Sean-Michael Argo - Dead Worlds

This was to be suspected as the deep cold of space made it impossible to mask the heat signatures of large vessels and battle groups.

“Captain, release the hunter-killers.” These hunter-killers were the first ships in the history of armada vessels to utilize the dark matter of space to conceal themselves from detection. Admiral Utang watched as they entered the Humani battle group’s outer screen, circumventing detection. In turn, they gathered data on enemy positions and relayed them back.

“Have them take out the passive Humani scouts,” ordered Admiral Utang.

The on-screen display showed the frail Humani scout satellites take fire and explode, as they were designed for detection rather than engagement. Within thirty micros, the outer screen of the Humani defense forces had been eliminated.

“Sir, the hunter-killers are breaching the Humani’s inner screen.”

“Mobilize the battleships and dreadnaughts just outside the outer screen, and dispatch Warmonger squadrons.” Every squadron in the invasion fleet launched and approached the now non-existent Humani outer screen, outnumbering the Humani Vortex fighters in the inner screen two-to-one.

As the Feng hunter-killers breached the inner screen, the Humani Vortex defenders buzzed around blindly, groping out into the cold darkness with their sensors, desperate to detect the smallest heat signature.

The stealth vessels, rather than engaging, reached out with their own sensors, reporting back on the Humani Vortex positions and formations. The quantum computers of the Dominance extrapolated data from prior Humani encounters, assessing the threat axis of the Humani defense forces.

One of the stealth vessels took a fatal hit, the explosion ripping through its cloak of dark matter. It quickly became a lifeless husk, its crew drifting out of its gaping wounds into the vacuum of space.

“Sir, the Humani have dispatched hunter-killers.”

Admiral Utang was stoic, entirely expecting this.

“Mobilize countermeasures.”

He and the captain watched as the wave of battleships and dreadnaughts breached the outer screen. Cloaked ships traded fire, desperately trying to get a fix on the others’ positions. More Feng stealth vessels were neutralized by the cloaked Humani hunter-killers. Those few remaining switched from reconnaissance to engagement out of self-preservation, taking a dozen or so Vortex fighters with them as they rejoined the Aether.

“Sir, we have lost all hunter-killers,” said Captain Klingu.

However, Admiral Utang was unfazed. This was war and was to be expected.

The Vortex fighters pulled up in battle formations to the edge of the inner screen, waiting to greet the Feng battleships and dreadnaughts. Their sensors scanned the cold depths of the battlespace, targeting systems and weapons running hot.

“Release the chaff,” Admiral Utang ordered.

The battleships released a cloud of radioactive nanites, lighting up the targeting systems of the Vortex formations and the cloaked Humani hunter-killers. Their targeting systems confused, registering vast clouds of bogeys, the Vortex formations retreated back into the inner screen.

The nanites swept over the battlespace, latching onto the cloaked hunter-killers, causing the Humani stealth vessels to register as silhouettes on the Feng scanners. Although the cloaked ships remained below the thermo-gradient, the effect was like throwing a sheet over an invisible man.

“Send in the fighter squadrons,” ordered Admiral Utang.

The Feng armada targeted the revealed Humani hunter-killers and engaged, neutralizing them in short order. The Humani and Feng fighter squadrons charged the battlespace.

Tactical maneuvers broke down into chaos as the squadrons of fighters swarmed each other, pitching and rolling, engaging in zero-gravity dogfighting.

The Humani fighter pilots were superior in matters of reaction time and tactics, and it showed as they made quick work of the Feng squadrons. Captain Klingu viewed the battle on screen with great apprehension. However, Admiral Utang knew that the Feng only needed to whittle down the Vortex screen enough, and that was exactly what they accomplished.

“Sir, the Humani are transmitting for reinforcements. Forces from Earth are entering spacefold.”

Admiral Utang sneered. “The Humani must be desperate if they are enlisting the help of the Humans.”

The Humans were the last race to enter the United Intergalactic Coalition. Their abilities were limited, and their training was cursory and inadequate due to the demands of war and the urgency to bolster UIC forces with numbers.

The Humans were an embarrassment, losing every skirmish in the war to the Feng, even to the lesser races of the Feng Empire. Therefore, they were largely relegated to supply chains, piloting transport vessels carrying munitions and parts as well as food.

Utang’s sneer morphed into a smug grin. “More target practice for our ships.”

The arrival of Human transports would serve as nothing more than a nuisance, putting off the inevitable Feng victory.

The Feng dreadnaughts entered the inner screen, pummeling the Vortex fighters and initiating offensive ECM, jamming the planet’s communications, cutting off the Humani from what was left of their crumbling forces.

This was a glorious day for the Feng Empire, and total victory was imminent. The Feng believed in ‘eating what you killed,’ and they were about to feast upon the remains of a decadent and obsolete political-economic union.

Once the dreadnaughts and the Feng second and third waves neutralized the Humani HVU’s, Admiral Utang would release battalions of the dreaded cyborg Cybion warriors onto the planet. While the Humani pilots may have been superior, their marines were woefully inferior to the ruthless Cybions. Flesh would always yield to metal, and the Cybions were killing machines, designed to instill fear and end lives with brutal efficiency.

Captain Klingu’s eyes went wide. “Sir, the Humans are exiting spacefold.”

“Prepare to engage,” said Admiral Utang.

“Sir, they are opening a wormhole exactly onto our coordinates.”

“What?”

“They are going to unfold in the dead center of our battle group.”

“Idiots!” was all Admiral Utang could utter before an opening in Spacetime breached the center of his command carrier…

The lights went on in the Aether chamber, and Captain Mongo Utang watched as the display of the Dominance battle bridge evaporated before his very eyes. He had been immersed in a ghost memory of the key battle in the last Intergalactic War as told through his father’s experience.

He fought his body’s urge to choke up, his face contorting with rage, as hot tears welled up in his eyes. ‘Frakking Humans!’

This was not the first time that Captain Utang had reviewed his father’s final hours in battle during the Intergalactic War. He had only been a child on his home planet when he received news of his father’s demise.

The Feng were raised as warriors, and the prospect of a ‘beautiful death’ in battle was welcomed rather than feared. However, to die at the bungling hands of Human cargo pilots, from an unwitting suicide mission that inadvertently wiped out the High Valued Units of the Feng invasion force, not to mention their key fleet commander, signaling a turning point in the war, was shameful and embarrassing.

With their most talented tactician gone, the Feng forces began to lose their tactical advantages. Additionally, emboldened by successfully defending their planet, the Humani began to regroup and rally the rest of the UIC forces in the Charted Galaxies. They even rallied a few from the Uncharted Sectors who wished to remain free from Feng oversight. All this was due to the serendipitous folly of the Humans.