The Icarian Legacy Collected Edition: Brave Souls - First Strike (Volume 3) (35 page)

The admiral smiled on that comment. And a smile could be seen on the holograms of both AI’s. Anaya looked with admiration at the group of people on her bridge. They were celebrating but they were also aspiring for more. She didn’t expect that the armor would hold that much. The young engineer was right. With the fusion reactors the shields would be stronger. And she also looked at the notes the young engineer made in his small book. He already planned to increase the amount of armor on the next submarines.  That was going to make them even tougher than the Los Angeles and with the point defense and the weapons and capability of movement they would prove a lot tougher and she was certain that they will be able to give the Dacarians a pause. The same ability her creators showed so long ago when knowing that they could never compete with the weapons the more advanced races had, they invested in the armor and defense capabilities of their ships she was seeing in these humans now. They too knew that they could never compete with the Dacarians with their weapons but they knew how to defend them self. It was the first step. And they were using the information’s she gave them to further advance on every field. If they managed to stop the invasion the future looked great. The Dacarian Empire was right to fear the humans. They just might be the ones that will stop the menace once and for all. And she hoped that she will be there on that day.

Archer saw the AI looking at him. She nodded with her head when their eyes met and he saw that she approved of his work. Without delay he returned to his notes, taking all the results of the short test and seeing where improvements could be made Even before the test based on the computer simulations he already had a new design made, a design that would make the next ships a lot stronger than this one, and now with the complete results from the test he knew that he would be capable of making suggestions that will improve the defense even more. With the materials that were starting to arrive from the asteroid mining that was finally getting started Earth would get even bigger amounts of the materials and metals that were needed.

Titanium was the most important metal at the moment but others were as well. With the factory ship they had in the fleet he knew that materials could be produced in space as well as on Earth. That only made his job easier.

“
You will be sorry when we are done with you. That is a promise.
”

After the test and a short cocktail the soldiers and most of the crew left the huge ship. The engineers and the scientists returned to Earth and started working on how to improve the armor of the next ships. And high above the work on making the Argus stronger and repairing the damage on its structure started. Every engineer knew that they will never be able to really restore the huge ship to its former glory at least not until the battle but they all promised that the ship that was now their pride will be a lot stronger when the enemy arrives. And after that…

It took almost a month for the final preparations to be made and the new advances on the additional armor on the submarines to be calculated. In the same time as that the project Valhalla was entering in its final stages.

The ships that went to the close star systems that brought news that stunned the scientific community and proved that the long guesses of habitable planets in several surrounding systems were well founded. For long years astronomers suspected that Tau Ceti, 82 Eridani, Epsilon Eridani, Gliesse 876, CD 4611540/GL 674, CD 4913515/GL 832, Lalande and Wolf 1055 B. Now those suspicions got confirmation. The VALHALLA project and the ships that were launched ten scout ships that the large fleet had and that were operational returned with news of 23 habitable worlds in fourteen systems. Ten of those worlds were almost twin planets of Earth two were in fact moons, and they were the priority for the VALHALLA mission. The fleet that twelve thousand years ago brought the surviving members of the first human interstellar civilization back to their home world had four colony ships in it. Engineers helped by the AI and their knowledge worked since the day the Demetrion took the first crew from Earth to the large fleet in orbit around Sedna. The AI’s information’s said that the total capacity of each ship was twenty thousand people but the crews that they brought back eons ago were far smaller. The need for speed when they were launched meant that they took in total twenty three thousand people back then. The stasis pods in each ship were left unused. Tests were being conducted now to see if the pods worked. The mission planers hoped that they do. If they did the ships could carry a lot more and the real mission of VALHALLA could be started. When Valhalla was first proposed the plan was to send the colony ships as far away from Earth as possible. As the plan was developed and as the settlement of close by star systems was put in to it the mission parameter changed but the plan stayed in effect. The fear behind it and its blind spot was that there was no real knowledge of a habitable planet in a system that was more than a hundred light years distant, and even if there was there was no guarantee that it won’t be inhabited. So instead of that of launching the ships and their crew in to the unknown a different approach was suggested. A certain number of people will be placed in to stasis and on board the four colony ships and they would be sent in the Epsilon Eridani. If Earth falls to the invasion the ships would be launched on their final mission with a skeleton crew and travel on distance beyond 100 light years from Sol. After that they would start searching for a habitable world that would be as far away from any civilization that they might encounter. Considering that each of the ships was well armed and could carry a number of support smaller ships there was no fear that they wouldn’t be able to defend themselves. Those colonists were already chosen and would go on the colony ships after the first settlement of the discovered planets was finished.  They all hoped that that part of Valhalla won’t be needed but it was a way to ensure mankind’s survival and considering the knowledge they had now at their disposal in some distant future returning back to this world and every other and striking back at their enemies.

At the same time as those ships were being prepared other thirty ships from the same fleet started carrying the first colonists to their new homes. The first people to go out of the solar system and step on other worlds were not the people like most scientists and writers expected in the past. Everyone expected that the first ones will be from the military and scientists that will conduct researches. Those people were present but most of the people were ordinary citizens, many from came from Africa and Asia people who were as the organizers said survivors and people who could work together and build something. If in the past the color of skin, or language or class was the thing that mattered if there was difference between white, black or yellow or in education it all now disappeared. If on Earth people who knew banking and law controlled the world, here they were a real rarity and not needed. What the first colony ships took, what the first colonies needed were workers. Engineers, farmers, people who worked in the industry, in the metallurgy, miners, they were the ones that had the advantage. As the first colony ships took their cargo and their passengers to the stars those that were left behind saw the world change before their eyes. The long wanted equality was slowly coming and humanity was finally uniting in to what it really was… many nations, many colors, many people but one civilization… one.

The world surprisingly fast moved from the economic crisis that was choking it for the last decade and as the military buildup started new jobs were opened. The entire planet was on a war footing and the military arsenals that in the past thirty years started coming down were now rapidly increasing. This went double for the nuclear arsenals of the most powerful countries, and the restrictions that were present not long ago were now being forgotten. New far more powerful nuclear and hydrogen bombs were now being produced and as they were they were shipped to outer space and placed around the warp point. Slowly the defense around it grew.

Soon after the first colony ships left the Solar system the first converted submarines rose in orbit around Earth. The first ten kept the same amount of armor that the Los Angeles had. They looked a lot different than their sister ship thanks to the armaments that were added. The main armament was represented by the newly added system of coil guns that could fire a ten ton tungsten shells at a speed of 150 km/s a speed that gave the projectile a large kinetic energy. The power of the weapon represented a huge advancement in the military technology. The main gun was mounted on the ventral hull and it took power directly from the ships reactor. In theory three shots could be fired one after the other before depleting the power. The cannon fired a massive metal projectile using a linear system of magnetic fields coils down a long shaft, increasing the projectile's velocity until it carries an incredible amount of kinetic energy.  Ten smaller rail guns were placed on the dorsal and ventral hull that fired smaller projectiles. Thirty dual point kinetic energy weapons were placed on all sides and represented the main point defense that was supported with the Aegis defense system that was placed on these ships after it confirmed its value in the short battle in the Mediterranean. Multiple launch tubes were placed on all four sides of the ship that could launch both conventional and nuclear missiles. The submarines were operating on the same power output that the Deadalus used using the same VASIMR system.

Considering that the VASIMR system proved its value on the Deadalus it was rushed in to massive production even before the discovery of the Argus and the new information’s that thanks to the AI were later available. By the time the first ten converted submarines of what became the Los Angeles class of space ships were raised fifteen engines were ready and ten of those were put on the converted submarines. The smaller power output by the nuclear reactors meant that the main gun would charge more slowly. But considering the short time to the attack there were no objections. Everyone was painfully aware that with each passing day the attack was closer.

The ten ships from the Los Angeles class together with the two far more powerful cruisers started the first exercises just several days after they were launched.

2 September 2018 20:10 hours

Battleship Argus Earth Orbit

Admiral Johnson looked at the screen on board the Argus as the small fleet deployed for the exercise in the asteroid belt. It was astonishing that even now millions of miles away he could monitor their actions just the same way as if he was there. The crews of the ten converted submarines now nicknamed the Los Angeles class after the first ship that was destroyed during the first test of the new class were a mix of their former crews and engineers and marines. Each ship had one hundred and seventy six crew members. Most of the weapons on the ship were automated but the dual kinetic point defense guns were manned by the crew. The small contingent of marines twenty in number was there for both manning the guns and protecting the ship in case it was boarded. The two cruisers stood back while the ships deployed in a triangular formation. They all kept their former names. The Dallas, Memphis, Omaha, Groton, Indianapolis, Phoenix, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Hyman G. Rickover, Augusta and Atlanta, ten submarines that were the pride of the US navy in the past were now the first ten military ships. The former submarine captains were now getting used to their new role as ship captains and space ships at that. He knew that they too felt the excitement he was feeling and the fear that something might go wrong. This was the first real firing of the ships weapons, and it was different than the simulations. The chosen targets were small asteroids that if the weapon testing went right should be totally destroyed and fragment in to small pieces that won’t be a danger in case they later went on a trajectory towards Earth. At the right time the fleet opened up with their main weapons. It was immediately obvious that practice was needed since four of the shots missed their targets. The second and third firing runs were doing better. The test lasted for several hours.

Simonson looked at the admiral as he read his report about the exercise. He knew the old man for almost his entire career ever since he first entered the navy and in a way he was hoping that one day he would be like him. They were both given the command of the fleet not just the first ships but the others that would come soon. The reason was that they were both present and had command when the short battle in the Mediterranean happened, during the first contact. It wasn’t a day they remembered with joy. Too many people died, too many dreams were destroyed, and not just dreams of the people that were there but dreams of the entire civilization. The innocence of the stars was taken away, the worst nightmares of the scientists, astronomers, the military, and the movies came to life. And the burden to stop the nightmare fell on their shoulders.

“It wasn’t bad considering that it was the first live test.”

“And one conducted in a totally alien environment.”

Johnson looked at the younger admiral and smiled.

“Yes you are right. They will get better with each exercise. And soon we will have new ships. The first three from the Orion class will be finished in two months, and the next converted submarines from Russia, the European countries and China, India, Israel, Egypt and South Africa will be ready in a month. They will await the fusion reactors but the crews will be able to work and get used to them.”

“Yes we will need the fleet to be ready for action and that requires the crews to know their ships and to be used to work together. We have time for that. The first part will be easier. They are converted submarines and the crew knows the subs. It will be harder to get them used to working like a team and moving in formation and precise deployment. It is a lot different from the way they worked at sea.”