Hawk Flight (Flight of the Hawk Book 3)

by Robert Little

  Kana carefully offered, “Sir, I’ve found a few references to cooling losses or restrictions in our radiators. Under combat conditions, the system is designed to mask our infrared radiation by using an internal heat sink, and there might be a problem that restricts our coolant flow more than the designers planned, thus limiting system power. As you know, they were originally capable of storing twenty minutes of excess coolant heat, running at full power. We can check the system, but we’ll need physical access to the actual radiators.”

  The commander simply asked, “How much time will that require?” Kana admitted, “Sir, at least six hours, possibly more, and the drive has to be down.”

  Commander Bharadwaj smiled, “I think you’ve found more than a ‘reference’. You have my tentative approval. I’ll want a full list of all the equipment, test gear and ship resources you’ll need. We’re due to dock at Nasser C in a couple of days. Can you do your tests in dock?” Chief Dahl answered for Kana, “Sir, as long as we aren’t within, say, one hundred meters of a live drive system, we can.”

  The commander finally relented, “Put the proposal together. Meanwhile, I’ll put the two of you up for a commendation. That was good work, even if you failed to tell anyone.”

  The chief asked, “Sir, any survivors from the ship?” He shrugged, “Probably not, but we now know it was an ex federal destroyer. It was reported to have been salvaged forty years ago. As a guess, the report was premature by about forty years.”

  Chapter 12

  Lieutenant Junior Grade Shin Ho Lee, the Federal Cruiser Los Angeles

  Shin Ho reported to the bridge for his duty watch. He was finding service on the cruiser to be a mixed bag; the ship was shiny new, but it suffered from an assortment of teething problems. Additionally, the crew was much larger than those found on a destroyer, and not even close to being sorted out.

  As a JG, he was too junior to be the OoD, but the captain wanted him on the bridge during his own watch, where he could teach tactics, as well as the myriads of leadership skills that were still only taught one-on-one.

  The Los Angeles had a state-of-the-art CIC, or Combat Information Center, and when the captain wasn’t pushing Shin Ho to his limits, he had him running simulations.

  The captain wasn’t merely working over this one particular JG – he had a large crew, composed of mostly inexperienced officers and enlisted. His ship was the focus of a great deal of attention, and he knew that a large number of lives might depend on how well it performed. Those lives were not limited to his own ship – the Los Angeles was tasked with protecting the two carriers.

  His intelligence briefings had been a sobering experience: Nasser was reportedly the source of relatively huge amounts of bribes and payoffs to federal officials in numerous systems. This had been going on for decades, but in recent years the volume and scope of those frequently successful efforts had greatly increased. Nasser had launched a multi-pronged effort to eliminate the lingering restrictions that kept it from developing its own system defenses, and from leveraging it’s enormous population and manufacturing base back into the regional dominance it had enjoyed up until the last year of the civil war.

  The federal government had been slow to react to the surge of corruption, and had only managed to uncover a small percentage of what were believed to be hundreds of under-the-table payoffs to many dozens of federal officials.

  Nasser was making a move, but other than full independence, nobody seemed to know what else the system wanted to accomplish. It was a matter of long-standing federal law that that particular goal, whatever it might be, would be out of reach.

  Captain Adamczyk assumed that, no matter what else happened; at some point someone was going to try to kill him and his men and women.

  Attended by three destroyers, the carriers Bon Homme Richard and Vikramaditya boosted out of orbit. They were scheduled for outer system workups with the Los Angeles, which had been in the outer system for several weeks.

  Their deployment was nine months behind schedule, largely the fault of the Bon Homme Richard, which had suffered repeated problems with its’ drive and environmental systems. The Navy found it nearly impossible to repair the ancient equipment, and had eventually created a crash program to replace the outmoded drives. The program’s eventual yet costly success had led to speculation that other craft might be similarly updated. It had also led to investigations of corruption and/or ineptitude on the part of the service personnel responsible for major upgrades and repairs.

  Now, today, the hopefully rejuvenated Bon Homme Richard was accelerating out system, one hundred five thousand kilometers astern of its’ two escorts.

  It took the better part of thirty hours to reach the huge swatch of the system permanently reserved as a military reservation by the Federal Navy.

  The Bon Homme Richard began ejecting fighters, plus a quartet of Hawk Attack Craft. If the fighters were successful in finding and destroying the defenders, those attack craft would land troops on the target, a small proto planet roughly the size of Earth’s moon. Forty heavily armed and armored space-suited troops with high output energy weapons and the ability to navigate virtually like miniature space craft could do a lot of damage, certainly enough to render the base useless.

  Fleet R&D had developed a new version of the light missile, giving it a weapon with a little greater acceleration and range, but without any improvements in its’ seeker head, meaning that recent advances in fighter stealth systems resulted in a continuing slight advantage to the fighter.

  The Vikramaditya and the Los Angeles, plus one destroyer, were now on station in the area and had been designated as the defenders while the Bonnie Dick’s fighters were tasked with being the aggressors.

  The Vikramaditya held a mixture of current generation Dash 4 fighters, plus a handful of new Dash 5’s, which were smaller, more difficult to target and less able than their predecessors to sustain damage. Pilots who flew the craft called it The Turkey, and not with affection. It was measurably more nimble than its’ predecessor, but missiles were faster still, and the Dash 4 was able to survive energy strikes that either disabled or killed the new craft.

  To a pilot, missiles were potentially deadly, but you could see them coming, your systems might be able to spoof them; energy weapons were like magic – one moment your wingman was there, the next moment he was a drifting, lifeless hulk or an expanding cloud of plasma.

  The carrier was using the limited numbers of its newer fighters as outlying scouts, while keeping the slower Dash 4’s in close to the carrier. The Los Angeles drifted ten thousand kilometers away from the noisy Bonnie Dick, which was using its’ engines at minimum levels in an effort to mask it’s location.

  Despite being newly commissioned, the Los Angeles’ design was not particularly stealthy. For that reason, it was also running its’ engines no more than necessary to maintain position on the huge carrier. It was only using its’ passive sensors, while keeping its’ active systems on standby.

  The Los Angeles had the energy weapons of a heavy cruiser, a type not built since the civil war, and of course, not prior to that time. It had four missile launchers, but due to yet another vendor problem, it was currently limited to light missiles – the installed hardware was unable to handle the mass of the heavy missiles without breaking down.

  For these exercises, missiles weren’t going to be fired, and energy weapons were limited to ten percent of their rated output. Computers rated missile attacks and defenses on statistical data generated during the civil war.

  To a surprising extent, weapons and tactics had changed very little, although the Navy was now barely even a shadow of its’ former self.

  To a disturbing extent, that shadow was old and over-extended, but it had been sufficient, if barely, for well over a century.

  Until now.

  Now, there were reports of second generation destroyers that were supposed to have been scrapped decades earlier, and Navy Intelligence was picking up distressing hints that Nass
er – maybe – had a secret facility that was producing armed shuttles and possibly even jump-capable destroyers.

  The Navy had conducted sweeps of Nasser’s outer system, but after a month, it had managed to check out only a fraction of one percent of the near-planet sized objects in the system. The only practical way to find a hidden base was via tracking drive systems, which could not practically be masked or hidden.

  Chapter 13

  Acting on a request from his captain, Shin Ho conducted an odd search in the Los Angeles’ extensive database. He was looking for information on the ship’s namesakes, and thirty minutes into the task, he came upon a surprising find, a photo of two wet navy ships docked next to each other. One was the CA 135, the USS Los Angeles, a heavy cruiser in the mid twentieth century United States Navy, terrestrial version. The second ship was CVA-31, a carrier named the Bon Homme Richard.

  Intensely interested, Shin Ho discovered that the carrier housed a complement of eighty-two aircraft, nearly the same number as the current example. She had been built during Earth’s Second World War, had participated in numerous critical battles, and later fought in the Korean and Vietnam wars before being decommissioned after a mere twenty-five years of service. A further search led him to the conclusion that the reasons behind that decision had to do with the rapid change of technology. Much larger, nuclear fission powered ships were being built that were faster and only required refueling every twenty-five years.

  Shin Ho didn’t have the time to research all those wars, but he already knew that the 20th and 21st centuries were an extraordinarily tumultuous period of time during which humanity transitioned from a civilization based on the nation-state to a world federation. The similarities to that period and the present were striking.

  The Los Angeles was also commissioned during the same war. Its’ career was shorter and less distinguished than the Bon Homme Richard, in large part because its’ class of ship had become obsolete.

  Its’ name later appeared as the namesake for a new series of a very different type of vessel, a nuclear powered submarine. It was designed to attack other combatants and protect the huge carriers, a role similar to that of the current ship, the seventh to carry that name. The first was a tanker, and the second a lighter-than-air ship. Shin Ho had to perform additional research to determine exactly what that meant. The sixth Los Angeles was a former passenger ship that was converted into a cruiser. It was destroyed with all hands in a federal loss in the second year of the civil war. He came away somewhat bemused by the bewildering variety of designs and craft that had carried the same name.

  The Bon Homme Richard was only the third warship to carry that name. The first was an ancient sail vessel, given by the nation of France to the nascent United States of America, predecessor to the present United States of North America. It had fought a superior enemy vessel and eventually sank, but not before capturing the other ship. More than half of both crews died during the extended battle, and despite the loss, was considered a great victory against a far superior enemy. At least, that was how the Americans looked at it. Presumably, the English held a different view.

  Without being able to resort to anything other than his memory, Shin Ho gave his captain a verbal report. Captain Adamczyk asked, “Lieutenant, based on your research as well as your understanding of the current ship’s design and weapons, plus your hours in simulations, what is your opinion of her abilities?”

  Shin Ho knew that question was coming, and had thought a great deal about it. He said, “Sir, the Los Angeles is one of the most potent warships in human space, and within the parameters in which she was designed, ought to be able to defend her two carriers. That said, it is my opinion that four well-handled second generation destroyers could defeat her.”

  The captain promptly asked, “Four? Is it your opinion that this is a possibility that we ought to prepare for?” Shin Ho said, “Yes sir.”

  The captain cocked his head, “What is the basis for your prediction? Understand, Admiralty has not reached the same conclusion; reportedly, neither has Intelligence.”

  Shin Ho nodded respectfully, “Sir, this ship was avowedly designed with the singular purpose of defending carriers. It is therefore logical to conclude that someone in Admiralty thought a threat to our carriers existed. Additionally, the Défiance just recently destroyed a second gen destroyer that was reportedly scrapped forty years ago. We know that at least one enemy destroyer existed: I therefore believe that we must assume there are others, and prepare accordingly.”

  Captain Adamczyk promptly ordered, “You have forty-eight hours to prepare a briefing. I want to know how you would defend our two carriers, as well as this ship, against an attack by…four 2nd gen destroyers and, say, ten missile boats. Assume that the destroyers function to their design specifications, that the survival of the two carriers takes priority, and describe in detail what this command can do to improve it’s own survivability.”

  Shin Ho asked, “Sir, what about the destroyers in our command?” The captain smiled faintly, “What about them?” Shin Ho asked, “May I include them in my planning?” The captain asked, “Do their captains report to me?” Shin Ho said, “No sir.”

  Captain Adamczyk nodded, “That is your answer.”

  Shin Ho saluted – there were others present on the command deck, and after receiving permission, returned to the simulators. He liked this captain – he made him sweat, a condition he vastly preferred to bleeding.

  As it happened, he’d already been running simulations that were similar to what the captain ordered. He’d determined that if four destroyers were able to close to within light missile range - one hundred thousand kilometers - they could overwhelm the Los Angeles’ energy and missile defenses. Ten missile boats had a single yet powerful punch, and all by themselves could do serious to fatal damage to the ship if they were able to get close enough. Of course, the fighters aboard the carrier ought to be able to destroy the shuttles well outside of missile range.

  He felt that the key to survival lay with the two carriers’ fighters, which could extend the Los Angeles’ sensors by a factor of ten – if they were properly utilized or at least utilized. They had to find the enemy while it was still out of missile range, and then they had to bring enough force to bear to be able to stop or at least blunt the attack to the point that the Los Angeles could handle any leakers.

  He already concluded that the Bon Homme Richard’s fighters were going to win the exercise, which was due to commence in seventy-two hours.

  Shin Ho bunked with a JG, another citizen from Earth. His name was Jonkers van de Kaap, and he was from the Southern African Union. He was tall, slender, very dark and brilliant. The two officers had contrasting strengths, and while they were not ever going to be best buddies, Shin Ho learned a great deal from his association with the near genius.

  Jonkers knew so little about human interactions that Shin Ho frequently wondered how the man had even managed to get into the Academy, much less through five years. For the South African, close contact with the socially adept Shin Ho was equally beneficial.

  With Jonkers help, Shin Ho Lee was becoming very adept at simulators. The Los Angeles had a reasonably advanced system, something the dead simple and ancient destroyers uniformly lacked. This was only partially due to age – the cruiser was designed to operate in a group, and had the ability to be a flag vessel, meaning it had a better communications suite and the capacity to plan and coordinate battles.

  The Bonnie Dick, despite out massing the cruiser by a factor of five, lacked those abilities. The Vickie was a much newer ship and had been designed to be able to operate independently of a fleet or as a flagship, which for the duration of this exercise, it was.

  Shin Ho spent much of his time in CIC researching small action civil war battles, as well as the now very long period of not-quite peace that followed the war, something he had come to see as an inevitable result of humanity’s surge outward into space. Following the end of that war, colonization of
new systems had virtually ceased, and in fact, legal efforts persisted to ensure that no more natural ecosystems were destroyed and replaced with Earth-based life.

  Unfortunately, once a system was seeded, the effects were impossible to reverse. This had already happened on two different and highly illegal occasions, and although the seeding had been discovered and halted, it simply meant that the biological war between the two competing systems of life would last for thousands of years rather than a few dozens or more. As a result, there existed a growing controversy: some lobbied to finish the process while others argued that this would merely encourage further illegal acts.

  Chapter 14

  Shin Ho met with the Captain and his exec, a young lieutenant commander named Kirk, and three additional officers, one an intelligence specialist.

  He began, “I was given the task of assessing the ability of the Los Angeles to successfully defend the Bon Homme Richard against an assault by four destroyers, backed up by ten missile boats.

  I…” he was interrupted by the intelligence specialist, who asked, “I can understand why someone could hypothesize the existence of missile boats, but why four destroyers? Where did they come from?” He seemed exasperated that he was being forced to sit through a useless exercise.