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The night sky was beautiful. Stars lit up the void, an amazing spectacle of pale white dots which sprinkled the moon filled sky. The light from the night cast a pale white light on the face of Mark and Alex. They had come to gaze into the night sky.
“Mark…”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
“Thanks for what?”
“Everything. Thanks for helping me find myself a new home.” She paused “After I moved here from the Philippines, I… I lost everything I had. It was hard. Saying goodbye to them, my family. I never really felt like this was my home.” Alex’s head rested on Mark's shoulder, her tanned face turned pale from the light of the full moon. “Until now.”
Mark’s face flushed a bright red. They sat, silent, the waves crashing against the shore below them.
“Alex… there’s something I need to tell you. It’s about…it’s about my dad…”
Suddenly, a light in the sky. A new star lit up the void. Streaking from the east side of the night sky, traveling at breathtaking speeds, tens of kilometers a second. It wasn’t a star, but a spacecraft. It burned retrograde with its nuclear engines which emitted a bright white shine. Streaks of red came from it, as it began to intercept dozens of kinetic kill vehicles barrelling towards it. Each exploding into a small debris field. Its massive RCS thruster blocks moved the craft around in the sky like a majestic fish in water as it turned to face its attacker. The orbital gunship was a long pointed craft, with a laser gimbal at its nose. It translated left and right, oriented itself and engaged targets with its laser. Suddenly another object appeared in the night sky. From it flew a new swarm of kinetic kill vehicles, small supermaneuverable guided missiles designed to kill spacecraft with the force of its impact.
“Woah.” Alex said.
“Isn’t this cool, Mark? Mark…?”
He stared into the stars.
It was nothing less than the pinnacle of human engineering. Fire control systems engaged targets tens or hundreds of kilometers from the gunship; the powerful laser burst kinetic kill vehicles, themselves moving at such immense speeds relative to the orbital gunship, into puffs of shiny dust sized particles; the nuclear engines moved the 126 meter long spacecraft with immense amounts of force. It oriented itself with bursts of force from its RCS thrusters. It was the ultimate showcase of man’s engineering. The void bowed in insignificance to the brilliant display of warfare.
The second spacecraft began closing on the orbital gunship. It was a fast attack craft, less than half the length of the orbital gunship, and ended in a flat nose with kinetic kill vehicle launch cells, allowing it to dispense vast amounts of KKVs from its nose. It was moving on a constant orbit, conducting a fly-by attack on the orbital gunship, which had burned itself onto a suborbital trajectory to engage its aggressor. It would have to act quickly before it would have to burn again to prevent itself from falling into the atmosphere.
The fast attack craft performed a harsh burn to attempt to remain within weapons range of the orbital gunship. It too, started spewing bright red trails of tracer rounds from its point defense systems; beginning to engage a swarm of kinetic kill vehicles from the orbital gunship; firing thousands of rounds a minute from each one of its CIWS batteries. Suddenly, the craft split in two, exploded, and then imploded. It had been destroyed by a 40mm railgun round, a metal slug which had been accelerated to 5,400 miles per hour. The wreck and massive debris field began to fall to the earth, burning a bright orange as they hit the mesosphere. Falling, like an angel from heaven. Like an airplane… out of the sky.
Timeskip, 10 years
“Come in USSF Sally Ride?”
“This is the USSF Sally Ride, we read you loud and clear.”
Mark’s eyes were glued to the radar screens, his hands shaky. The USSF Sally Ride orbital gunship had only returned from lunar orbit two days ago where Mark had his trial by fire. Now, above Japan moving into the pacific, the moon seemed so far, and the wonderful blueness of the ocean he had lived his life surrounded by came into view.
“We picked up three vessels moving towards an ESA power station. The French are sending the Nemesis to help you guys out, but you’re the only NATO spacecraft in the hemisphere right now. We need you to intercept them.”
“Okay. Uplink targets and we’ll maneuver.”
“Mark! Get ready! We’re intercepting three Spaders!” It was weapons chief Sasha Carnegie. Spader was the NATO designation for the Chinese PLAASF Type-1100 fast attack spacecraft.
“On it.” Mark retorted. He rapidly ran his checklist to power up the vessel’s chemical laser.
“We’re burning in thirty seconds. Hold on everyone.” The pilot informed the crew. The laser hissed as rare gasses were released into the system. Mark turned in his seat to face Sasha Carnegie.
“COIL is nominal and online” (COIL being an acronym for Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser.) Mark said. And soon his other colleagues followed suit.
“CIWS nominal and online. ” One said.
“Railguns 1 and 2 are nominal and online.” Another said.
“KKV launch cells are nominal and online.”
The weapons chief radioed to the spacecraft’s commander “All weapons systems are nominal and online.”
“Burn in fifteen seconds.” The pilot notified the crew.
Mark clenched his stomach and prepared for the burn. His deep blue flight suit squeezed his legs to improve blood flow to his upper body.
“Reorienting.” The craft swung itself into a new orientation to burn its engines for the interception.
“Burning in five, four, three, two one.”
The nuclear engines pushed the craft with great force as they lit with a beautiful white light. The inside of the vessel shook, and a low rumble reverberated in the crew compartment. The immense mass of the vessel rapidly thrust into the void. The burn required about three hundred meters a second of delta V to achieve.
The cool pacific breeze blew onto Alex’s face. Her usually bright expressive face moot under the pure white light of the full moon.
“I should be asleep,” She thought. “Not out here this late.” But there was no way she couldn’t stay outside and stare into the stars while Mark was among them. It wasn’t easy to let him go. Like a balloon she had let go into the sky. And much like a child, she felt immense regret for letting her balloon go. But there he was, so far above her. Somewhere in space. He took her heart with him. “The selfish bastard should come and give it back.” She joked to herself.
She sat at the same cliff face they sat at, all those years ago. No shoulder to rest her head on. No one to talk about how much she missed her family. No one to warm her against the ocean breeze. A lonely, lonely night under the full moon.
He texted her the night of saying he would be passing over head that night. She stared out into space, and thought about him. As she stared out into space a new star rose from the west into the sky.
“Mark!” She couldn’t help but say out loud as a smile broke upon her face as the white spot traveled across the sky.
“Cutting throttle.”
The rumbling stopped, as the craft now traveled across its orbit. A thick sense of tension gripped the pressurized compartment. Sasha pulled herself around the weapons command compartment checking on all the systems. She tapped Mark on the shoulder.
“Are you all ready?” She asked
“Yes, Weapons Chief.”
“Good.”
She began to grab a handle and pull herself to another crew station before Mark spoke again.
“I should be going to hell.”
“Why’s that?” Sasha asked.
“I left my wife. She’s the greatest person in the world. And she’s the last person who needs someone so far away. I think the only shot I have of getting to heaven is if God decides my wife shouldn’t be punished any more than she already is, and sends me up with her.”
“Mark,” Sasha said in a therapeutic, yet stoic tone, “You’re a great man. And you’ll absolutely be going to heaven. But not any time soon.”
“Yes, Weapon’s Chief.”
He could hear the mission commander and another officer discussing the engagement behind him.
“We’ve got a small window to maneuver and fire before they can. We’ve got the chemical laser and we’re gonna use it.” Commander Stein said. “We’re gonna’ be closing on them very rapidly once we fire retrograde.”
The ESA orbital power station came into view of the spacecraft’s visual targeting system. It was a massive flat square complex of solar panels, about a kilometer tall and kilometer and a half wide. The massive field of yellow solar panels reflected off light from the sun behind them, which they got an early view of from the altitude of 35,700 kilometers above the Earth. They passed elegantly below the station before their trajectory began bringing them back towards the Earth.
The spacecraft’s radar array picked up three small radar returns thousands of kilometers away.
“Commander, I’ve got three bandits on radar. I’m checking now for confirmation.”
“Come in, mission control, this is the USSF Sally Ride.” Commander Stein said over the radio,
“Mission control to Sally Ride, we read you loud and clear.”
“We’ve got three bandits we’re picking up with radar. We’re uplinking them to you now.”
A few seconds pass.
“Roger that USSF Sally Ride, those are PLAASF Type-1100 Spaders. You are free to engage. Good hunting commander.”
“Roger that mission control. Godspeed.”
“Prepare for flip and burn in fifteen seconds.” The commander told the crew.
The craft rapidly reoriented itself backwards. Mark felt the blood rush to his head. Before hearing the voice of the mission commander, Chuck Stein, come over his headset. “Prepare for combat.”
This time the burn was full power; combat maneuvering. The vessel very quickly pushed against its trajectory. It felt as though Mark’s insides were being squeezed, or his blood was boiling.
Alex saw the USSF Sally Ride fire its nuclear engines. Just for a second. But so immense in its brightness. And then nothing. This wasn’t good. She knew about Mark’s job. They always did these sorts of quick maneuvers before they entered combat.
She tensed up. She could barely make out the faint dot from the light the moon reflected onto the Sally Ride.
“Engage Track 1-3 with chemical laser.” Commander Stein ordered.
“Engaging Track 1-3!” Mark responded.
The massive gimbal mounted chemical laser shot a beam of purple UV laser light. It dazzled and ablated material off of the target. The beam reacquired, and began burning holes in the spacecraft’s vulnerable radiator panels.
“Hit on Track 1-3.” Mark reported.
“Engage tracks 1-1, 1-2, and 1-3 with KKVs, two salvos of forty for each.”
The vessel’s KKV cells began releasing the small supermaneuverable missiles, each about the size of a person. They launched out radially, floating in the void for a few meters, before kicking to life and bulleting away from the Sally Ride towards their targets.
“Birds away.” A weapon specialist reported to the commander.
Their range was quickly closing. The vessels were five thousand kilometers away, and every minute they came hundreds of kilometers closer.
“Radar is picking up incoming KKVs, at least forty-five.”
The amazing show was beginning. An awe filled joust above the atmosphere. Mark then set the weapon to perform point defense. The weapon began to burn up the KKVs barreling towards the Sally Ride. One- two- three- four, burst into clouds of propellent gasses and small dust sized debris.
“Enemy KKVs are twenty kilometers away. CIWS is engaging.”
Alex now could see the colors of battle. A glow emanated from laser damage of one of the craft. Now, both the Sally Ride and her assailants were spewing thousands of rounds of ammunition into the void leaving behind majestic red streaks in the night sky. Near one of the Spaders, KKVs burst into reflective scraps of metal. Its defense systems were being slowly overwhelmed. First, KKVs came only within a few kilometers before bursting into a cloud of metal dust, then a kilometer, a few hundred meters, and then the Chinese spacecraft split in two as a KKV slammed through it. Debris flew from the impact and the pressurized crew compartment blew open, the gasses rushing out to fill the void before dissipating and imploading from the force of the vacuum. The display left a debris field of dust and larger parts in its way.
“Woo hoo!” Alex excitedly exclaimed. “Show ‘em what for, Mark!”
“Splash track 1-3!” An officer reported to the commander.
KKVs burst all around the USSF Sally Ride. The anti missile systems were working; but for how much longer could not be guaranteed.
“We’re one thousand kilometers out from track 1-2 and one point five away from track 1-1.” The officer reported to Commander Stein.
“Let’s focus on the closest track. Engage track 1-2 with railgun.” said Commander Stein
“Outside firing arc.” Replied the railgun weapon specialist.
“Aligning!” The pilot informed the crew.
The spacecraft quickly rotated and swung around, its massive RCS thruster blocks bringing one of the two spacecraft’s railguns level with its target.
“Engaging track 1-2. Firing!”
Alex watched as a green bolt crossed between the Sally Ride and one of the two remaining spacecraft at ludicrous speeds. It passed just barely off to the side of its target and continued into the horizon.
The motion lurched the Sally Ride to one side. The RCS thrusters automatically fought the recoil of the weapon, and the nuclear thrusters now engaged. They were now combat maneuvering, and they constantly fired the nuclear engines to make themselves a harder target to hit. Left, then right. Up and down. Like a fish in the ocean.
From Alex’s perspective, the Sally Ride began to light up again, soon, too, did the Chinese Spaders, though the latter’s engine did not give off the angelic glow that the nuclear engines of the Sally Ride did.
“Get it back in arc!” Commander Stein ordered.
Mark was now starting to struggle to stay at his wits, even with his extensive training. The intense high G maneuvering drained blood from his head one second, then it all rushed the next.
“Those KKVs are gonna’ gain ground on us!”
“So make this quick!” The vessel flipped again.
“Firing!”
The green bolt flew across the night sky. This time, the metal slug found its target and skewered the enemy spacecraft, breaking it into pieces.
“Two down. Just one more to go.” Alex thought with bated breath.
“Good shit, guys!” Commander Stein exclaimed. “How many KKVs do we have coming at us?” He asked.
“About 234.” The radar officer replied.
“Jesus.”
“Track 1-1 is three hundred kilometers away! They’re north of us!”
“Engage track 1-1 with railgun!”
The sound of debris and shrapnel was now making faint tinkling sounds as they hit the vessel’s whipple shield, a kevlar lining to protect the spacecraft from shrapnel and fragmentation.
KKVs were getting closer and closer, and Mark was working hard to keep the chemical laser firing. It was almost at the point of overheating by now.
“Firing!”
Nothing.
“Weapon error!”
“Try the other railgun!” Commander Stein instructed.
“Weapon error! Both guns are down.”
“Shit!” Commander Stein panicked.
“Mark! Hit it with the COIL!”
“If we do that the CWIS systems will be overrun!” Sasha Carnegie interjected.
“That's all we have! Fire the damn laser, Mark!”
“Yes, sir! Engaging track 1-1!”
The laser let out a burst of the UV beam onto the target. It ablated the Spader’s whipple shield.
“Hit their CIWS system!” Commander Stein ordered.
Mark readjusted the laser’s aim. It dazzled and disabled a CIWS turret of the Spader, then another.
As the craft twirled to dissipate the effects of the laser, a KKV slammed into the aft end of the vessel, and it split apart like a can.
“How many KKVs do we have incoming?” Asked Stein.
“287…323.” The radar officer grimly replied.
“Everyone, focus on taking those KKVs down!”
The stream of debris now sounded like rain against the whipple shielding.
“Mission command. Come in.”
“Affirmative Sally Ride?”
“We’ve disabled all enemy spacecraft.” Commander Stein said somberly. “We’ve got too many KKVs coming at us to intercept all of them. We cannot defeat every target.”
“Understood, Commander. Godspeed.”
Mark saw the writing on the wall. He took a second to look at Hawaii using the visual targeting system. His home. His wife. His friends. Perhaps he shouldn’t have been here. Maybe he should have stayed, when Alex begged him not to go. Maybe, he should have listened to her, and let his father go. He thought how sad he would be without his mother. He thought about how much he loved Alex. How much he didn’t want to leave her. He shed a tear.
On the ground. Alex watched, as the kinetic kill vehicles came closer. The laser system overheated from intense usage and malfunctioned. Finally, a kinetic kill vehicle slammed into the USSF Sally Ride. Then another, and another. The ship split, as the vessel burst into a cloud of debris.
Alex did not cry, or shed a single tear, for she had already shed every tear for him. Seconds passed. Then every tear, every fiber of sorrow, mourning, and loss she had ever had, came out all at once.
“He left me like his father left him. He was my world. When he left, the earth became alien. I wanted only to see his face again. And perhaps, one day, when I see that full moon that lit up my world that fateful night. I’ll see him again.”