Alex was treading lightly. Asteria was asleep, and while he was small enough that waking her was unlikely, he was taking no chances.
He loved his daughter as fiercely as he loved his wife and his son, both of whom he worried about. Rixie was away on some mission with Vanser that almost had to be related to what was going on with the Federation or the “Faces of Death” video, or maybe both. There was danger there, and while he knew damn well that Rixie could take care of herself, he also knew damn well that she was a big damn hero, and that she would put her life at risk to save others. Which would be admirable, except there were only two lives in the universe that Alex thought worthy of such a sacrifice, and at least one of them was sleeping peacefully at the moment.
As for the other…Ryan had been on Earth for what seemed like forever, and Alex was getting annoyed by it. Especially as it didn’t sound like he was being utilized like the former captain of the Zeno’s Paradox should be. He had said he was in a camp near Blagoveshchensk, which Alex had determined to mean that he was working at the Vostochny Cosmodrome. Ryan had flatly told Alex that he couldn’t discuss what he was doing; it had to be some sort of back-channel defense initiative. Alex knew Darren was working on something big, big enough that Ted Martínez had spent a good amount of time in Atlantis working with him. They’d gone back to Earth at the same time, so clearly, it was going well, but with the civil unrest there following the video….
Alex’s pad vibrated, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the caller. “Hey, Rix, I was just….”
He stopped. He had known Rixie for over a century and a half. He knew every line on her face, the precise meaning behind every flicker of expression. This was an expression he’d only seen a few times, an expression he had hoped he’d never see again.
Terror.
“What’s going on. Are you okay?”
“I’m okay, but Alex…the video…it was meant to push the Titans out of Sol. Aerti…Vanser just talked to him. The Insectoids….”
Rixie stopped, and took one deep breath. She was very good at controlling her emotions, except when people she loved were in danger.
“The Gyfjon and Xifos were en route to Tau Ceti. The system’s comms are blocked. They saw evidence of a hive ship in the system, Alex. There’s a hive ship in Imperial space.”
“Oh, Gods,” Alex said. “The Colony. Lessy, Sorcha, Joseph….”
“Not just them. Alex, they’ll be heading to Earth if they get through. This was a One-Ishaytan. There is….”
Rixie hated to say it, but it was the truth, and they had to deal with truth now.
“Alex, there is no way that Gama Fleet can take out a One-Ishaytan Hive Ship. Our best estimate was that a weaponized One-Ishaytan would have the equivalent firepower of the entire combined Imperial fleet. We’ve seen exactly one, and they were using it to seed a colony. If they’re invading with one, they will make short work of Gama Fleet, and they will move on to Earth.”
There were almost eleven billion people on Earth, including Alex’s sister and her family. There were billions of people there, all of whom had value, none of whom deserved the hell of an attack by the Insectoids. But only one of them popped into Alex’s mind. The same one that Rixie was focused on.
“Ryan. Oh, God.”
“Alex, I’m trying to figure out as much as I can. It’s not just Ryan. It could be the whole Empire. For now…I’m not sure anywhere is safe between the Core and the Hive, but we have to get as many people off Earth as we can, as quick as we can. The Avalonians have to retreat back home. You have to call Ryan, tell him.”
“I will. Rix…you stay safe,” Alex said. “I’ll get a hold of our son, and I’ll get him home. I promise.”
“He’s our son. He may want to stay and keep fighting,” Rixie said.
“I know, and I will respect that as I’m demanding he come back,” Alex said, with just the slightest of smiles.
“I love you, Alex,” Rixie said.
“I love you too, Rix. I love you too.”
Alex terminated the call, and rubbed a hand through his hair. He tried Ryan – left a message the first time, sent a text message, and called two more times. He swore as he hung up.
With that done, he called family.
“Thyllia? Hey, Alex,” he said, trying hard to keep his poker face on. “Can you watch Asteria for an hour or so? I have to run into town. No, no, everything’s fine…I just have some business that can’t wait until tomorrow.”
He thought about asking Thyllia if she’d heard from Ryan, but decided against it. He didn’t want to worry her. Not yet.
Instead, he’d waited patiently for his daughter-in-law (okay, technically not his daughter-in-law quite yet, but he didn’t care about those technicalities) to arrive, and he’d thanked her, and he’d practically bolted out the door, heading for the personal hovercraft that he had owned for twenty Earth years, and flown to Atlantis precisely once.
Alex liked the hovercraft, and flew it out in the country on occasion for fun, and once and a while out to Paletine or Wanderer’s Bay. But he didn’t fly to Atlantis, he took the train. He never had to be anywhere that urgently.
Until now.
* * *
The Crisis Room of the High Command was, in point of fact, a Crisis Floor. It was thirty units below the Dodecahedron building itself, designed to survive a direct nuclear strike. It was generally staffed by a watch officer and a few staffers from the palace and legislature, who were either neophytes who were awed by the chance to be there, or grizzled vets who’d drawn the short straw.
It had not seen activity like this for ninety years, and then, it had been a brief, false alarm.
Tiernan, Fourth of that Name, of the House of ColVanos, Emperor of Archavia and All Its Possessions, sat at the head of the table next to the Floor Leader. He tried to focus on the information that was coming his direction. The decisions were not his, not officially, not anymore, but he was the spiritual leader of his peoples. He would be called upon to rally them, and he would do so with all his strength. It was important that he know what they faced. It was important that he face the losses and struggles with them.
And he would. Gods, he would.
Thirty-two minutes since the last communication from the Gyfjon. Thirty-two minutes. Based on their last position, they had probably just entered the system, slowing their speed so as not to overrun the planet. Another hour. Perhaps a bit more, perhaps a bit less. Another hour and they would be engaged. The Insectoids would attack, or Aertimus Bass would choose to put his ships between two million people and the Hive, regs be damned. Either way, Tiernan expected the next report out of Tau Ceti would be a casualty report. And he knew there was a very high probablility that one name, in particular, would be on it.
And he didn’t know what he would do if he saw it. He loved all his children, deeply. But he understood Antero better than any of them. In many ways, Antero had done what Tiernan would have done had his mother not died young. He had gone into the military, served the Empire, worked hard, and built a career he could be proud of. He had not excelled because he was a prince; he had excelled, because he knew that as a prince, that was what he was expected to do.
Antero would do his duty. He wouldn’t pass it off, he wouldn’t let anyone die in his place. Tiernan knew this. He had taught his son that this was what the Royal Family was called to do.
He wished he had not taught Antero so well.
“All right,” Grand Navarchos Fasobi said, looking over a report an underling had just sent through. “We’re still churning through the data, but analysis of gravitic buoys shows that the initial report from Gama Fleet is accurate. Based on mass readings, we are looking at a One-Ishaytan Hive ship, estimated radius of six thousand units, plus or minus twenty percent. Even at the low end, we estimate a total attack force of five hundred million Insectoid warriors, six dozen Ψ11 battlecarriers, twelve dozen Ψ101 destroyers, perhaps three dozen Ψ7 dreadnoughts, and…well, hundreds upon hundreds of fighters and dropships.”
“That’s their entire fleet,” Carva Lagvul said.
“That’s more than their entire fleet,” Pane Segdi said. “We had estimated they were down to a dozen battlecarriers total.”
“We were wrong,” an officer at the end of the table said. “We’ve reanalyzed our intelligence, and…well, to be blunt, they were drawing down forces by parking ships in this thing. They’ve been prepping for fifty years, by our estimates.”
“Gama Fleet doesn’t stand a chance against that kind of force,” Qorni said.
“No. They don’t,” replied Fasobi. “If the Insectoids engage, we expect casualties in the 80 to 90 percent range. But hopefully, they can slow them up.”
Lagvul’s countenance was grim. There was only one option, really.
“Madam Floor Leader, Your Imperial Majesty, It is our recommendation that we pull all forces off of the border with the Federation, pull Delta fleet off of patrol on the Drazari border, and redirect them to System 39Π777. It’s a binary star system between Tau Ceti and Earth. Should Gama fleet not engage, we will direct them to fall back to that position and prepare to counterattack. We will move Ashay fleet to Tantalus Station, where we will begin to power up the nine mothballed Magilna-class vessels. It will take us about 48 hours to get Beth and Gimmel fleets into position. It may be that by then, they will have advanced to Earth; should we see evidence of movement there, we will redirect the fleet to the Sol Earth system, along with Ashay. Our entire fleet…it’s probably an even match, given that they’ll be attacking. But even that will be close.”
“Why do we assume they’ll go to Earth next?” asked Jontu Cethje.
“That’s easy,” Fasobi said. “They can’t carry resources to sustain 500 million Insectoids. At most, only one percent of them are up and about, most will be in stasis; they’ll need to feed their troops as they put them in the field, and Earth has food.”
“Food?” Qorni asked.
“Humans, Madam Floor Leader,” said the representative there on behalf of the non-Titan caucuses. “They will eat the entire population of Earth. That’s their food source for their attack on the Empire.”
Forna Qorni looked at Ammer Smit. He was more collected than he had any right to be. There would have been a time when she would have assumed it was because he was too stupid to know the stakes.
She knew better.
“If Gama fleet is engaged?” she asked.
“If they engaged, that probably is slightly to our tactical advantage; it will slow up the Insectoid advance and give us time to get ships into position. But if Tau Ceti is lost….”
“We can’t put them out on an island,” Segdi said. “If they’re attacked, or if they move into a defensive position, fine…but asking Gama fleet to take this on alone is like asking me to go up against the top eight LumLer competitors at the same time.”
“What about the Federation?” Qorni asked, already knowing the answer.
“What about them?” Segdi responded. “If we don’t stop the Insectoids, then the Federation won’t matter.”
Qorni nodded, and turned to her right. “Your Imperial Majesty, I believe that we must follow the recommendations of our military, and I ask you to order them to proceed as planned.”
Tiernan closed his eyes for just a second. There would be so much loss, so much horror. And he would feel it, keenly. He desperately hoped he would not feel it personally.
“I acknowledge your request, Madam Floor Leader, and though you do not need my agreement, I concur,” he said. “The order is given. Make your preparations, Praetor-Imperii.”
“One more thing,” Ammer said. “Who is going to contact Earth?”
There was silence at the table. They hadn’t thought of that.
They had planned to protect Earth, as always. Earth would fall to the Insectoids if the fleet didn’t hold. Some around the table thought it would fall quickly, and some thought the Terrans would put up a surprisingly robust fight, but all thought it would fall.
Would it be better if they knew what they faced? Or better not to know?
“I will contact the Terrans,” Tiernan said, finally.
“There is nothing they can do,” Qorni said. “If the fleet fails….”
“Then Earth dies, and perhaps the Empire. But tell me, if the Insectoids were dropping on Archavia, would you rather fight them, even in a losing cause, or would you rather be caught unaware?”
“They aren’t as strong as us,” Qorni said.
“I don’t care if they’re hurling stones,” Tiernan said. “They may hurt some bugs before they die, and even if that is all they can do, even if that is all any of us can do…they deserve the chance.”
Qorni nodded. “All right,” she said. “All right.”
* * *
Joca Haerst wasn’t aware that a crisis was looming. At least, not more of one than usual. It was a busy day, and looked ready to be a busy nice, but that was nothing unusual.
All in all, she felt okay; the video that joker sent to Earth had certainly hurt Earth-Empire relations, and she’d worried about possible spillover. But Earth had been angry at the Titans, not the humans on Avalon, and ongoing cooperative efforts hadn’t experienced more than a brief hiccup. And while she knew it was possible for Darren Xanthopolous to anger the Terran delegates, Joca also knew that he wouldn’t do anything during negotiations to damage the special relationship between Earth and the Empire’s only majority-human province.
Indeed, her primary focus was on Darren’s son, who was currently trying to convince her to spend more money on education that she wanted to.
“I’m not saying we should give in to demands, Madam President,” Teddy said over the pad, with a wave of his hands. “I know the Teachers’ League’s proposal is far too high. But to be fair, they’re still behind the curve thanks to the Lethior Administration, and….”
“We can’t keep blaming things on Tiar Lethior, Minister,” Joca said. “He did teachers no favors, but we’ve made up for it. And we can’t justify a double-digit increase no matter how tough a job they have. I know, you’ve got friends in the League….”
“That’s not it and you know it, Madam President, I….”
“Joca, where the hell is my son?”
Joca looked up in surprise. The number of people who could barge uninvited into the President of Avalon’s office could be counted on one hand. Joca’s husband and daughter were two of them. Darren and Pryvani were the next two (though Pryvani never would, of course; it would be far too rude. Also, she wouldn’t fit.)
The final person never had, not in the entire history of Avalon, from the fall of Atlantis to the rise of the Republic to the creation of the Province.
Not until now.
“Teddy, I’ll call you back. Alex, I’m sorry…he’s on Earth. What’s going on?
Alex took a steadying breath, and looked directly at the President. “The Insectoids have invaded the Empire. Gama Fleet is meeting them at Tau Ceti – from what Rixie has told me, the Empire doesn’t stand much of a chance, and neither does the Colony. Comms to Tau Ceti are blocked, but we can reach Earth, so I need to get through to Ryan, or someone else in the guard’s detachment on Earth – they may not stand much chance either, but they need to know what’s coming. Maybe we can evacuate people. And maybe we can get some of our people on their way back here to shore up defenses – because after Earth, they’re coming here.”
Joca put a hand on her desk to steady herself. Oh, Gods, the loss – thousands of Avalonians on the Colony. Millions of Imperial humans, and Titans. Billions on Earth….
That wasn’t what caused her throat to go dry, though. She had kept a secret from all but a few people, including the terrified man across the desk – a man who was as much a founder of Avalon as Ben Franklin was of the United States, a man she’d respected for as long as she could remember. A man who was a good friend of hers, and a good friend of Avalon.
She didn’t want to tell him. Not like this. But she couldn’t keep this from him. Because even though he was officially a restaurateur…he had earned the right to know.
“Ryan isn’t on Earth, Alex,” Joca said, quietly. “He’s on Tau Ceti.”
Alex stared at her. He didn’t say anything. He understood what she’d said just fine. Understood the implications. All of them. But he didn’t want to. He didn’t want it to be true. If Ryan was on Earth, there was a chance, there was a chance, but if he was there…..
“If there is any hope,” Joca said, “it is that Ryan is among a group of pilots of fighter craft utilizing a new weapons system, one that is the most closely-guarded military secret of Earth. They have the firepower of a capital ship, maybe more….”
“They have a hive ship,” Alex said, “the size of a moon. Fighters…I don’t care how powerful….”
“I’m sorry,” Joca said. “I didn’t…they were there because it was out of the way. So that nobody would notice. We had no idea that….”
Alex sat down in one of the chairs opposite the President’s desk, and buried his head in his hands.
He’d failed his boy.
He’d failed.
* * *
“…and thank you again to Rep. Claire Lécuyer, the leader of the Alliance of Free Peoples; and Chancellor Batari Iman for that lively debate. Up next….”
“You’re clear, Madam Chancellor.”
“Well, that went poorly,” Chancellor Batari said tapping a virtual button that her gool told her was on her desk. “What part of ‘they eat humans’ is so difficult for the media to grasp?”
“You don’t have to tell me,” her chief of staff chuckled. “Sure, some are friendly. But keeping them at arms’ length….”
“Their arms,” Batari said with a smile.
Her chief laughed, and the chancellor scrolled through her calendar. She actually thought she had done well, all things considered. Her English was never going to be up to the standards of her Mandarin, and certainly never as good as her Malay, but when she’d come to New York in ’48, it had been non-existent. She’d held her own, at least, without a translator, against the leader of the liberal bloc and her shotgun partner in the Grand Coalition. That was something.
Public opinion was very much on the side of the Party of Humanity; the polls all showed a desire of the people to ratchet down cooperation with the Titans. She had no doubt that Elaine would score concessions, and after that, they would be in good shape; no matter what the media was saying, Batari expected that they’d win this fight in the eyes of the people. Nobody was saying they should cut ties – nobody serious, anyhow. But lasting relationships depend on mutual respect. Earth had to push back, and hard – or they would always be the junior partner, the cute sidekick.
The pet.
A loud beep – inaudible to everyone but her – suddenly startled her. “Madam Chancellor, I have an urgent call from the Ambassador to the Empire. She has the Emperor on with her.”
Batari shook her head. She’d never been that comfortable around Martin. She’d been exposed to it plenty, and she knew it was partly just old bigotry, but she’d never been comfortable around kathoeys. They were far from unheard of in Sumatra – Thailand was on the Indochina Peninsula, just a short jump from Riau – but still…boys were boys, girls were girls.
But she was the Ambassador, and while Batari knew Elaine didn’t like her, she also knew Elaine trusted her. Obviously, she’d deal with it. That wasn’t the problem.
The problem was the Emperor – why was the giant on line? Surely he knew that Ridgemont was away negotiating. Was this some sort of back-channel attempt to work around her?
For a moment, Batari considered refusing the call. Shut them out. That would show them. But she knew that wouldn’t be diplomatic; she was the senior UN official on Earth right now. She would have to listen. Nod appropriately. Make statements that had no specific meaning. And decline to agree to anything until she could talk to Elaine.
“Put them through,” she said, activating the same camera that had just recorded her interview. “Ambassador Martin, your Imperial Majesty, what can I do for you?”
Her eyes narrowed at the images dancing virtually in front of her. Both Martin and the Emperor looked…what was the word? Horrified? Shocked? Numb?
Whatever this call was about, it wasn’t good. Was Elaine hurt? Had they injured her? The bastards, if they had….
“Madam Chancellor,” Robyn said, haltingly. “The…the Emperor has just communicated grave news to me. I told him…you should hear from him directly.”
“I hope this is not bad news about our delegation to the Gyfjon,” Batari said.
“Madam Chancellor…I wish that was all,” the Emperor said. “You are aware of the Hive, the Insectoid species that lives near you.”
“Aware of them, sure. Are you suggesting they’ve ramped up their threat to Earth? Emperor, we aren’t going to let you use Titan Station just because….”
“Batari, shut up,” Robyn said, and Chancellor Batari did. She was shocked at Martin’s statement. It was wildly impolitic, and never in her dealings with Robyn Martin had the Ambassador been anything other than observant of protocol.
She had a sinking feeling that this was not an idle warning.
“Chancellor, I understand your skepticism; I understand we have done much to undermine your peoples’ trust. Please believe me, what I am telling you is the absolute truth. I would not lie about this. Not to anyone.”
Ten minutes later, Batari Iman threw open the door to her office, breathing heavily. She had vomited into the trash can under her desk, as soon as the call had terminated. She felt like vomiting still. But she had to…she didn’t even know. But she had to do something.
“Get everyone,” she said to her Chief of Staff. “All senior undersecretaries. Contact JTSA command and the heads of the Tier 1 Supranationals. Tell them we have to meet. Immediately.”
“What? Why?”
She swallowed hard. “The Insectoids have attacked Tau Ceti. They’re on their way. And if we don’t do something…they’ll kill us all.”
Hmmm…
I thought humans were just a tasty little delicacy..Not a main course..A more satisfying meal would be La Titanos on the half-shell (or with mushroom sauce depending on the preference)
Not sure why people are going all ape-doodles about this. Humans gets eaten all the time by bugs. Just a matter of scale..
___
There is a reason why the virus for the plague and small pox etc wasn’t wiped out. They are kept in small amounts in freezer containers in government labs…Now as for the nanite resource, wonder if earth scientists couldn’t figure out a way to control the nanites weaponize them in a uni-directional way.
Also the space bugs must have natural enemies as they do on earth..Wonder if Los Titanos ever consider capturing a couple of them figure out what makes them tick then proceed accordingly..You know in case they decide to attack and go on late nite snack run..
Oh, that wouldn’t be ‘nice’ or politically correct…..sorry
(btw I’m not going to bother writing about the willful ignorance of earth’s ruling class about their neighbors since first contact. If they did their due diligence they would know about the bugs and other space critters)
The expansive nature of the bugs makes them apex predators in their own domains. If they had natural predators, they have long since wiped them out.
The expansive nature of the bugs makes them apex predators in their own domains. If they had natural predators, they have long since wiped them out.
No, from their perspective they’ve just encountered insectoid predators for the first time and they are trying to wipe them ought before the predators do the same to them.
“We were wrong,” an officer at the end of the table said. “We’ve reanalyzed our intelligence, and…well, to be blunt, they were drawing down forces by parking ships in this thing. They’ve been prepping for fifty years, by our estimates.”
Go back to the Immediate Aftermath of Debate where we get our only real glimpse into Insectoid thinking…
Now, there is a myth that many believe – namely, that Insectoids don’t lie. This is patently false. The Hive understands deceit, and uses it constantly. But it understands deceit in dealing with others. Insectoids absolutely do not lie to each other. They work together. (At this point, a part of the hive’s slow consciousness drifted to whether it could say that of the hive-group centered on Hive 7322, but we will not follow that train of thought, as it ended with a null conclusion and what could best be described as unease.) –
…
There was not enough time. There never was.
The Hive did not know what to do. It feared it could not think fast enough to keep up, not as a whole. It feared it would have to let Hives Prime, Two, and Three make the decision and trust they would be wise enough. It feared the precedent that would set. It feared that Hive 7322-1 and Hive 7322-2 would start making decisions, that the Farthest Hive would start making decisions.
It feared what would happen if their decisions were different.
In reading the Order of Battle in the wiki it jumps out that the Insectoids had to combine their forces from those same three hives that they also had to delegate independence for the first time ever it appears. Insectoids have a long history of acting as one but none of cooperating with independently thinking members of their own species and they are headed into a battle with multiple species they little understand and the only being who can help them is paying all her attention to tormenting one seeming helpless human. If the good guys grasp indecision or even conflict between the hives they may turn this to advantage.
I guess being hopeless is something new to titans ! Strange that they didn’t improve weaponery and ship since the last war.
Hmmm, this is highly interesting…I still say they should try to detonate a few acolyte reactors at Tau Ceti, possibly all of them. I bet they’d even be able to detonate them inside of the hive ship. They’re designed to fly through shields and get in close, yes? Why not fly a few into whatever counts for a hanger in the hive ship. Surely a blast big enough to destroy a country and/or planet would put a dent in it, right? Possibly big enough to create another detonation point? I mean, yeah the ship likely has a massive power source to power it, but generally power sources are simply kept in check on star ships. Usually ships like that aren’t able to contain, or survive, their engine going boom. Cases in point: Both Death Stars, just about every ship in Star Trek from the Borg to Star Fleet, and just about every Sci-Fi show out there.
And as for the nanite idea I saw in the comments…ehhhh…it wouldn’t really help deal with the problem at hand. You’d basically be making a zombie apocalypse, only now the zombies have the capability of flight and can become space zombies. Congrats, you just made halo’s Flood a reality. =p Maybe, just maybe, use them as a counter strike against the bugs if Earth survives…but only if you managed to find Bug Prime or whatever. But even then, you’re going to want to hope the bugs eventually win, or else you’ll have to go in to torch the place.
“But even then, you’re going to want to hope the bugs eventually win, or else you’ll have to go in to torch the place.”
____
Not a bad idea…
Heh, not a bad idea at all…but what would the Titans, other Humans, Avartle, and really everyone think of all out genocide against a species? I doubt they’d approve. =p
If it comes down to them or us, what do you think the decision would be? There is an alternate solution not in this verse but written by Douglas Adams in his Hitchhikers Tales..Even though that series is generally considered to be comedy, it is also brilliant science fiction IMO with quite a bit of science thrown in
If you look closely toward the end of Contact, I note that the Titans have a drink called jinnantonix. According to the Guide, of course, everyone does.
Now I see it. It didn’t register the first time around.
Ya I noticed.. for some reason I thought they would go for hard apple cider…its good stuff
The comment about throwing rocks makes me wonder if Earth has any sort of experience or research put into making a relativistic mass driver. Zip out toward the asteroid belt with it, get some data on where the hive ship might be coming from, then manipulate gravity to start throwing giant rocks in their general direction. Get the rocks going fast enough or from a long enough range and its an entirely viable way to take out an interstellar warship, made that much easier by the fact a hive ship is so very large.
Get the rocks going fast enough or from a long enough range and its an entirely viable way to take out an interstellar warship, made that much easier by the fact a hive ship is so very large.
This might be possible though not likely probable. What we know of Insectoid tactics suggest all offense and little defense. The Hiveship’s purpose is to transport a fleet and invasion force and likely intended to be for one time use, disassembled at the target site for material after the battle. The Hiveship probably has minimal shielding. Shielding an object that size would be an enormous energy drain better spent on propulsion. Now a ship big enough to be it’s own gravity well has to be able to defend against small asteroids in it’s path or pulled in by gravity. That means it uses directed energy weapons for navigation and in point defense. If that is the case overcoming such a defense requires assaulting with many small, very high velocity rocks launched from a variety of locations all arriving at the Hiveship at the same time. The problem is the Hiveship is mobile and could simply move out of the way so to pull this off you’d have to disable the engines by some means, an EMP blast for instance and then throw all your rocks at once.
Does Earth still have nanobots or nanites or whatever it was called? It might be time to dust them off and launch them right at the Insectoids.
Yeah! Let’s turn one giant scary problem into another giant scary problem!
I’d strongly advise against nanites. Singular explosion to make the entire ship go up in plasma, certainly. But weaponized nanites are a threat to the galaxy. You don’t deliberately unleash a Grey Goo scenario unless you have reasonable assurance that the nanites will become sentient at some point and just decide not to hurt anyone, or you’re already dead and have no reason to care about the rest of the universe at large. That weapon is a planet eater that spawns more planet eaters, you don’t open up with them. You just don’t.
Lets see, I agree its a very kamikaze style answer but if things get really bad, that Death Star is bearing down on Earth, the question will pop up sooner or later.
That weapon is a planet eater that spawns more planet eaters, you don’t open up with them. You just don’t.
No, but you do threaten to use them as the last resort. Use them against the Insectoids directly if the Insectoids can be convinced that the Humans have the ability to make such an attack. If not, then threaten a Sperikos like sacrifice of humanity to deny the Bugs their critical food source, causing their whole invasion effort to fall apart. The Insectoids don’t have a lot in common with other class one beings but they would understand that behavior.
Anyway, the whole Earth as a pantry of 11 billion Happy Meals doesn’t really work out anyway mathematically since that would only average 22 humans per bug, not much of a meal by Insectoid measures.
From what little I remember, I don’t know if the Insectoids will buy it, they probably view Earth as a low level or non-existent threat to their fleet. The Acolytes will need to hurt them enough to even convince the Insectoids that humans are as much a threat as the Titans are.
Yeah! Let’s turn one giant scary problem into another giant scary problem!
It’s called Mutually Assured Destruction.
It’s been known to work against a logically thinking opponent and with the exception of Myrell every critter on the Bug side thinks logically. If the Insectoids can be made to believe that an Acolyte can penetrate their defense and deploy a NCBT armed missle the only defense would be to detonate a EMP weapon near or on the Hive ship, making the Hive ship vulnerable to the Imperial fleet. Worse yet, if the Bugs have risked everything on this one hive ship loss of the ship means eventual loss of the hives.
Just like I said in the last chapter of Hybrid. I expect a much better prepared Earth and Solar System in 2174, compared to 2155 First Contact. They have had much time for intelligence gathering and development and come up with al possible strategies, short term and long term do deal with alien attacks/invasion. Fight smart and throw everything at them if necessary. I expect a worthy space fleet that can at least destroy many shieldless Insectoid ships and smart creative traps to destroy large portions of their fleet. Titan Station can help a bit.
I expect a worthy space fleet that can at least destroy many shieldless Insectoid ships and smart creative traps to destroy large portions of their fleet. Titan Station can help a bit.
Unfortunately right now there’s no crew on Titan Station. Earth might have more Acolytes but it’s doubtful they have much more than that.
“Why do we assume they’ll go to Earth next?” asked Jontu Cethje.
“That’s easy,” Fasobi said. “They can’t carry resources to sustain 500 million Insectoids. At most, only one percent of them are up and about, most will be in stasis; they’ll need to feed their troops as they put them in the field, and Earth has food.”
The Titan military planning and Representative Smit are falling into the typical Titan mindset and assuming Earth as a food supply is the target. The math though says that can’t be the reason. If the Bugs really are targeting Earth it’s because they have the same fears as Solis that human rates of advancement will outstrip both the Titans and the Insectoids in the near future.
It’s entirely possible they deploy a part of their fleet in a feint towards Earth, drawing in the Imperial Fleet while the Hive ship heads for Archavia.
Earth is next because it is next in line on their way through Titan space. And they’ve always wanted it.
http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/titanempire/images/a/a1/Titan_Empire_Map_Edge_On.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20141010113446
And http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/titanempire/images/7/7d/Titan_Empire_Map.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20141010113420
Per the wiki, Tau Ceti is 90.82 Titan LY from Archavia and Earth is 92 TLY from Archavia and the two are 1.83 TLY apart so its a bit of a backtrack to go from Tau Ceti to Archavia via Earth. If the Bugs wanted to get the Imperials behind them in a stern chase to Archavia, attacking Tau Ceti to cause the fleet to gather at Earth and sending a small decoy force dropped from the Hiveship towards Earth and another in the opposite direction towards Azatlia makes sense provided the Hiveship can pace or exceed the heavy units in the Imperial fleet.
http://titanempire.wikia.com/wiki/Tau_Ceti_(star)
http://titanempire.wikia.com/wiki/Sol_Earth
@Locutus.
That would be funny if they leave only a small fleet to deal with Earth and somehow find a way to Archavia and the Federation planets.
But Earth is sure to be a target. Myrell gave some hints when she watched a broadcast of an angry Ridgemont reacting to that video.
Titan Station Empty? Tigoni works there. They can assist with their few spacecrafts and giving advice and help with fighting and evacuating citizens.
@Satori. Yes I know it’s very unlikely. The systems that are more human friendly are first in line after Earth. Arrogant spoiled systems like Sol Archavia and the Federation are lucky.
That’s childish bumper sticker strategy. When faced with no chance and slim chance, people will choose slim chance every time.
In the previous stories, the nanites were a problem because they were used on planet. If used in space, the gravity generated by the mass of the hive ship would keep them from spreading until they could be disposed of safely or they fell inert.
Assuming they don’t adapt sling-shot configurations to fling globs of themselves off into space, silently awaiting the moment a nearby asteroid or passing ship gets a splatter of the stuff on their hull, leading to the usual disastrous results you’d expect from a Grey Goo scenario. Grey Goo /in space/ is worse than Grey Goo on a planet, suddenly its that much harder to make sure you’ve contained it all.
The fact these particular weaponized nanites were capable of taking over a sentient organism’s body, complete with memories and linguistics capabilities intact, and an active desire to spread and convert as many other life forms through nanite infection (with the zombies talking up how good it feels to be converted no less) you’d be risking an awful lot on the hope that some nanobot infected insect doesn’t just pilot the ship and flee to go start their own colony of Grey Goo out where no one will notice.
If it weren’t for that capability and the fact Nanobots are notoriously adaptable to the point “They will become immune to our weapons” is more a guarantee than a possibility, then sure. Sound plan. Inject some of the bots, let them sow mayhem onto the hive ship, then after the fighting is over grab a pile of nukes and just start blasting the empty space for a few minutes taking advantage of the EMP effects you get when setting off a nuke in no atmosphere, and it should be relatively safe.
Baring that … hope the Nanobots become sentient and decide not to kill anyone is a viable strategy, if not one you’d put much stock into.
Nanobots without the shielding of a planet’s magnetic field or a spacecraft’s hull would not survive for even a brief time in the solar wind of a star and probably only for a brief time in deep space before the 4 degree Kelvin temperature disabled them.
Well this certainly killed the ‘We have to hold them off till Gamma Fleet arrives’ hopes.This is beyond dire and I really wonder if this was what the Federation or the Solis Group was actually hoping for. Did they underestimate the force the Insectoids would strike with, or were they so confident in Titan superiority that they were sure that the invasion would be stopped before it got to the core?
One thing though, while Earth would be 100% likely to fall, I can’t imagine it would be a good food source after. With genocide guaranteed I’d imagine Earth would be an irradiated possibly nanite covered hellscape by the end.
Things are certainly worse than first thought.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6LGJ7evrAg
Insectoid’s fleet is stronger then the Empire’s fleet? Hive ship 1 is just as strong as the whole Empire Fleet? What if Hive Ship 2 and 3 joins the party? 😉
This is also not good for the traitors. Even if the Empire wins, this will cripple the fleet and be left open for other powers. Their human problem won’t matter anymore. The Insectoids are a danger to every other known species in the stories.
It sounds as if they don’t really have a fleet of hive ships, the hive ship is just a carrier in which they put all of their amassed forces into. If they have anything in reserve its probably trying to protect insectoid home planets and mining bases, otherwise throwing everything they have into a single unrelenting push. On the bright side the fact they don’t have enough food to keep all of their forces active that entire time means that if they are forced to open up and activate soldiers before securing a food source, either on the colony or from earth itself, they are at a serious disadvantage and will have to fall back.
Which means their one advantage of overwhelming numbers is also their downfall, they can’t use those numbers to full effect until they can supply the cost of those forces. And it fully explains why so few dropships were sent down to the colony instead of an amassed swarm of everything at once.
You have point. But they have at least 2 other large carrier ships, smaller than hive 1, but still enormous. If the Insectoids have no other dangerous enemies, they could use a second Hive ship if nescessary.
The acolytes are very usefull, they give the much needed time. If it’s just one hive ship they have/use, than Earth is lucky that Tau Ceti and the fleet is giving them time.
What makes you say the insectoids have at least two more Hive ships? I know the Empire divides Hive ships into five classes, so presumably they’ve seen at least five such ships over the years, but I don’t recall seeing anything about Hive ships which exist today aside from the one we’re seeing now.
Anyway, no matter how many Hive ships the insectoids have, they’re no good unless they carry an adequate number of ships and soldiers inside. We simply don’t know if the insectoids have enough ships and soldiers to fill another Hive ship, or if they put all they had available into the 1Ψ that’s now at Tau Ceti.
“I know the Empire divides Hive ships into five classes, so presumably they’ve seen at least five such ships over the years, but I don’t recall seeing anything about hive ships which exist today aside from the one we’re seeing now.”
Hard too say, but is it likely there is only 1 left if the Empire has encountered/seen different hive ships over the years?
If possible other smaller hive ships are filled to 10% or 20% or 60% capacity, we don’t know.
Food shortage is not that much of an issue as, as I recall, Insectoids can eat their own dead if need be. 500 million (!) soldiers on that hive ship, that’s plenty of food.
Food shortage is not that much of an issue as, as I recall, Insectoids can eat their own dead if need be. 500 million (!) soldiers on that hive ship, that’s plenty of food.
They better plan on eating their own. Assuming the average Insectoid is 1/2 the dimensions of a Titan and thus 1/8th the mass of a Titan then the entire 11 billion on Earth are the mass equivalent of less than 7 million Insectoids. Earth is, at best, a means of delaying cannibalism, not avoiding it.
I fully expect the insectoids plan to strip all organic matter from Earth for processing, not just the 11 billion humans. As well as from Tau Ceti, Avalon, and every other inhabited planet all the way to Archavia. The insectoids are not interested in conquest as we know it. They have no desire for power or control, or to rule over anyone. They see the entire universe and everything and everyone in it as nothing more then a resource to consume.
That being said, I agree that it seems likely the insects have ulterior motives in their interest in Earth beyond it’s material resource. Either they really do fear humans that much, or perhaps Earth holds some other secrets….
or perhaps Earth holds some other secrets…. We still don’t entirely know what Syon Fand gave them. Just that it involved illegal genetic experiments on humans.
Exciting.:)