BATTLE FOR STARS

Transferring out of flight duty was the path almost every pilot eventually chose.

The danger of flying fighters was simply too great. Once they reached a sufficiently high rank, most pilots moved into positions within the fleet command structure. The fortunate ones became starship captains. Others took command of smaller squadrons or units.

Pierre said nothing and quietly waited for the captain to continue.

As expected, Captain Brick waved his hand, and a message appeared on the wall display beside him. Its seal bore the image of three serpent heads.

"This is your latest assignment."

The message opened automatically.

Pierre glanced at the header and was surprised to see that it came from the headquarters of the First Army Group of the Expeditionary Force.

He had heard rumors that the First Army Group was being formed by combining the Third Fleet and the Eighth Fleet into a new Main Fleet, but nothing had ever been officially confirmed.

Apparently, the rumors were true.

The order itself was brief.

Effective immediately upon receipt, Pierre was being transferred to another Special Composite Fleet. Further details regarding his mission would be provided after he reported for duty.

After Pierre finished reading, Captain Brick waved his hand again, and the projection vanished.

"Captain, do I leave immediately?" Pierre asked.

"Yes. Use that passage."

Brick pointed toward a somewhat unusual door.

Like those found aboard Confederation starships, it led directly to the Marble Car transit system.

Pierre immediately understood why the order had been routed through the captain instead of sent directly to him.

He was meant to read it and depart at once.

No conversations.

No goodbyes.

No contact with anyone else.

It was a matter of security.

Without hesitation, Pierre snapped a salute.

He boarded a Marble Car, headed to the liaison shuttle waiting elsewhere aboard the starship, and departed for the assembly point.

He knew exactly how important this mission was.

At the same time, scattered starships and liaison craft throughout the fleet quietly broke formation and headed toward designated coordinates.

Two days later, two Special Composite Fleets departed in opposite directions.

Each consisted of ten Assault Ships, two Carriers, six escort ships, twenty transports, and a number of smaller support vessels.

Before long, they accelerated to what was known as the First Cosmic Velocity.

The First Cosmic Velocity was thirty kilometers per second.

Why was that particular speed chosen as the standard?

Because it represented the velocity a human could reach after sustaining a 5G acceleration for ten minutes—accelerating from a standstill to thirty kilometers per second.

Five Gs might not sound especially extreme, but it was roughly comparable to the forces experienced on a high-intensity roller coaster.

Now imagine enduring that continuously for ten minutes.

It was no easy feat.

That was why ten minutes was generally considered the practical limit for a single acceleration phase aboard a starship. Beyond that, most people simply couldn't tolerate it.

Of course, that only applied to ordinary personnel.

During attack runs, starships often accelerated at 10G.

Fighter pilots could endure up to 20G.

This was one of the major reasons the Kramic Kingdom had invested heavily in unmanned starship technology.

Without a crew on board, a vessel could maneuver far more aggressively.

In theory, a starship with sufficient propulsion could accelerate to half the speed of light.

In reality, however, very few vessels ever did.

Some civilian ships operating on fixed routes could, after extended acceleration periods, reach ten thousand kilometers per second.

Combat vessels almost never approached such speeds.

The reason was simple.

The faster a ship traveled, the more difficult it became to maneuver.

Energy consumption increased dramatically.

Even turning around could require an arc spanning millions of kilometers.

That was hardly practical on a battlefield where circumstances changed every moment.

At the same time, ships couldn't move too slowly.

A sluggish vessel became an easy target for enemy weapons.

Determining the optimal speed for attack and advance was one of the key measures of a commander's skill.

Unless a ship was trying to escape destruction, it rarely accelerated beyond 10G.

After more than half a day of travel, the Special Composite Fleet arrived in what appeared to be an empty region of space.

Except it wasn't empty.

A massive Concealment Sphere was already waiting there.

"Concealment Sphere" was actually military slang for a spatial concealment field.

The nickname came from its appearance.

When fully deployed, it resembled a giant sphere.

Not a perfect sphere, however.

Its surface was formed from countless reflective metallic membranes, each as thin as a cicada's wing.

The sole purpose of these metallic layers was to block external detection.

In simple terms, they isolated a section of space from the outside universe.

Observers beyond the field had no way of knowing what was hidden within.

The enclosed area could vary greatly in size.

Some Concealment Spheres measured only a few kilometers across, while others stretched for more than a thousand kilometers.

The difference lay mainly in deployment time and the amount of membrane material required.

It was a technology developed specifically to compensate for the lack of natural cover in interstellar warfare.

The biggest drawback of a Concealment Sphere was its lack of maneuverability.

That said, it worked exceptionally well as a mobile concealment facility for a designated area. Of course, it wasn't actually stationary—the entire sphere traveled through space at high speed. The problem was that it generally moved in a straight line, making turns or course reversals extremely difficult.

The Concealment Sphere before them was nearly fifty kilometers in diameter, more than large enough to accommodate an entire Special Composite Fleet.

A section of its metallic membrane had already been retracted, creating a small opening.

Once the fleet entered, the membrane unfolded into place again, and the entrance seemingly vanished.

Pierre stood beside an observation port aboard one of the fleet's Carriers.

As one of the key personnel involved in the operation, he had access to information that most others did not.

At that moment, a circular structure roughly two kilometers in diameter floated before him.

He recognized it instantly.

A Stargate.

A standard military Stargate.

It looked much like the civilian transit gates used throughout inhabited systems, though considerably smaller and lacking any decorative features.

Gone were the elegant structures and elaborate architecture.

What remained was little more than a functional industrial machine assembled from raw metal components.

Pierre knew that nearly every interstellar war began the same way.

With a forced transit.

It was called a forced transit because it differed from normal Stargate travel.

Rather than using an established gate network, it forcibly opened a transmission corridor into enemy territory.

In this case, deep inside Confederation space—and into a heavily defended region at that.

In theory, a Stargate could forcibly establish a connection to any star system.

The limiting factors were computational power and energy consumption.

Given enough of both, any region of space could become a target.

Under normal circumstances, however, stable Stargate travel required gates on both ends of the connection.

Only then could a reliable transit corridor be maintained.

Without a receiving gate, the connection became highly unstable.

The transit window might last only briefly.

Spatial turbulence could eject ships halfway through the jump.

Or tear them apart entirely.

For that reason, forced transit was extremely dangerous.

It was generally reserved for small advance forces tasked with establishing a beachhead for larger operations.

Although a Stargate could theoretically force a connection to any location, distance remained a major obstacle.

The farther the target, the more unstable the corridor became and the greater the energy expenditure required.

As a result, most interstellar wars were fought between neighboring border regions.

There was another advantage as well.

If a campaign failed and the Stargate was destroyed—or could no longer be activated for any reason—the surviving forces could still retreat through conventional interstellar travel, moving system by system back toward friendly territory.