Exodus: Machine War 1 Supernova. by Doug Dandridge

purposefully built structure, focusing a beam
that stayed tight for well over several light minutes.  And they could change
the frequency of the beam, from infrared up to gamma rays, depending on the nature
of the target.
    The targeting
system of the ship could track and target over two hundred objects at the same
time, and each ring could fire up to fifty beams simultaneously.  Against the
hard targets of modern warfare a one fiftieth strength beam was not much of a
threat.  Even a missile took a several second exposure to that kind of a beam
to kill, and no modern weapon would allow contact for that period of time.  So
the ship rarely used its full targeting and multiple beam capabilities.
    But these targets
were not of the same tech level as the firing ship.  They were fragile, and it
didn’t take more than a momentary contact to vaporize the warhead.  Within a
second of opening fire, Clark had hit over a hundred missiles, blasting
them apart in the upper atmosphere.  In the great majority of cases the warhead
was vaporized so quickly that the conventional explosives needed to set off the
nuke were already expanding vapor before they exploded.  In very few cases did
the actual nuclear explosion occur, and those were either very high in or above
the atmosphere.
    The missiles
from Tsarzor began separating as they arced above the atmosphere, turning into
three or more tumbling objects, each falling toward their targets.  They were
more difficult targets to track, and the increasing interference in the upper
atmosphere added to the difficulty.  The sensors of the cruiser could still
find them, but it added time to the location and acquisition of each target.
    “I’m not sure I
can get them all, ma’am,” said the Tactical Officer over the com.
    “Keep at it,
Tactical.  If one of them hits the planet, I’ll consider it a defeat.”
    “Yes, ma’am,”
said the Tac Officer, dropping off the com so he could take care of the
business in hand.  The ship’s computer was finding the targets and prioritizing
them, but human oversight was still needed in the firing procedure.
    The cruiser also
carried four, six hundred ton attack fighters, and six assault shuttles.  The
fighters were heavily armed with beam weapons and antiship missiles.  Capable
of a thousand gravities acceleration, they headed off on courses that kept them
above the atmosphere and to positions where they could cover areas hidden from
the view of their launching vessel.  The shuttles had nowhere near the
armament, nor the acceleration of the fighters.  Still, they were equipped to
land Marines against armed resistance, and had the weaponry to suppress ground
fire and battle atmospheric craft.  They were not the most effective craft to
shoot down ballistic missiles with, but they were better than nothing, and
added somewhat to the effort to render the strikes harmless.
    The time clicked
by, and more and more missiles and warheads were knocked out of action, while
others launched from the weapons fields of both combatants.  And then another
complication entered the equation.
    “We’re picking
up ground following weapons, ma’am,” called out one of the weapons techs who
was assigned to targeting.
    “Show me,” she
called out, and the holo of the planet zoomed in to a view of the surface of an
ocean, and a long object with stubby wings streaking over the waves.
    “Velocity is
point two six kilometers per second, ma’am.  About nine hundred and sixty
kilometers an hour.  We think it’s intended to fly under the enemy sensor grid,
and take out targets by surprise.”
    “Time to nearest
potential target?”
    “About seventeen
minutes, ma’am.  We’re picking up many others with the same velocity and
similar attack times.  Do you want us to fire on them.”
    Albright thought
for a moment, zooming the holo back out to look at the battle between her ship
and the ballistic missiles.  Other missiles were rising from locations