USS Rushmore

After 2 hours of waiting for any news Admiral Jacobs had left his fleet in the capable hands of Rear Admiral Robinson of the Super Carrier Ironwood and went to his quarters to get some sleep. With yet another battle looming in front of him Admiral Jacobs had decided to face it as fresh as possible.

7 hours after he had lain down he was awoken by a message, answering with a simple “Report.” He listened to the good news.

“Sir we have a message from both the Zebra Danio and the Pearl Gourami, the Alpha and Charlie Kraken main weapons are confirmed disabled. The Kraken Beta has sustained sever damage and may be mission killed or disabled.”

“What do you mean mission killed or disabled?”

“I mean that the front fifth of the Kraken isn’t there anymore. I’m not sure how but Commander Jacobs and his crew managed to cripple a super dreadnought.”

“That son of a bitch, have we heard from him?”

“No, but that’s not unexpected their laser coms system was damaged in their fight with the Guppy.”

“I’m on my way down, coordinate with the other Admirals and get us underway as soon as possible.”

“Yes Sir.”

Admiral Jacobs had hoped that the other Admirals would be easy to convince and they could begin the operation as soon as possible, after all they had a transit time of 5 hours before the battle would even begin, and then another hour to approach Jupiter after the battle. As he walked onto his command deck his hopes were dashed as he saw Rear Admiral Robinson still watching the transmission from the Zebra Danio with the other Admirals. All 4 of the Admirals were visible on the main view screen and the Captain of the Rushmore Joseph Gellar was watching the transmission silently.

Not wanting to interrupt Admiral Robinson in front of the other Admirals he stood beside the Captain and Admiral Jacobs watched the operation himself for the first time. On the screen the image of the Krakens were in front of them slowly turning away from the camera, or perhaps the camera was moving away from the Kraken. The creatures face was splayed open with the large form of their weapon visible in the opening.

With the closer vantage point the camera had the Admirals could see the individual veins running up and down the weapons as parts of them pulsed. After several moments of silent watching very suddenly there were several explosions around two of Kraken. With no oxygen in space the explosions were limited to the release of energy and radiation which the cameras of the Zebra Danio were able to filter out. With the detonation the faces of the two creatures began to shrivel and smoke as they almost seemed to begin to melt. The weapon on one of the Krakens broke in two pieces and the other was left a blackened and withered husk with liquid pouring out of a dozen places.

The final Kraken in the middle of the other two began to turn to its port and close its face. Almost 3 seconds after the first detonations there was one more. This explosion was far larger than the others. Admiral Jacobs wasn’t sure if it had been pumping some sort of atmosphere into that area after it was closed, or perhaps the Cherry Barbs explosive simply found something flammable, either way the fireball that replaced the end of the creature was spectacular.

The explosion ripped apart almost a fifth of the creature causing flesh and liquid to blossom out from it. As the explosion cleared, they could see a dark liquid pouring out of it as the creature began drifting aimlessly in space.

“America votes to attack” Said Rear Admiral Robinson for Admiral Jacobs.

“Agreed.” Zetian said next.

“I concur.” Sokolov said.

“May god help us all, I agree.” Gallagher confirmed.

They each broke the connection and ordered their subordinates to launch the attack. As alarms blared throughout ships crew members that had been waiting for just this moment sprung into action.

Taking control of the fleet Admiral Jacobs relieved Admiral Robinson and looked over their position. Opposite normal doctrine his cruisers were leading the way instead of their frigates, hopefully the extra armor they had would allow them to absorb more fire and allow the frigates more time attack their enemies.

As the remaining two thirds of the joint task force began to accelerate towards their enemy, the ships that were too damaged to be taken into battle were left behind. Not all the ships were completely out of action, but they had enough damage where it was thought that they wouldn’t be very useful in the battle. So instead they watched the remnants of the Behemoth and ensured it was well and truly dead and not able to flank the fleet.

As the remaining Task Force accelerated from behind Europa the fleet collectively held its breath waiting to see if against all odds one of the Krakens main weapons were still operational. As the minutes ticked by and the distance fell slowly the nerves everyone was feeling began to recede being replaced by hopeful optimism.

When the fleet was finally clear of Europa and within 200 000 km of their enemy the American carriers launched three quarters of their remaining missiles and all their remaining drones. Half of the missiles were sent on a long parabolic arc above the Leviathan fleet in a similar move to their previous battle and the other half were sent under them. Unfortunately, with so many missiles having been already used this was far fewer then Admiral Jacobs would have liked and only 1500 missiles sped through the void of space at their targets accompanied by another 200 drones.

The Guppies and Kraken instead of waiting passively for the missiles to strike them, began to accelerate directly upwards towards where the weapons would be arriving from. When the weapons were 150 000 km away from their targets the Aliens lasers began lashing out and destroying dozens of missiles and drones at a time. The two remaining Kraken were able to destroy dozens of missiles every few seconds.

“All ships target the Beta Kraken with our light anti ship rounds, I want it stripped of weapons and armor immediately.” Admiral Jacobs said

With all the Leviathans focusing on the missiles they were outflanked, exposed and thanks to Lieutenant Nate Brown, the American Fleet was receiving accurate information on the Leviathans evasive maneuvers. His work on determining how the movements of Leviathan tentacles translated into which direction their enemy would be accelerating to, allowed the Pearl Gourami and Zebra Danio to update the American fleets targeting computers increasing their accuracy from 15% to 60% at this range.

“Alderman, are you sending the targeting data to the other fleets?” Admiral Jacobs asked his communications officer.

“I’m sending them the data Sir, but it’s not compatible with their targeting computers so it’s not doing any good.”

Jacobs had talked to the other Admirals while they waited and they had attempted to patch their targeting computers so they could make use of the data being sent but they didn’t have enough time so only his own ships were able to enjoy the increase in accuracy.

Despite the Human fleets scoring hit after hit on the Kraken their weapons were having far less of an effect than they would like. Some armor was being stripped off, a few of their lasers were no longer firing but for the most part the Kraken they were targeting was shrugging off most of the weapons with little in the way of damage.

The missiles were faring much worse. With the combined lasers of the 2 Kraken and 15 Guppies hundreds of missiles had been destroyed, even now as the weapons were closing in to striking range and the drones deployed their own missiles they continued to be targeted. Finally as the last 100 missiles approached their targets the Guppies pulled ahead and in front of the Kraken sacrificing themselves for the larger ships. Dozens of the remaining missiles slammed into the smaller ships releasing their payload and turning 10 of the 15 aliens into vapor.

With the closest missiles destroyed and the remaining missiles still accelerating towards their targets the remaining Leviathans turned towards the Human ships. 50 lasers per Kraken reached out and made short work of any human ship they attacked even with their thick armor and evasive maneuvers. But even as human ships burned or exploded they never stopped doing their duty, firing weapons or attempting to cover more damaged ships with their own hulls slowly the battle came to a close.

Although the Kraken were able to shrug off an incredible amount of damage, with the Human advantage in numbers the Leviathans never stood a chance. Slowly the other fleets accuracy improved as the distance closed and with so many weapons hitting the Kraken at once one by one their weapons were silenced, and their outer armor was slowly ripped off layer by layer, until they had only a few weapons remaining and the solid white hulls of their inner armor. Switching to their armor piercing weapons the Dreadnoughts of the task force fired salvo after salvo of the heavy weapons. Small cracks appeared in the hulls, which then widened into small holes, which quickly expanded into then even larger holes until their fronts were pock marked with gaping wounds from which atmosphere and liquids were pouring out.

When the two fleets were less then 20 000 km from each other the Kraken accelerated forwards with a lurch attempting to ram the human ships. It may have worked, if the other half of the missiles hadn’t arrived.

With their support craft almost all destroyed, and their weapons mostly silenced the missiles were almost unopposed when they slammed by the dozens and then hundreds into the Kraken and few Guppies that remained.

With dozens of multi-megaton detonations directly against or even inside their hulls the human sensors were completely blinded. When the last of the missiles streaked by looking for a target the Human fleets looked at where their enemies had been and were met with the sight of a slowly expanding cloud of ash, blood and debris.

“Well done everyone. Just one more mission left for today.”

Finally, the human ships turned their attention to the final enemy in front of them. The Behemoth, 27 Kilometers across had positioned itself between the Human Fleets and the stations the Aliens had been building.

“Admiral Jacobs, the other Admirals are requesting a meeting.” The Rushmore’s communication officer said.

Accepting the call Admiral Jacobs regarded the other Admirals, they looked as haggard and exhausted as he felt.

“Admiral Jacobs, did you want to try and take any part of the Behemoth or what it’s building intact?” Admiral Zetian asked.

“I do not, I think whatever that thing is we should blow it straight to hell immediately.”

“Then we are in agreement Admiral do you have any nuclear warheads left?”

“Some, if it has any weapons it would be able to shoot the down however.”

“If we all launch our remaining warheads around the Behemoth on different angles it won’t be able to intercept all of them.” Zetian said.

“We can also pin it in place with our rail guns by simply firing directly at it, if it dodges we would have a clear shot at the objects.” Sokolov added.

Their plan decided they each chose a direction to send their nuclear weapons around the massive alien and fired.

Each ship in the fleet began firing every weapon they had left. Missiles launched from tubes as ships that had help them in reserve until now used them. Rail guns tracked the massive creature and began firing at its center a combination of light and armor piercing rounds. Despite the distance between the fleet and their target the Behemoth couldn’t dodge without exposing the gate. As the slugs found their target a areen and a brownish red liquid began pouring out of the center of the Behemoth as more and more rounds tore great gouges in the monster.

As the missiles approached and the damage on the creature mounted it became apparent that it had no weapons at all. Instead of shooting down any of the weapons it instead moved allowing the Human ships an unobstructed view of the what they had been building.

All three of the objects were now attached to each other by long strands of flesh and muscles. The 5km long fusion plants were drawing in hydrogen directly from Jupiter using gravity on a scale humanity had never even considered allowing the two power plants to generate more power than every power plant on Earth combined. Veins hundreds of meters thick ran from the reactors to the ring and wrapped around it.

The ring itself hung above Jupiter with the gas giant in the behind it, but through the ring instead of the planet they saw stars. The gate had been activated.

The Human ships had fired all of their remaining weapons and while the rail gun rounds were striking the fusion reactors they were not able to do enough damage to stop them and the missiles were still another 15 minutes away from their targets.

Through the gate the crews watched helplessly as a Kraken surrounded by dozens of Guppies began transiting into the solar system the fronts of their faces already open theirs laser glowing a bright red as they tracked their foes.

Admiral Jacobs felt his heart sink, they had failed. Even if they closed the gate now they likely didn’t have the munitions left to destroy another Kraken, it had taken hundreds of nuclear weapons to destroy the first two. Nonetheless he had his duty and he wouldn’t stop trying just because it was impossible. “All ships target the fusion plant on the port side we have to shut that gate now.”

Across the joint task force almost all the remaining human weapons changed their targets and began firing round after round into the fusion reactor to no avail, The European fleet however began firing at the Kraken attempting to damage the creatures weapons.

“Dammit, get me Gallagher on the line, we need to close that gate.”

“Sir, I’m trying to get them now….”

USS Cherry Barb 5km from the starboard Leviathan Fusion Reactor

“Close the door Chief, open the door Chief, close the door again Chief, uh oh better open the door again Chief! This time the damn thing’s staying open!” Chief Hanlan yelled to himself as he and Saskowski were once again manually forcing the slinger bay doors open inch by inch their powered space suits barely helping them.

Behind them Maccio was laying their remaining mines on the slinger bay floor haphazardly trying to keep some space between them.

With a final heave the Chief and Saskowski managed to force the slinger bay doors open just as Maccio was laying the last mine on the ground. “That’s it Chief. Think we can actually hit anything with these?”

“Not our department, alright out of the way, against the wall you two.” As the three of them moved to the wall and attached their suits to the walls with clips Chief Hanlan opened a line to the Command Deck. “We’re ready here Sir.”

Looking out the open slinger bay doors far in the distance only a few thousand km away and far too rapidly approaching was one of the Leviathan fusion reactors. Even at this distance they could clearly see their target due to how massive it was and the light it was emitting.

The cylinder of the Fusion reactor was pointing down towards Jupiter as a bright light drew up the atmosphere. It was incredibly beautiful thought the Chief just as the Cherry Barbs gravity cut out. Immediately after he started floating he saw the mines gently lift off the deck and then he felt a jerk to the side as the ship decelerated sharply, the mines continuing their path straight towards the reactor. “Payload away Sir!” he shouted into his com system. “Alright lets get out of here, if the Commander asks the door is jammed open.”

On the bridge Commander Frazer nodded at Lieutenant Brown as he let them know their last mines were away and he was changing course before they rammed the giant fusion reactor. Speaking through his face mask he looked at Duncan Marshal and asked “Are you sure?” coughing from the smoke from the fires.

“Yes Sir. The Rushmore has been destroyed.” Said Lieutenant Marshal his voice empty.

Saying to no one in particular “Start a clock, 1 minute and 25 seconds until it fires again. Lieutenant Marshal fire off our last nuclear missile directly at this, vein or whatever the hell it is.” Commander Frazer said stabbing his finger at the largest of the veins connecting the reactor to the gate.

“Yes Sir.” He said launching the weapon immediately.

“Mr. Brown get us the hell out of here. That was officially our last nuclear weapon.”

Chinese Flagship Zeng He

Admiral Zetian had taken the news of the Rushmore being destroyed stoically, but still harder than she had thought. Although Admiral Jacobs had been an adversary at one point and an ally of necessity now, she had always respected him a great deal and his death was a tragedy.

“I am detecting nuclear detonations against the starboard reactor near the base where its connected to the gate. “Captain Huang said.“ Admiral there’s a nuclear missile now.”

“Show me.”

The mines launched by inertia from the Cherry Barb crossed the void of space and hit the reactor like a nuclear shot gun shell. Each detonation blackened and scorched the reactor, some veins withering and dying.

Before the Captain could orient the telescopes the missile crossed the incredibly short distance rammed the largest vein and detonated.

The alien flesh burned and blackened from the radiation before shattering and hanging limply in space. With the veins being damaged while the gate was on power was interrupted for just a few moments. Normally not enough to cause a problem but the rushed nature of the reactors construction had forced some corners to be cut.

The power to the gate was interrupted for just a few milliseconds. Barely perceptible to the human eye it was enough for the gate to flicker and destabilize for just a few moments as it tried to stabilise its power. The Kraken and Guppies which had been partway through were cut straight through. The aliens began drifting dead immediately, not even explosions marking their demise.

“All ships target the veins on the port side reactor, sever it from the gate!” Admiral Zetian shouted after seeing how effective the missile had been.

Her crews shifted their target to the smaller targets and almost immediately and while hundreds of rounds missed most hit and the veins connecting it to the gate were one by one severed. The American Fleets under the command of Rear Admiral Robinson switched their fire to the starboard reactor trying to sever as many of the connections as possible.

The Cherry Barb was forced to turn on their IFF transponder in order to avoid being caught in the fire as they sped away as fast as they could.

As connection after connection was severed the flickering of the gate got worse and worse until the gate turned off.

The Behemoth moved, rushing forwards far faster than a ship that size should be able to move it began to accelerate towards the human fleet.

The human ships shifted their fire to the new threat and damage was slowly building up on the creature but with its massive bulk they could never do enough damage to stop it. They need not have worried; the Human ships weren’t its target.

Speeding past the Human ships it continued to accelerate towards Europa, from behind the Behemoth sporadic weapons fire continued to tear into it.

However the Task Force had another Problem 12 fresh Guppies had managed to transit through the gate before it closed. As one they opened fire on the closest American cruiser piercing its already damaged hull in a few moments it erupted into a fireball.

Turrets from the human fleet spun as they targeted this new threat. Half the Guppies were different than the ones humanity had seen before. They were almost 50 meters larger than the other Guppies humanity had seen, sporting 2 long growths along their hull that fired lances of plasma into whatever human ship they were facing.

As the task force redirected their fire into these new threats they steeled themselves for a fresh battle. They need not have worried as the missiles from the fleets were fast approaching as well. Being much closer to the weapons the Guppies had almost no time to react and were only able to shoot down a handful of the almost 800 missiles that had been sent. The explosions left behind almost nothing of the enemy ships.

The Behemoth by this time was more than halfway to Europa and no longer accelerating. Massive chunks of the creature were now drifting away from it and a dark red ichor oozed out of the great rents in its body.

The creature looked to be either dead or dying but inertia carried it directly into the frozen surface of Europa where it crashed on top of the growth coming out of the ice with a shock wave large enough to send geysers of ice and water spinning away from the frozen moon as the Behemoth sunk into the icy waters of Europa.

As the battle finished the Human ships took stock of the battlefield. The Leviathan Fusion Reactors were now pulling themselves down into Jupiter along with the ring, the Behemoth was sinking below the ice of Europa out of their reach, and all they had left around them was the shattered remains of Human ships and lifeless Alien hulks.

When the Behemoth finally sunk beneath the waves the crew of the Chinese Flag Ship let out a half-hearted cheer, to exhausted to even celebrate properly.

“All ships secure the area, begins search and rescue operations of damaged ships.” Admiral Zetian said exhaustion flowing through her.