Earth and Jurain War
Disclaimer: I do not own Tenchi Muyo. I just have fun.
The war isn't going well. Four years of fighting and nothing to show for it but 40 million dead bodies. Colonies blown to hell and back, countless fighter squadrons destroyed, cruisers wreaked, and all sorts of other crap. And now, I out here on patrol checking my asshole to make sure no Jurains are sneaking up there, this sucks. Joseph Ruthenburg relaxed into the seat of his space fighter. He raked his eyes over the cockpit displays and settled into his patrol route. His fighter's autopilot system put the craft into a 22 degree starboard roll and turned to the long leg of patrol route and then straightened out before continuing on its new course. "Humans fighting the Jurains. What the hell is that all about? Coming into our space, lecturing to our leaders about the backwards of our race, our 'immorality', the weaknesses of our leaders, the flaws of our government... 'You will become valued members of the Jurian Empire.' What a bunch of shit. We had every right to attack. They provoked us into declaring war. We could not know, there was no way we could have known... about their little secret. Hell, the ship is running without proper ID codes, and they opened fire on OUR forces. The first blood was on their hands. Course, that little girl couldn't have known what the 7th fleet was doing in that system, but what the hell is up with giving 17 year old princesses command of battlecruisers?"
A light blinked on the starfighter's control panel, and the computer began beeping for his attention. Ruthenburg leaned forward and activated the communications system to receive the incoming message.
"This is the Coalition Carrier Ares to all patrolling starfighters; we have detected a Jurian battlecruiser located in star quadrant 50i approx. 500,000,000 kilometers from our present position. Break off patrol duties and return to the carrier immediately."
Joseph Ruthenburg activated the cockpit radio with his free hand, "This is Starfighter 01 Beta to Carrier, message has been received, heading back to your position."
"We copy fighter 01 Beta, Keep this channel open for further reports."
"Roger control. Computer, shift navigational point to current position of home carrier, set auto-pilot, best possible speed." After relaying the rest of his commands to the computer, Joe checks his spacesuit's seals to make sure they are all functioning. There were many horror stories about pilots with suit ruptures that had been sucked into open space through the rupture when their cockpits decompressed. Two years of warfare with the Jurains had made everyone in the Coalition very cautious. Cautious people were the only ones left in the military. Careless people usually didn't survive to see a soldier of Jurai face to face.
"Computer, estimate time to carrier interception."
"Estimated time to carrier arrival is 40 minutes." replayed the cockpit computer to a toneless female voice. Although the current computer voice was devoid of all expression, it was preferable to previous attempts by the scientists to make the computer systems more user friendly.
Time passed slowly in the cockpit of Joe's starfighter. A recent news report resurfaced in Joe's memory. Several weeks ago, he heard that Princess Aeka, heir to the throne of Jurai, and the A-1 class criminal Ryoko had been reported missing. Aeka, had disappeared while on a journey to meet with a special suitor on some far off planet. Ryoko had been running from the GP when she too disappeared along with the officer that was trailing her. Since then, little information had been received about either of them. Some of the generals in the high command were worried about this development, if the Princess was not found, the Emperor of Jurai might come to the conclusion that she had been captured or killed by the humans, and add that offense to humanities' list of 'crimes' against the Jurain people. Earth would really be in it deep then. The war of retribution would become a war of vengeance and Joe doubted the emperor would stop until humanity had been wiped from the stars. Well, no matter, if the Emperor wanted to play hard ball, Joe Ruthenburg, ace pilot would defeat him and reclaim all of what the Coalition had lost. Joe chuckled to himself inside the bulky spacesuit. As a child he had had fantasies of becoming a great pilot, or a famous hyperball player, or pleasing his parents by performing wondrous academic achievements. Now he was fighting for their lives, and by the look of things, he wasn't doing a very good job.
After a half hour of boredom and a few unpleasant moments of urinating into a plastic tube, the navigational computer alerted Joe that the carrier was within visual range. The C.S.S. Ares was a magnificent ship, a marvel of human ingenuity and technology. She was half a mile long, 2000 ft wide and her internal storage bays could carry enough supplies to take the ship and the men and women aboard it to the rim of space and back. The materials used to construct her had to be mined from asteroids; the amount of raw materials needed would have depleted a planet twice as large as Earth. Joe stared proudly at the huge ship. He had been aboard her for 7 months now and loved his new post. The humming of the ship's systems helped him sleep, and the sound of thousands of people talking across the ship eased his loneliness at times.
Now, the great ship was flanked by several of her smaller escorts which made up the 14th Reserve Fleet. The C.S.S. Ares was deemed so capable by the High Command she didn't have any of the support vessels that usually accompanied Coalition StarCarriers. The Ares stood alone against the forces of Jurai. The 14th Reserve Fleet had done fairly well for itself. They had destroyed 4 Jurain Battlecruisers and 16 smaller vessels in the 6 weeks they had been on patrol. Their current mission had been to find a route through the Muterian Nebula safe enough to establish a convoy route through quadrant 49 and cut off 20 Jurain fleets and 60 Galaxy Police fleets from supply. It was dangerous work. This sector of space was used widely by Jurian resupply vessels and patrolled frequently by the Galaxy Police. Since the GP wanted to maintain their good relations with Jurai, they had started to take offensive actions against the Coalition in the recent months. It seemed everyone was turning against the human race. Only the Cathoons, a strange race of catlike beings had allied themselves with the humans. Apparently, they had a lot of bad blood between them and the Jurains and were taking the opportunity to repay them for past grievances. Now if they could link up with a Cathoon Carrier force, then the plan would be a success and go a long way towards saving Earth and breaking the Jurains stranglehold on the Galaxy.
Suddenly, a voice over the comlink shook Joe out of his reverie. "This is control to all fighters, the target has been confirmed, Jurain Battle Group sighted in Quadrant 50i. Flagship is a royal family battlecruiser. The ship belongs to a member of the upper house of Jurai. Assume enemy to be a class one threat. Fighters are free to engage, usage of cluster munitions has been authorized. Good Hunting."
Joe grabbed the control column and swung his fighter towards the enemy battle group. The computer started to feed targeting data into his HUD display. He looked over the controls and began one last system check.
"Computer, master arm off, engage ACM, activate defense systems, bring RCS on-line, and bring reactor under flux control."
The two groups of enemy fighters began to close in on one another. The Jurain battle group resembled a collection of wooden carvings moving through space. The light from distant stars glinted of the metal hulls of the human ships, making them shine like newly minted coins. The human fighters began to maneuver 'up' towards the incoming Jurian ships. Frantic shouts began to fly over the radio as the two sides began to engage in battle. The Ares fighter wing started the battle by volleying off their missiles into the Jurain fighters. Most of the missiles were intercepted by the Jurain suppressive fire, but 12 hits ended an entire Jurain squadron. Then the two forces mixed it up in individual furballs.
"I've got two trees on my tail!"
"Starfighter 01 break left!"
"Fucking tree is turning with me."
"Alpha leader ejec... BOOM!" Static filled the communications frequency for a moment.
"I can't shake em, I can't shake em"
"Starfighter 1 break left!"
In front of Joe's cockpit a lone Star Fury is screaming away from two Jurian fighters which are closely following him. The pilot was trying to pull away from his pursuers by slamming his fighter into full afterburner. He was slowly pulling away from the pursuing fighters but their weapon blasts were coming closer and closer to him. However, the pilot had one trick up his sleeve and used his RCS thrusters to flip sideways and rake his pursuers with concentrated fire. Both Jurain fighters were destroyed.
"Starfighter break left!"
Instantly, on cue, all the human fighters in Joe's immediate area pulled High-G left turns and starting diving away from imaginary or real pursuers. Seeing a Jurian fighter that had gotten separated from the main force, Joe fired his navigational thrusters and slid in behind the Jurian craft. He corrected for the other craft's slight jinking maneuvers and fired a burst of plasma bolts at the turning fighter. The energy from the impact caused the Jurain fighter to explode into a million fiery chunks of organic material. Joe banked right and began searching for another target. The chatter on the radio told him the fight was still roughly an even match due to the greater number of Jurain fighters. The Jurains had destroyed 9 human fighters while losing 16 of their own in the furballs. The two capital ships and their escorts were slowly closing in on each other. The crew of the Ares was rapidly shouting different orders over the radio to their escorting fighters and the various support vessels in the battle group.
"Cruiser Toluene, turn 16 degrees to port and line up with the destroyer Pavilion, C.S.S. Hermes launch all fighters immediately and have them support 4th squadron. Remaining members of 7th squadron, break off combat and head back to Home Base for resupply."
"Sir, sensors detect 2 Jurain Battlecruisers attempting to join the party."
"Sensors please confirm that report. Weapons bring all forward batteries to ready status. Prepare Star Flash Missile System for launch."
"Weapons copies Captain. All forward batteries report ready, Star Flash system will be on-line in 45 seconds. Targets?"
"Target the Jurain Royal Family Battlecruiser."
"Confirmed, Royal Family vessel targeted, computing firing solution."
"Sir, we have confirmed 2 Jurain Battlecruisers with escorts are entering the party!"
"Weapons do you have that firing solution yet?"
"Royal Family vessel has been targeted sir, firing solution is confirmed, and the missiles' internal computers are tracking the target."
"Fire when ready."
"Yes sir... Firing in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... launch commit, 2 missiles away. Missiles are tracking the targets, estimating 1 minute until target.
Two missiles blasted out of their launch tubes in the sides of the C.S.S. Ares and began ripping through the space separating the Ares and the Jurain fleet. The missiles flew straight and true, impacting on both sides of the Royal Family vessel. The twin explosions, like bright cherry blossoms, ripped through the ship's superstructure and tore off the hull plates on the other side. The Jurian vessel was gutted; it started to list along its y-axis, spewing its guts into open space. The arrogant Jurai always kept the oxygen going which made their ship such combustible targets when their hulls burst.
Cheers broke all over the C.S.S. Ares and inside of the cockpits of her fighters. Joe was faintly aware of yelling at the top of his lungs along with a multitude of others. A loud yell broke through the radio chatter to deliver its message.
"SIR, SENSORS SHOW JURIAN BATTLECRUISERS HAVE LOCKED ON TO US. FOUR... CORRECTION SIX ADDITIONALBATTLECRUISERS HEADING TO OUR POSITION FROM QUADRANT 48I, ETA 5 MINUTES." The whole fleet felt those capital letters from the panicked sensor officer.
"Sensor room, begin tracking the new contacts until they jump out of hyperspace. Weapons target the remaining cruisers and await my command." On the Defensive System's monitor, several red lights began to blink, begging the overworked crewman manning the station for attention. The young officer paled when he looked at the source of the problem.
"MISSILE! MISSILE! MISSILE! The Jurain ships have launched long-range missiles at us. Counting... 10 type 62 Fire Dragon missiles heading toward us. Missiles have acquired and are homing on our position.
The fighters surrounding the Ares began to distance themselves from the Carrier, trying to get out of the missile's blast radius to avoid being crippled when the missiles hit. Joe angled his fighter towards one of the surviving Jurian fighters and began pursuit.
On board the Ares, the Captain was shouting commands at the crew, preparing the ship for the missile attack. "Man your defensive stations! Sensors, get me more information on those incoming missiles. Weapons, arm Star Point missile defense guns. Divert power from Hyperspace engines to weapons. Vent all oxygen from the ship. Sensors, give me data on those missiles!"
"Missiles are still tracking, MBC reads 30 seconds until impact sir."
"Helm, begin evasive maneuvers. Defense, prepare to release countermeasures on my mark. Sound collision alarms; get the crew away from the outer hull in case of a breach." The crew leapt to obey.
The great ship began to spin counter-clockwise and accelerate at a -5 degree pitch relative to the center position of the nearest star. The 4 giant Magma fusion engines accelerated it to its top sublight speed of 500Gs.
"Missiles have begun final acceleration, impact in 6 seconds."
"Helm, break hard to port, release starboard countermeasures now!"
Several thousand pounds of sensor jamming materials were ejected out of the right side of the ship as the maneuvering thrusters fired and kicked the ship into a tight left turn. 7 of the Jurian missiles were confused by the countermeasures and either continued to accelerate forward or they turned into the large cloud of metallic chaff. The remaining three missiles turned with the Ares and impacted the ship just under the engine housing and engineering section. The Lower
Fusion engine immediately started its emergency shutdown cycle and damaged pump lines began spewing coolant liquids and hydraulic fluid into space before freezing and sealing the breach. Several million liters had been lost before the automatic safeties kicked in. The entire engineering section lost power for one or two seconds before the electrical system could compensate for massive shorts in the ship's power grid.
A crew of engineers were killed when the coolant line they maintained ruptured and covered them with reactor coolant that had been superheated to 4.0x105 degrees
C. Without coolant, the Fusion reactor went into the Emergency
Cooling Cycle and a 7 minute timer started counting down. The surviving engineers knew the ship would not have main power for 7 minutes while the reactor cooled to a safe level.
The crewmen assessed the damage to the ship. "Commander, damage report."
"Captain, we have lost main power. The core is in the emergency cooling cycle. Hyperspace engines have been damaged. In addition there are heavy causality reports coming in from engineering. They report that it will take 30 minutes to fix everything."
"Captain, sensors reports the 6 additional Jurain battlecruisers are 30 seconds from their subspace entry point."
"Captain, I can't get any word from engineering."
"Sir, Reports coming in from our escorts. The Invincible has been disabled. The Hermes has been heavily damaged and cannot move under her own power. The Pavilion is moving along side to assist, she has also taken a hit to her fighter bay. Her captain reports 45 combat effectiveness."
The Captain of the Ares took a deep breath. He looked at the tactical screen for a moment noting the positions of the Jurain ships. They were organizing their forces into a battle group. Probably the Imperial Guard formation. They would form an assault line and close in for the kill. Without help, the ship was defenseless and they could not retreat until the hyperspace engines had been repaired. Fear raced through the captain as he considered his few remaining options. Stand his ground and be destroyed or... "No, I can't do that. Earth would be lost. The entire Universe would unite against us. If I do not use them, 15000 more humans will end up dead. If I do, 10 billion might die in the witch hunt that would follow." The voices of the men and women he commanded seemed to call out to him. They spoke of revenge, their desire for life. The captain let out a tense breath; he knew that fulfilling their wish, winning a victory using those methods, would prolong this war and might be the action that ends the human race. He silently fought with his inner emotions while the crew rushed to repair the ship.
"Captain, Sensors. Enemy ships are regrouping into Imperial Guard formation. Second wave of Jurian battlecruisers are 10 seconds from subspace entry point."
"There it is. They are closing in to kill us." The captain reached for a silver key hanging around his neck. The bridge crew stared at him with disbelieving eyes as he took the key and placed it in the console next to his chair. "This is the Captain to weapons control, as captain of this ship; I am authorizing the use of anti-matter weapons. Release code is Dragon Sword. I repeat, code is, Dragon Sword. Confirm missile system readiness."
A disembodied voice from the ship's intercom replied, "Code confirmed. The AMMS is fully operational. What are the targets?"
"The estimated subspace jump point of the incoming Jurain fleet and the two remaining cruisers."
"Targets identified and targeted. The computer is tracking the targets. Firing code?"
"The firing code is Silver Dagger." The captain placed his hand on the fingerprint scanner underneath the key slot and the computer performed a retina scan. Satisfied with the results, the computer flashed the words 'ID Accepted' on the missile controller's screen
"Code confirmed, ID Check is positive. Missiles are primed and in active tracking mode. 10 seconds until launch readiness."
"Clear the bridge." called the captain. All non-essential personnel began to leave the tense bridge as the captain sat down in his chair. "Communications, warn our surviving starfighters to clear the blast area."
"Aye sir." The young female Lt. begins to order Joe and the other 367 surviving fighters away from the Jurian ships.
"5 seconds until missile launch, 3... 2... 1... launch commit." The Lt. Commander in the missile control room depresses the red firing buttons under the control boards for missiles # 1, 2, 3, and 4. The silos containing the missiles fill with a nitrogen gas solution until the pressure inside the missile bay reached 5000 psi. The launch hatches are blasted off and a catalyst is mixed with the hydrogen gas causing the missiles to be ejected out of their launch tubes at 100Gs. 0.55 seconds after launch, the missile's solid fuel engine ignites and propels the missile at its selected target at 1/20th the speed of light. When it entered its final approach range, the computer fires a kick motor that separates the warhead and its final stage engine from the second stage propulsion unit. The final stage liquid fuel engine ignites and propels the missile towards its target at its terminal velocity of 1/15th the speed of light. At 1,000,000k from target the matter-antimatter warhead arms and the computer cuts the engine to conserve fuel in case of a miss. (If the missile misses not likely the proximity sensor will detonate the missile or the engine will be relighted and the missile will circle around and track its target again)
The Jurian defensive computers tracked four targets heading towards their positions at incredible speed. By the time the missiles had been detected, their approach and range calculated, and the operator warned, they had already reached their final approach range. The two Jurian battlecruiser began to lurch to the left in a desperate attempt to dodge the four incoming missiles.
The Human built missiles easily corrected for the changing positions of the Jurian ships. The Ferro-Titanium nose cones punched holes in the outer hulls of the two battlecruisers and the missiles cut through several decks before the warheads exploded, vaporizing the two ships and creating a light brighter than a supernova.
The shock wave from the explosion begins to travel away from the impact point. The Jurian reinforcements jump into normal space just as the shock wave passes through that area of space. The six mighty vessels and their escorts are ripped to pieces by the massive forces released by the four 1-Gigaton warheads. Shock waves reach through the emptiness of space, ripping apart Jurain starfighters and crushing smaller pieces of debris as they float through the void. The shockwaves dissipate a mere 100,000 kilometers from the C.S.S. Ares and the surviving human ships.
Inside Joe Ruthenberg's fighter... all the lights were out. No lights, no instrument readings, no status monitors, nothing. Not even the Jesus light was on. The only light in the cockpit came from the tiny status light inside his spacesuit. Relieved that the suit was still intact, Joe began fumbling around the cockpit, looking for the emergency power switch. He found the small switch located under the seat and flipped it. One of his computer monitors lit up and a small green dot focused in the center. "Well, at least it booted up." Joe called up damage data for his fighter and gazed at the tables. He activated the emergency generator. "Hmmm... 30 minutes until reactor restart..."
On board the Ares the EMP waves from the four Anti-Matter bombs passed through the ship impacting on all over the ship's electrical systems
The Captain of the Ares gathered himself and began shouting out commands. "Get me a damage report now! Sensors, what happened to those ships?"
"Captain, sensors are off-line. The long-range sensor dish has been damaged. I recommend sending some starfighters to determine the result of our attack."
"Very well. Communications, order some starfighters to inspect the enemy fleet."
"Sir, we have lost all primary communications systems. Our short-range systems are limited to 100,000k. We will not be able to communicate with our fighters after they have departed."
"Understood. Send them on their way. Continue with damage report."
"Captain, sensors, I have an intermittent contact on the long-range sensors. I can't quite make it out. It is not answering on the IFF."
"Where are our fighters?"
"I have Lt. Commander Ruthenburg on the line sir."
"Patch him through."
"This is Beta 1, it's the Cathoons."
Cheering broke out on the bridge at Ruthenburg's words. Operation Hammerhelm was a success beyond their wildest dreams. 13 Jurain Battlecruisers destroyed and 52 lesser third generation tree ships destroyed along with 5000 fighters at a cost of one ship crippled and three trashed with only 367 fighters surviving out of 900. The tide was turning at last.
300 light-years away a ship 3.5 kilometers long fell out of Hyperspace and drifted dead.