Макс Глебов – A Leap Across the Abyss (страница 4)
In those minutes, the garrisons of the orbital fortresses must have prepared themselves for imminent death. The quargs knew what our torpedoes were capable of, they have seen more than once the disastrous impact they have had when massively used, even on the largest and most secure ships. And now we’ve used them on a really massive scale. 25
The quarg orbital fortresses were covered with a continuous layer of explosions. The commanders of our ships who witnessed the beating were probably expecting to see the fortresses falling apart or swelling up by multiple internal explosions. Then their surprise turned out to be even greater when the externally intact armored spheres appeared to their eyes. It was only with a strong magnification that we could see the results of the impact on the projection screen in full detail. Twisted or simply cut barrels of major caliber guns, steamy craters instead of anti-aircraft emplacements, mangled missile silos… Not even a trace of the scanners’ sensors. Four orbital fortresses ceased to exist as combat units.
“The ultimatum continues?” I checked with the liaison officer.
“That’s right, Fleet Admiral, Sir. They are not reacting.”
“
“
“Full volley!”
Chapter 2
“Tactical Officer, what’s going on?” Commander Kilsh’s voice sounded flat. “Why didn’t the orbital fortresses collapse? It was bound to happen with so many hits.”
A tense silence occupied the command post of the cover squadron’s flagship for a few seconds.
“The enemy used a new type of ammunition, Commander Kilsh,” finally answered the officer. “Telemetry data from orbital fortresses show that they have lost all external weapon systems, including anti-aircraft emplacements and major caliber guns, but there are neither internal damages, no casualties among the garrisons.”
“But why do the humans have to go through all this trouble? With so many torpedoes, they could destroy our entire squadron, and as a result, they only managed to disable the four fortresses.”
“There’s only one reason they could have been motivated by, Commander Kilsh,” said the analyst officer, “they didn’t want to kill us. This conclusion is consistent with the content of their message, which they continue to broadcast cyclically on common frequencies.”
“What are the odds that all this is true?”
“It’s the propaganda of the humans! It’s a fake! Didn’t you get that right away, Commander Kilsh?” The officer-Surveillant shouted with annoyance.
“We have analyzed the recording,” the analyst reported, ignoring this emotional statement, “We compared the time of captivity of our soldiers and officers who appear in this message with the time of the likely activation of their mental blocks, and we’ve run the sound stream and the video series through a special program to compare voice, mimics, style and language to the samples we have. The on board computer did not detect any alterations. The video series was also not edited. The probability of counterfeiting is less than ten percent.”
“Too late. It’s too late anyway,” the Сommander of orbital defence said grimly.
“What’s too late, Commander Kilsh?” asked the officer-Surveillant in an insinuating tone. After the complete disappearance of Commander Yash’s strike fleet, the Surveillants became an integral part of the warships’ crews, and their powers were sufficient, even at the level of major units and fleets, to overrule commanders of any rank.
“You, too, have undergone a recent update of the block, Officer Lins?” The Commander asked the Surveillant indifferently.
“Of course,” there was a challenge in Lins’ voice, “and what does it matter?”
“Now it doesn’t matter anymore,” responded Kilsh seeming outwardly imperturbable and turned to his officers, “Light forces, form a barrier in front of the battleships and cruisers.”
Kilsh knew this maneuver was useless. If the human torpedo salvo has casually removed the veil of fighters and scanners, what can the corvettes and destroyers do against a new attack, except needlessly to perish? But the Commander just couldn’t do nothing. Had it not been for the renewed block in his head, he would have already given the order to end the useless resistance, especially since he was eager to believe the fairy tale humans were broadcasting on his ships. Kilsh was sick and tired of this senseless war…
The alarm has interrupted the Commander’s reflections.
“Enemy torpedo attack,” tactical officer shouted, “our light forces are under attack! Enemy torpedoes have breached the barrier!”
“Open the barrage fire,” impassively commanded Kilsh, knowing full well that it would do little. The flagship’s hull shuddered from frequent hits. These strikes were not strong – the second wave of enemy torpedoes knocked out anti-aircraft emplacements on the battleship’s hull, clearing the way for the main attackers, who also were not long in coming.
“Damage report,” demanded Kilsh when the ship’s shakings stopped.
“Major caliber cannons and anti-aircraft systems destroyed. Space scanning efficiency 20 percent. The hull is breached in three places, but the damage only affected the outer sections. Damage to the propulsion system is being investigated. Four crew members were slightly injured.”
“Make contact with the squadron’s ships,” requested the Commander. Having listened to the reports of the commanders of the ships and having given the necessary orders, Kilsh made a gesture to turn off the communication and fell hard into his chair set up in the center of the command post opposite the tactical hologram. He wouldn’t be able to call this a battle. Not a single ship of the squadron has been destroyed. Even the corvettes, which would have been annihilated by a single torpedo in a normal combat, have survived the attack of the enemy, but the squadron could no longer continue the battle – only a few guns were able to fire, the ships were not able to move, the aiming-navigation systems failed, constantly losing their targets. The humans did not shoot, although main batteries of their battleships could easily reach any ship of the squadron.
“Commander Kilsh, do you intend to command the battle?” The voice of the Surveillant has broken the silence set in the command post of the flagship.
“Do you see the slightest opportunity to continue the fight, Officer Lins?” The squadron Commander has turned to the Surveillant.
“I don’t have to explain to you, Commander, that the enemy is about to board. Why don’t you give the order to prepare to repel it?!”
“Because there’ll be no boarding,” Kilsh calmly answered.
“Do you want to give up?” hissed Lins,“ You probably forgot that the new block will kill you the first time you try anything!”
“I didn’t forget it,” answered Kilsh looking him straight into the eyes, “but it doesn’t change anything.”
“I’m relieving you of command of the squadron, former Commander Kilsh!” squealed Lins.
“Not this time, Surveillant.”
No one at the command post noticed how a gun appeared in the Commander’s hand. Kilsh was a big fan of hand-held personal weaponry and was good with it, and now his staff officers, who were well aware of the Commander’s passion, have been able to make sure of that once again. The dry crackle of the shot sounded especially loudly in the instant silence, and the Surveillant, with a neat hole in his forehead, collapsed into his chair, from which he had jumped a minute earlier.
“Establish communication with the enemy fleet,” ordered the Сommander in an ice-cold voice, lowering his hand with the gun, but not putting it in his holster.
“But…” the tactical officer’s face was affected by a misunderstanding, “but what about the block, Commander…”
“Do it!” barked Kilsh. His face was skewed. The Сommander almost felt death coming. Something was going on in his head, confusing his thoughts and clouding his consciousness. Then the pain came.
„So this is how a death order algorithm works when you’re on the verge of doing a prohibited act,” the thought ran through Kilsh’s mind, but he drove it away, trying to keep his consciousness lucid. So far, he’s been able to do that.
I watched silently on the tactical projection as our torpedoes struck the battleships and cruisers after forcing their way through the nominal light forces shield deployed by the enemy in front of the heavy ships. In fact, I saw nothing new. It was very similar to what happened during the attack on the orbital fortresses.
“Why don’t they give up?” Fulton was clearly perplexed, “After all, our message worked out so well near star Ran, and now it’s even more convincing.”