by Dietmar Wehr
“Very good, Iceman. Was there anything else?”
“Negative, CAG. You can go back to sleep now. Iceman clear.”
* * *
Shiloh arrived at the Operations Center and found Howard already there. The main display was showing the strategic situation. A lot had apparently happened over the last 22 days. Sniper had sent back several message drones during that time. Three more motherships had arrived together at Beta1. The latest Mark 6 attack drone to be delivered there had crippled one of them. Unlike the previous attack, the other two motherships hadn’t left immediately. Instead they had launched hundreds of attack craft to sweep nearby space. When they hadn’t found anything, the motherships recovered them and headed off in different directions. None were following VLO #3. It seemed clear that they were on search missions.
The bad news was the message drone just arrived from Omega89. The F2 sent to bombard the Sogas colony there arrived to learn from the raiders monitoring the colony that a bug scout had taken a good look at the colony before leaving. Two days later VLO #3 arrived. The Sogas colony was overrun and decimated, just as in the old timeline. The plan to disguise the Sogas colony had failed.
Howard looked at Shiloh. “We have to assume that the Bugs recognize the Sogas colony as belonging to a spacefaring race and that reinforcements will show up soon. The plan to fool them was worth a try, but it obviously failed.”
Shiloh nodded. “I agree. We have to adjust our strategy now. I don’t think we should keep sending Mark 6s to Beta1. The transit times are so long, and we don’t know if the reinforcements will continue to show up there first or skip past it and move on to Sogas space directly. Since we only have enough platinum now for four more warheads, I want to keep them close at hand.”
“I’ll issue the directives. Any other thoughts, Shiloh?”
Shiloh stared at the display and thought hard. With the distances involved, it would be very easy to be caught by surprise and out of position. There were just too many star systems to monitor all the time, and if something did happen, the information might not make it back here fast enough to react to it in a timely manner. Somehow they had to shorten the time it took to receive information. Thirty-five days from Beta1 was way too long. Even ten days from Omega89 was a potential problem. A solution occurred to him.
“We should set up a forward command post in a star system close to the Sogas home world. All incoming message drones will be directed there. Our offensive forces will use it as a rally point and as a jumping off point when it’s time to deploy those assets.”
“A forward command post, eh? I can see the advantages, but what exactly did you have in mind?”
“I’ll take a task force there. It’ll have at least one carrier, a supply freighter or two, plus raiders as escort. I’d want Iceman along too. Between the two of us, we should be able to come up with the best responses to any bug move. I’ll send you regular updates, and we’ll have contingency plans in case we can’t stop them.”
“Where were you thinking of trying to stop them?” asked Howard.
“Omega54, the Sogas home world system. Since we can’t convince the Bugs that the Sogas are pre-spaceflight, we should try to convince them that the Sogas are responsible for the attacks at Beta1. Using multiple Mark 6s there might convince them of that. By the time we run out of Mark 6 warheads, we might have enough GLB cannon equipped raiders to keep them from overrunning that system and moving on.”
Howard nodded. “You do realize I hope that in order to convince the Bugs that the Sogas are responsible for the attacks, you’ll have to defend the Sogas home world as if it was Earth. That means your fighters and raiders will take losses.”
Shiloh sighed. “Understood, Sir. The challenge I’ll be faced with is figuring out when the extra time gained is no longer worth the losses needed to gain it. I won’t sacrifice them all for a few more days. We’re going to need them when the Bugs make it to Earth.”
“I don’t envy you that task, Shiloh. It’ll be a difficult tradeoff to make. What carrier do you want to take?”
Shiloh didn’t hesitate. “Midway. We’ll cram it with supplies for a long mission by taking less than its full complement of fighters. Now that I think about it, I don’t want any freighters tagging along. They’ll only slow me down.”
“What about cannon-equipped raiders?” asked Howard.
“I’d like to take all twelve that are ready now and bring the rest up to the rally point as they become available.” Shiloh was surprised when Howard shook his head.
“No. I can’t authorize that, Admiral. With all our Mark 6s sent forward, Earth would be absolutely defenseless against any surprise bug incursion if all the cannon-armed raiders were with you. We know that the old timeline is no longer in play, so we can’t be sure that the Bugs won’t leapfrog past the Sogas and find us while you’re still holding them at Omega54. I’ll let you take six now and one of every two additional raiders as they’re converted.”
Shiloh was tempted to argue that a half-hearted effort to defend Earth where it should be defended, namely around someone else’s planet, was bound to get half-assed results. The term ‘defeat in detail’ came to mind. He was just about to say so when he noticed that Howard had a strange look on his face. He seemed to be staring off into infinity. Is he…
“Are you having a vision, Admiral?” asked Shiloh.
Howard didn’t seem to hear him but suddenly blinked furiously and took in a deep breath. “So that’s what you’ve been experiencing,” he said.
“You’ve had a vision.” It was less a question than a statement.
Howard nodded. “I saw you tell me that it was a good thing I let you have all available cannon-armed raiders because you needed them at Omega54, and no bug ships showed up here up to that point. Okay, obviously we sent this vision back here now to persuade me to change my mind. Well, I’m persuaded. You take all the converted raiders. How soon can you be on your way, Shiloh?”
“That depends on how long it takes to load Midway with supplies, Sir. Iceman and I also have to figure out what instructions to send to all the monitoring raiders so that they send message drones to the right place. I’ll say 48 hours, but I’ll try to make it 24.”
“Very good. You let me know if you encounter any logistical delays, and I’ll kick some ass for you. Brief me when you and Iceman have all the details figured out.”
“Affirmative, Admiral.” Shiloh gave Howard a quick salute, which the CSO returned, and then left the room.
Chapter 23
The Flag Bridge on Midway was unnaturally quiet. Shiloh knew it was the tension of expectation. Iceman had received a very detailed vision pinpointing the exact time and coordinates of the arrival of VLO #3, which for purposes of identification was designated as Sierra1. Midway had taken up her planned position ten light seconds from the Sogas home world. Her complement of fighters were flying escort just in case they were attacked by bug attack craft, although the vision had not indicated any such event. Iceman was monitoring the com channels in his capacity as Shiloh’s Deputy Fleet Commander. Midway’s Helm and Tactical systems were under control of Stoney. 3rd Fleet’s other assets consisted of 12 cannon-armed raiders, with another 99 raiders armed only with their internal lasers. One additional raider also carried the sole Mark 6 attack drone that luck had made available to Shiloh before Sierra1 was due to show up. The raider force was under the command of Vandal.
He and Iceman had come to a consensus on how to handle the coming incursion. They would take a page from Casanova’s campaign several timelines back and use recon drones to pinpoint the exact point where the target would emerge from Jumpspace. They’d send that information back in time via the RTC, and then lay an ambush to hit the target with the Mark 6 warhead so fast that the Bugs wouldn’t have a chance to report back what was happening. Sierra1 would go ‘off the air’ and leave a big mystery for the Head Bug to deal with.
Shiloh checked the chronometer. There were seconds left before the target
arrived. Vandal would control the battle, and Shiloh and Iceman would find out the results 25 seconds after it happened. The countdown hit zero, then began to count up again. When it reached 25 seconds, the main display showed a bright flash that quickly died down.
“Right on time and on target, CAG. Vandal has pulled it off,” said Iceman.
“I never doubted it, Iceman. As long as we keep getting visions about incursions we can handle, we’ll keep giving the Bugs a bloody nose. It’s the surprise arrival of bug ships that I’m worried about. No vision means we can’t stop them here, and we’d have to pull back as planned.”
“Affirmative, CAG. Shall I call the RTC up to the Flag Bridge now so that we can send the information back?”
“Might as well get it done sooner rather than later, Iceman.”
No sooner had Iceman sent back the vision than he received the next one. Once again there were detailed time and space coordinates. Sierra2, as it would be designated, would arrive in ten days.
This one would be a little different. Iceman knew the timetable for production of Mark 6 warheads, and the next one would not be available that quickly. They would have to use the GLB cannon. The ambush was set up very carefully. Non-cannon-armed raiders would be arrayed in a 10 by10 matrix, curved slightly to give each one a good angle on the target coordinates. The cannon-armed raiders would be placed 90 degrees around to the side so that no raider was in danger of being hit by any other.
When the time came, Midway was once again at a safe distance. Vandal would command the ambush force. This time Midway was receiving enhanced video and tactical information directly from multiple raiders. Shiloh would still get the delayed data, due to the distance, but he’d be able to see the battle visually and up close.
This time the countdown was calibrated to take the light speed lag into account. When it hit zero, a sphere appeared on the Flag Bridge’s main display. Immediately there appeared dozens of bright pinpoint flashes. Laser hits from the 100 raiders. The status of all those raiders on the sidebar started to reflect enemy return fire as raider designations began turning from green to red. This had been anticipated. The non-cannon-armed raiders were performing their mission of distracting the Bugs, while the cannon raiders fired their GLB weapons as fast as the power charging cycles would allow.
The first GLB volley did not hit a power unit. That much was obvious from the fact that the ship didn’t explode immediately. The second volley was more successful. The explosion was quite violent and for Shiloh, very satisfying. It had taken four point three seconds to destroy Sierra2. The bad news was that 13 raiders had been destroyed too.
As soon as Iceman received all the necessary data, he sent the vision back and once again received the next one almost immediately. That confirmed a pattern. If future ambushes were successfully completed, Iceman would get the information very quickly. If he didn’t get a vision, then the next ambush was either a failure and the entire 3rd Fleet was destroyed before it could send a warning back, or the Fleet had been withdrawn before the next bug incursion. Figuring out which was Shiloh’s dilemma.
What he and Iceman didn’t know was whether Sierra2 had time to send any kind of signal back to the relay points. If organic beings were in control of the mothership, then the answer probably was no, but if the Bugs were using some kind of AI capability, then those could react fast enough to send a warning back.
The good news about the next ambush was that 3rd Fleet would have another Mark 6 warhead to use. Sierra3 was destroyed within a fraction of a second after emerging from Jumpspace 13 days later. This time there was no new vision. The moment Shiloh had dreaded was now here. Did 3rd Fleet stay or pull back. The mission was to convince the Bugs that Omega54 was THE home world of the spacefaring race that had attacked the Bugs at Beta1. The longer he could keep the Bugs’ attention focused here, the longer it would take them to get to Sol, and the more time Valkyrie and Casanova would have to get the timeship repaired. The latest update from Howard was Valkyrie’s estimate that repairs would be completed in another 150 days, more or less. Five months. Shiloh had to keep the Bugs away for five whole months, and he had no idea how to do it.
At least he was getting some reinforcements. Another three cannon raiders had arrived. The next and second last Mark 6 warhead was scheduled to arrive in nine days. He asked Iceman for his thoughts on what to do next.
“If we pull our raiders back to Midway’s position, then 3rd Fleet will be concentrated in one place. I recommend we wait until the next Mark 6 shows up, or until the next insectoid incursion, whichever comes first. If the Insectoids get here first and in dangerous strength, then we immediately micro-jump away and leave messages with the message drones to redirect our reinforcements to another location in this system. By keeping the Fleet here, we can continue to monitor insectoid activity first hand and react accordingly, CAG.”
Shiloh shook his head, not that he disagreed with Iceman. On the contrary, Iceman’s suggestion made a lot of sense. What Shiloh was shaking his head at was the whole situation. He knew from information about old timelines that once bug reinforcements started arriving, a trickle could turn into a flood VERY quickly. There was always the horrifying possibility that the Bugs would not just come here but also send ships past the system to scout for additional breeding planets. They might arrive at Sol while 3rd Fleet was still active here. In fact, Shiloh’s biggest worry was that the Bugs were smart enough to realize what humans were doing and were sending just enough reinforcements to keep the ambushers’ attention focused here. In other words, they might be using the same strategy against him that he was trying to use against them. That this possibility involved the deliberate sacrifice of multiple motherships was unthinkable to Shiloh, but who knew what kind of logic these damned Bugs used.
“We should be hearing from Beta1 directly, any day now, right Iceman?”
“Roger that, CAG. Now that they’ve gotten the word to send duplicate messages here as well as Sol, we can expect to get a steady trickle of news from there, starting soon.”
“Okay, I want you to attempt to put yourself in the position of the bug Leader in one of the relay systems. You’ve lost contact with ships at Beta1 and now at Omega54. Losses at Beta1 have stopped. Let’s assume that Sierra2 managed to send some kind of signal back before being destroyed. What conclusions would you, as the bug leader, make from all that?” asked Shiloh.
As always, Iceman’s answer was immediate. “I would assume that Beta1 was the outer edge of a volume of space monitored by a spacefaring race that had technology sufficient to destroy motherships, and that Omega54 was either the home world of that race or a major colony world that was worth conducting defense in strength. Given that assumption, I would call in reinforcements at a rally point other than Beta1, just in case the ambushers were monitoring it. I would also arrange for some activity at Beta1 in order to let the enemy think that’s where the rally point was.”
Shiloh nodded. That made perfect sense. The worst mistake he could make now was to underestimate the Bugs. They had shown time and time again their ability to do the unexpected. He had to guard against taking the obvious at face value. Iceman’s logic had crystallized his thinking, just as he had hoped it would.
“Okay, this is what we’re going to do. For now we wait. If we hear from Beta1 first, we’ll re-evaluate the situation based on that information. If the Bugs get here first, we’ll watch them from a safe distance as best we can until we see their next move. Let’s bring 3rd Fleet back together here around Midway now. I want a message drone sent to Sol with our latest info and plans, including your assessment of enemy strategy. I’ll prepare a report to be carried with it. Thanks for your input, Iceman. It helped me wrap my brain around the situation.”
“My pleasure, CAG. I too enjoyed our discussion, as brief as it was. Human thinking is sufficiently different that it makes for a nice change of pace from the kinds of exchanges I have with my brothers. So thank you, CAG. Let’s hope we have lots more discussions
like this one.”
“Amen to that, Iceman,” said Shiloh.
The first message drone directly from Beta1 arrived four days later. There were now five VLOs apparently holding position there. They had not all arrived at the same time, and that suggested that Beta1 was being used as the rally point or maybe as one of the rally points. In any case, if all five moved up to Omega54, there was no way that 3rd Fleet could stop them all without suffering huge losses. The tiny bit of good news was that the AI in command at Beta1 had decided to hold back the Mark 6 attack drone, which had already been on its way to Beta1 when 3rd Fleet had left Sol. Shiloh had assumed that it had been used. Vixen, however, had come to the conclusion that one more mothership destroyed at Beta1 would not significantly change the outcome, while one extra Mark 6 warhead might make a difference defending Sol. It was time to strategize with Iceman again.
“What do you recommend we do now, Iceman?”
“I recommend we wait here for another five days. With a little luck, the next Mark 6 warhead will arrive before the Insectoids do. I also recommend we send a message drone back to Vixen at Beta1 instructing him to send his Mark 6 drone back to Sol.”
