-or- The sixth installment
Supernova part VI
Our technology and that of the Goran were so evenly matched that, while battles were won, neither side scored any major victory. Nevertheless, twenty-five years of intergalactic warfare requires billions of lives. One could say I was fortunate. Not every young man can be sent off to battle, there would be no future population to enjoy the spoils of victory. I was selected due to a number of genetic “gifts” to be left behind. I am to ensure that there is a future generation, contributing to a future generation that has no future today.
For years earth’s greatest minds labored to develop the next atomic bomb, to set the stage for the next Hiroshima, the weapon to end the war. Explosives of inconceivable proportions were designed, but raw power compromised stability. Reciprocating lasers were designed with the power to crush entire moons, but only on paper. The energy could never be focused enough to reach the critical point without melting the components. Failure after failure, the war went on. But no more.
The answer, when the scientists came across it was so simple, it was almost laughable. It was no explosive, no energy weapon, no super ship. I recall seeing in the museums vids of cartoons in which the antagonists gets an anvil dropped on his head, saving he protagonist. The idea was that simple, drop a really big anvil on their heads. And the anvil was Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter.
The idea developed from there, but to my understanding the plan was simply to use our matter-anti-matter engines to bore a hole in space big enough for the moon, then drop it inside the gravitational pull of Kul’k’tan, letting their planet do the rest of the work and smash the moon into the planet. Assuredly they would not stop this projectile. Destruction in its most primal and basic forms has always enraptured humanity. This stroke of genius was no exception.