Chapter 4 Part 1

Chapter 4


Gary Noll studied the hurtling rock on his monitor. They were in range of the Raven's main weapons arrays and were debating the best method of destroying the asteroid.
"It is far to large for the main cannons to have any effect on it. They would just dig holes in the rock," the weapons ensign reported.

"Sir," Lt. Bree offered. "We have some small fission torpedoes. If we bore one into the surface then detonate it, it might shatter or at least split that thing into a smaller pieces.

"It is illegal to detonate nuclear weapons in peacetime," the ensign reminded them.

"The Terran Security Treaty does allow the use of fission and fusion devices to defend Terra from natural hazards," Bree countered.

"The idea has merit," Noll agreed. "Billy," he addressed the weapons officer, "load a fission torpedo and set it for one hundred meters of hard penetration. That should get it deep enough to crack that thing. If we can break it down a little more than it is, we can hammer at it with the main weapons array."

"We have some HERCULES in the dorsal launcher," Ensign Billy McCanty offered. The High Explosive Rocket Cluster Using Long-range Evasion Systems was a heavy missile that homed in on its target using a limited artificial intelligence. When it reached its target, it jettisoned dozens of short range rockets at that target and then attacked with its own considerable warhead. They were expensive, but deadly. The problem was that they were also bulky. No vessel smaller than a destroyer could carry them. Even the Raven had only one rack of ten.

"A perfect time to test one I should think," Noll beamed. "Let's see how this rock handles a HERCULES. If we can avoid the use of a fission weapon, we can avoid any possible criticism. If the missile fails, then we will follow it with one of Bree's fission torpedoes."

"Aye, sir," Bree responded and began maneuvering the Raven into a firing position, while McCanty selected his weapon activity and entered the targeting data.

"Missile number one has a hard lock," Billy reported.

Noll took a breath and slowly released it trying not to show his excitement. "Fire."

"Missile away," McCanty announced. His words were punctuated by a light shudder as the ship vibrated from the huge missile's backwash.

"Secondary launch in twenty seconds," Bree announced and commenced with a countdown.

Noll magnified the view in his monitor as he listened to the countdown. When Bree hit zero, the missile blossomed like a deadly flower as a multitude of smaller missiles emerged from the casing of the main booster and ignited their tiny engines. Within a few seconds, a series of many flashes could be seen on the surface of the asteroid.

"Preliminary indications coming in," McCanty announced. "Sensors are showing no significant effect. Conventional weapons are too small. We could blast at that thing for days without making any serious progress."

Noll sighed. "Okay stand by on the fission torpedo."

"Torpedo ready," McCanty replied.

"Fire," came the order.

"Torpedo away," Bree announced and began another countdown.

"Reactor at ninety percent," Ensign Wilhelm, the engineer, announced. "Radiation shield at full intensity."

Withina few moments the destroyer lurched slightly and then settled down. "Impact," Bree announced.

"Full scan," Noll ordered. "Lets see what happened."

The monitors recycled from the momentary overload of the fission explosion, and displayed an image of the asteroid broken down into hundreds of large chunks. "It shattered." Noll concluded happily.

"These fragments are still headed for Terra," Bree interrupted, but they are now small enough to pulverize with the ship's weapons array."

"Ease us into range," Noll ordered. "Alert all gun crews. Fire at will and blast those rocks until they are too small to survive passing through the atmosphere."

"Aye sir," Bree acknowledged.