Last Stand At Titan

Last Stand At Titan

Chapter 5: Forever Red Sunset

Return of the Titans

The Titans were outraged! Outraged they were. They could not believe for one minute that their marvellous space fleet had been defeated in such a manner. Orders were immediately sent out from Titan Space Command, to the shipyards, to build bigger and better ships. Two hundred, this time would be constructed, incorporating all the latest technological developments, not only in space vessel technology, but weapons technology as well. These new ships would be, not only faster and more manoeuvrable, whilst still keeping their arms to grab meteorites, but they would also be armed for space combat as a result of their very recent defeat.

Yet, that was not all. Clearly these demon aliens, servants of the devil, had used their probes to spy upon Titan in order to ascertain the military abilities that their world had to offer. In other words the enemy learnt all about them, whilst they knew little about their fiendish foe. That would now change. The Titans would now copy their enemy’s strategy, so good that it was, and use it against them. As a result, long before the rebuilt Titan fleet would approach the water moon of Jupiter, three spy probes would have been watching it sending back all the data so that the Titan military leaders could make their plans accordingly.

Thus the Titans had learnt, not only from their own mistakes, but also from the enemy. This was not overly new for Titan military behaviour, but the loss of their fleet was certainly embarrassing to say the least. And it was not without consequences. Soon, most of the top military staff of the Combined Titan Military were purged of their jobs, by the political leaders, and a new batch of personnel put in their place. In many respects, it was a mistake, as the lessons learnt from the pervious military leadership, could have be used to great effect, but the defeat was so great that heads, nevertheless, had to roll.

Still, not everything was lost. A new energy was put into effect, by the Titan ship designers and engineers, and new designs were soon finalised that were a significant improvement over the first generation of Titan space ships. Not only were powerful weapons fitted to the Titan vessels, but nuclear power would replace the chemical engines and power plants of earlier designs. About the only thing that remained, from the previous ships, were the long grappling arms. It was still envisaged that future combat missions to the water moon would include bombardment of the surface with whatever space objects were at hand.

Yet before the new Titan fleet of 200 such vessels was completed, the new Titan generals were determined not to be taken by surprise for a second time. This was a wise strategy, considering what had happened, and one which would change the way they would conduct the war. Ironically, considering the Titans fear of robots and probes, after all it was such things that started the war in the first place, the Titans nonetheless came up with an advanced probe model which would have put many other space faring civilisations to shame. Able to capture high resolution pictures, as well as eavesdrop on the enemies communications signals, three such probes were soon afterwards on their way to Europa to commence their surveillance missions.

For all intends and purposes, the three probes had the same job. They were to park themselves in orbit, around the water moon, and spy on the aliens who used it as their base. In doing so, the Titans could learn in safety, what the aliens were intending to do, whilst the new Titan fleet was being built. Indeed, the probe missions proved to the easiest part, of the entire plan to date, as the Titans had several accidents and spectacular failures, whilst trying to master technology which, to them at least, was more or less beyond their experience to date. But the result of the probes ensured that, whatever problems they had with the technology, had to be fixed as soon as possible, because the aliens seemed to have plans of their own.

Thus, a whole year before the first new Titan ship was deemed operational, the Titans watched on in horror and fear, what the aliens were doing on Europa. At the same time, though, the Titans were also fascinated as they observed, millions of kilometres away, the aliens constructing, not only numerous orbital facilities, but also a couple of huge towers, which grew day after day, rise from the surface of the moon. It goes without saying that speculation was abound within the Titan Space Command, as debate raged as to what all this meant. Finally, though, it was decided that, whatever it was, it meant trouble for the Titans.

This was furthermore confirmed when one of the probes managed to finally get some readings, from the Europan Orbital Facilities, which was clearly atomic in nature. Although the Titans had had nuclear power for some time, they had not yet figured out how to make a nuclear weapon, even though their weapons research personnel had been theorising that such power could also be used for weapons. Nothing, however, could be proven as yet, but the deadly effects of radiation were well known, unfortunately for many scientists who were ignorant of such things, early on during the development of nuclear power. As a result, many within the Titan Space Command, as well as the political leadership, assumed the worst and lead themselves to believe that the aliens were building some sort of atomic weapon capable of destroying their home world. It goes without say, as far as the Titans were concerned, that this could not be permitted.

When the speculation over the aliens intentions had been finalised, great emphasis was hence placed upon building the fleet as fast as possible. Obviously this was always the intentions of the Titans, but now the fleet was required more than ever before. Just as importantly, the forward supply bases of the Titans, still operational in Jupiter space, were, not only upgraded with the new nuclear power plants themselves, but were stockpiled with all the necessary requirements for a prolonged battle months before the first new Titan vessel even arrived. But unlike last time, the fleet would not arrive in dribs and drabs, but would be deployed together. Then, once in place, they would commence their attack upon the aliens.

The Battle of the Moons

The Titan attacks on Europa came, more or less, five years after their original defeat. It had taken a whole year to design the new ships, another to build them and fix numerous technological hurdles, and finally three more to construct and commission the 200 new attack ships. It was an impressive achievement, but considering the circumstances, a necessary one. Similarly, the strategy had changed, thanks to the data streaming back from the three probes which orbited Europa. And what the Titans saw scared them.

Still, the Titans did not merely arrive at Europa and started shooting at everything. Instead they sent out patrols, from their forward supply bases, in order to test the alien defenders. It was just as well, fore as they had seen from the probes, the aliens had deployed their own space vessels which constantly patrolled Europan space. Having said that, the aliens never ventured far from low orbit. Instead they mostly hovered around their orbital facilities and, most notably, the huge towers which had extended into space. These actions, of the aliens, also reinforced the Titan belief that the towers were indeed the basis for some huge atomic weapon.

Thus the war recommenced, not in any huge battle, but in several small skirmishes on the fringes of Europan space. Three or four Titan vessels would swoop in, head towards a Europan patrol, fire a few rounds, and then withdraw almost as fast as was possible. The Europans, meanwhile, would commence a hasty defence, not knowing what was happening until it was all over. No one, though, was hit in these first few rounds. And the Europans had no idea what was happening at first.

Yet, after a week or so of these intimidation attacks, the Titans got more daring. Instead of the "shoot and scoot" policy, the Titans soon changed their tactics. Now it was "shoot, wait, and scoot", where the Titans would fire more rounds at the enemy and hang around to see how the aliens would react. If it was threatening, the Titans would immediately withdraw. If it was not threatening, the Titans would fire again and then observe the reaction. If the aliens tried to counter attack, once again the Titans would withdraw. And all the while, the Titan generals would be watching, learning, and scheming, wanting to know the capabilities of their enemy, their weaknesses, and how they could get through the alien defences and destroy the feared towers.

But if the Titan commanders thought that the aliens were going to make it simple for them they were wrong. Just as the Titans changed tactics several times, during this period, likewise the Europans did too. Soon, the Europan patrols had, not only doubled in size, but began to patrol further into space. This did not overly surprise the Titan commanders, although the increase in enemy ships did displease them. Still, if the Titans could lure one of the alien patrol groups away far enough, then they could pounce using superior numbers.

Everything was thus put into place for the first real battle. Many Titan personnel thought it was about time. They had had enough of this "shoot and scoot" nonsense anyway. It was about time a real fight took place. The next day, several would get their wont. Unfortunately, for the Titans, their first success also made them overconfident. Even though they successfully pounced on a five ship patrol of the enemy’s, destroying all of them in a brief but violent fire fight, they should have kept to such tactics. Having said that, though, the Titans believed that they could take on the enemy and convincingly defeat them as they learnt that their ships, were not only faster and more manoeuvrable over the aliens, but they also had more fire power. What they had not countered on was numbers.

And so it was, that the Titan Fleet commander called for a Fleet Action for the next day. Having being energised by victory, the Fleet Commander believed that it was time to end the alien threat to Titan once and for all time. Still, he was displaying some caution to his seemingly reckless decision. Whilst one part of the Titan Fleet would keep their alien counterparts busy, a smaller Titan task force would move in and destroy the alien towers and their orbital facilities. It was a good plan and had a good chance of being successful.

So the moment of truth came to Europa with little indication or warning. The Europans had, due to their defeat the day before, alerted their entire fleet. Everything was combat ready. Of course the Titans did not know this, but they expected the enemy to be ready all the same. After all, over a month had gone by whilst numerous skirmishes had taken place, and the enemy had been involved and ready all the time. Hence there was no reason to assume that they would be asleep now.

Soon, the first Europan patrol, then another, was spotted by the Titans. 150 Titan ships would be involved in the main fleet attack, whilst the remaining fifty would keep out of this attack, so they could sweep around the flank and attack their primary objectives. The Titans, though, should have taken more concern, in regards to the enemy’s reaction, when the Europans on this occasion kept their distance. Instead the Titan Commander assumed, from what they had learnt from yesterdays defeat, that the Europans were being cautious whilst they could also see that they were vastly outnumbered. And with that, the Titan Fleet advanced.

After a while, though, the Titan Commander began to worry. Maybe his tactic was wrong, as they were more or less advancing unopposed, while his military logic demanded that he should be challenged by the massed enemy fleet. That was the way it was meant to be. Yet, all he had in front of him instead were twenty of the alien ships, who were slowly withdrawing. Soon, he had had enough of this. Not only were the enemy ships in front of him mocking him, with their slow withdrawal, but there was a good chance that if he immediately rushed forward, not only could he catch the enemy screen to his front, but he himself could attack the primary targets instead of leaving them to the smaller task force.

Temptation soon got the better of him. He gave new orders for the fleet. They were to go to flank speed, catch and destroy the small alien force to their front, then descend upon the alien facilities destroying them in the process. Just as soon as he had finished giving these new orders, whilst forgetting for the moment about the secondary task force, 150 Titan ships immediately sped up dramatically to flank speed. Similarly, the twenty Europan ships before them, increased their speed to flank and flew as fast as they could towards the orbital facilities before them.

It all seemed too good to be true. At this moment the Titan Commander panicked and immediately gave orders to withdraw. It was too late. The Titan Commander realised that the enemy had sprung their own trap, using his own tactics against him. Within seconds, 300 Europan attack vessels opened fire and were rapidly advancing on the Titan Fleet’s position. However, instead of presenting a united front line, the Titan vessels were all over the place. Some where still in line, some had commenced their withdrawal manoeuvre, whilst others were still in the middle of conducting their turn. Fundamentally, though, it meant that the Europans had gained a huge advantage and they were making every shot count.

Furthermore, amongst the Europan ships, various defence platforms were also guarding the orbital facilities, and these were also firing missiles at the Titan ships. So the Titans not only found themselves fighting off double their number of ships, but hundreds of enemy missiles were also after them. As the fighting intensified the Titan ships had to conduct wild and dangerous manoeuvres in desperate attempts in stay alive. Many, surprisingly, survived the initial onslaught, although the loss of twenty six ships meant their job got harder.

The Titans were in for the fight of their lives. In the middle of all the twisting and turning, however, they began to shoot back. Slowly, and ever so surely, several Europan ships were hit and destroyed. Soon the Titan ships began to make some order out of the chaos, but still they too were suffering from casualties. After ten minutes of horrific battle, their numbers were down under one hundred, and even though the Europans had suffered similar losses, there were still more of them.

A ray of hope, however, soon came to pass as the Titan plan still managed to press on. As per their original orders, the smaller Titan Task Force, the one tasked with attacking the Europan towers, now got into action. They managed to outflank the great space battle taking place, and then commenced their attack run. Yet, as they approached the first tower, their sensors soon picked up the tell-tale signs of enemy ships. Soon, the Europan reserve entered the fray and the Titan Task Force soon found itself in the middle of another battle akin to the larger one being waged not far from their location.

But the Titan Task Force pressed, fore unlike the main Fleet, they were in attack order ready for combat. As a result, they met their counterparts fully ready for battle and the difference showed immediately. The enemy was hit hard as the Titans pressed forward and, although they lost several ships in the process, they managed to smash a hole through the Europan defenders and pressed onto the towers.

The Europans did not give up their defence, though, and they continued their attacks even at great cost to themselves. Having said that, eighteen of the Titan ships managed to commence their attacks on the towers, only to discover that defence platforms had been established around their objectives. Soon a hundred or so missiles were targeted at the eighteen Titan ships who, through violent manoeuvring, still managed to hit the towers several times before they were in turn destroyed by the last Europan missiles.

Alas for the Titans, the attack on the towers were a failure. The towers were still standing by the time the main fleet battle had finished. And here too the same story of failure had been repeated. All of the 150 ships of the main Titan fleet had been destroyed. Having said that, it was not as if the enemy had gotten off lightly, as most of their even larger fleet had likewise been destroyed. In fact only a handful remained. If the Titans had fifty, or even a few as twenty more ships, the final outcome could have easily gone their way.

Cry Vengeance!

Once more the Titans had been defeated. It was unheard of in Titan society. One defeat had happened before, which was more so put down to the cunningness of the enemy than anything else, but now the Titans were faced with two defeats. But it was not all gloom in the offices of the Titan Space Command. Enough data had been collected, thanks to live communication links to the forward Titan supply bases in Jupiter space, to know that the enemy had been severely hurt. Not only had many of the enemy’s attack vessels been destroyed, but two of the towers had been attacked and damaged as well.

The Titans, however, would not be defeat for a third time. Not only were the military leaders demanding vengeance, but the political leadership would not tolerate a third defeat either. Again the military high command was purged and new generals put in charge of the various departments. Furthermore, they did not need any warning from the political leadership what would happen to this new military leadership should they fail, even if they did inherit someone else’s problems. Importantly, for this group, however, they were fully aware of the previous defeats and resolved once and for all a way to ensure that it would not happen again.

As a result, a massive fleet rebuilding program would be introduced to, not only replace the current losses, but to dramatically increase the size of the fleet overall. This time an initial batch of 300 ships, based upon current designs, would be ordered, as well as a further 300 ships which would constitute a whole new generation. But just as importantly, a new weapon must be built. The atomic scientists had, more or less, confirmed the science of the atomic bomb and ensured the military that one or two such bombs could, not only destroy the dreaded alien towers, but easily deal with their fleet as well. Just as importantly, a few hundred such bombs would destroy the enemy’s moon thus ridding the Titans of their enemy for good.

Yet, before all that could happen, the Titans were in for one more set-back. Just as they had been able to destroy the enemy’s probes orbiting their world, many years ago, now too the enemy had discovered and destroyed their probes orbiting Europa. This was indeed a worrying situation, as the Titans could no longer see what their enemy was doing. Immediately, however, three new probes were sent to Europa, but these were destroyed before they had even reached the water moon. Needless to say, this was extremely disconcerting as it may well mean that the aliens were preparing for a counter-attack. In all probability, their weapon towers were ready for deployment and the enemy did not want the Titan’s to know this.

But the counter argument was more successful insofar it was reasoned that it would not matter, if the Titans saw this or not, as there was no defence against such a weapon anyway. It was more likely, it was further argued, that the Titan supply bases, which were still operational in Jupiter space, would come under attack long before Titan would as it seemed the more logical thing to do. Once that happened, though, then Titan would be in serious trouble. Besides, the new Titan space fleet of 300 ships would be operational within a year or so. They still had time: or so it was argued.

Just in case the military leaders were wrong, however, they did commence a civil defence program. The political leadership was not overly joyed by the idea, but even they accepted that it was probably a prudent precaution all things considered. Within weeks, then, massive shelters were dug into cliffs and caves were likewise utilised in a similar fashion. Although some were better equipped than others, it did mean that many of the Titan population could be protected from the immediate effects of any atomic attack.

Victory!

Overall, though, the return of the Titans to Europa, armed to the teeth with atomic bombs, ended in an anticlimax for all of Titan. The initial plans called for, once again, a build up of the Fleet at their supply bases, and then a cautious advance towards the water moon. But even before they had commenced this advance, the Titans knew something was wrong. Some six months prior to this event, the radio listening stations on Titan had noted that all alien signals had faded away and then had stopped. This was no explanation of it at the time, save for the theory that the enemy had somehow been able to hide their radio signals. This was possible in some respects, and certainly within the ability of the Titan military technology, but not even the Titans were able to hide all of their radio transmissions.

Then there were the optical telescopes used by the Titans. Although far from perfect, or of great magnitude, they were still capable of spotting a reflecting body in space. Thus, as the Titans had also been able to use advanced mathematics and physics for some time, they could easily calculate the orbital patterns of their neighbouring moons as well as those of Jupiter. Yet when they trained their optical telescopes on Jupiter, and especially at the calculated orbital path of Europa, they could find no trace of their enemy. Again this could not be explained.

So it was in this light, some six months later, the Titan Fleet of 300 ships gingerly approached exactly where Europa should have been. In doing so, they were soon to confirm both what the radio listening stations and the optical telescopes had discovered: that the moon no longer existed. It had, indeed, vanished. Needless to say, debate soon commenced everywhere, among the military, politicians, and scientists. And, although the military celebrated it as a victory, they also felt as if they had been robbed of one. A similar feeling creped all over Titan, until the scientists came up with an answer to everyone’s question. Even though it was far from an unflawed theory, it was nevertheless accepted by the Titan political leadership, that the enemy had blown itself to pieces trying to use their atomic weapon towers. It was ironic, and a self fulfilling prophecy as far as the Titans were concerned, which vindicated that the they were superior, victorious, and masters of all.

It would be a short lived victory.

The Setting of the Sun

Within five years of Titan’s self proclaimed mastery, the beginning of the end had come. It was always meant to be. It was the Sun’s fate since the dawn of time. Now, in its Red Giant phase, it was now near the end as it began to pulsate. It was limited and very subtle at first. Others, including the Europans, had predicted it and had prepared. For the Titans, however, they had not. Applying their science for only their immediate and often destructive needs, they had never ventured much in science for science sake. Now they would pay the ultimate price for their short sightedness.

Having said that, it was not as if the Titans did not notice something was wrong. Eventually they did. Their scientists soon noticed that the Sun was behaving differently. Their optical telescopes, even their radio listening stations, all soon observed the Sun in detail, as it went through its death throws, as the pulsations became more and more obvious as the months went by. Soon, it was also discovered that radiation levels on Titan were rising and that they did so with every pulse which the Sun gave out. Debate quickly commenced and theories came and went. But what was obvious was the radiation would soon become deadly, if the population did not seek refuge in the shelters built not too long ago.

Soon millions thus sought shelter from the very Sun that once gave them life. Attempts at growing crops and foodstuffs underground quickly commenced, but in reality it was all too little too late. People started dying, not only from starvation and thirst, but also from radiation. This then gave rise to illnesses which spread through the surviving population like Biblical plagues. Still some survived and struggled on as Titans could always could, but by the time all life had been killed off on Titan’s surface, the last Titan died deep underground in its shelter.

A few million years would still pass by, however, as the Sun continued to pulsate. With each one, more and more radiation was pumped out into the surrounding space ensuring nothing nearby could survive. Furthermore, dense nebula clouds had developed which, more or less, blocked any visual sight from outside. Plus, with each pulse, the Sun grew closer to its own inevitable destruction. Finally, it gave its last breath, its last great pulse, and collapsed into a small white dwarf, resembling little of its previous greatness. Earth’s great solar system was no more. Everything had changed. Nothing was the same.

Similarly the once G-Type star of Alpha Centauri went through its final pulsations as did the Sun. It too gave off a great nebula cloud which was, inturn, added to by the other two stars of the Alpha Centauri system. Outward into space, did these nebula clouds expand, to one day meet up somewhere about half way between the locations of the original stars. And there the star dust of the Sun and Alpha Centauri began to mix and swirl into familiar patterns. After a million or so years, the denser particles had begun to form gaseous balls which, inturn, collided with each other, growing larger all the while, until one emerged greater than the others. One day, it may have the chance to become a star, just like so many other gas giants which were now going through the same process.

And as the great Milky Way Galaxy rapidly changed, transforming into a new time and place, great changes where likewise taking place elsewhere. Every other galaxy was in change throughout the universe, but that was not all. In another universe, the Elysium Universe, the location where many a great and powerful advanced specie existed, change was also under way. Although it only touched upon a handful of Spiritous Sanctus Sapiens, it was possibly the most profound development in evolution. Indeed, such a development would ensure the ultimate existence of everything that ever was, and everything that shall be for ever more…

Chapter 4: Day Of The Titans

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This creative work is the property of David Mark Atwell.
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