BATTLE FOR STARS

A Starship's firepower advantage zone was only considered advantageous relative to its weaker sectors—the stern and rear flanks.

Those areas weren't ideal for straight-line energy weapons and laser batteries, making them natural blind spots.

For Pierre, however, the most favorable factor at the moment was speed.

The distance between his Fighter and the Minelayer was only about three hundred thousand kilometers.

That sounded enormous by planetary standards.

But to a Fighter closing at several hundred kilometers per second, it was only a matter of minutes.

And the two vessels were moving toward each other.

That effectively cut the encounter time in half.

"Attack! Attack!"

Pierre made his decision instantly.

He shouted into the communicator while accelerating directly toward the Minelayer and simultaneously launching half of his aircraft's payload.

A Fighter might only be a little over a hundred meters long and a few dozen meters wide—a tiny speck compared to a Minelayer nearly a kilometer in length.

But a Fighter had only one purpose:

Attack.

Every hardpoint on the airframe carried weapons.

Its internal bays were packed with Missiles.

The moment Pierre issued the command, his Personal AI Assistant, Little Kelly, relayed it to the Fighter's combat computer.

An instant later, more than a hundred Missiles streaked toward the Minelayer.

At the same time, three of the other Fighters that had crossed with Pierre opened fire as well.

Only three.

The unexpectedly powerful interference had shortened the transit window even further than predicted.

Only three Fighters had successfully made it through.

One had been flung into an unknown region when the spatial corridor abruptly collapsed.

Another had failed to cross before the passage closed and remained behind.

Four Fighters.

Nearly five hundred Missiles.

They raced toward the Minelayer at tremendous speed.

Not all of them followed straight trajectories.

Some curved in wide arcs.

Others wove through space in wave-like patterns.

Even Missiles launched simultaneously were staggered by their onboard computers, creating deliberate spacing between them.

Anyone observing the battlefield would have seen a spectacular sight.

From four different directions, the Fighters unleashed a storm of attacks upon the Starship.

Like four enormous hoses spraying countless droplets toward a single target.

Despite their numbers, however, most of the Missiles were not especially powerful.

Their primary purpose was to destroy the Starship's external weapon systems.

Only a small portion were heavy thermonuclear missiles.

The reason was simple.

Thermonuclear weapons weren't cost-effective.

And their practical value was limited.

The fissile and fusion materials used in thermonuclear warheads—uranium, plutonium, deuterium, tritium, and other rare elements—were either difficult to obtain or expensive to refine.

More importantly, the scale of interstellar warfare was staggering.

A single Fighter carried two to three hundred Missiles.

A Starship several kilometers long carried vastly more.

In a major battle, the number of Missiles fired by both sides could easily reach tens of millions.

Even though production costs had fallen significantly over time, the sheer quantity consumed remained overwhelming.

Because of their destructive power, thermonuclear weapons were explicitly prohibited by interstellar treaty from being used on inhabited planetary surfaces.

As a result, their primary military role had shifted to antimissile defense.

Defensive thermonuclear interceptors could destroy entire clusters of incoming Missiles across a wide area.

If an attacking force relied exclusively on thermonuclear Missiles, a single successful interception could wipe out a huge portion of its offensive capability.

The exchange simply wasn't worth it.

That was why the Fighters' missile salvos were carefully coordinated by onboard computers.

Spacing, speed, and approach vectors were all adjusted to prevent large numbers of Missiles from being destroyed in a single defensive interception.

There was another limitation as well.

Thermonuclear weapons had surprisingly restricted damage mechanisms in space.

It wasn't that their explosive yield was weak.

Far from it.

The problem was that their primary destructive effect became thermal radiation.

The detonation generated temperatures of tens of millions—or even hundreds of millions—of degrees at its core.

Shockwaves, nuclear radiation, and other familiar effects were largely ineffective in vacuum.

Even electromagnetic pulses were often blocked by the specialized armor layers of modern Starships.

The lethal thermal zone of a thermonuclear explosion typically extended only a few kilometers.

Rarely more than ten.

Beyond that range, it could no longer melt or destroy incoming Missiles.

A few kilometers sounded substantial.

But compared to Missiles traveling thousands of kilometers per second, it amounted to little more than a fleeting instant.

Of course, a direct hit on a Starship was another matter entirely.

A thermonuclear missile striking its target could cripple or outright destroy the vessel.

That was why a Starship's primary defense strategy was interception.

Destroy the missile before it arrived.

The most important weapons for that task were laser cannons and ion cannons.

Both were energy weapons.

Both traveled in straight lines.

And both struck at the speed of light.

Against incoming Missiles, they were devastatingly effective.

The biggest issue this time, however, was surprise.

Both sides had encountered each other without warning.

Neither had enjoyed the preparation time typical of normal engagements.

Although the Minelayer possessed defensive weaponry, activating and coordinating every system instantly was impossible.

Especially against Fighters designed specifically for offensive operations.

Fighters carried energy weapons as well.

But they were few in number and not intended for destroying Starships.

Pierre didn't even bother using them.

With the Fighter's own velocity combined with the pulse engines of the Missiles, the incoming weapons approached speeds nearing a thousand kilometers per second within minutes.

The distance to the Minelayer rapidly collapsed.

Meanwhile, the four Fighters split apart and headed in different directions.

They intended to launch a second strike from multiple angles.

The first wave might not destroy the Minelayer outright.

They needed to prepare for the follow-up attack.

Then, suddenly—

The distant Minelayer flashed with alternating white and yellow lights.

For a brief moment, Pierre's brain practically froze.

Every major power in known space recognized that signal.

It was a surrender beacon.

The equivalent of raising a white flag.

"A trick... or a real surrender?"

That was Pierre's first thought.

It wasn't the first time he had seen Confederation Starships surrender.

In fact, he had witnessed it many times.

But those cases always occurred after defeat had become inevitable—when escape was impossible and victory hopeless.

A ship surrendering at the very beginning of an engagement?

That was a first.

Throughout all the years of war, no documented case of false surrender had occurred on the battlefield.

Still, similar incidents had existed in distant history.

And at a critical moment like this, could the enemy be attempting to buy time?

Under normal circumstances, a Minelayer could handle one or two attacking Fighters without much trouble.

Against four Fighters simultaneously—especially in a surprise encounter—the situation was very different.

Even if it managed to shoot down one or two attackers, destruction was almost inevitable.

Pierre wanted nothing more than to ignore the signal and destroy the Minelayer immediately.

But the vessel carried something valuable.

Its minefield charts.

Those records could be extremely useful for future fleet operations.

They certainly wouldn't contain every mine deployment in the region.

Still, partial information was better than none.

Pierre quickly reached a decision.

Opening a transmission on the public channel, he broadcast:

"Cease all resistance and preserve the minefield data. Otherwise, the attack will continue."