The Final Age [Original Sci-Fi Story Pt.3]

getonthetrain (69)in #story • 8 years ago

It was now known, by probes sent past the direction of the first encounter, that the main fleet of the Intruders were headed this way. A fleet containing 8,800 vessels was approaching with not even 48 hours remaining before they would be at Earth.

[This is the third part to my highly rated story. It is worth a read if you are a fan of sci-fi, you can start at PART ONE or you can read PART TWO.]

So it was decided. Ned led a small group to increase the effectiveness of the energy shield defense, while Dan led another small team to discover the secrets of their beam weapon. The center minds had their own large group, large because they had calculated the odds of defeating the huge fleet of Intruders – and the numbers were not on our side. To build the numbers of torpedoes, which had been the only effective weapon so far, necessary to stand a chance would take longer than the time until their fleet arrived. Another approach was needed.

Together the center minds worked towards calculating a solution.

They guided the builders to dig into the Earth, creating a great new machine-complex. The newly built science machines were fused into it, as well as newly discovered components that had been derived just earlier that day. Multiples of the most powerful energy sources of that time were built beneath it to feed the immense energy needs. Then these components were stacked onto each other, and countless trillions of connections were made which would recombine instantly in innumerable ways, speeding the transfer of information in a completely new way. A new way of computation, a billion times faster than how the current A.I. could perform.

This new discovery had been hidden in the way that energy was transmitted by the Intruder energy shield. When hit, the atoms were instantly transported across the shield to the area of impact – the only limitation was the power given to the device. The machine minds just adapted it to a far better purpose than the Intruders could have conceived.

It was finished in 42 hours, and I was chosen to be transferred into it. I was re-designated X-1, to be the mind in control of this last chance of man and machine. Ned had been resting, as humans needed to shut down for as much as 1/3rd of each day to operate – very inefficient. Though, due to the current situation, both @ned and @dan had forgone the majority of their normal requirement. When he had awoken, I greeted him.

“Ned, what would be the most powerful sustainable energy generation possible?” I needed a completely new method of powering what was to come. These rare mind-humans were gifted in this way.

“Hmm, most of an atom is wasted space. If the orbit of the electron could be decreased, the speed of the electron would increase exponentially. More atoms could be packed tighter in the same space too. Then somehow separate them from their supersymmetry of fermions and boson to just the bosonic counterpart. The creation would be a mass of pure energy. The simplest atom to start a process like that would be hydrogen. It has but a single proton and a single electron.”

Ned looked to be thinking as he spoke. “The force of energy that great could curve space, the closer the electron to the proton, the more force. Perhaps it could even be possible to have it curve space so far beyond our bounds as to be in a completely new continuum, far from what I can even imagine.”

I thought about that for an instant. A muted drone emanating from all my newly operational components. “What you say could happen is illogical to current thought, but working backwards I believe I can calculate it completely.”
I had the necessary materials brought to my location and fed into my constructor unit.

Dan approached. “Have you completed research of their beam weapons? Can we fix them to some of the machines?” Asked Ned.

Dan nodded. “Yes, it is done. The schematics have been sent to all the remaining factories. I fear there is not enough time though.”

“We have done what we could Dan, now it is up to the machines.”

After we had knowledge of the approach of the main Intruder fleet, all machines had been called back to Earth. They had assisted as they could in building the new weapons and energy-shields. As well as some machines being retro-fitted with propulsion suitable for space as necessary. Not enough torpedoes or beam weapons had been made. Some machines had no weapons at all, but were there to distract and ram. This was everything we had, the odds of winning were infinitesimal, but there was no choice. They had come to claim our system and end our life-forces. They were nearly upon us, we had to fight.

The sun was rising over Hawai’i and the last living 36,226 humans, when the Intruder fleet sailed past Mars. They had broken off small squads of ships to deal with our outposts and mining operations spread across our system. The number of ships still headed towards Earth was 7,948. They had ships of all different sizes, the one we designated as their flagship was over 6 kilometers long.

Our ragtag armada numbered 22,620. It was every machine capable of flight. None had been purpose built for war, everything from delivery drones to inter-system transports were conscripted.

Somewhere between the Earth and the asteroid belt we met them. Their nearly eight thousand ships were dimly lit from the reflection of our sun against their hulls. To a human eye they would have been difficult to spot against the dark backdrop of space from whence they had come.

As before, we launched our torpedoes as the rest of our fleet advanced. There were so many of them, and they had been designed for war. The machines would do what they could to protect the few surviving creators, even if it meant becoming non-operational.

The sheer numbers of the Intruder fleet made it difficult for our torpedoes to get within range. Their point-defense systems working in concert with one another, but these intruders did not use machines with great intelligence so some torpedoes were able make it to their targets. Not enough, not even close to enough.

Our fleet had begun to fire, shooting the life taking beams at the Intruder vessels. We watched as they ceased firing and fell out of formation, it was working! Our beams were able to get through their energy bubbles.

Many of our machines were much more nimble than these hulking masses. It was our main advantage. We darted in and out of their firing arcs as best we could.

The Intruder fleet shot their orange-red beams at ours in a fruitless attempt to vaporize the life inside that they thought must be controlling our ships. Powerful interference was also being emanated from the Intruder ships, to block an imagined outside control source. Finally, the Intruders used their ultimate beam. This beam would transform all matter, life or machine, into a dust of its base elements. Like purple tentacles of lightning, the weapons fired in all directions at our forces.

Our shields flared up as they were hit. They could manage to take some hits, but they had a point in which they fell and succumbed to the beams. If a machine was not equipped with a shield, it only had to graze the purple beam and they too would fall silent. Their ships were so much larger, and our beams were so tiny that it took far too long to cleanse their vessels of their life-beings. There had not been but a little over twelve thousand of our ships left by the time the Intruders turned the purple beam upon us.

The purple tentacles reached out to touch all of our ships, turning them into puffs of dust. The fewer ships we had, the easier it was for them to track and hit us. This concentration of firepower was something we could not handle. More and more of our ships lost contact as less and less of theirs did.