Tales of a Confederacy: The Intergalactic Wars

Bien Carlos C. Manzares

Prologue: Nothing Left

Crusader-14 'Alexander' ducked behind the husk of a burning tank as 55mm rounds screamed above his head. Explosions threw partially melted chunks of rock and metal onto his shields.

"Alexander-14," he said "requesting fire support!"

A second salvo pummeled the husk; one of the rounds pierced the thinned armor before exploding on the road behind while another exploded just behind where Alexander was hiding.

The trooper stood up and leveled his particle rifle, and fired. A particle bolt lanced from the weapon's barrel and tore into the armor of an enemy soldier, who screamed in pain and fell as his legs were severed from his body. He zoomed in on one of the autocannon's gunners and fired, the man fell, his head vaporized.

A Brawler class gunship descended from the sky and vaporized the emplacement with concentrated plasma and particle fire before one; two and then three trails of smoke rose from the ruined buildings and reached for the gunship. The aircraft shot down two of them before the third missile blew its right antigrav pod apart. The gunship spun uncontrollably into the air and exploded in a fantastic blue-white explosion on the ground.

"Target in sight," Alexander said as a truck lifted from the ruins and hovered away "taking a shot."

Alexander fired three times, the first one taking out the driver behind the armored cockpit, and the other two shredding the power convertor. The trooper crossed the 50 meters dividing him from his target in one leap and tore the doors off its compartment. Inside were three more enemies, he kicked at one and sent him splattering into the wall. The other drew an energy blade and slashed at him; the trooper dodged and fired one particle bolt into his skull. The third armed a grenade and lunged at him, Alexander caught the man and tossed him out of the truck, where the grenade turned him into shredded meat.

There was a single container inside the truck, Alexander ripped the cover off and tossed it away. Inside was a single cylinder. A holographic display displayed a countdown.

"Mission scrubbed." He said "They've armed it."

The timer ticked to zero and the world went white for Alexander.

---

Admiral Viktor Miroslav watched a bright light; a second sun form on the surface of the Solaria, oceans boiled into steam, soil turned into glass and the atmosphere was ripped away while the very crust of the planet itself cracked and shattered. Then the planet split apart.

"Kill them," Viktor said "make them pay for what they did."

"Fleet III," a voice said over the comm "disengage and form on the Sunrise Dawning. Let the bastards have their victory party, but make them remember that this is not over yet."

"All ships," Viktor ordered "launch the Tempest missiles and fall back."

The entire fleet fired its entire payload of Tempest missiles and jumped towards the Sunrise Dawning, each missile was 100 meters long, and could move at almost half the speed of light. Each carried dozens of antimatter warheads, clustered around a massive Sunrise Singularity Generator.

The barrage of missiles streaked towards the enemy fleet, the antimatter warheads jettisoned from the missiles and saturated the area with matter-antimatter reactions, irradiating several ships and destroying many others. The missiles continued on and were sucked into the singularities that they created. Ships were pulled in and torn apart by the massive gravitational forces, and then the singularities collapsed in bursts of pure, uncontrolled energy, vaporizing several hundred ships.

---

High-Admiral Kazimir Li'var Miroslav watched Fleet-III fall into defensive positions around his ship, the Sunrise Dawning; a massive hundred-kilometer long Sovereign.

The ship bristled with weapons and defensive batteries. And her armor was able to withstand the temperatures and pressures at the core of a Blue Giant star and her shields could weather far more punishment. She could hold and service multiple Destroyer class warships in her massive hull, alongside almost a thousand strike-craft and corvettes. She could take on multiple fleets on her own and win without a single scratch on her hull.

The ship had a small vertical and horizontal profile and her angular, bladelike form had a split running from her bow to amidships, which housed its main weapon; a Phased Antimatter Beam Array, just one shot at one percent of its output can shatter a planet like glass; thus the weapon has never been fired in anger. Her immense power requirements required her to have several Singularity Reactors which supplanted an ancient device that tapped into a dimension made purely of energy.

She was the flagship of the Confederacy of United Suns, a massive Confederation of Unions spanning three galaxies, bordering her were the United Galactic Democracy and the United Nations among the Stars, and both were her allies. The three were fighting for a group of galaxies known as the Resource Wells, which were held by a strange alien empire.

Kazimir looked grimly at the holoconsole, Strike Groups Delta Gamma and Beta Sigma had just disappeared from the screen as the fleet they were engaging was reduced to a quarter of its size.

"Enemy ships jumping in," the female Sensors operator announced "it's a Goliath squadron."

Kazimir cursed and began giving orders.

"Fleet II and III, move to flank the designated targets."

Kazimir highlighted two of the Goliaths.

"Helm, set heading to Goliath 3. WEPSCOM, fire Beam One on the Array at 10 percent power when the ship is in your sights."

The ship turned to face her target, and a pencil-thin beam lanced from the split. The Goliath caught the beam with its engine block and exploded violently in a burst of light.

"Choose your targets and fire the secondary Antimatter Beams on my mark."

---

Overlord Risentsu clicked his mouth in frustration, the faster Confederates were literally running circles around his Goliaths and their flagship had just destroyed another with one shot.

"Slave!" he growled "How can we defeat that monstrosity?"

A woman wearing a black robe stepped out of the darkness, a compeller was clipped around her neck.

"I do not know master," she said fearfully "the ship always wins."

The woman shrank under Risentsu's glare and went to her knees, bowing in shame before retreating out of the bridge.

"There is something wrong with the compeller again," Risentsu thought "I am going to kill the Crafter who gave me the unit."

---

Kazimir winced as one of the Goliaths destroyed a carrier with its beamers. The cruiser guarding it retaliated by firing her antimatter cannon, a flash of purple-blue light exited the split in the ship's bow and detonated on the enemy's hull. The stricken ship split apart, throwing radioactive debris into space.

"Helm," Kazimir ordered "move to engage the enemy ships, use a circling broadside. WEPSCOM, ready the particle weapons, I want all of them to be at 100 percent output when we get there."

The ship quickly closed the distance before circling the enemy fleet, particle cannons bombarding the flanks and sterns of the enemy craft. Many of the ships retaliated, but their weapons barely even harmed the shields.

Several of the Goliaths were engulfed in bursts of blazing fire while others merely winked out of existence. Two, three and then five of the ships fell. And the last Goliath disappeared into the realm of slipspace.

"There's nothing else to do here but mourn." Kazimir said over the comm "Let's go."

The armada engaged their jump drives and vanished into whirlpools of sparkling blue-white light, leaving a shattered planet and a massive debris field behind.

Deep within one of the husks, a single piece of machinery activated and used the last of its energy to fulfill an unknown function before detonating in a brilliant explosion.