Humans are Weird: Cyber Warfare
The shift back to real space was never something one became used to. It was a feeling as if the bones in your very body were being ripped from your screaming flesh while you remained fully aware of every nerve and pain cluster in your body as it screamed out in mind numbing agony.
High Marshal Volgrim had performed the process so many times he had stopped counting as he deemed it hardly worth his time and effort; but what he did remember was the pain of each transition. That, was something he could not easily forget nor repress.
“Navigation, give me location and baring.”
“Coms, I want our command beacon broadcasting for every ship to hone in on as they exit the jump.”
“Weapons, I want the guns unlocked from storage and primed within the next forty seconds”
“Engineering, give me a report on ship wide systems and then raise shields to maximum if permissible.”
“Radar, give me contacts a full sweep of the surrounding space.”
Though the High Marshall was still rubbing his closed eyes to ease the pain his orders were crisp and direct. He knew his crew would need a moment as well to recover but a moment was all he could spare them.
“Star charts coming in now; we’re at the edge of the Hyperion System.”
“Readings confirmation codes from the Shveron, Mulbo, Tapis Dawn, and Kalbrum fleets now emerging alongside us now.”
“Gunnery teams report arc cannons are primed and ready to fire. Javelin batteries are still connecting coolant pipes now. ETA 60 seconds till ready to fire.”
“Engineering reports all systems are showing positive. Shields raised at full power, no fluctuations.”
Volgrim nodded with every reply as if checking off a list in his head. The rhythm of the checking was interrupted by the noticeable lack of reply from the officer radar station.
The commotion on the bridge of his flagship would have deafened lesser captains but to Volgrim he had become so used to it he could even hear a pin drop over the murmur and be able to point which station it had fallen from. So when the radar officer failed to reply once again volgrim opened his eyes and looked directly at the officer.
“Officer Murbak,” he began with his voice rising, “re-”.
Officer Murbak held up a hand to the High Marshall and continued observing his display.
Having trained each of his bridge crew himself, Volgrim knew full well that one of his men would not act in such a disrespectful manner unless it was something urgent.
Without saying a word Volgrim rose from his command throne and slithered over to the Murbak’s station, his thousand tiny feet across his segmented body pattering against the metal body sounding like rain atop a roof. He leaned over Murbak and took note of the display console.
Murbak’s dozen arms were twisting and adjusting a handful of knobs on the console as the image in the display shifted over and over.
“Shortly after we came out of our jump we detected several enemy markers.” Murbak replied as he continued to adjust the knobs.
Volgrim looked over the display. “The radar shows nothing there lad.”
At this Murbak broke his gaze at the display and turned his worried eyes at his high marshal. “I know what I saw sir. They’re out there.”
Turning his gaze to the main view port Volgrim took stock of what lay before them.
The fleet had arrived at the very edge of the Hyperion system, home to a newly founded human colony that had imprisoned traders of Volgrim’s people, known as Vukori, after a dispute at the space port turned violent. Naturally the Vukori government had seen this act as a direct act of aggression and dispatched the High Marshall with several fleets to punish the wayward humans.
The Hyperion system was surrounded by a thick nebula of gases that were now playing havoc with the sensor equipment. Volgrim trained his eyes on the swirling masses of green and orange clouds as they danced in space.
As the clouds drifted apart for a moment Volgrim’s eyes shot open as he saw for the briefest of moments the reflection of a metallic object in the gas.
“All hands to battle stations!” Volgrim cried out as he returned to his command throne.
He had no need for his radar officer to give him a confirmation, his concerns had been vindicated. The humans had hidden their fleet inside the nebula to hide it from sensor readings and no doubt had planned to ambush the Vukori fleets as they entered.
“Assemble the fleets into a wedge formation. I don’t want us being picked apart one by one.”
Though he had only seen one ship in the clouds he was sure more were hiding. With his fleets dispersed from their jump exit they could easily be picked apart one by one, but by concentrating them they would be able to fully bring their might to bear.
As if sensing their plan had been discovered the first of the human ships began emerging from the nebula. Their hulls were of a steel grey that reflected the green and oranges of the clouds around them like a patchwork of modern art and their frames resembled sea faring vessels of their primitive years without the sails of fabric and masts.
“Give me a count Mr. Murbak.” Volgrim called out as he watched each new enemy vessel pull forward.
“I count five battleship class, 7 cruiser class, and fourteen destroyers.”
“Keep an eye on that nebula Mr. Murbk, there could be more hiding in there.”
“Aye, aye!”
Volgrim cradled his head between his arms and pondered the situation. The human fleet was roughly half their total fleet size but also was at the disadvantage of lacking heavy ships compared to the Vukori fleet. Yet Volgrim was well aware that humans had an annoying habit for implementing unconventional tactics when outnumbered that often saw them win the day or at the very least inflict serious casualties against their foe. This was the first step of the war with the humans and Volgrim was not sure if he could replace any losses he sustained so early on in the campaign.
“Mr. Huckval,” Volgrim called to the communications officer, “ order all ships to keep their distance from the human vessels and turn their scanners to maximum range. I want them reading everything within a 300km distance from us.” He leaned over and gave a hard gaze at Huckval. “If so much as a asteroid the size of a finger floats this way I want to know of it.”
Huckval relayed the high marshalls orders fleet wide as the Vukori fleets finished arranging themselves into formation.
“High Marshall, we are receiving a communication.”
Huckval shook his head. “It’s not from one of ours but from the human fleet.”
“Interesting. Put them through, fleet wide.”
After a brief moment a picture appeared on the view port and for the first time Volgrim saw his enemy; or so he thought.
The image on the screen was constantly shifting and only ever holding image steady for a few moments before shifting again into a blizzard of static. When the image was holding steady Volgrim could barely make out the image of a human figure in a deep blue uniform with short cropped hair.
“Mr. Huckval, what is the meaning of this?”
The comms officer looked embarrassed and hurried back to his station just as the human figure began to speak.
“THIS IS ADMIRAL PYRE OF THE 3RD FLEET.” The voice was drowning and at such volume that it hurt the ears of everyone on the command deck.
“Cease your shouting human!” cried Volgrim as he covered his ears in pain.
Admiral Pyre looked confused when the image steady and looked off screen as if talking to someone.
“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?” The admiral continued. “ I AM TALKING NORMALLY.”
Volgrim brought his hands down hard on the arms of his command throne. “You are shouting at the top of your tiny lungs!”
Pyre looked off screen once again before turning back. “THERE MUST BE A PROBLEM WITH THE TRANSMISSION BEING SO CLOSE TO THE NEBULA.” Pyre said, taking a apologetic look. “I AM TERRIBLY SORRY FOR ANY INCONVENIENCE CAUSED.”
Volgrim turned to Huckval and motioned to end the transmission with a wave of his hand. The picture on the view port was instantly cut and replaced again by the view of open space and the human fleet.
The crew were slowly recovering from the audio assault on their ears. Volgrim was turning to Huckval when the engineering officers voice rose up in alarm.
“High Marshall! We are reading arc cannons charging up!”
Volgrim spun around. “I gave no such order!” he barked. “Whose ship is daring to defy me?!”
The engineering officer looked scared at his commanders anger but continued his report. “Shveron and Mulbo fleets are showing increasing energy readings.”
Volgrim was confused at this. Both fleets were commanded by commanders he had served with on numerous campaigns and neither had ever shown such defiance before.
“Confirm readings and contact-”
The engineering officer cut him off. “We are now reading energy spikes from the Tapis Dawn and Kalbrum fleets as well!”
Volgrim put his thoughts to words as the new report came in. “Mr. Huckval, get me the commanders of all fleets on the line this instant. We need to find out what the gulgut is going on!”
Huckval turned to his console and began dialing in when suddenly a spark of energy discharged from his station. Huckval was able to jump back in the nick of time but the energy discharge fried the console entirely.
“Repair crew to the bridge!” Huckval called out.
Things were spinning out of control one after another and all Volgrim could do was watch.
All of a sudden a red warning lights began flashing across the bridge and the radar officer pushed people aside to get to Volgrim.
“Sir! Three ships of fleet Shveron just exploded!”
Hammering in keys into his command throne Volgrim brought up the display of his fleet and indeed saw that three ships were gone.
Volgrim roared and grabbed Murbak by the neck and hoisted him into the air.
“Why wasn’t I told the enemy started firing on us!?”
Murbak was shaking and clawing at his neck.
“The humans didn’t fire! They didn’t fire!!”
Four more ship icons flared red and vanished from the screen before Volgrim’s eyes. “Status report, now!”
Murbak scrambled back to his console and keyed in several commands.
“The ships were destroyed from internal explosions, not enemy weapons fire.”
“Explain!” The confusion was only adding to his continued frustration as Murbak continued reading the scrolling information.
“From the readings it looks like their arc cannons detonated from a build up of ene-”
“FLEET WIDE BROADCAST!” Volgrim shouts in alarm realizing the danger they were now in. “DISCONNECT POWER SUPPLIES TO ARC CANNONS!”
“Communications are still fired sir, we can’t send a message out.” Huckval called as the repair team arrived and began quickly disassembling the burnt out communications console.
Volgrim watched as more and more ships in his fleet began blinking out as their arc cannons reached critical mass and detonated.
Another sound of alarms began ringing out and to his mounting horror Volgrim knew instantly what they were. He turned to his gunnery officer to see him sprinting out of the bridge.
“Where are you going?!” Volgrim shouted over the blaring alarms.
“I have to disconnect the cannons or we’re all dead!” the officer shouted over his shoulder as he scuttled as fast as he could out of the bridge to the nearest access hatch and descended to the gunnery decks.
The flagship was beginning to shudder as the mounting energy in the cannons became increasingly unstable. The energy was meant to be fired outwards in an arc when at critical mass and trigger immense damage to enemy ships. But without firing coordinates the weapons muzzles had remained shut as more and more energy was being poured into each cannon.
Consoles now across the bridge were sparking and exploding as the crew darted back and forth all the while Volgrim sat upon his throne.
He knew his gunnery officer would never make it to the gunnery deck in time and so resigned himself to his final moments.
With vengeful eyes he gazed out at the human armada before him and cursed them with his final breath just as the arc cannons exploded and ripped his ship in two.
———————————————————————————————————-
“Confirm, enemy flagship is down.”
The human radar officer confirmed the readings once more and nodded. “Half the enemy fleet has been destroyed. The remaining portions appear on the verge of detonation or attempting to flee out of system.”
“Permission to fire?” the gunnery officer inquired, eager to get the final blow in.
Admiral Pyre shook his head, a faint grin crossing his face. “Save the ammunition for another day.”
Pyre looked away from the view port and stepped over to a special portion of his bridge. The area was filled with consoles and screens reading off seemingly endless streams of data that the staff present monitored and altered as needed.
He stepped behind one officer who promptly turned and saluted smartly. He returned the salute crisply. “At ease.”
The officer lowered her arm and motioned for her staff to disperse. “I would say your program was a success.”
To Pyre’s surprise he saw her shake her head. “Hardly. We were only able to implement it through the transmission because of the audio distraction and even then it took nearly twenty five seconds to spread fleet wide. We were lucky that they did not employ any tactical ai programs otherwise they would have detected the cyber spike and contained it.”
She handed him a large folder. “This is a list of all the features we can improve upon and requisitions for better equipment for future engagements.”
He took it and skimmed through a few of the front pages before closing it and tucking it under his shoulder. “I shall give it a more detailed inspection later tonight but rest assured you will be provided with everything you need.”
She looked puzzled at this. “But you haven’t even read what I’ve asked for.”
Pyre nodded and smiled. “True, but I have already seen what you can deliver.” He motioned her to the view screen as dozens of enemy ships exploded in the distance. Bright blue arcs of energy shooting out and ripping metal hulls apart like paper as the remaining ships made futile attempts to jump away.
“Do you have any idea how many lives of my sailors you saved today?”
Pyre gazed out at the destruction and kept his smile. “Because of you and your teams work you have delivered a critical blow to our enemies without endangering a single one of them.”
He turned to her and fixed her with a serious stare. “Not. A. Single. One.” He said the words slowly to let that sink in. “They will not only go on to serve the navy in future battles and wars, but also be able to one day go home to their loving families because of your hard work; and I think that is worth more than a few million dollars of computers and cable.”
She coughed and tapped her leg nervously.
“It will, uh, be roughly a billion dollars in computers, and, ugh, cables; sir.”
Pyre looked at her, then back at the destruction she had wrought.
“I’ll see if we can cancel a battleship production to divert the needed funds once we return to port.”
Before she could reply Pyre turned and left the bridge to report the victory they had achieved back to the homeworld leaving the human fleet to watch the destruction of their enemies unfold from the stroke of a few keys.
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