Nebula

by Howard Marsh

  Now that the enemy would be adapting in real time to the situation, the defenders would no longer be assured of knowing exactly how to respond and the upcoming battles would no longer be so heavily weighted in favor of Nebula. Everyone knew this, especially the eight AFO members and the five special operations soldiers who would have to face alien soldiers on the surface of Mars, probably unsupported by heavy artillery or fighters sent from Nebula.

  “OK,” Brad began. “This isn’t the end of the world. We expected losses in combat. That’s what we’re trained to accept. Up to now, we’ve been lucky. We never thought that the first big battle would go as well as it did, and I guess that our mindsets were that this would be easy and that the biological warfare would kick in before we got into any real trouble. But we were prepared to take some losses, so we need to get back to the business at hand and learn from what happened but not dwell on it. Our job is to try to delay the aliens as long as we can. When they come here to set up their big guns, we need to prevent that from happening for as long as possible. Once they do get set up, they’ll be able to control a big region around Mars, and they’d be able to assemble all the firepower that they need to advance toward Earth. We don’t know how long it will take for the viruses to do their job, so we need to be prepared to fight and survive for a long time, on our own and with no support and no way to evacuate. This isn’t necessarily a suicide mission, but it won’t be easy. Some or all of us may not make it, but whatever the case, it’s up to us to do whatever we can to protect Earth. Understood?”

  The other twelve all nodded their agreement. The seven AFO scientists looked a lot grimmer than the special operations soldiers, but none of the twelve looked particularly at ease or confident.

  “So, let’s start to assess the situation and develop some plans,” Brad continued. “Major Napolitano, let’s have your thoughts.”

  Lucia Napolitano was the officer in charge of the five-soldier team. Brendan Haverford had picked her personally and told Brad that she and the other four were the best that he had and had worked together for several years. This was their first combat against real, live aliens, but they’d been through many simulations of direct combat on Mars and Titan, and they were extremely proficient with both alien weapons and the kinetic weapons that were more mainstream on Earth.

  “Thank you sir,” she began. “First off, just call me Lu. We tend to use one-syllable words whenever we can. It speeds things up. We’re also pretty informal regarding rank and things like that. Let me introduce my team.”

  She pointed to a small but muscular-looking man. “This is Lieutenant Avery Chang. He goes by the name of Ave. He handles our rocket propelled ordnance and is our radio man and my second in command. He’s also an expert in small arms and alien x-ray machine guns. All of us are also experts in those weapons and carry them.”

  Next she pointed to a woman who was about the size of Ave but didn’t appear as strong. “Sergeant Sally Jones – we call her Sal – is an expert with the arrow gun. It’s a six shooter, with six barrels loaded with composite arrows that are launched by an electromagnetic wave. The barrels rotate across the electromagnetic generator like the chambers on one of those old fashioned revolver pistols. It’s silent and very lethal. Sal can split an apple in two from more than fifty meters on Earth, and probably further here on Mars.

  “This is Sergeant Bobby Sturgeon, Bob for short. He’s a jack of all trades, but mainly provides cover fire for the others. Bob’s our best marksman with a rifle, x-ray gun, and arrow gun and handles the sniper duty. Last but not least is Sergeant George Olden, code named Ogre. It’s two-syllables, but it fits him so we let it pass. Ogre’s our scout and is skilled at sneaking up and dispatching his target without a sound. When he goes out front, Bob provides cover fire for him, but that’s usually not needed. He’s also our expert on cover, camouflage, and deception. When he wants to hide something, he’s so good that the best scouts have a hard time finding it without some hints. Ogre is good at his job. We’re all good at our jobs.”

  “Good to meet all of you,” Brad replied. Then he introduced his team and their specialties. “I’m not sure how much help we’ll be to you when the fighting starts. My team is a bunch of scientists without any combat experience except for that first fight with the aliens at the base. But we do know how to use the weapons, and we also have control of some robots that the aliens think are their own. When the time comes, we’ll do everything that we can to help you. For now, I’ll continue to take charge of the planning and preparations, but when it’s time to fight, I want to turn over tactical control to you. I won’t get in your way, OK?”

  “Understood,” Lu replied. “I appreciate that Colonel. Just tell me when.”

  “OK,” Brad continued. “Let’s settle in and get down to the planning. Colonel Haverford will launch his counterattack as soon as the battle group reassembles for its move toward Mars, and we have to be ready. Get whatever you want to drink or eat, and be back here in five minutes.”

  As they were breaking, Lu went over to Brad. “I want to send Ogre out to see if he can improve on our concealment. It looked pretty good, but he’s the expert, and he’ll make us just about invisible. Sal and Bob will also need to go out and calibrate the arrow guns for the gravity and air density here. We can fill them in on the plans when they get back.”

  Brad nodded his OK, and Lu motioned to the three of them to get busy. No words were exchanged, just a few gestures back and forth, and the three soldiers left to get into their suits and do the work outside.

  *

  The counterattack was launched as soon as the alien ships began to reform at their assembly area just outside the asteroid belt. As expected, the slow torpedoes from the nations were destroyed well before they reached the target area, but the blasts caused enough disruption in nearby space that the gravity bow waves from Nebula’s small runabouts with the thermonuclear mines were obscured and not detected by the sensors until the runabouts were within a few light seconds from their targets. Two of them were destroyed by the aliens’ defensive weapons, but the other three were able to penetrate the alien defenses, aiming directly for the battleship and the other big ships nearby. Their thermonuclear mines detonated while they were still at near light speed and destroyed the battleship and one heavy cruiser stationed close to it. Six fighters and fifteen robot ships near the battleship were also blown to pieces. Other ships in the battle group were damaged to varying degrees, but they were still able to fight as Haverford prepared to begin the artillery barrage.

  Haverford was in one of the fighters that accompanied the artillery ships. When they first dropped from near light speed, he was unaware of the damage that the torpedoes had done, so he acted on the assumption that the battleship might still be operational. He kept his weakly shielded transports with the plasma cannons well out of range of the battleship’s big guns. He moved his twenty five fighters and Milo’s alien fighter with the EMP cannon closer to the alien battle group but still far enough away to survive fire from the battleship. Then he sent two of the fighters forward to assess the damage.

  The damage assessment came one minute later. “Our torpedoes took out the battleship and one of the heavy cruisers. They’re blown to pieces. It looks like we got some of the fighters and robots too. There’s a lot of debris, pieces of ships all over the place, but we didn’t get a count of what’s left. We started taking fire from two heavy cruisers before we got close enough and had to bug out. We’ll rejoin in about twenty seconds.”

  The report was what Haverford wanted to hear. His main worry had been the battleship. Now that he knew it was out of action, he could move his artillery closer and bring the entire enemy formation within range. Milo’s ship was moved in front of the other ships to keep the EMP discharge from damaging them. The transports with the plasma cannons were deployed off to the side, two of them on the right and the other on the left. Eight fighters were grouped near each of the transports to protect them and help them retreat if the
aliens launched an attack. It was doubtful that they’d do that, but Haverford didn’t want to take any chances. He needed to preserve those three ships and Milo’s EMP ship for a possible last ditch defense of Earth.

  On Haverford’s count, the barrage started, first with an EMP burst and one second later with the three long range plasma cannons. The EMP had minimal effect on the remaining cruisers since they all had shields at maximum, expecting a follow-up to the torpedoes. But it still disrupted their combat systems for several seconds and caused confusion among the ships that were trying to recover from the torpedo attack. The fighters and robot ships had weaker shields and fared worse than the cruisers. They had to retreat to a safe distance from Nebula’s artillery until they could restart their combat systems and reload all the tactical data that had been corrupted by the EMP that had leaked through the shields.

  Now that Nebula had played its hand, the enemy knew what they were up against and where the major threats were, and they were skilled in the tactics of space war. They adapted almost immediately, and dispersed their heaviest ships to avoid losing all of them in another artillery barrage. But they didn’t just retreat. They still had two heavy cruisers and three light cruisers that were fit for battle, and they sent them at near light speed in a flanking maneuver, one heavy cruiser on each flank, accompanied by the remaining light cruisers. The fighters and robot ships remained in the center and charged at half light speed toward Nebula’s force. They would be sacrificed if necessary while they occupied the attention of Haverford’s fighters that had to defend the lightly shielded artillery ships.

  But Haverford expected something like this and was prepared to meet the flanking maneuver, not just to focus on the central attack. “Group three and five, take the left flank,” he commanded. “We’ve got one heavy and two lights coming in and we need to keep them away from the transports. Group two and four, you’ve got the right flank. There’s another heavy and light for you to deal with. Use the hit-and-run maneuvers that we’ve been practicing. I’ll have Milo fire EMP bursts and try to hit them, or get near enough, while they’re still coming around at high speed. My group will handle the center, with the help of the artillery ships. Be prepared to bug out if things start to collapse. I’ll send the artillery back, out of range of any ships that are getting close. Good luck.”

  Harry was able to watch the battle in excruciating detail through his link with Igor in the robot ship that accompanied the five fighters in Haverford’s group. He knew everything that was happening, and he could even see the battle damage as it occurred on all the alien ships. He could see that the EMP bursts that Milo fired at both flanks did a bit of good but didn’t fully blunt the attack. The electromagnetic disruptions mainly caused the aliens to slow down for several seconds, and Harry was able to give the defending fighters and the artillery ships good data for firing to intercept the cruisers as they moved forward.

  The heavy cruisers on each flank were hit pretty hard but could continue fighting until a second burst from the artillery destroyed the one on the right flank and a third burst damaged the one on the left flank sufficiently to cause it to drop out of the attack. On the left and right flanks, the light cruisers continued their attacks, now directing heavy fire at the fighters that were approaching. They maneuvered erratically at high speed to try to evade fire from Nebula’s artillery ships, and this reduced the accuracy of the fire that they could return on the fighters.

  While the battle on the flanks was happening, Haverford’s fighters and Igor’s robot ships were starting their defense against the mass of alien fighters and robot ships coming directly at them. Fortunately, they still had Milo to support them with his EMP gun, and one of the plasma cannons also coordinated fire with Milo and hit them as they suffered disruption of their combat system computers. The alien fighters realized that the flanking maneuver was going badly and that the long range artillery would cut them down before they closed to a range where they could begin to fire, so they turned back and left the battle for the robots.

  The robots would be sacrificed in a last attempt to get at Nebula’s artillery ships. The battle group had started with sixty robot ships, but by this time only thirty five were left. That was still a lot more than the five fighters, one robot ship, and Milo’s fighter that Haverford had. And the robot pilots were extremely adept at high speed maneuvers, far more capable than human or alien pilots since they were designed specifically for this purpose.

  Harry could see that Haverford would have a difficult time dealing with the robot ships that were maneuvering at very high speed and moving away from the direct path to their targets. They were creating a three dimensional flanking maneuver, dispersing and expanding away from the direct path in a cone shaped formation. It was as if Harry was part of the robots coordinating their maneuver. They were now close enough to him and Igor that the time delays due to the speed of light were almost unimportant. He knew every detail of their plan, and he needed to warn Haverford.

  “Brendan,” Harry shouted into the tactical communication microphone. “The robots are doing a cone shaped flanking maneuver. They plan to get behind you and come in from the rear. The plasma guns can’t get them all before they get close enough to be able to use their own guns against our ships. They’re too dispersed. You need to get out of there before they start to fire.”

  “Roger. We’ll have to back up so that they converge in front of us. Do you have the coordinates that they’re converging on?”

  “Back up about five light seconds, and you should be in a good position. But do it fast. They’re coming in at about point nine, and they’ll start to converge in about eight seconds. Have the plasma guns aimed and ready to fire at a position one half light second behind your current position. Make it a spread of about ten thousand kilometers and you should hit most of them.”

  “OK. Thanks.”

  With the artillery redirected to deal with the kamikaze charge of the robots, the remaining defense on the left and right flanks was left completely to fighter groups two, three, four, and five. Five of the Nebula fighters had already been hit by alien fire, three of them totally destroyed and the other two damaged too heavily to continue to fight. The remaining fifteen had to deal with the light cruisers on their own until the artillery could get back to help them. They’d have been blown to pieces if it weren’t for the help that they received from Milo and his EMP gun. Milo couldn’t take part in the central defense since any EMP fire in that region would be too close to Nebula’s ships, so he was free to focus on the cruisers on the left and right flanks. Harry’s information on the precise locations and movements of the cruisers allowed Milo to plan his fire to have maximum effect in the region of space where he expected the cruisers to be, without having too bad an effect on the Nebula fighters.

  The fighter groups coordinated with Milo to keep far enough away from the line of fire to avoid anything more than momentary flicker when the EMP gun went off. The alien cruisers weren’t as lucky, and the fighters were able to charge right behind the traveling electromagnetic burst and hit them at close range with their plasma and x-ray guns.

  The battles on the flanks went on for about thirty seconds, before the fighters and EMP cannon finally took their toll on the alien ships. The cruisers and the few other remaining alien ships had to withdraw from the battle. They turned back and retreated as fast as they could go to get out of range of the long range plasma guns. But with the damage to their systems, they could only muster about half light speed, and they couldn’t outrun the plasma bursts. Several of them were hit again before they could get far enough away. Only one heavy cruiser and one light cruiser managed to get out of range and limp back to the alien fleet. Nebula’s fighters didn’t pursue them since a wounded cruiser could still be a formidable foe, especially when out of range of Nebula’s artillery ships. Nebula suffered losses too, but it was a lot better than had been expected.

  Haverford’s five fighters that had remained with the artillery ships now had to
contend with the thirty five robot ships converging to where they thought that they could attack from behind. These were seasoned pilots, as good as they come, but they still sat nervously for the final few seconds before the shooting started. Even Haverford was tense, but he knew that the first shots would break the tension, and all the rest would be just reflex and drilled-in procedures.

  As they prepared for battle, Haverford sent a message to the twenty five fighters waiting on Deimos and Phobos. He ordered them to remain hidden and ready to defend the artillery ships if he had to order them to retreat. They should escort them until they were out of danger and on their way back to Earth. Then the fighters should join the battle in the center, where he would be heavily outnumbered. He included a detailed data file with the precise locations of his forces in the center and on the flanks, plus the data on where the alien ships were expected to be. The fighters could get real time updates on the tactical data net and would be able to use their automated battle management systems to coordinate with the rest of the ships as they engaged the enemy.

  Harry was able to observe all of this as if he were actually there. His link to Igor allowed him to bounce from Igor to the robots that were coming in for the kill, and between his view from Igor’s brain and the other robots’ brains he had a very complete, sometimes confusing, picture of all the action. By this time, he’d been plugged into multiple robots so many times that he’d adapted to the multiple inputs and was actually able to make sense of the information coming in from so many different perspectives. He could filter down to just one or two at a time and select the ones that gave him the best view of the battle. The only complication was the varying time delays from robots at different distances from him, but he had enough experience with this that it wasn’t a problem.

  When the robots reached their chosen locations, they slowed to almost a full stop and began to fire into the empty space where the artillery ships had been before Haverford moved them back. At first they were confused when nothing was there, but they quickly adapted, much faster than humans or aliens would, and they realized that they had been led into an ambush. Before their sensors could locate the artillery ships in their new positions, the three plasma gunships were each able to fire one salvo. Unlike the EMP cannon, the plasma bursts were tightly focused to achieve maximum effect at maximum range. They couldn’t hit all the robots in the field of fire, only one with every shot.