《The Leviathans》 Chapter 1 USS Cherry Barb, conflicted zone of the asteroid belt Commander James Frazer Captain of the USS ship Cherry Barb looked over the radar being displayed on the screen in front of him and the disconcerting amount of red it showed directly around the blip that represented his own ship. The green of the closest friendlies was on the extreme end of the terminal, clumped together in three separate groups leaving him and his own ship not only completely surrounded and outnumbered, but also alone. ¡°We¡¯re exactly where we are meant to be Pounds.¡± Commander Frazer said referring to 2nd in command by his old nickname. ¡°Completely surrounded, cut off, and about to ruin a lot of peoples day.¡± Responded Bernard Bannon or Pounds as his few friends would call him. ¡°Weapons, status?¡± Commander Frazer asked Duncan Marshal the weapons officer. ¡°All tubes have been prepped with nuclear missiles, The Slinger is loaded with nuclear mines, the rail gun capacitors are fully charged and loaded with nuclear rounds Sir.¡± The young officer responded immediately. ¡°We have a clean lock on the Chinese Flag Ship the Zeng He, as well as clear shots at one other dreadnought.¡± ¡°Communications.¡± ¡°We have clean narrow band laser transmissions to the Cruisers Philadelphia, Las Vegas and New York, they are relaying all targeting data we send them straight to the Rushmore. When the battle gets started, I may not be able to keep those sight lines clear Sir.¡± Alyx Green, the ships communications officer said ¡°Helm?¡± ¡°The Grav Engines are currently running quiet, but we can get up to full burn with our main engines in 3 seconds flat, maneuvering thrusters are on standby. I can dance us around half this fleet with them not seeing so much as a vapour trail Sir. I¡¯ll give Lieutenant Green all the line of sight she¡¯ll need.¡± The helm officer, an African American man named Nate Brown responded without a trace of doubt in his voice. ¡°Well done everyone. Lieutenant Green get me ship wide.¡± At the commanders order her fingers danced over her keyboard for a moment before she responded, ¡°You have ship wide Sir.¡± The Commander picked up the transmitter, which was in the shape of a very old-fashioned telephone he cleared his throat. ¡°Ladies and Gentlemen of the Cherry Barb, we are currently sitting less than 20,000 Kilometers off the stern of the Chinese Flag ship as she and her fleet move towards an American mining outpost. We are surrounded by an enemy fleet tens of thousands of miles from any friendly units. This is it, the moment we have planned for, prepared for and trained for. We are ready. The rest of the fleet call themselves the Sword and Shield of America. Well we are not; we are the knife that slips between an enemy¡¯s ribs. And as soon as this fleet crosses into American Territory it will be war. Remember your training, do your duty, and we will be victorious today.¡± With that Commander Frazer hung up the receiver. ¡°Was that seriously the best you could come up with?¡± Bannon whispered to Frazer. With a look at his old friend the Commander looked back at the display being projected above the bridge. ¡°Lieutenant Green make sure that the Rushmore is aware that this squadron here is too far away from its Frigate support.¡± Commander Fraser said indicating a small group of Cruisers that had strayed too far from itsfrigate escortships. Although every military ship in space had point defence guns, cruisers were still valuable enough that they were assigned several smaller frigates dedicated to help cover them from both missile and drone attacks. This group had allowed themselves to get overzealous and strayed too far from their escorts.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. As Lieutenant Green relayed the Commanders words the entire ship waited with bated breath as the Chinese fleet moved inexorably towards its American counter part. ¡°T-Minus 2 minutes and 30 seconds until Chinese Ships enter American space.¡± The Sensor operator said, his voice being projected across the ship. ¡°Sir, Admiral Jacobs is transmitting a message in the clear.¡± Lieutenant Green said. ¡°Put it on the loudspeaker.¡± Said Commander Frazer. There was a moment of silence and then distortion before the Admirals voice rang over the ship. ¡°This is a message to the Chinese fleet, you are approaching American held space. Crossing into our territory will be considered an act of war, and we will defend ourselves and this territory by any means necessary. Turn back this is your only warning.¡± As the message finished the crew could only listen to the crackle of the radio on the dead line. ¡°Any response from the Chinese fleet?¡± Commander Frazer asked. ¡°I am detecting a power spike in the Chinese fleet. Looks like they are charging their weapons. Sir the turrets on the Zeng He just rotated and have orientated towards Admiral Jacobs fleet. The rest of the fleet¡¯s turrets are doing the same. Looks like a final weapons check.¡± ¡°Well I supposed that gives us their answer.¡± ¡°90 seconds until Chinese ships cross into American Space.¡± ¡°Lieutenant Marshall, you are not to fire until I give the order no matter what, our primary mission is to send targeting data back to the fleet and we can hardly do that if we have been atomized.¡± ¡°Yes Sir.¡± ¡°60 Seconds until Chinese Ships cross into American Space.¡± With every order already given Commander Frazer focused all his attention on the information of the enemy fleet being projected in front of him. He had often wondered what it would be like to go to war and now that he was moments away from the largest war in Human history, he was amazed by how calm he felt. There was no doubt or even nervousness, just the knowledge that he could make a difference in the outcome of this conflict and he would do everything he could to ensure a victory for America. ¡°45 Seconds until contact.¡± The sensor operator called out. As the red mass of ships moved inexorably towards the green ships on the sensor screen, he could feel his palms beginning to sweat despite how calm he felt. ¡°30 seconds until contact¡± ¡°Sir, urgent message from the president being transmitted over secure channels to the entire fleet!¡± Shouted Lieutenant Green officer ¡°The Fleet is being ordered to stand down.¡± ¡°Confirm that, make absolutely certain that this is authentic.¡± ¡°25 seconds.¡± Lieutenant Green turned to her station and began checking the authenticity of the codes the fleet had been given. ¡°15 seconds.¡± ¡°Sir, I can confirm, this message is from the President and the Joint Chiefs of Staff all of the codes are checking out. We are being ordered to stand down immediately. Nothing from the Rushmore Sir. I am detecting a transmission to the Chinese fleet, it¡¯s encoded, I have no idea what it says.¡± Lieutenant Green said ¡°10 seconds until contact¡± The Sensor operator shouted. ¡°Sir! Movement from the Chinese Fleet. Their engines are firing, they are reorienting themselves away from the fleet! I repeat they are orientating themselves away from the fleet. Their Engines are firing, they are decelerating. Given their speed and trajectory they will still enter American space before they begin moving away.¡± Sarah Thompson the sensor operator of the ship yelled. ¡°Any word from the Rushmore?¡± Commander Frazer asked. ¡°Yes sir, patching it through now.¡± ¡°¡­ is Admiral Jacobs transmitting from the Rushmore, all American and Allied vessels are to stand down and not engage Chinese forces unless given direct orders. All ships stand down to condition two. I repeat this is Admiral Jacobs transmitting from the Rushmore all American and Allied vessels are to stand down and not engage unless given direct order. All ships are to stand down to condition two.¡± ¡°Helm can you plot us a course through or around the Chinese Fleet? I want to maintain stealth and a minimum distance of 10,000 kms from any ships.¡± ¡°Through would be tight Sir. The Chinese are decelerating rapidly, and they are maintaining close formations. Around them would be child¡¯s play though.¡± ¡°Get it done, we have a perfect record and I don¡¯t want to be spotted now.¡± ¡°Yes Sir.¡± ¡°Lieutenant Green get me ship wide.¡± Commander Frazer said picking up the transmitter. When Lieutenant Green nodded at the commander he spoke into the receiver. ¡°Attention crew, we have just received a command from the President and the Joint Chiefs of Staff ordering us to stand down, upon verifying the signal Admiral Jacobs ordered the fleet to stand down as well. The Chinese upon receiving a signal from their own government have turned around and are now accelerating towards Chinese Space. We are now standing down to condition two all nuclear ordinance are to be stowed. That is all.¡± With that Commander Frazer put the receiver down and turned to his 2nd in command. ¡°What the hell is happening Pounds?¡± ¡°That¡¯s a damn good question. I can¡¯t think of anything that would make the President give that order, and the Chinese? They¡¯ve been waiting for this war for decades.¡± ¡°I guess we¡¯ll just have to wait and see.¡± ¡°Sir?¡± Lieutenant Green said. ¡°Yes Lieutenant?¡± ¡°I have been picking up a huge spike in civilian communications traffic. It has been a little bit difficult making heads or tails of it, but I think I know what is going on.¡± She said hesitantly. ¡°All the news outlets are reporting the same things, a few hours ago a burst of radiation appeared near Jupiter, telescopes were then oriented to get a good look and, well the news is saying Alien ships were spotted near Jupiter. The President is scheduled to make a speech in an hour.¡± Both Commander Frazer and the Lieutenant Commander considered this before Lieutenant Commander Bannon said. ¡°Aliens? Yeah that could interrupt a war.¡± Chapter 2 ¡°Sir,thattransmission from NBNNthat I have been monitoring? They justannounced the president will make an emergencybroadcastin15 minutes.It is going to be broadcasted on all devices in America.¡± ¡°Excellent work Lieutenant. Any other news?¡± ¡°More than I can track Sir. The most common rumor is Alienshave appeared around Jupiter, but everyone seems to have a different idea.The rumors are endless Sir.¡± ¡°Even if it is Aliens what¡¯s the big deal? Don¡¯t we already have Aliens near Jupiter?¡± Nate Brown the Cherry Barbs Navigator asked. ¡°Amoebas and single celled organisms under ice are a hell of a lot different than something the size of a city appearing in a burst of radiation.¡± Lieutenant Commander Bannon said. Commander Frazer stood at his console looking at the data. The Chinese fleet theyhad beenfollowing were at full burn and after 30 minutes were just starting to accelerate away from American space. His own shipwasnot able tomake the same maneuvers without being seen and was quicklybeing left behind. TheMinnowclass shipsmay have excellent stealth systems but even a blind person would see theirexhaust plume and heat signature if they put their main engines to a full burn. The Minnow class stealth ship was the greatest stealth vessel to ever enter service in any nations Navy. While the EUand the United Kingdomhad experimented with the technology;negligible successes and mounting costssaw to it that the programswereeventually cut. The Chinese and the Russians never even bothered to try to develop the technology, simply preferring to make bigger ships with larger and more guns. It didn¡¯t matter if people knew where you were when you couldput adozen20-kilogram slugsthrough their ship from a half million kilometersaway. The United States howeverhad long enjoyed the first strike ability that submarines could give. Withthe push into space and the creation of Space Forces there was a lot of support forresearch into a ship that would allow for both unparalleled scouting and a first strike against enemies.While the project was incredibly expensive it eventually paid offwith the creation of stealth plating and the Mark 1 Stealth Probes. Although the first use of the technology wasforan unmanned probethat only saw limited productiontheability for the Mark 1 stealth probes toeasily fool all known and even theorized detection methods meant that soonplansforacruisersized ship were soon underway. The initial design called fora 400-meter-long cruiser to be made with a half dozen largeturrets each with 2 guns, point defence guns, 12 missileports, 12 drone launchers,all with enough nuclear weapons to decimate half an enemyfleet with their first salvo. Unfortunately, the largertheship and the more externally mounted weaponry,the more difficultand expensiveit was toensure the stealth would work correctly.In the end the design had to be scaled back. The Minnow class as it stood now wastheresult of that. Disliked by the top brass and disowned by the very admirals that pushed for themoriginally,the Minnowswere incredibly expensive to build and maintain and were ofvery littleuse in a first strike capabilityagainst afleet. Instead of a 400-meter-long cruiser with 24 guns on 12 turrets they were a 125 meter long frigate with 4 guns on 2 turrets, and none of them large enoughto damage a capital ship using standard rail gun rounds. The drones werecompletelycut, and the missileports reduced from 12 to 4. Even the number of point defence guns weredrastically reduced astheygreatly increased the cost of the ships. The only true innovation the Minnows had aside from their stealth were the slingers. Created as a way for a Minnow to get a first shot in without completely abandoning stealth they can toss an unguided stealth nuclear minetowards their enemy, in the paths of enemyships, or simply oncommonly travelled routes. Given the fact that themineswere unguided, and the slinger had a very limited speedthe ship would need to getvery close to use it.However, the slingers produced no heat, or energy and a ship could in theory use them without spoiling their location. For all that the Minnows lacked in offensive power they worked extremely well as scouts, proving able toalmost effortlesslyslip behind enemy linestowatch fleet movements, or production. This combined with their laser communication systemgave the Minnows their new role in the navy. By following an enemy fleet, they couldsend almost real time updates back to high command ensuring thatAmerican Fleets could never be surprised. Should a battle break out theywould be able to sendreal timedata on enemy ship positions to friendly units, even helping to account for an enemy ships dodging attempts by watching their thrusters, as well as providing targeting data for nuclear missiles, the main armament of the American fleet. With even rail gun rounds having a travel time ofsometimes over 60seconds before they arrived,the abilityfor a ship to receive more accurate data on where enemy ships would be andto send their 2ndor 3rdshots to where enemy ships would be wasincredibly valuableand could theoretically change the outcome ofa battle.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Fortunately,or unfortunately depending on who you spoke tothere had been no conflicts between any of the great powersand so far, all naval doctrine was entirely theory. ¡°Sir!¡± LieutenantAlyxGreen said.¡°I¡¯m picking up a message from AdmiralJacobshimself.¡± The crew of the Cherry Barb stopped talking immediately. ¡°Confirming codes¡­ Codes have been confirmed, patching it through now.¡± Due to stealth ships beinghard to find, even for their own side,it could be extremely difficultto communicate with them when they were on missions.In order toensure they could be contacted several different ways to get messages to themhad been devised. The simplest was to transmit an encodedmessage to a wide area. When a stealth ship received the message, the ship could respond to either any communication satellite or a specific oneto let command know their orders had been received and set up real time communications if necessary. ¡°Putthe messagethrough.¡±Lieutenant Green With a thatthe message began playing onto the Command Center. ¡°Commander Frazer, this is AdmiralJacobsyou are to leave your currentassignmentimmediately and report toAresstationat your maximumpossible speed.I repeat you are to report to Aresstationfor resupplyandnew ordersmaking your maximum possible speed. In order to ensure your fastest travel time,we have obtained permission for you to travel through EU controlled space. You are to turn on your transponder and answerany hails from EU forces,but they will allow you passage.Confirm receipt of orders with L-Com Systemonthe Rushmoreusing current codes.Jacobsout.¡± Commander Frazer and Lieutenant CommanderBannon looked at each other.The EU allowinga military shipto travel through their territory?While trade partners the EU and America were not theclose alliesthey once were,andthe EU took their neutralityvery seriously.For permission tohave been asked for and given so quickly showed howtheseriousness of the situation. ¡°Brown you heard the Admiral, plot a course back to Ares using themost direct route and maximum speed. Coms send receipt oftransmission and orders to the Rushmore.¡±Captain Frazer said before picking up his microphone. ¡°Also get me shipwide.¡± ¡°Sir, if wego tofull burn now,we¡¯ll show up on every scanner in the solar system.¡±Lieutenant Brown said. ¡°Brown,do you really think that now is the time for you to be trying to use that thing on the top of your neck?Do you honestly think you an Admiral cares about the opinion of some Lieutenant on a frigate? Keep your opinions to yourself and follow orders.¡± ¡°Yes, sir.¡± The Navigator said somewhat sullenly as the Lieutenant Commander stalked across the bridge looking foranyone else who thought they knew better than an Admiral. ¡°..new orders, we are to make our maximum possible speed to Ares Station.This will mean we are abandoning stealth and we will be using a full burn. I repeat all crew should prepare for a full burn in 5 minutes.¡± Hanging up his received he looked to Brown and said, ¡°How is that course coming along?¡± ¡°I have it all plotted in sir. It should take us27 daysto make it to Ares Station, pretty much a straight shot sir.¡± ¡°How long would it take if we had to detour around EU space?¡± ¡°Just over 4 weeks sir, 32 days Sir.¡± Lieutenant Brown responded. ¡°How much work do you think it took the governmenttogetusthrough EU space so quickly?¡± the Lieutenant Commander said to Commander Frazer. ¡°If this was business as usual? A lot,but if Aliens really did appear near Jupiter? Well it could be everyone is being much more agreeable with each other. This detour won¡¯t even save us very much time. Looks like we¡¯re going to besent intoit now Pounds.¡± ¡°Whatever the hell it is.¡± The two of them sat in their crash chairs and prepared themselves for the initial gee forces a full burn would entail. Once they had finished deceleratingand started on their new course the inertial compensators would be able to handletheforces but for nowthe couches were still necessary. ¡°All crew prepare for deceleration in 10 seconds.¡± The Helm officerJoshua Faulknersaid as the crew all strapped themselves in. The Cherry Barb used her gravity thrusters to orient herself the correct direction before her main thrusterspowered on and she slowed before accelerating away. As soon as her main engines started every scanner in the nearby Chinese Fleet was trained on the small shipthat appeared off their stern.Afewgunnery officersevenpaintedher with active lock-onsas almost every Captain on theChinesefleet had their evening interrupted by terrified Junior Officers letting them know they had been shadowed by an American Vessel for who knew how long. ¡°Green, as soon as it starts,I want the Presidents broadcaston my terminal.¡±Commander Frazer said. Although the only sound behind him was a slightly strangled gurgle he took that as a yes.Some people just did nothandle gee forces very well. After a few moments theface of theSteven Green thePresident of the United States of America appeared on his terminal. There was a moment of silence before he started to speak,and commander Frazer used this to take a good look at the Commander in Chief. His hair had become considerably greyer in the last few weeks, but aside from that he looked calm, collected and not at all just likeworld war 3 had been narrowly avertedbarelya few hours ago. ¡°My fellow Americans, as many of you already know several hours ago a burst of exotic particles and radiation was detected in the vicinity of Jupiter. This burst contained types of particles that have never been recorded in Human History and our best scientists had only just begun to theorize that they could even exist. Shortly after the burst was detected every telescope in the system that could be, was trained on Jupiter. This is what theysaw.¡± At these words President Steven Grahams face was replace with a still picture of small cluster of objects against a backdrop of Jupiter. The resolution was good enough to make out several distinct objects, although they were small enough that it was impossible to make out details. ¡°As you can see here a small group of objects moving under their own power were spotted in the vicinity of Jupiter, shortly after their appearance they altered their course to Jupiter. At last count we can confirm there are 25 objects of various size, with the largest two being at least 15 miles in diameter. Currently there is no indication that they are hostile. However, as our forces were already at a heightened state of alertness this will be continued until further notice, additionally the National Guard has been mobilized in order to help maintain order. As an event of this magnitude effects every man woman and child in the solar system, I have reached out to not only our Allies but also China, Russia and every nation on the earth. All parties have agreed to cooperate and to share all information we learn on the Unknown Visitors as well as prepare a joint operation to Jupiter to meet them. While every Nation we have spoken to have expressed an interest in joining the operation, unfortunately due to the distances they will be traveling as well as the potential danger the initial operation is likely to face, only those powers with sufficient space forces will be making up the initial task force. Make no mistake ladies and gentleman, this is a verified first contact scenario with what appears to be intelligent life not of this Solar System. There can be no understatement regarding the importance of this event. All parties have also agreed that the growing tensions in the Asteroid belt that were threatening to erupt into war must not be allowed to escalate. To this end new talks are being organized as we speak in order to ensure that Humanity will be moving forwards together to meet these new peoples. Currently the closest group of Humans to the unknowns are the crew of the Europa Project who have been studying the moons of Jupiter and the life they have found there for several years. As this is a scientific crew that is made up of people from all corners of the globe, I cannot think of a better crew who could make first contact on behalf of all of Humanity. While this event brings an answer to the question of whether or not there is other intelligent life in the Galaxy to and end, we must nonetheless exercise caution and restraint in the coming days. We must not allow ourselves to give into fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of each other, or fear of the future. We must stay true to the ideas that have always sustained us. That together we are far stronger than we are apart, that the Human spirit will always persevere and triumph over all adversity. God bless you all, god bless these United States and God bless all of Humanity.¡± Chapter 3 Chapter 3 Ares Station, Mars orbit. As the Cherry Barb slid into its berth the crew felt a soft rocking motion as the ship came to a full stop and the umbilical¡¯s from Ares station attached themselves to the hatches of the Cherry Barb. ¡°Engines powering down, Commander I am happy to report that we have arrived at Ares Station.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll done Lieutenant Brown.¡± Commander Frazer said, picking up his radio and signaling to Lieutenant Green for ship wide. ¡°All hands, we have just arrived at Ares Station. Before we begin disembarking procedures, I just wanted to personally congratulate everyone on their exemplary performance. Despite the difficulty of our mission and the changing circumstances we faced, everyone conducted themselves and their duties with courage and skill. Officers as soon as your duties have been completed you and your crews are to receive 48 hours of liberty aboard Ares station. Ensure that all checklists have been completed and nothing is left needing to be finished.¡± As the captain replaced his transceiver, he felt another small thump in the ship as the largest of the umbilical¡¯s attached itself to the ship¡¯s main cargo hatch. ¡°Pounds, the ship is yours, I have to go meet Admiral Jacobs.¡± ¡°Yes Sir.¡± The route to the air lock that separated the ship from the station was normally a very direct walk, however Commander Frazer chose to make a few detours in order to watch the crew. While this had not been one of their longest missions it was the closest they had ever come to combat, and Commander Frazer wanted to see the crew with his own eyes. Traveling through claustrophobic hallway after claustrophobic hallway he could see nothing out of order, any crew he passed would give him a quick acknowledgment before moving on with their duties. The hallways of all frigates were by necessity very tight. Space was always at a premium on a spaceship and Minnow class stealth ships were even smaller than regular frigates. At 120 meters long the reactor took up almost a third of the ship, with storage for perishables and munitions taking up almost another third which left just the last third for bunks, showers and toilets, duty stations, a small exercise room, kitchen and galley. In theory a stealth ship could spend a year and a half in space before needing to restock on food, water or other supplies. Unfortunately, only 6 months of the food was ¡°fresh¡± with the rest being made up of ration blocks. While having everything a human body needed, most of their flavors were described by crews as ¡°spicy chicken, Korean beef and foot¡± spicy chicken was by far the most popular. The sleeping arrangements themselves were simple, just three bunk beds stacked on top of each other in a small room. The rooms themselves were incredibly small with just enough room for three people to get dressed without bumping into each other, but the bunks themselves were surprisingly roomy and had partitions that allowed people a fair amount of privacy, even if it had to be enjoyed while laying down. Passing by the galley the Commander passed by the currently empty room. Two tables were crammed in with just enough space for half the crew to sit at one time. Listening to the noise coming from the kitchen it sounded like the chef and his assistant were going over their inventory. With a swell of pride at seeing his ship and crew working perfectly he finally reached the open airlock. Passing through each of the 4 doors that separated the inner hull from the outer hull and the outer hull from space Commander James Frazer found himself in a long surprisingly rickety hallway surrounded on all sides by the vacuum of space. The umbilical was of course strong enough to handle almost any amount of force applied to it and flexible enough that it should never snap. It was also the closest most people would come to being in space. A series of thin tubes made of reinforced clear steel made up the frame of the umbilical and a type of flexible plexiglass strong enough to take small arms fire made up the walls. As it was between the station and the ship the umbilical had no gravity of its own, so a series of hand holds allowed people to pull themselves through the surprisingly spacious hallway. Stopping partway through the Commander looked back at his ship. At just over 120 meters long the Cherry Barb was one of the smallest ships in the Navy. The matte black of the ship¡¯s hull seemed to blend into space around the edges, even lit up by the station¡¯s spotlights and with the running lights turned on it was still hard to see some of the edges. Further down the hull towards the rear section he spotted a second larger umbilical that already had people and supplies moving down it. The ship sported surprisingly few point defence weapons, the weapons requiring special mounts in order to not effect the ships stealth, each one increased the cost of the ship considerably. The two main turrets were each in their off position with the guns flat against the hull of the ship. They were frigate sized, which wasn¡¯t saying much. Just large enough to damage another frigate, and the 5-kilogram slugs it fired would be almost useless against the armor of a cruiser. Looking past his ship to the next berth Commander Frazer looked at a Heavy cruiser, the Anchorage he read on its side. At almost 500 meters it was one of the largest cruisers in use in any ships navy with only Super Carriers and the Dreadnoughts from other ships navies being larger. Heavy Cruisers were meant to screen Carriers and Super Carriers from fire while using her large guns firing 15-kilogram slugs to destroy any ships that managed to survive the nuclear barrage brought on by other ships. With 16 turrets each with 2 guns, hundreds of point defence weapons and 15 meters of the heaviest armour anyone could produce she was a match for any ship aside from Dreadnoughts. ¡°Looks like we won¡¯t be here for much longer than the 48 hours we were promised.¡± Frazer mused to himself as he saw a small skid of food being pushed down the umbilical. Continuing he carefully exited the tube being sure to not land on his face when he entered the stations gravity. Taking a moment to orient himself he looked around the station and found himself in a busy waiting room with rows of chairs in it. He was about to set off towards the Admirals office when he was approached by a lieutenant who saluted him. ¡°Commander Frazer?¡± ¡°Yes?¡± He said returning the salute ¡°My name Lieutenant Patrick Jenkins, sir. If you¡¯ll come with me, I can show you to Admiral Moore¡¯s office.¡± With a nod the two of them began walking through the long hallways towards the center of the station. As they walked Frazer couldn¡¯t help but notice the armed Marines in power armor posted at almost every door. Frazer had never liked the power armor finding it too creepy. Wearing their power armor, Marines stood almost 7 feet tall. The armor was a gunmetal grey, and extremely smooth with lots of rounded curves and soft edges. Their faceplates were especially unsettling, just a blank grey area that gave away nothing of what the occupant looked like, sounded like or could be thinking. The way the suites were designed was to have as few weak points as possible, but this had the unfortunate secondary effect of making the Marines look completely inhuman. ¡°Has there been any security threats in the station? There are a lot more Marines here than the last time I was here.¡± ¡°All installations are still on Alert level 2 so we still have the heightened security. Hopefully it won¡¯t be lasting much longer but it¡¯s hard to say. I know the riots and panic back home have just about finished but civilian parts of the station here were always fairly quiet.¡± ¡°Really? No problems at all?¡± ¡°There was some fighting for a few days, public drunkenness was also up, but for the most part the people out here not prone to panic. If they were, they probably wouldn¡¯t have come 54 million kilometers from Earth.¡± He said as they left the endless hallways and finally passed through a door into a series of offices filled with people bustling about. ¡°Here we are Sir, just one moment please while I ensure the Admiral is free.¡± Jenkins said as they stopped in front of a door. The Admirals aide walked over to the door, knocked and opened the door. Sticking his head in Commander Frazer could hear a muffled conversation before Jenkins pulled his head back out and turned to face Frazer. ¡°The Admiral will see you now Commander.¡± With a nod he walked forwards, entered the room walked in front of the Admirals desk and gave his best salute. ¡°Commander James Frazer reporting as ordered Sir.¡± ¡°At ease Commander.¡± The Admiral said returning the salute standing up from his desk. ¡°Have a seat.¡± He gestured to the seat across from himself. Admiral Charles Moore was like most Admirals fairly old. Well into his 60¡¯s but in extremely good shape thanks to modern medicine. With his white hair, genial smile and well-kept beard he looked more like someone¡¯s grandfather than a decorated Admiral. But his sharp blue eyes showed the cunning and intelligence he held. One of the few people in the fleet who had real combat experience he had been a one of the major proponents of altering the doctrine of the entire fleet away from carriers and missile ships to large gun capital ships similar, to what the other powers used. He was also one of the only Admirals still vocal in his support for the minnows and other stealth programs. Sitting down Frazer faced the Admiral trying to guess how this meeting would go. ¡°Welcome aboard James, how are you?¡± If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Very good Sir, thank you for asking.¡± He said. ¡°Glad to hear it. Before we get started, I just wanted to congratulate you on your success a few weeks ago. Shadowing that Chinese fleet couldn¡¯t have been easy, and Admiral Jacobs tells me that you and your crew performed in exemplary fashion. If it had come to shooting, we estimate we would have had a complete victory over the Chinese with only moderate casualties, largely thanks to you.¡± ¡°Thank you, Sir, I¡¯m honored to hear that.¡± ¡°Now let¡¯s get down to business. What do you know about these aliens out near Jupiter?¡± ¡°Not a whole lot Sir. Last count had 36 separate ships appear a few million Kilometers from Jupiter, a few days later they started to head towards Jupiter. Due to the distances involved and the treaties involving Europa no one really has much infrastructure out there.¡± ¡°That is correct. Currently the only people in the vicinity of Jupiter and her moons are the Europa Project and they are civilians. The project leaders have been attempting to contact the Leviathans with no success, if this is because they are unable to detect our radio frequencies or simply unwilling to respond, we are not certain. As they are set to be arriving at Jupiter very soon, we are scrambling everything we have in order to meet them there should their intentions prove hostile.¡± ¡°Sir, some of those ships are 7 kilometers long, and those aren¡¯t the largest of them. All of them together out mass every ship in our navy. How large of a force is being sent?¡± ¡°Due to the disparity in sizes and the nature of this threat being an outside context problem the President, Congress and the Joint Chiefs of staff have all recommended a joint operation with the other major powers. The EU, Russia and China have all agreed to send ships. We will be sending the 2nd and 3rd fleets, China will be sending their 1st and 3rd fleets, Russia is sending their 2nd fleet and the EU will be sending their 2nd and 4th fleets. This will be a total of 5 dreadnoughts, 2 supercarriers and all their attending ships. In total this will be well over 200 ships compared to their 36. Even if one on one they out mass us, our numerical superiority should be enough to ensure a victory should it come to fighting.¡± ¡°Can we trust the Chinese and the Russians sir?¡± ¡°We believe so, if the Aliens turn out to be hostile everyone has just as much to lose. They are sending roughly as many forces as we are so neither side should have numerical superiority either at Jupiter, Mars or over Earth. But the fact is we need each other. Our super carriers are 1.1 km long and our heaviest cruiser are barely over 500 meters, even if we sent every supercarrier and Heavy Cruiser, we have we would be unable to come close to matching the leviathans in tonnage, and neither would anyone else. The fact is, if this comes down to a fight, we need each other, and we all know it.¡± The Admiral said giving Frazer a look that spoke volumes about how dire the situation was. ¡°The fleets however will still need a few more weeks to organize and ensure that they will all arrive at Jupiter at the same time. We and the Chinese were ready for a war, so fortunately both of us have fleets prepared for long term operations, the Russians and the EU were both at a heightened state of alertness as well so it shouldn¡¯t take them too much time to prepare their fleets. Due to the orbits of some of the fleets, and their locations a few of the fleets will be leaving in the next few weeks and several more have windows leaving in almost a month.¡± ¡°I can only imagine the headache of trying to organize this Sir.¡± ¡°If you think it¡¯s a mess trying to organize different Carrier groups together try to get 4 separate governments 2 of which were almost at war with each other to coordinate the movements of 7 fleets in anything even close to coordination. I have the full fleet movements in your detailed orders for you, along with everything we know about these Aliens.¡± ¡°And what are our orders sir?¡± ¡°The Cherry Barb as well as the Pearl Gourami and the Zebra Danio are to leave in advance of the fleet and learn as much about the Leviathans as you can. None of you are to under any circumstances contact the Leviathans or the Europa Project. This is simply an observation mission. We have already redirected one of our stealth probes that are around Jupiter to make a close flyby of the Leviathans, it should let us know if our stealth technology will be effective against them. Each ship is to maintain strict radio silence until the time detailed in your mission orders. At that time, you will send all information you have learned to the Rushmore. Admiral Jacobs will transmit it back to earth where it will be analyzed and shared amongst the other powers. Any questions?¡± ¡°So, we won¡¯t be sharing this information directly with the other fleets? Everything will be vetted by intelligence first?¡± ¡°When you send the Rushmore the information the fleets will still be several weeks out from Jupiter. We will have much more manpower and expertise than will be available on the fleet so we will be able to make much more progress in analyzing any information you learn from them. As the fleet approaches Jupiter Admiral Jacobs will be still expected to keep in contact with us but he will of course retain full command of the situation. As for him passing any information you provide directly onto the other fleets¡­. Well your presence there is classified so he should not be telling them anything that will jeopardize your secrecy.¡± ¡°I understand Sir. Sir, what exactly is the chain of command for the Joint Task force?¡± At this Admiral Moore hesitated. ¡°Now that Commander, is a bit of a clusterfuck. Currently we cannot get any of the powers to agree on a unified command structure. Even the EU are pushing back at placing their ships under our command, although it seems the Russians are hesitant to trust the Chinese as well. For now, each fleet is maintaining its own command structure and the Admirals are to work out any tactics or problems between themselves.¡± ¡°That sounds like a nightmare Sir.¡± ¡°For now, it¡¯s the best that we have. We will have to trust that each of the Admirals will be willing to work in good faith with each other.¡± Commander Frazer thought that that sounded like a long shot but wisely kept his mouth shut. ¡°The initial reports said that there were only 6 ships, but now there are 36, how did the telescopes miss 30 ships sir?¡± ¡°The 30 new ships appeared from behind one of the largest ships, we suspect the radiation, and angle the telescopes had simply hid them from us until they began moving. Any further questions?¡± ¡°Just one more Sir, do we know when they will be arriving at Jupiter?¡± ¡°They should be arriving in a few days time. Your ship is being loaded with supplies as we speak, and your reactors are being checked. We estimate it should take 24 hours for your ship to be fully loaded, how are your people Commander?¡± ¡°Excited Sir. Our last mission finished earlier than we were expecting, and it was a success which is always good for morale. We were all hoping to get a little more than 48 hours of leave before the next missio, but we understand the urgency. I was hoping to get my crew priority use of the Ares coms systems so they could talk to their families.¡± ¡°Consider it done. Anything else Commander?¡± ¡°Not at this time. I¡¯ll go through the detailed mission briefing in and contact you if I need anything clarified Admiral.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve taken the liberty of getting you and your crew set up with some of the larger rooms on the station, I thought you would all appreciate the extra space. See Lieutenant Jenkins and he will show you to your quarters.¡± ¡°Thank you, Admiral.¡± Frazer said standing with a salute. ¡°Your welcome James, good hunting out there and stay safe.¡± The Admiral said returning the salute. Commander James Frazer turned and left the Admirals office looking the find Lieutenant Jenkins so he could be taken to his room. Looking over the busy office the lieutenant was berating a younger officer. Walking over Commander Frazer only overheard the end of the rant. Lieutenant Jenkins stood up straighter as he noticed the Commander walking over. ¡°Lieutenant sorry to disturb you, I was hoping you could let me know where my quarters are.¡± ¡°Yes sir, if you follow me, I would be happy to take you.¡± ¡°Thank you, Lieutenant.¡± As the two of them walked through the halls, taking lifts and passing through secure doors Commander Frazer started to get the impression that Lieutenant Jenkins wanted to ask him something. A few looks from the corner of Jenkins eyes and a few times he was about to say something but stopped himself short. Finally, the two of them were in a lift that took them from the secure center of the station to the civilian areas that ran along the outside of the station. ¡°The Admiral thought your crew would appreciate being closer to the recreation areas of the station. You¡¯ll still be in military billets, but these are some of the larger rooms we have Sir.¡± ¡°The Admiral thought right, it¡¯s nice to be able to stretch out a little here.¡± ¡°Sir, if you don¡¯t mind me asking, what is it like? Serving on a stealth ship I mean?¡± ¡°Have you ever been stationed on a ship?¡± ¡°Yes sir, I was an ops officer on the Hawaii, I had always wanted to be on a stealth ship, but I was told that I didn¡¯t have the right psych profile for it.¡± ¡°Not many people do, the berths on stealth ships are smaller than this elevator and shared by 3 people. It takes a special kind of person to stay in a ship that size for months on end behind enemy lines.¡± ¡°But there¡¯s nowhere else you¡¯d rather be?¡± ¡°Not even close¡± Frazer said with a smile ¡°Right now I¡¯d rather be having a shower in a private room, but there is no other ship I would rather serve on.¡± ¡°Of course, sir.¡± Jenkins replied with a less than polite tone that implied Jenkins would never want to leave his post. ¡®With a stick up his ass that size no wonder he could never get on a stealth ship.¡¯ Frazer thought but he only said ¡°The crews on stealth ships are¡­ interesting. We look for people who are intelligent and driven of course, but mostly we need people who will not break under any amount of pressure and can work months at a time with no break and not nearly enough sleep. All of this tends to leave the crews, somewhat unique and rather close knit.¡± ¡°What do you mean Sir?¡± ¡°We are far less formal than most crews, and while discipline is expected to be kept it is often relaxed somewhat. A little more socializing between officers and enlisted than you would normally see.¡± ¡°I see, that doesn¡¯t cause any problems in the chain of command? Or people slacking off?¡± Jenkins asked as they left the elevator. ¡°With the right crew it doesn¡¯t. Everyone on a stealth ship is there because they are driven enough to complete their work without having someone breathing down their neck. Not that we don¡¯t have to encourage some crewmembers occasionally.¡± As Lieutenant Jenkins stopped in front of a door Frazer kept talking. ¡°Of course with the lack of free space you end up having no choice but to eat meals and occasionally spend your free time with just about everyone.¡± ¡°I think I understand Sir, I¡¯m beginning to see why I might not have been chosen. I very much like to have everything in its place. Your room is here Sir. If there is anything you need please let any of the station staff know.¡± Lieutenant Jenkins gave Frazer a perfect salute with his back straight and his arm at a perfect angle before turning and stiffly walking away. He looked like someone from a recruitment brochure. The quarters were small for a space station but came with an actual seating area and a couch. His quarters on the Cherry Barb would fit in the bathroom here. Having a quick shower and changing into his one change of clothes that weren¡¯t a uniform that he brought from the Cherry Barb he finally opened his detailed orders and lost himself in the mission briefing and mission details. What seemed like a few moments later but was actually several hours later the door chimed signaling he had a visitor. Standing up he walked over to the door and opened it to see his Lieutenant Commander Bernard Bannon standing at the door holding a bottle of what looked like expensive liquor. ¡°Come in Pounds.¡± James said standing aside from the door. ¡°How¡¯s the room?¡± ¡°Haven¡¯t seen it yet. I came here after making sure the Cherry was all set. Chief Hanlan was complaining about the station crews stowing everything in the wrong spots so I left him to it.¡± Bernard Bannon said walking over to the kitchen getting two glasses and pouring a generous amount of scotch into each glass. ¡°I see you did some shopping before coming over.¡± He said accepting the offered glass. ¡°Just the essentials, I¡¯m having pizza delivered later too. So, what are our orders?¡± James Frazer regarded his old friend as he sat down on his couch. Bernard Bannon and he first met at the academy almost 20 years earlier and had instantly hated each other. It was only after serving with each other on several different ships and literally saving his life during an emergency decompression when a fuel line threatened to destroy their ship that he and Bernard finally became friends. After that they quickly made up for lost time and became as close as two people could be. ¡°The coalition fleet is still being assembled and will take about another 2 months before it even gets moving. We are being sent in ahead of time along with the Pearl Gourami and the Zebra Danio in order to get a closer look at the unknowns, assess the situation and send back information for earth as well as the fleet.¡± ¡°So, business as usual. What do we have on the Leviathans so far?¡± ¡°Leviathans?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what the people are calling them, even the news has started using it.¡± ¡°The reports called them that too, I¡¯m just surprised it¡¯s caught on so quickly. The Leviathans are still halfway across the system from our telescopes so it¡¯s hard to even get an accurate count of them, some of the smaller ones were behind the largest Leviathans which threw off our counts. However, our telescopes can confirm there are 2 circular objects at about 20kms across being called Behemoths, 4 at about 7kms long called Kraken and we think 30 smaller ships at just under 400 meters long.¡± Frazer said. ¡°Jesus Christ, they out mass everything humanity has in the solar system put together. Frazer continued as if his friend hadn¡¯t spoken ¡°They also seem to be biological.¡± ¡°Biological?¡± ¡°Take a look at these.¡± Frazer said indicating a picture of the Leviathans on his tablet. On the screen were the clearest pictures humanity had of the Aliens. The Behemoth was shaped like a jelly fish complete with several kilometer-long tentacles protruding from its underbelly as it moved top first towards Jupiter. The Krakens were dwarfed traveling beside the massive creatures and Pounds had to remind himself that these were almost 7 times the largest ships in the American Navy. They were roughly conical with the smallest ends facing towards Jupiter. The front of the creatures had several protrusions coming from it and judging by their size compared to the rest of the creature they must have been several hundred meters long and very thick. ¡°You see those tentacles coming from the front?¡± ¡°Couldn¡¯t those just be sensor towers or maybe something for navigation?¡± ¡°Possibly, we have no way of knowing how they navigate because we don¡¯t even know how they propel themselves from space at this point, no thrusters, no gravity drives we can¡¯t even see any weapons. That¡¯s not the issue though, these pictures were taken within a few moments of each other.¡± Frazer said scrolling through several pictures quickly. Bernard Bannon watched as his friend scrolled through the pictures quickly and the protrusions on the front of the ship started to wave and slither back and forth in front of it. ¡°What the hell? Some sort of trick of the angle maybe?¡± ¡°Not from what our analysts can see. And believe me they have used every available resource analyzing this. Not only that but the EU, the Chinese and the Russians all agree, these things are biological in nature and whatever these things on the front are, are waving. So, before the coalition fleet arrives, we are to go and take a closer look at them, see if we can¡¯t find out what the hell we are dealing with before everyone else arrives.¡± ¡°Do we nuke the hell out of em?¡± ¡°Shouldn¡¯t have too, but I guess we¡¯ll see.¡± Chapter 4, It Begins Chapter 4 SS Cherry Barb Ares Station ¡°Captain Frazer, all systems green, all sections report they are ready. We are green across the board and ready to depart on your orders.¡± If Captain Frazer heard his 1st officer, he gave no indication of it. Instead he continued to read a message that he had just received on his tablet. Lieutenant Commander Bannon knew when his friend was rattled and judging by the expression on the Commanders face this message must have been dire. After a few more moments of reading the Commander looked up and said, ¡°Excellent work everyone, Lieutenant Green give me ship wide.¡± With that he picked up the receiver from its cradle and began speaking as soon as the Lieutenant Green indicated he was live. ¡°Ladies and Gentlemen of the Cherry Barb. We had been given a mission of the utmost importance. We were to investigate a group of visitors to our Solar System. To be amongst the first humans to ever approach Alien life and attempt to learn as much as we could about it in order to better help understand them so that when the time came, we could approach them with a message of peace. This is no longer our mission. Moments ago, I received a message that the United Nations space station above Europa has been completely destroyed. As the Leviathan ships approached the station, the crew onboard made every attempt at a peaceful first contact, they were ignored. The space station was destroyed and all crew on the station is presumed dead. We have now been given a new mission. We are to approach the Leviathans in order to learn as much about them as we can, so that when the rest of the task force arrives, they will be better prepared to blow these bastards straight to hell. Ladies and Gentlemen make no mistake this has always been the single most important mission we would ever receive in our lifetimes. But now that we know the Leviathans are hostile it is even more imperative that we learn as much about our enemy and their capabilities as possible. The coming months will be difficult, not because of the difficulties of serving on a stealth ship, we are all experts in our craft. No, this mission will be difficult because we will have the entire weight of Humanity on our shoulders. The future performance of our bothers and sisters in the rest of the fleet hinges on us. Along with the news of the attack I received footage and other data from the attack itself. This footage will be made available to the you all shortly. I am not going to lie it is disturbing.¡± With that the Captain placed the receiver back in its cradle. Taking a moment to compose himself he turned to the Lieutenant Green. ¡°Contact Ares station and get final approval to cast off. Helm as soon as final clearance has been confirmed I want us underway. Navigation confirm our flight path out of Mars orbit with Ares station, make certain they are keeping our lanes clear. As soon as news of the attack on Europa spreads it will be chaos out there and I don¡¯t want some idiot in an ore tug running into us.¡± The Captain barely heard their confirmations. After a moment the Cherry Barb received its final permission to depart, cast off her tethers and accelerated out of Ares orbit. Usually a stealth ship would need to hide their exact departure route from enemy telescopes lest they be tracked as soon as they leave their berth. However, with all the major powers now working together it was deemed an unnecessary delay and they could simply begin accelerating towards their vector to slingshot around Mars, and then on to Jupiter. ¡°Lieutenant Brown you have the bridge, Pounds in my office please.¡± The two of them left the bridge and made the short walk to the Captains room and office. The Commanders bunk was only slightly larger than any other crew members and that was mostly because it doubled as his office. There was a small desk immediately upon entering with a small chair one either side with his terminal and a few drawers for storage. Behind the desk the bunk was built into the wall same as any other room, but instead of there being three beds there was extra storage for anything the Commander felt he might need. Commander Frazer kept a few bottles of alcohol, one of which he was opening now. ¡°I want you to take a look at this first.¡± Commander Frazer said as soon as they were settled in the surprisingly comfortable chairs each with a drink. ¡°Isn¡¯t it a bit early in the mission for this?¡± Pounds asked Frazer just gave his friend a look, turned the monitor so they could both see it and started the video. As the video started, they saw an external view from a camera that had been mounted on the outside of the station. Normally used to survey damage to the station from any stray meteor impacts it was currently showing a massive form heading to the camera. As it approached slowly getting larger in the screen stars behind it kept getting blotted out. Before long a truly massive form took up the entirety of the screen, but rather than collide with the station it kept getting closer and closer and the image clearer and clearer.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°What in Gods name¡­.¡± Bernard said. When Bernard was certain that it should be colliding with the station any moment it just continued to come closer and closer. It¡¯s face if it could be called that was a dark red, with dirty splotches of brown and orange. He thought he could see the flesh pulsing just underneath its surface but dismissed that as a trick of the light, the tentacles protruding from its front looked almost like they were wet, an impossibility in the void of space. Close and closer and larger and larger it came until finally an orifice opened in its face. It was a crooked maw filled with a mass of writhing of tentacles, pulsing organs and what might have even been teeth. Far quicker than Pounds would have thought possible the tentacles exited the orifice and approached and enveloped the camera completely before it cut off and the screen only showed static. ¡°Is there another angle?¡± Bernard asked after a moment. Without saying anything Commander Frazer pushed a few buttons on the screen and another video started. This time the camera was a great distance away and showed the entirety of the Leviathan. Slowly the creature was drifting forwards small tendrils in the front of the creature were waving in front of it wildly. It was hard to judge the size of the tendrils, but they were probably over a hundred meters in length and must have been a dozen meters thick. Pounds looked towards the front of the creature and could see as it slowly moved towards the station. From the other angle it was hard to see how quickly it had been moving but now he could tell that it was in terms of space travel it was almost a crawl. Something on the front of the creature seemed to shift and with a start he realized he was seeing the orifice opening. The camera zoomed in as its face continued to open wider and wider. As the camera zoomed in Pounds could make out some individual tentacles moving inside the things mouth just before it crashed into the station. Despite how slowly the thing was moving it still must have been a few hundred meters a second. The front of the station caved in where the Leviathan hit it, but the station remained surprisingly intact. Dura-steel beams shattered and were thrown clear, glass and crystalized water vapour floated away, and Pounds even thought he saw a body floating away crystalized blood trailing behind it before a small tendril quickly grabbed it and the body disappeared in the front of the creature. ¡°How the hell is it moving? There¡¯s nothing like an engine on it.¡± ¡°We still have no idea, there¡¯s one more video.¡± Frazer said pushing a few more buttons on the screen. Pounds watched as another video started. This one from inside the stations control room. There were over a dozen people in the room all clustered together in front of a terminal in the middle of the room. With the people so far from the camera it was impossible to make out what they were saying. As he watched they started to get more and more agitated with some people backing away from the terminal and their voices being raised. The group began shouting at each other as one young woman turned and ran through a door and out of the room. Suddenly the camera shook there was an incredibly loud bang and tearing sound as every person flew several feet to the right. One person landed headfirst onto a wall with a sickening thud and stopped moving. The lights flickered but the station had been designed for redundancy and every part of it had backup batteries in the event of catastrophic damage so after a moment half of the lights turned off and the remaining lights lowered themselves. An automatic reaction to preserve the batteries as long as possible. The new shadows being created from the emergency lighting made it a little hard to make out the details, but slowly people started pulling themselves to their feet getting organised and helping those who were more injured. Before people could make it more than a few steps away there was a second squeal of bending steal loud enough to make Pounds wince as on the camera something was forcing open the wall on the right-hand side. In from the newly created holes large tendrils entered the room and the atmosphere of the station began exiting. People screamed their hair and clothes being pulled towards the hole as the tentacles waved around for a few moments. Pounds looked closely and he could almost swear he saw hundreds of small eyes dotting the tentacles as they all opened one after another. Suddenly one of the tentacles plunged straight down into the body of the man who had died when he hit the wall, spearing the man it lifted him into the air before several smaller tendrils entered the room and began tearing bits of the man off and pulling them back through the whole. The horrified onlookers reacted as soon as the body of their friend was lifted into the air, peoples mouths opened as they screamed, but nothing could be heard on the video as the atmosphere was exiting the room. People tried to hold onto whatever they could in order to avoid being sucked towards the new hole in the hull a few people even tried to run towards the closest doors, but before people could make it more than a few steps; dozens of more tentacles burst into the room. The tentacles writhed as they darted forwards impaling people through their bodies holding them still for other tendrils to enter the room and begin to pull people apart. There did not seem to be any rhyme or reason to how people were being treated by the tentacles. One man was ripped into a half a dozen pieces and removed from the room, another was torn into fist sized chunks by dozens of smaller tendrils, a woman with long blonde hair was speared by a dozen tendrils and pounds watched as they burrowed underneath the skin before the tentacles exited her body in several places and she was pulled in one piece towards the hole still screaming. Watching it was almost enough to make Pounds lose his lunch as he held his drink in a white-knuckle grip. One lucky woman managed to make it out of the room, the door closing behind her as she left the cameras field of view. A larger tendril moved along the left-hand wall before plunging straight through as if the wall was made of tissue paper. A moment later it came back through the hole it had made holding the woman who had almost managed to escape, her body being broken and torn apart as she was forced through an opening far smaller than her body. Smaller tendrils were already going through the hole to gather the small parts of her that were torn off when she was forced through the small hole. All in all, the chaos had lasted only 47 seconds. When the last human had been carried from the room screaming tendrils started pulling the room apart, quickly after that a tendril whipped towards the camera and the video stopped. ¡°A few other videos were sent out as well, even a few more from nearby satellites, but they mostly just show the station being pulled apart. The station has been completely destroyed, and from what we can tell eaten by the creature. The other creatures appear to be examining Europa itself and a few of Jupiter¡¯s moons. Almost all of the satellites that were in orbit around Jupiter and her moons have also gone dark.¡± ¡°Jesus Christ James, are you sure you want the crew to see all of this?¡± Pounds said drinking the alcohol his friend had poured him. ¡°The crew needs to know what they are going up against, and they are all prepared for the dangers of space travel.¡± ¡°Up until now the dangers of space travel only involved, freezing to death, being cooked to death, asphyxiation, and decompression, being eaten by monsters is a new one.¡± Commander Frazer considered this as he peered into his drink. ¡°I¡¯ll hold off on making the last video available to them for now, but if it makes its way public it could be worse for the crew.¡± ¡°What the hell are we up against here? What are these things? It looked like they were eating them, but why would a creature that size eat a person. There is no way they actually needed to.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t really matter why they did that, all that matters is that they attacked and destroyed the station. After this the fleet is no longer going to try and make a peaceful first contact. We are going in on an extermination mission.¡± Chapter 5 A/N As always thank you for any comments, if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask. All reviews welcome. Chapter 5 USS Cherry Barb Approaching Jupiter ¡°Report!¡± Commander Frazer barked to the crew as he entered the bridge. ¡°Sir, we are approaching the coordinates for point alpha. The Zebra Danio should be at their assigned coordinates with their probes already on their way.¡± Replied Lieutenant Commander Bannon. ¡°Excellent, what¡¯s the status of our own probe?¡± ¡°Primed and ready on your order Sir.¡± ¡°Well done Pounds. Launch when the mission timer reaches zero.¡± The RX 28 was the latest generation stealth probe. It was a long cylindrical shape roughly the half size of a nuclear missile and covered completely in stealth plating. With the amount of care that went into ensuring it would not be spotted, and its much smaller size it was even more stealthy then the Minnow class stealth ships. Unfortunately, due to the amount of stealth plating on it, the probe didn¡¯t have much in the way of active sensors and instead relied on passive scans and cameras with telescopes to gather data. When it completed its mission, it would open and a small laser communication system would send the information gathered back to a pre programmed location where the Cherry Barb should be waiting. For this mission the Zebra Danio and the Cherry Barb were at separate points and sending their probes in on preassigned flight paths, the Pearl Gourami was still traveling to its own rallying point where it would launch its own probe. Each of their probes flight paths were set to go a specific distance from the Leviathans make their way clear of the Leviathans and send their information back to their attendant ships using their laser com systems. If a probe was detected it would hopefully allow the crews to get an idea of how close they could get before being detected. If the probes were undetected each of the ships would then pass the Leviathans themselves and attempt to gather as much information as they could using their more effective sensors. The crew watched with bated breath as the timer reached zero and their probe smoothly launched from the ship. If all went according to plan, they and their sister ships would be receiving data in several days. Their ship itself was still running silent and as such they had to be careful, that meant no active scans, no transmissions, and nothing to do but wait. The crew however was selected for being psychologically able to withstand to long stretches of doing nothing but waiting to see if they would be found and killed so they were able to focus on their jobs with little in the way of distraction. With the distances travelled by the probe and the precise nature of laser communications it was imperative that the ship that was to receive the message not move from where the laser communicator would be sending it. If the laser were detected or intercepted it could spoil the location of the probe sending it or the ship receiving it, so the lasers were always very narrow and low powered. Because of how narrow they were it was not uncommon for messages to be lost or never received. A small meteor or dust getting in the way the way of the laser could prevent the message from making to its recipient. Or if the ship drifted a few meters from where it needed to be they might miss the message entirely. Because of the precision needed for this to work the United States Navy had the best laser communications systems out of all the powers. For three days the crew did their duties and tried to avoid going stir crazy, until Lieutenant Green received the message 40 minutes into her shift three days after launching the probe. ¡°Sir, we have a transmission from the probe. Good signal strength, negligible data loss.¡± She said looking over the incoming information. ¡°Right on time, coms send the information to the Rushmore, and then my terminal.¡± Scanning the data as quickly as he could Commander Frazer was relieved to see that not only had the Leviathans not reacted to the Cherry Barbs probe, their probe had also not picked up and explosions from any other probe that had been sent out. With the coordinated launches they had also ensured the probes would make their flybys of the moon and Leviathans at similar times making it hopefully easier to see if any probe had been detected and destroyed. Looking into the data more closely Commander Frazer noticed a few strange things. First one of the Behemoths was missing several extremely large chunks out of its center, the green bubble normally in its middle was missing entirely. It was apparently being disassembled or possibly eaten by two of the Krakens that were hovering around it in the video. Not only that but the probe was even able to get some pictures of a third Kraken building some large objects in Jupiter¡¯s orbit along with several of the Guppies and the second Behemoth. ¡°Pounds take a look at this.¡± Commander Frazer said as he moved the file he was looking at from his own tablet to the main display in the CIC. ¡°Are they eating one of them?¡± ¡°Possibly, I think they¡¯re taking it apart and building something else out of it. These ships could be used for carrying raw resources or the equipment they need when entering a new system.¡± ¡°It looks like it¡¯s the materials they need to build whatever these things are.¡± Commander Bannon said gesturing to several of the structures in orbit over Jupiter. The picture in question was fairly poor quality. Unfortunately, even the best cameras that could be crammed into the stealth probes were not the best that could be found. And with the distances the probe took pictures at details were not always as clear as people would like. ¡°Sir?¡± Said Nate Brown the Cherry Barbs Navigator. ¡°I think your right about the ship being used for raw materials. The probe recorded the Leviathans flight details and the smaller craft are definitely shuttling materials from the Behemoths over to the objects over Jupiter and then traveling back again for more.¡± Not a person on the CIC spoke as the crew considered this. ¡°Alright everyone, our sister ships will be moving into their positions as we speak, however we get the fun job. Mr. Brown, is the course we have plotted still viable? Or have the Leviathans moved to close to it?¡± ¡°I¡¯d like to make some changes Sir, our course as it stands now will take us between the Behemoth in the orbit of Europa and whatever it is that¡¯s being built in the orbit of Jupiter, with all of the traffic between the two and we could be spotted by something. I¡¯ve made a few changes that should allow us to get a good view of what¡¯s left of the Behemoth and what¡¯s being built.¡±Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ¡°Well done Mr. Brown, once our flyby is complete I want us to take a quick look around some of the other moons that are nearby. We are missing a few of the Guppies and one Leviathan. The fleet will want to know where those are, and I mean to be able to tell them.¡± ¡°Understood Sir, that won¡¯t be a problem. The probe was able to get within 25 000 kilometers of them without being detected Sir, I assume you would like us to stay a bit further away than that?¡± ¡°Indeed Mr. Brown, I think at least 75 000 Kilometers distance. Ops, will you have any problems getting data at that distance?¡± ¡°No, Sir, our equipment can be used at that distance.¡± ¡°Excellent. What is our estimated travel time Mr. Brown?¡± ¡°It should be 16 hours until we are at our closest point to the Behemoth, and 20 hours until we are at our closest point to the structures.¡± ¡°Excellent, Ms. Green, send another status update to the Fleet ¡­¡± ¡°Already done Sir.¡± ¡°Then helm take us out.¡± And with that the Cherry Barb engaged its gravity drives. Accelerating extremely slower than their main fusion drives, the gravity drives were completely undetectable to any sensor¡¯s humanity possessed and were what made stealth ships viable. Once again, they began accelerating towards the Leviathans. As soon as the Cherry Barb was up to speed and pointing at a course that would take them both near the Behemoth orbiting Europa and the structures being built near Jupiter and then the Cherry Barb cut her engines and began to coast on momentum. Drifting towards it¡¯s target the crew were hard at work ensuring there were no electrical discharges, heat on the hull, or even loud noises on their ship. Until they were finally close enough to use their own telescopes and passive sensors to take a closer look at the Leviathans. By now the Behemoth had been broken into several large chunks each roughly a third of the ships total hull, they had been kept close together and moved into an orbit around Europa. ¡°Pounds are you seeing this thing?¡± Commander Frazer said as he pointed at his small tablet which was showing an aerial view of Europa. On his screen was an object rising out of the ice of Europa. It had a diameter of almost 100 meters and was reaching towards orbit. It looked to be made up of a mottled grey flesh, with thick cables of what looked like muscles running up and down it¡¯s length. Commander Frazer gave it a good look, almost thinking he could see it growing in front of his eyes. The Behemoth itself was in several large pieces, each one spinning in space. A dozen Guppies were holding part of the Behemoth with their front tentacles slowly arresting its momentum and forcing it to a stop. A Kraken approached the stopped chunk of Behemoth and the crew was treated to the sight of the front of the Kraken opening. Because of the position of the Cherry Barb the crew was not able to see in the Krakens face but they could see dozens of long tentacles extend from it, pierce into the Behemoth and tear a chunk of the creature out, blood, bones and organs poured out of the hole. The Kraken itself slowly turned around and began accelerating towards Jupiter holding a chunk of the Behemoth in its front tentacles. Whatever the organ was it was the size of a frigate covered in blood and was still pumping like a heart. The crew of the Cherry Barb sat in stunned silence as the Kraken continued to accelerate away from them towards its next destination, whatever it was building in orbit of Jupiter. Hours later as they approached Jupiter they could see that the Kraken was leaving its gory prize floating in orbit next to the structures and was already turning back to the Behemoth to make another trip. As they approached to their closest point to the 2nd Behemoth and the massive objects being built in orbit of Jupiter they were finally able to get a good look at them. The Behemoth was every bit as massive as they their scans and telescopes had said it would be. At almost 24 kilometers long it dwarfed the 5-kilometer-long Ares Space Station the largest object humans had ever created in space. The Surface of the Behemoth was broken into 3 distinct areas laid out like a target. The outermost ring was made up of hundreds of waving tentacles, some dozens of meters long, others several hundred meters. The ring inside of that one was a smooth mottled grey flesh with small bumps at irregular intervals. The final part of the Behemoth, the inner bullseye was a murky green color that shifted as the Commander watched it. The longer Commander Frazer looked at it the more it looked like something was moving inside of it. Pulling his gaze away from the monster that was the Behemoth he moved his tablets screen to look at the constructs they were building. The three structures despite their earlier guesses were not identical. One was a ring almost 10 kilometers across and the other two were long cylinders on either side of it 5 kilometers long, 3 kilometers wide and with a wide-open maw facing towards Jupiter with the now familiar tentacles waving towards Jupiter on a wind that didn¡¯t exist in space. All the structures looked to be made of a white material, possibly bones from the Behemoth itself with long cords of muscles and arteries running up and down their sides. ¡°We can get a good enough reading on most of the materials they are made up of, I¡¯m seeing carbon making up most of the supports. The other parts are a mix of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and dozens of other elements. Take a look at this, you see what¡¯s actually doing the construction?¡± Pounds said gesturing at his own tablet. There were hundreds of what looked like large beetles moving over objects. They were insectoid, if insects could come straight from hell. They were very large probably 15 meters long, with 6 extremely long limbs that had at least 6 joints on them. The joints themselves could bend in any direction which gave Frazer the impression of a half a dozen wiggling worms instead of legs. It¡¯s back bulged out behind it and he noticed that it was standing at a point where the bones were meeting each other, and it appeared to be excreting something onto it, others still were creating what looked to be veins, arteries and even musculature along the bones. Commander Frazer nodded dumbly at his old friend as he looked at the creature Pounds was pointing at, what really drew Frazer¡¯s attention however was its head. It was extremely round and fat with dozens of eye stalks that moved independently of each other. Some of them focused on the construction some seemingly looking in random directions. After a few moments Frazer noticed some of the creatures walking to the bottom of the structure where they were picked up by a waiting Leviathan and the crawled along one of the tendrils into the maw on the front of the Leviathan. A few minutes later it picked one out of another whole in it and moved it back to the structure where it went back to work. With the bridge crew able to see the data as well discussion started immediately. ¡°Is¡­ that thing a creature that controls the leviathans? Or could it be controlled by the Leviathans?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure, maybe its a drone like in an ant colony? or it could be intelligent.¡± ¡°How the hell is it walking in space? What is it made of?¡± ¡°Do you think it¡¯s shitting out glue? Or is it creating the supports as it goes?¡± At that question the discussion stopped, and all eyes turned to the person who asked the question, Nate Brown. ¡°What? That¡¯s a good question. If it is creating the bones then it would have to be excreting out carbon as what a liquid? and somehow fusing it into a solid, if it is some kind of bonding agent then what kind? You can¡¯t just glue an object this size together, the amount of force it would have to be able to withstand should rip any bonding agent apart, and how would it keep it¡¯s but cheeks from getting glued shut?¡± As everyone stared at him for a few minutes before Commander Frazer finally said, ¡°Well those are two very good questions you¡¯ve asked Mr. Brown, but why don¡¯t we focus on getting as much data as we can? let the people back home will be analysing it. Sensors, how is our resolution?¡± ¡°As good as we can manage while on silent running Sir. I am concerned that there is still no sign of one of the Leviathans though.¡± ¡°Commander, given our position and the position of the other ships, I have narrowed down where the Leviathan could be to behind these three moons, if not then someone else should have been able to see it now.¡± Nate Brown said. ¡°Well done Mr. Brown. Lieutenant Green make sure all of this is ready for the message back to the Rushmore and to Earth.¡± ¡°Yes Sir, I am ready to send it back to both on your order.¡± ¡°As soon as we are on the far side of Jupiter send off all of the data we have collected. Lieutenant Brown, plot us another course, once we are finished surveying the moons, I want to get closer to those structures, and I want to see everything.¡± As the Cherry Barb moved further and further away from the Leviathans and the objects they were building, Commander Frazer felt a stab of fear. The Leviathans had been here for only a few months and they had already started construction on something than anything humanity had even conceived of. Who knows what they would be able to make in a year or even two? If the task force didn¡¯t succeed here, he didn¡¯t know if they would be able to make a second attempt. Chapter 6 Super Carrier USS Rushmore 36 hours until combat operations As the Rushmore, her attending ships and the other ships of the task force approached Jupiter Admiral Alexander Jacobs re-read the latest reports they had received from the stealth ships that had been scouting the leviathans for the past 4 weeks. The Minnows had done well on their mission. Although if it were up to him, he would have sent every stealth ship in active service. With all of moons and asteroids around Jupiter there were far too many blind spots for the leviathans to be hiding in and a few more eyes would have been helpful. As it stood a Kraken hadn¡¯t been seen in weeks and command had no idea where it was. While Earth and Space based Telescopes as well as the Minnows were keeping the area under constant surveillance, Kraken, Guppies and even the remaining intact Behemoth would occasionally leave their view for a few days or even weeks. Currently 2 of the Krakens and several dozen guppies were on the far side of Jupiter scattered around some of the moons where Earth and Mars based telescopes couldn¡¯t see them. The Stealth ships did their best to keep an eye on the far side of the Gas giant and her moons but it was too risky for them to move too much under power. None of their stealth ships had been detected yet, but there had been several close calls when Guppies or even Kraken seemed to turn towards them only to face towards them for several hours before eventually continuing on their way. The Joint Task Force itself was comprised of the best ships and officers the 4 largest nations on Earth were willing to send. As each of the factions had sent at least one Admiral with their fleet the command structure of the Task Force was nonexistent. There had been some consideration of a more unified command, but with the political situation one step away from war it was decided that so long as no one was shooting at each other that should be good enough. Made up of 217 combat capable ships the task force had the Leviathans outnumbered almost 6 to 1. Although the bulk of humanities ships were made up of the 140 Frigates making things much closer when measured by tonnage. Every faction had different sizes of ships and armaments on those ships but on average the four powers all followed similar design conventions. Frigates usually measured in at 200-250 meters long and were mostly meant to screen larger ships by providing point defense fire as well as a platform for missiles, while they did have 4 rail guns on 2 turrets the rounds they fired were far too small to seriously damage anything but another frigate or a civilian vessel. The next largest ships were the cruisers. With 70 of them and the largest being 450 meters long these were almost able to match the Guppies in size. With their much thicker armor, 24 guns on 12 turrets and dozens of nuclear these ships were the workhorse of most fleets, and were expected to do most of the heavy lifting when the fighting started. The largest ships for most navies were the Dreadnoughts. Every factions Dreadnoughts were wildly different from each other. Even within a country an older Dreadnought might be extremely different from a newer one. Created as the ultimate weapon they were meant to be able to withstand concentrated fire from dozens of cruisers, swat down hundreds of missiles all while sending enough back enough fire power to cripple entire squadrons of cruisers. The Russians had the largest Dreadnought with the most weapons. The just completed Yuri Gargarin was 1.2 kilometers long with 24 turrets having a total of 72 guns firing 25 kg solid slugs that were able to travel just over 1% of the speed of light. A direct hit should be enough to turn any known ship into debris. The Chinese Dreadnoughts were from 900 meters to 1.1 kilometers long with the number of guns ranging from 48 to 60. While not as large as the Russian Dreadnought they were some of the newest ships that China had and were completely state of the art. European Dreadnoughts were the smallest but fastest by far. Their Dreadnoughts were anywhere from 800 meters to 1 kilometer long with 36 to 48 guns. Prioritizing speed in order to dodge enemy fire they had less armor than most Dreadnoughts, although it was still almost twice as thick as a Cruisers armor. America however did not use Dreadnoughts. Believing that large gun ships were far too vulnerable to direct fire and missiles they opted for a different strategy than every other power. America created Carriers and Super Carriers. The largest ships that Humanity had were the American Supercarriers. At 1.5 Kilometers long each Supercarrier held hundreds of nuclear warheads and almost a thousand kinetic kill missiles, supplemented by hundreds of drones each armed with their own smaller missiles. Although they did have some guns, they were smaller than Dreadnought guns and each Supercarrier only had 24 guns on 12 turrets. Still even with the largest concentration of military might Humanity had ever assembled, they were dwarfed in sheer tonnage by a single 27 Kilometer long Behemoth, let alone the Super Dreadnought sized aliens and their Heavy cruiser sized escorts. With the Leviathans building structures near Jupiter and something else slowly rising out of the waters of Europa, everyone agreed that the Leviathans needed to be dealt with now and questions about command structure could wait. The structure slowly rising out of the ice of Europa had started out as only a few dozen meters tall, but it had been growing several meters a day and was almost 400 meters tall now. Whatever it was everyone back on Earth wanted to either study it or nuke it straight to hell. During the entire trip to Jupiter the Admirals had managed to put together a simple plan, although even that had taken hours of meetings, shouting matches and compromise. The situation had been made more unstable by the Chinese Admiral Wu Zetian. She had refused to have her fleet travel with the others. What should have been the 4 factions traveling together in a square shape with each fleet close enough to support another was instead ruined as the Chinese were tens of thousands of kilometers away from the other three with the Chinese Admiral refusing to get any closer to the other fleets the other three Admirals had been forced to work this into their battle plan. With most of the Leviathan forces close to Europa, and Europa being closer to the fleet than Jupiter the fleets would close in on the Leviathans at Europa first in a pincer attack with the Chinese engaging first at their extreme long range to keep them busy (although hours to early Jacobs thought). The rest of the fleets would envelope and destroy the Leviathans pinning them against Europa. With the Leviathans trapped by the moon and surrounded by the other fleets there would be nowhere for them to run to. After most of the Aliens were destroyed the fleets would approach Jupiter and destroy or capture whatever the leviathans were building there. Every Admiral would retain command of their own forces and they wouldn¡¯t have to worry about command structures, in theory at least. With everyone acting independently Admiral Jacobs was worried they wouldn¡¯t be able to coordinate their forces if something went wrong or even coordinate their fire on individual targets if they needed to. The European Admiral Ernst Gallagher disagreed and unfortunately the Russian Admiral Artyom Sokolov agreed as well. Not willing to risk destroying the plan they had created Admiral Jacobs went along with it.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Looking at the mission clock Admiral Jacobs could see that they would be entering optimum rail gun range in roughly 36 hours. While rail guns had no maximum range, as the rounds would just simply keep travelling until they hit something. They did have a maximum practical Range. Even the slowest of ships could dodge an unguided round if given enough time. Current doctrine said that optimum rail gun range for the American fleet was roughly 100,000 kilometers from their targets, as their rounds travelled at roughly 1% of the speed of light that still left a travel time of almost 30 seconds. At the moment Admiral Jacobs had convinced the other Admirals that they could run a few tests with their other weapons systems and see what the Leviathans had in the ways of point defenses. With so little known about them Admiral Jacobs and the rest of the Admirals of the task force were wary of engaging in a full fleet action without having some idea what the Leviathan¡¯s capabilities were. Unfortunately, they were completely incapable of coming up with a consensus of exactly how much testing was needed before launching a full-scale attack. It was decided that the American vessels would launch a small volley of missiles at isolated Guppies to determine what if any point defenses they had. If this proved successful, they would try again on a larger scale or possible launch a full-scale barrage of nuclear weapons at any enemy that was isolated and cut off from support before following up with rail guns at a closer range. Although it should not be possible for nuclear weapons to completely atomize the Leviathans to the extent that there would be nothing left to study it was thought that rail guns would leave them a little more intact and might allow for more to be learned. ¡°Coms, contact the Sacramento and have them launch the testing salvo at target designated Guppy 24, also contact the other Admirals and keep them apprised¡± Admiral Jacobs said to the coms officer as he looked over the tactical display in the middle of his ships command and control area. Guppy 24 was far away from the rest of its brethren and was with only 1 other Guppy that had been designated Guppy 26. With the two of them so isolated this was the perfect opportunity to try gauge their capabilities in a somewhat controlled test. With a nod the coms officer relayed the messages and moments later 2 kinetic kill missiles left the Sacramento¡¯s missile tubes and accelerated towards the Guppy. It would still be several hours before the missiles struck the creature, so the crew continued with their duties as the mission clock ticked by. Usually missiles would not be fired so far out, and more missiles would be sent in order to bracket the target on all sides, absorb enemy point defense fire and ensure a hit. However, this test was to see if the ship reacted to the missiles, if so when, and what if any counter measures were used. The weapons accelerated using most of their fuel, leaving enough for some course corrections and to compensate for evasive maneuvers from their target. As the missiles finally closed in on the Guppies Admiral Jacobs was just starting to think that it might not react at all and simply get slammed into by the two missiles. However, fifty thousand kilometers from the Guppy the creature made a sharp turn and the trailing missile simply exploded. Shortly after that the leading missile exploded as well. As Admiral Jacobs watched the display ignoring the crew all around him, he started to grow somewhat concerned. It was hard to tell for certain, but it looked like as soon as the guppy detected the missile, every Leviathan¡¯s course changed. The Guppies all started to pull together and form up into a more cohesive whole, the of the 3 visible Leviathans 1 joined the still forming group of Guppies in what could only be called a battle formation over Europa while the other two stayed above Jupiter near whatever the Leviathans were building. Jacobs fully expected the Leviathans to react to the missiles, but this reaction was far quicker than what he had expected. There shouldn¡¯t have been time to even send a message out, but the creatures to reacted almost instantaneously. Queuing up the recording of the missile strike Admiral Jacobs played it back far slower. At 2 hours and 10 seconds the missiles approached the Guppy from behind, the leading missile was slightly to the Guppies left while the trailing missile was directly behind it. 2 hours and 12 seconds the ship apparently detected the missiles and began to rotate to its right. 2 hours and 15 seconds the trailing missile explodes. 2 hours and 17 seconds the ship designated Guppy 19 with the Leviathans main group shifted its course to be closer to the rest of its ships. 2 hours and 25 seconds the Guppy destroys the leading missile. 2 hours and 27 seconds the rest of the Guppies alter course to start to form up together. With a frown Jacobs considered this. It took 7-10 seconds for it to detect the missiles, shift to counter fire, and send a message to the other ships near it. It took less than 7 seconds for those ships to begin to form up into a larger group. Given the distances they all had to travel it would still take some time for that to happen, but it was an impressive amount of coordination. These kind of reaction times were simply not possible by humans, or life as humanity knew it. ¡°Coms get me the other Admirals.¡± ¡°Yes sir.¡± A few moments later the Russian Admirals Artyom Sokolov and Wu Zetian or the Russian and Chinese fleets respectively were on his tablet, a few moments later the face of Admiral Ernst Gallagher appeared beside them in his own corner. ¡°Thank you all for taking the time to go over the results of the strike with me, I¡¯m sure you all noticed¡­¡± ¡°What are you rambling on about Jacobs? Did you really just call to waste our time?¡± Admiral Gallagher said. ¡°Admiral Gallagher I just wanted to go over the data from the missile strike.¡± Jacobs said as calmly as he could. ¡°What of it? It was a complete waste of time, I told you more than two missiles were needed. Any of my frigates could shoot down 10 times that many missiles.¡± Ignoring the outburst Admiral Jacobs said ¡°Both of our missiles were destroyed by an unknown counter measures and the rest of their ships reacted far faster than I thought possible. I am uncertain how much success we can have with missiles, but this is still our best chance to try before all of their ships rendezvous with each other and they are able to better mutually support each other. If you look at these groups here.¡± Admiral Jacobs said indicating 4 small groups of Gu Guppies that were tens of thousands of miles from each other and any other Leviathans, ¡°These four groups have a total of 11 Guppies in them and they should be quite vulnerable to missile strikes still.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve looked at the data as well I believe that softening the Leviathans up with missiles may not be as effective as you had been hoping, it may be better to use them during a closer range battle when they are disorganized and whatever weapons they have are otherwise being used.¡± Said the Chinese Admiral Wu Zetian with only a slight accent in her speech. ¡°I disagree, these 11 ships are a significant portion of the Leviathans forces, and with the way they are spread out we should be able to destroy them with a relatively small strike, say 800 missiles from ourselves and 800 from your fleets, that would still be a little less than I would like to send but I think it should suffice..¡± At this the other Admirals looked somewhat stunned. ¡°Are you crazy Jacobs?¡± Yelled Gallagher. ¡°That would be almost 80% of my total missile stores, and what only 40% of yours? This would also leave us almost completely out of missiles should we need them later.¡± ¡°I have to agree with Admiral Gallagher.¡± Said the Russian Admiral Artyom Sokolov. ¡°I do not think that this would be a wise use of resources.¡± ¡°While this will be a large expenditure in resources, missile strikes must always be overwhelming in order to be effective. If we use too few, we risk them defending themselves with no losses whatsoever and they would all be wasted. I would also like to point out we still don¡¯t know the range or even nature of their point defenses. I would much rather use too many missiles and deal with overkill than too few and not inflict any damage at all.¡± ¡°If your so worried about their point defenses then that is even more reason to use a more limited strike. Use a half dozen missiles to gain more information.¡± Wu Zetian said. ¡°I would normally agree if not for how separated they are, by the time a second salvo reaches them, a third larger salvo would not be able to reach them before they are close enough to provide each other with mutual support. If they can support each other any strike would be far less effective. This is the perfect chance to destroy a third of their forces for only a moderate expenditure or a weapon, instead of human lives.¡± ¡°80% of my missiles do not count as a moderate expenditure Admiral. Count me out, if you want to waste all of your missiles on a plan with so many unknowns then by all means, but I refuse.¡± The European Admiral shouted before cutting his connection. ¡°I agree with Admiral Gallagher, Admiral Jacobs, our ships have far fewer missiles than yours and we cannot use them in such a gamble, especially if part of task force would not even be joining us.¡± Admiral Sokolov said, with that the Russian Admiral cut his connection as well. ¡°Your plan does have merit Admiral Jacobs, however if it were just the two of us then we would not have enough missiles to ensure a proper amount that could overwhelm their defenses.¡± ¡°If my fleets used 1200 missiles and you used most your missiles, we still have almost 1500 missiles being sent out. Still a little less than what I would like but it would allow us to gather valuable data and kill a good number of ships.¡± ¡°My ships would be left entirely without missiles Admiral.¡± ¡°Missiles were made to be used, this situation is exactly what my fleet was designed and built for, a strung-out enemy just waiting for a dozen atomic weapons to slam into their flanks.¡± ¡°The Chinese navy was not designed for that Admiral. We were designed and built to pound our enemies into submission with rail guns at knife fighting range. If I were to follow your plan this would be my fleets entire store of nuclear warheads, and just 60% of your own? I would be potentially throwing away something that I might desperately need later. I am sorry Admiral your plan has merit, but I cannot agree to it. What if you used more of your own missiles? If you used 1500 it would be close to the number of missiles you wanted.¡± ¡°It would yes,¡± Admiral Jacobs said while he thought ¡®It would also leave my fleet with very little offensive fire power after the battle is over and your fleet would still be in complete working order.¡¯ However, what he said was ¡°That would leave my fleet with very little of its primary weapons available in the event they were not effective, and we needed to engage in a close-range battle, even if they were effective I would be using almost three quarters of my missiles for less than half of their ships.¡± ¡°Then I am afraid Admiral that we are at an impasse at this time.¡± With that the Chinese Admirals picture winked out as she disconnected. Keeping his face as impassive as possible Admiral Jacobs turned to the closest officer and said. ¡°contact the Sacramento prepare to fire 12 missiles, 6 nuclear missiles with contact warheads and 6 kinetic kill warheads. I want 3 of each targeting guppy 24 and guppy 26, we might as well get some data out of this while we still can.¡± ¡°Sir, doesn¡¯t our fleet have just over 3000 missiles not 2000?¡± The officer asked. Admiral Jacobs didn¡¯t bother answering. Chapter 7 Chapter 7 USS Cherry Barb 100 000 kilometers from Guppies designated 24 and 26 ¡°Sir I have movement from the fleet. The Sacramento just launched 12 more missiles heading out to the group of Guppies that we have been observing. It looks like 6 nuclear warheads and 6 kinetic kill missiles.¡± ¡°12? That¡¯s it?¡± Said Lieutenant Commander Bannon. ¡°Is Admiral Jacobs playing it safe?¡± ¡°Admiral Jacobs wrote the book on missile tactics and saturation strikes. He wouldn¡¯t pass up an opportunity like this, maybe there¡¯s a problem with the other Admirals. With no actual chain of command set up between the different fleets they¡¯re trying to fight a major fleet engagement by committee.¡± ¡°You mark my words a lot of people are going to die because of that. The task force should not have been sent out before a unified command structure had been sorted out.¡± ¡°Then no ships would have ever been sent and the Leviathans would be building whatever this is completely undisturbed. We may not like it, but this is the best we have, and we do still have the leviathans outnumbered almost 6 to 1, even if we are still out massed.¡± ¡°And their smallest ships are the sizes of our cruisers.¡± ¡°That too.¡± The two of them turned their attention to the display and watched as the missiles slowly moved towards their targets. In fact, the missiles were traveling incredibly fast, it was just because to the great distances that they seemed to slowly crawl across the display. By the time the missiles arrived at their targets the Cherry Barb was only 30 thousand kilometers from the group of Guppies Admiral Jacobs had wanted to destroy. Close enough to get a good view on exactly what happened and hopefully determine what the Leviathans used as point defense weapons, their range and any other information as well. The 12 missiles were almost certainly not numerous enough to even score a single hit. At least not if those were human ships they had been fired against. With space being so vast and empty, ships had a lot of time to shoot down missiles with not much the missiles could do to prevent it, electronic jamming only helped so much and limited fuel made extensive evasive maneuvers impossible. However, if a friendly ship was watching, they could report on the enemy point defense fire, this could allow them to update the missiles flight computer on the fly so the missiles could make evasive maneuvers much earlier on. As the weapons closed an increase in time lag for communications would prevent friendlies from providing the missiles with information. As well defensive fire having less distance to travel would greatly increase its accuracy making it far easier for ships to destroy the incoming fire. A great deal of thought and calculations had been put into how many missiles should be fired at a single target in order to guarantee a kill. Even for a small frigate it was estimated it could require at least 10 missiles to score a hit. A dreadnought with escorts could theoretically swat down dozens or even hundreds of missiles by working together before taking any hits. But all it took was one or two getting through to destroy or seriously damage a ship. And once that happened subsequent hits would become more likely and more devastating. However, with so many nukes being needed to hit a ship, and nuclear weapons still being relatively expensive, other ordinance were also in use. Kinetic Kill Missiles were designed under the idea that you didn¡¯t need an extremely large explosion to damage a ship, if you had enough mass and speed you could just ram them. While not as fast as a rail gun round, Kinetic Kill Missiles were much heavier which made up for the lack of speed. The fact that they were also able to aim themselves and course correct in a way rail gun rounds couldn¡¯t meant that they could be fired from a much further range and have an excellent chance of hitting their target. Combined with the fact that the tips of their missiles were designed to penetrate capital ship armor they were also able to shrug off a certain amount of incoming fire in a way that the relatively fragile Nuclear Missiles could not. In order to ensure their fleets had enough missiles even American frigates would carry dozens of missiles and supercarriers almost a thousand missiles and drones. Each drone would carry half a dozen smaller missiles topped with a small charge designed to destroy point defense weapons, sensors or anything else that ships needed to function. Drones missiles were much smaller than their ship launched counter parts, but because they could hitch a ride on the drone they had much more fuel for use in maneuvering and were accompanied by many more missiles ensuring more would get through. If any enemy ships survived the barrage, the relatively smaller guns of the American cruisers and frigates would hopefully be enough to finish off any survivors. At least that was the current doctrine the American military had been building towards for the last 25 years. Without a real war to test their theories, their data was based on computer simulations, war games and the few smaller scale skirmishes that had happened between the smaller powers. The missiles finally approached their destination and the crew watched as the closest of the 2 Guppies began to turn towards the threat the flesh on their faces shifting as small holes opened in their outer hull. Commander Frazer noted the range, almost 40 000 kilometers is when they reacted. Was that when they detected the missiles? Or just when their point defenses were most effective? Perhaps they were simply sandbagging to hide their own capabilities? Almost immediately two of the nuclear missiles exploded in small explosion indicating their nuclear warheads had not detonated but their fuel had. Shortly afterwards the four remaining nuclear missiles were destroyed. The Kinetic Missiles continued for another several minutes before one detonated, moments later another three missiles broke apart in a small fireball. The two remaining missiles slammed into the closest Guppy at several thousand meters per second. The Guppies hull was violently ripped open as the missiles penetrated the creature¡¯s soft flesh before they exited the sides of the creature on random courses. A dark viscous liquid began to pour from the wounds in the creatures¡¯ sides before the three missiles then detonated in small fire balls. As the crew watched the amount of viscous red liquid pouring from the creature began to slow and then stop. ¡°I didn¡¯t see any conventional weapons fire from their ships. No shells, rail guns or even plasma.¡± Lieutenant Commander Bannon said. ¡°Lieutenant Marshal did you pick anything up?¡¯ Commander Frazer asked their weapons officer. ¡°No, Sir.¡± I have no idea what did that to the Rushmore¡¯s missiles, or what happened to the three that struck the creature.¡± ¡°Sir, I think I know.¡± All eyes on the bridge turned to the helmsman Nate Brown. ¡°Oh? We¡¯re all ears Mr. Brown.¡± Commander Frazer said, stopping Lieutenant Commander Bannon¡¯s rant before it could begin. ¡°The Nuclear Warheads exploded too fast for any usable data to be collected. But the Kinetic Kill missiles took longer. It you look at thermals you see the front of the missiles, specifically the tungsten tip starts to heat up.¡± He said forwarding the recording of the missiles to the appropriate frame. ¡°There, it¡¯s actually just started to deform from the heat in this frame here. Immediately after this the missile explodes.¡± After that he rewound the video and put on a heat map, as the video moved forwards at half speed everyone saw a spot of red blossom on the tip of the missile before it quickly expanded, seconds later the missile detonated in a flurry of red. ¡°With the lack of anything solid I¡¯d guess it¡¯s lasers.¡± ¡°Also, if you look here on the Guppy at the hole, we can¡¯t see inside of the hole, but on the heat map you can see the front of the Guppies heating up considerably from all of the waste heat.¡± And there the red spot was on the Guppy, right on its front where the crew was starting to think of its face was a large bloom of red.A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°Excellent work Mr. Brown¡± Said Captain Fraser. ¡°Lasers? That¡¯s some pretty impressive tech, we don¡¯t have any that small that can be used to shoot down missiles like that.¡± ¡°We do have them; we¡¯ve just always had problems with the heat buildup in a laser large enough to do any damage to a missile. That may be why it is mounted on the inside of the ship, if most of it was inside it could better dissipate the heat from the weapon.¡± ¡°It still needs some way of dealing with the heat from the weapon frying the ship itself. It was never the weapon overheating that was the problem that couldn¡¯t be solved, it was all the waste heat slowly accumulating over the course of a battle that could kill the crew. What about the lack of damage from the Kinetic warheads? Three direct hits like that would have shattered most human ships.¡± This time the weapons officer Duncan Marshal answered. ¡°It¡¯s hard to tell Sir, but it looks like the warheads penetrated the Guppies armor easily enough and then exited it from an odd angel. Given the entrance and exit angels it looks like some sort of an ablative amour deflected most of the force away from any critical systems. I¡¯d also guess they have some sort of a much stronger inner hull, the softer outer hull deflects as much of the energy as it can and the inner hull must be strong enough to survive the rest. It¡¯s hard to say without more data, but I think kinetic rounds are not likely to be very effective their armor.¡± ¡°Fantastic work everyone. Lieutenant Green send this data to the Rushmore immediately. They can send it to earth themselves. I know that we all wanted to see some payback for the Europa Mission, but this was some excellent data we gathered instead, and it will help the fleet in their next engagement. Mr. Brown are all of the Kraken still heading to Europa?¡± ¡°No Sir. There is only one headed to the former site of the Europa Mission Station; it is currently in orbit of whatever it is that¡¯s growing out of Europa. The other two are still near whatever it is that¡¯s being built over Jupiter, and something else Sir, it looks like they have been attached to whatever it is.¡± Commander Frazer looked at his tablet and pulled up the latest images they had on the construction taking place over Jupiter. Sure enough the large 10 km long structure was still flanked by two 5 km long cylinders. Each of the three structures was made up of the same dark grey flesh as the Leviathan ships with white bones poking out at odd angles, large muscles that must have been several kilometers long were flexing and holding the three structures together. As Frazer looked he could see what looked like like two veiny umbilical cords being created by the small insectoid workers. They were slowly reaching towards the two Leviathans and would soon connect the Leviathans to one of the Cylinders. ¡°One problem at a time¡± Commander Frazer thought to himself as he moved his tablet to look at Europa ¡°Where is the rest of the Behemoth? I thought it was in a geosynchronous orbit over that site as well?¡± ¡°It is, or at least it was, it seems to have drifted to the far side of the moon.¡± ¡°Check the sensors logs, I want to know when it started to move.¡± ¡°Yes Sir. About 6 hours ago the different sections of the Behemoth started to move under their own power. That¡¯s just a few moments after the first missile the Rushmore sent in was detected by the Leviathans Sir.¡± Commander Jacobs stared at the display for a few moments in deep thought ¡°I want to get a closer look at the far side of that moon.¡± ¡°We¡¯re supposed to be on station for when the fleet arrives to send them the tactical data. What are you thinking?¡± Said Lieutenant Commander Bannon quietly to his friend. ¡°Part of the Behemoth crashed specifically on Europa¡¯s equator, the rest of the Behemoth was right over whatever was rising out of the ice and now it¡¯s moved off? Something doesn¡¯t seem right. They wanted it there, and now they¡¯re hiding it.¡± ¡°Maybe they¡¯re protecting it, if that is where their fleet is massing it makes sense to move something valuable that can¡¯t defend itself to a different location.¡± ¡°Something about this is bothering me. Mr. Brown how many Ships are gathering above Europa? ¡°1 Kraken, and 32 Guppies. The one intact Behemoth is holding steady near Jupiter with 2 Kraken.¡± ¡°Do we know where the other Kraken is?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not on our scanners but telescopes in the inner system were tracking it on the other side of Jupiter poking around some of the other moons, it¡¯s too far from Europa to make it back in time for the battle.¡± ¡°That a Super Dreadnought sized ship wandering around and a glaring blind spot in the task forces flank. Look at this Pounds.¡± Commander Frazer said to his executive officer. ¡°Three of the fleets are in a relatively close formation, but the Chinese are way out on the extreme left of the fleet. They are by themselves and far too close to Europa. The Leviathans could use that blind spot to send ships to their rear and have them in a pincer.¡± ¡°They could, but with what ships? The intact Behemoth is too close to Jupiter with the other Kraken, we and the fleets can all see it. The other behemoth is in pieces, not to mention it was barely able to limp around Europa I don¡¯t think it could launch an attack in its current condition if it wanted to.¡± Commander Frazer thought about it for a moment. He was missing something he was certain of it. The Leviathans had been showing clear signs of intelligence, they were not mindless, and Frazer did not believe that anything they had done so far had been accidental. Pulling up the sensor data from the Behemoth over Jupiter he watched it for a moment. On the screen a Guppy floated from the structure they were building and over to the Kraken. Several of the tentacles from the Guppy reached over to the Behemoth and they were met in the middle from several small tentacles from the Behemoth as the Guppy itself moved against the Behemoth. Zooming out he looked at the surface of the Behemoth it looked almost identical to the first Behemoth they had seen over Europa. The inner most third of it looked like a bright green bullseye, a middle ring of dull grey material and finally the outer ring had dozens of tentacles ringing it that the other Behemoth lacked. Switching half his screen he left the intact Behemoth on one half and moved the other half to a recording of the other Behemoth while it was being disassembled. He zoomed in, there was the shimmering green covering roughly a third, a flat smooth unbroken surface, and finally dozens of bumps in a ring covering the surface outer third of the creature. On the surface of the ship they were on they did not look very large but Frazer new they would be almost five hundred meters long, and one hundred and fifty meters wide. ¡°Are you seeing this Pounds?¡± As his executive officer looked at the two ships on the monitor, he gave his friend a quizzical look. ¡°What am I looking at?¡± ¡°These bumps, those are Guppies. They are parasite craft attached to the Behemoth for interstellar travel. Just enough room for 32 Guppies per Behemoth and whatever else they need when they travel to a new system. These tentacles hold the Guppies in place and are only exposed when they leave the Behemoth.¡± ¡°The intact Behemoth released its Guppies when it arrived, but the other one¡­ There are going to be 32 cruisers ready to pounce on the Chinese from behind with no warning.¡± ¡°Even if they had warning they¡¯re too far from the rest of the fleets. There wouldn¡¯t be anything they could do anyways. Lieutenant Green get me a laser com link with the Rushmore, I need to speak to Admiral Jacobs immediately. Mr. Brown how long until the fleets engage the Leviathans?¡± ¡°4 hours until they are in optimum rail gun range, although they could launch missiles at any time.¡± ¡°Commander, I am talking to the Admirals staff, they have accepted our report, but Admiral Jacobs is in a meeting with the other Admirals and they can¡¯t disturb him.¡± ¡°Keep trying, annoy the hell out of them until someone passes along our information to the Admiral. Also send through a summary of our findings. Mr. Brown how long would it take us to get to the far side of Europa?¡± ¡°If we abandon stealth 30 minutes, if we keep stealth and follow the fastest course available about 2 hours, but we wouldn¡¯t be in position to get a message back to the Rushmore, Europa would be blocking us. It would be 3.5 hours if we took a less direct route, but we would be in position to keep laser communications open with the Rushmore.¡± ¡°That wouldn¡¯t be enough time. The Chinese would alread be surrounded by then.¡± Lieutenant Commander Bannon said. ¡°Lieutenant Brown get us a view of the far side of Europa best speed without letting the whole system know we¡¯re here.¡± ¡°We won¡¯t be able to get a message to the fleet if we follow that course.¡± ¡°Not with the laser coms, Europa would block them as well as radio, however the Zebra Danio and the Pearl Gourami will still be in the operating area to send targeting data to the fleet, they can relay a message for us.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know where either the Pearl Gourami or the Zebra Danio are.¡± Started Pounds before he realized his commanders plan. ¡°You want to go loud, send the message in the clear over the radio and hope one of them get it. Afterwards they can send it to the Rushmore using their laser coms. That¡¯s a hell of a gamble, we¡¯d be breaking stealth and we would be all by our lonesome behind enemy lines. I know we haven¡¯t been spotted yet but we have to believe they can see us if we announce our presence to half of the system.¡± ¡°Yes, but if we¡¯re lucky all of the ships that would have launched from the Behemoth will be heading towards the Chinese fleet leaving us alone and in the clear.¡± ¡°And if not?¡± ¡°Then we prep for combat. Lieutenant Green get me ship wide.¡± Picking up his receiver Commander Frazer once again spoke directly to his crew. ¡°Ladies and Gentlemen of the Cherry Barb. We have reason to believe that the Leviathan forces are far larger than we originally estimated and that they are moving to surprise and flank the joint task force. If we allow this, it could cause the destruction of every ship humanity has in the outer system. I will not lie to you, this is the most dangerous mission we have ever undertaken, and there is a very real possibility that we will not return from it. However, I would not ask it of you if it was not needed. Our actions today may very well save hundreds of thousands of Human lives and prevent this war from dragging on for decades. Make ready your sections and prepare for combat.¡± Hanging up the receiver in its cradle the captain turned to his Helmsman. ¡°There is one other thing James.¡± Lieutenant Commander Bannon said in a whisper to his old friend. ¡°We are going against our orders. We¡¯re supposed to stay near the battle and transmit targeting data to the fleet. If your wrong about these other Guppies you¡¯ll be court martialed for this.¡± ¡°I know, and if I am wrong, I will accept full responsibility for this, but if I¡¯m right Admiral Jacobs will need to know. Lieutenant Brown move us out, Pounds I want us ready to deliver concentrated sunshine to whatever we find behind that moon.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll head down to the missile and slinger bays, make sure no one is slacking.¡± As the Cherry Barb began to accelerate towards the moon, her crew having been already on edge due to being so close to the Leviathans for so long began to check and recheck all their systems. There was a close call when they approached to less than 10 000 kilometers to a Guppy that was still forming up with the Leviathan fleet, but although it turned in the direction the Cherry Barb had approached from the Cherry Barb was able to pass it with it being none the wiser. All too quickly Europa began to pass by underneath them, the Leviathan fleet far behind themselves. As they crested the moon their scanners were finally able to get a good look at what lay before them. ¡°Dear god there they are. Just where you said they would be.¡± Said Lieutenant Commander Bannon. Looking at the sensor display in the center of the CIC. On the display were several large masses representing the remains of the Behemoth and 31 Guppies still accelerating away from them. At their current course and speed, they should be able to slam into the Chinese fleet from behind shortly after the battle started. ¡°Lieutenant Green send all of the data we have on the 2nd Guppy fleet to the areas the Zebra Danio and the Pearl Gourami are operating in.¡± Due to the nature of stealth ships being largely scouts they commonly did not work with each other in the same area. This ensured that they usually did not have to worry about running into each other. However, because there were currently 3 stealth ships operating in a relatively small area there was some concern they could spoil another ships location or accidentally run into each other. In order to avoid that each ship had their own specific area to operate in, so while they did not know exactly where to transmit their message, they had a general location they could send it to, and hopefully it would be heard and passed along to Admiral Jacobs. This also meant that their signal would be strong enough that even if the Leviathans could not understand their signal, they would know that something in this area had sent it. As the Cherry Barb sent the signal into space hopefully to be listened to by friendly ears, they noticed the closest of the Kraken move. Immediately it swung around to face the Cherry Barb its largest tentacles waving towards them but making no other moves. Unfortunately, there was movement on the Behemoth in front of them. The formerly single creature was now broken up into several smaller although still massive chunks. Behind the furthest of the pieces of Behemoth a single Guppy detached from the ship, their tentacles waving in front of them they turned towards the Cherry Barb. Chapter 8 SS Rushmore 4 hours until combat operations. ¡°Sir, we are receiving a message from both the Pearl Gourami and the Zebra Danio. They are passing on a message from the Cherry Barb confirming the presence of an additional 31 Guppies on the far side of Europa heading directly for the Chinese fleets six o¡¯clock¡± Admiral Jacobs stood up immediately, if he was surprised he didn¡¯t show it ¡°Do the Chinese have any idea?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see how Sir. We don¡¯t have anything that can see that side of the moon. Given the position of the moon, they won¡¯t until they are coming up right behind them.¡± Admiral Jacobs stared at the coms operator for a few moments. ¡°And we just got our battle plan figured out. Coms get me the other Admirals.¡± A few moments later all the other Admirals appeared on the screen in front of him. The bloated face of Admiral Gallagher was the first to speak. ¡°What¡¯s wrong Jacobs forget your part in this already?¡± Ignoring the man Jacobs spoke. ¡°Admirals we have a serious problem. One of our stealth ships operating on a hunch made a scouting trip to the far side of Europa. It seems the Guppies are parasite crafts. They travel on the Behemoths, at least for interstellar travel.¡± ¡°What the hell are you talking about Jacobs?¡± Gallagher cut in. ¡°The Cherry Barb believed that the all of the Guppies we see currently were from the Behemoth we designated as Beta, and if that was true then the Behemoth we designated as Alpha could still have been carrying its compliment of Guppies. The Cherry Barb moved in to investigate and they have only now sent back her report. As soon the Behemoth Alpha was behind the moon and out of our sight lines, they launched their compliment of 32 Guppies, 31 of whom are now heading towards the Chinese Fleets rear as we speak. The Cherry Barb estimated they will arrive shortly after the battle starts.¡± If the Chinese Admiral felt distress at hearing this Jacobs couldn''t see any, unless a slightly upturned eyebrow was her panicking. The other Admirals however were a different story. The European Admiral Gallagher was almost frothing at the mouth with rage while the Russian Admiral began swearing in Russian. ¡°Damn it Jacobs, did you know about this? When did you find out?¡± Admiral Gallagher shouted. ¡°Admirals I assure you I received the report just moments ago, and calling you was the first thing I did.¡± ¡°What about the ship that sent the report?¡± ¡°Their last known position was on the far side of the moon from us, without any satellites in the area I am afraid it is not possible to talk to them.¡± ¡°Then how did you get this report then?¡± The Chinese Admiral asked. ¡°The Cherry Barb broke stealth protocols and transmitted their report over the radio in the clear to the last known area their sister ships were in, they were able to send us the report using laser coms. In the transmission they said that there was a Guppy headed towards their position, after that they stopped transmitting and are now MIA.¡± Although the exact specifications of American stealth ships were a closely guarded secret everyone knew there was no way an undersized frigate could win against a cruiser analogue. ¡°Then it seems gentlemen we have a problem.¡± The Chinese Admiral spoke. ¡°Our original plan for a full envelopment of the Leviathan forces is no longer feasible.¡± On the display of every flag ship on each ship the same thing was being shown. The Leviathans were in the middle, the Chinese approaching from the 6 o¡¯clock position and the other fleets arriving on their far flank. The single Russian flees was supposed to arrive from the 4 o¡®clock to support the Chinese, the American fleet should have arrived from the 2 o¡¯clock to flank them and quick European fleets move in behind to cut off retreat. ¡°It was a fairly good plan against a stationary target in close orbit of a moon. We should have been able to envelope them and destroy them without much trouble.¡± The Russian Admiral said. ¡°It can still work now, the main fleet with the dreadnought is the real problem, if we destroy those the second fleet of Guppies will be alone without any capital ship support, they would be easy pickings.¡± Gallagher said. ¡°I will not allow my fleet to be sacrificed in such a way. Even if we had a victory, my ships would be trapped between the two fleets for far too long. it would be far too costly for us.¡± ¡°Do you honestly think they can win against us? These are insects, big insects for certain but that¡¯s all.¡± Gallagher said with a sneer to the Chinese Admiral Wu Zetian. ¡°Admiral Gallagher, these creatures have proven to be competent and determined. They have just sprung a very clever trap on us that was only detected by the sacrifice of one of my ships, and I do not plan on wasting their sacrifice. Might I also add that we still do not know the entirety of the enemy¡¯s capabilities, a Guppy was even able to shrug off two kinetic warheads with only minor visible damage.¡± ¡°Then what do you propose? By my calculations none of us would be able to arrive in time to make any difference, the original plan called for Admiral Zetian to hold her fleet near the Leviathans at extreme range while we moved into position, we have all been decelerating for so long that we simply cannot change course to support them that quickly.¡± All the Admirals looked at each other. Jacobs knew that the situation was falling apart before his very eyes. The Chinese had contributed almost 2/5s of the ships for the joint task force, it they decided to cut and run their numerical superiority would be gone.. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Everyone please, with this new threat from the enemy it is more important than ever that we work together. This was going to be difficult enough when we outnumbered them so heavily, now that they have pulled another 31 ships out of their asses we cannot afford to be divided. I have an idea. Our original plan called for the Chinese fleet to decelerate and engage the Leviathans at extreme range while the Europeans joined in from the Leviathans 10 o¡¯clock position, my own fleet from the leviathans 8 o¡¯clock and the Russian fleet to cut off any retreat from their 6 o¡¯clock position. Once we were all in position, we would have been able to surround them and destroy them in detail. Obviously, the Chinese cannot face both enemy fleets at the same time, they would be cut to pieces, you also cannot move away. You have been decelerating for too long. They would pounce on you before you were able to get any distance between you. Instead you maintain your current speed you should be able to engage them in one hour. At that speed you would make it through their position in 30 minutes. If we launch a missile strike, we can have the missiles arrive shortly after your fleet is engaged by the Leviathans, this will either distract them from your own fleet or you will distract them from the missiles. Either way it should allow us to deal a significant blow to their fleet while allowing you to escape. My fleet and the European fleet will all accelerate to your position as well, directly behind our missiles. We should arrive roughly 45 minutes after our missiles do, this will prevent the Leviathans from pursuing you. At that point we will have them caught in a pincer and they will be surrounded. The Russians will accelerate towards the new force and engage them at extreme range. If the Guppies turn to engage the Russian fleet, then the Russians can keep them at a distance and delay the fleet while the three of us will destroy the main Leviathan force. Afterwards we would be able to turn our attention to the remaining Guppies and hit their flank. If they move to flank us, then the Russians can press their rear while Admiral Gallagher moves his ships to face their front while your fleet and my own finish off the main Leviathan force. I know it is a rush plan, but we are running out of time and a decision needs to be made now.¡± Everyone stared for a few seconds at each other no one wanting to be the first person to speak until the Russian Admiral said ¡°It is a good plan Admiral Jacobs, I am willing to go along with it.¡± ¡°It¡¯s rough and too much can go wrong with it, but it might be the best we have.¡± Admiral Gallagher said grudgingly. ¡°I cannot accept your plan Admiral.¡± Said Admiral Zetian. ¡°My forces would be facing the entirety of the Leviathan fleet at ranges far too close for far too long, your missile strike may well be ineffective as well as your fleets would be far too late in arriving to help us. I will instead be accelerating my fleet through their position.¡± ¡°If you do that you will be facing them completely by yourself. We are not in any position to assist you until after you have passed through them.¡± Admiral Jacobs said. ¡°They may pursue you as well and we would still be unable to assist you, and with the extra speed you would not be able to turn around in time to assist us in the battle either.¡± ¡°I am aware Admiral Jacobs. However, by traveling at the speeds you suggest my fleet would be target practice for them, especially when we began to pass through their position. By accelerating I will lower the amount of time I am in contact with the enemy and take fewer losses.¡± ¡°I understand your position Admiral Zetian. I cannot say that I agree with your assessment, but I certainly understand why you are making it. I will send a missile strike to hit the Leviathans, by my calculations it should arrive after your fleet has passed through the Leviathan fleet, but if they are pursuing you it may distract them long enough for you to put some distance between them.¡± ¡°I appreciate that Admiral. After I pass through their ships I will have my fleet form up on the far side of Europa, if you are able we should rendezvous there and plan our next move.¡± With that the Chinese Admiral cut her connection. Jacobs and the other Admirals could only watch as the Chinese fleet began accelerating at a far faster rate than any of them had seen before. With a few words to his second in command 750 kinetic missiles and 250 nuclear missiles were soon accelerating away from his own fleet towards the Chinese and Leviathan fleets. Too late to really save the Chinese and losses but they could still destroy a large number of enemies or more likely act as a distraction. ¡°Good Lord, I didn¡¯t know Chinese ships could accelerate that quickly, looks like they were holding back on showing us what their capabilities were this entire time.¡± Admiral Gallagher said. ¡°Gentlemen the Chinese fleet is now effectively out of this fight. Even if they escape with minor damages they will still be accelerating away from the battle and in no position to help us. Does anyone have any ideas?¡± Admiral Sokolov asked. ¡°It is now 147 of our ships to 63 of their own, we are of course also greatly out massed and we do not know the enemies full capabilities. This is a disaster.¡± Admiral Jacobs said ¡°Watching what happens to the Chinese should at least give us a better idea of their capabilities. Damn Zetian!¡± Gallagher Said hotly. ¡°We would have never split our forces, if she were closer to us this never would have happened!¡± ¡°I cannot blame the Admiral for not trusting you after the way your governments have been treating her own.¡± Sokolov said coldly. ¡°Gentleman please, the fact is we still need a battle plan. Now more than ever. Admiral Gallagher is correct that we will learn valuable data from the Chinese here, but we must have a plan of attack before we reach the Leviathans.¡± Stopping for a moment he looked at each of the other Admirals. ¡°I believe we should make a hard turn to our port and accelerate towards the smaller of the Leviathan fleets. We can approach it at cruising speeds and destroy it or do as much damage as possible to it before they can link up with their other fleet and capital ships. This will also put us on the far side of Europa and allow us to form back up with the Chinese. From there we can have a quick debrief and decide what to do.¡± ¡°That is going to be a very small window to actually hit them before they are close enough to their other fleet that they will be able to support them.¡± Gallagher said. ¡°Unless the Alpha fleet pursues the Chinese in which case we would be able to take our time. If that happens, we should slow down and try to inflict as many casualties on them as possible, if the Alpha fleet moves to link up we accelerate and move away after doing what damage we can.¡± Sokolov said ¡°I agree Admiral Sokolov.¡± Jacobs said. ¡°We are of course ignoring the simplest of solutions gentlemen.¡± Gallagher said. ¡°Discretion is the better part of valor, after the Chinese fleet engages the Leviathans, we simply go back to earth with what we have learned and come back with a larger force. A force that will let us be certain of numerical superiority and will have a clearer chain of command.¡± ¡°You would leave the battle before it is even fought Admiral Gallagher?¡± Sokolov said. ¡°Of course I would. There is nothing out here of strategic or even tactical value, they may be building something, but if it¡¯s shipyards they are making we can easily out produce them. Our plan is in shambles, our fleets are separated, and we have no reason to attack. Compare that with the lives of our people we would be throwing away in a reckless gamble if we do attack.¡± Jacobs didn¡¯t like to agree with the abrasive man, but he had a point. A tactical withdrawal was an option, there were still around 2 dozen fleets left in the inner system that could be added to their own, more if the smaller powers contributed. That would certainly tip the balance in their favor in a future engagement, but he knew deep down that leaving now would be disastrous. ¡°You make some excellent points Admiral Gallagher. But if we leave now I am certain we would never be able to muster a force like this again to come out here. If the Chinese fleet is mauled and limps back home by themselves; their government would never send another fleet, certainly not in a joint operation, and if they never send another fleet our governments would never send our fleets. Let alone strip our counties defenses to almost nothing, not with the full might of the Chinese Navy over earth. This is it, this is our one chance to actually fight and destroy these monsters. If we fail, our governments may not be willing to try again, at least not until they are threatening Mars or even Earth itself.¡± ¡°You are probably right.¡± Gallagher said grudgingly. ¡°Then I propose we accelerate and attack the smaller force, if they split their forces we decelerate and do as much damage as possible, if they keep their fleets together we do a quick flyby doing as much damage as possible.¡± Jacobs said. ¡°That is acceptable to me.¡± Sokolov said. Gallagher simply gave a tight nod of his head. ¡°Well then let us each make our preparations as best we can. In 1 hour and 45 minutes the fate of humanity may very well be riding on our shoulders.¡± Their plan decided as best they could each of the Admirals disconnected to tend to their own ships. Admiral Jacobs immediately set into organizing his ships. Ensuring their cruisers and frigates in front were able to screen the Carriers, with some behind in order to screen them as they accelerated away from the Leviathans. Most American naval doctrine focused on carriers using overwhelming missile barrages from long range before engaging their enemies to break enemy formations before closing to rail gun range. However, there was a second school of thought that said the opposite. Close to knife fighting range with your cruisers, frigates and carriers and when the enemy was distracted by the fighting then launch your missiles to finish your enemies. Naval Doctrine ignored this school of thought as it would put the carriers in far too much danger, but it looked like he had no choice so Admiral Jacobs tried to prioritize screening his carriers which had relatively light armor when compared to almost any other ship. All too soon an aide walked up to the Admiral and looked at him nervously. ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the Chinese sir, they¡¯re entering combat with the Leviathans. Chapter 9 Chapter 9 As the Chinese 2 dreadnoughts 20 cruisers and 40 frigates of the Chinese fleet accelerated towards the Leviathans the people on every ship reported to their battle stations, checked and rechecked their posts in the hopes that a little bit more preparation would allow them to survive the coming fight. With just her own ships in the battle she only had numerical superiority and was not even close to matching her enemy in tonnage. Inwardly cursing the politicians back in Bejing that had ordered her to stay so far from the other fleets Admiral Zetian could only focus on the battle in front of her rather than the politicians at home. Nearly 130, 000 kilometers from each other the Chinese fleet opened fire first on the Kraken. The kilometer-long dreadnoughts of the Chinese fleet coordinated their fire with their smaller cruisers and even frigates in order to bracket the massive Alien on all sides. With the older of the Chinese Dreadnoughts having 48 guns and the newest having 60 there were over 100 15-kg slugs and hundreds more 5 kg solid slugs heading towards the massive creatures at a fraction of the speed of light. Unfortunately, due to the incredible distances involved it still took more than 30 seconds for the slugs to reach the enemies, and even with hundreds of rounds heading towards it the large ship was still able to evade most of the smaller rounds and all of the dreadnought rounds by heading in a downward direction relative to its position. With the Kraken now moving and another 108 dreadnought slugs accompanied by hundreds of cruiser and frigate rounds moving towards it, the Leviathan found itself quickly running out of directions it could dodge in. Most of the rounds were leading the Kraken and the massive creature was not so nimble that it could simply stop its momentum and start moving in a different direction. The Chinese gun crews of course knew this and planned for it, during the years of planning it was agreed by every major power that forcing a ship to move was the first step in a battle. Once it was in motion in any direction it wasn¡¯t easy to redirect millions of tons of steel or in this case flesh and you should have a better idea of where it will be for the 2nd or 3rd salvos. This was also part of what would hopefully make stealth ships so useful, if they could tell their fleet which engines were firing and when, it would be easier to predict their evasive movements. However, with no stealth ships in its Navy the Chinese gun crews would have to simply trust in their computers for the most likely directions their enemy would dodge and hope that the gigantic creature wouldn¡¯t be able to dodge all the incoming fire. Most of the next 108 dreadnought rounds were aimed at all the most likely places the ship would be in 25 seconds, and not where it was now. With only a few rounds aimed at the enemy itself the Kraken slowed its downward momentum as best it could and attempted to change its course to an eastward direction. 6 of the dreadnought slugs impacted the ship, with 2 of them being glancing hits to the creatures face. The other 4 rounds were almost all dead center. If the crew was hoping for a titanic explosion or the front of the Leviathan caving in, they were unfortunately disappointed. One slug simply slammed into the creatures face with barely an entrance wound and a murky liquid exited the hole created by the rounds but there was no other visible damage. The remaining 3 slugs hit the Kraken and made small entrance wounds as well, these however were followed by larger exit wounds on the sides of the Krakens head as the slugs couldn¡¯t penetrate the dense inner flesh of the Alien and ricocheted off into space. A few seconds later the two Dreadnoughts guns spoke a 3rd time. With the Leviathan having bled off most of its momentum and sitting almost unmoving it was an easy shot to make and both of the ships once again sent another 108 slugs, this time the hundreds of smaller slugs from the cruisers and frigates began landing as well. With the hundreds of slugs approaching it from multiple angles the Leviathan did it¡¯s best to dodge, but its great bulk worked against it and it was only able to dodge a third of the shots. Of the almost 100 rounds to slam into it only a dozen dreadnought rounds were able to find their target and impact into the front of the creature, while the rest of other railgun rounds impacted the front and sides of it. Feeling excited at being able to score hits against their foe the ships redoubled their efforts and fired more and more rounds at it, and while the creature was clearly being damaged, large gashes were being rent in its face and sides, entire sections of the creature were being torn off and dark liquids were pouring from the large holes in its body. The beast was however nonetheless still alive and still dodging. While the Chinese fleet was firing everything they had against the Kraken in front of them, the rest of the creatures opposite them were preparing themselves as well. When the Chinese fleet was within 80 000 Kilometers they acted. As one the Guppies faces opened and 6 jagged holes ripped open. The holes themselves were 6 meters across and looked like tears on their faces. Tears with dozens of tentacles and rows of teeth in them. If an observer had been looking at just the right angle they would have also seen something deeper inside, a pointed mass of flesh with a glowing red tip. From the holes in their faces lances of directed energy weapons reached out and towards the Chinese fleet. Immediately across the Fleet the beams began touching the ships, and where they did, they began scoring shallow gashes the hulls of their ships, destroying smaller point defense weapons and sensor emplacements. Aboard her Flag Ship Admiral Wu Zetian was feeling optimistic. Although there were dozens of damage reports coming in across her ship none of them looked to be regarding critical systems, even the smaller ships on the fleet seemed to be fairing well against their enemies¡¯ weapons. She had been confused by the larger ship not even attempting to return fire but now that she had seen how the Guppies had needed to expose their inner hulls in order to fire she thought she understood why. With so much fire heading towards it the Kraken had decided it couldn¡¯t use its main weapon without the weapon being destroyed instantly so it simply absorbed fire. Now she had to decide should she have her fleet continue to open fire on the Kraken suppressing its fire hoping to outright destroy it or begin firing on the Guppies and hoping the Kraken decided not to expose itself. Now that she was reliably scoring hits on the largest of the ships it was time to deal with some of the smaller enemies. Ordering each of her fleets task forces to target a specific Guppy she watched as her ships began to target the different creatures. Leaving just her own dreadnought and 2 of its escorting cruisers and 4 frigates to continue firing at the Kraken, by now her own ships fire was reliably hitting the Kraken so she felt comfortable splitting her fleets focus. With the distance between their fleets rapidly shrinking it was becoming easier and easier to target the enemies. This was fortunate as their enemies, aim was unerringly accurate and while the damage from the enemies, energy weapons was minor, especially against her larger ships damage was slowly building up over time. Several frigates had been severely damaged and even a cruiser had lost two of its four turrets. As her ships fired their guns at their targets the results were less inspiring than Admiral Zetian had hoped for. Although her other Dreadnoughts fire had managed to impact one of the Guppies head on with several direct hits and large gouges and rents had been opened in their enemies faces. The creature was nonetheless in one piece and firing from whatever weapons were undamaged. If she had hit one of her own dreadnoughts with as much force as she hit one of these ships with it would be in pieces, but these were still functional, even if they were bloodied and battered. Looking at the damage reports Admiral Zetian did some quick calculations and realized at the rate they were dealing damage, versus how much they were receiving it was unlikely that much of her fleet would be able to escape this engagement alive. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°Weps, have all of our ships begin using the light anti-ship rounds, have them focus their fire on the enemy¡¯s weapons, attempt to disable weapons rather than destroy ships. Use a close-range deployment detonation.¡± If they could knock out most of their enemy¡¯s weapons perhaps they might be able to escape in better order. ¡°Also order all ships to begin spinning, we can¡¯t dodge laser fire but we can at least prevent them from hitting the same spot continuously.¡± The order received it started being disseminated throughout the fleet and ship by ship they switched their ammunition and began their evasive maneuvers. The Slugs that her fleet had been using up to this point were simple solid conical shaped masses of depleted Uranium with a dart shaped Tungsten tip on the front. Excellent for penetrating the heavy armor of Human warships. Unfortunately, when they hit and Leviathan flesh they seemed unable to cause more than superficial damage. The lighter anti-ship rounds were very different. A steel cone shaped round that instead of being solid, was filled with fist sized ball bearings made of depleted uranium and a small charge at the back of the round. The round was designed to be fired normally but when they reached a preset distance from their ship the charge would detonate, and the ball bearings would erupt from the shell in a cone in front of them at incredible speeds like a 15 kilogram shot gun shell. They were designed for use against ships that were far enough away from that they would be able to dodge a standard round. With the balls reduced mass they couldn¡¯t damage the hull of large capital ships, but they were far more likely to hit their enemies at all, and they were excellent for destroying weapon emplacements or incoming missiles. With a close-range detonation Admiral Zetian was ordering their crew to allow the weapons to get extremely close to their enemies before detonating. This would hopefully allow the ball bearings inside to be more tightly packed together and make it more likely that they could knock some of their enemies weapons out of commission. As the first dreadnought sized shells reached their target and exploded in front of the Guppies showering them with hundreds of balls, the difference between the solid slugs was immediately apparent. With the ball bearings slamming into the front of the Enemies a handful managed to find their way into their insides where they tore flesh away from the Guppies laser weapons. Even the ball bearings that did not manage to find their way inside still ripped the outer flesh of the guppies away in large chunks. On each of the Guppies the task forces were targeting many of their weapons were quickly destroyed and their outer hulls were ripped away far more effectively than Admiral Zetian had predicted. Large pieces of the enemies were torn off and a dark liquid was pouring out of the front of them. The Guppies that had been targeted turned away from the fleet trying to hide their damaged sides and returning fire. Seeing the effectiveness of their weapons Admiral Zetian ordered her fleet to begin firing weapons free. Instead of coordinating their fire to try and destroy the targeted enemy as quickly as possible, ships would now fire at whatever target was closest, or their Captain ordered them too. It was more important that they reduce their enemies¡¯ weight of fire more than it was for them to destroy them outright. Still even with this success the situation looked grim. While she had learned how to most effectively damage the Guppies they had learned too. At the start of the battle the Guppies lasers played over the hull of her ships, but as time went on their fire became more concentrated as multiple lasers combined their efforts to quickly pierce a ships hull. Soon after that they started targeting the weapon turrets on the Chinese ships and even though the turrets were extremely well armored very quickly guns began to be melted into scrap metal and occasionally exploding killing crew and crippling vessels. Of her ships almost a third had received some damage to either their weapons or engines, another third had been outright destroyed or crippled. There were Large gashes in ships hulls that oxygen and smoke was pouring out of as damage control crews attempted to save their ships. Some ships that had been all but destroyed were still able to fire from a few turrets that were functional, others were launching some scattered missiles that were quickly shot down, hoping that they could destroy or damage their enemies or save their friends. The final third of her fleet had at least slight to moderate damage, the dreadnoughts were fortunately faring better with their far thicker armor but even they had multiple small hull breaches as Guppies attempted to focus their fire. The creatures were faring better than her own fleet but now that they were focusing on disabling weapons rather than outright destroying them the Chinese were having more luck. 15 of the Guppies had stopped firing or were only firing intermittently, their fronts a mass of gaping holes leaking fluids with a white armor visible underneath and they were now seeking shelter behind their larger brethren. The rest of the Guppies had each taken some damage but were still capable of firing. By now the two fleets were practically within spitting distance of each other and Admiral Zetien estimated there was enough time for just one more salvo before her own fleet passed through the Leviathans. ¡°Weps, have all ships launch their full compliment of missiles. Prioritize the creatures that have taken the least amount of damage.¡± While it was American Capital ships that prioritized missiles and drones, and Chinese ship doctrine focused on building the largest capital of ships with the largest guns, they nonetheless had at least some missiles on their cruisers and dreadnoughts to give them some long-range punch. In this case the Chinese Admiral was hoping that the with the Leviathans being disorganized by the battle and some of their weapons having been destroyed she would have a bit more luck getting her missiles to land solid hits. As he fleet passed through the Leviathan position and began accelerating away across her fleet missile hatches blew open and missiles were accelerated out of their tubes on magnetic rails before their engines took over. Even as close as they were the Guppies and Kraken reacted almost immediately. Weapons were redirected to the new threats and missiles were shot down by the dozen as the Kraken itself began to move. The Kraken had simply been dodging the incoming fire as best it could all battle long but now along the back of the Kaken dozens of new holes began to open. Teeth and tentacle were visible in the holes, and out from the new orifices beams of energy speared out swatting down missiles by the dozen. Out of the almost 250 missiles that had been fired at point blank range only 29 managed to land solid hits. Unfortunately, while the creatures that were hit had their outer skin blacken and shriveled most of the creatures were still intact. There were a few instances where multiple missiles managed to hit a target, each subsequent missile doing more and more damage. But by the end only 6 Guppies had been completely destroyed by the fleet action with the rest still being mobile if extremely damaged. With most of the Chinese fleet still accelerating their speed was such that they were able to quickly put distance between themselves and the Leviathans. They also kept up a steady salvo of fire hoping to dissuade the Leviathans from giving chase. Fortunately for the Chinese the Leviathans turned to face a new threat. The promised missile barrage from the American carriers had arrived. 1000 missiles moving far faster than the Chinese missiles. Unfortunately, it seemed the Leviathans were holding back a bit as they were able to start shooting missiles down when they were much further away, almost 100 000 km. The extra time allowed the Kraken on its own to shoot down over 700 missiles with the lasers able to fire almost nonstop sweeping back and forth leaving a trail of destroyed missiles as it went. The Guppies that had surviving weapons added their weight of fire to the defense and the few dozen missiles that did make it through were only slightly more effective than the Chinese missiles. Most of the missiles that arrived were the far less effective kinetic missiles, rather than nuclear weapons. Instead of simply detonating on contact the nuclear missiles rammed the Guppies and embed themselves into their hulls. This allowed far more of the destructive potential of their warheads to be used. As the explosions released their energy the scanners on ever human ship in the system were blinded. When the radiation cleared another 12 Guppies had been destroyed and even the Kraken had large parts of its hull blackened and scorched. But even with 1000 missiles deployed on a disorganized and injured enemy just over half of the enemy remained still functional and untouched by the barrage. As the Leviathans surveyed the battlefield several of the creatures approached the drifting Chinese vessels. Using their tentacles, they tore open the ships like rusty tin cans. Crew members were cast into space, some wearing their emergency gear, some not, but all of them were quickly skewered by the Guppies as they passed. The crew on the ship fared no better as tentacles methodically searched the ships pulling any people they found apart or simply sucking them screaming into other tentacles to be pulled into the creatures. The wreckage itself was being eaten by the Kraken and some of the damaged Guppies so engrossed they were in that the Chinese vessels were able to retreat in as good order as could be hoped. All too soon the battlefield was a deserted graveyard filled with hulks of ruined ships, the dead, and dying The survivors of the Chinese fleet were in full retreat. With 13 of their 20 cruisers and 32 of their 40 frigates destroyed and every single surviving ship having at least moderate damage with many more requiring extensive repairs to make them battle worthy again Humanity had its first contact with life from outside the system, and it was a terrible defeat. Christmas Special Twas the night before Christmas and all through the fleet, All the officers were stirring including Lieutenant Gupreet. He was on the command deck when he heard such a clatter Running over to the Admiral he asked ¡°Sir what¡¯s the matter?¡± ¡°A new enemy is here, it is such a threat. Everyone make ready, this enemy will be met.¡± Across the fleet, people ran and did their duty With this new threat humans had found new unity. Telescopes and scanners looked to the ring, That was built by eldritch beings for just this thing. Through the ring instead of a planet did they spy, Instead it was an unfamiliar sky. Through the gap in time and space, Crossed a new threat to the whole human race. It was 10 feet tall, with a bulbous red head, And impossibly in space he rode on a sled. All across Sol people woke right quick, Because of the psionic presence of Saint Nick. Its sled was pulled by monstrous creatures, They had blood red eyes and other terrible features. The Demon Deer of Santa were impossibly quick And they were slaves to old Saint Nick. As the creatures raced towards the Rushmore The crew and humanity worried they were done for. Weaker minds shattered there in an instant But the defenders of humanity were strong and resistant. ¡°Make ready our weapons, prepare for boarders Brace yourselves and follow my orders.¡± The weapons of the fleet spoke right quick Thousands of slugs sped to old Saint Nick. The creature dodged, dove and evaded This left the crews far from elated. ¡°He¡¯s going to ram us! Stay on your feet!¡± Yelled Lieutenant Gurpeet. There was an impact, oh such a crash, As Santa and the Demon Deer into the ship did smash. ¡°Send the Security teams, send them right quick, We must cut off the decks that hold Saint Nick.¡± In power armor security team one and team two, Were sent to the crash sight, they new what to do. The lights in the hall were not bright, Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.But power armor was designed to see, even at night. Advancing by team, one and then two They cleared hallways and rooms as soldiers do. Until they came to a terrible sight, It was nine Demon Deer and they were ready to fight. ¡°Light em up boys, hit em with all you got,¡± But the Demon Deer ran forwards like a shot. In the hallways arose such a clatter, As blood and brains liberally did splatter. The well disciplined troops could have held the line If not for the appearance of elves numbering nine. Although they were small and simply armed The Candy Canes they wielded could do much harm Piercing the armor of the soldiers quick, Soon the elves surged forwards for old Saint Nick. ¡°Fall back and regroup!¡± shouted the Master At Arms ¡°We¡¯re too disorganized to do to much harm.¡± So the Navy men turned around right quick, Running as if pursued by old Saint Nick. On the bridge soldiers were redeployed, Traps were laid for dear to be annoyed. ¡°Bring me 2 more teams to the bridge right quick. I have a feeling we almost fell for a trick.¡± Just as the Admiral had finished his orders From a vent arose sounds announcing new horrors. A grate popped off with such a clatter The entire crew looked up to see what was the matter. Emerging from a vent that should have been to small Was a being who evoked fear in all. It looked at the crew with a terrible grin And said ¡°Ahh I smell such sin. You have all been naughty, not one of you nice. Now it is up to me to put you on ice. Greed is in your hearts, no feelings of love Now make ready it shall be death from above. All of you have stained your immortal soul, So I will replace your heart with a spider as black as coal.¡± From his beard bushy and long, Came dozens of coal black spiders, all a little wrong. Their legs too numerous, teeth too sharp They all wanted to feast on a human heart. With too sharp teeth they attacked the crew Those poor officers new not what to do. Those infected rose to attack their old friends, Oh what horror could this be the end? The security team soon lay dead And Admiral Jacobs felt only dread. As Father Christmas grasped his lapels And pulled the Admiral up to eye level. ¡°You are defeated don¡¯t you see? Humanity can never stand against me.¡± ¡°You think we are beaten? You think we are done? Your arrogance will soon have you come undone. Humanity is stronger than you think, Strong enough to kill old Saint Nick.¡± With that the door to the Command Deck burst wide And Father Christmas heard the Master at Arms Cry, ¡°On teams five, six, seven and eight! Don¡¯t be slow or we¡¯ll be too late! Check your corners! Storm the room with a flash Like the Demon Dear and Elves we will turn Santa into ash.¡± Into the room the reinforcements came, Many of the bullets had Kris Kringle¡¯s name. Their aim was true, the bullets had a small spread, And very soon even Father Christmas was dead. ¡°Master at Arms, how is my ship? Should we self destruct it?¡± ¡°Sir the Elves are no more, the Demon Deer are dead We simply had to remember to double tap their head. The Ship is secure, although we are running a check, We will search one by one every single deck.¡± ¡°Excellent work to all of the crew, When trouble started you new what to do Now someone find Lieutenant Gupreet, He must send a message to the rest of my fleet. Use all weapons both atomic and gun, Fire them all until the threat is undone.¡± And so the fleets shot and shot Until the ring had finally been got. ¡°Sir, is this the end? What do you think? Should we prepare again for old Saint Nick?¡± ¡°Although The spirit of Christmas is stronger Now we need not worry any longer. Let us celebrate and not feel fear, For Santa can only come once a year. Let this warning be remembered for all time And next year we¡¯ll be ready with nuclear mines.¡± For now all I can say is that we are all done Merry Christmas to all I hope you had fun. Chapter 10 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.¡±Stolen novel; please report. ¡°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. Chapter 11 USS Rushmore Approaching Leviathan Fleet Designated Beta ¡°Good lord those things can take a punch.¡± Gallagher said to the other Admirals. ¡°The Chinese were able to knock quite a few of them out of commission and disable them, but very few were actually destroyed.¡± Sokolov said. ¡°At least we know to avoid using the slugs on them, whatever their outer hull is made up of it seems to be designed to absorb kinetic energy.¡± Gallagher said. ¡°A combination of the two ammunition types then. The lighter rounds to strip away their outer armour and then slugs or nukes to try and finish them off.¡± Sokolov added. ¡°What¡¯s wrong Jacobs? Still pouting over the poor performance of your missiles?¡± Admiral Gallagher said. ¡°I¡¯m thinking about fleet Alpha, they are close enough to fleet Beta that they could be able to intervene in any prolonged fight.¡± ¡°Then it won¡¯t be a prolonged fight, we maintain speed through their lines doing as much damage as possible. We even have their number now, their weapons might be impossible to dodge, but they aren¡¯t capable of doing damage quickly enough to really be a threat to our larger ships.¡± Gallagher said. ¡°By my calculations even if their fleets were to join together we would still have the numbers to be able to destroy them.¡± ¡±I¡¯m not so certain Admiral Gallagher, I don¡¯t think we¡¯ve seen everything the Leviathans have. Even during the fight with the Chinese, if the Kraken had joined the fighting earlier they could have done far more damage to the Chinese fleet but instead they held back until the end. I think they still have a few tricks up their sleeves, and we¡¯ve shown them just about everything we have.¡± Jacobs argued. ¡°There is no indication that the Kraken have any other weapons than what we have seen, and the Chinese were able to use suppressing fire to render it mostly useless for half of the battle, and the next time we face them most of its support craft will have been destroyed or damaged. The battle may not be over, but it has turned our way. ¡°I¡¯m not so sure, even now the Guppies are docking with it to make repairs, my crew has watched several of the Guppies replace large portions of their armor in just a short time, by the time we face them they could be ready for us again. What do you think Admiral Sokolov?¡± ¡°I agree with you Admiral Jacobs, this fight is far from over, but still I think we should stick with our plan for a limited engagement. Do as much damage as we can and not put our fleet in extra danger by staying long enough for the Leviathan Alpha fleet to engage us from behind.¡± ¡°I¡¯m actually a little worried they might be close enough to engage us anyways.¡± Jacobs said. ¡°Your being paranoid Jacobs. The Leviathans first used their weapons when the Chinese were 80 000 kilometers away, we are almost 150 000 kilometers away. I agree they might have been holding back their true capabilities a little, but it would be, not just insanity, but pointless to hold back that much. They could have finished off the Chinese easily if they had that kind of range, and taken far less damage than what they did.¡± ¡°They could have been playing a very long game, allow us to feel confident then catch us in a pincer when we let ourselves fall into their range.¡± Jacobs said. The two Admirals stared at each other over the communications screen. After a few moments the Admiral Sokolov quietly muttered something in Russian, the translation program built into the coms, unit could only catch the words ¡®measuring tape¡¯. ¡°Gentleman please, neither of you is wrong, they could have been holding back, and almost certainly were, but Admiral Gallagher is also correct that cutting their effective range in half would be foolish and completely unnecessary. But it also does not matter, our course is set, and we are too close to the enemy to alter our plans or our course now. Arguing about things we cannot change is just sowing discord in our own ranks.¡± The normally quiet Russian said with a fair amount of heat in his words. The American and European Admirals both held each other gaze for a few moments before admitting the Russian was correct. ¡°Now gentleman we have managed to work out a battle plan that we have all agree upon so unless anyone has anything new to bring to this discussion, I think we should see to our fleets and any final preparations.¡± ¡°I do have something from my stealth ships regarding the two Kraken attached to the Leviathan space station over Jupiter, however I do not think it will effect the outcome of the battle so we can shelve it until after the battle is over.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t mention that and then not go into detail Jacobs, what is it?¡± Gallagher asked. ¡°Let me show you.¡± Pushing at his tablet for a moment Admiral Jacobs face was soon replaced by the Image of the two Leviathans connected to a cylinder almost as long as they were and at least 2 kilometers thick. Most of the cylinder was made up of the same white material they had seen on the inner hull of the Guppies the Chinese had damaged, but it was covered in thick ropes of muscles, layers of what may have been flesh or chitin and pulsing veins running up and down its length including attaching it to the other almost identical cylinder and the 5 km long ring in the middle. What the stealth ships had seen though was obvious. The cylinder itself was pointing down at Jupiter and an extremely bright light was pulling up the atmosphere directly from Jupiter into the cylinder. The back of the cylinder was glowing with an incredibly bright light being emited. ¡°What in the name of god is that?¡± Admiral Gallagher asked ¡°My peoples best guess is that it¡¯s some sort of a hydrogen fusion power plant. They think the cylinder is drawing hydrogen directly from the atmosphere of Jupiter for fuel.¡± ¡°How the hell can you draw the atmosphere off of a gas giant like that?¡± ¡°We are not sure, our best guess is that they use same technology we use for gravity. Only much much more advanced than anything we even considered.¡± Admiral Jacobs answered before continuing ¡°Once both power plants are operational they will likely be used to power the ring which we now believe to be a form of faster than light travel.¡± ¡°And you didn¡¯t think this was important enough to mention before the battle?¡± Admiral Sokolov asked. ¡°While it is important it won¡¯t have any impact on the battle itself.¡± ¡°No impact?! Are you crazy if they can start bringing in reinforcements¡­ This could change everything.¡± Admiral Gallagher shouted. ¡°Yes but we must still deal with one battle before the next.¡± Sokolov said. ¡°Do your people have any idea how long it will take until the 2nd cylinder is ready?¡± ¡°Based on estimates of how long it took to complete the 1st roughly another 32 hours. None of my stealth ships are in position to damage or destroy it before it is completed. Not at the speeds stealth ships can safely move at.¡± ¡°So we have maybe 32 hours to fight two major fleet engagements and destroy the biggest objects in the solar system or untold numbers of Leviathans will come pouring into the solar system?¡± Gallagher said with none of his usual confidence. ¡°Well I can¡¯t believe you weren¡¯t going to share this information with us before the battle, you are correct this won¡¯t affect the battle we are about to fight.¡± ¡°There is one other thing gentleman. The Pearl Gourami also reported that the Kraken are being removed from the generator, whatever they were needed for it seems they are no longer needed. The next time we face force alpha they will have three Kraken, not just the one.¡±Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. The grim faces of the Admirals spoke well enough to how they felt about that. Simply nodding Admiral Gallagher disconnected, and Admirals Sokolov wished Admiral Jacobs and his crews luck before also disconnecting. With this the Admirals each prepared for the fight ahead of them. As the combined fleets approached the Guppy fleet on an intercept course the American fleet launched a full 80% of their drones, totaling 400 drones. They were however not launched directly at the Guppies but rather on a parabolic arc well out of the Guppies observed maximum range and over the Guppies themselves. When the combined fleet was entering their own weapons range still out of the observed weapons range of the Guppies the drones finally began arcing straight down onto the Guppies from above. This left the enemies with two choices; turn to face the drones exposing their stomach to the fleet or face the fleet and allow the drones to approach unmolested. Unfortunately for the Human fleets Admiral Jacobs was correct, the Leviathans had been holding back. The rear most Guppies turned themselves up to face the threat posed by the drones and began firing at them at a range of almost 120 000 kilometers. This was an almost a 50% increase in their observed weapons range. As the drones were well armored, they did not start being destroyed right away but the damage would begin to build up as they approached. The drones upon detecting the enemy fire began a series of evasive maneuvers, complex and fast enough that a human pilot would have broken their neck if they were inside. Shaped like a five-sided star the drones had thrusters on all sides so they could accelerate in any direction at a moments notice. With a short range communications net encompassing all of the drones they could even coordinate their movements ensuring that when one drone dodged out of the way the drones behind it were already moving as well, making sure they would not be hit by the weapons fire that was now missing its target. The swarm of drones danced and jigged in unison avoiding fire like a swarm of high explosive tipped bees, but still over time they began to fall to the weapons of the Guppies. Just before a drone would be destroyed, if possible they would launch all of their missiles. Far smaller than a ship based nuclear weapon they were really intended for damaging ships and stripping them of weapons and point defences instead of killing them outright. Nonetheless with each drone having half a dozen missiles onboard together they packed a considerable punch. As the drones continued their approach more and more drones started to fall. Fortunately, this was just a distraction attack designed to occupy the attention of as many of the Guppies as possible. The 15 guppies that were still facing towards the fleet were vastly outnumbered, but they were still fierce fighters. Their weapons firing the small number of ships co-ordinated their fire, concentrating as many of their weapons on one ship at a time as they could. Very quickly turrets and sensor towers were damaged or destroyed, and hulls were scarred by the weapons before hulls began to be breached in a few small areas. Once the hull was damaged in one spot the Guppies quickly worked on making it larger and larger until the ships would explode in a titanic fireball. The Allied fleets however were not silent during this time. Their own weapons were loaded with the light anti ship rounds and fired in volley after volley at the creatures and in all their potential retreat paths. Each smaller task force inside the joint fleet worked in concert to bracket and strip each of their targets of its outer hull and weapons. The small ball bearings penetrated the enemies soft flesh and continued through ripping out very small chunks of flesh, however with hundreds of the small balls striking their enemy over and over again the damage quickly added up and several Guppies were quickly stripped of their weapons and front armor. As the Guppies had the layers of their outer hull stripped away the human weapons started to be less and less effective until faced with the hardest part of their enemies hulls the small ball bearings simply bounced off with almost no damage. When this happened the Guppies weapons would also have been destroyed as well and the Human ships would consider the Guppies mission killed and focus their weapons on the next closest ship. All Human ships except for the dreadnoughts. The largest of the human ships would switch their fire to solid armor piercing rounds and fire dozens of 10-20 kilogram solid tungsten tipped slug at their enemies. From the range they were at now and with damage the Guppies had taken dodging was impossible. The shots from the Russian Dreadnought were enough to smash straight through the Guppies armor in a single volley and as few as 2 volleys from the smaller European Dreadnoughts. American Carriers unfortunately did not have the same large main guns as their counterparts did and were mostly forced to use their limited number of smaller guns to help strip their enemies of their outer hulls. Despite some losses from the concentrated enemy fire and several ships having many of their guns stripped away the human ships were dominating the battle and it looked like this would be an overwhelming victory. Until the first human Dreadnought exploded. Several thousand kilometers off the port side of the Rushmore the 850 meter long Frederick the Great exploded in a massive fireball. The ship was one of two that the European Union sent to the outer system with the fleet, fortunately it wasn¡¯t Admiral Gallagher¡¯s flag ship. Almost 250 000 kilometers behind the task force the Leviathan forces that the Chinese had fought were now turning and accelerating towards the task force ships, and for the first time the 7 kilometer long beasts humanity had taken to calling the Krakens had used their main weapon. On the front of creature, a massive hole had opened that was almost 250 meters wide and from this hole protruded the front of a weapon. Made up of a mass pulsing and squirming flesh was what almost looked like a long thick tongue. Veins and muscles ran up and down the weapons length, bulging with blood and things more exotic. A series of large cysts were growing on its side while the tip of the weapon glowed a vibrant red color. On board the Rushmore the CIC was a frenzy of activity. ¡°Have the Bakersfield, Philadelphia, and Little Rock as well as their task forces get between us and the Leviathan group alpha.¡± Admiral Jacobs ordered. The three ships he named were Heavy Cruisers that were originally waiting on the flanks waiting to screen the Carriers as they retreated from the Guppies to ensure the valuable ship was not attacked as they left the battlefield. However, with the Leviathans possessing weapons capable of firing far further than Humanity had thought possible they would now be used to cover the carriers from the new threat even at the cost of their lives. As the fleet continued to exchange fire with the enemy in front of them once again a Human ship exploded with no warning, this time a European cruiser. Noting the time on the mission clock Jacobs thought to himself ¡°Roughly every 1 minute and 27 seconds. Not an amazing rate of fire, but if they get a kill with every shot it will be devastating.¡± What Admiral Jacobs said was ¡°Prepare for the next phase of the plan.¡± ¡°All ships report ready for a full salvo sir.¡± As the human ships finally approached knife fighting distance the damage to the Guppies was apparent. 15 of the creatures had been almost entirely stripped of their outer hulls and were no longer even firing, 7 had been cracked like an egg and were drifting in space. Of the 9 remaining Guppies, all had at least some damage and most were leaking a viscous red fluid. The drones finally approached to the ships as well and began launching their own missiles prioritizing the undamaged ships. Unfortunately, drones had very few nuclear tipped missiles, most of their armament was designed around damaging enemies point defences or other critical systems in order to allow the other larger missiles to make it through and finish their enemies. As the Guppies had very little in the way of point defences, engines that humans recognized or even sensors Admiral Jacobs decided that the drones were far more effective as a distraction than anything else, and set them on a course that forced the Guppies to split their attention and expose their bellies to the Human guns. Nonetheless with 95 surviving drones firing six missiles with the equivalent of a half a kiloton each the drones were still a significant threat. Although the Guppies were able to shoot down swaths of the weapons several hundred of the missiles began slamming into the least damaged Guppies. Large chunks of their outer hulls were blown off the creatures leaving small craters in their flesh as more and more missiles struck them. The missiles that targeted the already damaged Guppies were successful in blowing most of those creatures into small pieces bit by bit. By the time the human fleet passed through the Guppies debris field almost the entire swarm of enemies had been reduced to floating chunks of flesh. ¡°Sir I am showing 25 of the 31 enemies in the engagement area have been destroyed. There are 6 left still in full retreat.¡± The weapons officer said. Upon the news the Admirals crew let out a loud cheer. People began shaking hands and hugging each other. ¡°EVERYONE,¡± Admiral Jacobs yelled. ¡°Back to your stations we are still in the engagement area.¡± As if to punctuate his words another European cruiser exploded. ¡°Have the rear guard target those things, a full salvo of nuclear weapons, I want 20 missiles per enemy. Nothing is escaping.¡± Admiral Jacobs yelled. ¡°Weps Have the drones fall into formation behind us, try to have them block the fleet as best we can. Navigation plot us a course closer to Europa and increase speed I want us behind the curvature of that moon. No matter their range, if they can¡¯t see us, they can¡¯t shoot us. Coms contact the other fleets and recommend the same course change.¡± ¡°The European fleet is already moving Sir, their formation is a mess. If we¡¯re not careful they could run right into some of our ships.¡± Cursing Gallagher under is breath Admiral Jacobs just nodded. ¡°Hoe much time until we can be behind the curvature of Europa?¡± ¡°Roughly another 23 minutes Sir. The Russians are in our way so we can¡¯t change our course as quickly as I would like.¡± As the time ticked by and the fleet moved closer and closer to Europa the Leviathans opportunity to hit them grew smaller and smaller. But inevitably every minute and 27 seconds another ship would explode. Sometimes some drones would explode as well when they were caught in the weapons sights, when this happened the targeted ship would have a few extra milliseconds between the weapon hitting them and their ship being destroyed. But no matter what they did ships kept exploding. By the time the allied fleet managed to get close enough to Europa to break sight lines 1 dreadnought 7 cruisers and 9 frigates had been destroyed by just the single Kraken. In total 1 dreadnought 17 cruisers and 30 frigates were destroyed in the battle for a total of 31 enemies. The Kraken had killed almost as many ships than the entire Guppy fleet. Chapter 12 Alarms rang out over the ship as smoke hung in the air and lights flickered as the emergency batteries took over from the now offline main reactor. Lieutenant Commander Bernard Bannon was walking quickly through the smoke-filled hallways barking orders at people as he adjusted his emergency air tanks. While every person should have had their tanks on the second the battle started, he was seeing far too many people simply wearing the tanks and not having the masks secured to their faces properly. Apparently, he had been far too lenient with crew lately and had not been instilling proper discipline. ¡°Well there was always time to gently correct the crew.¡± He thought to himself ¡°Gordons! Get your god damned mask on or I will jam an ore up your asshole and use you to paddle across the pacific when we get home!¡± Walking past the gently chastised man he continued towards the slinger bay shouting encouragement and more gentle chastisement as he went. As he approached the bay he saw Chief Hanlan standing outside the door waving a Geiger counter in front of him. ¡°What¡¯s the situation Chief?¡± ¡°Not as bad as it could be Sir. No radiation leaking means none of the mines were damaged, if they were we¡¯d probably be glowing by now. There¡¯s also no atmosphere in the room so we don¡¯t have to worry about fires destroying or damaging the mines. Internal sensors in the room are down though so I¡¯m not too sure about what things look like in there.¡± ¡°If internal sensors are down how do you know there¡¯s no fire or oxygen?¡± The Chief answered the question by moving a step to his left showing Pounds the white emergency foam in the middle of the door. ¡°Fitzpatrick sealed the leak himself, despite having 2nd degree burns on his arms and body. It looks like they got a lucky hit in and it managed to go straight in the slinger bay doors. It completely bypassed our armor, the doors are stuck open so the atmosphere will be long gone, but that did manage to stop any fires before they could get started.¡± ¡°Shitty luck.¡± ¡°Fantastic luck Sir. It missed everything, and I mean everything that was important. A few degrees to the starboard and it would have hit the mine magazines and we¡¯d be done, a few degrees to the port and it would have hit the nuclear missiles and we¡¯d be done. A few degrees down and it would have gone straight through the CIC, the crew be fine but the command staff would be a few people short. As it stands the beam went through Ensign Charles Smith killing him instantly, it also caused 2nd and 3rd degree burns on 7 more people, and that is about it. Aside from the crew the only other thing it hit was a cooling pipe on the reactor. That¡¯s what caused the reactor shut down, we should have that fixed and power restored in a few hours barring any other problems.¡± ¡°How about the fires on decks 3 and 4? I also heard reports of smoke on deck 2.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got people fighting the fires on decks 3 and 4 now, and Ensign Jenkins is trying to track down the source of that smoke on deck 2. I really recommend the Commander vent at least decks 2 through 4¡­.¡± Chief Hanlan tried to say but was cut off when Commander Frazers voice came on over the ships intercom. ¡°All crew on decks 1 through 5 prepare for an emergency venting of atmosphere in 10 seconds, if you do not have your emergency air tanks on, do so now. I repeat you have 10 seconds.¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t mind my saying Sir, that¡¯s 10 second too many, the crew know what their doing.¡± Thinking back to Gordons Pounds responded. ¡°I¡¯m not so sure about that Chief.¡± True to his word exactly 10 seconds after the Commanders message the atmosphere began venting from almost half of the ship as the crew triple checked the seals on their masks and their air flows. On the effected decks the smoke cleared immediately, and the flames died. The crew who had been battling the fires with handheld fire extinguishers sighed in relief but didn¡¯t let up. Using the opportunity to get closer to the sources of the fire they continued to spray the exposed wiring and red hot metals hoping to prevent the fires from starting again once the atmosphere was restored. Chief Hanlan and the Lieutenant Commander approached the damage control teams and looked over their work. As Chief Hanlan approached the group he directed people on where they should focus their attention and shouted encouragement. When the smouldering ruins of computers were finally covered in enough foam for his liking he pulled two of the people who were furthest back away and said ¡°Maccio, I want you and Saskowski to put on space suits and go over the outside of the hull. Check for leaks, hull breaches and anything you think could be structural damage.¡± ¡°Yes Chief!¡± the two said almost in unison. They handed off their fire extinguishers and headed towards one of the air locks on the belly of the Cherry Barb. ¡°As soon as they¡¯ve finished their inspection I should have a better idea of how the Cherry is doing but for now Sir things are actually looking pretty good. I recommend we keep decks 2,3, and 4 vented while we make sure those fires are out for good and we replace any damaged electronic components. I also want to do a more in-depth check of the reactor before we turn it back on, but I think if something critical were going to go wrong it would have by now.¡±Stolen story; please report. ¡°How about the air scrubbers and water purifiers?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already had people check the extra air scrubbers and spare parts that we have in storage, a few things were damaged but even if every scrubber on the ship was damaged in the fight we have enough spares to be fine. As for the water purifier we should have enough extra parts to replace any that we need to and if not we do have the ability to machine some components. It may take some time though.¡± ¡°For right now focus on the fires and the structural integrity of the ship, after that check the air scrubbers, water filtration and reactor. I know the Commander is going to ask about the stealth plating as well. Can you make sure that Maccio and Saskowski put that in their report?¡± ¡°No problem Sir, keep in mind that even if we replace the damaged plates now, the engines will still be hot enough to show up on every heat sensor near Jupiter. Even after we get the heat sinks on the engines it will take a few hours for them to cool.¡± ¡°Understood Chief. Keep us informed when you have an ETA on repairs.¡± ¡°Yes Sir, I¡¯ll head down to the CIC when I have more to report.¡± With that the two parted ways and the Lieutenant Commander headed back to the CIC. Walking through the hallways the signs of damage were intermittent. The halls were pristine in most sections but a few meters down the hallways there were scorch marks and blast damage. Stopping at a junction in the hall Pounds looked at a small hole in the wall from where the Guppies laser must have passed through. It really was lucky the ship survived at all. By bypassing all of their armor the laser should have cut straight through them, the damage the Guppy had suffered had likely lowered the output of its weapons enough to make it survivable, but it had been a close thing. Entering the CIC he looked over his old friend. The way he held himself too straight, the false bravado in his voice as he gave orders. Pounds could tell he blamed himself for the injuries of the crew and was already going over the battle in his head wondering what he could have done differently. ¡°Yes Sir, broadcasting distress signal now. Most of our transmitters were damaged in the battle so we won¡¯t be able to get a message back to Earth but if the fleet comes to this side of Europa they should be able to find us.¡± Lieutenant Green said as she poured over her workstation. Not a good sign, stealth ships never broke stealth willingly. Even to ask for help, if the Commander was sending a distress signal either things were worse than he thought, or the Commander was rattled. Commander Frazer looked up at Pounds as he entered the bridge and said, ¡°Pounds how¡¯s my ship?¡± ¡°Not too bad, by all rights it should be worse. The fires are out but the Chief would like decks 2,3, and 4 clear of atmosphere for now while they make sure the fires will stay out. There seems to be no major internal damage and crew members are checking the outside of the ship for structural damage as well to take stock of the stealth plating. Once he is sure there is no structural damage the Chief will check the air and water purifiers and after that he will deploy the cooling sinks on the engines see if we can¡¯t cool them down a bit, while that¡¯s happening we can start to replace damaged stealth plating. All told Commander the situation is pretty good.¡± At the Commanders beckoning the two left the CIC to the Commanders small office just off the CIC leaving the CIC in the hands of the weapons officer Duncan Marshal. Entering the Commanders office and quarters the two sat down. ¡°Alright James what¡¯s with this self flagellation bullshit? Are you blaming yourself for something?¡± ¡°2 dead and 7 in the med bay, 3 of those are in critical condition. Your damn right I¡¯m blaming myself.¡± ¡°And the entire fleet still alive because of you. You saw the trap when no one else did, and you took down a ship almost three times our size, that shouldn¡¯t have even been possible.¡± ¡°The crew¡­¡± ¡°All chose to serve on a stealth ship, they know the risks better than anyone. Now if you don¡¯t pull your head out of your ass and start acting like the decorated war hero your going to be when we get back to Earth I¡¯ll have to give you a motivational speech.¡± At this the Commander smiled. ¡°Fuck off Pounds, but you are right. This isn¡¯t my first time losing someone, I¡¯ve just never lost so many people on a single mission. How are the crew holding up?¡± ¡°Pretty good, too many people were sloppy with their masks though, the 10 second warning was a good idea. When we get up and running again I think we need to run some more emergency preparedness drills. Moral is good, but people are getting tired. We¡¯ve been running double shifts for weeks now and it¡¯s starting to catch up to the crew.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll talk to the galley once we¡¯re out of the woods, I¡¯ll have them break out the rest of the ice cream.¡± ¡°You¡¯ve been hoarding ice cream this entire time?¡± ¡°Of course, you think I¡¯d let us run out of something so important?¡± ¡°What¡¯s our current course?¡± ¡°With the reactor offline Lieutenant Brown managed to make sure we wouldn¡¯t run into anything using the emergency thrusters but aside from that we¡¯re drifting. Hopefully we¡¯ll look just like any other piece of debris out there, enough of them have thermal signatures that we should blend in well enough.¡± A knock on the door announced the arrival of Chief Hanlan. ¡°Sirs may I come in?¡± ¡°Of course Chief,¡± Commander Frazer said as the two of them shifted to try and find room for all three of them in the small office. ¡°How¡¯s my ship?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a miracle she¡¯s as good as she is Sir. The repairs to the reactors coolant system are complete and the crew are doing a final check before starting the reactor back up. The fires have been stopped and I feel comfortable they won¡¯t start again so we can pump atmosphere back into the ship. Unfortunately, it looks like the fires started in the main fire control computer on deck 4, the navigation computer on deck 3 and the smoke we had on deck 2 was coming from the backup fire control computer. Every one of those computers are fried Sir and we don¡¯t have any more backups for them. We still the have our backup navigation computer so that should be fine, but any aiming of the guns will have to be done manually.¡± ¡°Half of our guns were melted off, and we¡¯re out of nuclear rounds Chief so no huge loss there. Can we still use our last two missiles?¡± ¡°Yes Sir, the missiles have their own targeting computer so if we need to we can still launch those, we wont be able to update their targeting info mid-flight though. You¡¯ll be happy to know that the Guppies are fantastic shots and their grouping of their lasers was frankly amazing. Almost every shot managed to land near or on top of another shot, if this were human ships firing that they damage would be spread across half the ship.¡± ¡°And how does this make me happy Chief?¡± ¡°Less plates for the crew to fix Sir, if half the ship had been shot up we wouldn¡¯t have enough replacement plates but we should be fine with what we have in storage.¡± ¡°Will replacing the plates take a long time?¡± ¡°We¡¯re not really replacing the plates, just attaching the new plates over top the damaged sections, saves time and their easier to install. It should take us a few hours but if you can get me more hands we can hurry it up a bit. I¡¯ve had the radiators placed on the engines so they should be cooled down to ambient temperatures in a few hours as well.¡± ¡°That could make hiding tough if we need to before then.¡± Pounds said. ¡°Once we get main power back online we¡¯ll stick close to the Behemoth, it¡¯s giving off heat signatures and there have been secondary explosions from the wreckage, should be enough to confuse whatever they use to see. How¡¯s the slinger?¡± ¡°Scrap metal. The final shot from the Guppy entered straight through the doors when they were open. The slinger got hit with a direct shot and was melted into slag. I think that absorbed enough of the lasers energy that the ship wasn¡¯t lost right then, the mines are all fine in their magazines thank god. As it stands the laser still penetrated through several bulkheads, crew members and the cooling system for the reactor. We should be able to force the outer bay doors closed if we need to, but as the slinger bay is coated in stealth material I¡¯m not sure if we need to bother, it won¡¯t effect our stealth profile, or slow us down.¡± ¡°Put that as the lowest priority for now, but I¡¯d still like the doors closed.¡± ¡°Yes Sir, the final item I have is that our probe launcher is also out of action, any probes we have are fine, but without the fire control computers we can¡¯t really launch them.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about the probes, you¡¯ve got whoever you need for everything else. Co-ordinate with Pounds try to make sure people can take breaks and get something to eat. We¡¯re still not out of this but we can¡¯t have the crew breaking down.¡± Before they could respond Alyx Greens voice came on over the coms channel. ¡°Sir, we need you on the bridge. We¡¯ve just spotted the Chinese fleet heading right for us.¡± Chapter 13 Chinese Dreadnought Zeng He approaching Behemoths remains Admiral Wu Zetian listened to the officer with half an ear as she considered what to do with the remains of the creature in front of them. ¡°¡­.poses no threat, it should be preserved for future study. What we learn from it could be incalculably valuable.¡± While he certainly had a point, it looked dead and this type of Leviathan had never once displayed any type of weapons or aggression so leaving it in larger pieces could provide them with more examples of their biology and technology. However she had made it a habit to never leave enemies behind her and it was likely that they would not be able to return to Europa to study it for some time. As well there was no need to leave the entire thing intact, if they could tear off something of value from it and head back to Earth it might be possible to save her career. ¡°Have all ships ready weapons, target the largest pieces of the Behemoth. Captain Huang find debris small enough to fit in our hold, I want some of their outer hull and inner hull. Fit as much as you can in our and the Du Xiguis holds.¡± ¡°Admiral I am detecting a radio signal coming from the Behemoth!¡± A radio signal? Well there was a first time for everything. ¡°Put it through.¡± Immediately a sound came over her bridge. ¡°This is the USS Cherry Barb to any task force ships if you are receiving this signal please respond.¡± ¡®Ahh yes the stealth ship Admiral Jacobs had mentioned¡¯ Admiral Zetian thought. Like the other Admirals she had assumed it had been destroyed, if it had survived even partially intact that would be a prize almost as good as something from the Behemoth. The Chinese stealth program had been cancelled years ago due to cost overruns and no actual progress. ¡°Find the source of that signal.¡± ¡°Admiral I¡¯ve found it! It is 700 meters from the Behemoth. Our sensors initially thought it was rubble from the Behemoth.¡± Nodding her head to the sensor operator she said to the communications officer. ¡°Send a message on an open frequency. Cherry Barb, this is Admiral Wu Zetian, what is your status?¡± Several minutes passed and Admiral Zetian was starting to think that perhaps everyone on the American ship was dead and she could salvage the ship when she received their return message. ¡°Admiral Zetian, this is Commander Frazer. My ship sustained moderate damage during combat with a Guppy, we have since repaired most of the damage. Do you know the status of the task force at this time?¡± ¡°We should attempt to capture that ship, it would be a fantastic prize to bring back to Bejing.¡± Captain Huang said. Admiral Zetian didn¡¯t even bothering to hide the disdain from her voice, if Captain Huang hadn¡¯t been the son of a powerful politician there was no way he would have risen as high as he had. ¡°Our orders specifically prevent us from beginning a war with the Americans Captain. If the ship were destroyed and just salvage that would be one thing, but I am not ordering an attack on an American military vessel, certainly not with the rest of their fleet coming around the moon any moment now. Captain begin search and rescue operations within our fleet, have the crews transferred off any ship with damage to their engines, or any ship that won¡¯t be able to make the transit back to Earth.¡± Although the Captain looked mutinous, he followed her orders. ¡°Yes Admiral. Admiral there are 4 ships with severe enough damage they won¡¯t be able to make the journey back.¡± ¡°Get the people off those ships and set explosives on them if we can¡¯t set their reactors to blow. While people are being shuttled back and forth I also want you to search near the American ship for any pieces of it that may have been damaged during the battle. Any debris we find may be useful.¡± ¡°Admiral one of our Frigates on our right flank has just spotted the Task Force coming around the moon. They are reporting that they have suffered severe damage.¡± Admiral Zetian didn¡¯t bother responding simply pulling up the data on her personal terminal. A quick look showed several ships trailing debris and smoke, and unless she missed her guess and entire European Dreadnought was missing. A sinking feeling in her stomach, while she would normally relish China¡¯s enemies suffering a humiliation or a defeat, given the situation she would have preferred a clear victory from them. ¡°Continue to evacuate the damaged ships. Communications, as soon as we are able contact the other Admirals and set up a meeting.¡± USS Rushmore Immediately after the battle had ended rescue operations began. There were three ships just in his own fleet that had been damaged badly enough that they would have to be abandoned. One of them their engines were far so damaged that it was not able to accelerate. On the other two their Captains felt that their ships were so badly damaged they were no longer space worthy. With dozens of leaks in the hull, fires raging across the ships and even structural damage it was only a matter of time until they succumbed to their injuries. Across his fleet shuttles were being dispatched to carry survivors and wounded off the damaged ships. ¡°Admiral, I am seeing several European and Russian ships that have severe damage, should we try to help them evacuate?¡± ¡°Offer our help but they will probably decline. Its hard enough coordinating your own shuttles for evacuation let alone someone else¡¯s.¡± ¡°Sir I see the Chinese fleet holding station near the Behemoth, there¡¯s a lot of shuttle activity. It looks like their filling their holds with as much salvage as they can find. I am also seeing a transponder from the Cherry Barb right on top of the Behemoth. It looks like they survived, I¡¯m seeing hull damage, one of their turrets is a wreck and I think there is a chunk missing out of the aft section.¡± Looking over the small frigate Admiral Jacobs was impressed, while the ship had clearly suffered damage by all rights it should have been destroyed. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.¡°Open a channel with the Cherry Barb.¡± A few moments later Admiral Jacobs was looking at the face of Commander Frazer appeared in front of him. Standing tall with a picture-perfect salute the man looked exhausted. He had circles under his eyes and soot covering part of his face, his eyes were the red of someone using the more powerful stimulants available on Navy ships. ¡°Commander Frazer at ease. Let me start by congratulating you and your crew, your scouting of the second Leviathan fleet likely saved the task force.¡± ¡°Thank you, Sir, we were happy to do our duty.¡± ¡°How is your ship and crew?¡± ¡°3 dead 4 wounded Sir, two of them critically. With your permission I would like to transfer the two worst of the wounded to a ship with a more comprehensive sick bay. I am afraid we are a little overwhelmed here.¡± ¡°Of course, I¡¯ll have a shuttle sent to get them immediately.¡± Admiral Jacobs didn¡¯t bother issuing the orders, he new that his people were already making that happen behind him. ¡°And your ship?¡± ¡°I am afraid the Cherry Barb suffered moderate damage. Most of our nuclear weapons have been expended and the slinger is damaged. We have two nuclear missiles and a dozen mines. Aside from that just our standard and light rail gun rounds. However aside from that we are in working order and I am told that in a few hours we should have the last of our stealth plating patched and our engines cooled enough that we will be able to maintain stealth protocols.¡± ¡°Commander our last report from your ship said you had encountered a Guppy?¡± ¡°Yes Sir we did. My crew and I were able to destroy it before it destroyed us although it was a close thing.¡± ¡°You and your crew have my admiration Commander and I would like nothing more than to tell you and your crew you can stand down and rest, but I am afraid that I still have more work for you.¡± ¡°Yes Sir. The Cherry Barb stands ready and able.¡± ¡°Excellent stay on the line, I¡¯m going to talk to the other Admirals in a moment and I¡¯d like your opinion on a plan that I have.¡± As the Admiral turned to his communications officer the Lieutenant said. ¡°Sir I have Admiral Zetian and the other Admirals already on a channel waiting for you.¡± ¡°Patch both myself and Commander Frazer into the call.¡± Admiral Jacobs had been expecting the call to be a flurry of activity with people shouting over each other and 3 separate arguments raging all at once, that was not the case. Instead he saw three people each regarding each other warily and apparently no one was willing to make the first move. Deciding to be the one to start things off he began. ¡°I have invited Commander Frazer of the Cherry Barb, one of my stealth ships to our meeting, I feel that his expertise will be necessary in the next phase of the battle.¡± ¡°Next phase of the battle?¡± Admiral Gallagher said disbelief in his voice. ¡°Jacobs I don¡¯t know what you think is about to happen, but there will not be another battle. My ships and I are salvaging whatever we can from the Behemoth underneath us and going back to Earth.¡± ¡°I have to agree with Admiral Gallagher. With the forces we have left at our disposal and the newest capabilities of the Kraken I do not see how we have any chance of defeating our enemies.¡± ¡°Admirals I have the latest intelligence here from the Zebra Danio, she has a stealth probe near Europa relaying information directly from her.¡± Admiral Jacobs face was immediately replaced with the three Kraken. All of them were near each other and all of them were wide open at the front facing towards Europa, The Guppies were arrayed in front of the Kraken with their own weapons bristling and ready. ¡°The three of the Kraken are holding position almost 300 000 kilometers from Europa and are prepared to fire on the first thing that they see come around the moon. We likely wouldn¡¯t even begin to use the moon for a boost without coming under fire.¡± ¡°And you want us to charge that? With the three of them working together we wouldn¡¯t get close, and any ships that did would not be able to destroy what they have there. My fleet will not be the Light Brigade Jacobs.¡± ¡°What if we were able to destroy their main weapons before the battle started? Commander Frazer in your opinion do you think it is possible for the mines that stealth ships use to disable the main guns on the Krakens?¡± ¡°Absolutely Sir. My battle with the Guppy proved to me that while their outsides are extremely resilient to our weapons their insides are vulnerable to all manner of damage. A single mine inside main opening of the Kraken would be devastating and destroy the aliens and their weapon. Additionally Sir, when looking at the sensor logs of the battles we have observed so far so far my Navigator noticed something. The tentacles on the sides of the Leviathans move in a predictable way before their craft move. We believe that we can use this to predict the movements of our enemies before they make them. If we are positioned properly we should be able to help the fleet aim their guns and ensure far greater accuracy.¡± As he looked at the other Admirals he felt his hopes waning. Not one of them looked convinced. ¡°I know this isn¡¯t a lot to go on, but we don¡¯t have to risk anything until we know if the stealth ships have succeeded or not.¡± Admiral Zetian was the first to speak. ¡°Admiral Jacobs my ships were able to get a good look at Commander Frazers ship, if I am not mistaken their mine launcher was destroyed. As only 3 stealth ships were sent with the fleet how do you propose 2 ships disable three Kraken?¡± ¡°With respect Admiral Zetian while our mine launcher may have been destroyed I still feel confident that we can deliver our payload successfully.¡± As Commander Frazer told the Admirals of his plan their looks ranged from disbelieving to furious. ¡°This is the best you could come up with Jacobs? It¡¯s insanity.¡± Gallagher shouted. ¡°Coordinating three ships to destroy three targets at the same time would be hard enough, but adding in that bit of madness? It¡¯s not possible.¡± ¡°If Commander Frazer says his crew is capable of pulling this off then I believe him. Furthermore, you and your fleet do not have to risk a single life until we know if they were successful or not. If they are, if all three Krakens main weapons are disabled can we count on you?¡± ¡°If the three enemies are disabled then I will help.¡± Admiral Zetian said surprising Admiral Jacobs. Of all of them her fleet had suffered the most losses. ¡°We all know what will happen if their gate is allowed to come online, I will help as well.¡± Admiral Sokolov said. ¡°If all 3 and I do mean all three of Kraken are disabled then I will send my fleets as well, but if even a single Kraken is still operational, then I am gathering what I can from the debris here and leaving.¡± ¡°I understand and agree completely Admiral Gallagher. If the Kraken are left operational then I am planning on launching every missile my fleet has at the power plants they have and leaving with you. Commander Frazer, I¡¯m sure you have preparations to make. I¡¯ve already sent you the communications protocols to coordinate with the Zebra Danio and Pearl Gourami, keep us apprised of your plans.¡± With a salute Commander Frazer disconnected from the Admirals communication channel. ¡°Admirals unless I have miscounted we still have 37 cruisers, 72 frigates, 4 Dreadnoughts and 2 Super Carriers against 3 Kraken and 14 Guppies, and every Guppy has at least some damage on it. In 27 hours we need to destroy either the ring, or the fusion reactors attached to them.¡± ¡°Should your ships be successful how should we play this?¡± Admiral Gallagher asked. Admiral Jacobs was surprised by the question, in all of their previous planning sessions Admiral Gallagher had never asked for another persons opinion. ¡°We slingshot around Europa to gain speed, then charge them and kill every single one of them. No fancy maneuvers, just steel and nuclear fire. When we¡¯ve broken them and passed through their position we hit the fusion reactors with everything we can, the ring is a smaller target, and looks to be more solidly built so the reactors are probably more vulnerable.¡± Each of the Admirals simply nodded. ¡°I just want to say before we begin that no matter what happens next it has been an honor to fight beside you and your crews in this.¡± ¡°I feel the same way.¡± Admiral Sokolov said. ¡°It has been quit the experience.¡± Admiral Zetian said. ¡°An honour and a pleasure.¡± Admiral Gallagher added. The four Admirals ended their call, each had work to do before the battle. There were repairs to coordinate. Task forces to reassign and ships to abandon and then scuttle. As the Cherry Barb began accelerating each of the Admirals watched her go. She and her sister ships had the fate of humanity riding on them. Hopefully they would be up to the challenge. Slowly the fleets came to order and there was nothing left to do but wait for the signal. Chapter 14 USS Cherry Barb After Commander Frazer left the meeting with the Admirals he immediately held his own meeting with Nate Brown his ships navigator and helmsman, Duncan Marshal his weapons officer, Alyx Green his communications officer, and Chief Hanlan. ¡°Alright Chief, you¡¯ve heard the plan what do you think?¡± ¡°It¡¯s complete madness Sir. Theoretically possible madness but still madness. How long will I have to make this thing?¡± ¡°8 hours maybe a little more, after that we will need to release the payload for the timing to work.¡± Said Lieutenant Brown. ¡°Alright I think it can be done but I¡¯ll need the guidance system from a missile, the gravity drive and battery from the probe, all the stealth plating we have left, and maybe the hull of the probe as well. Sir I¡¯ve got to hand it to you no one has ever considered something like this.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll take that as a compliment Chief. You have anyone and anything you need, you¡¯d better get started.¡± ¡°Lieutenant Green how much longer are we in range of the communications probe for?¡± ¡°7 minutes Sir.¡± ¡°Lieutenant Brown double check your numbers and have them sent over to the probe. It will be up to the Zebra Danio and the Pearl Gourami to coordinate with each other and match our schedule so make sure your calculations are perfect.¡± ¡°Yes Sir.¡± Lieutenant Brown said. ¡°Sir I know you want us to approach as close as possible but I don¡¯t think we should get any closer than 30,000 km.¡± ¡°We¡¯ve gotten as close as 4 000 km before.¡± ¡°Those were under ideal conditions Sir, approaching it from an oblique angle and not going in front of it. This time we are literally flying at their gun sights with a moon behind us. I¡¯m a worried we may stick out a bit more.¡± ¡°How close do you recommend getting?¡± ¡°No closer than 30,000 km.¡± ¡°Alright Mr. Brown calculate the course and send it to the com probe.¡± ¡°Yes Sir.¡± He said immediately burying himself in his tablet. As his crew worked around him Commander Frazer busied himself looking over the reports on their enemies. The Kraken were laid out in a simple triangle with the remaining Guppies in the middle and slightly forwards likely, to intercept missiles from whichever direction they approached from. While he tried to project an aura of confidence in truth he was worried. The Zebra Danio and Pearl Gourami were still in perfect condition, their slingers intact and their weapon stores fully stocked. They would have no problem with this mission. Simply approach their own targets fire their mines and continue with their enemy being none the wiser until the mines landed. It was his own ship that was limping along with barely any weapons and melted metal and plastic where their fire control computers used to be. ¡°Alright Sir, the course has been sent.¡± ¡°Very well Lieutenant take us out steady as you please.¡± Not bothering to respond Lieutenant Browns fingers danced over the ships controls and the Cherry Barb moved out. Accelerating towards the moon they were able to use its meager gravity to get a small amount of acceleration from a gravity assist, afterwards they continued to pour on the power from their own gravity drives. All too soon they were accelerating directly towards the exposed weapon of their enemy. After a few moments Commander Frazer let out a breath he hadn¡¯t realized he was holding. There had been some worry that they would be destroyed as soon as they peaked out from the moon, but for now at least they had escaped the attention of their foe. Now there was no other direction to go other than forwards, and he new for a fact that his crew would be up to it. Putting his tablet down he stood up. ¡°Lieutenant Marshal you have the bridge.¡± Leaving the bridge Commander Frazer walked through his ship towards the slinger bay. Taking the opportunity to walk his ships halls he checked the sections of his ship that had been most damaged in the fighting. While most of the damage had been repaired and cleaned the scars and scorch marks were still visible all over the ship. Coming to a junction nearing the slinger bay Commander Frazer stopped and looked at the deck. This had been where Ensign Cochrane had been struck by the Guppies laser. He hadn¡¯t seen the body, but he understood that it had been bad. Although the deck had been thoroughly cleaned there was still a scorch mark that seemingly did not want to be removed. Swallowing his emotions he turned towards the slinger bay but stopped short as he saw Lieutenant Commander Bannon standing in front of him. ¡°How are you holding up James?¡± He said quietly as he approached his old friend.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°As well as can be expected.¡± ¡°Good, then you can get some shut eye while I keep watch.¡± Giving his old friend a level look he responded with disbelief in his voice. ¡°You¡¯ve got to be joking. You do know we are preparing for the most important mission of our lives right?¡± Biting back the sarcastic remark that he found on his tongue ¡®when isn¡¯t it the most important mission of our lives?¡¯ He simply said ¡°All the more reason to get some rest. It¡¯s been how long since you last slept? What two? three days? I¡¯ve just checked on the Chief, they have the guidance system from the missile already, the probe is being disassembled and he and his people are putting together the payload as we speak. I checked with Lieutenant Marshal on the bridge, we are underway with no problems and should be able to deliver our payload on schedule. I also checked with Doctor Fitzgerald, the stimulant she gave you is wearing off and she agrees that you should not be given another one for at least another 5 hours. Nothing will be happening for at least another 6 hours. You sleep for 3 then I¡¯ll sleep for 3.¡± Commander Frazer felt his anger rising and was about to snap at his old friend but managed to bite it back down. Pounds was right, he was exhausted, and his emotions were getting the best of him. With a sigh he said ¡°Your right, of course. I¡¯ll get some shut eye you come get me in three hours, don¡¯t wake me unless the ship is about to explode. Bring me some coffee if you can.¡± As he turned and walked back to his quarters. Feeling a sense of victory at getting his friend to agree he said in a joking manner. ¡°Coffee? Jesus why don¡¯t I just bring you breakfast in bed? Steak and eggs sound good?¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t to touch an egg that has been on this ship for this long.¡± ¡°It probably would have grown into a chicken and laid more eggs by now.¡± The two shared a laugh and a smile before Commander Frazer continued to his quarters where he fell asleep as soon as his head hit his pillow. Two hours and fifty minutes later the Lieutenant Commander was as promised going to the Galley to get his friend a coffee. As he started to push the door to the galley open he stopped short as a burst of laughter met him from inside. Moving his ear a little closer to the door he listened and for a split second he thought that Commander Frazer was inside talking but quickly he realized that the voice actually belonged to Nate Brown doing a fairly good impersonation. Edging just a little bit closer he tried to listen in. ¡°Ladies and Gentleman, of the Cherry Barb these chicken nuggets are the most important meal that we have. I know that you have all eaten before and god willing we will all eat again, but here and now at this meal we must all work together. I know that it will be a challenge, but I have faith that together we will all pull through this.¡± As he finished the crew members inside roared in laughter and shouted for him to do ¡®The Lieutenant Commander next.¡¯ Deciding that ha had listened long enough he schooled his face and quashed the smile that had threatened to break out and replaced it with his trademark scowl and stepped through the doorway. It was all he could do to not burst into laughter as the crew immediately turned to look at him and everyone got the same stricken look on their face like they had to force a fart back in. Walking past the crew he approached the coffee pot and poured a single cup, turning around he stalked towards the exit but abruptly stopped at Lieutenant Brown turned to him and asked ¡°Chicken Nuggets today?¡± Brown looking like he was about to puke could only nod. ¡°Do you like Chicken Nuggets Lieutenant?¡± ¡°Uh, yes Sir.¡± He responded sounding like he would rather be walking back to earth than be here. ¡°Good, as you all were.¡± And with that the 1st officer walked out of the Galley and managed to keep his face straight until he got to the Commanders office. Knocking before letting himself in he was surprised to find his friend already sitting up in bed looking groggy. Looking up at his old friend Commander Frazer noticed the smile and asked. ¡°What happened to you?¡± Handing the coffee over he said ¡°Brown was doing his impression of you in the Galley.¡± ¡°Again? He needs new material.¡± ¡°He¡¯s gotten better at it, this time he gave a speech about eating chicken nuggets.¡± ¡°What?¡± Frazer asked incredulously. ¡°I¡¯ve never given a speech about food.¡± ¡°Are you sure? You do give a lot of speeches.¡± His old friend said. ¡°I do not.¡± Frazer said sounding scandalized at the idea. His old friend gave him a look. ¡°What? I don¡¯t.¡± ¡°James on average you give at least 4 speeches a mission, one when we embark, one when we return, one half way through the mission, and at least one more. Speeches kind of your thing.¡± At this Commander Frazer looked a little insulted, ¡°O.K. I might like to address the crew directly on occasion but it¡¯s not like I give speeches over food.¡± ¡°No no I just remembered there was that one time with the ice cream.¡± Frazer started to get a bit heated at this, ¡°That was one time, the mission went long by three months, that doesn¡¯t count.¡± Pounds just laughed as he passed over the coffee. ¡°The crew actually loves it.¡± ¡°The crew can go to hell.¡± He said with no actual heat in his voice. ¡°Anything to report?¡± ¡°We are still on course and on schedule, the payload is still being built but apparently the internals have all been hooked together and the Chief is optimistic.¡± ¡°Alright you get some sleep, I¡¯ll see you in about three hours.¡± As his first officer left his office and quarters the commander took his time to enjoy his coffee, have a shower and get dressed. Although he new he had thousands of things to get done now that he was well rested he found himself with less energy than before. With force of will he got up and forced himself to get to work, there would be time to rest later, for now he had a ship to run and a war to win. 4 hours later the commander was on the command deck with Pounds and the rest of his most senior crew. ¡°Are you ready Mr. Brown?¡± ¡°On your order Sir.¡± ¡°Lieutenant Green get me the Chief.¡± At Lieutenant Greens nod he picked up his transceiver and spoke into it. ¡°Chief how is the payload coming along?¡± In the slinger bay wearing their space suites still Chief Hanlan swore as he applied the last of their sealant foam to the outside of the box. 2 meters long and 2 meters wide and only 1 meter tall it looked like a cobbled together shipping box held together by foam. Each side had a small thruster attached to it, just enough to allow it to adjust its course ever so slightly. The front was made up of the hull from the probe as they didn¡¯t have enough stealth plating to finish the box and there was a simple antenna on the front of the box used for guidance and its meager sensors. ¡°Just putting the finishing touches on it now Sir!¡± Turning off the channel to the bridge he turned to his assistants ¡°Saskowski get the bay doors open, Maccio input the targeting data.¡± As he finished sealing the last of the weapon shut. ¡°Very good Chief. Alright Lieutenant flip the ship.¡± Almost immediately after hearing the Commander the Lieutenants hands danced over the controls of the Cherry Barb and the ship began to spin backwards and in a circle. When he finished the ship was now pointing almost directly away and slightly up relative to their foe. ¡°Checking course.¡± Lieutenant Brown said. ¡°Course is good Sir, the slinger bay is now pointed directly at the Kraken.¡± ¡°Alright Chief let us know when we can deploy the weapon.¡± ¡°Understood Sir! We just need a moment the bay doors are stuck!¡± ¡°You have 7 minutes Chief.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± In the slinger bay the Chief was assisting Saskowski and Maccio with trying to pull the door open. ¡°Alright on three, one, two three!¡± As the three men worked together slowly the door started to open. When it was finally open the Chief opened his com channel to the bridge. ¡°Got it Sir! We are ready for zero G here.¡± As the three of them made their way to the back wall and held onto a handrail. Immediately the gravity left the slinger bay and they turned on their magnetized boots. Walking over to the probe they ran a final check to ensure that everything was in working order. ¡°We are good to go here Sir.¡± Immediately the ship began to decelerate. With the gravity and inertial compensators turned off the home made missile slowly started to move forwards looking like it was being pulled by magic. When it was out of the ship the Chief watched as its onboard computer made minute adjustments to its course before he quickly lost sight of it. ¡°Payload is away with no problems all systems are green.¡± ¡°Very good Chief.¡± The Commander said on their private channel before coming back over the ship wide. ¡°All crew prepare for Gravity to be turned back on.¡± A few moments later gravity returned to the ship and the Chief and his two assistants worked on forcing the slinger bay doors closed. On the command deck the crew waited patiently watching the mission clock slowly tick down. With the improvised weapon covered entirely in stealth plating it was impossible to track and the crew was forced to trust that the weapon was still on course. As the clock ticked down to the last 10 seconds even the Lieutenant Commander didn¡¯t try to keep people working on their jobs as he was focused on the clock too. Commander Frazer was considering his plan B if this failed. 9 He would have the ship alter course. 8 Cut in front of the Kraken sharply. 7 And launch his last nuclear missile from point blank range. 6 If they were close enough it would never be able to dodge. 5 Of course that would be true of themselves. 4 Surrounded like this they would stand no chance of escaping. ¡°This is it.¡± Pounds said. 3 Whatever Commander Frazer was going to say died in his throat as nuclear explosion was detected first at the Kraken designated Alpha and then the Kraken designated Charlie. ¡°Sir, I am reading two nuclear detonations at the front of two of the Krakens!¡± Lieutenant Marshal yelled. ¡°Severe damage to their fronts, those weapons are ddone for.¡± Commander Frazers eyes were glued to the mission timer as it started counting upwards. ¡°Sir, the Beta Kraken is closing it¡¯s mouth¡­.¡± Started Lieutenant Marshal From deeper inside the Kraken the explosion blossomed. Although there was nothing in space to burn limiting the damage output of nuclear weapons the heavier weapon the Cherry Barb traveling at a much faster speed than the simple mines launched by the slinger was able to enter directly into the Krakens mouth and punch into the creature itself where it was lodged into a vein filled with what the Kraken had acting as blood. When the timer ran out and it detonated the shockwave and explosion was enough to cause the front of the Kraken to explode outwards in a shower of gore as pieces of it were propelled in every direction and the creature began slowly spinning in space apparently dead. As one the crew began shouting and cheering, until a loud whistle cut them off. ¡°Sir we have a problem.¡± ¡°What is it Mr. Brown?¡± ¡°I was not expecting to have to navigate through an abattoir Sir, if we start hitting pieces of Alien it would be possible to find us based on the movement of debris. It¡¯ll be worse if any of it sticks to us Sir.¡± ¡°Find us a path through Lieutenant. Lieutenant Green make sure the crew know to get back to their duty stations, we¡¯re not out of this yet.¡± Chapter 15 USS Rushmore After 2 hours of waiting for any news Admiral Jacobs had left his fleet in the capable hands of Rear Admiral Robinson of the Super Carrier Ironwood and went to his quarters to get some sleep. With yet another battle looming in front of him Admiral Jacobs had decided to face it as fresh as possible. 7 hours after he had lain down he was awoken by a message, answering with a simple ¡°Report.¡± He listened to the good news. ¡°Sir we have a message from both the Zebra Danio and the Pearl Gourami, the Alpha and Charlie Kraken main weapons are confirmed disabled. The Kraken Beta has sustained sever damage and may be mission killed or disabled.¡± ¡°What do you mean mission killed or disabled?¡± ¡°I mean that the front fifth of the Kraken isn¡¯t there anymore. I¡¯m not sure how but Commander Jacobs and his crew managed to cripple a super dreadnought.¡± ¡°That son of a bitch, have we heard from him?¡± ¡°No, but that¡¯s not unexpected their laser coms system was damaged in their fight with the Guppy.¡± ¡°I¡¯m on my way down, coordinate with the other Admirals and get us underway as soon as possible.¡± ¡°Yes Sir.¡± Admiral Jacobs had hoped that the other Admirals would be easy to convince and they could begin the operation as soon as possible, after all they had a transit time of 5 hours before the battle would even begin, and then another hour to approach Jupiter after the battle. As he walked onto his command deck his hopes were dashed as he saw Rear Admiral Robinson still watching the transmission from the Zebra Danio with the other Admirals. All 4 of the Admirals were visible on the main view screen and the Captain of the Rushmore Joseph Gellar was watching the transmission silently. Not wanting to interrupt Admiral Robinson in front of the other Admirals he stood beside the Captain and Admiral Jacobs watched the operation himself for the first time. On the screen the image of the Krakens were in front of them slowly turning away from the camera, or perhaps the camera was moving away from the Kraken. The creatures face was splayed open with the large form of their weapon visible in the opening. With the closer vantage point the camera had the Admirals could see the individual veins running up and down the weapons as parts of them pulsed. After several moments of silent watching very suddenly there were several explosions around two of Kraken. With no oxygen in space the explosions were limited to the release of energy and radiation which the cameras of the Zebra Danio were able to filter out. With the detonation the faces of the two creatures began to shrivel and smoke as they almost seemed to begin to melt. The weapon on one of the Krakens broke in two pieces and the other was left a blackened and withered husk with liquid pouring out of a dozen places. The final Kraken in the middle of the other two began to turn to its port and close its face. Almost 3 seconds after the first detonations there was one more. This explosion was far larger than the others. Admiral Jacobs wasn¡¯t sure if it had been pumping some sort of atmosphere into that area after it was closed, or perhaps the Cherry Barbs explosive simply found something flammable, either way the fireball that replaced the end of the creature was spectacular. The explosion ripped apart almost a fifth of the creature causing flesh and liquid to blossom out from it. As the explosion cleared, they could see a dark liquid pouring out of it as the creature began drifting aimlessly in space. ¡°America votes to attack¡± Said Rear Admiral Robinson for Admiral Jacobs. ¡°Agreed.¡± Zetian said next. ¡°I concur.¡± Sokolov said. ¡°May god help us all, I agree.¡± Gallagher confirmed. They each broke the connection and ordered their subordinates to launch the attack. As alarms blared throughout ships crew members that had been waiting for just this moment sprung into action. Taking control of the fleet Admiral Jacobs relieved Admiral Robinson and looked over their position. Opposite normal doctrine his cruisers were leading the way instead of their frigates, hopefully the extra armor they had would allow them to absorb more fire and allow the frigates more time attack their enemies. As the remaining two thirds of the joint task force began to accelerate towards their enemy, the ships that were too damaged to be taken into battle were left behind. Not all the ships were completely out of action, but they had enough damage where it was thought that they wouldn¡¯t be very useful in the battle. So instead they watched the remnants of the Behemoth and ensured it was well and truly dead and not able to flank the fleet. As the remaining Task Force accelerated from behind Europa the fleet collectively held its breath waiting to see if against all odds one of the Krakens main weapons were still operational. As the minutes ticked by and the distance fell slowly the nerves everyone was feeling began to recede being replaced by hopeful optimism. When the fleet was finally clear of Europa and within 200 000 km of their enemy the American carriers launched three quarters of their remaining missiles and all their remaining drones. Half of the missiles were sent on a long parabolic arc above the Leviathan fleet in a similar move to their previous battle and the other half were sent under them. Unfortunately, with so many missiles having been already used this was far fewer then Admiral Jacobs would have liked and only 1500 missiles sped through the void of space at their targets accompanied by another 200 drones. The Guppies and Kraken instead of waiting passively for the missiles to strike them, began to accelerate directly upwards towards where the weapons would be arriving from. When the weapons were 150 000 km away from their targets the Aliens lasers began lashing out and destroying dozens of missiles and drones at a time. The two remaining Kraken were able to destroy dozens of missiles every few seconds. ¡°All ships target the Beta Kraken with our light anti ship rounds, I want it stripped of weapons and armor immediately.¡± Admiral Jacobs said With all the Leviathans focusing on the missiles they were outflanked, exposed and thanks to Lieutenant Nate Brown, the American Fleet was receiving accurate information on the Leviathans evasive maneuvers. His work on determining how the movements of Leviathan tentacles translated into which direction their enemy would be accelerating to, allowed the Pearl Gourami and Zebra Danio to update the American fleets targeting computers increasing their accuracy from 15% to 60% at this range. ¡°Alderman, are you sending the targeting data to the other fleets?¡± Admiral Jacobs asked his communications officer. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°I¡¯m sending them the data Sir, but it¡¯s not compatible with their targeting computers so it¡¯s not doing any good.¡± Jacobs had talked to the other Admirals while they waited and they had attempted to patch their targeting computers so they could make use of the data being sent but they didn¡¯t have enough time so only his own ships were able to enjoy the increase in accuracy. Despite the Human fleets scoring hit after hit on the Kraken their weapons were having far less of an effect than they would like. Some armor was being stripped off, a few of their lasers were no longer firing but for the most part the Kraken they were targeting was shrugging off most of the weapons with little in the way of damage. The missiles were faring much worse. With the combined lasers of the 2 Kraken and 15 Guppies hundreds of missiles had been destroyed, even now as the weapons were closing in to striking range and the drones deployed their own missiles they continued to be targeted. Finally as the last 100 missiles approached their targets the Guppies pulled ahead and in front of the Kraken sacrificing themselves for the larger ships. Dozens of the remaining missiles slammed into the smaller ships releasing their payload and turning 10 of the 15 aliens into vapor. With the closest missiles destroyed and the remaining missiles still accelerating towards their targets the remaining Leviathans turned towards the Human ships. 50 lasers per Kraken reached out and made short work of any human ship they attacked even with their thick armor and evasive maneuvers. But even as human ships burned or exploded they never stopped doing their duty, firing weapons or attempting to cover more damaged ships with their own hulls slowly the battle came to a close. Although the Kraken were able to shrug off an incredible amount of damage, with the Human advantage in numbers the Leviathans never stood a chance. Slowly the other fleets accuracy improved as the distance closed and with so many weapons hitting the Kraken at once one by one their weapons were silenced, and their outer armor was slowly ripped off layer by layer, until they had only a few weapons remaining and the solid white hulls of their inner armor. Switching to their armor piercing weapons the Dreadnoughts of the task force fired salvo after salvo of the heavy weapons. Small cracks appeared in the hulls, which then widened into small holes, which quickly expanded into then even larger holes until their fronts were pock marked with gaping wounds from which atmosphere and liquids were pouring out. When the two fleets were less then 20 000 km from each other the Kraken accelerated forwards with a lurch attempting to ram the human ships. It may have worked, if the other half of the missiles hadn¡¯t arrived. With their support craft almost all destroyed, and their weapons mostly silenced the missiles were almost unopposed when they slammed by the dozens and then hundreds into the Kraken and few Guppies that remained. With dozens of multi-megaton detonations directly against or even inside their hulls the human sensors were completely blinded. When the last of the missiles streaked by looking for a target the Human fleets looked at where their enemies had been and were met with the sight of a slowly expanding cloud of ash, blood and debris. ¡°Well done everyone. Just one more mission left for today.¡± Finally, the human ships turned their attention to the final enemy in front of them. The Behemoth, 27 Kilometers across had positioned itself between the Human Fleets and the stations the Aliens had been building. ¡°Admiral Jacobs, the other Admirals are requesting a meeting.¡± The Rushmore¡¯s communication officer said. Accepting the call Admiral Jacobs regarded the other Admirals, they looked as haggard and exhausted as he felt. ¡°Admiral Jacobs, did you want to try and take any part of the Behemoth or what it¡¯s building intact?¡± Admiral Zetian asked. ¡°I do not, I think whatever that thing is we should blow it straight to hell immediately.¡± ¡°Then we are in agreement Admiral do you have any nuclear warheads left?¡± ¡°Some, if it has any weapons it would be able to shoot the down however.¡± ¡°If we all launch our remaining warheads around the Behemoth on different angles it won¡¯t be able to intercept all of them.¡± Zetian said. ¡°We can also pin it in place with our rail guns by simply firing directly at it, if it dodges we would have a clear shot at the objects.¡± Sokolov added. Their plan decided they each chose a direction to send their nuclear weapons around the massive alien and fired. Each ship in the fleet began firing every weapon they had left. Missiles launched from tubes as ships that had help them in reserve until now used them. Rail guns tracked the massive creature and began firing at its center a combination of light and armor piercing rounds. Despite the distance between the fleet and their target the Behemoth couldn¡¯t dodge without exposing the gate. As the slugs found their target a areen and a brownish red liquid began pouring out of the center of the Behemoth as more and more rounds tore great gouges in the monster. As the missiles approached and the damage on the creature mounted it became apparent that it had no weapons at all. Instead of shooting down any of the weapons it instead moved allowing the Human ships an unobstructed view of the what they had been building. All three of the objects were now attached to each other by long strands of flesh and muscles. The 5km long fusion plants were drawing in hydrogen directly from Jupiter using gravity on a scale humanity had never even considered allowing the two power plants to generate more power than every power plant on Earth combined. Veins hundreds of meters thick ran from the reactors to the ring and wrapped around it. The ring itself hung above Jupiter with the gas giant in the behind it, but through the ring instead of the planet they saw stars. The gate had been activated. The Human ships had fired all of their remaining weapons and while the rail gun rounds were striking the fusion reactors they were not able to do enough damage to stop them and the missiles were still another 15 minutes away from their targets. Through the gate the crews watched helplessly as a Kraken surrounded by dozens of Guppies began transiting into the solar system the fronts of their faces already open theirs laser glowing a bright red as they tracked their foes. Admiral Jacobs felt his heart sink, they had failed. Even if they closed the gate now they likely didn¡¯t have the munitions left to destroy another Kraken, it had taken hundreds of nuclear weapons to destroy the first two. Nonetheless he had his duty and he wouldn¡¯t stop trying just because it was impossible. ¡°All ships target the fusion plant on the port side we have to shut that gate now.¡± Across the joint task force almost all the remaining human weapons changed their targets and began firing round after round into the fusion reactor to no avail, The European fleet however began firing at the Kraken attempting to damage the creatures weapons. ¡°Dammit, get me Gallagher on the line, we need to close that gate.¡± ¡°Sir, I¡¯m trying to get them now¡­.¡± USS Cherry Barb 5km from the starboard Leviathan Fusion Reactor ¡°Close the door Chief, open the door Chief, close the door again Chief, uh oh better open the door again Chief! This time the damn thing¡¯s staying open!¡± Chief Hanlan yelled to himself as he and Saskowski were once again manually forcing the slinger bay doors open inch by inch their powered space suits barely helping them. Behind them Maccio was laying their remaining mines on the slinger bay floor haphazardly trying to keep some space between them. With a final heave the Chief and Saskowski managed to force the slinger bay doors open just as Maccio was laying the last mine on the ground. ¡°That¡¯s it Chief. Think we can actually hit anything with these?¡± ¡°Not our department, alright out of the way, against the wall you two.¡± As the three of them moved to the wall and attached their suits to the walls with clips Chief Hanlan opened a line to the Command Deck. ¡°We¡¯re ready here Sir.¡± Looking out the open slinger bay doors far in the distance only a few thousand km away and far too rapidly approaching was one of the Leviathan fusion reactors. Even at this distance they could clearly see their target due to how massive it was and the light it was emitting. The cylinder of the Fusion reactor was pointing down towards Jupiter as a bright light drew up the atmosphere. It was incredibly beautiful thought the Chief just as the Cherry Barbs gravity cut out. Immediately after he started floating he saw the mines gently lift off the deck and then he felt a jerk to the side as the ship decelerated sharply, the mines continuing their path straight towards the reactor. ¡°Payload away Sir!¡± he shouted into his com system. ¡°Alright lets get out of here, if the Commander asks the door is jammed open.¡± On the bridge Commander Frazer nodded at Lieutenant Brown as he let them know their last mines were away and he was changing course before they rammed the giant fusion reactor. Speaking through his face mask he looked at Duncan Marshal and asked ¡°Are you sure?¡± coughing from the smoke from the fires. ¡°Yes Sir. The Rushmore has been destroyed.¡± Said Lieutenant Marshal his voice empty. Saying to no one in particular ¡°Start a clock, 1 minute and 25 seconds until it fires again. Lieutenant Marshal fire off our last nuclear missile directly at this, vein or whatever the hell it is.¡± Commander Frazer said stabbing his finger at the largest of the veins connecting the reactor to the gate. ¡°Yes Sir.¡± He said launching the weapon immediately. ¡°Mr. Brown get us the hell out of here. That was officially our last nuclear weapon.¡± Chinese Flagship Zeng He Admiral Zetian had taken the news of the Rushmore being destroyed stoically, but still harder than she had thought. Although Admiral Jacobs had been an adversary at one point and an ally of necessity now, she had always respected him a great deal and his death was a tragedy. ¡°I am detecting nuclear detonations against the starboard reactor near the base where its connected to the gate. ¡°Captain Huang said.¡° Admiral there¡¯s a nuclear missile now.¡± ¡°Show me.¡± The mines launched by inertia from the Cherry Barb crossed the void of space and hit the reactor like a nuclear shot gun shell. Each detonation blackened and scorched the reactor, some veins withering and dying. Before the Captain could orient the telescopes the missile crossed the incredibly short distance rammed the largest vein and detonated. The alien flesh burned and blackened from the radiation before shattering and hanging limply in space. With the veins being damaged while the gate was on power was interrupted for just a few moments. Normally not enough to cause a problem but the rushed nature of the reactors construction had forced some corners to be cut. The power to the gate was interrupted for just a few milliseconds. Barely perceptible to the human eye it was enough for the gate to flicker and destabilize for just a few moments as it tried to stabilise its power. The Kraken and Guppies which had been partway through were cut straight through. The aliens began drifting dead immediately, not even explosions marking their demise. ¡°All ships target the veins on the port side reactor, sever it from the gate!¡± Admiral Zetian shouted after seeing how effective the missile had been. Her crews shifted their target to the smaller targets and almost immediately and while hundreds of rounds missed most hit and the veins connecting it to the gate were one by one severed. The American Fleets under the command of Rear Admiral Robinson switched their fire to the starboard reactor trying to sever as many of the connections as possible. The Cherry Barb was forced to turn on their IFF transponder in order to avoid being caught in the fire as they sped away as fast as they could. As connection after connection was severed the flickering of the gate got worse and worse until the gate turned off. The Behemoth moved, rushing forwards far faster than a ship that size should be able to move it began to accelerate towards the human fleet. The human ships shifted their fire to the new threat and damage was slowly building up on the creature but with its massive bulk they could never do enough damage to stop it. They need not have worried; the Human ships weren¡¯t its target. Speeding past the Human ships it continued to accelerate towards Europa, from behind the Behemoth sporadic weapons fire continued to tear into it. However the Task Force had another Problem 12 fresh Guppies had managed to transit through the gate before it closed. As one they opened fire on the closest American cruiser piercing its already damaged hull in a few moments it erupted into a fireball. Turrets from the human fleet spun as they targeted this new threat. Half the Guppies were different than the ones humanity had seen before. They were almost 50 meters larger than the other Guppies humanity had seen, sporting 2 long growths along their hull that fired lances of plasma into whatever human ship they were facing. As the task force redirected their fire into these new threats they steeled themselves for a fresh battle. They need not have worried as the missiles from the fleets were fast approaching as well. Being much closer to the weapons the Guppies had almost no time to react and were only able to shoot down a handful of the almost 800 missiles that had been sent. The explosions left behind almost nothing of the enemy ships. The Behemoth by this time was more than halfway to Europa and no longer accelerating. Massive chunks of the creature were now drifting away from it and a dark red ichor oozed out of the great rents in its body. The creature looked to be either dead or dying but inertia carried it directly into the frozen surface of Europa where it crashed on top of the growth coming out of the ice with a shock wave large enough to send geysers of ice and water spinning away from the frozen moon as the Behemoth sunk into the icy waters of Europa. As the battle finished the Human ships took stock of the battlefield. The Leviathan Fusion Reactors were now pulling themselves down into Jupiter along with the ring, the Behemoth was sinking below the ice of Europa out of their reach, and all they had left around them was the shattered remains of Human ships and lifeless Alien hulks. When the Behemoth finally sunk beneath the waves the crew of the Chinese Flag Ship let out a half-hearted cheer, to exhausted to even celebrate properly. ¡°All ships secure the area, begins search and rescue operations of damaged ships.¡± Admiral Zetian said exhaustion flowing through her. Chapter 16 Epilogue Part 1 Chapter 16 Epilogue Part 1 Earth, White House briefing room ¡°So, it¡¯s just gone then?¡± Stephen Graham President of the United States of America asked. ¡°How does a 5-mile-long alien just disappear? Did all the Admirals and everyone else just forget about it? Hope it wouldn¡¯t show up in the middle of the last battle?¡± Assembled in the briefing room were members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the head of the CIA, NSA, State Department, National Science advisor and the Presidents Chief of Staff. Every single one of them could only look at the President with and hope someone else would be made the object of the Presidents ire. ¡°Weren¡¯t we at least tracking it before the battle?¡± Admiral Nicholas Feng the Joint Chief of staff representing the USA space forces took this as his cue to speak. ¡°Yes Mr. President we were tracking it from Earth and Mars based telescopes, and it was on approach to Europa. However, just after the destruction of the ring and power plants over Jupiter it turned around and accelerated towards Saturn. It entered a blind spot behind Saturn and we suspect it is hiding on one of Saturn¡¯s 107 moons.¡± After a few moments the president leaned back in his chair with a sigh. ¡°Alright then, what is our plan to find and destroy it? We do have a plan to find and destroy it right?¡± ¡°Mr. President, we have drawn up plans for a search and destroy mission to Saturn.¡± Admiral Feng continued. ¡°As we have not seen it leave the vicinity of Saturn, we believe that it is still hiding on or behind one of Saturn¡¯s moons. Given the difficulty in logistics with sending a force large enough to effectively scout that much area and fight a Kraken when it is found I recommend that we not send any manned missions at this time.¡± Admiral Feng who had served in the military for almost 40 years found himself more than a little worried as the President fixed him with an icy glare ¡°I see, and what do you propose Admiral? Leave an enemy in our backyard?¡± ¡°Our plan at this point is to send several dozen unmanned probes to Saturn Mr. President. Both stealth and non stealth, they should allow us to find the Kraken with no risk to any crew. This will also have the advantage of us not having to worry about the logistical issues with sending a manned force out that far. Once the Kraken has been found we will be able to send several hundred missiles at it from halfway across the system. It¡¯s cheap, effective and there is no danger to human lives.¡± ¡°Why an unmanned mission Admiral? I don¡¯t think the American people will be reassured by a bunch of unmanned probes poking around Saturn.¡± President Graham said. ¡°If we were to send a manned force looking for the Kraken I would want the task force sent to have overwhelming superiority of numbers and a clear chain of command. Because of that the force should only be made up of ourselves and possibly E.U. ships if they were willing to play ball. The Force itself would have to be at least 1 Super Carrier task force reinforced with several other Carrier groups with their attending ships, add in a few extra Cruisers for good measure to ensure screening for the fleet tenders that would have to go with them. Given how poorly our frigates faired in battle I would strip most of the frigates from the task force and leave them here. All told it would probably be 50 ships mostly cruisers and carriers sent out to Saturn for an unknown amount of time. As there are currently no facilities near Jupiter or Saturn with which to refuel or resupply the fleet, they would not have the ability to look for the Kraken for any significant length of time even with fleet tenders. If we were to send such a large task force and not find anything, well it would be a significant waste of resources that would be better served being closer to Earth or Mars. At this the President frowned. ¡°How long would it take to find the Kraken?¡± ¡°I am afraid at this moment Sir we have no idea. While the Leviathans were easy to see, they had never tried to hide themselves. It may be extremely simple to find; but more likely with the amount of surface area on all of the moons and asteroids it could take months to find or even longer.¡± While the president looked extremely unhappy still a concrete plan of action did at least seem to mollify him somewhat. ¡°I don¡¯t like the idea of leaving something like that out there, but I can see how your plan would simplify things considerably. Send out the probes for now but draw up the plans to send out a task force, if one of the other powers sends ships out there I don¡¯t want them going alone.¡± Turning to his Secretary of State he asked. ¡°How are the talks proceeding Elizabeth?¡± ¡°Very slowly Mr. President. The Chinese Ambassador is dragging his heals on just about every issue we raise. If I didn¡¯t know better, I¡¯d say they were completely uninterested in any kind of mutual defence pact.¡± ¡°Any idea why that could be?¡± The president of the United States asked. ¡°I have a few back channels into the Chinese Government and from what I hear they are currently cleaning house. 4 Admirals 3 Generals and a large number of officers have been removed, as well as several senior government officials. All of them hardline anti American from the looks of it. I think they must have been getting pushback from their own people regarding any potential treaties and alliances with us and are cleaning house before they seriously begin negotiations.¡± ¡°Were they really worried about a coup? Everything I¡¯ve ever seen of their government looked fairly stable.¡± At this Elizabeth Berkley the head of the State Department nodded her head to Jack Rodriguez the head of the CIA indicating he should take over. ¡°While the Chinese have always done an excellent job of appearing unified from the outside, the CIA and NSA have caught wind of a number of different factions inside the Chinese Government, nothing destabilizing but less unified than they appeared. This was likely the catalyst for a shift in their politics and forced a purge of their more extreme officials. Right now it was the ultra right-wing nationalists, and other people with connections to some of their larger corporations that have been removed from offices. These were the people that were always pushing for war with us. Now that this new threat has emerged it seems that the moderates and centrists are cleaning house.¡± ¡°Is there any chance this could escalate into a full-blown civil war?¡± ¡°It seems unlikely Mr. President. Most of the most hardline members of their Admiralty and Generals have already been relieved of command, forcibly retired or isolated. The remaining Admirals and Generals are from what we can tell far more moderate in their views and appear to be loyal to the Government. I can¡¯t rule it out completely of course but if something significant was going to happen it likely would have happened already.¡± ¡°What does this mean for the upcoming summit Elizabeth?¡± ¡°We are expecting the Chinese to be far more moderate than in the past and more open to a compromise. They will still be seeking a resolution to the issues in the asteroid belt and I think we will need to come to an agreement on mutually administering the areas where the conflict was flaring up the most. But given the new political climate we¡¯re in I am expecting we can come to some sort of an agreement on this if we are willing to compromise as well. The one issue that is likely to be a big problem is the question of corporate security forces.¡± she said. Elizabeth Berkley was referring to the issues that had almost precipitated the Chinese American war in the first place. Disagreements on what county or company owned the mining rights to certain parts of the Asteroid belt had led to Chinese and American companies starting their own small wars against each other. With each side fielding increasingly deadly ships armed with weapons that were just a step down from military grade. Thousands had died with billions of dollars worth of equipment destroyed. Eventually the fighting got so bad that the American government had been pressured by their own corporations to intervene in order to protect American interests in the area. The sending of Admiral Jacobs fleet to try and stop what the American Government labeled pirate activity had of course caused the Chinese to send their own fleet. And it was only the appearance of Aliens at the edges of human territory that had stopped the war from breaking out. ¡°I want us to begin immediately cracking down on corporate security forces. Send out a press release that any ship with a rail gun is to be impounded immediately upon entering American controlled space. Begin creating checkpoints for all craft and send out inspection teams to corporate controlled shipyards. Any corporations that push back too hard on this are to be investigated.¡± ¡°Investigated for what Mr. President?¡± ¡°I am certain we can find something Elizabeth. The corporations have had too much say in our government lately and I mean to change that. Anyone who doesn¡¯t fall in line will be made an example of.¡± ¡°This is going to cause a lot of problems for a lot of companies, not to mention more than a few Congressmen and Senators. Half the ships in these areas have rail guns these days, and ever company has some armed ships. If the Chinese don¡¯t follow suit and begin impounding their own ships, we would be handing them a huge advantage.¡± Jack Rodriguez said. ¡°This will help us get the EU on our side however, the conflict in the asteroid belt has always been a point of contention between our governments. They¡¯ve always seen both sides as allowing corporate interests to run wild. If they see us taking a stand on this and the Chinese allowing their corporations free reign it could go a long way with the EU.¡± Elizabeth Berkley said.If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Just impound the ships and crews and track down any shipyard that is modifying civilian ships to use railguns for now. If the Chinese refuse to follow suit, then we can always drop the charges later and release the ships back to the corporations that own them. For now, I want people to see us making a good faith effort on these issues.¡± ¡°Mr. President you can¡¯t seriously expect the Chinese to act on these issues now. We have been having problems in the belt for years. If we disarm the corporate security forces, we could lose the whole of the conflicted zone to their corporations.¡± Said General Anthony Phillips. ¡°That will be billions in raw resources and equipment in that area.¡± ¡°This area has been in conflict for decades, a few months won¡¯t change that. Admiral Feng, how would you describe the battles against the Leviathans?¡± President Graham asked Admiral Nicholas Feng the commander of American Space forces. ¡°In short Mr. President? The battles were a disaster. Even with far superior numbers and intelligence on the enemy¡¯s movements we lost far more ships than we thought that we would in our most pessimistic projections.¡± ¡°What were the main causes of our poor performance Admiral?¡± ¡°I would like to state for the record that it was not a problem of the crews themselves or the senior leadership of the fleet. Every member of the fleet acted superbly and did their duty. The biggest problems our forces faced was our ships simply being too small and lacking armor that could withstand the enemy¡¯s weapons. Co-ordinated fire from a Guppy class enemy could destroy one of our Frigates in under three minutes when we first encountered them, by the final battle they had learned our ships weaknesses and they could disable most of a frigates weapons in just under 1 minute 30 seconds before moving onto another ship. Our cruisers fared better but they could still be destroyed in just over 5 minutes and disabled in just over 3 minutes. Adding the fact that we cannot dodge their weapons and they have a longer effective range; we were at a severe disadvantage in every fight. Many of these disadvantages were compounded by individual fleet commanders acting under their own orders from their governments. ¡° ¡°Can you elaborate on that Admiral?¡± President Graham asked. ¡°Without a true Chain of Command for the task force each fleet was acting far too independently of each other, choosing their own targets when they should have been coordinating fire more effectively for instance. This caused far more loss of life than was necessary, especially for the Chinese at the beginning of the conflict. I would say it was so bad that if more Leviathans were to appear tomorrow, I would strongly advise against sending any forces to meet them unless an actual chain of command were established for the task force. I am certain every government has come to this conclusion as well Mr. President.¡± ¡°I agree, the real question is going to be determining in the future how the command structure of any future expeditions would be sent out.¡± General Philips said. ¡°Not exactly General, most of the Leviathan wreckage is still in orbit of Europa, and given the wreckages size, it¡¯s likely to stay there. The scope of the facilities that will be needed to study the wreckage, as well as the logistical challenges in building anything that far out, I believe that we will need at least 2 of the other major powers working with us, if we¡¯re going to be doing that, then we need to determine the chain of command now.¡± ¡°What kind of logistical problems will we be facing?¡± President Graham asked. ¡°To be frank Mr. President, it is going to be a nightmare. No one has much in the way of infrastructure out there so everything will need to be constructed at Earth or Mars and then towed millions of miles to Europa. The station itself would likely have to be the size of Ares station to be at least partially self sufficient and given the distances in shipping perishables I would recommend we try to make it as self sufficient as possible. The task force has found an asteroid near Europa that may be possible to convert into a station, but even that will require massive amounts of materials to make habitable. With new ship building program Congress has just authorized which includes the new Super Dreadnoughts our production facilities will already be stretched thin Mr. President. We are going to need Millions of tonnes of materials and equipment and we simply don¡¯t have the capacity to expand the fleet and build the materials for a station of that size. Not to mention getting it out to Jupiter and building it there.¡± ¡°Why can¡¯t we bring the wreckage back here?¡± General Phillips asked. ¡°Some of the wreckage we would be able to, but the largest pieces are literally 2 and a half kilometers long and weigh as much as a dreadnought, its simply not possible to move those and they are the most intact pieces. Even if we could move them, we still need to study Europa itself. Admiral Robinsons most recent report indicates something is moving under the ice of Europa, and even that structure has started moving again.¡± ¡°Are we sure that wasn¡¯t just the organisms that were already there? The Europa project had been studying them for almost a decade.¡± ¡°None of our warships have the equipment for detailed scans, but the first reports indicate that whatever is down there is much larger than anything the Europa Project had seen in the past. It seems that something survived the Behemoths crash and it¡¯s down there now which is worrying itself. The ice of Europa is almost 15 kilometers thick.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that in miles?¡± Asked the President. ¡°9 miles Sir.¡± ¡°How does anything survive an impact like that? Let alone make it through the ice in one piece?¡± At this Kevin Price the National Science advisor finally broke his silence ¡°The original Behemoth that set part of itself on Europa was building something on ice, we believe that it was also burrowing down under the ice, either looking for water, a more hospitable climate, or simply expanding. In any case the 2nd Behemoth landed directly on top of it. If it had burrowed far enough down, the ice could have been weakened enough to allow it to crash through. There were also a few other things I wanted to go over with you and the Joint Chiefs Mr. President.¡± At a gesture from the President he began speaking. ¡°When looking into their FTL, or more specifically the gate we saw some things that I think need to be brought to all of your attention.¡± Tapping his tablet he projected a still image onto a large screen set into the wall of the briefing room. ¡°This is the gate itself, now we learned a considerable amount about their construction and some of their technology just from watching them build this, but what I really wanted to draw your attention to was this.¡± As he finished speaking he zoomed into a specific area of the gate when it had been activated showing stars in the distant background. ¡°This was captured by the Cherry Barb when it was closest to the gate. When we were going over this looking for more clues as to what it is made of we noticed these.¡± As the image zoomed in further the Admirals and Generals started to talk to each other. ¡°As you can see on the other side the gate were more Leviathans.¡± On the screen were hundreds of small creatures hanging in the void of space. ¡°These are Guppies right?¡± General Anthony Philips asked. ¡°No Sir. While it is difficult to judge their size with nothing to measure them against, given their shape we believe these are all Kraken.¡± At this announcement the room erupted into whispers. As the everyone spoke to each other down Admiral Feng asked the question on all of their minds. ¡°How many?¡± ¡°It is difficult to say for certain, but we counted at least 300 Kraken and several thousand Guppies.¡± At this the whispers turned into shouting only to be silenced when the President began to bang his hand on the table. ¡°You¡¯ve got more?¡± He asked. ¡°We are also seeing variations on their design, sharper angles, more obvious weapons, possibly thicker armor. We think that the force we faced recently, may have been more of a construction crew than warships. We believe these are the ships they send to a new systems and build the gate so the rest of their forces can come through.¡± If Doctor Price had expected more of an uproar he was left disappointed as the faces that looked at him were too shocked to speak. ¡°It gets worse Sir.¡± ¡°How?!¡± One Vice Admiral that the President couldn¡¯t name asked. In answer Dr. Price zoomed in on another section of the picture, zoomed in again and then several more times. ¡°This was taken by the Cherry Barb as well, fortunately their sensor operator was able to deploy their main telescope and capture these images.¡± As the picture focused the people could make out what appeared to be a planet. ¡°We believe this planet is similar to Mars in size, just to give some context. We were able to estimate based on these here, which are Kraken in orbit.¡± As he pointed out the Aliens in orbit not a person spoke. On the screen in front of them was a planet covered in what looked like flesh. Reaching up from the planet were long tendrils of muscle and bones that were tall enough to reach into space. On the end of each tendril of which there were dozens, were Kraken in various stages of being grown. ¡°We believe Sir, that they operate like a cross between cancer and an animal. Or maybe a tumor that moves and spreads itself? In any case this is likely what they were attempting to do to Europa Sir. The entire surface of the planet appears to be covered in it, whatever it is. From there they likely mine planets of resources, reproduce and spread. The fleet has already reported that the growth on Europa has already started growing again. Likely it is trying to do, well this.¡± At this pronouncement the room quieted down and all eyes turned to the President. His face grim, his eyes locked on the screen he said. ¡°Elizabeth, send this to the other powers. I want a quarantine of Europa, and I don¡¯t want a single piece of Leviathan getting within 100 million miles of Earth. All samples will be kept at Jupiter, nothing and I mean nothing will come into the inner system. If anyone tries they are to be charged with something, I don¡¯t care what and executed. We¡¯ll get congress to pass a new law if we have to. Get the other powers on board with this, I don¡¯t care what it takes.¡± ¡°Yes Mr. President.¡± With this new information the President turned to the head of the CIA. ¡°Jack, I assume every nation on earth has instituted a new ship building program?¡± ¡°That is correct Mr. President. The E.U. announced a massive ship building program across it¡¯s members states, China, and Russia have not announced anything but our assets have noted the shipyards we have access to are now at full production, we can safely assume their other shipyards are similarly busy. Japan, and The African League have also announced their intention to increase production on war materials. The South American Confederacy have not announced anything yet, but with all of the infighting there I¡¯m not surprised.¡± ¡°So, with all of this shipbuilding going on, does anyone have enough left-over industrial capacity to actually make the materials for a station that size, transport it out there and provision it?¡± ¡°The full-sized station? No sir, but China or the EU could make a smaller station for some limited tests, or even modify some ships into research vessels.¡± The President sat back in his chair deep in thought. It was times like this he even wondered why he had ever wanted to be President; the next hundred years of human history would be decided right here and now. ¡°When we go into these talks it will be to attempt to build a consensus towards a joint effort for a space station near Jupiter. I do not want the next time these things, or something like these things come here for the battle to be this close. I also want us to prioritize control of the research station and team, even if that means giving up some control of future engagements, or impacting our ship building now.¡± ¡°Mr. President are you sure that¡¯s wise?¡± ¡°If we control the station we control the resupply point for all future pushes into the outer system including whatever fleets will be operating in that area, and I don¡¯t think I have to tell you how important this research will be in the next 20 or 30 years and I do not want China having control over it.¡± ¡°Do you think we will see them again Mr. President?¡± A junior aid asked. ¡°They know where we are, they have absolutely no reason not to come again, but when they do we¡¯ll be ready for them. Doctor Price, any idea when we could expect to see them again?¡± ¡°It¡¯s impossible to say Mr. President. The gate appears to be instantaneous, but whatever they used to get here in the first place could take years, or longer. I¡¯m afraid we don¡¯t know enough about their FTL to make a reasonable guess.¡± ¡°Your people will have whatever you need to figure it out. Now more than ever Humanity can¡¯t afford to have all her eggs in one basket. We¡¯ll need to spread out and find more resources if we want to have any hope of a future for us.¡± With the Presidents decisions the meeting began to wrap up. With several days until the summit the President sat in his office looking up at the night sky. Despite not being able to see the stars he could still imagine them there. When he was a boy he had always loved space. He loved looking at it with awe and wonder. Now he looked towards the night sky with a sense of dread and wondered what other horrors could exist there. Epilogue Part 2 Chapter 16 Epilogue Part 2 As Commander Frazer walked down the halls of his ship he took in the various damages that the crew had not been able to repair. Certainly they had had the time on their return trip, but unfortunately they lacked the materials. The last fires they¡¯d had after colliding with chunk of Kraken, had damaged large sections of the hull and caused several fires. It was only by taking on some spare parts and food from the Super Carrier Ironwood that they were even able to make the trip back to Mars. Still the crew had worked during the entire transit between Europa and Mars at getting their ship back in as good a working order as possible and it showed. Wherever they could they made the floors shine, bulkheads were polished and people used whatever materials they had to make as many repairs as possible. Rear Admiral Robinson had offered the crew space on a cruiser heading back to Mars, and while the extra space had been tempting it would mean abandoning the Cherry Barb in orbit of Europa. Possibly to be salvaged later, or more likely scuttled there. Not one of the crew wanted to abandon their ship and so the Cherry Barb was leading back to Mars all the most damaged ships that were not able to secure Jupiter or the Leviathan wreckage. The Journey home had thankfully been a quiet one. The only thing of note that happened was that halfway through their journey they passed the relief force that was heading out to relieve the fleets and scout out a more secure location for a permanent station. Out of respect every single ship in the relief fleets dipped their wings towards the damaged but still proud ships. As the Cherry Barb made her final approach to Ares station her running lights on, IFF and transponder broadcasting for all to see, Cruisers and even Dreadnoughts made way for her and allowed her preferential passage. While the larger ships may have normally commanded more awe and admiration no ship could boast the kill count the small ship had and she was treated with the respect she had earned through blood and fire. Her hull still damaged in several places, engines running at half strength and both turrets shattered from battle damage the ship had a little scar from every fight they had been in, but still she moved under her own power; and under her own power she slipped into a dock between an American Heavy Cruiser, and a Chinese Dreadnought at home at last. Commander Frazer was just finishing a tour of his ship and walking onto his command deck when he felt the soft thump of the ship coming to a complete stop and docking with Ares station. ¡°Lieutenant Green, ship wide.¡± He said walking up to his communications officer. ¡°Yes sir.¡± She said with a small smile. ¡°Ladies and Gentleman of the Cherry Barb,¡± Commander Frazer began, pausing after a moment not entirely sure what to say. ¡°So much has happened in just a short time. We had our first battles, our first real trials by fire, and I don¡¯t mean just us, I mean all of Humanity. It¡¯s hard to believe that 7 months ago we were scouting Chinese fleet locations preparing for a war that God willing will now never come. We travelled hundreds of millions of kilometers and fought things that were straight from our nightmares. We fought and bled, not just beside our own brothers and sisters in arms but with people from all over the planet to secure the future for our entire species. While the price of victory may have been high, the cost of failure would have been everything. I cannot put into words the honor it has been for me to have served with every single one of you. When Humanity needed the impossible done every person on this ship stepped up and made the impossible happen, you have my personal thanks for that.¡± Pausing for a moment Commander Frazer took a steadying breath the emotion thick in his voice. ¡°I am sure you have all heard the rumors that the Cherry Barb will be decommissioned, and while there will be an official announcement later in the week, I wanted you to hear it from me. The rumors are true the Cherry Barb has been judged too damaged to be repaired and will be decommissioned.¡± As the Commander looked over his bridge he saw nothing but dismayed faces feeling the guilt and loss. He new what it was like, when he heard the news it was like a punch straight to the stomach. It seemed that after everything he was losing one last crew member. Still he had to be strong for the crew and set a good example. ¡°I know we all have strong feelings about her but remember the true strength of any ship is its crew, and while the Cherry was easily the best ship in the fleet this is because she had the best crew in the fleet. No matter what your next assignment will be I want you all to know that no ship anywhere will ever have a crew as good, as hardworking, as honorable as this one. Tonight Admiral Moore has prepared an informal dinner for us at 19:00 hrs to celebrate our success and to honor those who couldn¡¯t be here.¡± Taking a moment to himself he took a breath and said. ¡°All crew finish your checklists and lock down your stations. Make sure you bring all personal items with you, and I¡¯ll see you all tonight.¡± Hanging up the receiver he couldn¡¯t help but feel like his speech was missing something. ¡°Not a bad speech.¡± Pounds said walking up to him. ¡°I see you even mentioned food.¡±If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Laughing in spite of himself Frazer responded. ¡°I mentioned food, it wasn¡¯t a speech about food.¡± He said noticing Lieutenant Brown flinch and look up as he said that. ¡°I guess that doesn¡¯t count then. Are you all packed?¡± Pounds asked. ¡°Not yet, you see to the crew and head out, I¡¯ll be along in a little while.¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± ¡°Yeah, I haven¡¯t packed yet and half my personal belongings are still scattered all over my office.¡± Seeing his old friend wanted to be alone for a little while he simply nodded, turned and made sure the crew were finishing their final checks correctly, applying gentle corrections when needed. In his office Commander Frazer despite what he had said earlier was almost finished packing. He still had some of his official reports to take put away, but what he really wanted to finish were the final drafts of the letters to the families of the crew he had lost. For some reason he couldn¡¯t explain to even himself he had wanted to finish them on the Cherry, somehow it seemed more appropriate. One hour later he was just finishing the last letter when he stood up hearing his back crack and pop in ways that it probably shouldn¡¯t. This done there was no more putting it off, ¡°Well time to finish packing.¡± He thought to himself. Opening his drawers one by one he made sure they were all empty stopping at the last one seeing his half empty bottle of scotch roll into view. ¡°How did I not finish this?¡± Frazer said to himself opening the bottle. Hell if he had remembered this was still here he would have had a drink with Pounds before he left. After having a small drink straight from the bottle he opened his last drawer took a look inside and smiled, how did he forget that he packed these clothes? As he pulled himself through the umbilical Commander Frazer smiled for the first time in months. The sunglasses were a bit much but he had to admit the change in clothes and getting off the Cherry was already helping improving his mood. Of course the now lighter bottle of scotch in his bag was helping a little. Carefully getting his feet under himself and making sure his bags wouldn¡¯t trip him up as he exited the umbilical James Frazer entered Ares station and saw a familiar face. ¡°Lieutenant Jenkins, how are you? Or I guess I should say Lieutenant Commander Jenkins, congratulations.¡± Frazer corrected himself looking closer at the mans uniform. ¡°I¡¯m doing very well Sir thank you for asking,¡± Jenkins said with a salute just as crisp as Frazer remembered it being as Jenkins took in Frasers less than regulation clothes. ¡°and you Commander?¡± Returning the salute Fraser asked ¡°Well enough. Does Admiral Moore want to see me?¡± ¡°Not today Sir, although he would like to see you tomorrow after lunch if your free. I just thought you might appreciate being shown to your apartment, and I can give you a hand with your bags if you like Sir.¡± ¡°Thank you, is it the same one as last time?¡± He said as Jenkins grabbed two of his bags leaving Fraser with just one. ¡°No Sir, a diplomatic suite was open so I took the liberty of assigning you that.¡± ¡°Well then lead the way.¡° Frazer allowed Jenkins to talk his ear off as they went, catching up on all the news and rumors he had missed since he had been away. ¡°After you left things quieted down with the Chinese almost immediately. Even the news wasn¡¯t covering it anymore, it was the task force almost 24/7. Not that they had anything new to say after the first day of course. On a more personal note, my wife had our first just after you left Sir.¡± ¡°Congratulations, boy or a girl?¡± ¡°Girl, she¡¯s already sitting up, and we think she might be speaking any time now.¡± ¡°Incredible.¡± Turning to look at the man they stopped in the hall. ¡°You know one of the worst parts of being on a stealth ship? The changes. You go away for a few months, come back and the world has gone ahead without you, and it¡¯s all you can do to catch up before the next mission. I remember one time a few years ago I went on a routine patrol, not even a long one. When I came back the U.K had rejoined the E.U.¡± ¡°I think I understand what you mean Sir. Just thinking about everything that¡¯s happened since the last time I saw you, really puts it into perspective.¡± Gesturing to a door behind Frazer Jenkins continued. ¡°Well Sir, this is your suite here. I¡¯m sure you would like to have a shower and get changed before the party.¡± Laughing Frazer said. ¡°You were standing close to the airlock when it opened weren¡¯t you?¡± At Jenkins embarrassed nod Fraser continued. ¡°That¡¯s one of the other things they don¡¯t tell you about stealth ships. The air scrubbers can only do so much I¡¯m afraid. While a shower sounds nice, I believe Admiral Moore said the party was informal so I think these clothes should be fine. Don¡¯t you?¡± Looking at the Commanders attire Jenkins diplomatically said. ¡°If you think so Sir.¡± 1 hour later Pounds was wondering if James was even going to show up to his own party when the door opened and he walked in wearing a bright red and yellow Hawaiian shirt, khaki shorts and sneakers, at least there were no sunglasses. The crew turned saw the Commander and broke out in a roar of laughter and cheers as he walked straight to the bar to get a drink. Working his way over to the bar Pounds stood beside his friend and got another drink for himself. ¡°I know you said informal, but I don¡¯t think this is what the Admiral had in mind.¡± ¡°What do you mean? Informal means informal Pounds, look at you in a collard shirt and black pants, if the Admiral were here I¡¯m sure he¡¯d be upset with you for ignoring the dress code. Cheers.¡± Frazer said clinking his drink against Pounds. ¡°They¡¯ve got me in a diplomatic suite Pounds.¡± ¡°Full bar?¡± ¡°Not anymore.¡± The two shared a laugh before they were interrupted by a polite cough behind them. Turning around they saw Alyx Green and Nate Brown behind them. ¡°Good evening Lieutenants, enjoying the festivities? Cheers.¡± Frazer said clinking his glass into theirs. ¡°Yes Sir.¡± Nate Brown said, with some hesitancy that neither James or Pounds had ever heard before. ¡°Sir, I just wanted to say thank you for everything. Both of you, it was an honor and a pleasure to serve with you both.¡± ¡°As I said, the honor was all mine Lieutenant. I have served with a number of navigators over the years and you were the best. You as well Lieutenant Green, you were both exceptional at your jobs.¡± ¡°Thank you, Sir. That means a lot coming from you.¡± ¡°So have you put any thought into what you might like to do next? The entire crew will be able to choose their next assignments.¡± ¡°I¡¯m actually going to go back to school Sir, see if I can¡¯t finish my doctorate.¡± Nate Brown said. At their questioning looks he added. ¡°Theoretical physics. I think I might write a paper on FTL and contained artificial wormholes.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll good luck Mr. Brown or I suppose I should get used to saying Doctor Brown, and you Lieutenant Green?¡± Alyx Green gave Nate Brown a look that both Frazer and Pounds understood to mean she was going to be following him but she said. ¡°I¡¯ll be going back to school as well Sir, broadcast journalism. I¡¯d like to expose corruption, fight injustice. The Mega-corporations and their flunkies in the news have had too much say in things for far too long.¡± ¡°I know the fleet will be less for your not being in it, but I wish you both all the best.¡± Pounds said. ¡°We did have one question for you.¡± At their questioning look Nate continued. ¡°How did you get the nickname Pounds?¡± As Commander Frazer and Pounds looked at each other they both wondered what story they should tell this time. This was not the first time they had been asked this question and the truth was never as good as fiction after all so they had dozens of different stories the liked to tell people. Everything from Pounds punching a grizzly bear to death to winning absurd drinking competitions. ¡°Tell you what Mr. Brown, if we get drunk enough tonight I just might tell you. But for now I think I would like to talk to my crew again.¡± Frazer said. ¡°Another speech James?¡± ¡°Not a speech, a toast, a short one I promise.¡± Laughing into his almost finished drink Pounds ordered another one from the bartender, it was nice to see his friend in good spirits, hopefully it would last. None of them could be certain how long peace would last, but one thing was for certain. Some day, either in Sol or a solar system beyond they would see the Leviathans again, and when that happened he could only hope they would be ready. Hundreds of millions kilometers away from the closest Human settlement, under almost 15 kilometers of ice, on a small moon something stirred. Less than what it was, far less than what it should be, it waited, it planned. The small seed sent to this system had been so close to succeeding. The gate had been opened, it was almost there, if it had been able to delay them for only a few minutes more, then more of its kin could have come pouring through the gate and swept the insects away. Now it would have to move slowly, carefully. It didn¡¯t have enough resources to make another gate, and more would never be sent. Failure would never be supported. It could however make a beacon. It would take time to gather the last of the precious metals, but time was nothing to it and patience was the one thing it had enough of. If it succeeded and called more workers to it, it would be able sweep the insects, make a foundry and make a new gate. Victory could still be its. The seed could still grow. The hive would grow. The hive must grow. END