Kick the Sphere 40 (Patreon)

Kick the Sphere

Chapter 40

-VB-

In orbit of Atreus, Admiral Michael Soyya sat aboard FWLS Great Eagle, a hastily reconstructed Aegis-class Heavy Cruiser. 

The crew and he knew that this was a death sentence. 

Everyone’s seen the holovids of those “replicator” ships that burned through the Capellan Confederation and the League’s periphery. It was years ago but it didn’t feel like it. 

Everyone had been scrambling to put up countermeasures. 

But Admiral Michael knew that it wouldn’t be enough.

The tonnage of his fleet alone wasn’t half of the conservative estimate of the known number of ships the metal bugs used. And he doubted that they remained stagnant. 

So when he and the rest of the FWLM high command received sightings of replicator ships along the border, they knew this was it. 

“Sensor anomalies detected!” the sensor officer reported quickly. Michael looked down briefly at his own screen before looking up at the bridge’s main holograms. 

The Great Eagle came with five main sensors: visual telescopy, radar, magnetimetrics, LIDAR, and thermals. Instead of working separately, these five main sensors worked together to put together a picture of targets at distances that no naked human eye can detect. It was a scientific development that came out of some former Terran Hegemony colony on the periphery of the Free Worlds League. Niops, or something. 

But even as the ship’s computers whirred away to put up a picture, he knew who was here. 

And the picture that came back was the infamous Black Flower of the replicator fleets. 

The public called them that because that’s what they looked like when one faced them directly. 

“Arm all missiles and turrets,” he ordered firmly without shouting. His comms officers quickly relayed the orders. And the entire fleet of the Free Worlds League Navy - three Aegis-class Heavy Cruisers, ten Essex-class Destroyers, and ten Vincent-class Corvettes - all lit up on the thermals. 

“Three Flowers! Two hundred thousand kilometers and closing!” 

He took a deep breath and looked down at his gray-green gloves. In it, he had a single picture of his family. His children. His wife. Their grandchildren.

He knew that he was facing certain death. 

Everyone here knew it. 

But if they didn’t fight, then who would? 

He took a deep breath in. 

The main weapons of his Aegis-class Heavy Cruiser was the Naval Laser 55 with a range of close to nine hundred kilometers. Missiles could probably reach a little further, but they would be shot down. No, he had to conserve the missiles for close quarters. 

“One hundred thousand kilometers!” 

He grunted. “Those bastards are certainly fast,” he grumbled out. “Aim all naval lasers. I want Group 1 to target Flower 1, Group 2 on Flower 2, and Group 3 on Flower 3. I want them to wait until my order! I want our volley to mean something! Aerospace fighters on up and down! Wingspan 1 to 5 on Flower 1, Wingspan 6 to 10 on Flower 2, and Wingspan 11 to 15 on Flower 3!”

He watched the screen change to show his fleet dividing themselves on the screen. 

“Fifty thousand!” 

As those Black Flowers drew closer, the more their sensors could make out the details. What began as mere dots on the map slowly took shape in their horrifying majesty. 

Long. Almost sinewous. 

Petaled flowers for a head. 

Black Flower was the “kind” name for those monstrosities that burned Betelgeuse. 

“Grasping Hands” was the better name.

He and the other commanders had meticulously studied any and all footage captured of the replicators. From those footages, they learned three things.

One, they possessed energy shields. 

Two, they did not produce aerospace fighters. 

Three, he could not allow them to land on the planet. Once they landed, it was over. 

Knowing what he and the rest of the commanders did, the plan that they had come up with was to use fighters and bombers to destabilize the replicator ships. Then the warships of the FWLN would break the ships apart.

Then missiles will be used to blast the fragments of the replicators away from Atreus. 

“... All Wingspans have the go.”

Thruster heat flared and close to two hundred aerospace fighters soundlessly blitzed forward. Behind them, bombers followed at their own top speed and acceleration. 

“Thirty thousand kilometers! Flowers have slowed down!” Then a pause. No, the sensor officers were frozen. “They’re splitting!” 

On the hologram screen, Admiral Michael watched as the three Flowers broke up into smaller flowers. And then even smaller flowers. 

Until what was once Grasping Hands returned to being dots on the screen. 

“Sensors, how big are they?!” 

“Computers are calculating, admiral! They-.” Then she froze. “Three thousand targets! Average of fifty meters!” 

Michael paled at the thought. Their naval lasers just became useless junks. The naval lasers wouldn’t be able to strike these tiny flowers fast enough to matter.

And then those five thousand smaller Flowers smashed into the fighters and bombers. With no major targets, the bombers were left aimless. Their bombs, meant for the giant Flowers, weren’t made to deal with thousands of small fighters.

The fighters tried to fight back, but they were woefully unprepared. 

And they died. 

Hundreds of good men and women of the FWLM died as the enemy unveiled a card they never expected to deal with. 

And now, it was his turn.

“They’re speeding up! One thousand kilomet-!” 

“Fire all batteries!” Michael ordered, and his ship shook as its lasers and autocannons rumbled. Missiles roared out of their tubes and flew into the fray. 

Dozens of fighters detonated from direct missile and autocannon strikes. Many more listed to the side as lasers burned away at their engines, thrusters, and hull.

But there were thousands.

Michael didn’t have too much time to lament the fall of Atreus before a dozen replicator fighters - amorphous blobs with more guns than actual design and shape - smashed into his ship, including the bridge. 

More than a thousand replicator fighters dove into the atmosphere of Atreus, breaking apart into even smaller bits as they fell down.

And then the Horror of Betelgeuse was repeated upon Atreus.