“When will they be able to fire at us?” asked Dave.
“Less than 5 minutes” responded John.
Dave did the math. Five minutes till they fire. Another six to reach us makes 11 minutes. Less one to warp up. Less three to recover CAP, meant he had to decide in seven minutes whether to stand or warp away. ‘It’s doable’ he thought. He wanted to force the enemy to expend its missiles before he warped away. Then he could warp back and deal with them on more even terms.
He thought about standing but even with all his Lightnings out he could only fire 96 Javelins and they would be overwhelmed by the 200 plus enemy missiles he expected they would fire.
“Ivan, as soon as the enemy fires its missiles at us recover the CAP. Once they are in, warp up.”
“Aubrey, as soon as the enemy fires we’re going to warp back. I need to recover CAP and then I’ll give the word.”
“Roger that.”
Just over a minute later Crystal announced “Six leakers – four at Bogey 31 and 2 at 32.” Another minute went by. “Two hits on Bogey 31, none on 32. Bogey 31 is slowing.” The lagging Bogey 31 was hived from the rest of the group. The semi-transparent sphere around its icon, which depicted its effective missile range, could be seen moving slower than that of the others.
‘Damm it’ thought Dave. He would now have to wait longer before it would fire. The margin of error had narrowed.
“Six Phantom hits on Bogeys 33, 5 on 34 and 1 on 35” announced Crystal
“Enemy missiles away” announced John “Bogey 31 is yet to fire” he added.
“Sir we need to recover the CAP” advised Ivan.
“Wait” said Dave.
Ivan was tapping his workstation nervously. Thirty seconds went by. “Sir we must recover now.”
“Do it” said Dave annoyed. Sure enough Bogey 31 did not fire its missiles. “Damm it” said Dave out loud, his frustration clear to all. Ivan took charge and ordered Li to recover the CAP and advised Aubrey to prepare to warp.
“Four minutes to ETA of incoming enemy missiles” announced John.
“Three minutes to ETA of incoming enemy missiles” announced John.
“Two minutes to ETA of incoming enemy missiles” announced John.
The holo still showed Lima Charlie 3 outside the Resolute. “What’s happening to the recovery Li” hailed Dave in an annoyed manner.
“Final approach now Sir. Be on board directly.”
“One minute to ETA…” announced John.
But he was drowned out by Dave’s command “Prepare to warp.”
Lima Charlie 3 was still hovering above the hangar floor when the doors closed. It bounced down hard and the hangar crew ran to secure its footings. The pilot’ strain showed on his face as he climbed down onto the floor. Li ushered him to sit down.
“Thirty seconds to impact” announced John.
“Warp in 5, 4, 3, 2 warp” called out Ivan.
Chapter 14. Resolute to Chelora 7 1030, 29 June
Dave was annoyed as he made his way to the aft elevator and began the descent to F deck. It was going to be so much harder now to achieve victory with Bogey 31 still in possession of most of its missiles. He knew that was down to bad luck but he was annoyed nonetheless. He was also annoyed that the ship’s safety had been put in peril due to sloppy recovery work on the part of the pilot of Lima Charlie Three.
Part of him wanted to yell the crap out of him. Thankfully he had the elevator to himself and no one was there to see how heated he had become.
When he walked into Li’s office, which also served as the control centre for the fighter squadron, Li apologised “I’m sorry Sir.”
“We can’t afford to have that happen ever again” said Dave in a loud voice that was getting louder. “That pilot was this close to being left behind. Do you understand Li. I don’t have a choice. I cannot jeopardise this ship for one pilot. You make sure that they understand that. Three minutes is what we agreed for recovery is it not?”
“Yes Sir that’s right” said Li hoping his softer tone would help calm down his boss. But it hadn’t.
“Well you tell them that they had better switch on or they will be left behind.” Dave turned to head back out and saw all the pilots and crew were standing out in the hangar listening to his little tirade. He stormed out and the bodies parted out of his way. He never looked back.
As the elevator rose back up he stomped his foot on the floor. He was annoyed at himself for losing control back there. He was taking out his frustration on his subordinates. ‘Never a good thing’ he said to himself. ‘Get a grip Dave. You need to think clearly. How are you going to tackle this enemy?’
Ivan was waiting for Dave back outside his office on A deck. He was concerned. He had seen Dave angry before but not quite like this. As Dave approached he was grateful that Dave appeared less heated. “Are you all right Sir?” he asked.
“Yeah, yeah I just… got annoyed. I balled out Li. I shouldn’t have. It’s not really his fault.”
“Lima Charlie Three was late.”
“Yeah he was. OK what are we going to do to defeat these ships?”
“How about we put our heads together in the briefing room.”
“OK get ‘em in.”
Ten minutes later it was Crystal who had the answer. “So we warp back in. We beam Bogey 31. Phantom beams Bogey 32 and the fighters take out the enemy frigates. Simple really” she added with a matter of fact smile.
“What’s to stop the enemy from decimating our fighters?” asked Chase. “Even without the two enemy caps, three frigates is a big ask of twelve fighters.”
“Three frigates with a full load of missiles yes” said Crystal “but these suckers have just shot their bolts. I estimate they will only have maybe ten or at most twenty missiles each.”
“They could be rearming right now for all we know” chimed in Jasmin.
“They could but even with fifty or sixty missiles our fighter will have to expend every missile they have in defence” countered Chase. “They will then have to recover, rearm and relaunch to press home the attack. You can bet the enemy ships will use that time to warp away.”
“Is that so bad?” asked Jasmin.
“Where looking to destroy them all, remember” said Chase, a little annoyed.
Ivan shook his head at Chase. “There was no need for that put down.”
Chase gave an exasperated expression “OK sorry. But the aim is to destroy the lot, right?” he asked Dave in real earnest.
Dave nodded.
“We could just warp in, beam and warp out again. Rinse and repeat till no enemy left” said Ivan.
“The trouble with the beam only attack is you end up close to the enemy” said Crystal “and any nearby ships will get a strike at you before you can warp away. The risk is worse the first time and lessons with each subsequent attack.”
“That’s right” said John. “We could use the remaining missiles on the Phantom and leave the ground defences to the fighters or wait till the follow up arrives day after tomorrow. There not going to go anywhere and as long as we stay out of range they aren’t going to bother us.”
Dave looked across at John and smiled “not bad.”
John smiled immediately and looked up at Crystal, who had been standing. He held out his hands upturned waiting for her to acknowledge him.
“Not bad for a rookie” she finally said with just a hint of a smile.
“Anyone got a better plan?” asked Dave
No one spoke up. “OK, I’ll discuss this with LCmd Bellard when we come out of warp. We’ll then finalise the plan and warp back in.”
Chapter 15. Resolute over Chelora 7 1545, 29 June
“So what do you think Aubrey?” asked Dave.
“I can’t think of anything better. But gee it leaves us up ship creek without a paddle if we mess up either of the beam attacks. How are we going to coordinate them?”
“It will have to be on a time basis just as before.”
“Yeah
but they could be spread out all over the place. They could be tens of thousands of clicks apart.”
“I know so we need to warp back in and allow enough time for a long approach. Twenty minutes should do it.”
“So even if Bogey 31 is closer I still go for 32?”
“Correct.”
“And if anything goes wrong we warp back here?”
“Yep.”
“And assuming we take ‘em all out, do we launch the fighters and hit the ground targets straight away. If so what’s our role during that phase?”
“I think it best to do some close scans before launching the fighters. At that stage we’ll be able to hail with no problems, provided we stay out of range of their ground based missiles. We’ll have time then to work up a plan.”
“Sounds good. What’s the HHour then?”
“It’s nearly 1600. Add five for the warp and another for repositioning. Make it 2200.”
“Long night then.”
“Not if we take them all out straight away.”
Aubrey looked at Dave as he massaged his forehead. She knew that sign. She could see he was anxious. “Well that’s what we’re going to do then. Let’s do it.”
Chapter 16. Washington DC 1600, 29 June
Julian Morrow stood outside the Chief Minister’s office arguing with Belinda. Despite his request for a meeting Malissa had not agreed to one. She had the energy minister in her office.
“She can’t see you now because she is seeing someone else Minister” said Belinda. “It’s that simple.” Belinda was starting to get very upset and all minister’s knew of her temper. Many feared it. But Julian Morrow was not one of them.
He placed both his hand on either side of her face. The touch took Belinda completely by surprise and for the first time that anyone could recall Belinda was lost for words.
“I knew you would see it my way” said Julian and he kissed her on the forehead. He quickly left Belinda standing with her mouth wide open in shock. He opened the door and barged in. “Excuse me but I must speak with you Malissa.”
Malissa gave him the foulest of looks. She did not know by what means he had got past Belinda but she could see that he was most agitated. She asked her energy minister to wait outside. As the door closed Malissa said “Don’t you ever do this again Julian. If this is about Resolution 7446 you are wasting your time.”
“Yes it is about that wretched resolution. You can’t act on it.”
“Yes I can Julian and yes I will as soon as the Fleet Admiral gets me the target list. We’ve been over this. You put your case to the full council but it was decided against you. You as a responsible minister have to accept the decision.”
“Or resign” said Julian.
Malissa stared into his eyes trying to gauge just how serious he was. Losing one Defence Minister in a war is unfortunate. Losing two in the same month could be devastating to her standing. She knew Julian knew this. But she wasn’t sure whether politics was his motive. There was a passion there and anxiety. “You need to think this over Julian. Don’t do anything rash! Let’s talk again tomorrow.” She looked at her diary. “Sixteeen hundred do?”
Julian nodded and left.
Chapter 17. Resolute over Chelora 2105, 29 June
“Two CAPS, Bogey 31 and 32, three lights Bogey 33, 34 and 35” announced John. “There in two groups. Bogeys 31 and 35 bearing 0040, down 20 range 12,000 to bogey 31, 14,000 to 35. Other group bearing 0400, down 15 range 26,000 to 32. The other frigates are within 1,000k of 32.”
“Fighters, four on CAP around 32” advised Crystal “Shit, where did they come from? Why didn’t they use them last time?”
Dave was nodding. He appreciated that this was a good ploy by the rogan commander. It complicated matters and it was a good deterrent against a beam attack, especially for the Phantom who was earmarked to beam Bogey 32. Dave cursed himself for not covering this contingency. It would be fine if the Resolute was targeting 32. He could then push out his own fighters to engage theirs.
No matter which way he looked at it the Phantom would be in peril. He cursed himself for being too ambitious. He should have stuck with the safe ploy of him calling the shot with the Phantom backing up.
“Hmm…” he said. “Li” he hailed “come up here now.”
“On my way.”
Li arrived puffing a little from his jog. He glanced at the holo and then at Dave. He too had seen the problem on his own display down on F deck. Nothing had changed while he was hoofing it here.
“Can you see my problem?” asked Dave.
“Yes Sir I can. Even if we send the entire squadron to escort the Phantom I doubt it will be enough. We’ll probably lose the lot, especially as they may have more fighters yet to deploy.”
“Fuck it” said Dave. He should have worked up a full list of contingencies. “This cloaking does have its drawbacks” he said in frustration. “If only we had a means of aborting the Phantom’s beam attack.”
“Sir” said Li “our target is 14,000 k closer. If we approach early, well before the Phantom does, and just before we fire, we signal the Phantom to abort. She won’t have to uncloak, just us. We beam 31 and warp away. We’ll still have to come back but we’ll have reduced their number and taken out the ship with the most missiles.”
Dave was thinking hard. “Anyone got a better idea.” He got no reply. “OK let’s do it. Thanks Li. Good suggestion. I’m sorry about before.”
“That’s alright. Glad to be of use.”
They waited largely in silence. The countdown timer ticked over above the holo. At 2145 Dave ordered James to waypoint 1 from where they would beam Bogey 31. They covered the distance in a minute.
“Chase get ready to send a task to the Phantom – 10 for 1 at Bogey 35. Send as soon as we fire.”
“On it.”
“Ivan the beam shot is yours.”
“Roger that.” Ivan was then in constant communication with James. James slowed down in the last thirty seconds. Ivan was watching the holo and in particular the semitransparent sphere around the Resolute that marked the range of its beam weapon. He waited a little to ensure a good overlap. “Fire.”
“Beam fired” advised John.
“Cloak deactivated” said Jasmin and then “Cyber attack initiated.”
“Phantom tasked” got in Chase.
“Scratch Bogey 31” announced John in an excited voice that drowned the others out. “Yee ha!”
On board the Phanton, Tola Puchanski had the watch. “What the hell?” she asked loudly on seeing the beam attack on Bogey 31. “They’ve attacked early.”
Aubrey’s mind was in overdrive. She knew that this was not a planned move. On warping in and seeing the dispositions she had been alerted to the danger posed by then enemy dispositions. She was expecting Dave to abort and warp back to Chelora 7. This was the consensus of her staff too.
Neo received the message in and announced “They want us to engage bogey 35.”
“Engage Bogey 35 twenty for one” ordered Aubrey. That left her with just ten missiles.
“Phantom firing” said Crsytal.
“Bogey 35 firing – ten missiles at us” announced John.
“Phantom firing again” announced Crystal “10 defensives.”
“Enemy missiles from Bogey 32, 33 and 34” advised John. Dave was craning to get the number. “Thirty from 32, 10 from each of the frigates.”
Dave gave a moment’s consideration to deploying his fighters but decided to err on the side of caution. “Warp away” he commanded. “Advise Phantom.”
“Bogey 35 hit….warping away” announced John. “One leaker from 35 Impact in fifteen.”
The close in beam defence system took care of it. “Taken down” confirmed John, with relief in his voice. “ETA for the others 30 seconds.”
“Warp in 5, 4, 3, 2 warp” announced Ivan.
There was a smile on Dave’s face. “Good work everyone” he said. “Now we need to work out how to destroy these last remainin
g ships without any ship missiles.”
Chapter 18. Resolute over Chelora 7 0700, 30 June
Dave had made a brief call to Aubrey when they arrived back at Chelora 7 just before 0300. They agreed to let everyone sleep and then setup a conference call between the command teams of each vessel at 0700. While Dave had grabbed some shut eye, he was still tired when his alarm had gone off. He entered the briefing room munching on some toast. Jasmin gave him the thumbs up. The video conference was ready to go. He could see Aubrey and her team in the Phantom’s command centre.
“Thank you Aubrey. You and your crew saved our bacon back there and we are very grateful” hailed Dave.
“Our pleasure Sir” she replied “but you do realise we don’t have any more missiles.”
Dave was pleasantly surprised that there was little latency but then he remembered they were only ten clicks away. “Yeah we know” said Dave. “We reckon each of the enemy ships has no more than ten missiles. What do you think?”
“Yes that would be our guess too. But Sir, let’s keep it simple stupid this time hey?”
“Agreed” said Dave with an embarrassed smile. “Here’s what we propose….”
After twenty minutes of discussion in which both crews chimed in Dave said “I think we’ve covered every contingency don’t you?”
“Everyone we can think of anyway” responded Aubrey. “But the golden rule is we take your lead.”
“It’s nice doing business with you Aubrey and with your crew.”
“Thank you Sir and my crew here are giving the thumbs up too. We’re ready to head back. What should be the HHour?”
“1330” said Dave. He smiled and added “unless I decide to go earlier.”
Chapter 19. Washington DC 0830, 30 June
Fleet Admiral Lisa McKew walked in to see the Chief Minister. She was tense. She accepted the offer of the seat and sat upright. Despite having rehearsed what she would say she lost her tongue.
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