Battle for Earth
Page 34
The central hub is utilized as a containment field for a very large matter/antimatter generator. It is surmised the combined power of 5 ships is initially needed to begin the process of energy production by the generator. Subsequently the matter/antimatter generator produces an extremely high energy output. It is further surmised an exotic carrier wave then transfers that energy to the ship-conjugate.
The potential energy output of the pentalink configuration as compared to a normal complement of 5 dreadnaughts is exponential. The configuration requires specialized equipment, primarily with respect to the large core matter/antimatter power system utilized by the configuration. A pentalink is much more than just a linking of five capital ships.
The configuration can be established utilizing five dreadnaughts or five cruisers.
PID: Personal Intelligence Device. It is a personal multi-use computing device. It has a 3-dimensional high definition video recorder, audio recorder, cellphone-type device, etc. High-end holopids, including those used by the military, incorporate a suite of scanners that can determine temperature, local information such as nearby heartbeats, infrared pictures, etc.
Plasma Tube: Also see Tube. Shoulder fired plasma bolt weapon.
Primary Service Transportation Gate: An Empire primary system teleportation gate with a dedicated dome base on Cygnus Prime. There are also Ancillary Gates for emergency or tactical usage.
QuIM: Pronounced quim. Quamtum Instant Messaging system. The system utilizes quantum teleportation techniques to allow faster than light communication. The system became fully operational shortly before the Battle at Oort. Significant component contributions come from China.
Quputer: Pronounced cue-peuter. Quantum computing system. While they are generally labeled quantum computers, quputers capable of high-level function incorporate standard computer chip systems and some level of synergistic artificial intelligence.
RAG: Rocket assisted grenade.
RC: Roving claymore. A smart roving claymore directional mine explosive that can be quick programmed to find a specific target. A target can be ‘painted’ in a variety of ways including a laser ping.
RedFERNs: Reduced-size Fusion Energized Reactor – Nuclear. Military portable power generation units hauled on trucks or other platforms.
SAIQ Net: Synergistic Artificial Intelligence Quputer. Pronounced as psyc-net. It is a blending of AI with quputer processing. Often when people just say quputer, their meaning is a SAIQ net. Almost all quputers have at least a rudimentary AI presence.
SGLs: Space-to-Ground-Landers.
Shark: A relativistic speed kinetic missile. Sharks are deployed in a likely theater of operation before a battle. They are sent out in “schools” hours or days before they will be needed in order to acquire a delta-v that is relativistic.
The first-generation shark could reach a relativistic speed of 50% light (.5C). It is essentially a high thrust fusion engine with a primary thruster nozzle and small secondary vector nozzles attached to a large fuel tank. The weapon does not carry explosives, relying on missile mass and velocity to achieve high kinetic energy.
The second-generation sharks replaced the original shark and are capable of speeds in excess of .75C.
SID: See Stellar Intelligence Division.
SJ: Name of Shockwave Journal AI, EssJay. Tee finally talked Viz into chipping the journal instead of relying on interfacing through her AASQ, her AI personal assistant, Albert.
Skywalk: Cygnus Prime space elevator.
SLS and SLSF: This is a Space Force designation for a space flight capable Solar League Ship (SLS). A designation used by Earth and affiliated worlds. An F designation indicates FTL capability. Solar League Ship was eventually replaced with Star League Ship.
Solar League: The governing body of the planet Earth and Solar colonies subsequent to the uniting of all the nations of Earth. The invasion of Earth occasioned a unique period of global unity and political stability that logically moved toward a federation of all the peoples of Earth. That aspect of unity increased with the advent of full stellar war with the Empire.
Solar League Command: Generally known as Solcom. Solcom has jurisdictional control of all matters related to the interstellar war effort. The position of commander in chief is vested in the Prime Minister of the Solar League. Primary military decisions are determined by a cabinet of military professionals.
Space Action Corps: Generally referred to as Spacors. This is the League rapid deployment action and reaction force modeled largely on the U.S. Marine Corps.
Space Force: The League military command having jurisdiction over space and atmospheric offensive and defensive operations including control of spacecraft and aircraft.
Spatial Recognition Software: This is a program that sifts through stored scanner information looking for quantum anomalies in space-time. This can be used to find Nahaash’ereem agents. There are disturbances in space-time associated with porting, some types of cloaking, etc.
SPICE: Space Inserted Craft Enabled. An example would be the highly upgraded F-22 Raptor, F-35 Lightning, and similar aircraft used to conduct military operations subsequent to transportation in space. Such craft are enabled to enter a planetary atmosphere from orbit utilizing frontal energized shielding to displace heat.
SSC3: Also called an S3. See Supershark C-3.
Starfighter: A drone designed to carry and drop 10 THOr
The discharge is accomplished using a shaped high yield nuclear exciter explosion to ignite and launch a low-Z material (a low-Z material provides for minimal loss of destructive coherence). The result is essentially a powerful plasma-state spear of energy. The THOR shell is essentially an updated version of the well-known Casaba Howitzer.
Stellar Intelligence Division: Also known as SID, a division of Solcom. The SID assists Solcom with the gathering and analysis of a wide variety of information pertaining to stellar systems other than Sol. The SID has investigative and quasi law enforcement power.
SSC3: Also called an S3. See Supershark C-3.
STOP team: Space Force Tactical Operations Porters. Special operations squads with a high port tech to specialist ratio. The minimum ratio commensurate with a STOP team is one port tech for each non-port capable specialist.
SUGAR: Shielded Upgraded Ground Assault Rig. An example would be an Abrams M1A3 supertank with shielding.
Supershark: A second generation relativistic speed kinetic missile incorporating design characteristics of stealth and afterburner tank to develop greater acceleration and delta-v. The second-generation missile has the capability to jettison the main fuel tank while retaining a small secondary tank to allow vector change thrust, adding to stealth characteristics. The missile can reach a relativistic speed of 75% light (.75C). Eventually the 2nd -gen missile supplanted the 1st -gen missile and has since just been called a shark.
Supershark C-3: Also known as SSC3 or S3. It is a third-generation weapon capable of opening a warp bubble to achieve faster-than-light
THOr shell: THOr is the acronym for Triple H Ordnance. Triple H: Hot; High-energy; High speed. A THOr shell is target programmed upon launch at which time it utilizes active scanning to track and discharge.
The discharge is accomplished using a shaped high yield nuclear exciter explosion to ignite and launch a low-Z material (a low-Z material provides for minimal loss of destructive coherence). The result is essentially a powerful plasma-state spear of energy. The THOR shell is essentially an updated version of the well- known Casaba Howitzer.
Timeline Drop: The timeline project was authorized by the Solar League. It was reauthorized by the Star League Ministry. The
intent was to develop and maintain an accurate history of the interstellar war with the Empire. Several secure journals with accurate historical accounts of the war were chosen to receive historical information via a Timeline Drop as such information became available. Event information is embedded in a best-effort to provide a sequential timeline order of events.
Timeline Project: The timeline project was authorized by the Solar League. It was reauthorized by the Star League Ministry. The intent was to develop and maintain an accurate history of the interstellar war with the Empire. Several secure journals with accurate historical accounts of the war were chosen to receive historical information via a Timeline Drop as such information became available. Event information is embedded in a best-effort to provide a sequential timeline order of events.
Transit-space: Empire term for the transition space (wormhole) between teleportation gates.
Trollkin: Mr. T’s last name.
Tube: Also see Plasma Tube. Shoulder fired plasma bolt weapon.
Turkskee: We pronounce it ‘Turk-skee’. The actual pronunciation is difficult. Steve’s people are from Turkskee. They are Turkskeeans. Turxskee is a colony world of Crimson located about 150 light years from Cygnus Prime; 50 light years from Crimson; 1,550 light years from Earth. Contact was lost between Crimson and Turkskee because of the invasion of Crimson by Cygnus Prime. It was many years before Prime moved to take Turkskee due to their low level of industrial development and disposition.
Viper.: This is the operational for all phases of the space assault portion of the first invasion of Cygnus Prime by Earth. It includes the Jasmin gate project and the actions of the Prime Space Action Group, involving three separate strike groups.
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OPERATION BUGBLAST. An AI synthesis composition project.
By Viz. NOTE: The Bugblast Operation recordings were of a poor quality. There was background interference throughout the entire recording. Noise. I worked through and did my best to capture what was being said. Roll helped.
Also, there is a good deal of military brevity language. The pilots of Bugblast knew each other well and were given a good deal of freedom in communication. Brevity language can be very confusing so I incorporated explanatory programming. While all that explanation is helpful to most, it can make for cumbersome reading.
This transcript includes much of the communication that took place during the operation. I didn’t include sections that were too garbled to allow a reasonable certainty of correct interpretation. I’ll start with some background information. Or, see Operation Bugblast, below.
The Goldilocks operation involved an AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft) and five F22s, tasked to clear the way for a B21 bomber which would deliver the bomb meant to destroy the nest ship. The B21 is a very stealthy aircraft. I don’t think many of those were assembled. That’s probably why the military wanted to soften up the defenses of the bug ship they were going to blast. On the side, you just know the military wanted to test our capabilities in specific scenarios. After all, we were losing the war. Let’s see, what else.
Oh, there were also a couple of B-1R ‘missile trucks’ to help as needed. The F22s were loaded to the max with 6 AIM 120D and 4 AIM 9X Sidewinder missiles. The AIM 120D is a medium range radar guided missile. It has a range of up to 100 miles. It is a shoot and forget missile with active radar guidance steering the missile to the target. The AIM 9X is a closer range heat seeking missile. Neither is a new weapon system but they have been upgraded and are very effective. The F22s also have a 20 MM auto cannon capable of firing 100 rounds per minute. To top it off, each of the F22s had 6 ‘tethered’ Stalker drones.
Stalker drones are a newer technology. I wasn’t able to find much information. I do know from Mr. T that a fighter pilot can control the drones from the cockpit. The F22 pilots each had control of 6 drones to help with reconnaissance and to bring the initial attack to the enemy. The Stalkers each carry 4 Sidewinder missiles.
I should give a bit more information about those missile trucks that were used to add incredible firepower to the battle. The B-1Rs each had dozens of AIM 120D missiles and LREWs (Long Range Engagement Weapons, a very long-range missile). The B-1R missile trucks would linger in the area, to be used as needed.
The actual shooter, the main bomber, was a stealthy B21, with the “Goldilocks” nuke. To add to the suspense, there were some top-secret guests that came to the party as well. You’ll see.
Primary command and control, that was provided by a dedicated AWACS. It had state of the art electronics and avionics and was capable of giving a picture of the theatre of operation up to 200 miles out, maybe more. The F22s needed to be around 100 miles of a target to get good radar locks.
I am pretty sure the F22s came out of Shepard in Texas. I think the B21 and AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft) came out of a Missouri base. It’s the military, so everything has some kind of a mission designation.
The overall operation is called Goldilocks. The air F22 group is labeled Bugblast. The AWACS is called Wacker for this mission. The B21 carrying the bomb is just called Goldilocks. The missile trucks are called Truck 1 and Truck 2. The F22 group is Bugblast so each aircraft is identified officially as Bugblast 1; Bugblast 2, and so on.
Roll said the pilot call signs are used throughout the operation. In other words, they talk over the radio using their call sign, their pilot designation name. I think these guys all knew each other, worked together on other operations. Bugblast 1 is the flight leader and had some operational control. But, like I mentioned, the AWACS had primary control of the theatre of operation. Oh, Roll also said the pilots used the term “fly” or “flies” for bug fighter aircraft rather than the usual term “bandit” for an enemy aircraft.
The bug ship chosen for the operation was located in a fairly remote area in North Dakota. The military knows the standard number of “flies” and their ... capabilities. Each mother ship, I think they just called it a “nest”, has 40 flies. The flies don’t carry missiles. They only have rail guns and downsize DEWs. But those down-sized rail guns and DEWs have an effective range of 100 miles. A fly is deadly. We know the flies have very advanced radar. But F22s are very stealthy.
And as with ground combat, I am told the enemy fliers like to get up close and personal. They tend to not fire until they are in visual range of our aircraft. In other words, they like to dogfight. That’s one theory. The other theory is they have a hard time “seeing” our most stealthy aircraft on radar. They might need to get close in order to take a shot. The military still doesn’t know all of the enemy capabilities. Mr. T said the enemy nest ships apparently have a blind-spot to the rear. I’ll discuss that in a minute.
I remember thinking early on, the nest ship rail guns must be able to shoot at least 200 miles. If they spot our fighter guys the nest will just nail them. I mentioned that to Roll. He said it’s good our guys know what they are doing. He heard something on the recording that made him think there would be a steady stream of cruise missiles and other ordnance. The nest guns would be busy with defense.
The bugs just wouldn’t know for sure if an incoming missile was a nuke. He said another tactic would be to try to stay on an approach that would keep flies between the nest and our guys. Also, the air war with the enemy fighters would take place away from the nest. That would help.
As I looked through the recording, I noticed the term “bullseye” is used a lot. That is a marker location to use in giving coordinates to a target, such as a fly that is coming in hot. I thought it was the actual location of the nest. Roll said the bullseye location is usually not a specific spot known by the enemy. That way, if the enemy is listening in on the radio chatter, they will have a harder time zeroing in on the location of our aircraft. Some decoys were sent ahead of the F22s to draw the enemy fighters, the flies, away from the nest. It worked. The full swarm of flies came out to investigate. They were met by the stealthy F22s.
I know, too much information. Alm
ost there. Sorry if I’m rambling. Going over the recordings took way too long. I decided to take the day off from trying to be a journalist. Anyway, like I said, for some reason bug ships are nearly radar blind at their stern. So, the B21 with the bomb would come in from the east very high. The radar reflection of a B21 should be negligible. But they were taking no chances. If our guys could clear out the flies, the B21 (the shooter) should be able to deliver the payload despite the nest guns.
Our fighters came at the nest from due south flying fast. The Stalkers were flying about 25 miles ahead of the F22s on a similar heading, flying north. The AWACS came in from the south, though on a slightly different course and was hanging a bit to the east. The missile trucks were hanging off to the west. The anticipated combat area was to be in excess of 100 miles from the nest.
Actually, it was kind of fun to listen to the pilot brevity talk. Some is not so difficult to piece together, but it can get confusing.
***OPERATION BUGBLAST AUDIO FILE TRANSCRIPTION. REDACTED AND EDITED.***
WACKER
CHAMP, Bugblast One: “Roger that. We can manage. Angels three five. 150 miles.”