Hello, my name is Jack.  At the start of The War, it was just us Americans, the Shang, and then the Peloran.  The rest of the Western Alliance got involved real quick, and so did the Chinese.  Still, many thought we could win it easily with a few good rah rah battles, come home to some kissing nurses on the streets of Old New York, and go back to rebuilding the American Dream.  It didn’t turn out to be that easy.

 

 

The War

 

Jack pulled in a long breath and let it out, breathed in again, and let it out, focusing on the now, on being ready to move like a leaf on the wind.  He concentrated on nothing, while being aware of everything.  He felt the bite of a five-point harness on his shoulders and waist.  His hands gripped the control stick and throttle, fingers running over the buttons and triggers that allowed him direct control of the Avenger starfighter.  The Avenger’s nose stretched out twenty meters ahead of him, a lance of grey against the darkness of space.

Four light seconds behind him, the Chinese world of Xin Yin and its defenses rested in space.  A matters of minutes ago, they’d been the center of his attention.  Now they were nearly forgotten.  Only the fifty Chinese and Shang warships accelerating out of orbit held any interest to him, and at the moment that was simply a passing interest, too far away to be a threat for now.

Directly behind him, over one hundred British warships sailed, their starboard weapons turrets firing as quickly as they could cycle.  Hundreds of British fighters filled space between him and the warships, many of them still spinning to bring their engines up to full power.  As they slowed in relation to the ships around them, they added thousands of small missiles to the destructive energies flowing past him.

Around him, sixteen Cowboy fighters accelerated away from the British fleet, the center of his attention, the center of his world.  Ten Avenger starfighters charged into the teeth of their attackers, supported by six Hellcats.  Over a hundred Nemesis and Wildcat drones flew around the Cowboy formation in a complicated pattern of cyber-controlled random evasive maneuvers making them hard for incoming missiles to hit.  Not impossible of course as some were finding, but very difficult.

Directly before him, nearly a thousand Russian fighters bore down on him, the Cowboys, and the hundreds of British fighters that had been running from them mere seconds ago.  They had been firing a steady stream of gravitic cannons, missiles, and lasers at the British, but Jack could see them reorienting to fire on the Cowboys and took another long breath, waiting for the right time to do something.

Less than a light second in front of him, over two hundred Russian warships approached the British fleet, not to mention a certain Captain Jack of the Cowboys.  Russian spinal gravitic cannons and heavy missile barrages shot past him, targeted on the much larger and easier to hit British warships.  They were still too far away to be accurate, but their ranging shots were getting better.  This was going to be interesting.

He looked away from the displays, flicking his eyes up to where Betty sat on top of the console, her back to the stars shining beyond the canopy.  She would have been twenty centimeters tall standing, but sitting on the console with her legs hanging over it she was considerably shorter.  Her decidedly non-regulation yellow sundress ended around mid thigh, and long blonde hair framed the vaguely Scandinavian face she’d assumed the day she was born.  She’d picked the sundress that day too.  The day she’d chosen to fight with him in The War against the Shang.  And now the Russians were joining The War.

He sighed, wondering if she thought she was getting more than she bargained for.  Wondering if she was regretting her decision.

She cocked her head and aimed a reassuring smile at him.  There was no regret at all in her face.

“Fire!” Charles shouted.

Jack smiled at Betty and they went to work.  The Avenger shook as their new missile batteries spoke in anger for the first time, sending a salvo of missiles towards the Russians.  All three gravitic cannons, deployed and ready, came to full power in less than a second and began twisting the very fabric of space between them and their targets.  The four individual laser turrets and the quad laser turret in the nose began to fire as quickly as they could, pausing only to cool down.  All around them, the Cowboy fighters and drones opened fire as well, filling space between them and the Russians with missiles, roiling gravity waves, and a steady stream of lasers.

The British missiles swept in on their own torrent of twisting gravity and engulfed the center of the Russian fighter formation in a mass of roiling explosions.  Even the displays couldn’t accurately count how many Russian fighters died in that single coordinated strike, but they could easily recognize the hole that opened up in their formation.  The Russians scattered, trying to escape the focused fire of an entire fleet, and for the first time since the battle began they left the Russian warships without a solid screen.

“Charge!” Charles ordered.

Jack held on tight to his controls, shifting them to the side for a moment to avoid a phantom threat he didn’t want to meet, as the Cowboys followed the order without hesitation.  They charged through the hole, gravitic cannons shifting to focus on the Russian cruisers behind a wall of destroyers.  The British joined in, and the Russian deflection grids flickered with the strain of twisting the attack away.  Missiles swept past the destroyers and into the cruisers before exploding, shredding the strained deflection grids.

A dozen Russian cruisers reeled under the focused assault, atmosphere and debris belching out of their shattered noses.  One was less lucky.  A single gravitic cannon achieved a very lucky shot, shooting a beam of focused gravity down the Russian spinal gravitic cannon’s barrel, deep into the warship that housed it.  It was nowhere near powerful enough to destroy the cruiser, especially at over half a light second away.  But it ripped the grav cannon’s internal shielding apart, leaving the powerful gravity generators to lash out in an orgy of self-immolation that broke the cruiser’s back.  One gravity whip caught an escort destroyer holding position near the cruiser, slicing the engine section away from the rest of the ship, and space filled with more atmosphere and debris.

“Ouch,” Jack whispered as the destroyer began to drift out of formation.  “That’s a messy way to go.”

“And that’s why the Peloran keep their grav cannons outside their big bad battleships,” Betty returned with a disapproving shake of her head.

Jack frowned as the Russian return fire washed over the British fleet.  Most of the gravitic cannons missed, but five more destroyers and a cruiser fell out of formation, their flanks ripped away by the powerful beams.  Then their missiles dove in and exploded all around the British ships, gravity itself ripping holes in many of the deflection grids.  The British were taking a real pasting.  Badly enough that he wondered how many would be left to get out.

“So where are they?” Jack asked, raising an eyebrow at Betty as he pulled the throttle up.

“Coming,” she answered as they pulled up and away from a grav beam trying to kill them both.

Jack glanced over at the display showing the Chinese and Shang spinning to bring their flanks to bear on the British.  “Uh oh,” he whispered as they finally began to fire full broadsides of missiles.  Alone, they couldn’t have done much against the British.  But together with the Russians, they were about to make this a very difficult battle.

“Very soon now,” Betty said with a grim smile.

Jack swallowed as the Russians grew closer.  “Charles’ plan?”

Betty cleared her throat.  “Aneerin’s plan actually.”  She nodded at the Chinese, then at the Russians.  “Never strike an enemy until someone else has their full and undivided attention.”

Jack cleared his throat, watching the British fleet taking fire from both flanks.  Point defense missiles and lasers reached out, taking down hundreds of incoming missiles at a time, but there were simply too many.  As he watched, the explosions wreathed the British deflection grids.  They couldn’t take that punishment much longer.  “I think we’ve got their attention now,” he said, trying to hurry things up with his voice.

As if on queue, a series of flashes filled the displays near the Chinese and Shang fleets.  The displays cleared to show nearly forty ships deployed on the far side of the Chinese fleet, very much in weapons range.  The displays began to show flags and Jack whistled as he recognized them.  German, French, American, and even British, he examined the ship classes and names carefully.  It was Aneerin’s task force, though the Peloran warships were still to be seen.  The Alliance ships began launching fighters as they fired missiles and gravitic cannons into unsuspecting enemy flanks.  Suddenly it was the Chinese and their allies that were surrounded, and Jack whistled as they began to take fire from both the British and Aneerin’s task force.

The displays flashed again as six more ships emerged on the Russian flank, and Jack flicked his eyes over to see the bone-white Peloran warships charge forward.  Their gravitic cannons opened up, ripping into the Russian flank, and ship after ship ripped apart as the Peloran squadron flew through the Russian formation.  Jack’s jaw fell open as he watched the Russian attack falter.  They began to maneuver, seeking to hit the Peloran with their main cannons, but the Peloran were too quick.  The Russian missiles were much easier to retarget though, and gravitic explosions wreathed the Peloran warships like a halo

“Scatter and attack!” Charles transmitted.

Jack watched the other Cowboys pull away, then returned his gaze to the rapidly approaching Russian fleet.  He glanced up at Betty and she smiled back.  She was ready.  He flexed his hands, cracked his knuckles, and wiggled his fingers.  He pulled in a deep breath, relaxed, and placed his hands back on the stick and throttle.  This was it.  All that mattered was himself, Betty, their Avenger, and the eight Nemesis drones in formation around them as they penetrated the Russian fleet.  A flash filled the displays and he winced.  Make that seven Nemesis drones.

Jack twitched his hands to the side, watching their formation react on the displays, the drones corkscrewing around his fighter to avoid the hail of point defense missiles and plasma cannons reaching out to destroy them.  Gravitic cannons, missiles, and lasers drew a line of destruction between their formation and a single Russian cruiser.  The Russian deflection grids flickered in and out, massive rents opening and closing as the ship’s AI tried desperately to keep up with the seemingly random gravitic assault.  They spun to keep on target as momentum sent them flying past the ship, and gravitic cannons sank deep into its flank.  In the blink of an eye, point defense missiles and plasma filled his vision and he saw the light of an exploding drone before they were past their target.  They fired into its exposed engine section, causing the Russian cruiser to flounder out of formation with at least one engine out of commission.

Jack looked around to see sixteen more Russian ships destroyed or belching debris, victims of the Cowboy assault, and nodded in approval.  It hadn’t been one-sided though.  Nearly twenty drones hadn’t made it back out of the Russian fleet, victims of their point defense batteries, but that was a small price to pay for the damage they’d inflicted.

“Come around for another strike,” Charles voice ordered and beams appeared on the displays, showing Jack where they were about to go.

Jack nodded towards Betty and they turned with the nearly one hundred other Cowboy fighters and drones, sweeping around to come back on the Russians from their rear.  He scanned the displays to see that the Peloran were gone, probably having returned to hyperspace to prepare for another attack.  The Russian fleet was in disarray, trying to recover from the Peloran and Cowboy attack.  Their smaller escorts spun to cover their flanks and rear, but their largest ships continued to fire on the British fleet.  More British warships fell victim to the massive gravitic cannons, but it was a far more equal battle now as the British fire began to take its toll on the Russians as well.

A flash of light heralded the return of the six Peloran warships and they slashed into the Russian fleet again.  Nearly a dozen Russian ships managed to generate good shots on the Peloran, and one of the destroyers shuddered.  Over a dozen Russian ships began to belch atmosphere and debris in return though, and the Russian screen fell apart.  Jack smiled.  Aneerin was doing it again.

Then space flashed again, this time behind the Peloran ships, and Jack’s jaw fell as gravitic cannons, missiles, and plasma reached out to rip the Peloran deflection grids apart.  The displays cleared to show him the newest arrivals.  The Roderan were here.  Forty of them fired salvo after salvo into the Peloran warships, penetrating the deflection grids and ripping armor and weapons off their hulls.  Peloran gravitic cannons exploded in titanic flashes of light and when they faded the Peloran were simply gone.

Jack licked dry lips as he watched the Roderan reorient.  “Did…they?” he asked, trailing off before finishing.

The Roderan flashed back into hyperspace, leaving space empty again.

“They got away,” Betty answered in a strained tone.  “I picked up the dive signatures.  But they took heavy damage.  The Roderan got them good.”

“Crap,” Jack whispered.  “That means we’re alone now.”

“OK, we lost our support,” Charles transmitted.  “But they opened a hole for us.  Let’s take advantage of it while we can,” he ordered and a beam of light appeared on Jack’s display, charting a course through the devastated Russian flank.  “Follow your beam.”

Jack nodded to Betty and he felt the Avenger swing onto course, engines flaring to swing them around the handful of warships able to fire at them with anything more than token missiles.  Grav beams and missiles reached out to smash one Russian ship, and then all he could see was wreckage.  Pieces of Russian and Peloran warships drifted through each other, some still firing scattered point defense lasers at each other in fitful spurts.  It was otherworldly.  They accelerated through the wreckage, trusting their deflection grids to deflect anything too small to dodge, and trusting Betty to avoid anything too large to deflect.

“We have incoming fighters,” Betty reported, pulling his attention away from wreckage.

Jack glanced at the displays to see nearly a hundred Russian fighters approaching them.  In the distance, what remained of their fighters continued to duel with the British fighters, but they were losing badly now.

“Ignore them,” Jack ordered.  “Stay on target.”

Betty nodded and they shot out of the wreckage field, gravitic cannons and missiles ripping out to smash the flank of a Russian battleship.  It shuddered but continued firing on the British fleet, the massive spinal gravitic cannon shredding a destroyer completely.  Another salvo of missiles shot past him from behind, rippling into the battleship’s flank, and Jack glanced at the displays to see Katy’s Hellcat and drones right behind him.  Another display flashed and Jack watched Jessie’s and Ken’s flights bank in from the flanks to send the gravitic beams and missiles of nearly thirty fighters and drones into the battleship as well.

The Russian battleship shuddered again and again as the Cowboy weapons ripped into it.  Armor and weapons flew off, atmosphere and wreckage belched out of dozens of deep wounds, and the battleship tried to maneuver to escape its tiny foes.  And that was when a full broadside of British gravitic cannons smashed into it, ripping the warship open from stem to stern.  When the bombardment finally ended, it was little more than some more wreckage to fly through.

Behind them, a gravitic ripple sent the displays screaming and Jack frowned as space itself began to…bubble.  It was the only thing it reminded him of.  Of course, space couldn’t actually bubble.  It just didn’t.  Space was…space.  It didn’t ripple like that.  A ship faded into normalspace, twisting and bubbling with the space around it.  It was Roderan, caught in whatever it was that was happening, and it rippled and ripped apart before his eyes.  The twisting and bubbling faded away after a few seconds, along with the ship, as if neither had ever been there.

“Way to go, Hal!” Betty shouted.

Jack licked his lips again, a shiver going through his spine.  He’d hoped he was just seeing things, but her outburst told him he hadn’t.  It also told him she knew what it was.  “What the hell was that?” he demanded as he swung them to port, lining them up on their next target.

“Hyperspace bomb,” Betty said in a proud tone, firing gravitic cannons at a Russian cruiser.  “We’re gonna want to avoid that spot for…oh…a few centuries.”

Jack gulped as he tried to grasp her words.    “What’s that suppose to mean?”

Betty’s drones joined in on the cruiser, ripping its deflection grid wide open before firing a salvo of missiles.  She shrugged.  “It’ll be a bit…unstable for a while.”  She nodded towards where the ship had rippled.  “You don’t want to go there.”

Jack licked his lips and let out a long breath as their lasers stitched across the cruiser, boiling armor, weapons, and other fiddly bits off their target’s hull.  “I’ve…never even heard of something that does that.”

Betty actually paused to look a little bit worried.  “Yeah.  They’re kinda illegal.”

Jack blinked, considered her demeanor, and finally bit the bullet.  “Define…kinda illegal.”

“Oh God, Oh God, we’re all gonna die if they catch us using this crap?” she answered without a pause.”

“Oh,” Jack whispered, his mind racing.  “So…you expect me to believe that Aneerin just happened to have some of these bombs lying around?

Betty gave him a very serious stare and crossed her arms.  “Oh Jack, no one ever just happens to leave hyperspace bombs lying around.”

Jack returned her stare.  “You know you scare me sometimes?”

“Good,” she returned with a smile and shifted her gaze back to their next target.  The gravitic cannons opened up again, smashing into a Russian destroyer on the edge of their formation.  It shuddered under their attack, trying to twist away and escape.  Another destroyer swung around and a salvo of missiles swept towards them.  Jack pushed forward on the stick, trying to dive under the missiles.  They tracked him though, arcing to keep on target.  He slammed the throttle forward and the Avenger’s engines flared behind him, driving them forward as their lasers pulsed away, picking off missile after missile.  The lasers and acceleration weren’t enough though, and the missiles continued to arc towards him.

Jack pulled in a deep breath, clamped a grip on the controls, gritted his teeth, and pulled the throttle up, hoping to get inside the missiles’ ability to turn.  The fighter rose on flames of maneuvering thrusters, but the missiles just kept tracking.  Then another salvo of missiles streaked in and exploded, ripping gravity apart all around the Russian salvo, shredding the missiles.

“You should be more careful, Boss,” Katy’s voice said over the comm. as her Hellcat and Wildcats, much reduced in number, flew up into formation around what was left of his force.

Jack took a second to swallow, before putting a big smile on his face.  “With you watching my back, who needs to be careful?” he returned in a far more nonchalant tone than he felt as they left the Russian formation behind.

“You say the nicest things,” Katy purred, and in that instant a British battleship flashed and disappeared.  For a moment, Jack thought the Russians had hit it, but then another followed and he realized they were diving into hyperspace.  He looked at the display showing the countdown and it was flashing zeros.  They’d held the line long enough.

“It’s time to bug out!” Charles shouted.  Jack smiled at Betty and she nodded as they corkscrewed away from the Russian fleet.  A quick look at the displays showed the rest of the Cowboys doing the same and Jack nodded.  They’d made it.  “Dive in three…two…one…dive!  Dive!  Dive!”

Jack shut his eyes, the world flashed, and he opened them to see all the colors of hyperspace swirling around them, only the wakes of the other fighters and drones disturbing the natural gravity waves.  A beam of light appeared on the displays, and they quickly fell to accelerating along it, getting away from their entry point and any potential pursuit.  Jack leaned back in his seat, wondering what came next.  They’d been ready to leave, ready to sail out to the Hyades Cluster.  Now…now the Russians were involved.  And the Roderan.

Several smashed and ruined hulks came into view, and it took almost five seconds for Jack to recognize them as the Peloran squadron.  Their weapons were gone, their outer hulls torn apart, but he was pretty certain he could see Cowboy Country open to hyperspace when he focused just right.  Only the wakes cut into hyperspace told him that they were still under power.  He shook his head in amazement at the punishment those ships could take and still survive.

“This is going to be a long War, isn’t it?”  He turned to look back at Betty, his jaw set real firm.

Betty sighed and pursed her lips.  She didn’t like what she was about to say..  “The last time the great interstellar powers went to war with each other, it lasted over a century, and the Ennead, the Albion, and many many more races never saw the light of the stars again.”

Jack nodded slowly, taking time to process what she said, and what she didn’t.  “So what?  We’re some kind of pawn in an ancient interstellar grudge match?”

Betty shrugged.  “To some.”  She cocked her head to the side, furrowed her brow, and just looked at him for a long moment.  “Do you think that’s the case with us?”

Jack blinked at her unexpected question, and looked away as he considered it very carefully.  He sighed at the realization that only one answer felt right.  “No,” he said as he returned his eyes to her.

She smiled.  “Good.  Because we need to get back to the ship.”  Her face turned worried.  “Hal’s not doing too well.”

Jack followed her gaze to the smashed up Guardian Light and shook his head.  Not doing too well was an understatement.  And the Roderan had done all of that damage in the few seconds it took the battleship to dive out of the battle.

“So much for a short, victorious war,” he muttered.