Koban 6: Conflict and Empire

by Stephen W Bennett

  Chapter 2: Meglor

  Even after two days of discussing alternatives, Thad wasn’t sure using the ruse Tet had at Wendal would work again. “Maggi, they’ll be watching for ships in T-cubed travel that are masquerading as Thandol Crushers. That’s one reason Tet didn’t want us going to the capitol planet, aside from the shit we’d stir up if we did. We might not get a chance to test our gas filled ship defenses against Decoherence bombs, not if the test ships were hit with missiles, plasma, and laser fire the instant they White Out. They’ll see us coming, so pretending to be several Crushers won’t fool them again. There wouldn’t be three of them arriving at the docks without forewarning anyway.”

  “Not Crushers, lunk head. How about three Smashers? Those are only several times more massive than a single clanship, and Smashers are far more common. Four clanships at the corners of a smaller pyramid can leave similar trails in Tachyon Space, and with the ships I acquired several days ago from Poldark, we’ll have twelve ships to simulate three Smashers in formation, provided Sneaky Bastard is at one of the corners.”

  “That might work,” Sarge agreed. “Especially if we come in from the direction of an adjacent and deeper sector of Empire space, leaving a long back trail. Then they’d have no reason to think it was humans spoofing them again. We’d have to fly a long way around Meglor undetected to do that, probably several days of flying wide of Empire controlled space. Smasher class flights must be common in the Empire, so coming to a repair depot as a three-ship detachment from deep inside their space might look like a routine repair visit.”

  Thad conceded. “It’s worth a try, and we’re no worse off if they do figure out who we are, since they’ll see us coming no matter from which direction we arrive. At least that suggested track doesn’t lead back to any particular place in the Federation. Although, the instant we White Out they’ll know we represent the Federation. At least for the other eleven ships, that is. The Sneaky Bastard has a gamma ray suppression modification now, and with our better stealth, we’ll be able to safely observe the attacks and alter what we target, based on what we find there.”

  Maggi smacked her hands together enthusiastically. “So, Colonel Boss Man, when do we leave?”

  Greeves grinned and turned to walk out of the briefing room, “Everyone get your butts in gear, else your killer drones will launch without your lazy asses.”

  ****

  As a warhorse without a war these last two years, his wife dead and his youngest children independent, Thad was happy. They were about to strike back at the Empire, even if it was with a small force. On a surface examination, it was a vastly lighter attack force, compared to what the Empire had sent against the Federation colony world of Zanzibar Redoux. Only twelve ships were being used here, versus the four hundred fifty-four ships that the Empire’s Force Commander had used. That Empire fleet had essentially been forced to withdraw without taking possession of the Federation colony world. The only ships that touched down on the planet had done so as flaming wreckage.

  However, if a casualty count was considered a measure of success at Zanzibar, the Empire had won handily, because they killed or crippled twice as many Federation citizens as they lost in Ragnar combat forces. Greeves didn’t know this, but fortunately, for the Ragnar Force Commander, the Thandol did consider body counts of value, and Thond had inflated the counts of enemy killed.

  This retaliation attack wasn’t intended to kill civilians, but it had the potential to do damage to the Empire’s largest repair docks, to hit another one of their seven surviving giant Crusher class weapons platforms, and destroy more of the ships of the Ragnar fleet that had hit Zanzibar 2.

  “All hands. We exit in ten minutes. First priority is to start gathering target coordinates for the first six Nova bombs, which will hit targets on this side of Meglor. Alyson, Ethan, and Carson, it will take up to a minute for your drone AI’s to obtain the mass concentrations and locations, calculate the Jump coordinates and upload them into the Nova bombs. I want you to launch quickly at your targets, and then move to where you can slow down and directly engage that Crusher, to draw its fire.

  “Your gas-filled ships are what got this mission authorized in the first place. If possible, keep both Trap Fields filled with a Jump energy tachyon. If your drones survive multiple Decoherence bombs, use them as larger Nova bombs or simply as rams if you can’t Jump.

  “Before that happens, all the rest of you need to be firing missiles, lasers, and plasma bolts at anything you find worth your time, and keep your drones moving constantly. You can use Comtap to coordinate your combined fire if you wish. Once we collect data on Decoherence bomb strikes on the three test ships, that Crusher is dead meat any way we can get it done, thus poking a finger in the Empire’s eye again. But not like a goose in the ass, as one uncouth team member described it.”

  Sarge only sniffed at being called uncouth. It was hard to refute a self-evident trait.

  Greeves continued, “Let Grumpy help your drone AIs with target calculations as much as possible, and to relay them to your AI’s.” Grumpy was the name Sarge had given the Sneaky Bastard’s AI system.

  “The PU military doesn’t use a particularly high level AI on its shuttles, so they’ll need some help to operate a clanship. Stay focused, and be patient with how slowly your drones respond after you decide what to do, and the command has been sent to the drone. The AI interface with the Krall weapons and navigation controls are slower than we’re used to on our ships, even though the Prada tachyon communication devices are instantaneous, unjammable and untraceable. Those basic AI’s can’t work instantaneously.”

  He concluded. “Good hunting and good luck. Captain out.”

  He’d used a group Comtap link, because eight of the Kobani aboard the Bastard were scattered around the ship, partly as a precaution if the ship was hit, something they considered unlikely with their advanced stealth, but mostly so they could reload missile racks if Sarge found time late in the attack to fire on additional targets.

  There was only room for four people on the Olt’kitapi designed Bridge control console, which had been the number that the Krall had wanted. Human modifications there were mainly an advanced AI interface, and four acceleration couches. Thad would coordinate the overall attack from a com station, and control his own drone ship. Sarge would navigate the command ship and engage in limited fighting with missiles, and target his Nova.

  Ethan and Carson split control of the Bastard’s four heavy lasers, and its four plasma cannons between them, which were another set of weapons that should see limited use today. Firing anything from the stealthed Sneaky Bastard eliminated the Sneaky aspect of its given name. They too would each control a drone ship. None of them expected to do much firing from the command ship itself, since that cost them the advantage of their covert observation post.

  The other eight Kobani, posted near missile bays down below, were also linked to a drone ship AI, and unless Sarge fired missiles, they wouldn’t have any reloading of empty racks to do. The Thandol had stealth and detection systems that matched what the Krall had possessed, because the Thandol had made certain they had the equivalent capability the Olt’kitapi had provided to the Krall so long ago, to fight the enemy the Empire had expected to face eventually. The Thandol had taken pains to verify the Krall had never improved on that stealth system, and none of their own alien opponents had ever matched that capability.

  Absent a major war to push military technological developments, the Thandol had remained conservative in their acceptance of change, as was a common attitude of most successful, slow evolving space going species. Their trunks were about to be tweaked, yet again, by upstart humans.

  The Thandol knew the Federation possessed those former Krall clanships now, but until the fight at Zanzibar 2, no member of the Empire had any way of knowing the Federation had improved their stealth systems. It was a hard sale, by the Ragnar to the skeptical Thandol, that the same clanships operated by humans, seemed to be invisible in the el
ectromagnetic spectrum. It was dismissed as an excuse for their weak showing.

  The Emperor’s cousin was sent along on that attack as an observer, but he had zero military background, with his sole claim to that position being that he was a supportive noble of Emperor Farlol the 84th’s family. He’d naturally not noticed anything unusual, including the fact that his ship, a Smasher, had been disabled in the fight and he’d been deceptively moved to another Smasher without him even noticing. Not even the Ragnar had yet discovered the limited visibility of the Kobani ships at long wave radio frequencies.

  Today, the Sneaky Bastard’s raid could further complicate the Ragnar’s claim that they needed better detection systems, and better stealth of their own against human ships, because the eleven drones didn't have advanced stealth or gamma ray suppression. None of the pieces of Kobani ships destroyed at Zanzibar had been recovered by the Ragnar, which could have provided samples of the new stealth hull coating.

  Sarge’s ship was the only one of the flotilla today that would arrive without a White Out burst of gamma rays, so the Ragnar claim of Federation technological improvements easily could again be discounted by the conservative Thandol. They didn’t want to provide new technology to their secondary security forces, particularly of systems that Thandol ships didn’t already possess. Military technology updates moved at a glacial pace in the vast Empire, where innovations were suppressed and controlled by the dominant species.

  Thad linked for a final alert. “Not that any of you need this reminder, but White Out is in thirty seconds. Let’s hit them hard.”

  The exit points of all twelve ships were in an arc around a quarter of Meglor’s equator, at roughly five hundred fifty miles. This was calculated to place them less than twenty miles below two of the largest, of eight huge repair docks, and close to two of the smaller docks. It was possible that these weren’t the most desirable docks to attack first, but the flotilla’s arrival timing was calculated to place the largest docks directly between them and the massive Crusher orbiting above them at a thousand miles. The interfering mass of the docks and tethered ships should delay that giant ship’s acquisition of their mass centers, necessary for it to launch its Decoherence bombs accurately at the internal voids within the clanships.

  The two Ragnar prisoners captured at Zanzibar told them that the damaged ships of their former fleet, including the Thandol built Smashers they used, would be relegated to lesser docks, in an orbit nearly half way around the planet from the largest two Thandol used docks.

  Eleven bursts of gamma rays sprayed in all directions, accompanied in seconds by the first salvo of missiles, fired in the general direction of the four docks, with the intent of providing them guidance as soon as active sensor scans provided specifics within another few seconds.

  Carson let out a loud cowboy whoop on the Bridge. “Yee Haw! Ethan, look what we have on our dock. Stranglers being stored or still under construction.”

  Their two drone clanships were right below a ten-mile long dock, which had several dozen Strangler class ships attached on the planetary side of the dock, all of them double docked in what appeared to be storage positions, with construction under way on ten Smasher class ships they could see, being modified to become Stranglers. This required most of one peak of the pyramidal ships to be removed, and heavy ground attack and defense armament to be installed, along with the Debilitater projectors on the wide base side that remained. FC Gimtal Thond hadn’t convince the Thandol to work on improved stealth, but the value of Debilitater projectors mounted on new Stranglers was something they would approve.

  Ethan was quick to respond. “I’ll split them with you. I’ll do spinward. We’ll each need another missile salvo, unless we use our Novas.”

  Thad interjected. “Only one of you use a Nova on the dock itself, find another target for the other one.”

  Without waiting to hear which would do what, he linked to Maggi. “There are Smashers and Stompers on your dock Maggi. Nova the dock end closest to the Smashers, and use missiles for the Stompers at the other end.”

  “Teach me to suck eggs why don’t you?” She had already directed missiles to hit the troop transport Stompers, which would cause them less damage than the Nova was expected to cause on the several miles long dock structure, and incidentally to the more dangerous Smasher weapons platforms docked close to that end. Thandol troop landers were only used after a planet’s defenses were severely compromised by Smashers and Crushers, and even then, only after one of the other security forces had worked the planet over.

  Thad looked at Sarge, an eyebrow raised, knowing that he’d been linked in with him on the general Comtap circuit.

  Responding verbally to Greeves’ implied question, Sarge smirked, “I don't have any damned idea what she means by egg sucking. But I’ll bet it means she knew what to do, so kindly piss off.” Thad grinned, shook his head and shrugged. Maggi often used incomprehensible expressions that were from centuries past.

  Alyson spoke up excited. “I don't believe it. That Crusher we damaged at Wendal, when we destroyed the one over the Emperor’s palace, is right here undergoing repairs at the third spinward Thandol dock. That’s where my Nova is going, which will eliminate most of that four-mile long dock with it when it goes.”

  Three Novas now had declared assignments, and three more would go to some portion of the four repair docks in view on this side of the planet. The other six would be fired at the four docks around the curve of the planet. They would have to wait for the Bastard and drones to micro Jump there, to bring those docks into direct view. The small AIs used on the drone clanships, as Sarge had noted in an earlier complaint, “Can’t walk and chew at the same time.”

  The large amount of sensor data a clanship could generate, and that a Comtap and Kobani could receive and process, exceeded what those AI’s could receive and transmit while they were simultaneously targeting and firing weapons. All of the drone clanships were firing plasma bolts and heavy lasers at anything that moved, or looked like a promising target. That included less glamorous targets than warships, which were well armored against such weapons. They were striking infrastructure, such as space tugs, mobile repair platforms, personnel transports and habitats, and the heavy lifters from the planet below, where large structural components for the repairs were built and lifted to the docks. There were vital massive Jump engines and huge completed weapons pods, all shipped in from industries around the Empire and stored on the docks, awaiting installation on a variety of warship types.

  This target would only be a soft one this first time, just as Wendal had been, and they could do more to slow the Empire’s preparation for a large-scale war, here and now, than after hostilities escalated and they were more alert. A large Federation force of thousands of ships, or even as low as a few hundred, would have flagged itself as an obvious threat while still days away from Meglor, and it would have been met by a massive and significant defense. At this stage, the conflict was a sparring match, with each side feeling the other out, seeking vulnerabilities and testing strengths. The Kobani had found one of the soft underbellies in the Empire, and they were here to gut it.

  Alyson ended up with the privilege of launching the first Nova II in combat, because her drone had emerged so close to its target. She ordered the AI to use the coordinates of a mass concentration that might be a collection of fusion power plants, possibly a Jump engine, or the armor shell around the Crusher’s Bridge. In any case, the mass of a half-ton of metal emerging from Tachyon Space within other solid metal would result in an explosion equivalent to a tactical nuke.

  Her excited squeal of delight, as the ripple ‘of explosive forces worked their way out from the center of the equilateral giant ship, sounded grossly at variance with the massive death and violence she’d just inflicted on the enemy. Her husband would be hearing about her exploit for years.

  Oh, Joy! Was Carson’s sarcastic thought, as his relatively puny missiles started exploding inside the docked Stranglers. Even if
he and Ethan were justified in claiming the Stranglers were a greater risk to Koban, their destruction was visually less spectacular.

  To make it worse, Ethan had won at Rock, Paper, Scissors, and his Nova was erupting within the center of the same miles long dock, where a cluster of fusion power plants had been detected, providing a good high mass intersect target.

  Even Maggie’s Nova had hit home, within mass concentration of her assigned dock, and it was blasting away multiple tumbling Smashers, some of which had trajectories that might take them down to the fringes of the atmosphere, where drag would finish the destruction. The craft had far more than enough mass to survive the reentry, and they would cause massive damage if they struck anything of value on the surface of the heavily industrialized planet.

  Sergey had negotiated with Carol, and they had traded which docks they would hit, so he launched his Nova at the fourth dock on this side of Meglor, where smaller or midsized Thandol craft were docked, some of which appeared to be military cargo transports. Worth the destruction effort, but Carol had wanted a chance at the Ragnar ships when they micro Jumped near them. He wore a broad smile, but neither of them revealed what was offered to him to take the less prestigious target. The damaged Ragnar ships were a much-desired set of targets, and they would only partly be Carol’s to destroy. She’d have to split them with Thad, Bill and Fred Saber, Jorl, and with Bradley, who was Ethan’s younger brother.

  Carson had yet to launch his Nova at this first stop in the attack, and Thad reminded him to get busy. “Carson, I need your Nova gone, so we can move the three test drones out to where that Crusher can see them. It’s started to move, to get a better view of us.”

  A quick study of what was a good target, and he selected the end of the largest repair dock, which was still intact, where only missiles had hit docked ships. They constituted worthy targets, but somehow seemed less satisfying than what the others had hit. He launched.