by C. R. Daems
It would take a couple of hours to reach J3, so there was no need for Battle Stations. Seconds later, blue lights flashed and individual SIDs lit with the status. It was interesting to watch the VTH as we approached the planet. The VTH displayed the Mother ship, UFN squadrons, Ecitoni Lights, and the combat shuttles on half of Earthol. I wondered what the Mother ship saw, since they hadn't reacted to Kishi's squadron’s movement. Was it they didn't perceive him as an immediate threat? Maybe Katlin's observation was correct, and they didn't react until you disturbed what they considered their area of threat.
I shuddered. That would explain a lot. In a sense, it would make the smaller Ecitoni organic robots directed by those in the Light cruisers. I laughed. Just like in Earth's ancient past, without the commoners, the nobles’ system would fail. R-Kharis jerked me back to the present.
Moments later, red lights flashed and SIDs lit with the change of status. As we approached J3, the VTH showed the five Ecitoni Lights and tagged them E1 thru E5.
"Zhang, you have E1 and Ja'Sai, E2. After you destroy them you are free to move on to J4 and destroy the two Lights there. Sheva, you have E3, Elissa, E4, and I will take E5. Send Ready when you are in position. To be on the safe side, I think we should have Wraiths ready in case they have fighters and are able to launch any." Hearing no comments, I cut the connection.
I positioned the Mnemosyne fifty thousand kilometers from E5 and waited for everyone to get in position. I clicked my SID on Byer’s channel after receiving Ready signals from everyone. "Byer, prepare to release ten Ghosts on my command. If the Ecitoni Lights carry fighters, they may get lucky and be able to launch a few."
"We'll be ready, Captain."
I didn't have to send notice to r-Maia on Tactical, as she would have seen my order to r-Galene manning the Comm. I stared at the VTH, hoping a full load of missiles—twelve—would disable an Ecitoni Light and wondering if they had fighters on board, how many, and how fast they could respond. The answer was quick in coming. E1, E3 and E4 went red and E2 and E5 yellow. I intentionally withheld the Ghosts, wanting the answers to my other two questions. Part of our reason for selecting the smaller Mother ship was to learn more about the Ecitoni's methods and cruisers. As I watched, E2 went Red.
I decided to keep the ship status at Battle Stations, because anything could happen after destroying the Lights. A minute later, I noticed a squadron of UFN cruisers descending on J3.
To my surprise, nothing happened during our twenty minute trip to Z2. The attack on the three Lights went off much like it had at J3—two full loads of missiles each destroyed the Lights and no fighters emerged. Minutes later we were off towards Z3.
"We will designate the Lights E1 and E2. Da'Maass, you take out E1. Sheva, you will fire a half load at E2 and go passive. I want to see if they have fighters, and if so, their response time. Byer, you will launch ten fighters on my command. Send Ready when you're in position." I cut the connection except to Byer.
"Byer, I suspect the fighters will be Kamikaze types, so I'll send out a dummy missile to distract them."
Fifteen minutes later, the Minerva and Elpis sent Ready, and I gave the order to fire. E1 went yellow immediately, as did E2. Thirty seconds later, E1 went Red with the Minerva's second load of twelve missiles.
"Byer, release your Ghosts."
Shortly afterward, E2 fired six missiles in the direction of the Dummy, and one minute later ten fighters emerged from the Ecitoni Light and turned in the direction of the Dummy. The Ghosts chased after them. The Dummy destroyed five and the Ghosts the remaining five. During the brief fight, E2 fired six more missiles, forty-five seconds after the first.
Ten seconds later it went Red.
* * *
"How did it go, Admiral Kishi?" I asked, although by the look of satisfaction on his face and his erect posture, I knew he was pleased.
"The attacks went flawlessly. Of course, although we destroyed their shuttles, there are many Ecitoni left unhurt, and they will continue to…feed off the land."
"That is unfortunate but can't be avoided. There are too many of them to drop our commandoes. We will have to be content with the knowledge that we are saving other planets," I said for everyone's benefit. "You destroyed close to forty percent of the Mother ship’s source of the raw materials it needs to survive." I looked to Zhang and Ja'Sai. "How did it go with J4?"
"They died quickly," Zhang said with obvious sadness in his voice. Like the Riss, he took no enjoyment in killing anything. It was just something that needed to be done.
"Besides making a significant blow to the Mother ship’s ability to support itself, we learned their cruisers have ten fighters each, they are kamikaze-like, have six-missile tubes which reload in forty-five seconds, take a couple of minutes to react to an attack, and that it takes twelve to eighteen missile hits to destroy one," I said, summarizing what we had discovered.
"And the Mother ship did not respond," Sheva said. "But why?"
"Maybe no resources to send," Ja'Sai suggested.
"Then why not divert the cruisers at the other sites?" Sheva asked.
"Maybe their lives aren't important enough to protect," Zhang said, frowning in thought.
"I think you're right," Sheva said. "They probably have hundreds of thousands back on the Mother ship, so the individuals may not be important, but the shuttles are necessary to their survival. Unless they have the resources to make more quickly." She shrugged.
"Those are two metrics we need to resolve if we are going to defeat the Ecitoni. How many shuttles do they need to support the Mother ship, and at what rate can they produce shuttles and Lights. That should determine what it will take to kill a mini-Mother ship, and by extension, what it will take to kill the older Mother ship on Port Lost."
"Do we attack the remaining shuttles now?" Kishi said, sounding eager to finish the mini-Mother ship.
"Now we wait to see what they do. That may answer the questions I've proposed. Eventually, they will send out new raiding parties. When the shuttles land, we use our previous tactics." I looked to Zhang, who looked concerned. "It may seem like a heartless strategy because our delay will cause more of the Earthol people to die, but attacking shuttles going to or from the Mother ship will give the Ecitoni a chance to destroy our cruisers. That is obvious from Admiral Gleason's attack. Cruisers that may make the difference in Port Lost. The older Mother ship could have ten times the resources of a mini-Mother ship and be far more aggressive. Gleason should be a good reminder of what happens when you rely on overwhelming force
or get too aggressive. Many will consider my approach cowardice and attacking in force heroic. To me, each battle must be judged based on its importance to winning the war—destroying the Ecitoni. Remember, the Mother ship has hundreds of kamikaze-like fighters, and the Lights have ten each, and the shuttles two missiles each. Losses could be extremely heavy if we chose to take them on directly." I hoped Kishi could overcome the coward-hero traditional urge.
Kishi gave me a small bow. "Admiral Gleason's action was heroic but twice foolish—he chose to forsake his allies and risk his nation's security on an all-or-nothing strategy. Since Fleet Admiral Zhu respects you, I forego being a hero." He gave me a genuine ear-to-ear smile. That produced grins from everyone.
* * *
For two days, shuttles came and went from J1, J2, and Z1. On the third day, the activity at J1 and J2 stopped. A half day later, a hundred shuttles emerged along with ten Lights. Two of the Lights left the pack and headed in opposite directions. Three hours later the two returned. After a minute, one group of seventy accompanied by seven Lights went one direction while the other group of thirty with three Lights went in another.
"Sheva, follow the group of thirty. Zhang, follow the group of seventy. Let us know via tight beam what they do," I said, wondering at the impact on the Mother ship of losing another hundred shuttles.
* * *
"Captain, the Ecitoni have landed thirty shuttles on a small city, location: 34.20815 and -121.85632."
Two hours later, the Maat reported his group had landed all seventy shuttles at location 40.1776 and -110.3325.
"Admiral, the Ecitoni shuttles have all landed. I'm sending you the coordinates of the two groups, designated L1 and L2. If you will let me know when you're in position, I will begin our attack on L2, which is the larger group." I cut the connection when he nodded.
The next two hours dragged by as we slowly made our way to the L2 location. Ironically, the seven Lights, designated E1 thru E7 on the VTH, didn't seem any more alert than the previous Lights, as only their radar systems were active.
As soon as they were all present, I gave them their assignments. "Zhang, you are assigned E1 and backup for the Elpis. Da'Maass, E4 and backup for the Mnemosyne. Ja'Sai, E5. Sheva, a full load on E2 and a red-Wraith on E3, and I'll take E6 and E7. Sent Ready when you are in position." I had received Kishi's Ready signal some thirty minutes ago.
Fifteen minutes later after I had received the Ready signal from everyone, I clicked on Byer's SID. He appeared instantly. "Byer, send out a red-Wraith. Your target is E7."
I watched the VTH as the chronometer ticked off the twenty seconds. The Mnemosyne shuddered, and nine seconds later the seven Ecitoni ships began changing color: E1, E4 and E5 went yellow and E2, E3, E6, and E7 went red. Thirty seconds later E1, E4, and E5 went red when the second load of twelve missiles hit. There was no need to let Kishi know, because he would see the explosions. We moved on to location S1 and destroyed the three Lights.
* * *
"This has been too easy, not that I'm complaining," Sheva said, shaking her head as she did. Four days had passed since we destroyed the second group of Ecitoni shuttles. There had been no retaliation; however, the three groups which had been active finished and returned to the Mother ship late two days ago. Nothing had happened since.
"What do you think they’re doing?" Ja'Sai asked. "Making more shuttles and cruisers?"
"Deciding how to protect their remaining shuttles," Da'Maass said. "Based on our original count, they had four hundred and we've destroyed three hundred. That leaves only a hundred to feed and supply the ants on the Mother ship."
"It would certainly be good to know the demands on the Mother ship: salvageable metal, food, etc.," I said. "That would enable us to predict how seriously we hurt it, if at all, and what it will take to destroy—"
"Admiral Kishi, are you up for doing something heroic?" I asked, thinking Da'Maass had been right.
"That would read better in the UFN history books." He smiled. "Attack the Mother ship?" he said with a note of amusement.
"Exactly."
"You're joking?" Kishi said in surprise. Even the Riss-humans looked shocked.
"I think the Mother ship is positioning itself over the spot for the next city they are going to raid. The Mother ship on Port Lost had over a thousand fighters, so we have to assume this one has several hundred. If we try taking out the shuttles, I would expect them to release their fighters, and three hundred could be a serious threat to your squadrons. So we need to distract the fighters."
"Gleason's attack on the Mother ship drew the fighters to the fleet…and destroyed it." Da'Maass said, frowning in thought.
"Admiral Kishi, if you positioned your fleet one and one-half light-seconds from the Mother ship and fired several loads of missiles at it, I suspect it would send out its fighters."
"And then I release my fighters…"
"How many do you have?" I asked, hoping he outnumbered the Ecitoni.
"Ten per Light, fifteen per Heavy, and twenty on the Green Dragon. Eighty percent have been upgraded to Ghosts."
"If my calculations are correct," I said while looking at my SID. "You have over five hundred and sixty fighters, of which nearly four hundred fifty are Ghosts. It's reasonable to conclude your fighters will outnumber those on the Ecitoni Mother ship. I'm suggesting you position your fleet about one and one-half light-seconds from the Mother ship and fire missiles until they release their fighters. When their fighters are one light-second from your fleet, drop your Ghosts and then pull back a light-second or two to give your Ghosts time and room to engage them. The Riss will get in position as you do, so that we will be ready to destroy the Lights while you are entertaining the Ecitoni fighters. Afterward, our Ghosts will destroy the last of their shuttles."
"That will look good in the history books." Kishi nodded as a smile creased his lips.
* * *
Over the next several hours, Kishi moved the UFN fleet slowly toward the Ecitoni Mother ship, stopping one and a half light-second from it. The other Riss ships and I skirted the Mother ship and positioned our cruisers some forty thousand kilometers from the ten Lights, designated E1 thru E10. When each cruiser had released five fighters along with one red-Wraith, I signaled the Green Dragon via tight beam that we were in place.
Fifteen minutes later, over four hundred missiles streaked toward the Mother ship. A swarm of Ecitoni fighters exited the Mother ship only thirty seconds before the UFN fired another four hundred sixty. The first UFN missiles and the Ecitoni met thirty seconds later. The collision destroyed or otherwise sent off course forty percent of the missiles and destroyed seventy Ecitoni fighters. The over two hundred that struck the Mother ship appeared to have little effect, other than breaking off chunks of material—no explosions.
We waited as the Ecitoni fighters met the second wave of missiles, but this time the missiles destroyed or deflected over sixty percent, leaving less than one hundred fifty to meet the UFN Ghosts.
I had assigned Zhang E1 and E2, Sheva E3 and E4, Da'Maass E5 and E6, Ja'Sai E7 and E8, and me E9 and E10. When the Ecitoni and UFN fighters met thirty seconds later, we struck. First with twelve missiles against one target and with a red-Wraith against the second assigned target. And finally with a second load against any Ecitoni Lights not red. Subse
quently, we released our Ghosts, which descended upon the planet and destroyed the defenseless shuttles.
After collecting our fighters, we made our way back to our rendezvous point. Earthol space felt quiet. I tried not to think about what was happening on the planet. Although we had destroyed the shuttles, there were still Ecitoni running loose on the planet—maybe they would be for months or years. Just those ten shuttles had carried close to two thousand, not to mention the other two hundred destroyed shuttles—over forty-two thousand Ecitoni—not counting any reinforcements.
We met on the Mnemosyne eight hours later. Kishi had an extra bounce to his step as he exited his shuttle. We exchanged bows.
"That was more like the history books' version of war," he said as we made our way to the third level. "I lost only fifty-one fighters. We can restock and move to Sparrow’s Nest."
"You don't want to share the war with the Red and Yellow Admirals?" I joked.
He grinned. "I guess they could use the practice."
"Unfortunately, the Mother ship isn't dead—and it would be nice to look inside. The information may help when we have to take on the Port Lost Mother ship," I said.
"They have no way to feed whoever is left." Kishi said. "They will starve to death."
"The Mother ship is a factory with maybe a million Ecitoni. Many will die, but they will build more shuttles and Lights—enough to feed a significantly reduced population—and slowly regrow. We need to monitor the Mother ship, kill any shuttles or Lights they produce, and eventually enter the ship to ensure the colony is dead."
"That wasn't in the history books I read." Kishi gave a small laugh. "We could send one of the other Admirals to do that."
"I suggest we leave a small force here to monitor the Mother ship, while the main force returns to Hayjar to restock and update everyone," I said.
After a brief discussion, Kishi agreed to leave two squadrons, four Heavies, and twelve Lights, and I left the Elpis and Cerberus-2.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Hayjar - Reevaluating the strategy
"Admiral Kishi has briefed me on your successful tactics against the Earthol Mother ship. It sounds like it can be used against the other two Mother ships," Zhu said as the Riss-humans, Byer, Seng, Iglis, Admiral Zhu, and his three fleet Admirals convened for a strategy session on the third level of the Mnemosyne.
