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Prelude

A calm sea of shadow gave pause to the twinkling stars fixed in the distance. Near the star of the system, a massive solar panel farm reflected and absorbed light, revealing a massive space fleet nearby. Orbiting the second rocky planet from the star was the Factory and its complementary Ship Yard. The fleet patrolled the Yard in preparation for an assault against their foes. The some two dozen capital ships and some sixty cruisers and carriers glimmered against the backdrop of the star. This fleet belonged to the race of beings called Risen. It was the pride of their nation.

An alarm sounded off throughout the Risen fleet. In the distance 3000 kilometers away, a sphere of space warped, bending all light passing through it, and suddenly a dozen frigates and scores of bombers emerged with swift momentum. Two more bubbles warped the space around them and then gave birth to dozens of warships. As soon as the ships cleared their fields, bombers and fighters emerged from the carriers in a floral array. The enemies were identified as the Xenon Alliance.

The RSR Longinus, the pride of the Risen fleet, commenced the firing sequence of its plasma cannon. The lights on the ship began to shut down as the cannon glowed, surrounded by a fierce magnetic field. Once all of the ship's lights shut off, except for crimson red beacons at the extremities of the ship, the cannon ejected a long stream of plasma particles. The entire result was a 30-kilometer beam, traversing through space towards their foe. The beam tore through the heart of the fleet, despite their attempts to circumnavigate the particle stream. No ship came into contact, but the unlucky few who could only veer a few hundred meters had their hulls deformed, if not sheared, from the heat.

The Suicide Kings made their debut. The first Allied bombers to feature a gravity drive core, the squadron plunged into the front lines, assisted by wings of fighters against the Risen, and they made their way towards the Longinus. It would take twenty-five minutes for the Longinus to fire another beam. As the Allied fleet drew closer, they would take more damage as it would be impossible for them to avoid the beam traveling near-light speeds. The Longinus was well-protected with its numerous wings of fighters emerging from its hangars, in addition to its scores of unmanned defense turrets firing uranium slugs and lasers. Among the Suicide Kings, a small number were noted to be of the dolphin race, the Mer, genetically and technologically enhanced by scientists for sapience. In order to prove their worth, a handful of Mersians volunteered for a special task: the Omega Plan.

The Longinus’ engines roared to life, then after a few minutes, the ship lights began to shut off sections at a time. Only the core would glow, and the cannon fired once again, only this time the ship was rotating simultaneously. The beam, which was 30 kilometers long on the first shot, was now fanned out into a kind of tidal wave beam. Half a dozen Allied ships melted and exploded. Desperate to break the lines near the Longinus, the Allied fighters and bombers split into a dual-pronged formation, one side driving a wedge near the Longinus, and another miles away at a weaker portion of the Risen line. Heat-seeking missiles screamed across the stars and exploded in cacophony as reinforcements came in to protect the Longinus with countermissiles. Longinus’ next target looked to be one of the Allied superdreadnoughts, the SSX Narayanastra.

Realizing that the Narayanastra was not yet within range to fire its missiles, a small wing of the Suicide Kings broke off and headed toward the Longinus’ line of fire. There was little resistance since the Risen fighter wings evacuated the area in preparation for the next shot. When the group saw the Longinus’ lights power down sections at a time, right before the last section turned off, one of the ships remained while the other few also evacuated. The ship, piloted by a Mersian, underwent a massive implosion, and soon the space surrounding it warped. The Longinus fired off its beam without fail towards the Narayanastra, but the beam suddenly veered as it neared the site of the imploded ship and its resulting gravitational displacement. The beam bent fifteen degrees instead of going straight, which was sufficient to miss the Narayanastra completely, although it seared a few cruisers at the rim of the Allied fleet.

The Narayanastra, finally within range of the front lines, fired its volleys of missiles. It was as though fragments of the ship was breaking away, the ship seemingly expanding in size and at the same time dissolving. Millions of missiles flared from the ship, a horrifyingly beautiful sight, like a poisonous flower. Hundreds of ships and fighters threw their countermissiles at the “wall of arrows”, concentrating their defense into protecting the Longinus. But as the sight of exploded missiles neared the fleet, it was clear that there were insufficient countermissiles, and ships, one after another, suffered heavy damages, and eventually detonated. As the final volley passed through, more than a third of the fleet had been annihilated. With the Longinus at the center, and a void of sacrificed ships surrounding it, the ship began its retreat, bowing the frontline. Numerous Allied destroyers were sent in pursuit. The Suicide Kings were closest to the juggernaut, but could not launch an effective strike against the impregnable defenses of the Longinus.

What seemed like a likely Allied victory became a fatal hubris. It was time for the Risen to debut their hyperstring weapon. Since the frontline had now become a curve like a bow, the Risen activated ships on the fringes that were capable of creating “strings” of particles between them. These thin filaments were capable of cutting through hulls like cutting cheese with metal wire. The Allied ships that were in pursuit of the Longinus had no idea until the first dozen ships were sliced, that they began a full retreat. But the Risen ships were already moving at maximum speeds, thereby cutting up additional ships that tried to retreat. Only small fighters could evade the hyperstrings, but unable to see them, only half were lucky to pass through without harm.

Because of the circular configuration of the frontline (which looked like a ring), after some time of chaos, the remaining fighters concentrated their attacks on the 11 o’clock section of the line, while the rest of the Allied fleet began their withdrawal, preparing for a rendezvous with the Risen fleet at the 12 o’clock section. Still, hoards of Allied ships were being sliced, while the Longinus, by this time, had fully reversed their course, swatting fighters as they were helpless against the defensive measures of the massive ship. The Longinus was like a spider ready to go in for its kill, with the Allied forces being caught in a deadly web.

The remaining Suicide Kings decided to execute the Omega Plan. Instead of chasing the Longinus, they went straight towards the star. The Risen fleet ignored them as having deserted the frontlines, and continued to decimate the Allied fleet. As the Allied fleet huddled towards the 12 o’clock section of the frontline, the Longinus continued firing its particle beam at the clustered ships, destroying a far greater ratio of ships than an otherwise spread out formation would permit. But a full retreat would not be possible; a gravity jump would take a few hours to prepare. The fleet needed another 3 hours to survive, prepare a gravity jump while moving, and avoid being sliced up by the hyperstrings, if not fricasseed by the Longinus’ beam.

On the final hour, the fleet had amassed at its intended location and fought the Risen fleet. Overwhelmed by the clustering of the opposing fleet, the local section of the Risen fleet pulled back slightly; their hyperstring trap ineffective now that the ships could not encompass the fleet. The Longinus, on the other hand, continued to fire, and the Allied fleet was reduced to forty percent of its original number. But the gravity jump was ready. All of the fighters retreated back to the nearest hangars they could find, and the space around the warships began to warp and bend. The hyperstrings neared the location, but was found ineffective against the massive gravitational bending. And not before long, a pitch blackness enveloped the Allied fleet, and they were gone.

As the Risen fleet reformed and sent out reconnaissance wings, an urgent report came to the admirals of the fleet: the star exhibited massive particle emissions. A telescopic visual feed saw the formation of a black hole near the star, and it was beginning to feed off the star. The accumulating gas near the black hole was heating up and emitting streams of particles from two “poles” of the black hole. After a few hours of discussion, the Risen fleet notified their homeworld, Alphanon. Government scientists quickly surmised that the stream could not be stopped nor sufficiently deflected, as there were no gravitational technologies or manufacturing capabilities to deal with this. Within a few months, Alphanon’s orbit would pass through the stream, evaporating the planet’s atmosphere and scarring the surface with a bombardment of rays and particles. A planetary evacuation was necessary; Alphanon was going to die. Indeed, the Xenon Alliance had developed the first gravity bomb.

FarewellMyGloriousLily-Prelude

Prelude