Governor-General Jaqualik could have delegated command of the Silhouette battle ship he was on board to a capable subordinate. He huffed at the thought. As the one hundred ships of his vaunted Border Fleet neared the rebel occupied moon called Ponrek Point, Jaqualik gave in to a tingle of joy. How many years had it been since he had personally commanded a mission as pivotable to his career as this one? Dribik succeeded in eliminating a notorious terrorist and traitor. Now it was left to Jaqualik to wipe out the organization that its deseased leader had spawned.
“Surface readings are active,” an officer at the scan station announced. “I’m getting massive vehicle mobilizations and heightened power surges indicative of weapons going online.”
Jaqualik, standing beside his command post at the lowest level of the bridge, looked up at the elevated scan station. “Excellent,” he said to the station’s occupant. Any doubt he may have had as to whether the GLFF base was actually on that drab looking slab of a moon had been effectively put to rest.
Of course where the Watch Department and its director were concerned, Jaqualik shouldn’t have had a morsel of doubt to begin with.
“Weapons range in ten seconds,” Olek, his first officer reported, glancing up from the table top near-space status screen. “Orbital defense satellites are deploying.”
No sooner had he said that did Ponrek Point’s higher orbital plain light up with the flaring discharges of over three thousand satellite-mounted pulse cannons. Highly condensed bursts of energy whipped out into space, streaking toward the inbound Opheren ships like a horde of avenging angels.
The Silhouettes at the forefront of the formation opened up with responding volleys. First, they fired molecular missiles in the paths of the energy bursts. The missiles detonated at mid point, releasing vaperous compounds. Well over ninety percent of the energy bursts plunged into white cloudy mists formed by the molecular missiles and dissipated as if they were doused in an ocean. Which, essentially is what the compounds were: heavily fortified water capable of negating the effects of energy based weapons.
A rapidly forming cloud from thousands of pulse/missile impacts billowed across the front of the Silhouette line. Dozens of ships disappeared in the artificial cumulus, reappearing on the other side or as parts of the cloud began to fade.
The Silhouettes fired a second wave of missiles, targeting the satellites. Brutally simplistic affairs those missiles were. The missiles exploded when in close proximity to their targets. Only, instead of releasing water clouds, they released swarms of ball bearings. Every satellite directed toward the invading fleet was flayed to its core components in a savage typhoon of hyper accelerated metal spheres. In seconds, the satellite ring girding Ponrek Point fell apart like an unsnapped belt and died in a churning compression of hot reactor-spawned fury.
“Arm planet missiles,” Jaqualik commanded. He fixed a borderline crazed look on his second-in-command. “Have you pinpointed their piss hole of a base?”
“We have,” replied Olek.
“Good, open fire!”
Triangular missiles the size of heavy fighter craft and armed with neutron warheads exited every ship in the Opheren force. They descended upon the moon, their guidance computers directing them toward the target that sprawled beneath its atmospheric shroud.
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