destroyers disappeared in bright flashes. No debris, no internal explosions, nothing. Just a spherical wave of scattering photons. Denver was a little luckier, although I couldn’t really call it luck. The battleship’s protective field flared up and instantly went out. It was able to absorb some of the energy of the enemy salvo, but not all of it. The volley of toads could not completely destroy this Black Dragon-class battleship, but what was left of it could no longer be called a warship. A pathetic melted fragment barely a quarter of its original size remained of the once formidable fighting machine.
“Break off the attack! «Invisibles» and aircraft carriers, withdraw immediately from the battle!”
My order was too late. The drone torpedo carriers had already fired a salvo and were now laying down on a course to diverge from the planet, and nearly nine thousand torpedoes were rushing toward the enemy orbital fortresses, which had just destroyed eight of our ships, including the newest battleship, whose superiority over the enemy we had all pinned such hopes on, with the first shot.
The enemy managed to fire 13 more times, and now other orbital fortresses were firing. Apparently, it took a long time to recharge that unknown weapon. We lost two quarg aircraft carriers and 11 «Invisibles», and the rest of the ships managed to escape. And then a wave of our torpedoes hit three orbital fortresses.
Yoon Gao’s fears were not in vain. The network of fortresses really formed a single wall of energy protection. Perhaps if the torpedoes had been equipped with old-style warheads, few would have reached their targets. But now the torpedo was not required to make direct contact with the target. The disposable plasma cannon sent its charge to the target from a very respectable distance, so that anti-aircraft guns and short-range missiles largely lost their effectiveness against torpedoes, which simply did not approach the target at a dangerous distance.
For 15 seconds, the shield that covered the orbital fortresses was ablaze with continuous bursts of plasma blasts, and when the last flashes of fire went out, it was clear that the enemy defense was not absolute after all. Two of the three fortresses we attacked survived. At any rate, their markings remained in place, and we could not assess the damage the enemy had received as the camouflage fields were in the way. But the third fortress was gone. Its shapeless wreckage and fragments of armor and internal structures were pulled out of orbit and partly scattered in the surrounding space, and some fell to the planet, trapped by its gravity.
It was in grim silence that we watched the outcome of the battle. The exchange of a Black Dragon and two dozen other ships for one enemy orbital fortress looked depressing. We could console ourselves with the fact that we were cautious enough not to try to approach the planet with the whole fleet.
“The second search team found the enemy transport ring,” Yoon Gao reported over the hypercomms, and a new marker flashed on the tactical projection.
The toads had positioned a hypergate in the asteroid belt beyond the orbit of the seventh planet. They had not evacuated the portal personnel and seemed seriously intent on protecting such a valuable facility, now that the enemy had discovered it.
But here the situation turned out to be quite different. The hyperportal of toads was guarded in an unprecedented way for a autonomous space structure. Ten asteroids, put into circular orbits, orbited slowly around it. The enemy had turned them into a kind of orbital fortress, and I feared that it was not modern «frogs» who did this, but their distant ancestors back when the portal was built, so we could expect about the same kind of nastiness from these defenses that we already had the dubious pleasure of encountering near the fourth planet. And besides, three cruisers covered the hypergate, though, judging by some of the details of their construction, they were modern ships, far inferior to those built by the toads’ ancestors.
“The asteroids are close enough to each other, most likely, the protective field will be unified here, too,” Admiral Fulton suggested, “but, by all appearances, our fleet is quite capable of overcoming this defense.”
I agreed with the Chief of Staff in his assessment of the situation, but we were all getting very tired of losses. This endless war has taken the lives of the best, the most energetic and dedicated people and our allies, and lately I have seen it as my primary goal to stop this massacre. Yes, wars are not won without casualties, but the main question is what the commander sees as his main goal – a victory or saving the lives of his soldiers. Almost always this choice results in a compromise, but each time the compromise is left to the conscience of the commander ordering the attack.
“Commander Klitch,” I called the commander of the remaining aircraft carriers, “Are your ships capable to move automatically to the torpedo launching range, fire a salvo, and then proceed to a predetermined rendezvous point?”
“Yes, Commander, Sir, we can program our computers to perform such a task,” replied the quarg with a doubt in his voice, “but in this case the ships will not be able to react to changes in the combat situation and will carry out the order regardless of the actions of the enemy. It is impossible to control them remotely, this was done on purpose to prevent the enemy Electronic Warfare systems from intercepting the control in combat.”
“Commander Klitch, in the next five minutes you will receive the attack vector, as well as the coordinates of the torpedo launching point and the assembly point. Leave two aircraft carriers in reserve and order the crews of the others to prepare to evacuate to your ships that participated in the previous attack. They don’t have any torpedoes left anyway, so they’ll work as transports.”
“Yes, Admiral, Sir,” the quarg did not object or ask any clarifying questions. Apparently, the tradition of unquestioning obedience to a commander was deeply ingrained in his society. But I didn’t abuse it and explained my order.
“The enemy’s mobile forces are extremely weak. The toads will not be able to mount an active defense and do anything that might make it necessary to change the original order. As the previous attack has shown, your aircraft carriers, Commander Klitch, will be priority targets for the enemy’s new weapons in the coming battle. I see no point in sending your crews to certain death. It’s better to risk just the ships, even if we lose them all.”
I paused for a moment, giving the quarg a chance to respond, but Klitch only tilted his head slightly, and I continued with my mission statement to the fleet.
I ordered 56 of the 70 «Invisibles» not yet involved in the battle, to have their crews removed, and to prepare to attack in automatic mode, along with 17 quarg aircraft carriers. I divided the rest of the fleet into two equal groups. In the initial phase of the operation, they were to move with the ships left without crews, but long before they reached the torpedo launching line both groups were instructed to perform a flank maneuver in the ecliptic plane and simulate an attack on the toads’ portal from opposite sides. Except that I forbade them to go closer than two torpedo launch distances, at least until the results of the main torpedo strike are clear.
When planning the attack, we had to put too many unknowns into the calculations. Not only did we not know the physical principles upon which the enemy’s previously unknown weapons were based, we had no idea how long it would take to recharge before it could fire another salvo. But combat reconnaissance is designed precisely to get the missing information directly in combat, forcing the enemy to reveal their defense system and fire capabilities.
Half an hour later, during which time the disposition had not changed at all, I gave an order to begin the attack. The «Invisibles», rearranged in battle order, moved in an extended line ahead of our squadron. The quarg aircraft carriers stayed behind for now, as I wanted to provoke the toads to spend the charge of their ancient weapons on the «Invisibles» in order to give the aircraft carriers a chance to shoot off in peace. The death of even one of these huge ships would significantly reduce the density of our salvo.
“Squadron separation point,” Fulton reported, looking at the tactical projection.
The ships changed course, and two groups of six Black Dragons, five destroyers, seven «Invisibles» and one aircraft carrier split apart, beginning to outflank the enemy on both sides, and 17 aircraft carriers and 56 «Invisibles» continued to move directly at the enemy, who had prepared