Tau Ceti

On March 3rd, 2241, the colony on Europa was attacked and swiftly destroyed by alien forces of unknown origin. Colonial military forces mobilized quickly, and the next attack was defeated. However, over the next five years, a barrage of other attacks followed; pseudo-mammalian hiveminds, nanotechnological warmachines, animate vegetation and a single, colossal worldship attacked. Each were destroyed, but at great cost. Half of humanity's colonies were utterly obliterated. Hundreds of millions had died. The surviving nations found their navies left in ruins, and were forced to band together in the so-called Sol Defense League. In 2247, when it was clear that the waves of enemies had ceased - for the moment, at least - the leaders of the Sol Defense League began planning a retaliatory expedition, to attempt to destroy the source or sources of the attacks. The wrecks of the alien attackers were dissected down to the molecular level; recordings were analyzed in an attempt to backtrack their courses. At last, on March 3rd, 2251, the first of the seven Protector-class extrasolar warvessels was launched. Their mission: to find and exterminate the enemy at the root. Earth must be kept safe.

This is their story.

-

Captain Savidya Mair opened her eyes as the Retaliation entered the Tau Ceti system. She groaned, slowly waking up as the ship ceased deacceleration. Above her face, as the computer noticed her waking, screens descended from the ceiling and began to present a hemispherical view of the system, tagged with continuously updating notes on likely areas of interest.

After satisfying herself that the ship would refrain from major manuevering for the moment, Savidya unstrapped herself from her acceleration couch and walked over to her shower. Along the wall of her room, as she walked, a line of screens on each side continuously scrolled to give her up-to-the second information on the Retaliation's surroundings and internal status. Savidya, though still somewhat groggy, manipulated the screens as she passed, focusing the computer on the most important areas. The shower sprayed her with water briefly, and as she cleaned herself and dressed, she continued to manipulate the ubiquitous computing environment, watching closely for any sign of danger or alien attack.

Taking a short intraship tram ride to the mess hall, Captain Savidya could feel the ship awakening around her. Status reports began to pop up from others of the twenty-six crewmembers, and the continual hum of the ship's mechanics grew louder as life support stepped up to compensate for the increased demand. Savidya ate a breakfast of cold rice and greens - the ship's cook not yet on duty - as the Retaliation and its two sister vessels, the Castigation and the Retribution, moved steadily insystem.

Suddenly, a realtime video from the head of the Retribution's signal analysis department appeared in Savidya's display. The analyst said quickly, "Sorry to bother you, Captain Savidya, Captain Zhang, Captain Song, it's just - at 119 by 48 by 35 relative, there's something there that shouldn't be - I mean - they're here, in this system. And they're moving." Savidya's screen zoomed obediently to focus on the specified area of space, showing a blurry, slowly moving set of golden specks.

Captain Savidya paused in her meal. "Are they ships?", she asked. The analyst's head moved back and forth, trying to respond to all three captains at once. "Yes - no - Yes, we think they're the drive trails, of the ships, I mean. They're moving right towards us. And they're accelerating."

Savidya rose swiftly, taking the time to toss her meal into the recycler. Over the intra-fleet message system, she called out "All hands to acceleration couches - all hands to acceleration couches. We have a possible alien encounter, code 9-G. Remember, things might help us find the monsters that attacked Sol, so we don't shoot unless shot at -"

Savidya was interrupted by the Retaliation's computer, automatically reporting "Abnormal levels of high-energy particles detected. Possible source - enemy weapons discharge. Begin evasive manuevers?"

Savidya opened her mouth to respond.

The intership channel was suddenly filled with earsplitting static, and then just as suddenly fell silent.

Half a kilometre away, the Castigation's 'forward' end glowed ruby, and then the entire ship burst apart in a burst of soundless flame. Secondary detonations turned the entire ship into a field of accelerating shrapnel, as communication between the Retaliation and the Retribution was completely blocked.

Eight hundred thousand kilometres away, the golden specks grew several times longer as the alien vessels began to move away from each other.

Captain Savidya called out orders swiftly. "Engines! Evasive manuevers! Three gees!" As the ship's engines began to spew forth fire and Savidya's ribs seemed to compress, she continued, "Guns! All lasers, power and fire by pairs, two to a target! Continual fire until target is destroyed! Don't forget to compensate for lightspeed lag!" The lights dimmed, and the Retaliation grew quieter and colder. "Communications! Use available power to try to contact the Retribution and coordinate operations!" The lights went out altogether, leaving only the omnipresent displays to provide any illumination. "Ship! Seal all bulkheads in case of breach!" A great crash echoed throughout the ship - and then silence.

Captain Savidya watched the battle, in the dark and silent ship, tied down in a lonely acceleration couch. Silently, the battle continued, across a distance so vast as to boggle the imagination. One golden speck of light flickered out; and then another. The Retribution, contacted through the thinning field of debris that had been the Castigation and its thirty-eight crewmembers, began to coordinate its fire with the Retribution's laser banks. Another speck went out. Then a great echoing scream of metal echoed through the ship, and a glowing hole two centimetres wide and a metre from Captain Savidya's head was all that was left to show a glancing hit on the Retaliation.

A slow whooshing noise grew, becoming a sucking wail as Savidya fumbled to untie herself with three gees of weight still pressing her down. Seeking about under the acceleration couch, she found the standard issue breach-sealant can - empty. Used for training exercises. Looking around desperately as the sound of air escaping grew ever louder, Savidya spotted a loose display panel, and - pressed down to the floor by the ship's manuevering - tore it off the wall and threw it on the hole. The banshee wail diminished to a slight hiss, and then vanished altogether as the hull nanites sealed the display panel to the hole.

The battle continued. The Protector-class vessels' laser fire, augmented in accuracy by alien-derived aiming mechanisms, snuffed out enemy ship after ship. The engines, powered by alien reactors, moved the Sol Defense Force vessels too swiftly and too unpredictably to suffer any worse than glancing hits, while alien-forged armour prevented serious damage from anything but the concentrated fire that destroyed the Castigation. One by one, the golden specks dwindled. Then there were none.

Captain Savidya asked of the signal analysis departments on both ships, "Do we know where those ships came from?"

After a moment to think, the Retaliation's head analyst answered "We're not certain, but we think that they came from the first planet from the sun - Tau Ceti I, that is. There are signs of industrial activity, high levels of thermal radiation, that sort of thing. If the aliens are anything like us, there could be anywhere from a hundred million to ten billion of them living there."

Captain Savidya Mair thought a moment, sitting on her acceleration couch. Then she decided.

"All hands, stand down. There will be three hours of relaxation time, then we accelerate towards the remains of the enemy ships to scavenge them for data. Then - then, we find some nice asteroids and push them towards the alien planet until it's as cratered as Mars!"

The crew cheered.