Balada : When From My Square Of Window Pane I Draw The Curtain To One Side Page 6

  Ear system, Volunian Fleet Flagship.

  Admiral Yemen has up until this point, had a long and illustrious career, during which he had faced enemies from all over the galaxy. He had remained calm against every single one of the local sector nations, with which they would occasionally fight over territory, had stood fast against The Empire, remained unmoved against the Republic, and had held the line against the Federation. But now, now when facing a fox, he for the first time in his life, was feeling something new, something unfelt or even though existed within him until now!

  It was fear.

  “That boy is a demon, his sailors may look the part, but he can actually play that part!” he thought to himself as he gazed and the pulsar screen, not only was the Imperial Fleet on a direct path towards the area where Balisha was situated, but they were moving at a speed of Mark 19…….Mark 19!

  His own ships where at mark 15 and they where light ships!

  “How could he maintain such a high velocity without murdering his crew? Why, the only logical explanation would be too have only a handful on board; but then why has he come here, instead of going towards the Imperial lines? It doesn’t make sense!”

  “If he only has a handful aboard, then he has no chance against my fleet! But why did he not retreat? It goes against the most basic rules of war!”

  “You strike when you are strongest, at the time when your enemy’s the weakest, not the other way around!”

  Yemen frantically thought to himself, as he gazed towards the Imperial ships displayed on the bridge screen before him.

  The Empire’s ship design was a balanced model between the 5 basic principles of any war machine, namely: speed, armor, firepower, survivability and maneuverability.

  They’re basic shape was that of a cylinder, which was sharpened at a very narrow angle on both ends, at the front there was a sharp needle about a fourth of the ships length, it looked similar like the ones used by atmospheric skywanderers.

  Its surface was filled with geometric shapes that resembled very short pyramids, with the tip sticking perpendicularly out of the surface; the base was an unequal rhombus that had the two sharpest of angles, pointed in the direction of the front and the back of the ship.

  The surface was entirely covered in theses pyramids, who did not leave a single area where their bases did not touch each other, forming a sort of sloped armor for the ships, one that combined with the nose needle that was there to help deflect energy and physical attacks, made the vessels very difficult to damage, let alone destroy from the front.

  From each pyramid tip, one of the ship’s many weapons would emerge to fire on enemy vessels. From rune domes, to golem missile launchers, to warp cannons, the arsenal was diverse, deadly and after the fired their load, they could retreat back inside the tips to avoid being destroyed by enemy return fire.

  At the very base of the surface pyramids, where four pyramids met, a great mast of steel and iron emerged. From it, a great sail made out of pure energy spread itself in all directions, massive in size, they dwarfed the ships themselves and where used for both navigating within and outside the warp, by using the energy currents of millions of stars and the solar winds of billions of dead suns.

  The sail poles where all arranged in a pattern of circles that depending on the length and size off the ship, measured from five to twelve poll long circles and numbering from the front and all the way to the back between three and 30 circles in all, depending on the size and type of the vessel.

  But, the sails where also used when not in combat, in order to preserves the precious power supply of their energy crystals and even recharge them. They were still used in battle to help with maneuvering the ships and a seasoned sailor knew, when to deactivate the sails and when to raise them, for in a fight, maneuverability meant all the difference between life and death.

  The main means of propulsion, was of course the eight warp and subwarp engines, that where on the rear of the ship and the smaller ones, that were used for maneuvering and where dispersed strategically all over the vessel’s surface.

  The main engines, where organized with one of them in the middle, surrounded by the other seven. The area where they would burst out a wave of energy, that was used for travel, was a very elongated conic shape, with the tip responsible for releasing the energy cut off just short of the top, this made the engines more difficult to maintain, but drastically increased their protection against enemy fire!

  The engines, from a design point of view where not part of the ship, but rather eight structures attached to the rear sharpened end of the ship.

  The reason for this, was that unlike other models of ships, that when their engines were destroyed the ships were also destroyed, the Imperials had designed their vessels to detach their engines when struck and the resulting explosion, instead of destroying what was left of the ship, would actually propel it away from most of the damage, this obviously did not always work, but it did increase survivability by a precious few percentiles, and that could mean everything in war.

  This kind of design made the Imperial vessels more expensive and harder to maintain, but the Imperials considered it a fare trade.

  That was the basic layout for most of the frigates, battleships and cruisers, they had no cannon ships, a fact which Yemen was grateful for, but they did have carriers, any ship carried a contingent of fighters, but carriers where the specialist in that field.

  They were slightly bigger, by at least 50% than the battleships, but that’s where the similarities stopped, for unlike the battleships, at about a third of the way from the nose to the rear of the ship and vice versa, there was a sudden depression in their structure, that made the cylinder slimmer by about 20%.

  There, at the beginning of the front’s thicker segment, was an opening which went diagonal trough the body of the slimmer segment and exited at the opposite end, right before the area where the rear part of the carrier had the main engines attached, this was where the Pegasus, BEGS, Skywanderers and Impalers would launch for battle and return to.

  Admiral Yemen’s ships on the other hand where designed in a shape similar to a very thinly stretched spinning top, with the handle stick attached.

  The front of the ship being the eponymous top and the rear, the engines and the sail masts where the ‘handle’.

  This ship design, unlike the imperial one, was made specifically for long range skirmishing. The Volunian ships had most of their armor and heavy shields placed at the front, the sides and rear where very lightly defended.

  “Enemy Fleet is five minutes away from reaching Balisha!” the pulsar operator reported to Yemen

  “We may have the advantage at long range, but if they reach Balisha, they’ll be in an entrenched position, the fight will close range melee, where their ships excel at!”

  “Enemy fleet is four minutes away from reaching Balisha.”

  “Also, they have heavy ships, while we are light, and you never attack a heavy ship with a light one!”

  “Enemy Fleet is three minutes from Balisha.”

  “But, we have superior numbers, we can overwhelm them! Even if he knows where Balisha is located, the only way inside is guarded by a heavy camouflaged door and can only be opened by a special key, of which I have the only copy!” Yemen thought to himself as his nerves where pushed to the limit.

  “Enemy Fleet is two minutes from Balisha, and they are on a direct course for the entrance way.”

  “And the walls covering it are too thick to be penetrated by conventional weaponry, so he can’t bypass the door, he will have to destroy it, leaving him vulnerable to us!”

  “Enemy Fleet is one minute away from Balisha, they are now directly above the entrance way.”

  “Yet they need it intact, it’s not like the walls are made out of sand!”

  “Enemy fleet has reached Balisha and has positioned itself at the entrance!”

  “…………………………………………………………………………�
�………………………”

  Admiral Yemen’s mind became a complete black as he held his breath waiting for what was to come.

  “The enemy has passed the entrance way and is now going around Balisha!” the comms officer said and gave out a breath of relief, one which the entire bridge crew, along with Yemen gave out as well.

  The Admiral had informed them of Balisha, since it looked likely the secret would be exposed anyway, but now he regretted that mistake, and was glad that he was able to regret it, since it proved that this was all a massive coincidence.

  “Enemy fleet is now at the rear area of the meteor, they appear to be turning around.”

  “He came here because of a bad military decision and it was just coincidence he was set on course to Balisha, looks like I was wrong in my estimate of how much of a threat this Metternich really is.” Yemen thought to himself as he let himself relax in his chair.

  “We are detecting a weapons discharge from the enemy fleet; it has impacted the asteroids surface!”

  “You couldn’t conquer Balisha; you can’t beat the great Giant that it is our country! Serves you right for thinking you can slay a giant with a pebble!“ Yemen thought to himself as he with a rare smile on his face looked at the Imperial Fleet.