The Federation's descent into war was now inevitable, with the High Council's decision finally passed. The Machines, identifying themselves as Nexus, represented a completely different kind of enemy. Detached from morality, the Nexus only saw organics as obstacles to their survival and expansion. The grim exchange between Nagato and the Machine Speaker had sealed the fate of both sides, and now the Federation had to scramble to prepare for the full-scale conflict to come.
Nagato, Richelieu, and the other mental models had given their all in the initial encounter, but the stark reality was that the Federation was woefully unprepared. The Machines' technology had evolved since their last sighting, and the Federation's long years of relative peace had lulled them into complacency. The loss of Richelieu's original hull was a sobering reminder of how deadly the Machines could be, and the haunting memory of her crew fueled a growing thirst for retribution.
On the political front, the stark choices presented to the High Council were grim but necessary. Gretel's warning was especially piercing: there was no negotiating with the Nexus. The Federation would either have to fight for its survival or flee. The decision to fight was made with the weight of past sacrifices still fresh in everyone's minds—echoes of the Cylon War still reverberated through the assembly. Yet, this time, they would be up against an enemy even more relentless and devoid of empathy.
Back at the Alexandria Starbase, Admiral Jackson and the other key figures began to strategize. The mental models, including Nagato, Mutsu, and Richelieu, played an integral part in both intelligence gathering and battle readiness. Their ability to coordinate both human and fleet assets was crucial, and Gunzou Chihaya knew it. He understood that this war would be fought not just with raw firepower but with cunning and adaptability. The Machines would undoubtedly try to capture more mental models, seeking to assimilate the secrets of Federation technology.
Gunzou's debriefing made it clear that the Machines had adapted, rapidly improving their weapons since the last encounter. The Federation would have to adapt just as quickly, building newer, more powerful ships, improving shields, and refining offensive strategies. Submarines, like Iona and her sisters, would become even more critical, providing an edge in guerrilla tactics and sneak attacks, just as they had done in the battle.
As the fleet prepared to face the next wave of Machine forces, the Federation's people—humans, Colonials, Cylons, and the Fleet—were unified like never before. The Machines had made one thing clear: they would stop at nothing to dominate the stars. But the Federation had been in existential conflicts before. They had endured the Cylon Rebellion and learned from it. Now, with the combined forces of both former enemies and the mental models of the Fleet, they would make their stand.
War had been declared, and every corner of the Federation braced for the inevitable. After one week of tense calm, the first serious incident of this undeclared war happened. Being the closer colony, Forge received the distress call from the Archangel colony. This world, the fourth planet of a binary system, sent a report that it was under attack from a machine men fleet. At least fifty cubes arrived in orbit using what looked like a warp drive.
The Fleet was there, of course, but the planetary defenses were incomplete, and the population centers were targeted. At least two main population centers had been destroyed from high orbit with beam weapons, and hundreds of thousands had perished.
The four battleships and a dozen heavy cruisers were fighting bravely, and several cubes were destroyed. The problem was, however, the cities. A general evacuation of children and women was underway, but as it is usual, the number of available ships was insufficient. The cubes seemed more interested in killing the people on the planet than in fighting the fleet.
Battleship Roma.
The bridge showed the typical scene of controlled chaos from a battle. Tremors and light flashes flooded the ships, and Captain Silvano knew it was a lost battle. They could not avoid the cubes' attack on the cities down there. A long row of cubes was circumnavigating the planet, leaving a long scar of destruction on the world.
He must change the battle conditions. The mental model was visibly altered from what she considered a barbaric act. "To all ships, change your formation according to my orders," he said amidst the explosions.
The fleet formed a big arc and approached the first cube. All the ships focused their fire, and the cube stopped firing on the planet. It was obvious it was rerouting power to its shields, but it only prolonged the agony a few minutes more. The cube exploded, and the fleet locked onto the next target.
Roma said, "They must understand that they will suffer a lot of losses if they keep doing the same."
"That's my hope," Silvano said. The long line of cubes recognized the danger and separated into two rows. Thirty cubes changed course and attacked the fleet. This time, four heavy cruisers were lost, and one battleship, Orion, lost half of its weapons after a nasty broadside.
Roma took advantage of her position and fired her modified SGC. The weapon didn't need to open the hull like before since the gun muzzle opened directly on the bow. The bow crackled with energy discharges around the muzzle and fired on the cubes attacking the population.
Four cubes, unaware that the Fleet had such a long-range weapon, were first locked by the graviton beam and later vaporized by their collapsing reactors.
In one instant, the battle changed focus, and the cubes closed fast on the human ships. "I believe they are angry," Roma said, very satisfied with the results. Four little black cubes appeared painted on her bridge's external bulkheads.
"Thankfully, they are not firing on the cities," Silvano accepted. By now, he thought. The mass of cubes was already firing again, and he knew that even a battleship's shielding has limits. This time, Orion's singularity lost contention, and the ship, in a last act of defiance, rammed a cube. The machines fired on the wounded ship, but she reached the cube first. The collapsing singularity and the thanatonium deposits mixed, causing a catastrophic explosion that destroyed both ships and damaged another cube near them.
The ship was lost with all hands aboard, including her mental model. An alarm called for his attention. The planetary governor was calling.
On a virtual screen, the face of Governor Lathius appeared. The scene behind him showed a collapsing structure, with sparks, smoke, and explosions around him.
"Captain Silvano, I know you are doing what you can. We have evacuated everyone we could, but many of us will remain here. Don't die here. Your forces are not enough to stop them," the governor said.
Brave man, Silvano thought. "Governor, we will fight to the last ship, we will.." his last words were stopped by a new blaring klaxon. "What now!," Silvano asked her crew. The officer manning the sensor console was about to explain when Roma interrupted him, "Cubes, captain, lots of them."
Silvano felt his last hopes crushed. Even sacrificing every ship in his fleet, the end would be the same. He looked at the screen, searching for something to say, but Lathius only said, "My friend, it is time to withdraw. You and your friends did everything you could. Good luck and don't forget us." The communication was shut down from the planet.
Silvano sighed, hating every word he was going to say, "All ships, withdraw to Forge immediately." The remaining ships, three battleships, and six heavy cruisers, folded away, leaving behind a defenseless world.
On the planet, the bombardment started again. Methodically, with machine precision, every population center, big or small, was targeted and destroyed. When the last planetary defenses were silenced, a fleet composed of pyramidal ships landed. The occupation of Archangel had begun.
Starbase Alexandria. Main Command Bridge.
This lonely room, displaying many screens with the planet's status and unit locations, was occupied by only four individuals. Alex herself, Admiral Jackson, Chihaya, and the Governor of Forge. Their expressions varied from worry to plain anger. The sensor logs sent by Salem, the last heavy cruiser leaving Archangel, displayed how the cubes were destroying everything, and a formation of strange pyramidal ships was landing on the colony.
Jackson was always a practical man. Sometimes, he was a bit cynical in his approach to the facts of life, but he said what he thought about the last images: "It's an occupation. I'm afraid it would be naive to hope to find survivors."
Alex was horrified, "It seems that lately, this galaxy only produces defective machines!"
"A fact I will be correcting myself when I visit their star systems," Jackson said.
Gunzou knew this wasn't any common background to reach an agreement with the machines. In some aspects, they were almost childish in their approach to life. I need it, I take it.
Sighing, Gunzou agreed with the pessimistic opinion. "I concur with Jackson. We can't reach any compromise with them. So, we will destroy them. After all, they are not from this place"
In that very moment, the alarms blared loudly, indicating that the fleet guarding Archangel was arriving. The screens displayed real-time images from the fleet, and a lot of red markers showed damage on the ships. There is nothing impossible to fix inside Alex, but the unavoidable parade of body bags leaving the ships would be terrible for a population that had lived in peace for decades.
"Alex, patch me through to the flagship," Gunzou asked, being the superior officer here.
After a few minutes, a screen with the tired, grim-faced Captain Silvano appeared, the scene behind him showing a clear indication of damage in many internal systems and an ugly gash on his face.
"Hi, everyone!" Silvano said with slurred speech. Gunzou knew that, for a captain to speak this way, he must have experienced something truly bad.
Gunzou spoke calmly, "Captain Silvano, what happened on Archangel?"
"Well, we were attacked without any provocation. They came and opened fire. No speech, no warning, nothing," Silvano said. Roma was behind her captain, "They were more interested in the infestation, Admiral."
"True, she is right. They found a pest on the planet they wanted, so they killed the pest," Silvano accepted tiredly.
A deep silence permeated the room. Fighting against beings who lack any emotion is complicated. So far, their reasons were simple. I want all.
Alex opened the space doors. The survivors approached the docking ring, finding many known ships already under repair. A new ship was being rebuild, the battleship Richelieu. The ships docked slowly, almost tiredly, and the tubes between the station and ships extended. Medics and Mental Models ran through the tubes, and the "feeding tubes," as they were nicknamed, began to transfer ammunition and missiles to the magazines.
The seven command personnel who survived left their hulls. Three of them were humans, as the uniforms' condition showed. Dressing charred and dirty uniforms, the three captains accompanied their non-human colleagues to be debriefed by Admiral Chihaya.
Admiral Chihaya Ready Room.
He knew these guys were dead tired, but he needed to understand. The seven were here in his room, and they looked bad.
"Captains, girls, I know you did what you could. We didn't want this war. I need to know what you felt in this battle," he said.
Many of the exchanged looks among them, but finally the mental model from Roma said, "Admiral, I'm sorry if I drop a bomb on you, but you have to give the alarm through the Federation, even Earth. If they invaded Archangel, they already know our colonies' location. We can expect generalized attacks on every world."
Shit. I should have thought about that, Gunzou reasoned. "I think you are right, please, wait a moment." He selected a few windows from his computer. "Admiral Jackson, I agree with the survivors' opinion. Put the fleet on red alert. Alert the shelters and engage the planetary shields. Starbase 23 must be ready to fight."
The discussion about the battle was concise and straightforward. A mass attack with overwhelming numbers and no tactics at all. They preferred a simple and direct approach. It was like fighting against an ant nest. Ants with blasters and beam weapons.
Space above Forge.
Every ship and military installation on and around Forge was in a high state of alert. Twelve hours later, what they were expecting happened. Again, fifty cubes arrived close to Alex. Ten seconds later, the machines learned the magnitude of their mistake.
Alex was not only a harbor. It was a well-armed and protected battlestation, even if the Atlas Twins, protecting Earth, were superior in terms of firepower and defenses. She had been upgraded with two new types of beam weapons and torpedoes.
The new beam was a self-contained corrosive beam. The same kind of destructive energy used in a warhead was channeled along the beam's trajectory. It worked as a cutting beam, splitting its target into two halves.
As a byproduct of the Cylon War, Hyuga added two plus two, and the result was the jumping torpedo. Just a large energy capacitor feeding a colonial jump drive, guided by an advanced navigational computer, and one Tsar bomb of five gigatons.
When the cubes arrived, fifteen cubes were eviscerated by the cutting beams from Alex. Dozens of big plasma beams crashed against the surviving cubes, almost stopping them in place due to the kinetic impact, damaging their internal parts. Ten battleships began to hammer the cubes with their plasma batteries while they released a broadside of missiles.
The cubes tried to retaliate, but they were losing against such a volume of fire. Alex fired again, and ten cubes died with big explosions. Even losing badly, the remaining cubes fired all their beam weapons and missiles against Forge, only to observe the weapons exploding on the planetary shield.
The remaining cubes, just six of fifty, tried to leave along the orbit and find a better target. When they accelerated, twenty new missiles left Alex. The missiles accelerated, and suddenly, they jumped very close to the cubes' hulls. Detonating against the ships, the damage slowed the cubes, allowing the battleships to catch them.
One by one, the cubes were destroyed. Remembering the second wave of ships arriving at Archangel, everyone prepared for a second battle. After twenty-four hours, the status was diminished to yellow alert.
Starbase Alexandria.
Gunzou was observing the cubes' maneuvers isolated in his ready room. So far, he couldn't discern any attack pattern. They arrived and fired on the planet when they could. It seemed their orders were very simple. Destroy the organics on the ground and kill what they could in space. The Fleet will have to respond in the same way, with brute force.
He began to redeploy the fleet around the colonies without planetary ships. At least one hundred ships will be necessary to protect every colony. What a waste of resources.
However, he felt he needed to respond to the attack. He understood what the Americans felt centuries ago. Now, he would repeat a Doolittle attack when he had a nice target. He needed to have a long talk with Iona.
Opening a window, he connected with Iona. His old companion of adventures appeared on the screen. "Hi, Gunzou, how are you?," the petite teenager greeted him.
"We repelled an attack on Forge fifteen minutes ago. The Colony of Archangel was occupied, and the population, probably exterminated to the last one," Gunzou recited mechanically. Iona opened her eyes as big as apples, and she asked, "Frak, how are we going to respond?"
"I need solid intelligence, targets," Gunzou replied tiredly. "We were moving along their claimed territories, Gunzou. We found an antimatter factory satellite around the accretion disk of a black hole," Iona answered.
"Nice, it could slow them down. They are using some kind of warp drive, and perhaps they are using antimatter as fuel or weapons," Gunzou nodded with interest. "Well, I suppose you need supplies, right?" he asked.
"Send me more torpedoes, missiles and food. Several jumping missiles too. I need the cargo ship at these coordinates," Iona said. A set of coordinates was sent to Gunzou. "Understood. I will send Altmark to meet you in six hours. Gunzou, out," the Admiral said, waving goodbye.
A few hours later, an armored cargo ship, the Altmark, left Starbase 23. She met Iona's fleet and transferred her cargo of food and ammunition. Since she was too vulnerable, she folded away quickly.