My First Story

Journal #001082 part 1 Date: July 4, 80201
It has been one year since my last entry and a lot has happened since. Allow me to tell you what has happened. The date is July 4, 80200. I was at the officers 4th of July party when the word came of a problem. A serious problem. My rank at the time was a captain, newly appointed to command one of the twelve newest ships of the fleet. This would be my first command since I enlisted in the U.S. Space Fleet. Just two weeks ago, I was a lieutenant commander, second in command of the ship. The reason why I advanced from a lieutenant commander to a captain two ranks up was because I had proven that I could command an entire ship under the greatest of stress on numerous occasions. The reason why I had the chances is because my commander had the tendency to pass out or become hysterical when under stress. Why he was appointed the most stressful position when the military knew of this problem, I don’t know.

At the party, I was talking with some fellow captains about our new commands and these new ships were just completed the day before and were to be commissioned today. As we spoke, I saw a message probe come flying up to the fleet admiral who was attending the party. As the probe gave the admiral the message, I could see a look of worry and fear come across his face. I know there was something wrong when he walked up to microphone with the same look on his face. “I have just been informed of a problem that concerns all officers and military personal present,” he said. “All personal are to report to headquarters for an emergency briefing on the problem. No officers are to take their time getting there. As I said before, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!”

With this, I finished my glass of wine, grabbed my coat and hat and ran to my car. When I reached my car, I jumped into the drivers seat, put the key in the ignition and the vehicle jumped to life. I then pressed the accelerator and off I went into the rest of the traffic high above my head. Since this was an emergency, I ignored the speed limit which is a cause and the corresponding effect was a police car on my tail. When I pulled over, the officer came to the side of my vehicle and asked, “Where’s the fire, captain?” I responded by saying that I have orders from the fleet admiral to report ASAP to headquarters for an emergency briefing. As usual, the officer had to verify the orders but I decided to put on the military broadcast which was used to deliver orders to military personal when they could not be contacted by messenger droid. As the officer listened, the orders, “Emergency! All military personal are to report to their posts effective immediately. All officers are to report to headquarters immediately for an emergency briefing. Emergency!” repeated several times before the officer said to be on my way. So, again I pressed down on the accelerator and speed off. In a few minutes, I was at the parking lot for headquarters.

As I walked towards the front doors, I could see laser cannons being set up everywhere in preparation for combat. At the meeting, every officer with his own command was present, fifty men. When the fleet admiral stepped up onto the platform, the room was silent, so silent you could hear a fly buzzing around on the other side of the room. The admiral then said, “Gentlemen, I called this meeting because the Earth is being threatened by an alien fleet. Just a few minutes ago, we received this transmission.” He then pressed a button on the consol in front of him and the transmission played. The voice on the transmission was a deep, mono-toned voice saying, “Attention, inhabitants of Earth! If you do not surrender your forces in 15 hours, we will fire nuclear missiles at your major cities.” That was the end of the transmission. The admiral then activated the holographic projector which showed a map of the area within the immediate space of Earth. A point blinked on the map with coordinates that were the same distance from Earth as the moon. “This is where we traced the transmission to,” the admiral said. “We have no idea of the size of this fleet or of what alien fleet it might be, so be careful. Here are the command assignments; Captain Jason English, U.S.S. Virginia; Captain John Sullivan, U.S.S Delaware; Captain Chris Orfe, U.S.S. Arizona…” That was all I needed to hear. The ship that I was placed in command of is the first ship in history to be named the U.S.S. Arizona since World War II, when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. The original U.S.S Arizona has long since been raised from its watery grave, and placed on dry land in honor of that day.

I raced out to the waiting shuttle which would take me to the waiting ship that was in orbit around Earth. Inside the shuttle, I found my combat armor, which did not look much different from the standard armor of the other ships. Typical white armor, with a chest and back plate, upper and lower arm plates, armored boots and gloves, and armor plates for each part of the leg. The only noticeable difference was when I put on the white helmet, for the helmet projected all sorts of data on the visor, such as name and rank of any person that I looked at and data about the blaster that was sitting on the chair three feet to my right.

I picked up the blaster and got the fell for aiming it. It was light in my hand, not to light of course, and not as clumsy to hold as many other blasters. As I aimed the blaster, I saw on it a dark blue button on the left-hand side (since I am right-handed, I was holding the blaster in my right hand). I then pushed the button and a set of cross-hairs was projected on my visor, apparently used for aiming. As I moved the blaster around, the cross-hairs moved along with it. Anything that the blaster was pointed at, the cross-hairs showed in the center. I proceeded to holster the blaster on my right hip, but there was no holster there, or at least one that was visible. To my surprise, the blaster stuck to the place on my hip, as if there was a holster there. It was held in place by a magnet and instead of pulling up when getting ready to use it, you pulled forward, basically in a curve not a somewhat ninety degree angle. This allowed for a much faster draw, which was a good advantage when needed.

“Now approaching the U.S.S Arizona sir,” called the pilot. I looked out the front window to see my new command. When I saw the ship, I was in aw at the size of the ship. The data that was displayed on my visor about the U.S.S Arizona read as follows:
• Name: U.S.S. Arizona
• Class: Capital Battle Carrier
Size
• Width: 15,000 yards
• Length: 50,000 yards
• Height: 10,000 yards
Engine/Thruster
• Engine type: Boeing A12 capital
• Thrust per engine (pounds per square foot): 300,000
• Number of engines: 3
• Thruster type: Lockheed B111 capital
• Thrust per engine (pounds per square foot): 150,000
• Number of Thrusters: 6
Speed
• Max velocity (space): 100 miles per minute
• Max velocity (atmospheric): 1,000 mi/h
Weapons
• Number of quad-turbo lasers: 100
• Number of dual-turbo lasers: 150
• Number of anti-fighter proton torpedo launchers: 6
• Number of anti-capital ship proton torpedo launchers: 2
Armor
• Gundamium armor plating
• Thickness: 2 feet
• Shielding: Plasma shields

All of these items were top of the line. The Gundamium armor is made from the element Gundamium, a fairly recent discovery. Gundamium is so strong that no known conventional weapon can scratch it. The shields are also very strong, so strong that several hydrogen bombs could go off next to the ship and would not have any effect to the shields. The ship is power by a nuclear fusion reactor that produces enough power to keep the entire United States light for ten years. Also included in the ship are three hanger bays that hold up to 150 fighters, 100 bombers and 75 transports each. To think that the United States has just built eleven other ships identical to the U.S.S. Arizona, not to mention about 50 older ships. Almost immediately, I was on board the ship and inside the combat command center prepping for combat. The orders came to intercept the enemy fleet but do not engage until we know what we are up against.

When we arrived at the designated location to intercept the enemy fleet, I saw about twenty ships, all of which we cruisers ranging from light cruisers to the heavy assault cruisers. As soon as the U.S. fleet was in position, we were ordered to move in closer to the enemy. “Have the twelve new ships line up with their sides facing the enemy,” I told the pilot and communications officer. “Radar, switch scanners to combat level. Then scan the enemy fleet formation. When that is done, display the data on the holographic map.” The data was soon up on the map, but there wasn’t twenty ships shown, instead about fifty ships! The reason why only twenty ships could be seen without the scanners is because the other thirty were using a cloaking device. “A full scale invasion fleet,” I thought to myself. I contacted the fleet admiral and told him of my findings and then proceeded to instruct the other ships to switch their scanners to combat level.

We waited a while as the fleet admiral tried to negotiate with the commander of the enemy fleet. Obviously, the negotiations did not work because almost immediately, a very large wave of enemy fighters appeared on the scanners. At this point, the twelve new ships were within two miles of the enemy fleet, which was max visual range. “Activate the shields. Get the turbo lasers on line and ready. Wait for my order to fire,” I said to the crew on the bridge. In a minute, the enemy fighters were swarming about the ships like mosquitoes. “Fire the turbo-lasers,” I ordered. All around me, I saw fighters maneuvering to avoid the turbo laser fire, but to no avail for the turbo lasers found their mark. The scene before my eyes was like a laser light show, lasers going this way and that, explosions everywhere from the fighters being shot down. Within five minutes, all the enemy fighters from the first wave were destroyed, and I didn’t even order the use of the anti-fighter proton torpedoes or the deployment of our fighters. As soon as the first wave was gone, a second was on its way and again the same thing. When the second wave was destroyed, scanners reported a third wave just being launched from the enemy ships. “How many fighters do they have?!” I said. This time, I didn’t wait for the fighters to come to me, I sent the turbo laser fire to them. “Fire the turbo lasers! Destroy those fighters,” I ordered. In a brilliant light show, the turbo laser fire streaked across the two mile gap and hit every single fighter. It was like a wall of explosions just in front of the enemy fleet as the fighters were blown to pieces.

I looked at the map of the enemy fleet formation on the holographic projection to evaluate the enemy ships. I saw that in the back of the formation were two repair frigates. “Prepare the anti-capital ship proton torpedoes. Target those two repair frigates,” I told the weapons commander, pointing to the repair frigates on the map. I then asked the fleet commander for permission to attack the enemy fleet directly and with his approval, I ordered the charge. “Bring all guns to bear on the enemy!” I barked at the pilot. “Send all twelve new ships to charge the enemy fleet formation with all guns firing! Charge the enemy fleet NOW! Fire the anti-capital ship proton torpedoes at those two repair frigates!” All twelve new ships charged the 50 enemy ships with guns blazing as the proton torpedoes streaked like a comet through the formation, spinning and turning and maneuvering to avoid any ships that were not its target. As the torpedoes struck the targeted ships, the spot where the torpedoes hit exploded straight through to the other side, leaving the two ships crippled with no engines, shields, or weapons but not destroyed. At this point, the USS Arizona and the other eleven ships were already smack dab in the enemy formation. Within twenty minutes, five enemy ships were crippled; the two repair frigates, two destroyers, and one attack frigate plus uncountable numbers of enemy fighters. “Sir!” called one of the observers. “One of their cruisers is getting through our line!”

By the time he finished the sentence, the cruiser had its rear engines at our midpoint, half way past. “I’ve got him,” came a voice over the communication link. Just then, one of our old battleships came flying up head to head with the enemy cruiser. The only thing keeping the enemy’s ships from firing their nuclear missiles at the Earth was that they were out of range, meaning that they were as far away from Earth as the moon. They had to be in low orbit in order to fire the missiles. The old battleship’s id was that it was privately owned and refitted with new, more powerful guns. The battleship fired all forward guns simultaneously at the cruiser then proceeded with an outward-inward spiral fire of the guns. Each shot hit the cruiser with tremendous force, the first blast effectively disabling the shields and each consecutive shot pounding the hull of the cruiser. The destruction of the cruiser was so quick that it seemed like the hull just collapsed, like a pillow when you punch it, from the nose towards the rear, then the cruiser exploded in a massive fireball that left a bit of black ash on the side of my ship.

I ordered the deployment of all fighters and bombers to attack the enemy fleet one ship at a time. After about half an hour, the enemy fleet started to turn around so they would be in position to retreat to hyperspace. “No, you don’t. Activate the gravity well generators,” I ordered. It was apparent that the enemy’s navigation computers noted the gravity well, because the enemy fleet stopped just before they got to the gravity well. “You have us trapped. We surrender,” came the voice of the enemy fleet commander over the communication link. “We tried to make the jump to hyperspace, but our navigation computers said that a wall of gravity was in the way. What are your terms of surrender?”

“You have made a wise decision to surrender,” the fleet admiral said in response. “The terms of surrender are; one, you remove all nuclear weapons from your ships; two, sufficiently damage your nuclear missile production facilities on your ships; three, that you completely abandon your base in this system; four, take the crews off your crippled ships and five, that you do not return to this system without first getting permission from me or any other high ranking military officer. Failure to comply with any of these terms will result in us taking full military action against you and we will not show mercy or accept surrender. Do I make myself clear?” With the agreement of the enemy fleet commander, we found out that they were the Maques, a new alien race to add to our list of known alien races. After the signing of the treaty and the Maques retrieving the crews from their crippled ships, the Maques turned and made the jump to hyperspace.

Epilogue:

The twelve new ships that were to be commissioned on July 4th had just been in combat against a numerically superior fleet and won. The reason why I say this is that the ships have not been in combat before, had new technology on board that required training, and have not been commissioned yet. These ships, which have not been commissioned, already have a perfect combat record: one battle fought, one battle won. This battle only took twelve hours from the time word came of the Maques’ arrival to the time they made the jump to hyperspace. Something tells me that we have not see the end of the Maques and that these twelve new ships are going to see a lot more action before today, the day of which I am recording this journal.

End Journal #001082 part 1

So ends Part 1 of a story that I wrote five years ago, and have only just rediscovered it.

Sci Fi isn't usually my cup of tea, but I enjoyed you're story. It's amazing how much detail you were able to fit in so that it was very easy to create a mental picture.

I'll be the first to admit that I think it is a dud. I reread it recently, after five years of forgetting it, and my first thoughts were "My God, did I actually write this? I could have done so much better."

But thank you anyways for the compliment. I have a part two to this story, but I doubt I will post it.