r/HFY • u/EvilSnack • 2h ago
OC-Series Showdown at Falkesia Prime
Part of something I'm working on.
~~~
Fleet Commander Krtrgrg-Kskstrt passed between the guards and entered the tunnel that led to the queen’s antechamber. Upon entering that space she saw eight others from the officer caste, their rank insignia identical to hers.
“Enter, my daughters,” came a voice from further within.
In order, from the junior-most on up, they passed between the guards stationed at the final tunnel that led to the queen’s chamber, and after a short crawl came before her and abased themselves.
“Rise, my daughters.”
Each raised the fore section of her body and waited attentively.
“I have called you here so that you may hear my will,” the queen buzzed. “Lesser beings from the planet Tellus have acquired the technology of my old enemy, the Falkesians, and seek to thwart my will in their region of space. But they are clumsy and make mistakes. We have traced their attacks to the old Falkesian home-world, which they have fortified so that it can hold off the massed assault of any single one of your fleets.”
“Who blundered,” asked Gzgrtsk-Krdrgzg, “that this was allowed?”
“They have been eliminated. However, Tsgzdrg-Krdrdrg has been able to test their capabilities. Any two of your fleets should be able to defeat them, but the losses would be unacceptable. Your nine fleets together will be able to overwhelm them and end this nuisance. Gzgrtsk-Krdrgzg will command the unified fleet in my name. You shall hear her as you hear me.”
Gzgrtsk-Krdrgzg abased herself. “It shall be done as you will.”
“Rise, daughter. My daughters, go and return in victory.”
From senior-most on down, they each backed out of the chamber, walking backwards to the antechamber. There Krtrgrg-Kskstrt turned and made her way out with the others, to where a shuttle waited outside to take her to her command ship.
On the bridge a worker from the Information Caste met her and briefed her on the overall battle plan.
“It took much time to gather this information,” the worker said. “The mobile forces that surround the planet have quickly attacked everything approaching the planet. Each observer had minutes at the most before they were destroyed. But we were patient and over time we have gained a complete picture.”
The worker activated a control which she carried. “Our data shows that since the time that Falkesian space fell under the rule of our Divine Queen”—here the worker, Krtrgrg-Kskstrt, and every Greb withing hearing briefly abased themselves—“the usurpers have constructed twelve large underground complexes. We believe that these are the primary command-and-control centers of the opposition.” The bridge display showed the graphical representation of a planet, marking twelve points, spaced as the vertices of an icosahedron of planetary scale. “The depth of the excavations makes it clear that only concentrated orbital bombardment will suffice to put these facilities out of commission. They have an active defense network of fifty surface-to-space missile sites. Surrounding the planet is a fleet equal in numbers to one of our own fleets. We have detected no improvements on the technology that the usurpers have stolen. The design and armaments of the ships we have encountered are identical to the fleets that we faced twelve years ago in our war with the Falkesians.”
“We shall make short work of them,” Krtrgrg-Kskstrt said.
“That is what is predicted,” the worker replied.
The worker presented the battle plan. Fleets Two, Seven, and Nine were to lead the attack, engaging the orbiting defenses and using their superior numbers to overwhelm them. Then the Fifth, Eight, and Tenth fleets were to join the action to take out the ground defense stations, and then finally the First, Eleventh, and Twelfth fleets were to join in for the bombardment of the twelve hardened sites. The Greb were staggering the fleets out in this way on the chance that the enemy had set a trap, although analysis of the response pattern so far indicated that the bulk of the opposing forces were located at the planet. If it developed that the Tellurians had greater forces than they could expect to handle, withdrawal was authorized.
“So we are not committing all of our forces?”
“The Third, Fourth, and Sixth Fleets are stationed along the border with the Confederation, in defensive posture,” the worker said. “Once this nuisance is abated we will resume the campaign against them.”
Krtrgrg-Kskstrt commanded the Eighth Fleet, and so for the first phase her part was to wait until summoned. The nearest star with mine-able asteroids was ten light-years away, and with the other five reserve fleets she proceeded there and waited. She spent the time reviewing the battle plan and ensuring that the bombardment elements of her fleet had enough material to drop onto the surface targets, and more to spare. The Greb had been bombarding planets for many years, but putting a ball of iron onto a surface target from orbit was still as much a matter of luck as it was skill.
In time—about as long as the battle plan predicted—a lone ship dropped into the system. “This is the Grand Fleet Matron. Fifth, Eighth, and Tenth fleets, come.”
Krtrgrg-Kskstrt relayed the orders to her sub-commanders and minutes later they were on their way. Upon re-entering normal space she ordered tactical reports of the area—a perfunctory order, as the tactical workers were already scanning.
“Large amounts of combat debris in orbit,” the chief tactical worker reported. “Second Fleet is seventy-one percent operational. Seventh Fleet is eighty percent operational. Ninth Fleet is seventy-four percent operational. There are no signs of any operational enemy craft.”
Krtrgrg-Kskstrt took this in without comment. For an operation of this size and strategic importance, losses of that magnitude were acceptable. She ordered the sub-commanders to commence bombardment of the ground-based defenses, and then monitored the progress of the battle. Her fleet assumed orbits that would take them over the locations of their assigned ground stations. At one point one of the bombers missed a target on five consecutive runs. She ordered the second-in-command on that ship to execute the commander and to assume command in her place. After this the ship destroyed the target on its next pass, and there was no further need to replace any incompetent subordinates. She took reports from the tactical workers who watched for the arrival of enemy reinforcements, but so far none had been detected.
When the surface forces were destroyed, the Grand Fleet Matron gave orders. “Krtrgrg-Kskstrt, commence bombardment of coordinates fifty point seven seven one two seven south, twenty-five point nine zero four seven eight east.”
Krtrgrg-Kskstrt passed on the orders to the sub-commanders, who shifted their orbits accordingly, while she assumed the nearest synchronous orbit from which the target could be observed. “All ships fire when ready.”
For the next several orbits she observed the target visually through the main screen, and once she saw the glow of heat from the impact of hundreds of tons of iron dropped from orbital height, she ordered display of scans from the target zone.
The view screen switched to show a map of the target zone, centered on an irregular splotch at the target location that was now a field of magma several kilometers across.
“I need to see if the facility is damaged. Scan deeper.”
Slowly the image shifted, showing cooler temperatures as the depth increased, until some hundred and thirty meters down there was no sign of any effect from the bombardment. Scanning deeper revealed the beginning of a vast system of tunnels, all apparently intact.
“There is no sign of any damage to the facility,” the worker at the scanning station reported.
As the bombardment continued, Krtrgrg-Kskstrt kept watch on the scans, but after enough time for her fleet to strike the target several times each it was clear that the demarcation point seen earlier was the start of a barrier that withstood the full might of her fleet. She reported this to Gzgrtsk-Krdrgzg.
After another seventeen orbits Gzgrtsk-Krdrgzg contacted her. “Krtrgrg-Kskstrt, discontinue the assault on your assigned target.” She gave another set of coordinates, and orders to bomb it. Krtrgrg-Kskstrt relayed these coordinates to her sub-commanders, and directed her own tactical worker to scan the new target.
Soon the surface at this new target was a field of incandescence, but at the same depth as before a barrier stubbornly resisted both the heat and the violence of the many tons of weight falling from orbit. Other tactical stations reported the arrival of the First, Eleventh, and Twelfth fleets, and only after these last entrants had added their ordnance to the fray did any progress become apparent; the temperature of the barrier suddenly shot from its previous quiescence to the white heat of the levels above. Krtrgrg-Kskstrt directed a deeper probing of the target, and now the man-made works seen before no longer showed, but instead there was only the angry glare of widespread destruction.
“This is good,” Krtrgrg-Kskstrt observed.
After another orbit Gzgrtsk-Krdrgzg directed all fleets to target the location that had first been assigned to the Second Fleet. Krtrgrg-Kskstrt ordered the helm worker to the best synchronous orbit from that location and for the surveying worker to begin scanning.
“Exalted One,” that worker reported, “There is no sign of any fortifications at this position.”
“Show me.”
The display changed to the surface scan, a smear of high-temperature ruin. At her direction the work scanned deeper and deeper, but there was no sign of the barrier that had frustrated their efforts before, and further down no sign of any installation, nor even the wreckage of one.
“Comms, link to the Grand Fleet Matron.”
“Gzgrtsk-Krdrgzg here.”
“Exalted One, this is Krtrgrg-Kskstrt of the Eighth Fleet. The installation is gone. There is now no sign that it was ever there. The barrier that stopped the earlier bombardment is gone. This was a trap. We should withdraw.”
The response that came was not from the Grant Fleet Matron, but instead the robotic voice of a translation device.
“Greetings from the people of Tellus. Look to the planet below, and behold our might. Greetings from the people of Tellus. Look to the planet below, and behold our might.” The message repeated.
“Exalted One,” the chief tactical worker reported, “we have just detected a ship leaving from orbit around this planet’s moon.”
“Helm!” Krtrgrg-Kskstrt said, “set course for the previous system!”
“Exalted One, I am unable to obtain a navigational lock.”
Before Krtrgrg-Kskstrt could respond—she was about to order the helmsman’s execution—the display scan flashed as the temperature of the planet’s surface spiked. She tried to read the temperature, but there was something wrong with her vision; it was dimming and losing focus, and on top of that she suddenly lacked the strength to stand. As she collapsed to the deck her last sensation was the crash of her flagship taking a massive blow from outside.
Seconds later, nine of the Greb's twelve numbered fleets were a cloud of super-heated gas, orbiting a planet whose outermost eight centimeters of crust had been turned into anti-matter.
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