SAW 1: Stars at War Read Free Page B

they detonate in proximity!"
     
    Star System Orasis V
    Fleet Command Nexus, Hiveship CE Roro Cro-Drignon
     
    The master Centipede slithered. Fleet Admiral Roro
Cro-Drignon's snakelike body inputted commands into his computer interface at
lightning speed. All twenty-two limbs interfaced with the command computer.
They told his minions, his fleet, what to do.
    Roro Cro-Drignon was a genius among his race. He hailed from
a blue hypergiant in the constellation G2654. As an expert at fleet battles
involving multitudes of ships, he’d been chosen for the task. He could out
perform any of his peers and create complex movements unparalleled in a star
fight.
    His forward double prying mandibles clicked in excitement.
They weren't even limbs. They were jaw muscles that emulated limbs.
    When the prey is cornered and cannot run, is when he will
strike!
    Do not let the prey dictate the conditions of the game.
    When the prey is surprised and off balance, take
advantage of his immobility.
    "All units, attack!" spat the Fleet Admiral.
"Drive the prey away from the star field and win the battle for the
empire!"
    Roro Cro-Drignon's twenty-two limbs spammed commands into
his interface. Across the entire battlefield, all his starships ventured forth
in a vehement offensive unlike any other. His K-ships, long hidden, drove out
of camouflaged positions and darted towards the enemy.
    To victory! We will take their land and savage their
empire! We will take what is ours!
     
    Flag Bridge, Mobile Battle Fortress
    VSF Epsilon Decimus
     
    Prancort watched the snakes launch attack after attack,
unlike anything he’d had ever seen before! Even the simulations at the Fleet
Academy on Gregor, where he graduated first, he never saw any admiral, not even
an AI, do such a thing. Such coordination! Such a kaleidoscope of movement!
    Prancort tried his best to fight back, to reposition his
units. He was beginning to admire this enemy admiral he faced.
    Except—now wasn’t the time for admiration!
    Nearby, Prion was yelling, "All ships in block D-7-J,
retreat!"  "Starships Adelaide and Kruschev, flank around that
position in a semicircle!" Prancort called out orders as well.
    Those—those K-ships! Those extreme game-changing,
havoc-wrecking K-ships. They darted into the battle from positions unknown and
caused catastrophic damage. Where did they come from? How did the enemy know
the fight would be here? How had the enemy hidden them so perfectly?
    Prancort tried his best to scramble out orders to his fleet.
To fight an uneven battle…made more uneven by these hidden surprises. His hands
jammed his keyboards with new instructions and he kept yelling out orders.
    This is a trap! A carefully planned, well-conceived trap!
    In the back of his head, he realized something profound
about how the human brain wasn't meant to multitask to this level. The human
brain could easily send out instructions to a fleet in open space, as there
weren't that many variables and the whole fleet could be thought of as one
unit; but in an asteroid field, the human brain wasn't meant to control so many
small arenas all at once. Unexpectedly,  Prancort realized  the reason he’d
always won in the simulations against other cadets, back at the academy,
particularly if the simulation involving an asteroid field—he fought other
humans and not a multi-legged multitasker like a snake field marshal.
    In order for him to win, he’d better play much, much better
than the enemy, who could rely on sitting and shooting from the front. But he
didn't have the ability to control so many ships in so many local arenas, and
outplay the enemy admiral in each by a large margin every time.
    He realized this and, of course—all too late...
    No! He shook his head. He couldn't think like
this. To think so, would be to invite defeat! He must believe he could win. He
must believe victory is possible!
    Yet, as he continued fighting, he began to believe the
opposite…Prancort, he knew he truly could