The Pulurtans - Chapter 3

Chapter 3.25

Chapter 3.50

Chapter 3.75

Plasma, Chief Mechanus of the Project Development Directorate, glared at the assembly of admirals across the table. Had he not made it clear that the project under discussion wouldn’t work as-is? It was going to take far more work than originally anticipated. So, as a matter of record, he explained it again. “As you know, we at the PDD have focused the lion’s share of our resources in replicating the cloaking system of the Pulurtans. Even without an actual captured system to study we’ve managed to create one of our own. In static tests it works perfectly.”
     “Then why hasn’t it been cleared for use by the fleet?” demanded an admiral. Named Crankshaft, the android had a mono-eye faceplate just like Plasma. Early on in his android existence Crankshaft took to wearing an oversized monocle for his eye. He claimed it lent some character to his face while others said it made him look silly.
     “As they say, Admiral, the devil is in the details.” Plasma directed the admirals to look at a wall-filling screen on the other side of the room. “While static tests have worked, actually using the device for operational service is out of the question.” A video played on the screen, depicting a typical bridge of a ship. “As you’re about to see, in this and other tests, we ran into our problem.”
     Over the speakers the admirals heard the commanding officer ordered the cloak to be activated. Just moments later the first signs appeared. The less-sophisticated androids manning the various stations began to twitch, and then lost control of their limbs. Flailing hands and forearms smashed into the control panels before them. As for the two Bian officers, being a bit more developed, their loss of control was less pronounced at first. One simply slumped in his chair, his indicator lights flashing in an erratic pattern. As for the other, he fell to the floor, his speaker spewing forth a wave of static. In a spasm of movement he removed his faceplate and proceeded to rip out the innards of his head before finally shutting down.
     The admirals looked uncomfortable as Plasma turned off the screen. “Four more tests like that one ended in the same way. All the officers had immediate back-ups done before conducting the tests, incurring no loss to their continuality.” The same couldn’t be said of the ‘ordinary’ androids, for they were expendable like paper cups. “You see, gentlemen, it’s a matter of the operating frequency of the cloak. In a perverse form of serendipity, that same frequency is the one our machine brains utilize. A brain within the field of an active cloak is destroyed in seconds.”
     “Divide by Zero!” Crankshaft exclaimed. “It’s been eighteen months, Plasma, since we’ve been kicked out of the Garlic system, the true gatekeeper to the worlds of the Puls. In that time the three systems between Heavy Melder and Garlic have been traded back and forth like bags full of rancid meat. With no other warp points available to us we have to recapture lost ground. We need cloaking technology to give tactical as well as strategic flexibility to our fleets.”
     Had Plasma a tongue he would’ve bit into it to keep quite. He knew for a fact that the Mechanized Space Navy wouldn’t be in such a parlous state had it just consolidated its forces. Instead, like overactive children the admirals committed task forces willy-nilly into what became know as the Hide-Divide-Conquer battles. One only needed the imagination of a pocket calculator to know who won most of those battles. With their cloaking systems the Puls melted away when a warp assault occurred, then stalked and tackled individual task forces like big game hunters.
     Cloaking system aside, the PDD had been successful in developing command datalink and its associated point defense, among other technologies. In Plasma’s estimation had all of these been employed together in one massive fleet action then the war wouldn’t be stalemated. The incredibly thick and continuously updated defenses in Heavy Melder had blunted the Puls in the two serious attempts they made to enter the system. As a scientist, from even before he got his machine body, Plasma knew the military types only listened to the opinions of those higher up in rank. Fortunately the Queen was more receptive, but getting to her was the problem.
     “How much longer do you anticipate before this side-effect of the cloak is eliminated?” asked Crankshaft.
     “An indeterminate amount of time,” Plasma said bluntly. “We can either try to adjust the cloaking frequency so that our crews aren’t harmed or change the operating frequency of all androids and Bians. For the former to work, the new frequency has to have the same performance as the old one. As for the latter, it would be expensive to engineer and implement the change, but…”
     Crankshaft removed his monocle and polished it with a gold-weave embroidered handkerchief. “But what, Plasma?”
     “Only the Queen can authorize any such change to the core operational functionality of the Bian brain,” Plasma announced with finality. “To do so otherwise is to invoke a death sentence.”
     “Well then,” Crankshaft said, placing the monocle back before his eye, “you’ll just have to succeed in adjusting the cloaking system.” All the other admirals nodded in agreement. “I hope that that the efforts by the PDD will bear fruit in the near future.”

Garnish, Parsnip, and Cloves, the three systems that separated the respective bastions of power of the Registry and High Kingdom, have seen relentless action for eighteen months. While the MSN continued to send task forces to their ultimate doom the HN had finally gathered a fleet substantial enough to wrestle control of Parsnip away from their machine enemies. Fixed HN defenses in Garlic, Spice, and Riptide have reached the required density to consider them secure. In Cloves the massive effort to assemble bases was completed, finally freeing whole task forces from guarding the warp point.
     One reason why the battles called Hide-Divide-Conquer occurred for so long was that the HN pulled all of its older type 3 bases from their previous locations and deep storage and brought them to Garlic. In their place newer type 6 bases were built and those type 3s in Garlic were being updated with the latest equipment. The HN was going to use these older bases first in Parsnip since they could be assembled faster, and then bring forward the newer and much more expensive type 6s.
     Another reason the battles have been going on for so long was that despite cloaking technology the HN still suffered substantial losses conducting their surprise attacks. Additionally the MSN eventually came up with command datalink and advanced antimatter warheads. Factor in the clouds of small, cheap carriers to the mix and you have battles in which fighter and gunboat strikes were exchanged like so many presents. So far, for some unfathomable reason, the MSN hadn’t employ cloaking devices and didn’t use gunboats on their ships and bases. In Garnish an asteroid fort was constructed that housed little more than spaceport platforms for their gunboat squadrons.
     Finally, on the HN’s part, warp point exploration was slowed to a crawl. Each new system discovered in the Brookhollow sector was surveyed by cloaked ships. After that each warp point was covered with mines and buoys. When one of the warp points lead to Evergreen, a system in the homeword sector, a new set of fortifications had be built for its defense. Still in ignorance of the lack of open warp points in the Registry for the MSN to explore the HN had to maintain sizeable reserves in nodal systems in the Kingdom just in case the enemy found and exploited a warp point within their territory.
     King Lugan, having made Spice the location of his official residence for the duration of the war, was pondering various bits of information in an office located in the Government Tower. He noted that the enemy had deployed command datalink in one of its task forces in the latest set of battles. It was expected that they would eventually produced the system, but the Bians apparently were of the opinion to use it at once instead of refitting a whole fleet. Besides, with the pressure the High Navy was continuing to exert hardly any MSN ship sent to the active front lived long enough to be sent back to get a refit.
     One of the guards to the office announced the arrival of Prince Dusan. With no need for further ceremony Dusan entered and sat down in front of the desk. He was wearing his army webbing and utility belt, including his sidearm and unit patch. “What’s the occasion, Father?” the Prince asked. “My company is about to go on a month-long maneuver to test out new equipment and tactics.”
     “I won’t be keeping you long, Son,” Lugan said in a fatherly manner. “I’m about to make a decision that will impact the Kingdom in a significant way. I need a sounding board to hear me out, and you’re the only of my blood in the vicinity. As I have a fair idea on how my ministers will reply I want to hear your opinion first.”
     “Gracious Father, you honor me with your consideration.” This was the first time Dusan was asked by his Father for an opinion on a matter of state. He wondered what it could be about.
     “As you know, my Son, the finding of new routes into the Registry is being conducted at a cautious rate. We want to be sure that when one is found that we could hold it until such time we can exploit it fully. More importantly, if we should bump into another space-fairing race in the course of our surveys, then the route back into our territory should be defendable in case they turn out to be unfriendly. Then there’s the reason why we’ve been surveying to begin with.”
     Dusan blinked and flexed his antennae in understanding. “Finding out the fate of the Gyst loyalists. You’re thinking of the last warp point in the Mesa system.” Located six transits out from Table Rock in the Red Vista sector Mesa not only had an unexplored warp point but the last unexplored warp point for the whole sector. Pre-war, the survey of the warp chain that led to Mesa was slower even than the explorations in Brookhollow. Even with the need to find more routes into the Registry it was felt that if further exploration from Mesa should lead to the discovery of the Gyst it would greatly complicate matters.
     “That is true, Dusan. I mention it because Mesa has fixed defenses in place along with a task force, stationed there since the start of the war. I am willing to take the chance that further exploration to find a Registry system could find the Gyst instead.”
     For a moment the Prince thought, antennae slowly twitching. “The one question we haven’t addressed, Father, is what if the Gyst are looking for us? They’ve had over four decades with which to build their own kingdom. If Wonset is determined as you made him out to be in your stories, and has infused Kysjyt with an obligation for blood vengeance, then they would be looking for us. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve made allies along the way, for they have to know that we would resuscitate the High Kingdom faster than they could create their own. I say we take the risk and probe beyond Mesa. Far better that we find them on our own terms than letting them have the initiative.”
     Lugan looked pleased. “A valid and telling point, Dusan. It is better to make things happen than to be on the receiving end of a surprise.” Writing on a pad, Lugan sent the resulting message on its way with a tap on the send button. “In two weeks the 14th Survey Squadron will receive my orders and commence exploring beyond Mesa. In the meantime we’ll take Parsnip and Garnish back permanently. New route or none, this war will be taken to the next level.”

The battle was going well for the Combined Fleet. Even with two complete task forces the MSN was bashed into oblivion by the cloaked forces under the command of Admiral Kulsek. In an embarrassing Pavlovian display the MSN commanders, lead by Admiral Dynamo, followed the non-cloaked portion of the Combined Fleet from the Garnish/Parsnip warp point. This MSN fleet launched a fighter strike designed to cripple rather than kill, leaving wounded HN ships to be dispatched by missile salvos fired by Count Mechas. This would’ve been the job for the Neons, but they were all destroyed in the warp assault. A trio of minesweepers with a like number of Count Mechas stayed behind at the warp point, clearing away the minefields.
     In a coordinated move the cloaked portion of the Combined Fleet launched its attack just as Dynamo’s second fighter strike reached the visible portion. Leading the HN Spear class superdreadnoughts was Commodore Lynaca, princess and firstborn of King Lugan. She was promoted a year earlier after a particularly successful rout of enemy forces in Cloves. It was going to be a repeat in Parsnip, and it was going to be done faster.
     Commanding from the Malice, Lynaca designated the Count Mecha SDs as the first targets. When the range dropped to eight light-seconds, and with no sign that the enemy had detected them, Admiral Kulsek ordered the fleet to maintain the distance and assume a parallel course on the Bian’s port side. Five minutes passed, and then the order was given to attack. The cloaked carriers launched their broods as the Spears and Mangonels fired on the Count Mechas. Even with command datalink and EDMs three of the big ships were swatted away in the first volley. Scrambling to battle stations, the MSN crews were only able to bring down the shields of just one Spear.
     Kulsek had his carriers turn and run while the rest of the warships decloaked and turned to intercept the enemy fleet. It was here that the Bians saw for the first time a monitor-sized ship. Commanding from Battalion, lead ship of a class of the same name, Kulsek tasked his beam-armed combatants to battle the Heat Lightnings. Like their larger brethren, the Bian DDs were reaching to achieve action stations even as they maneuvered to face their foes. Long-range capital force beam fire knocked down one DD before the gunboats and fighters fell upon the rest. Gunboats used their external ordnance to atomize half of the sixty Lightnings while the fighters restricted themselves to their internal lasers.
     The range closed, letting the Maetels and Fly Sprays to begin firing AFMs against the horde of fighters, now two light-seconds away, leaving the gunboats alone at the moment for they had point defense to handle the missiles. For the larger ships the exchange was still heavily favoring the Pulurtans, losing only two capital ships compared to the eight Bian SDs blown away, reducing their numbers by 22%. Short Bows focused on the Fly Sprays, drowning them in standard missiles armed with second generation laser warheads. Plasma bolts, capital force beams and converging anti-matter beams took care of the remaining Lightnings but not without casualties on the Pulurtan side.
     Lynaca noted the half of the Maetels activated datalink jammers as the fighters and gunboats reached a range of 0.75 light-seconds – the prime killing zone for AFHAWKs. The highest casualties for both HN fighters and ships alike happened here, as the jamming ships became the focus of attention, leaving the larger Count Mechas alone. It was still going to be problem, but from this battle onwards it will be less of a one. Each capital bombardment missile in the fleet was equipped with a sensor software package that allowed it to home in on enemy datalink jamming frequencies. So armed, and with ECCM and capital fire control, these missiles were more accurate against the active jamming ships than not, achieving a 90% or 100% fire-control solutions instead of the usual 80%. Between them the Spears and Mangonels, now firing their Lt2-armed CBMs on their external ordnance racks (and also equipped with the new package), destroyed or wrecked the eighteen Maetels to such an extent that their jammers went off-line.
     With the sheer number of fighters approaching them the Bians had no choice but to activate their remaining jammers, only to have them blasted away by the HN missile units. Freed from jamming, the fighters and the handful of remaining gunboats tore into the Count Mechas like rabid wolves. The Fly Sprays and Maetels sought out vengeance by taking on the Spears. Instead they got buckets of plasma bolts and an introduction to the second generation standard missile. In sprint mode, the SM2 had a longer reach and was more accurate at ranges above 1.25 LS than its predecessor. With this final surprise the Bian fleet was effectively dead. The carriers, long since having moved away, made the predictable ploy to return to the warp point. Before they could escape they were subjected to several stand-off missile strikes by the fighters and gunboats, and then intercepted by destroyers. In another month, two at the most, the Bians will try again like clockwork. But each victory left the High Navy with more and more experienced crews which could only mean the quicker demise of each new enemy task force.
     “They must have a bad ‘go-to line’ in their programming,” Kulsek said to Lynaca in a post-battle meeting aboard the Battalion. “If they waited for a little bit, and build more carriers, then they’ll be much more of a threat. I’m just thankful that the King has allowed us to take Garnish and Parsnip back permanently.”
     Lynaca responded after sipping some tea. “Breaking into Garnish won’t be overly difficulty. Whatever fortifications they’ve managed to assemble in the last two months will be brushed aside by our pod bombardment. Our losses aren’t bad enough not to warrant a wait.”
     “True, Lynaca. We lost only 12% of the cloaked portioned of our fleet. As for the visible portion, thanks to the inclusion of ships fitted out with the new boxed launcher system and small carriers and warships using deception mode ECM, the losses were mitigated.” Kulsek took a long sip of liquor from his cup. Previous forces used to distract the Bians usually suffered heavy casualties. The fact that the androids continued to accept the easy bait and fail didn’t ease Kulsek’s conscious on his losses. “Only 15% of the decoy force was destroyed with a further 20% damaged in greater or lesser degrees. The remainder can resume station at the Garnish/Parsnip warp point and cover the cloaked minelayer task group. Whatever drones the Bian fleet had launched will be intercepted by that task group. They’ll be in ignorance of our new missiles for a little longer.”
      Lynaca grinned. “Just wait until they get a load of our additional new hardware, especially the new shields and armor. In two months we’ll have a fully outfitted task force joining use from Davenport. We just might be able to break the back of Heavy Melder’s defenses once and for all.”
     “We have the pods for it, Lynaca. It’s the mobile forces behind those bases in Heavy Melder that worry me. I’ll sleep better once there’s a back door into Bian space, forcing them to siphon away a task force or two. Otherwise it will take a mass transit just to give use a fighting chance against 72 SDs backed up by like numbers of BCAs and carriers.”
     The princess took a final draw from her teacup. “I believe that we will find our back door, Kulsek. As long as we can exploit our entry to the fullest, gutting enemy systems as they’re found, then the Registry will be unable to mount any credible defense or counterstroke. It’s long pass that these machines had their warranties voided.”
     “I couldn’t agree with you more,” Kulsek said, finishing the last of his drink.

Chapter 3.25
The fortifications guarding Heavy Melder/Garnish warp point were formidable. So much so that Admiral (3rd Gear) Hatchet wished that the equally formidable 2nd Fleet was sent out to crush the oversized leaf stalkers once and for all. 60 type-5 and 48 type-3 bases, along with 1,800 patterns of mines and 1,600 various buoys covered the warp point. Six Mentalists, each guarded by five minesweepers in datalink, provided additional control for the automated weapons. It would take a missile pod bombardment of ungodly proportions to cripple the defenses. If Hatchet had his way then the enemy wouldn’t be in position to conduct any bombardment now or in the future.
      Commanding Task Force 22 from the SD Voltage Hatchet was entertaining his fellow admirals in the wardroom. All 3rd Gear admirals, the officers were idly watching the denizens of an aquarium located in the center of the room. Perm, commanding TF 21, had a two-eye faceplate and a small speaker shaped like a mouth. Grease of TF 23 had eight small eyes arranged in two rows of four and Banks of TF 24 had two square shaped eyes. For Hatchet his left eye was oval in shape and recessed, but it had a totally unneeded shutter that passed for an eyelid for a Bian. A black leather patch was affixed to where his right eye would’ve been.
      This quartet was offspring, totally removed from the experiences that their parents had when they were flesh-and-blood centuries earlier. Among the most visible signs that separated the generations was the use of wigs. To a unit, those Bians that originally had organic bodies didn’t use wigs to cover the tops of their android heads. For the descendants, that is to say any Bian younger than 500, wigs were yet another expensive personal item with which to buy and show off to their friends. Perm wore a shoulder-length shock pink wig that had synthetic hair as fine as silk. Grease had a black mohawk that was more like bristles on a broom while Banks had his lime green strands arranged in spikes. Hatchet had a dark brown affair that went down to the back of his neck and covered his circular ear ports. They might have been mistaken for rebellious youth, and truth be told had there been no war then they would’ve been right at home skiing down mountains than no organic being would dare attempt.
      “So yet another futile foray by the fleet,” said Perm, twisting several strands of hair around her finger. “This will be the fourth time Dynamo will get rebuilt from his backup. It must suck not having any real memories or experience from a year’s worth of battles. Information from drones and after-action reports just isn’t enough.”
      Banks guffawed. “Our seniors must have a piece of tape over their recording slots. With no new information they’re still going by their outdated playbook. This last battle had no drones return whatsoever. Who knows what sort of hardware or tricks the Puls have been perpetrated on Dynamo this time?”
      “We could’ve taken the whole of the Brookhollow sector if those PDD pukes have come through on the cloaking technology,” Grease snorted, his row of green glass eyes shining brightly. “Blind man’s bluff can work both ways. I mean, come on, we have missile pod technology and can field multiple pod assault waves backed up by flotillas of corvettes. We can sanitize any warp point defense if we put our mind to it. We should be making a stand in Garnish instead of here.”
      Hatchet closed his one eye in thought. From a distance one would be forgiven for mistaking the android for an actual living being, the low lighting in the room added to the illusion. “I couldn’t agree with you more, Grease. We should’ve been on the offensive for the past year. Mass transit attacks with pods, corvettes and carriers would have us as masters of Brookhollow now. Now that the Puls regained their frontier systems they’ll be able to explore those few warp points available to them.”
      “A missed opportunity of the first order,” Perm said strongly. “We should’ve crash emplaced populations on those colony worlds in Brookhollow. They would’ve become bastions from which we could conduct offensive operations and done exploring ourselves.”
      “Water under the bridge, Perm.” Hatchet opened his eye. “What we as a group can do is petition Admiral Crankshaft when he assumes command of the 2nd Fleet in place of Dynamo. Crankshaft will be here next week, complete with two task forces. An offensive to claim all the systems up to and including Garlic is well within the realm of reality.”
      Grease nodded. “I know that Diode will be disappointed. He’s anxious to remove the stain from his record.”
      Banks laughed again, walking over to the aquarium and agitating the fish. “Diode did lose Spice, and had to wait six months before his backup was activated. Same goes with that Cogsworth fellow. Being out of the loop that long must’ve been frustrating to an intelligence officer.”
      Perm joined Banks at the aquarium, but to feed the fish instead of taunting them. “Yeah, but at least he actually has something to do with his time. Spending days on end analyzing battle reports and sensor logs just to glean miniscule bits of information isn’t my cup of lubricant.”
      “He also has that museum of his, Perm.” Hatchet went to the view port on the far end of the wardroom. His eye looked out into the void like it was a sea of stars. “Those Pul curiosities and artifacts he has on display are fetching him a pretty penny in ticket sales. By the end of the war he could become one of the top ten richest Bians on Heavy Melder.”

While the Combined Fleet consolidated its hold on the Parsnip system, bringing in the first batch of base components and the young admirals of the MSN 2nd Fleet planning to convince their new commander to take action, the decisive turning point of the war was unfolding. The 14th Survey Squadron in Mesa entered the system on the far side of a previously unexplored warp point. A second-generation pinnace transited first and after scanning the immediate environs for a minute returned to give the all-clear. Upon entry the six battleship-sized ships engaged their cloaks and made for a distance of 240 light-minutes away from the system primary, spectral class G2V.
      Within minutes artificial transmissions were detected from the third planet, ten light-minutes from the primary. Bian in origin, the commander of the squadron sent a drone back to Mesa with the news. No further drones were to be sent until the warp point survey was complete. Cruising at 0.05c, the squadron settled into its two-month long mission. Based on the position of the Bian planet, a likely map of sensor buoy locations was envisioned and would be checked following the survey

Meanwhile the static Bian defenses at the Garnish/Parsnip warp point were brushed aside by the assault portion of the Combined Fleet. Five Spikes and one Overpressure, all outfitted with the latest equipment, the least of which was improved shielding and enhanced armor, emerged and released their 112 gunboats. Waiting for them were 1,200 patterns of mines, 600 buoys, and six Mentalists, each of which was protected by five Fly Swatters. Just one control ship became active in the moments after the first wave arrived. One hundred buoys were immolated as they fired their bomb-pumped lasers; remove half the armor on the Overpressure but only one-third on each of the Spikes.
      Systems stabilized, the ships commenced to shoot down buoys before they could become active. The gunboats stayed and assisted in the task, knowing that in no way the enemy ships would be able to outrun them. While this was happening a second wave entered, comprised of six Explosion minesweepers. Having an armor value practically the same as a Spike these battlecruisers shrugged off those few buoy hits they received. No other Mentalists became active, and after the ships and gunboats were done just 300 buoys remained.
      A third wave emerged, composed of six Mangonel BBAs. This time two more Mentalists reached action stations and the remaining 243 buoys (the other 57 having been shot away in the interim by the Spikes and stabilized Explosions) spent themselves on the eighteen Pulurtan ships. With no other weapons available to them the six discrete groups of Bian ships began to move away, letting those ships that hadn’t reach action stations to follow as best they could until they caught up with engine detuning.
      The Pulurtans watched the Bians pull away, content at the moment on firing capital missile mine clearance charges to clear a path in a portion of the minefield. Only when the enemy had moved past the 15 light-second mark did Kulsek, having arrived in the fifth wave, allowed the use of a new weapon. From the launchers of the Mangonels and Spears came a slimmed-down version of the anti-mine ballistic attack missile. These AMBAMs could only destroy half the number of automated weapons in a particular volume of space that the original version could due to their smaller antimatter payloads. They did have the advantage of being able to be fired from capital gun/missile launchers, thus reducing the risk to the firing unit. Quickly a path was blown in the primary mine perimeter followed by another in the second. Now freed, the gunboats went full-bore after one Mentalist group. Destroyers went after the other five.
      Expecting a standard attack with close attack missiles the Bian commanders were disappointed when the prototype gunboats stayed at 1.5 LS range and opened up volleys of fighter missiles, eleven missiles to a volley for one out three mounted an ECCM pack. These missiles, however, were armed with Lt2 warheads, and the six ships were forced to expend their EDMs and get some use out them before losing them. In this exchange all the ships received damage to their armor and the Mentalist sustained a breach in its hull.
      Slowing to 0.033c the Bians generated as much ECM as possible, hedging that the second and final volley was again missiles. The gunboats made a complete circle and moved ahead only slightly, confirming in the androids’ minds that this was the case. At a range of 1.75 LS the missiles were going to be less accurate, but they were wrong. Used previously were second generation fighter missiles. Firing now were third generation missiles, armed with antimatter and the software package to home in on enemy jamming signals. Priority was given to the Mentalist, and it required 15 of the 37 prototype gunboat squadrons to finish it off.
      Then came the turn for one of the Fly Swatters. Having turned on their jammer as a precautionary measure, the Bians found the volleys fired at them were more accurate than they should’ve been. Even so it took the remaining 22 squadrons to destroy the ship. As for the others they were eventually chased down by Prism and Infantry DDs. For the destruction of 36 enemy ships and elimination of their automated weapons the High Navy suffered no personnel losses whatsoever and those ships hit by laser buoys would be ready to fight again in a month’s time.
      Kulsek noted in the post-battle analysis that the Bians finally used enhanced drivefield missiles of the kind that could be fired from internal launchers. That would make for more prolonged missiles duels. However, the HN was already ahead in the game with even a better EDM that lasted three times as long. Additionally the Bian minefields were ones that employed antimatter warheads. As the technology to make such mines was only now being used by the HN this showed, that in this instance at least, the Bians were capable of thinking creatively instead of merely playing catch-up in the technology race. Kulsek filed that thought for further pondering as he addressed the disposition of his fleet in Garnish.
      The primary was a sullen M1 red sun with a family of seven planets and an asteroid belt. As for the warp points, the most important feature, the first one was 276 light minutes from the sun while the second was 252 LMs. Distance between the two warp points was almost 384 LMs. First order of business was to locate and destroy the Bian surveillance net. To that end scores of pinnaces were sent out to accomplish the mission.
      Nearly two dozen MSN Boundary scout corvettes were in the system, and with their attached advanced assault shuttles they attempted to ascertain the size of theHN incursion. All of them were encountered by HN 2nd generation pinnaces. As there was no way the pinnaces could outrun the assault shuttles and corvettes they were armed with ECM, ECCM and heavy laser packs. Thanks to this, the MSN shuttles were unable to engage the pinnaces at ranges greater than three-quarters of a light second. As a result no pinnace was lost in these engagements. Corvettes were a different matter. For maximum effect the HN craft had to engage at point-blank rank, and with maximum ECM they had a 50-50 chance of being destroyed. Even so only three pinnaces were lost compared to the destruction of 23 corvettes.
      As for the Garnish/Heavy Melder warp point the MSN felt no compelling need to move in the 2nd Fleet. 24 scanner buoys were deployed in a ring at a distance of 15 light-seconds from the warp point. 48 more buoys were spaced evenly apart 15 light-second beyond that, their high-resolution detectors overlapping for redundancy. The MSN was confident that no cloaked ship would be able to get close enough to get a definite read of what was happening around the warp point. With the ability to call upon the fleet in Heavy Melder as needed, and the asteroid fort with its 320 gunboats for immediate defense the local commander in Garnish felt secure.
      Kulsek, however, was one not to be denied. Leaving the non-cloaked portion of the fleet to guard the Garnish/Parsnip warp point, Kulsek took his remaining ships to a spot a little over 12 light-minutes from the Heavy Melder warp point. By then the scanner buoys within range of the most direct route between the two warp points were destroyed. On the racks of the ships were reconnaissance drones, and at Kulsek’s command 312 were launched. At their speed of 0.23c these drones would reach the area around the warp point in just over 17 minutes. All the HN officers wondered how the Bians would react to yet another sign of Pulurtan technical superiority.

An unimaginative android spacer manning the sensor post on a cruiser tasked to watch the buoys dually noted the approaching swarm of drone-like objects. Following basic orders, the spacer informed his commanding officer who then in turn alerted the system commander, a Bian named Wattage. He sent a shuttle to backtrack the drones’ point of origin. The fleet had already moved on, orbiting the warp point and letting the shuttle continue on its empty quest.
      Alerted when the drone swarm was first detected as a single contact, Wattage has less than six minutes to act when he learned the true numbers involved. From his asteroid fort command post Wattage had his 320 gunboats take off to intercept. He sent a drone to Heavy Melder, informing 2nd Fleet of the situation and asked for immediate reinforcement. With the delay involved only six carriers arrived in time to launch their 108 fighters. By then it was too late. Over 40 drones survived long enough to scan the area, transmitting the information back to Kulsek’s fleet. The Bians thought the drones were some sort of weapon. Only later did they realize what the drones’ true purpose was, but for now Wattage was running scared. He asked for carrier coverage, but until Crankshaft arrived none of the four task forces were going to release any of their ships.
      On the Battalion Kulsek made his race’s version of a whistle when the data came through. Sathyl, his operations officer, agreed to his admiral’s sentiment. “It’s a good thing these machines are impatient in the way they send task forces against us, Sir. If a more assertive and aggressive person was in charge over there then those 60 type-5 bases they’re assembling could very well have been 180 superdreadnoughts.”
      “In their place I would take the ships,” Kulsek said honestly. “Bases made from prefabricated components are expensive as hell, and assembly them is a major financial drain. The drones recorded that those bases are one-third complete. In another two months they’ll be finished.”
      “A good thing that we arrived when we did, Sir.” Sathyl gazed at the readout on his terminal on Battalion’s flag bridge. “They’re really paranoid about our cloaking ECM. On top of those sensor buoys they have sixty mobile shipyards and 300, 300, Fly Swatters to provide defense against missiles and fighters. Then there’s that asteroid fort that gave us so much trouble the last time.”
      “I daresay it won’t be giving us grief for much longer, Sathyl. Already those machine men have pulled what had to be their carriers back into Heavy Melder.” Kulsek indicated to a fresh report from a cloaked Claim survey destroyer on a secondary screen. “We need to use our pods for this one, and we’ll have to target those Fly Swatters.” The battle hardened admiral brought up a schematic of the MSN forces around the warp point. Just a quarter of a light second away from that point were all the mobile shipyards, the bases they were assembling, and their escorts. Next to them was the asteroid fort, codenamed the Cuckoo’s Nest. Surrounding the warp point at the 4.25 and 10 light second ranges were mine patterns, albeit very thin. The outermost one was most likely to act as a tripwire defense against cloaked ships while the inner one was at the optimum range when it came to SBM and CBMs, especially when fired from missile pods.
      After looking intensely at the schematic for a full six minutes Kulsek made up his mind. “We’ll take out all the buoys in the outer ring at the same time. That should paralyze their decision-making process since they can’t know for sure from which direction our fleet will come from. Once we destroy the majority of the inner ring we’ll have a clear-zone where the Bians can’t see our first pod deployment. While that happens we’ll go straight to them, and start wailing away against those mobile yards, fortresses and gunboats. If they send in ships the normal way we’ll blast them piecemeal. A mass transit could save the day for them, if they’re willing to lose their ships in such a manner. Our pods will alternately take out the bases or any capital ships or even corvettes if they arrive in numbers.”
      It was a bold plan that Sathyl was more than receptive to hear about it. “We can hold back our fighters and gunboats for pure defense, and our auxiliaries carrying the pods can deploy them at a rate of 600 a minute. The one thing that worries me, Sir, is that those escort cruisers might very well instigate the largest ramming attempt in the history of space warfare.”
      “Something that I wouldn’t put pass them,” Kulsek said. “They’ll be leaving their charges defenseless against our pods if they charge us. Every minute those escorts stay put is another minute in our favor.”
      Sathyl worked some calculations on his personal pad. “We’ll have to jam them just at right moment so that they can’t use the point defense of their bases. Sir, if you’ll excuse me I’ll gather my staff and work out the variables for the attack plan.”
      Kulsek nodded. “You have two days, Sathyl. I want to launch the attack as soon as possible. If we wait too long we’ll lose our chance.”

Admiral Banks paced up and down in his command ship’s flag bridge like a caged panther. Of all the subordinate admirals in 2nd Fleet he was the most aggressive, and for that he had the corvette and heavy cruiser assault flotillas under his command. Had he been on shore leave Banks would’ve indulged in reckless physical pursuits, like skiing down from the tops of mountains or jumping raging rivers on rocket cycles. Being on the far end of the R&R rotation didn’t suit Banks at all.
      This boredom came to an end when the daily drone from Garnish arrived far too early. Banks practically pounced on the communications tech to see the news first-hand. The whole of the outer scanner buoy ring guarding the mobile yards in Garnish was destroyed. From the deployment parameters at least sixteen Pul ships launched pinnaces and gunboats to accomplish the task. Immediately Banks contacted Hatchet, the temporary commander of the fleet. “They’re on the move,” said the impatient android. “We’re going to lose our construction in Garnish if we don’t act immediately.”
      “The bases are expendable, this fleet isn’t,” Hatchet replied. “Without knowing the true strength of the enemy sending in our fleet would be unwarranted. This could be a probe just to see just how large of a fleet we have.”
      Banks pulled on one his spikes of fake green hair. “Just send the carriers, Hatchet. Have them launch fighters, and return. Fighters are completely expendable.”
    Hatchet’s uncovered eye glowed green. “While there’s time to do so, I won’t. The enemy will know of our mobile fighter strength. I want to keep him in ignorance about our fleet size. With what they know about our defenses from the last two assaults their only true recourse is to use a mass transit attack. We need our fleet intact to support the bases here to crush such an attack.”
      “I suppose you’ll deny the use of the assault flotillas, despite the fact that they can be replaced in three months time.” Banks’ eyes glowed. “Then that just leaves the missile pods. Those can be replaced even quicker.”
      Hatchet moved his fake hair off of his face, exposing his eye patch. “You have a point, Banks. If major enemy units are detected I’ll authorize the use of our pod cache. So just stay put, Banks. Once Crankshaft arrives we’ll have our counter-offensive. Hatchet out.”
      The monitor went dark. Had Banks’ faceplate been able to display feelings it would’ve been scowling. He was convinced that it wasn’t a mere Pul feint, and that a whole fleet was about to attack. All that treasure spent to build those base as well as those escorts cruisers are going down the drain, Banks thought, and all that Hatchet would do in turn is lob missile pods at them. Rubbish! He left the flag bridge and went for the shuttle bay. Hatchet can court-martial me when I’m restored from by backup tape. I’m going to ensure that the Puls suffer some losses in this battle.
      Banks’ pinnace was ready by the time he reached the shuttle bay. He headed over to one of his Exterminator class assault cruisers. By the time he asserted command, issuing the required orders and codes, the situation in Garnish had developed significantly.
      The inner scanner buoy ring had been destroyed, but one of the datalink control Fly Swatters had detected a ship in the main body of the fleet. By the time the fleet was 11 light-second from the warp point the majority of its ships were located. It was here that Kulsek ordered the cloaking devices switched to deception mode and for all carriers to launch fighters and gunboats. A wave of capital anti-mine missiles was fired by the Spears, blasting a lane in the thin outer minefield shell. The gunboats, pinnaces, and ships used to eliminate the inner buoy ring proceeded to rendezvous at the minefield breach and follow behind the fleet.
      What went unseen by the Bians was the group of minelayers that had taken position 28 light-seconds from the warp point, drive fields and cloaking systems down. Unloading their deadly swarms of third-generation SBMWHAWK pods at a rate of 600 per minute these minelayers watched as 3,900 of their programmed minions moved on their own power towards their target – the 300 Fly Swatters. This horde of death was 26 light-seconds out when the deception mode order was sent, and the minelayers had moved in the interim, ultimately coming to a spot 19 LS out and thirty seconds before the pods fired their loads.

Meanwhile the missile ships of the Combined Fleet open fired on the mobile shipyards at maximum CBM range. MSN Admiral Wattage had elected to keep the 60 Mechanisms in place on the hunch that this was just probe. For his complacency he lost 8 of the ships. Immediately he ordered the rest to return to Heavy Melder in a mass transit, losing a further 16 in the process. Also at the same time Wattage recognized the emission signature of an active missile pod 26 LS away. Based on what he saw of the Pul fleet (which was rather large) Wattage believed that if it was an indication of a pod swarm then it had to be meant for the fortifications in Heavy Melder and not his own.
      Back in Heavy Melder an impromptu and totally unsupported maneuver by Admiral Banks had begun. In a mass transit, a grand total of 84 Exterminators and 170 Neons entered Garnish amid the debris clouds of their interpenetrated brethren. Along with the Cuckoo Nest’s 320 gunboats Banks (having survived the transit) saw a fleet of over 220 ships plus 2,772 fighters and 540 gunboats. For a being that loved exorbitant risks Banks had very few regrets. He admitted in a message sent back to the fleet (addressed to Hatchet as well as his eventual back-up reincarnation) that had he waited for another minute he would’ve know the true extent of the enemy fleet and subsequently would’ve stayed put. His ships were rendered into wrecks as Pul battlecruisers, fighters and gunboats weaved and slashed into their ranks, erasing them from the heavens for little loss to their own number. Datalink jamming on both sides had slowed the slaughter, but once the jamming Exterminators and Screamers were dealt with the battle was ended swiftly. Before his ship was crushed in a sea of antimatter fireballs Banks had the pleasure of seeing six Pul battlecruisers break up. His only other regret was that he didn’t take out seven, his lucky number.
      Wattage only gave a small amount of thought about pod swarm heading into Heavy Melder. He reasoned that this was some new kind of pod with an extended tactical range. As a result, he held back the 300 Fly Swatters until such time that they could intercept the pods at a range of 0.5 LS from the ships and 2 LS from the warp point. He wondered why the enemy wasn’t advancing to destroy his ships; with all their point defense systems they could kill a fair number of pods. With the fleet on the far side ready this bombardment was going to do negligible damage.
      The Pul fighters and six battlecruisers moved against the 300 ships. Standard missile anti-mine rounds took care of one section of the thin inner mine ring. Datalink jammers on both sides blared their ugly static. Utilizing ECM and moving at 0.05c the Fly Swatters would reach their firing position against the pods in 30 seconds. Wattage ordered his ships and bases to open fire on the fighters; they were going to be destroyed very soon, so he reasoned that taking out hundreds of fighters would be worth the effort. Only two fighters were claimed by a base when the pods, now at the very end of their endurance, launched their missiles – all 31,200 of them.
      With their jammers turned on 200 of the Fly Swatters inadvertently helped in their demise. The sensor software in the missiles homed in on the enemy jamming transmissions, increasing accuracy to where 50% retained lock-on. The 100 Swatters that lacked jammers, the ones that that the command datalink controllers, survived the missile storm only then to die at the hands of the fighters. Only 103 additional fighters were loss.
      Kulsek ordered the fighters, gunboats and carriers to move to a spot 20 LS away. He had the rest of the fleet, which had been holding at the 5 LS mark from the warp point, to move in and wipe out the bases. Just as the last base was consigned to the ash heap a Bian pod assault occurred. 1,275 strong, Kulsek surmised that this attack was directed towards his Spears. As instructed his ships, which had their cloaking systems switched over to deception mode earlier, altered their electronic signatures. Every DN, BBA, and BCA now appeared as CA, while the larger ships were made to look 25% more massive than a monitor. The pods, which had been tasked to fire on SDs, found no target for the six minutes they operated, moving in orbit around the warp point at a range of five LS. With their self-destruction Kulsek had one final set of orders.
      For the auxiliaries they deployed the remaining 3300 pods available. These pods, tasked to engage type-3 bases, emerged in Heavy Melder in the teeth of fully active defenses. Despite the savage attrition of three mine rings, the placement of bases, ships, and fighters, the missile pods accomplished their mission. All 48 type-3 bases were destroyed. Kulsek couldn’t be certain that this was case since with such a heavy patrol presence there was no way a pinnace could scan the environs long enough to survive.
      Finally, a group of minelayers came forward and proceeded to seed the area around the Garnish/Heavy Melder warp point with one very thick and two thin shells of mines. Tasking a handful of Claims, Eagle Eyes and Razor Beaks to keep watch, and detailing a quartet of transports to look for life pods and ejected pilots, Kulsek took the fleet back to the Garnish/Parsnip to replenish its stocks of munitions and repair those few ships damaged in battle. With the Bians now sufficiently paralyzed by their own fear and paranoia there was no immediate threat of a counter-attack.

The survey in the Bian system code-named Circuit Breaker (CB) was the determining factor on when to assault Heavy Melder proper. Once all the open warp points were found in CB the Mesa Task Force would be sent in to bombard the Bian planet. With this second front the machine enemy would be torn in deciding whether to send a portion of their Heavy Melder mobile forces to counter this new invasion or to take the risk and go ahead with a fresh offensive in Garnish. Either way they had to rebuild those bases they had to have lost in Heavy Melder as well as the assault cruisers and corvettes used in the defense of Garnish. That meant money not being spent on building heavy warships and carriers, a situation that suited Kulsek just fine.
      Over the next three weeks there was little activity at the Garnish/Heavy Melder warp point. MSN pinnace probes were successful in scanning the immediate area but without the required assault element Admiral Hatchet stay put. It was later determined that had Banks stayed put then the 2nd Fleet would’ve been freed to attack, leaving the two task forces Crankshaft brought with him to assist the Heavy Melder defenses. There was no cosmic redo switch for either admiral to press, despite the fact that one month after Crankshaft’s arrival they would’ve traded their eternal hard drives for one.

Chapter 3.50
Count Agtha Gyco, Knight of the Realm in the service of King Lugan, was having swordsmanship training in the gymnasium of Spice’s Government Tower. His trainer was Fansal, the royal armaments master. Since that day eighteen months ago when he was knighted by Prince Dusan the young knight Gyco had to learn to use a sword in defense of his king as well as other much more modern weapons. He trained with Fansal for four hours a day three times a week, starting with half an hour of sword work. There was always an audience watching, and on this day it was composed of Lugan himself and two of his daughters: Coryn, second oldest after Lynaca and Qavas the third born.
      Her exterior a pleasing red violet color, Coryn was in charge of the Royal Treasury before the war. She gave up the traditional post of the second born and had her naval reserve commission reactivated. At the rank of Lt. Commander she had just become the captain of a Footman class light cruiser. She fought for that command, turning down several assignments as an executive officer on larger, better protected ships with cloaking devices. While she thought the world about her sister Lynaca it just wasn’t Coryn’s temperament to lob missiles at long range. She wanted to get up close to her enemies so that their dying lights would shine upon the hull of her ship.
      Qavas hadn’t been as active in the reserves as Coryn. The brick red third princess had taken upon herself to renovate and redecorate the mansions of barons and dukes throughout the kingdom. Even those residences that were leveled during the Civil War and Isset Insurrection, leaving nothing but their foundations behind, were rebuilt under the artistic eye of Qavas. A deck lieutenant (senior grade), her duty assignment was that of a tactical officer aboard a destroyer. Like her sister, Qavas felt that she needed to be on the razor’s edge of battle.
      “He has skill,” Coryn said, admiring Gyco’s swordplay. “After a year of training under Fansal he could only improve.”
      “I see that he’s been motivated to improve.” Qavas pointed to a scar on Gyco’s left forearm, one that matched her own. “Fansal is mindful. An instructor with lower aesthetic sense would’ve scarred the face.”
      “Such a cute face, sister,” Coryn chimed. “If he was the son of a baron or duke, and if I wasn’t already married, I’d be receptive to any overtures of his.”
      Lugan gave his daughters an imposing look. “Save your impending gossip tangent for later. Such things are better suited for the dinner table and parties.” Turning back to the practice circle the King was treated to a rare sight. Gyco had finished a sequence of moves that caused Fansal to lose the grip on his sword. The meter-long blade fell to the ground and skidded across the floor to Lugan’s feet. He picked up the sword and went to Fansal. Kneeling, Fansal lowered his head and held his hands out, humbling himself before his King as his sword was returned to him.
      “You may rise, Fansal.” Lugan turned. “A fine display, Gyco. You have bested one of finest sword masters in the Kingdom. Combined with your other studies, you are now ready to fully discharge your duty to your king. I have need of you now, for I will be leaving Spice presently.”
      Gyco bowed, his antennae raised in respect. “You honor me, Sire.”
      Lugan nodded acknowledgement. “I feel it to be a good omen that you’ve bested your sword master on this day, Gyco. On this day I’ll be heading to the front to join my admirals. Upon my arrival we will assist the Combined Fleet to finish what it started. The Bian fleet, whether it will come out after us in Garnish or coward behind its bases in Heavy Melder, will be defeated in one manner or another. Our survey of the Bian system next to Mesa is complete, and I have given my blessing to the task force commander in Mesa to attack. This is going to be the beginning of the end of the Registry.” He walked up and placed a fatherly hand on Gyco’s shoulder. “You will witness first-hand, in my company, history being forged by the blood and will of our people. The machine race will regret having warred on us, and the day they chose to become an eternal, soulless sorry excuse of a civilization.”
      “Well, Coryn,” Qavas said to her sister in a whisper, “father hasn’t lost his talent for histrionics.”
      “I guess he learned from us,” Coryn replied equally quietly.

Crankshaft cleaned his monocle with a deliberateness that made Admiral Grease feel more and more indignant each time he saw it. Every day for the last month Crankshaft, having assumed command of 2nd Fleet, met with in whole or individually the commanders of the task forces. Right now there was a task force conference being held on Crankshaft’s ship, the Frequency. From the way the older Bian talked Grease came to the conclusion that his superior had an airbag installed in his chest cavity to enhance his bellicose speaking style. Grease would’ve forgave such a mannerism but for the silly monocle worm by his senior. He used it often for emphasis by pointing it at the objection of attention, usually browbeating junior officers, especially Hatchet and the reconstructed Banks. Smoothing back his mohawk hairpiece Grease wished he could glue that monocle permanently on Crankshaft’s faceplate so that he couldn’t shake it at anyone again.
      “I have reached my decision,” said Crankshaft as he looked at his six subordinate admirals across from him at the conference table. “Despite the loss of the assault elements previously stationed here in Heavy Melder,” he said while turning his head slightly towards Banks’ direction, just enough for light to glint off of his monocle, “I believe we have the strength to carry the attack against the Garnish/Parsnip warp point utilizing the assault elements from Task Forces 25 and 26. Our pods we’ll hold in reserve unless we detect substantial enemy defenses.”
      “So it is your plan to leave both my and Blower’s task forces behind to guard Heavy Melder?” said Admiral Washer, commander of TF 25. He clearly expected to be part of the renewed offensive, believing that Banks would’ve been kept behind in punishment for his reckless action.
      Crankshaft removed his monocle and pointed it at Washer. “That is correct. We cannot discount the possibility of cloaked units conducting another pod bombardment in our absence. Units from both task forces will keep an aggressive patrol at a distance of one light-minute around the Garnish/Heavy Melder warp point to supplement the new scanner buoy deployment.”
      “What is the plan after we’ve broken the defenses in Parsnip, Admiral Crankshaft?” Grease asked. “If the enemy is still skulking about in Garnish they could seal up the warp point right behind us.”
      “They’ll be the ones sealed up, Admiral,” said the monocle-pointing leader. “Once Parsnip is secured the enemy will eventually run out of supplies. They’ll be forced to either return to their space or, if they’re foolish, conduct an attack on Heavy Melder.”
       “Sir,” Admiral Perm asked, her fake pink hair covering her machine eyes, “our own supply ships will be subject to interception as they transverse Garnish. Their cloaked units do include carriers if you recall.”
      “As I’m all too aware, Admiral,” Crankshaft admitted. “That’s why the light carriers of TF 25 and 26 and their escorts will be assigned to guard the supply ships.” He jabbed his flat glass appliance at Perm. “You’ll be in command of the escort force personally. The rest of your task force will fall under the command of Hatchet.”
      “Yes, Sir.” Had Perm a tongue she would’ve bit it. She shared Grease’s appraisement of Crankshaft. The old machine man clearly had ancient, chauvinistic views of females that survived the transition from flesh to metal. One wonders if he existed since the age where pre-machine Bians lived in caves and hunted with bows and axes.
       Crankshaft returned the monocle over his cyclopean eye. “Queen Vulcana wants us to expedite our return to Pul space. All worlds infested by those oversized leaf-stalkers will be wiped clean. The universe will only support one great civilization, and that will be ours! Admiral Hatchet, the fleet will move presently. Send the deployment orders.”
      “As you command, Admiral,” Hatchet replied, moving hair away from his eye patch. As second in command of 2nd Fleet he was able to influence Crankshaft strategic planning. He was more receptive to suggestions than Dynamo, and prudent to utilize the whole fleet this time instead of parceling out task forces to be slaughtered by the Puls. However, even with such strength Hatchet considered defeat a possibility since Crankshaft was still of the old school, for once he settled into a plan of action nothing would dissuade him to change. This time, with the whole fleet in attendance, the enemy would be compelled to accept battle or flee before it. With this fact victory seemed much more likely. As proven in Bian history the flesh will fall before the steel. The Puls will be no different.

Admiral (3rd Barb) Pypyren gave the system plot another look. His task force entered the Bian system code-named Circuit Breaker (CB) four days previous. Cloaked survey frigates and destroyers had separated from the main body and had proceeded to areas around the system’s other two warp points. The 14th Survey Squadron, still present in CB, was tasked to picket the shortest vector between the designated Warp Point Two and the third planet. In its survey of CB the squadron noticed a steady stream of ship traffic going from the planet to the warp point. In the upcoming days the squadron was tasked to destroy enemy ships if the targets were small enough.
      After moving away from the closed warp point of entry for three days Pypyren gave the order for his TF to proceed towards the planet CB-3. A few ships were detached and began the task of knocking out scanner buoys along the TF’s course. The small survey ships, following orders, began to take out buoys at their particular locations, alternating from moving in a circular or linear course to the next buoy. In doing this the Bian defense commander wouldn’t know for sure from which direction the main threat was coming from.
      There was a system defense force, a task force in fact, in Circuit Breaker. It was out on maneuvers near an ice planet when the first group of buoys was eliminated. The TF commander, Ohm, went towards the nearest buoy that was destroyed. That turned out to be a mistake, compounded by the use of the TF’s fighters to conduct blanket sweeps for cloaked ships. When scanner buoys yet to be destroyed got lucky and pinned the location of the Pulurtan task force it was too late.
      Circuit Breaker-3, like all other Bian worlds, had only a handful of mega cities on an otherwise unspoiled surface. Firing a barrage of reconnaissance drones, Pypyren found the space station in orbit had forty standard construction slips and twenty medium ones, all active with construction. Pypyren also learned that the station was by itself in orbit, and that there were no major ground bases. However, at least 576 fighters and 120 gunboats were detected as the drones approached, but even that number failed to shoot down all the drones.
      Pypyren had his 792 fighters and 492 gunboats deployed defensively while his missile ships began their bombardment of the space station. This drew the Bian defenders right into the kill zone. Datalink jamming, AFHAWKS, and point defense finished what the fighters could not, though Pypyren still lost 32 fighters and 11 gunboats. With no offensive weapons the space station was wrecked to such an extent that it would eventually enter the planet’s atmosphere in two months.
      As for the Bians on CB-3 they didn’t even have twenty minutes, much less two months. With rightfully earned satisfaction Pypyren ordered the bombardment of the planet. Neutron warheads unleashed their deadly but short-lived radiation, frying the cortex circuits of Bian brains, rendering them just as dead as if they had organic bodies. Planetary infrastructure suffered too, with power grids collapsing and the failure of automated city services. The light coming from the cities on the dark side was no longer provided by electricity but by numerous small fires. Pypyren allowed his crews to view the devastation visited upon their machine foes while a pair of attached munition transports restocked the magazines of his Spears and Mangonels. There was still the matter of the approaching MSN task force, and the admiral wanted to them to join their planetside brethren in death.
      With the delay imposed by the initial survey Pypyren’s task force was upgraded with the recently developed forth-generation strikefighter. Loaded with ECM and ECCM packs the 760 fighters were used to tackle the MSN fighters, 558 third-generation types. With battleline support the 481 gunboats went after the ships. The short-sighted MSN attitude regarding gunboat basing on ships came to roost this day. Despite the jamming, which drew HARM-equipped missiles like hornets, the HN gunboats gutted the machine men task force. A further 84 fighters and 111 gunboats were lost, but Pypyren sustained no ship losses and with only a handful of moderate to severely damaged units.
      As for the MSN carriers, having stayed at the periphery of battle, they ran for WP 2, confirming its importance. The six ships of the 14th Survey Squadron and their 72 gunboats surprised the empty carriers and their escorts, and following their destruction came the turn of a small convoy composed of four bulk freighters and two minesweepers-turned-escorts. By the size of the explosions involved it was determined that the freighters were carrying antimatter munitions. In light of this information Pypyren ordered the squadron to probe and enter WP 2. He call forward the remainder of his task force, specifically those units that couldn’t cloak, and sent his smaller cloaked survey units to investigate the third warp point.
       With another task force being sent forward to support him, Pypyren was going to fulfill his orders and destroy all Bian worlds upon discovery. This will place the MSN into a fish or cut bait situation regarding the allocation of ships. Depending on their reserves, if the next anticipated MSN counteroffensive along the Garnish chain is carried through then they would be committing national suicide. On the other side of the coin, if they stay on the defensive in Garnish or even Heavy Melder that would allow the defenses in Parsnip to be built up and permit the Combined Fleet to attack Heavy Melder in full force. Either way the Bios Registry was on its way to defeat. All that was needed now was for them to conduct half-hearted attacks like they’ve done previously.

The assault element of the MSN 2nd Fleet entered Garnish as scheduled, clearing away the minefields placed by Kulsek’s forces. An aggressive sweep by fighters destroyed or chased away the handful of ships tasked to watch the warp point. Because of this the surviving pickets couldn’t determine the kinds of ships in the fleet, but with the typical task force composition involved Kulsek had a fair idea what he was facing.
      At the cruising speed of a Count Mecha it took the 2nd Fleet 16 days to cover the distance between the two warp points in Garnish. Twelve days into this trek news came of the attack in Siphon (the system code-named Circuit Breaker by the Puls). Many expected Crankshaft to detach a task force to go back to Heavy Melder, relieving one of the two currently there to fight the fresh incursion. The admiral announced that the fleet would continue until such time that orders from Prime Command tells them otherwise. With scout craft finding no sign of the cloaked Pul fleet Crankshaft set out to force the issue by assaulting the Garnish/Parsnip warp point.
      Viewing his missile pods as more valuable, Crankshaft sent in his Neons and Exterminators into Parsnip without first conducting a pinnace probe. After interpenetration losses the 82 corvettes and 44 cruisers found the non-cloaked units of the Combined Fleet, called TF Parsnip, waiting for them: 24 Lord BBs, 24 Uhlan BCs, 30 Cutlass CAs, 30 Spiked Mace CLs, 24 Cavalier CLs, 36 Footman CLs, and 60 Prism and Infantry DDs. All of the ships were at maximum plasma gun range, and despite the effects of transit the machine men managed to eliminate 8 DDs at the cost of 14 of their cruisers.
      There was a minefield present, 900 patterns strong, but no buoys as well as no CAP of fighters and gunboats. Such information was sent in the first wave of drones back to Garnish. With more ships becoming active the fire intensified, and now freed from transit effects the Neons and Exterminators became more deadly. Deliberately targeting the destroyers, the Bians took out 16 more while losing the rest of their cruisers. The Neons deployed their EDMs, a clear indication that they were going to enter a portion of the minefield in the next half minute.
      The corvettes also launched their courier drones and faced the defending task force directly. Engaging their ECM systems and entering a sector of the minefield at a speed of 0.033c the little ships lost their passive defenses with the majority now without datalink, cargo holds and one or two engine rooms. No Neon survived, but the exchange was considered worthwhile by the Bians for they had destroyed a further 8 DDs.
      Admiral Byken strongly suspected this underwhelming attack was a diversion and promptly ordered his TF to move away at max battleship speed. He was proven right when four minutes later a pod wave poured into Parsnip, heading uncannily in the same direction of the TF. The pods were third generation, and the 1652 that survived transit and the minefield still had the range and open fired on the battleships. Even with distance and ECM each BB on average had 54 missiles locked-on a minute after the pods appeared. It was enough to destroy or cripple all the Lords, forcing Byken to abandon ship and transfer to an Uhlan. Two minutes later the first MSN capital ships began to transit into Parsnip. The first ten were SD in size and showed themselves to be carriers, launching 600 fighters to finish what the assault force and pods had started.
      Closing the range, the MSN fighters didn’t encounter the first capital anti-fighter missiles until they were three light-seconds away. This didn’t surprise the android pilots: it was the sudden appearance of 432 fighters from 12 cloaked Talons that threw their circuits for a loop. Fourth generation models and decked out for dogfighting (each having two internal lasers and an external ECM and two gun packs), the Talon flightgroups tore into their android opposites backed up by the Talons’ four escorts ships, their jammers on full blast, and the rest of the uncloaked fleet, having practically come to a stop so as to fire AFHAWKs and point defense. With strong ECM on their part the Puls only lost 43 fighters while the entire MSN strike was vaporized. Byken was thankful that this part of Kulsek’s plan had worked, and only hoped the machines would be goaded into sending their other fighters. He had no idea how right he was.

“Damn bugs!” Crankshaft shouted. Had he actual lungs then flem would’ve flown from his mouth. “They could’ve had those fighters patrolling the warp point. Instead of blasting our assault force or even our carriers as they made transit they waited, losing 24 battleships in the process, just to destroy the fighters.” He turned so quickly that his monocle flew from his face, only the retaining chain kept it from hitting the floor. “Hatchet, what do you make of this?”
      Having no fear of reprimand, since he believed Crankshaft made a mistake for not seeking out the Pul fleet in Garnish, hence endangering this offensive, Hatchet spoke his mind. “Sir, I believe the leaf-stalkers are taunting us to finish off these minor units with our fighters. We have no more corvettes, and our destroyers will take too long to catch up. Now that we have destroyed their battleships the survivors have a cruising speed 50% higher than ours. With 2,304 fighters we almost outnumber theirs six-to-one, but we will incur losses.”
      “Finish them off we will,” Crankshaft said belligerently. “Destroying them here and now will save us the trouble of destroying them later. Otherwise they’ll just guard the next warp point and tear up our assault groups. I’m going to have all our strikegroups participate. They need the experience anyway.”
      Hatchet closed his unpatched eye for a moment. “Shall we send the ten Antiviruses and the pod carriers back to Heavy Melder to be resupplied?”
      The older admiral placed the monocle back over his cyclopean eye. “Yes. We have enough pods on hand to conduct another assault, but it pays to have a reserve on hand. Send the bulk carriers instead of the Bear Trapper 2s back to Heavy Melder. Also have Magnet tugs pull the Antiviruses across Garnish. That’ll cut their travel time by a third. Once those ships are back in Parsnip we’ll conduct our assault on Cloves.”
      “Aye, Sir. The orders will be sent.” Hatchet went about his work, wondering if his suppositions regarding Pul plans would be born true.

What Crankshaft failed to appreciate and Hatchet underestimated was the High Navy’s contingency plan for Parsnip. Drones from cloaked ships had informed the Parsnip defenders of the size of the 2nd Fleet, though it came at a high cost. Two days shy of arriving at the Garnish/Parsnip warp point the fleet was scanned in detail by a cloaked survey destroyer, and its drones, set at maximum speed, were free from pursuit even from unloaded fighters. The defenders of the Parsnip side of the warp point were well aware what faced them, and planned accordingly.
      As bad as the losses turned out they were necessary, whetting Crankshaft’s appetite for cheap kills. What he didn’t know was that the efforts of all the Combined Fleet’s mobile yards and most of the repair ships for an entire month was the assembly, from expensive prefab components, of two asteroid bases in Cloves. Guarding the Cloves/Parsnip warp point, each base housed 200 gunboats and little else. What made them different was that they were of an improved model, a fact that the pursuing MSN fighter squadrons would soon find out to their detriment. Sitting power-down along the defending TF's route of retreat, these gunboats waited until the defending fighters were launched, joining them in a single massed body of mobile death.
       The MSN strike commander wasn’t overly worried now that he faced twice as many defenders as expected. He still had the firepower to deal with the fleet after blowing away both gunboats and fighters. What he didn’t expect was for the gunboats to carry AFHAWKs on their external racks. In the first exchange, one which the androids couldn’t respond to, some 653 fighters were destroyed by AFHAWKs and point defense. With the ensuing point-blank dogfight the defenders were eliminated but the androids had to use portions of their short-ranged attack missiles set to proximity mode to accomplish this feat. Now down to 1,208 fighters the androids kept moving, bypassing those ejected Pul pilots instead of shooting them up. Had Admiral Perm been present she would’ve called the strike back immediately so the fleet still had fighters for defense.
      For a final surprise the Parsnip defenders called upon the rest of the cloaked main combatants, holding station just ahead of the fleeing task force. In this case all the BC sized and larger ships used their cloaking systems to assume the guise of monitors. The CVLs and CVSs were made to appear as CVBs. With this much apparent firepower the strike commander, upon seeing this augmented fleet, decided discretion was the better part of valor and turned away, dropping external ordnance for greater speed. Consolidating its formation, TF Parsnip made for the warp point and transited into Cloves. This wasn’t an admission of defeat, far from it. The King was coming shortly with a task force of his own. With a tenuous but working chain of comm buoys and a few cloaked scouts primed to fire drones into Garnish the largest open space battle was being set up. With Pypyren by this time ready to move onto the next Bian system it was going to be a very interesting next few weeks.

Chapter 3.75
Upon hearing the news of the fighter losses in Parsnip Admiral Perm wished she was there so she could throttle Admiral Crankshaft. How could he, she thought, after all this time, not fully appreciate the tricks the Puls had pulled on Dynamo. This last incident might as well have been a repeat of Dynamo’s third battle. After all the time and material spent in training the strikegroups only to see them wasted in this manner was repugnant to Perm, especially for the utter lack of ship kills.
      Perm agreed with Hatchet’s plan of action, calling for the 2nd Fleet to blockade the Garnish/Parsnip warp point. The enemy would’ve run out of supplies eventually, either forcing them to attack Heavy Melder or retreat. Since the oversized bugs seemed to value their limited existence the latter was more likely. If they were serious about assaulting Heavy Melder in the first place then they would’ve followed through with their initial attack in the days after destroying the Garnish construction zone. Reinforcements for the fleet was a guarantee, and any attack on them as they made their away across Garnish would only serve to weaken the Puls.
      That Crankshaft’s main coil was wound too tight was never in dispute. Perm hated her current assignment, escorting a motley collection of empty carriers, tugs, and freighters across the Garnish system back to Heavy Melder. Such a task was better suited for a commodore, and she suspected Crankshaft placed her on this duty because of her belief in combined arms tactics. Deployed defensively, 2nd Fleet’s fighters backed up by AFHAWKs could’ve easily handled the Pul task force….
      An alarm bleated from a secondary panel at Perm’s command station on the small carrier Kilo-115. Sensor data from an outriding Boundary scout had detected a cloaked ship and in the passing minutes, aided by other ships in the escort flotilla, a whole fleet was found to be closing in from a range of one light-minute. Against this unavoidable warhammer Perm’s own forces were just clay pigeons. The 24 Antitoxin carriers had fighters, but the 10 Antiviruses were empty. Worse yet only the CVSs had escorts. Ten Archive Storage bulk freighters with two attending Fly Swatter-Cs, along with five tugs pulling the Antiviruses, formed convoy proper. Twelve Boundaries formed a perimeter 20 light-seconds out from the main body.
      “Configure the fighter squadrons for defense,” Perm ordered her senior wing commander. “Launch them when the enemy is within twelve light-seconds range. They are to stay within the point defense envelope of the formation until ordered otherwise.”
      “As you order, Ma’am,” said the officer, his pair of parallel rectangular eyes flashing with each word.
      Over the next few minutes Perm updated her personal log and had it transmitted along with the situational report to the comm buoy chain. When her back-up is activated later in the week it’ll know to blame Crankshaft for this fresh defeat at the hands of the Puls. She also made a note for her back-up to go with a blue wig instead of pink this time around.

“If they wanted to know we’re here then they couldn’t have done a better job,” Kulsek said to Sathyl, his operations officer. The last MSN ship had been destroyed just a minute ago. On his part Kulsek had no ship losses but had 37 fighters destroyed. “From a machine’s point of view they’ll just see this as a minor inconvenience, given how fast they build ships. But losing at least 60% of their fighters in one week is a great impairment. The only way they’re going to get more fighters is if they send forward those task forces they have in Heavy Melder.”
      “Weakening their defenses at this point is something they won’t do,” Sathyl said with authority. “We know that much from the database records we’ve recovered.”
       Kulsek made an approving nod. “True, Sathyl. It’s time to increase the pressure. We’re going back into Parsnip and take advantage of their fighter shortage. If they still got it in their heads to attack Cloves they’ll have to commit their missile pods and heavy warships, seeing that they’ve spent their assault corvettes and cruisers. They should receive enough of a shock to make them stop and hold position. We’re going to finish them off so that our King’s arrival in Garnish is unhindered.”
      “Yes, Sir. Coupled with our invasion of Bian space, the impending destruction of the MSN Fleet and the fall of Heavy Melder will make a fine gift for King Lugan.”

Crankshaft felt impatient as the pod deployment entered the second phase. The Bear Trapper 2s finished fielding pods from their holds and now used freight tractors to pull and program the remainder from bulk freighters. On the other side of the Parsnip/Cloves warp point were the targets for those pods: 48 type-3 bases, 18 type-6 bases and 2 asteroid forts, along with 226 ships, ranging from battlecruisers down to destroyers, stationed four light-seconds from the warp point. Patrolling the warp point were 50 gunboats. 1,500 pods were slated for the Pul bases while the rest, 1,332, were tagged for the 120 light cruisers. Factoring in a double minefield and ECM, there were enough pods for the job.
      On the Parsnip side Crankshaft had 600 patterns of antimatter mines deployed immediately around the warp point with 216 more beyond them. All 120 Heat Lightnings were patrolling at cruising speed at a distance of one light-second along with six Spyglass scouts. Minutes ago a pinnace slipped into Cloves, scanned the area, and returned apparently undetected. It was with the data the pinnace collected that the bombardment operation was put into action. The plan was to wait two days after the pod attack and then send the carriers, sans escorts, in a mass transit assault. Originally considering sending his empty carriers back to Heavy Melder, Crankshaft was persuaded by Hatchet to keep them, dividing his 1,208 fighters among them to minimize interpenetration losses.
      The pods were deployed, and in thirty seconds all 2,832 of them will move as one towards the warp point, 6.25 light-seconds distant. Crankshaft was about to take his seat in Frequency’s flag bridge when the transit alarm sounded. His cyclopean eye fixed upon the holoprojector, finding that the icon for the warp point was covered with hundreds of light codes – all gunboats. Five pinnaces transited in after them, but they hardly counted against 782 armed craft that had more than enough firepower to take out the Heat Lightnings. Of those DDs that did become active only 29 gunboats were shot down. Had Bians still believed in deities then Crankshaft would’ve cursed or pleaded with one on the spot. Instead he silently condemned the laws of probability that had conspired, at this moment, to throw a monkey wrench into his plans.
      On the Voltage one Admiral Hatchet thought darkly about the Ship Design Directorate as he watched the gunboats, recovered from transit effects, plunge into the minefields so as to get to the destroyers. He had argued for modifications to the fleet’s carriers, heavy and light cruisers so that they could carry gunboats. Judging from the numbers the Puls had thrown at them then it was clear that they had modified some of their ship classes. Hatchet had heard it was manpower supply issue coupled with the SDD’s preference for fighters that limited gunboat deployment to planetary bases and asteroid forts. While in absolute numbers fighters were superior it was the flexibility and warp transit ability of gunboats that made them valuable.
      Hatchet made an audible harrumph. Producing android pilots and crews by the gross was no problem, he thought, so creating the pool for gunboat crews was entirely feasible. He suspected that the bolt-counters in the MSN didn’t want to see any more androids go to waste since Dynamo had already done too good of a job eliminating over eight task forces worth of personnel. Crankshaft was on his way to becoming Dynamo’s equal in losses, and he forbidden the deployment of a combat area patrol around the warp point. 300 fighters would’ve been helpful at the moment, but it was just as well they weren’t there. The gunboats were too many, and even addled by transit they would’ve shot down the lion’s share of patrolling fighters. Hatchet closed his eye when he saw on his holoimager that the gunboats had broken through the double minefields. Only 35 were destroyed, and one didn’t need much processing power to realize the DDs and FGs were doomed regardless. For their part, the Heat Lightnings' point defense and energy beams brought down 77 gunboats.
      Clearly it was spoiling attack, and had the pods not been involved then the gunboats would’ve spent their final salvo of antimatter death on the next set of ships. As it was the surviving senior gunboat wave commander couldn’t believe her luck. She had her gunboats skirt the minefields and placed directly in the path of the pods. As they passed through the formation the gunboats turned about and followed them through the MSN minefields. Losing 37 more, the gunboats shot down 1147 pods and promptly followed them back into Cloves. The pinnaces followed only when several fighter squadrons approached their position.
      Suffering transit losses again the gunboats went through their own minefields, losing six in the process thanks to misread IFF codes. They kept up with the pods, firing their addled point defense and remaining attack missiles, knocking out a further 557. More were destroyed for unlike the Bians the bases and ships in Cloves were at action stations. Add the transit losses, the double ring minefields and AFHAWK fire from the BS3-Ws just 143 pods remained. Just 8 bases and 14 CLs received shield damage. Of the 920 prototype gunboats involved 507 survived.
      King Lugan was aboard the monitor Armor of Fendala when it arrived two days after the battle. He had nothing but the highest praise for the gunboat crews, awarding all of them the Naval Valor (Gold) Medal for service rendered to the Kingdom in time of war. On the fifth day a pinnace probe revealed that the MSN fleet had retreated in the direction of the Parsnip/Cloves warp point. With Lugan’s blessing Task Forces Parsnip and Cloves combined to become Task Force Brookhollow and entered Parsnip. No effort was made to cloak the main units, and the smaller ships were brought along.
      In terms of long-range firepower the MSN 2nd Fleet held the absolute advantage due to its capital launchers and second-generation capital force beams. However, that advantage was locked up in the 72 Count Mechas, ships that had no hope of running away from TF Brookhollow, a force that held its strength in its tactical speed. Fighter strength slightly favored the HN, but they still had over 500 prototype gunboats. The deciding factor was whether the Combined Fleet, which had now entered Parsnip, could enter decisive range without being detected. If so, then the battle would be entirely in the HN’s favor. Otherwise Crankshaft would be tempted to turn on the smaller force, savaging his foe before falling to a superior force. On this day, however, Lugan wasn’t concerned if the androids decided to accept battle with TF Brookhollow. The better part of him was actually looking forward to fighting this day.
      Gyco, standing in Armor of Fendala’s flag bridge, noticed that his King looked distant, antennae twitching to sounds that only he could hear. He had only seen the King like this twice before, each time it was in his study back on Spice, reading reports and histories. A decision was being made, and Gyco suspected it was going to be a profound one. He was proven right when Lugan had him fetch a case from the royal accommodations. In a few minutes he was going to be as surprised as everyone else in the task force.

“I can’t believe he would be so easily swayed,” said Admiral Banks over the secured comm-link. “It must be something inherent with first generation types.”
      “I agree, Banks. Nothing that a meat puppet could do or say would’ve changed our minds,” Admiral Grease replied.
      “We should’ve made the best of a bad situation and made a mass-transit attack on Cloves,” said Hatchet, the third admiral. His voice was full of condemnation. “If we must attack now, then it should be the fleet that defeated the defenses in Garnish. Fall in battle if we must, but at least against the more important target.”
      Banks beeped agreement. He replayed the message the buggy alien king transmitted to the fleet in his digital mind. After identifying himself this King Lugan made brave noises about how his race will triumph over the Bians. Then, in a primitive display of power assertion, Lugan produced a severed mono-eyed Bian’s head on a stick. The eye blinked a series of light pulses, identifying it as one that use to belong to Cogsworth. Lugan stated that he would not rest until the head of Queen Vulcana was attached to its own stick.
      The fact that Cogsworth had been rebuilt from his backup didn’t scroll across Crankshaft’s mind. He seemed to have drawn upon his fleshy memories, ones that found dismemberment particularly disturbing. Also acting upon an impulse to punish those that had slain his friend’s previous body the Admiral ordered 2nd Fleet to turn around and engage the trailing Pul force. Banks made a mental snort. If the sensor readings could be trusted then the bugs only had a slight fighter advantage, 1,296 based on the observed carrier types. Obtained at the expense of five Boundary scouts the Puls had 24 CVBs and 24 CVLs (plus attached escort of 24 BBs and BCs), 84 BBs, 72 BCs, 36 CAs, 144 CLs, and 46 DDs. The number of gunboats remained an imponderable, but hopefully not all of them would be of the more dangerous type that helped in the reduction of 2nd Fleet’s fighter strength.
      Opposing this seemingly formidable force were 48 CVs and 48 CVLs with 48 escorts and 1,208 fighters. 72 Count Mechas, 72 Maetels and 72 Fly Sprays offered the best mix of long range and short range shock power and anti-fighter missile coverage. Banks reasoned that given Crankshaft’s current mindset he would close the range with the Maetels and Fly Sprays while the Count Mechas covered them with massed CBM and capital force beam bombardments. Banks agreed with Hatchet’s assessment on the proper use of the fleet, but a dead bug is a dead bug. If Crankshaft was that all fired up on executing revenge based on notions from his previous fleshy existence then more power to him. Like Perm had done before her current incarnation was extinguished in Garnish Banks sent a message that hopefully would end up in Heavy Melder. He opted that his back-up be equipped with a bright red wig instead of green spikes. Green was out of fashion this year anyway.

While Crankshaft thought he had the better of the upcoming battle he actually had more of a fight on his hands. The 84 BBs he saw were actually 48, composed of 24 Generals, 12 Mangonels, and 12 Lords equipped with boxed missile launchers. As for the remaining number 24 were Spear superdreadnoughts and 12 Battalion monitors. The veil of deception mode ECM employed by the capital units of TF Brookhollow wouldn’t be broken until combat had been joined at close range.
      Both sides had elected to keep their carrier groups out of direct battle. Being the machines that they were, the Bians recognized that hazarding their carriers in a direct combat situation would be throwing away a reusable resource. Crankshaft sent his carriers home as soon as the range dropped to 15 light-seconds. Only fighters and gunboats could catch them, and even without fighters of their own these carrier groups would’ve taken a huge bite out of any attack. At full speed the majority of the ships would make it back to Heavy Melder.
      Admiral (3rd Barb) Jorvyn also had his carriers fall back, but elected to have their BBA and BC escorts keep station in the task force. Their deception-mode ECM had them appear as Cavalier CLs. They blended in with the rest of the CLs until it came time to fire on the MSN fighters with their massed point defense batteries. As for the carriers their apparent escorts were actual repair ships and freighters based on BBA hulls.
      Only when the range closed to 11 light-seconds was the order given to release the 507 gunboats from their racks and launching the 54 second-generation pinnaces. This only caused a slight stir in the 2nd Fleet, Hatchet ordering the Fly Sprays to use their point defense systems offensively against all enemy fighters and gunboats when in range. He also had the fleet’s pinnaces, 144 in number, launched so that they could be used against the gunboats. Finally in CBM range the twelve squadrons of Count Mechas fired their first salvo on one BB, scoring only three hits. In reply the Spears, Mangonels, and Uhlans revealed themselves with their salvos, killing four Fly Sprays in the process. Crankshaft ordered the fleet to max SD speed, intent on closing the gap faster.
      Jorvyn kept the Spears, Mangonels, and Uhlans together while all the other ships went to 0.067c. Shifting targets, Crankshaft had his SDs fire upon the HN light cruisers, destroying four Footmen, joining the four additional Fly Sprays brought down in turn. Now feeling cross for having lost 11% of his CLs, Crankshaft ordered his SDs to use their engine tuners, increasing speed by 25% and dropping the range to under six light-seconds.
      Selecting another CL squadron at random, the Count Mechas found it to be extremely well protected. Only one missile got past point defense and the two deployed EDMs of the first target but fourteen capital force beams hit, yet the shields held. A second volley only convinced Crankshaft that he was facing some sort of super-cruiser, and ordered the remaining SDs to concentrate on the targeted squadron. These ships were, in fact, the original carrier escorts, and thanks to their deception ECM they made the Bians focus their fire upon them instead on the BCs and CLs, thought at the cost of three of their number. Six more Fly Sprays became clouds of debris thanks to this distraction.
      When the weapons recycled the range had dropped to 3.5 light-seconds. It was at this distance most of the combatants fired their externally mounted offensive missiles. The Spear missile ships, along with the Mangonels and Uhlans, were now one light-second behind the rest of the fleet. They targeted the Count Mechas and Maetels. Moving at top speed the SDs were unable to generate a significant amount of ECM, and with capital fire control they became large targets. Four of the Mechas were eventually obliterated along with six Maetels and eighteen Fly Sprays. Six Spears, three Generals and six Spiked Mace CLs were lost in the exchange.
      The android fighters sprinted at full speed, meeting and grappling with their opposite number right over TF Brookhollow while the pinnaces followed as best they could. As the respective armadas closed to a range of 1.25 light-seconds a sections of ships separated from the Pulurtan side. These were the box launcher armed Lords, Cutlasses and Spiked Maces. Maneuvering to the same heading as the task force and 0.75 LS out these ships were in prime AFHAWK range. Also not affected by datalink jamming from the enemy, these ships displayed the full capability of their launchers, giving several Bian tactical officers digital fits. Also giving those officers problems was the fact that their datalinks were being jammed as well, though by much fewer units. They had to be destroyed first so at least some squadrons would regain complete effectiveness. But Crankshaft was more concerned about the Pul BCs, and his orders were carried out ruthlessly. All 48 HN Short Bow and Sling Stone battlecruisers died, but the task force had dealt the 2nd Fleet a mortal blow.

Lugan looked at the tactical holoprojector on Armor of Fendala’s flag bridge with hungry eyes. It was clear that the androids had yet to discern his monitors as they actually are instead of the battleships they appeared to be. With this monarchal ring finger he pointed to a Count Mecha that signal analysis pegged as a squadron commander. Armed with CAMs on its racks and with a perfect fire control solution the AoF rendered its victim a wreck possessing only 14% of its offensive armament. Of the twelve SDs hit by Lugan’s monitors six were finished off by General BBAs.
       On destroyer Z-359 princess Qavas was awed by the damage wrought by the monitors and the rest of the fleet as much as the enemy had given in turn. When the last regular Maetel BCA was destroyed so went the jamming, allowing the fighter squadrons to tear into the Bian’s already depleted fighter force. 624 android fighters were shot down by the point defense and massed box missile batteries of the task force. The remaining 584 only bagged 23 Pul craft before falling to fighter lasers and gunboat point defense. The pinnaces got 15 gunboats before they, too, were blasted like clay pigeons. With the defensive stance and ECM packs involved the Fly Sprays were unable to hit any fighter or gunboat, and the larger ships had held their point defense in reserve in case of plasma packets.
      When Lugan made his taunt to the Bians Qavas knew that everyone on Z-359 was looking towards her on the bridge. It was something out of a history text when ancient monarchs displayed the heads of their enemies for all to see, proclaiming their victory in clear terms. Qavas remembered the puppet shows her father use to perform for the family when she was a child. Such shows were common knowledge in the Kingdom. She knew she would’ve been embarrassed to death had her father made silly voices while brandishing the Bian head. Perhaps it was telling that the Bians had emotions and feelings that allowed the taunting to affect them so, accepting battle in open space instead of the far more effect defense behind a warp point. She would’ve felt a bit more uncomfortable considering that had the enemy elected to destroy the smaller ships first in a long-range missile duel then they could’ve conceivably won the battle. As it is, with the direct approach, casualties were still going to be high but it was far worse for the machine men. Jamming had help, and with the harden datalink on the smaller ships proving its worth the battle should last only another minute.
      An enemy command light cruiser, identified earlier from its paltry missile salvo, was highlighted on Qavas’ plot. As the senior tactical officer in the three-ship squadron she designated it as the target and opened fired. Close assault missiles, plasma packets and the converging anti-matter beam from her squadron made the cruiser explode like a firework. In another thirty seconds, provided Z-359 survived point-blank combat, Qavas hoped to add one of the few remaining BCAs to her squadron’s kill list.

If Hatchet could grimace he would upon seeing what the fleet was reduced to after three minutes of battle. Of the 64 SDs remaining six were badly damaged. Fourteen Maetels were left, none of which had jammers, with one crawling at 1/3 speed. Remaining Fly Sprays numbered at 33 with two crippled. On a side-channel Hatchet heard Crankshaft give the last order for all ships to go to maximum engine modulation and ECM generation at a speed of 0.033c. The enemy had the same idea, placing both forces a scant quarter of a light second away from each other. As for targets Hatchet ordered an all-out effort to destroy the ships with active jammers. Once that was done, even broken datagroups of Mechas will inflict worthy damage on their foes before falling.
      Hatchet noticed that sensors had finally discerned the true identity of twelve of the battleships. The vessels were 21% larger than a SD and that his ship, the Voltage, was highlighted in a slew of fire-control laser and radar beams from six of them. He gave the order to open fire and began the process to wipe his main memory core and temporary buffer. In no way was the enemy going to be allowed the chance to salvage his brain for information.
      On the Footman cruiser Buckle Brass Princess Coryn felt a little miffed that her father’s monitor squadron had claimed the Count Mecha designated by her tactical officer. Signal intelligence had pegged the target as a likely command unit, and Coryn wanted some satisfaction in savaging an example of a class that had brought death to many light units during the war. It was the King’s prerogative to destroy the enemies of the High Kingdom, so she swallowed her pride (to which some jealous members in court would say she should’ve choked) and watched the unleashed firepower of six Battalions.
      It was a spectacle fit for a war god. Three Mechas became shorted-out hulks, their shields brought down by the fell hammer of force beams followed by manic discharges of energy beams. A fourth Mecha simply disintegrated from five body blows of converging anti-matter beams and CAMs. On the fifth and last it barely held together, for after the force beams and single Cb the energy beams spared what few non-volatile systems were left on board. Coryn was suitably impressed, but then again father was one who didn’t do anything in half-measures. She had her tactical officer direct the Footman squadron’s fire onto a Fly Spray.
      The rest of the jamming escorts were destroyed but availed nothing for the Bians. Falling along with the ships were 48 fighters and one General BBA, a small price for completing the destruction of the 2nd Fleet. After the fighters were through just 34 e-hulked SDs and two CLs remained. Following the obligatory call for surrender just one SD remained for the rest self-destructed. Jorvyn had three marine boarding parties sent over to the sole Mecha to secure the ship and hopefully the computer core. While SAR operations were being conducted he had his carrier groups and the destroyers pursue the fleeing MSN carriers.

In retrospect Crankshaft, had he better appreciated the situation he was in, would’ve kept his carriers in the battle and used them in ramming attacks not to mention depleting the HN fighter and gunboat force. Now it served only as a moving live-fire exercise. In the first strike, equipped with fM3-Lts, all the escort cruisers and six of the CVSs lost their armor. On the second strike the external ordnance was anti-matter armed fM3s, destroying 30 escorts. Strike three was more laser warheads, wrecking the armor on all the carriers and destroying ten more escorts.
      Then the destroyers arrived. Calculating that all of his ships would be destroyed well before reaching the warp point the Bian carrier group commander had his ships turn around and attempt to ram. The admiral in commander of the destroyers obliged, allowing the Bians to close in to a range of one-half a light second. It was here that the admiral discovered that Bian fleet carriers were armed with a single plasma gun each, resulting in the loss of three destroyers in the first exchange. With judicious use of speed and ECM most of the destroyers easily evaded the would-be rammers. The one crippled Prism was rammed head-on by a CVS and both were obliterated.
      It degenerated into a circle of death with both sides ending up at point-blank range after each weapon recharge cycle. The HN admiral never considered breaking off and engaging with just long-range energy beam fire as it was the destroyerman’s creed to engage in close action. Of the 46 destroyers involved 12 were ultimately destroyed. As for the Bians as soon as their last fleet carrier lost its plasma gun the survivors self-destructed. Just one e-hulked command carrier and, incredibly, one intact CVS remained. Sensing her chance to make a bit of history Princess Qavas exercised her royal prerogative and lead the boarding parties onto the small carrier. It was found that a command line glitch prevented the android crew from executing their orders to destroy the ship. No Bian officers were functioning for they self-terminated, placing their faith in their equipment and crew to follow through. After the remaining ordnance was ejected and the ship secured it brought back to the task force and presented as a gift to Lugan. Please with this incredibly rare find Lugan ordered that it be taken back to Fendala and put on display for all to see and visit.
      In terms of tonnage the MSN lost over four times the amount than the HN. There were those that considered Lugan’s decision to force a battle a rash one, but those words came from resentment over the loss of personnel. What they didn’t realize at the time was that the Combined Fleet was intact and as such was able to conduct the assault on Heavy Melder. Lugan ordered Kulsek to conduct the attack in his absence as he needed TF Brookhollow to conduct an extensive SAR operation, and once it was complete it will go to Garnish.
      On the Armor of Fendala Lugan, in his cabin, was working on a speech commemorating the lost personnel when Gyco entered. He had in his hands a Bian head, one just like Cogsworth’s except that it had a monocle for its cyclopean eye. “Sire, our search teams found this on the SD Frequency. It belonged to an Admiral, 2nd Gear, called Crankshaft. The identity was established based on the articles found on his body and the micro-etching on his faceplate. His memory core is shot, making data retrieval impossible.”
      Lugan took the head and looked at it intently. Gyco got the feeling that his King expected to see something staring back at him, but the unlit dark circular glass plate gave up nothing. “So this is the head of the fool that responded to my taunt. Had they been more like machines then things would’ve turned out different.” He placed the head to one side of his desk. “For trying to have everything these Bians have proven to be just as fallible as us, Gyco, perhaps even more so. They believe their military power would compensate for whatever problems their emotions would create. It goes to prove that to err is mortal, but to really screw up you need a computer.”
       “Aptly put, my King. Perhaps it’s better to fight an emotional foe than one that’s completely given over to rationality and logic. For one thing, you can provoke an emotional foe to fight while a machine will wait until the conditions of victory are a certainty.”
      “A valid point, Gyco. I’m counting on them to act out of fear and desperation for the rest of the war. It’ll make figuring out what they’ll do next all the more simpler.”

After a pinnace probe the most massive pod bombardment of the war was conducted against the defenses of the Heavy Melder warp point thanks in large part to the freighters of TF Brookhollow. Following a four-day wait an assault wave composed of five Spear SDs and a Gilded Glove entered Heavy Melder. They found only 80 fighters patrolling the area immediately around the warp point. All 60 type-5 bases were obliterated in the bombardment. Two complete MSN task forces, sans CVSs, were committed to the defense. Only 5 SDs out of 36 remained along with 14 CVs (24) and 6 BCAs (36). All other ships, from corvettes to escort cruisers, were swept away in the 12,000 pod antimatter apocalypse. Combined with the follow-up wave of 5 Mansion SD(V)s and a Wallguard BBA(E)(C) the last pitiful remnants of the defenders were blown away.
      The fleet moved into the system, dispatching singular ships to take out outposts that the Bians many have emplaced on moons after the start of the war. Over Heavy Melder itself, after the orbital works were dispensed with an intensive missile bombardment, the fleet rained down neutron warheads. What few signals that still transmitted from the planet were of the emergency broadcast type, prone to bouts of static as the atmosphere contended with the temporary high levels of radiation.
      TF Brookhollow arrived five days after the assault. Among them was a troop convoy carrying two divisions of High Army troops, including 511th Company of the 5th Brigade, commanded by Prince Dusan. The troops were to be used to search out and eliminate any Bians that happened to survive the bombardment as well as any caches of back-up tapes. Dusan’s company, however, was tasked with securing the residence of the Bian Cogsworth. The potential of finding useful information was high, and the King decreed that looting this and several other sites on the planet would be considered a court-martial offense. An important occasion such as this required the presence of royalty, so it fell to Dusan to enter the abode of a defeated foe.
       Equipped in suits extra-harden against radiation the 511th disembarked from the assault shuttles at Celeron City’s spaceport and piled into their armored personnel carriers. The vehicles sped down streets that superficially looked like those on Fendala. It was the sight of Bians and androids scattered about, all shorted out from intense radiation bursts, and showing signs where their clothing burned that looked disquieting. Such scenes also happened on Fendalen worlds, whether it was during the Isset Revolt or the current war.
      Dusan turned to face the other reason why his company was chosen, specifically by his father, for this mission. Equipped in a suit marked in footman rank was Commander Sphyral, survey officer and senior expert on Bians. The elderly officer was among the few that escaped death in the First Battle of Heavy Melder. Lugan wanted his professional opinion after making sense of Cogsworth’s home, a residence that in size and area would’ve befitted a baron. “Sir,” said Dusan, “it may sound perverse, but from the number and positions of the bodies I believe these Bians actually wanted to be killed in the bombardment. Given how they fought on captured worlds I’d figured they would put up a fight to defend this one.”
      “That’s quite all right, my Prince,” said Sphyral. The voice synthesizer of his suit didn’t diminish his enthusiasm. “With the security of their backups I reckon the population figured they had nothing to lose but a comparatively short amount of their existence. Their broadcasts indicated some form of mild panic, stemming from the destruction of their defenses. While they’re aggressive when the foe is distant, and having their androids do the fighting, Bians appear to intensely dislike having to actually fight anyone themselves. They appeared to regard the bombardment as one massive, deadly firework display. A sort of extreme, pleasurable suicide. It fits the known entertainment patterns of the race.”
      Dusan’s disgust survived his helmet’s synthesizer. “Well, I suppose it’s for the better that we won’t be spending years conquering planets that the Bians have been living on for gods know how long. With our neutron bombs we’ll make their self-indulgence suicides permanent. There won’t be anyone left to operate the machines that’ll resurrect them.”
      “Your father has said as much in discussions with me, my Prince. Their cities will be raised to the ground and their planets cleansed and made fit for habitation by our people. Mortality is the one true thing that separates us from the Bians. We see it as a challenge to improve ourselves and our race. The machines see themselves at the pinnacle of perfection. Without permanent death there is no challenge, no incentive to improve and excel. That is why they’ll fail.”
      One kilometer from the residence the 511th left their vehicles and proceeded on foot. The company dispersed in platoons to assume positions one-quarter of a kilometer around Cogsworth’s house. Like the rest of the city all the trees in the area were losing their leaves due to radiation damage. It would’ve been a fall scene but it was late spring in Heavy Melder’s southern hemisphere. The wind had picked up, causing a temporary blizzard of leaves. When it died down an android was seen outside the gated wall surrounding the house. It was sparking intermittently as it tried to prune a hedge, falling to the ground, awkwardly getting back up and repeating the process.
      “It must’ve been under partial cover during the bombardment. I got it, Cap’n,” said Technical Sergeant Yatjyz, the platoon’s NCO. She sighted her gauss rifle on the broken machine and fired, knocking its head off the body. A set of hand signals sent two footmen forward; one pulled the body clear while another inspected the gate. It proved to be unlocked, and after a sweep of the grounds the platoon took positions while one soldier tested the front door. It, too, was unlocked, and Dusan and Sphyral went inside, preceded by four footmen.
      The house proved to be the typical Bian dwelling, serving as a holding place for possessions. It made Dusan think of it as a cross between a museum display and a lawn sale. He also felt that large sums of money had been spent over the centuries to achieve the effect that Cogsworth obviously wanted. Sphyral made notes with his suit’s built-in recorder while looking for Cogsworth’s study. The data retrieved from his previous incarnation’s head was incomplete, but there was reference to a wall safe where he kept reports and other official information.
      Footman Gax called for Dusan, and after a moment was shown a new section of the house. Unlike the other rooms, this place was arranged like a true museum exhibit. Sphyral followed and immediately began recording. There were artifacts that clearly were made from races that were encountered and subsequently exterminated by the Bians. “You should film this first, professor,” Gax said from a doorway that lead to another room. “It needs to be seen.”
      Dusan followed Sphyral and found the room to contain life-sized figures of aliens. There were three different races, each one set in a diorama with multiple figures. It wasn’t those displays Gax wanted Sphyral to see, but the one at the far end of the room. Had Dusan’s antennae been free of the helmet they would’ve shaken with sickness. “Is that real or plastic?” he asked of Sphyral.
      Sphyral walked up to the fourth diorama. It was fashioned in the manner of a bridge of a High Navy destroyer. Each station was occupied, and every figure was a life-sized Fendalen, complete with naval gear and personal effects. The elderly professor scanned the figures, thankful that his arthritic hands weren’t shaking. “The outer layers are reading as Fendalen, my Prince. All the interior organs have been removed and replaced…”
      “That bastard had them stuffed like display fish,” Gax said harshly. “Is that the crew of the Reagent?”
      Walking to the front of the diorama, Sphyral saw the one stuffed officer that answered Gax’s question. The sight of the body that once belonged to Commander Gathyl made Sphyral feel his shade of pale green turn even paler. “It is, Footman Gax. If Cogsworth did this to our people at the very start then they’re be more of these…”
      “They’ve already done enough to condemn their fake civilization to death,” Dusan said firmly. “Gax, until further notice no-one except Sphyral and his team are allowed in this room. Have Yatjyz report to me outside by the gate.”
      “Yes, Cap’n.”
      On a private channel Dusan was patched through to the Armor of Fendala. In the few seconds before his father was on the line the Prince composed himself. He needed to report what he saw in clear, objective manner as befitting an officer of the High Army and as a member of the royal family.

08/31/07
updated 10/16/07

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