Exodus: The Orion War

by Kali Altsoba

  “Sonar it is, Mr. Fontaine. It’ll be a lot easier to say to each other in the heat of action on the Bridge. What does it do?”

  “It detects ‘sound holes’ made by camouflaged ships.”

  “I’ve studied lots of naval engineering, Mr. Fontaine, and I have never once heard of a ‘sound hole.’ How weird is this briefing going to get?”

  “Sorry ma’am, that’s another term I sorta invented. I mean when a ship, most obviously a small phantom class, is concealed from all our other detectors my sonar can still find it.”

  “That would be extraordinarily useful, but how?”

  “Any ship, or hunter-mine or missile, moving stealthily with all kinds of baffles must still move through charged electromagnetic particles from the stellar wind, in the ionosphere and in planetary magnetospheres. The thicker the particle wind the more visible the ‘hole’ a ship makes when it hides behind sophisticated camo that bends light, motion detection, and so on.”

  “I think I understand. Your sonar ‘hears the holes’ a ship makes in the background particle wind, even when its daisa thinks he’s completely hidden all across the EM spectrum.”

  “Exactly, but there’s more.”

  “Of course there is. This is you we’re talking about.”

  “It infers shapes.”

  “It does what?”

  “Well, all holes have shapes. Even hidden ones. If I can map the shape of the hole in three dimensions, and I can, then sonar can tell us what ship size and profile fits that shape.”

  “OK, you’ve convinced me. Install this contraption in your Chart House.”

  “Thank you, captain.”

  ‘If we make it to Calmari space the War Government can trade his blueprints for military aid. This could give us, or any allied navy, a huge advantage over the Kaigun.’

  Just in case Resolve didn’t finish the journey, and knowing how important this new tek might be, she gave a copy to Dylan Byers at the space dock and another to Captain Archambault.

  ‘So it’s on three of Alpha’s ships. If only one of us makes it out, the War Government will still have something to bargain to get more lethal aid than just five sanctuary moons.’

  Navies cling to the old ways, however much tek changes. No other service is so hide-bound. Émile likes most naval traditions, though he thinks there’s a problem getting past the hoariest ones. As a good amateur naval historian, he’s wryly amused that the service cleaves to shrieks, whistles, pings, clarions and shrill horns that would be familiar to an ancient mariner on a ship of wood-and-fighting-sail, turning hard to hold the weather gage with salt spray soaking face and clothes. Or to a sweating tarpaulin shoveling coal into a roaring furnace on a castle-of-steel holding a place in an Old Earth battle-line on a cold, gray and turbulent salt sea.

  But at first it was a puzzle to him that warships still used sounds for contact-notification and shift changes, over 2,000 years after acoustic devices were deployed on ancient salt seas.

  ‘Why do it?’

  Then he served on his first warship in a prewar exercise and learned it’s not because of stodgy conservatism. He experienced how useful sound still is. Some dusty research confirmed what every naval exercise still proved, that visuals are not enough. Sailors need to hear warnings as well as see vidscreen commands. Sound was shown to improve crew reaction speeds.

  So he rigged some of the old sounds to his sonar and now here he is, heading to a bohr-jump unimaginable to his seafaring forebears, waiting on translations of electromagnetic scans into audible pings and pips and high whistles that will warn of unseen enemy threats.

  ‘Just as they listened once for gray wolves beneath the waves, I’m listening for holes that aren’t holes made by ships sailing the whipping currents of an electric gale. I love it!’

  Before he can toss these archaic thoughts around and play with them in the back of his brain a sharp ping ... ping ... ping echoes across the Bridge. It’s coming from his sonar in the Chart House. Magda barely swivels her long, swan-like neck to look over to Émile’s station.

  “I’ve got something, captain. Four contacts. Looks like ... Yes, we’ve got enemy contacts dead ahead! They’re line abreast, right across our path to the LP. Narrow, straight ahead profile. That may be why it took the sonar so long to pick them up.”

  “They’re not on my screen or the Main Scuttle projection. What about other detectors?”

  “No ma’am, not picking them up yet on any other mass or light or motion or other standard detector. Those are all still out of range, even on max power and frequency.”

  “No KRN detection gear is working yet, but you have these images on your sonar?”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  “Impressive.”

  The air on the Bridge is cloying. Even this far removed from seeping bunks in nearby lazarets there’s a smell of pine tar and green wood. And too much paint in the corners of decks where it was hastily slopped by exhausted workers, to run in rivulets and collect in white pools.

  “But it’s not enough, Mr. Fontaine. Too much at stake. I need confirmations.”

  “Focusing all detectors on the sound holes, seeking confirmation.”

  “Let me know when you have...”

  “Confirmed. Four contacts identified by mass detection.”

  “What type?”

  “That’s not available on the standard gear ma’am.”

  “Stop boasting. What’s on your sonar?

  “Four frigates.”

  “Class?”

  “They’re Kölns, at least the sonar hole profiles say so.”

  “Let’s go with that, but keep working on standard confirmations.”

  “Got it! Confirmed by light detectors. Knowing where to point helps.”

  “Weapons Officer, your threat assessment.”

  “They’re missile sponges, ma’am, all four of them.”

  It’s a term of contempt coined when KRN destroyers enjoyed dramatic success with stand-off torpedoes against 16 Köln class frigates in the opening hours of the naval battle for the Genèven inner moons. It was the only KRN success in the ship-to-ship naval war before Alpha sent the heavy cruiser Magni crashing into Southland and badly hurt Baldr and Loki.

  Three days later the main KRN fleet was wiped out in the Kaigun’s Genève Obliteration operation. That’s when Captain Aklyan was forced to lead a handful of surviving small escorts tearing down to Toruń, forcing down two liners along the way that now serve as her troopships.

  It was Émile’s idea that destroyed the Kölns in the battle around the moons. The frigates were deployed too far forward by an inexperienced shōshō, going by-the-book as he always did in screening his capital ships with frigates. Émile proved the frigates needed more protection than they provided, once they strayed too far from their attached battleship’s long-range gunnery.

  They died from too eagerly chasing three destroyers that suddenly appeared from behind the smallest moon, led by Resolve at Émile’s urging. Nine frigates were wreaked by a swarm of missiles from the rest of Aklyan’s destroyer squadron still hidden behind the second moon.

  After that embarrassment, Kaigun High Command on Kestino ordered all Köln class frigates off capital ship escort duty, for use exclusively as couriers or as routine picket ships. Hence, the four at the outer L2, guarding the least likely point of system egress by Alpha.

  “Missile sponges? We’ll see about that.” Magda replies. “Maybe their captains have learned, as ours have. Let’s not take them too lightly. They can still shoot back, and we’ll be running so fast our missiles won’t be as accurate as that fine day lee of the inner moons.”

  “No, ma’am.” It’s the Weapons Officer. “We’ll need lasers in a close pass-by this time.”

  “Exactly. And remember, just one solid hit on Warsaw or Jutlandia and it won’t matter if we knock out all four enemy frigates. If I was their skipper, I’d make that trade.”

  “You’re right, ma’am. Still, if we get a chance to put one d
own their throat ..?”

  “We’re not looking for a fight, Weps. We need to get past them, not take them out to prove something. They outnumber us four-to-three in warships. Two of ours are frigates, too, if a tad newer than their Kölns. I worry most about the liners, umm, I mean our troopships.”

  “Yes, ma’am. We’re on true escort duty, not hunting.”

  “Good. Now, remind what a Köln carries? What’s its standard gun and missile array?”

  “It’s smaller and older than us but has good gunnage. Two-and-two medium barrels fore-and-aft, with 270˚ turret rotation. Two smaller batteries top-and-bottom, also 270˚ rotation. That means they can shoot in any lateral direction. All broadside guns are heavy lasers, ma’am. They have no plasma batteries. Small chase guns are mounted high, fore-and-aft. Light lasers only.”

  “And missiles?”

  “One tube fore and another aft. They only carry four missiles per boat, two in each end. So they’re limited to one fish at a time, with only one reload on each tube. They can’t shoot a spread like newer model Kaigun frigates and destroyers. Or like us. They’ll have one shot each way. After that, relative velocity and their reload times should eliminate a second chance.”

  “Good to know. Thank you, Weps.”

  “Aye, captain.”

  “Mr. Fontaine, any phantoms out there? If so, tell me your sonar knows where they are.”

  “Nothing ma’am. At least, nothing showing on mass or light gear or passive sonar. That doesn’t mean they’re not there. They wouldn’t be phantoms if we could find them that easily.”

  “Keep the hidden mass detectors on and start pinging ahead with your active search. Yes, Mr. Fontaine, I was listening when you explained it. Just go active search, now. They already know we’re here, so we lose nothing by using it to look harder for any phantoms.”

  “Yes ma’am. Active sonar engaged. Active mass detectors, too.”

  Ping ... ping ... ping ... ping.

  There’s no mistaking it now. The presence of enemy warships waiting at the bohr-zone echoes around the Bridge. Several younger officers look nervous.

  “Mr. Fontaine, what marks this class? At the moons we simply pounced them. Give me something I can use here. Speed, handling, anything we can turn to our advantage.”

  “A moment please...”

  “Anyone else? Have we got performance specs from the moons? How does a Köln handle? What can’t they do that we might use against them? This isn’t going to be like before, when they were in screen formation at half-speed and out too far in front of their battleships.”

  “No ma’am, it won’t. I’m pulling prewar specs on speed and handling .... wait. They’re walty, ma’am! A secret Special Branch report says they handle poorly in hard turns.”

  “SB confirmed that? Must’ve had a spy at a Kaigun war game. Interesting.”

  Fontaine’s instinctive tactical mind kicks in immediately. “That’s probably why they’re holding line abreast, simply blocking our way. I wondered why they chose that formation. They need Alpha to try to barge straight through their line, ‘cause they don’t think they can dogfight with us or catch us in an all-out chase. We should go around instead, do what they don’t want.”

  “Won’t any move around them expose us to broadside fire as we make the maneuver, especially the two troopships? Why not barge ahead instead? It’s a lot faster, then we’re by.”

  She’s testing him, willing him to confirm her own tactical judgment.

  “Yes ma’am, going around will expose Alpha as you say. But a dash straight to the L2 will expose us even more, especially the troopships. Even the fighting ships will take less fire than if we try to knock out all four Kölns directly, then run the troopships past the wreckage.”

  “Yes. I agree that any prow-to-prow fight’s much too risky to our weakest ships.”

  “We can’t swing too wide to outrun them, either. It’ll take too long. They’ve just got to stay near the LP and wait for us to zero back. We don’t know if Captain Archambault stopped or just delayed the eight Zs that were chasing us on the windward side, or for how long.”

  “Agreed XO. Continue the tactical analysis.”

  “One or five or all eight chasing Zs might come around Wasp’s horizon any moment. If we’re in the middle of a fight out here with the frigates, Warsaw and Jutlandia will be naked to any Zs attacking us aft. Just one Z that arrives in time would be fatal to our whole mission. We can brook no delay in getting past the four Köln pickets ahead. We have to go around, yes, but in the tightest curve possible, shooting all the way then accelerating right into a bohr-jump.”

  “Sound tactical analysis, XO. Again, I agree.”

  ‘It’s bloody brilliant, actually. No other officer, including me, would ever suggest it.’

  The praise doesn’t register with Émile. He’s too intent on resolution of the tactical problem. He looks up, suddenly highly confident in his conclusion.

  “They’re really walty ma’am!”

  “Yes, so you said.”

  “But ma’am, it means they can’t handle tight battle maneuvers as well as a straight-up gunfight. That’s what they want, for us to just stand and shoot-it-out. That’s why they’re holding in blocking position, not moving toward us although they see us. They’ll wait for us in front of the L2.”

  “Any ideas on how we frustrate that hope, assuming you’re right?”

  “Yes, I think so. Don’t slow to maximize weps and theirs will be sub-optimal, too, given relativity effects. Like you said, we’re not here to fight. We should avoid any jousting with their firing line. It’s a shoot-and-scoot then run like hell problem, captain.”

  “Alright, I accept that. Now, how do we avoid their firing line?”

  One of Magda’s truly great virtues as a group commander is that she’s not afraid to ask for advice, or to take it from other captains or even inferior officers. She doesn’t worry about appearances or reputation, just how to get the job at hand done. It’s the main reason General Amiya Constance put her in charge of the Alpha run, above two much more senior captains, Archambault and Tiva. Still, neither Constance nor Aklyan know how good she’ll be at the job once in combat. It’s her first time in charge of a whole flotilla. Except for three destroyers she led as decoys to lure out the frigate screen at the Genève moons. Hers was the only destroyer group to make it back to Toruń intact three days later. Does that count? Constance thought so.

  “Well, XO? I’m listening.”

  “We use our speed, but with an interior not an exterior move. I recommend a short ‘S’ to pull around their flank. Given their rounded gunnery, it doesn’t matter which, port or starboard, up or down. Pick one. Once we pass, we head straight into a hot jump as soon as we hit the rim of the L2 oval and quantum-lock on our destination system.”

  “That sounds like quite a challenge.”

  “Navigation can read and fix the right bohr-coordinates while we make the approach.”

  ‘Navigation. That’s him. The young man’s confident, and he’s right. Just as he was at the lunar fight. He predicted that we could pot those Kölns by standing-off in the umbra, hidden and beyond the long-arm reach of the battleships and cruisers. Showed how we could use our missiles to take out the screen that went for Resolve and the other two decoys, without exposing the rest of our destroyer squadron to the heavy weapons of the capital ships. Now he says firing stand-off missiles is exactly the wrong thing to do. That we should move in close to the enemy as we fly past, and bet everything on our speed and laser gunnery. And I’m going to listen to him.’

  “You’ve convinced me. Let’s make it happen. Relay formation and maneuver vectors to all ships as soon as you have them ready.” She opens the Bridge-to-Bridge link.

  “I want all warship flankers to pull in real tight to Resolve. Orders en route, Formation Bodkin, troopships in behind. I want max protect on the troopships as we enter and come out of the S-turns. Your gunners will be shooting as we move. Tell them to aim for
enemy stardrives, exclusively. We don’t need to make kill shots, so don’t even try. Just slow those old boys down, prevent pursuit of Alpha after the jump. Once we’re through they won’t know where we went.” She’s certain of that at least.

  “Alpha will key on Resolve’s nav-coordinates. We’ll jump hot, so test your quantum-dyogram links now.” Navigators on all five ships run standard pre-jump tests of the nav-links tying all ships into Resolve’s quantum-drive. Then run them again. Resolve’s Navigation Officer takes on this duty, leaving Émile free to plot the bohr-jump for the whole squadron.