knew, based on the enemy's warship numbers, that I had to give up the wormhole exit eventually, but what mattered was taking out as many enemies before that happened. And to do that, I had to destroy the enemy fortress and keep both of mine alive — which isn't possible now — so I guess that optimistic outcome won't be happening…
Thorim bit his lips. Damn it!
He pressed a button that opened up the command channel to all his units, and began relaying orders.
Chapter 41
The war raged above the wormhole exit.
As Thorim's orders trickled down the command chain, the enemy witnessed much of the human forces acting differently. No longer were any pulsar beams crashing into position D18. The human fighters, on the other hand, did not act any different than they did before… but that was because they hadn't reached that point. All 386 fighters went back to their carriers to rearm for the next strike, which would be different.
The human pulsar class battleships changed actions immediately. Each pulsar engaged in maximum backward sliding so that they sped as far away from the enemy ships that were sent to attack them. Meanwhile, their forward main pulsar guns slammed round after round of pulsar beams into the nearest enemy ship. Enemy ships that had previously been too close to the human pulsars now found themselves being slammed by pulsar beams at point blank range.
Meanwhile, human plasma-equipped capital ships began sliding out of range of the enemy capital ships they previously had skirmished with. Each plasma-equipped capital ship tried their best with their outdated drive rings to get out of the enemy's weapon's range.
While all of this was breathing life back into the human ships, the human fortress Helvon's Vengeance continued suffering concentrated attack after attack by the enemy fleet as well as the enemy star fortress. Beam after beam of grazers along with enemy tachyon pulses slammed into the human fortress's shields. The outcome was obvious. It was apparent that the human fortress would lose its shields and suffer catastrophic damage to its armor, much like its sister fortress less than 20 minutes ago.
To make things worse, the enemy revealed their next surprise…
Flag Bridge, Federation Battleship Carginan, retreating away from the wormhole exit
Thorim's eyes widened upon seeing new enemy ships coming out of the wormhole exit. They were bigger… much bigger. Thornguards!
Those lumbering giants that he most dreaded were just now entering the human home system!
So the enemy had Thornguards after all! I thought they didn't have any… I was wrong. Why did the enemy commander only choose to send them out now? — at this late point in the wormhole exit battle?
His eyes gazed at the holographic representation of each new Thornguard the wormhole exit gave birth to. Each gigantic 4 kilometer long warship was oval shaped and armed with anti-fighter laser blisters as well as the dreaded dual main tachyon pulse cannons.
Are these tachyon pulse cannons shielded, too?
He shook his head. He didn't know. But what he did know was that the presence of the enemy's Thornguards had to have changed things strategically.
But then, as he thought about it, he wondered… how so? Did the overall strategic picture really change because of these Thornguards?
He bit his lips. Did they really increase the enemy's firepower by that much, and if they did, does such an increase in total enemy firepower matter? Wasn't he already fighting a very lopsided battle with his remaining units? The addition of these Thornguards… did it really change the situation for him?
He already needed a miracle to win, and this miracle was only made more miraculous by the existence of these super large warships.
No.. I don't need need a miracle to win. I do have a decent chance. And this chance exists as long as my pulsars can out range the enemy. I wonder —
Can these Thornguards prevent Thorim from being able to shoot at the enemy with his Pulsars while being outside of the enemy's main guns? Were these Thornguards equipped with the same weapons as the ones he fought against a month earlier in Alpha Centauri? Were their tachyon pulse cannons still 120,000 kilometers in maximum effective range compared to the 200,000 kilometers of his pulsar guns? Could his pulsar class battleships out-range these Thornguards as well?
He shrugged. And an even bigger question was how fast were these new Thornguards? If they moved at the same speed as before, Thorim would need no significant change in his coming battle tactics, except the enemy as a whole was much harder to take down because they had far more armor.
I suppose it's not that big of a difference after all. Will the existence of these Thornguards be enough to create an entirely different outcome to this battle?
Thorim stroked his chin and wondered… I don't think so. The outcome doesn't change that much, except that it will take me far longer to take down all these enemy units, provided I can in the first place.
… And as for the wormhole exit battle, well I already know the second human fortress is as good as dead, even before these Thornguards appeared. The wormhole exit battle was already lost before they came out.
As Thorim perused the pixelmap, he cringed upon seeing a third Thornguard exit behind the second. Each Thornguard fired at the only object within range of their TPCs, the remaining human star fortress Helvon's Vengeance.
He saw the Helvon's Vengeance's shield splatter from the onslaught of all the enemy units outside the wormhole exit. It lost a full 10% in its shield saturation within seconds.
Gods damn it, Thorim winced. The Helvon's Vengeance is dead. All five thousand crewmen on it are going to die. But I already knew that.
His eyes gazed the pixelmap as a fourth Thornguard exited behind the third. Gods! How many of these humongous beasts are there?
And that, besides daunting him with dread, made him more curious than ever. Suddenly, a wondering thought lingered in his head. Why wait until now? Why did the enemy choose to send their Thornguards out the exit only now? Why didn't they send their Thornguards out when the enemy fortress came out, or better yet, when their first capital ships came out?
They must have thought that we can destroy these Thornguards, and that's why they kept their most important warships until last. And if that is true… that we can indeed destroy these Thornguards with concentrated fire, then that's a good thing. It means they do have a weakness. But is their weakness as weak as the Thornguards we fought a month ago in Alpha Centauri?
Probably not, he thought. After all, the TPCs on top of the enemy fortress were heavily shielded… there's no reason to expect that these won't be as well.
But a lingering question remained. Why didn't the enemy commander send the Thornguards immediately out with their star fortress? Surely, it's in the enemy's best interests to concentrate their greatest offensive assets at one point in time. Isn't it best to concentrate the units with greatest firepower together so that they can deal the greatest damage?
With the way the enemy played it, I almost destroyed the enemy's star fortress before their Thornguards came out onto the field!
Were they that concerned that we might take the Thornguards out that they saved them for last?
Or is it…?
Thorim's eyes widened. They wanted me to empty my firepower on something that isn't as mobile as the rest of their warships. Because… in the end, the slow moving enemy star fortress is not as great a threat to Sol as much as the enemy's mobile fleet — which can severely cripple human war production centers once their ships gets within range of Earth. In this light, the enemy's star fortress is expendable! It's main purpose is to absorb punishment, which I gave wholeheartedly and clumsily!
I've made a horrendous mistake all this time! Thorim clenched his fist. I was so enamored by the enemy star fortress's existence that I concentrated all my firepower on it instead of taking out more of the enemy's warships — and I didn't realize that firing at the enemy's star fortress was the worst option available for my side and, inversely, was exactly what the enemy wanted!
And worse yet, I've this mistake twice already! The first time was with the enemy's minesweeper dreadnoughts! Now… their star fortress!
Thorim slammed his fist into his armrest. What should I do now? Should I or should I not focus my fire on the enemy's Thornguards? Can I? Or will they be protected?
Or should I instead fire at the enemy's smaller units, the ones that I can actually damage, like their smaller capital ships or their destroyers?
No… I should try to take out as many of their units as I can… irregardless of size… because they're all a threat and all are mobile and can reach Earth. So my strategy should be once again to attack the enemy units that have the greatest offense to defense ratio. And if that is not attainable, either because those units are being protected by other enemy units, then I should fire at the next best thing that I can fire at.
Only with this method will I be certain I'll have the greatest chance of wilting the enemy fleet to nothing. The old stratagem applies, if you eliminate the enemy units with greatest firepower-to-armor ratio, you'll maximize eliminating their ability to take down your units, resulting in more of your units surviving to fire on the enemy over time.
But can I do it with only 58 ships? 6 Artemises, 1 Warhammer, 5 Pulsars, 18 destroyers, 12 frigates, and 16 carriers?
One thing is for sure, I won't underestimate the armor of those enemy Thornguards unlike last time.
Thorim leaned forward — somehow finding hope in an apparently hopeless situation. Alright! Let's see what these pulsar classes are truly made of.
xxx
One after another, Thornguards marched out of the wormhole exit — eventually, five whole Thornguards accumulated.
For the first time in a long time, nothing new came out of the exit. It seemed that the enemy had finally exhausted their supply of ships and assets.
Still, the enemy forces outside the wormhole now numbered 28 battleships, 16 superspacers, 79 destroyers, 5 Thornguards, and 1 badly damaged enemy star fortress — and all of these warships, plus the lone enemy battlestation, fired at the remaining human star fortress.
Even before the Thornguards appeared, the human fortress's shields was around 40%. Now, with Thornguard's firepower added into the mix, the shields of the human fortress quickly drained.
40% went down to 30%, then 20% — all within seconds.
10% became 5%, then 0%.
And then the Helvon's Vengeance was shieldless.
Grazer beams and tachyon pulses enthusiastically slammed into the Helvon's Vengeance's armor. Armor exploded when hit by grazer beams, or demolecularized if hit by tachyon pulses. Within seconds, massive cavities formed on the surface of the human fortress's structure. There was nothing the fortress's human crew could do — the fortress was never designed to combat this level of punishment.
