Read Starship Conquistador (Conquest of Stars Book 1) Online
Authors: Sid Kar
Starship Conquistador (Conquest of Stars Book 1)
STARSHIP
CONQUISTADOR
Book
One:
Conquest of Stars
Saga
SID
KAR
Copyright © 2016
Sid Kar
This story is a
work of fiction. All names, characters, places, events, persons are fictional
and product of author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living
or dead, places and events is purely coincidental.
Front
Cover Image(S) purchased from
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rights reserved
“War!”
The cry rang out from the floor of the
Senate of the Nestorian Republic as the supporters of the measure yelled with
joy and raised both of their hands up and down in the air.
General Bakus Ferran who was watching
the proceedings from the gallery wondered if the senators knew how uncertain
the outcome of the looming conflict really was. All they had to do was vote up
or down, it was he who had to ensure the actual victory. They were celebrating
as if they had voted to decree victory, General Bakus scoffed, what no assembly
could decree even with a unanimous vote, but soldiers had to win with their own
mettle.
Chancellor Augus Grave raised his right
hand with his palm open and facing outward to quiet down the senate. He had to
announce the vote twice to confirm it.
“The measure to authorize war passed
with 36 ‘Yeses’ to 24 ‘Nos’,” Chancellor Augus spoke a second time and the
senate clerk typed it on the computer.
Vice-Chancellor Remus Torus looked up
at the gallery and his eyes caught sight of General Bakus who was looking right
back at him. They exchanged a glance and left the senate chamber through the
doors behind their backs.
Remus walked outside in the hallway
and took the stairs and he met General Bakus coming down from the other side.
“That uproar there,” Bakus said, “You
would think we had won the war.”
“Can’t blame them,” Remus said as he turned
around and both of them walked down the stairs and turned right into an empty
corridor. “Our exploration and mining spaceships have been getting attacked for
years now. Nestorians have been getting abducted and to who knows what end. We
have sat around twiddling our thumbs and now finally we fight back.”
“Against a mysterious enemy whose
strength we do not know,” General Bakus said.
“You do not approve of the war
measure?” Remus looked at him.
“I did not say that,” Bakus said, “I am
just wary of a war against an alien civilization that may be considerably more
technologically advanced than us.”
“Or considerably less,” Remus said, “We
are not some two or three planet civilization or even a dozen planet one that
is just getting its teeth into space travel. We are a spacefaring republic of
60 planets with 34 battleships in our arsenal.”
“The 34th is under construction now,”
Bakus said.
“And let’s not forget the Starfire
Cannon,” Remus said.
They stopped as they came to the end of
the corridor.
“Will you be joining me for the battle
Vice-Chancellor?” Bakus asked him.
“I have to. As per our rules there must
always be a political leader present at a battle,” Remus said.
“We will inform you,” Bakus said, then
turned to the door, pressed a button and the door slid open. He walked out into
an open pathway outside of the building that connected to a round airpad. A
squadron of soldiers circled the airpad and an aircraft was waiting to fly the
general to his battleship in the orbit above.
Vice-Chancellor Remus Torus fastened
his belt as his spaceship rapidly approached the planet Blackskull and the two
pilots cut power to the engine to counteract the acceleration induced by the
planet’s gravity. Remus looked over his pilots’ shoulders and out the front
window and saw the black-gray planet staring right back at him. Two huge pools
of black sludge that were a mixture of coal and assorted liquids were visible
even from space. It was a bleak planet whose two ‘eyes’ of sludge seemed to
laugh at any visitor foolish enough to land on it.
Their small spaceship rapidly
decelerated as they entered the thin but noxious atmosphere of the planet and
then slowed down to the speed of an aircraft as it flew towards the lone outpost
that existed on Blackskull.
Remus saw soldiers running around in
gas masks setting up laser cannons miles further from the main base. Their
plane approached the runway and made its descent. When it landed the pilot
pressed a button to open their roof and all three of them jumped out on the
runaway. They did not need masks here because two large air-filter towers kept
the air breathable for a mile around the base. The pilots walked over to the
traffic control tower where the visitors reported but Remus as the
vice-chancellor didn’t have to go through any formalities. Instead, his host
General Bakus was on his way on foot towards him.
“Welcome Vice-Chancellor Remus,”
General Bakus said, “I hope your trip wasn’t rushed.”
“I had my bags packed and ready for a
month now,” Remus replied as Bakus led him to the base.
“Leave your bags in the ship, my
soldiers will get them,” Bakus said.
They walked towards the central
building of this base and Remus looked up and saw a long, elongated black
telescope like structure rising out of the round building and reaching into the
sky at the 45-degree angle.
“Starfire Cannon!” Remus remarked, “How
long is that?”
“The cannon is five hundred meters in
length,” Bakus said, “At its base it has a diameter of 5 meters but it very
gradually narrows to 2 meters in the front.”
They approached the entrance which was
a large steel door and the soldiers in front of it saluted General Bakus and
pulled a lever to raise the door. They entered inside and the two of them took
an elevator that descended down for nearly a minute.
“Why are we going so far below?” Remus
asked.
“The steel and concrete above protect
the operations room below,” Bakus said.
“But the cannon is vulnerable,” Remus
said.
“Unfortunately yes,” Bakus said, “That
is why we have camouflaged it with the surrounding planet surface. It was
originally painted red and black but we painted over the red. We can’t dig it
inside the ground because we need to be able to maneuver the energy ray.”
“Couldn’t you make it mobile like put
it on a train?” Remus asked.
“The Starfire Cannon needs massive
supplies of power,” Bakus said as their elevator came to a stop. They exited
and started walking down a corridor. “The transmission lines would break if the
cannon is mobile and we can’t drag seventy power plants behind a train.”
“Seventy!” Remus stopped for a second
and looked at Bakus.
“Yes, all but one dedicated solely to
powering the energy ray weapon,” Bakus said, “the remaining one powers the
base. All seventy power plants are buried under the operations room one on top
of the other miles below further. That is why this planet was chosen for this
energy guzzling weapon. It is located near our frontier space and a large part
of it is made up of coal. Our power plants simply have to mine around them to
get the fuel.”
Remus and Bakus entered the donut
shaped operations room. There were about two dozen soldiers and officers
operating computers and electronic controls along the circular wall. In the
center was the base of a giant telescope which opened on the surface and
allowed the operations room to keep an eye on the activities on top around the
cannon.
“You are throwing quite a lot of
firepower in this battle, General,” Remus said.
“The laser cannons on the surface and
space fighter planes parked on our runaways above are just for the defense of
this weapon,” Bakus said.
“The six battleships hiding behind the
gas giant are the real punch,” Remus said.
“You saw them?”
“I had the coordinates for their
location, so I told my pilots to swing by them,” Remus said.
“I want to trap the enemy fleet in
space between our battleships and this planet,” Bakus said, “The gas giant’s
gravity will severely degrade their speed and ability to escape giving us time
to aim and destroy them with Starfire Cannon’s energy ray.”
“And where is our flagship, your
command Battleship Republic?” Remus asked.
“That was the bait,” Bakus smiled, “I
had sent it out in the frontier space where our ships were being attacked by
the mysterious enemy. For two months since the vote in the senate for war, it
cruised in the uncharted space but to no avail. Then five days ago it was
attacked by three large unidentified spaceships.”
“That’s when the chancellor received
your message and sent me here,” Remus said.
“For the battle is coming, the Republic
is coyly leading our enemies to us, pretending to be running scared with the
aliens in hot pursuit,” Bakus said, “Their estimated time of entry in this
solar system is just two days and six hours.”
The red alert started flashing and the
shrill siren blared across all the rooms and corridors of the operations
center. Vice-Chancellor Remus Torus jumped in place and then quickly steadied
himself. He was the highest leader here and he needed to show calm even though
he felt fear inside of him. Remus was looking at the mirror at the time of the
alarm and rushed to finish pressing his clothes with a handheld low-heat press
that he was using to iron out the final wrinkles. He was wearing the colors of
the Nestorian Republic: Green and Gold. His full-sleeve thick shirt and pants
were dark green but the edges of the sleeves and the belt buckle were of gold
color while his shoes were polished black. Remus looked at himself in the
mirror one last time and felt his moustache and beard with his hand. He had
shaved carefully today and razor cleaned all the hair on his sides while
leaving a mustache and a beard on his chin. Remus had a square face and the
square shape of his facial hair gave him a firm appearance.
When he stepped out of the small room
that he had been assigned next to the operations room, he was surprised by the
order prevalent in the base. The alarm was still ringing and he had expected
soldiers and staff to be running around everywhere. He walked into the
operations room where he was greeted by General Bakus Ferran who was looking
crisp in his uniform, his hair shaved down to a whiz and his rectangular face
displaying a slight grin.
“I hope the alarm didn’t disturb your
sleep Vice-Chancellor,” Gen. Bakus said.
“I was out of the bed and getting
ready,” Remus replied, “You have a well-disciplined staff here.”
“A weapon like that,” Bakus said, “we
have some of our brightest recruits to operate it. But don’t be puzzled by the
lack of activity. The spaceships appeared on our scanners near midnight. They
just crossed the boundary of this solar system few minutes ago.”
“You have been awake since then?” Remus
asked.
“You have space lag and it is early
morning for you,” Bakus said, “It is evening on the surface right now.”
Remus walked over to the general and
looked at the large display of digital grids on a flat panel hanging on the
wall. He saw a green blip from their battleship chased by three blue blips that
represented the heretofore mysterious enemy. This was the picture from the
Gravitron Scanners placed on the surface. Because all four spaceships were
traveling at faster than light speed only the gravitron scanners could locate
them in real time as they were based on gravity readings which changed near
instantaneously at relatively short distances in space. Radio, Electromagnetic,
Infrared and other scanners were broadcasting a delayed picture and while the
computers used the spaceships velocities to forecast their most likely future
location, this data was slightly delayed and errors crept up from time to time.
“Any early deductions?” Remus asked.
“Many,” Gen. Bakus said, “The enemy
appears more powerful than we had thought. We have the readings on their length
and mass. Two of them are ten miles long on their longest axis and the third
one is twelve miles long. Our biggest, my flagship, is six miles long. These
aliens appear to be a technologically advanced spacefaring power just like us.”
“Does that mean they possess more
firepower than our ships?” Remus asked.
“Not necessarily,” Bakus said, “They
may be clumsy at miniaturization and construction.”
Remus hoped this was true and not just
wishful thinking on the general’s part.
“We will be concentrating Starfire
Cannon on their largest spaceship,” General Bakus said.
Remus did not say anything but watched
the movement on the display screen. The blue blips kept following the green
blip at a constant speed. The green blip slowly turned towards the gas giant
which was displayed as a large green sphere on the display.
In space, near the gas giant, the six
battleships that were in hiding sprung their trap and appeared in front of the
Battleship Republic and let loose a volley of faster than light speed rockets
aimed at the three intruders. In the gravity field of the gas giant all of
their speeds had been degraded below light speed and the three alien
battleships maneuvered to escape the sudden rocket onslaught. It was to no
avail as the rockets skirted past their own flagship and multiple rockets
rocked the alien spaceships with large explosions. But their shields were
sturdy and all three of them survived the initial attack.
Meanwhile, Battleship Republic had made
a roll in space and was now rapidly approaching the three startled enemy ships.
It opened fire with its lasers on all three of them and the lasers splattered
against their hulls taking off chunks of metal from the points of contact.
But the alien spaceships were not
completely caught off guards and they recovered in time to shoot their own
rockets at Republic which flew past them and dived into the gas giant to throw
off the rockets.
Most of the rockets flew past the
battleship and disappeared into the depths of the thick gas but a couple caught
up with the spaceship and exploded into its rear. The explosions ripped apart
large chunks of the metal from the rear and pummeled the battleship head first
into the planet. The ship drastically cut the power to its engine to avoid
getting sucked in and flew over the planet finally stabilizing in the orbit. It
made a full orbit and came out from the other side and this time it let loose
its entire contingent of spacefighters at the enemy. Spacefighters from the six
Nestorian and the three Alien battleships had already been launched and a laser
against laser dogfight had broken out in space.
“I should have been up there commanding
the Republic,” General Bakus curled his fist and remarked after he read the
damage report flashed on a screen that was beamed directly from his battleship,
“What was Pontus thinking charging across the alien spaceships like that
without having a clue about their potential.” Pontus was his second-in-command
and today was captaining Bakus’ battleship in his absence.
“Perhaps eager to prove his mettle as a
commander,” Remus said, “I hear there is quite a bit of jockeying amongst the
second-in-commands in our space fleet to receive a commission as the commander
of the 34th battleship under construction.”
“Nah…Pontus is not that reckless,”
Bakus said, “Looking at the first reports I would have made the same mistake.
The initial rocket impacts did far less damage than the same force would have
on our battleships.”
So these aliens were actually more
advanced than them, Remus caressed his chin.
“I am going to fire the Starfire
Cannon,” Bakus spoke out loud, “I had wanted to let the battle be settled by
our battleships and save this weapon for later, but they are taking a beating
out there.”
The staff in the operations room looked
at him. They were all here to operate this weapon and were simply watching the
battle taking place up in space on their scanners. A few were reporting results
to the General but that wasn’t their primary task.
“Mark the longest enemy battleship:
Mysterious One.”
“Marked as Mysterious One,” the
assistant plotting officer replied.
“Aim at Mysterious One,” Bakus said,
“Aim and Lock.”
“Aimed and Locked on Mysterious One,”
plotting officer replied ten seconds later when the weapon’s own gravitron
scanner locked in on the target.
“Alright, all power points online. Go.”
The power plant operator started
flicking switches on his panel and reported after a couple of minutes, “All
power plants standing by. Electricity generation in T minus 50 seconds.”
“Target Lock Status?” Bakus asked
“Target Lock holding steady,” plotting
officer replied.
“Switch on Superconducting
transmission,” Bakus said.
“Superconducting transmission on,” the
transmission technician replied after turning a knob.
“Electricity generation in T minus 25
seconds,”
“Prepare to fire,” General Bakus handed
a metallic card with firing authorization code to the assistant firing officer
seated next to him who inserted it in a slot.
“Firing code accepted,” he read off the
computer screen.
“Electricity generation in T minus 5
seconds,”
“Fire!”
“Firing weapon,” both assistant and the
main firing officers pulled their levers towards them and a second later the
combined electricity of the seventy power plants rushed through the
superconducting transmission wire and into the cannon’s energy transformer where
it was converted and condensed into a Ray that shot out of the long cannon and
rushed out into the space towards the longest alien battleship.
The rose colored energy ray delivered a
massive strike to the hull of Mysterious One as its outer shield shattered into
pieces at the strike point and the ray started burning a hole through the
ship’s outer surface and then went right in and came out from the other side.
Mysterious One’s violent maneuvers to
escape the ray conveyed the surprise its crew must have felt after being struck
by a weapon of such magnitude from out of nowhere. But the next moment it would
be Nestorians who would watch in amazement as the battleship accelerated within
seconds to light speed, left the gravity field of the gas giant behind and sped
off past planet Blackskull and into the edge of the solar system.
“General, it’s unbelievable,” officer
watching gravitron scanner remarked, “Mysterious One has hit 50 light speed…100
light speed.”
“What kind of engines must that ship
have to generate such acceleration?” Remus asked to no one in particular.
“Engines our science cannot produce,”
Bakus said.
“It’s gone,” the scanner officer said.
The ship had disappeared from the scanner and left the solar system.
The energy ray had also made a furious
arc across the sky to try to catch its target and was now sending its energy
pointlessly into the empty space.
“Reorient the weapon. Mark the enemy
battleship approaching us as Mysterious Two.”
“Marked as Mysterious Two,” assistant
plotting officer said.
“Aim and Lock on Mysterious Two,” Bakus
said.
“Not possible,” Plotting officer
replied, “Aim and lock failed.”
“Why?” Bakus barked.
“General, Mysterious Two has dropped to
the other side of our planet,” plotting officer shrugged his shoulder.
“I hope Pontus is taking advantage of
this and ganging up on the lone alien battleship,” Bakus said.
He was about to ask one of his officers
for data on the space battle still ongoing when another officer yelled.
“Spacefighters oncoming,” radar officer
said, “counting 200…count increased to 500,” he read off his radar.
“Speed?”
“Sub-light speed.”
“Must be searching for our cannon,”
Bakus said, “Otherwise I bet these bastards have engines even in their
spacefighters to go super-light speed inside a planet’s gravity field.”
“Should we retarget the weapon on the
third alien battleship?” plotting officer asked.
“No, shut down the weapon,” Bakus said,
“initiate power plant shutdown.”
“Power plant shutdown initiated,” the
power officer started reversing the switches on his panel, “Power plant
shutdown in T minus 10 seconds.”
“Shut off the weapon transformer,”
Bakus said, “Kill the ray.”
“Energy transformer off,” the firing
officers said and pulled out the metallic card from the slot.
“Power plant shutdown,” the power
officer said.
General Bakus took a sigh of relief. It
had gone just as they had trained and practiced for many times before but this
was the first time using it in actual combat conditions. The power plants and
the energy transformer of the weapon had to be shut down within ten seconds of
each other. If the power plants kept operating but with no outlet for their
massive electricity output then it would short circuit the whole base and
everything including the weapon and the underground power plants would be
destroyed. If on the other hand the energy transformer couldn’t draw any energy
it would implode upon itself creating an intense vacuum that would collapse
everything around for a large distance.
“The superconductors general?” the
transmission technician asked.
“Leave them on,” General said, “we
might have to use it again.” Keeping the superconductors cooled to near
absolute zero over such a large distance sucked a large amount of energy but it
was something he was willing to waste to shave off time for the next firing of
the weapon.
“I don’t wish to intrude on tactical
decisions but why did you shut it off?” Remus asked.