January 17, 1312 PE

  Sagittarius Star System

  HMS Agamemnon

  The flag bridge of the Agamemnon was tense, as the enemy had more than twice the number of ships of the wall. The central holotable showed the enemy fleet switching into wall-of-battle formations. The Admiralty had already declared a threat level of Alpha in the capital system. More importantly, the Sagittarius system housed most of the Star Kingdom’s shipbuilding industry.

  “All ships, execute battle formations,” Admiral Solomon ordered. “We’re well outside their missile envelope for now, while they are well within ours. The system defenses are already launching. Fire upon entering thirty-five million klick range.”

  The range was eight point six million klicks, with Home Fleet forming its wall of battle while closing at ten thousand KPS and increasing. Alliance missiles, thanks to the new MDM technology, had a maximum effective range of three point eight million klicks. PNN missiles, on the other hand, had a maximum effective range of two point one million klicks. However, PNN missiles could be equipped with disruptor warheads, which allowed standard EM shields to be overloaded almost instantly. Only a quarter of the Solarian capital ships present were equipped with the new reverse-engineered Arcturian gravity shields. These rendered them effectively invulnerable, though the technology had yet to be fully refined and small weak points still existed.

  In theory, the Alliance’s superior missile range meant they would gain the first strike and significantly reduce the opposing wall of battle, assuming the enemy did not possess some unknown, powerful point-defense system.

  After several minutes of acceleration, dozens of capital ships in Home Fleet belched out thousands of missiles. Surprisingly, the enemy launched as well, despite being far outside their effective range. Solomon frowned. Sukolai could have closed the distance and fired from extreme missile range. Alexandr Sukolai was no incompetent; he was one of the best admirals in the PNN, and even Solomon respected him.

  The answer came minutes later, when the missiles should have entered their second stage.

  “Sir, the missiles have disappeared from the screen,” the tactical officer reported.

  Solomon could already see it on the holotable. He nodded grimly as realization struck, though too late to stop it. Suddenly, multiple missiles reactivated their drives and slammed into the shields of the Alliance capital ships, instantly overloading them.

  Disruptor missiles, he thought, cursing the enemy’s ingenuity. Their existence had never been confirmed by intelligence, though analysts had long suspected the PNN might possess them.

  A heartbeat later, the remaining missiles reactivated and surged forward.

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  Alliance capital ships spewed countermissile fire at every target they could track. The holotable bloomed with overlapping clouds of countermissiles and MDMs, blotting out vast regions of space. Fusion warheads detonated or collided directly, wiping each other out in brilliant flashes. The resulting nuclear detonations would only be detected minutes later by luminal sensors, long after ships were already dead.

  Both sides deployed ECM suites, jammers, decoys, and dazzlers in a desperate effort to break targeting locks. Gaps were torn open in the missile waves, only to be filled moments later by more incoming fire. At laser range, point-defense arrays fired in frantic last-ditch attempts to intercept missiles closing at seventy to eighty percent of light speed. Missiles lost locks, reacquired them, then lost them again amid the chaos.

  By the end of the exchange, over a quarter of the original PNN missile salvo remained. They detonated their contact fusion warheads directly against capital ship hulls.

  Waves of explosions tore through the fleet as ships vanished in blinding flashes of light.

  The battle was over in only a few minutes. When it ended, Home Fleet no longer existed as a combat-effective force.

  ■■■■■

  The flag bridge of SNS New Centauri was silent with shock.

  “Jesus Christ,” someone whispered.

  Elaine Koltsovich stared at the holotable. The sensor data could not be falsified. Moments earlier, one hundred and twelve capital ships of the Royal Sagittaron Navy’s Home Fleet had registered active hyper signatures. Now, they were gone.

  Incoming imagery from light-speed sensors confirmed the destruction. Alongside the ships of the wall, one hundred and four grand frigates, and two hundred and twelve frigates had been obliterated in the nuclear firestorm. A few hulls still drifted through space, but most were gutted wrecks bleeding atmosphere, debris, and life pods. Rescue boats raced among them with grim determination, fighting time itself to save whoever they could.

  HMS Agamemnon had been among the first lost, confirmed destroyed with all hands. Admiral Solomon had gone down with his fleet, taking a substantial portion of the enemy with him. Despite the Novies’ brilliant tactics, Home Fleet’s return fire struck hard.

  Over one hundred and twenty PNN capital ships had been reduced to atoms or drifting hulks. Of the remaining two hundred and twenty-four ships of the wall Sukolai had brought, only a quarter were undamaged. His flagship, VKN Narodnaya Slava, was not among the survivors.

  System defenses continued to batter the retreating PNN fleet, though the battered formation was beginning to withdraw beyond effective range.

  The SSN Ninth Fleet accelerated forward to finish what Home Fleet had started. AAC-02 attack craft poured from the hangars of the Retribution-class ships of the wall. These craft, unique to SSN capital ships, excelled in both strike missions and missile defense.

  Two hundred and ten AAC-02 squadrons surged toward the PNN wall of battle. The enemy detected them immediately and launched countermissiles, destroying nearly a quarter of the attackers. The remaining squadrons pressed on regardless.

  Upon entering effective range, the attack craft unleashed hundreds of missiles into the battered PNN formation. More than half penetrated the desperate countermissile fire and point-defense screens. Nuclear detonations and x-ray laser bursts tore into armor and internal systems, destroying seventy-two additional PNN capital shipss along with countless frigates.

  The surviving PNN ships retaliated, launching missiles at the attack craft. The AAC-02s responded with dense countermissile fire. When the exchange ended, only half of the squadrons survived to return to their carriers.

  Meanwhile, Ninth Fleet continued closing into missile range, with Retribution-class ships SNS William Carlson, SNS Invincible Reason, and SNS John Farragut leading the formation.