by Doug Farren
The military had run hundreds of possible scenarios through their tactical analysis routines in an attempt to find the best possible battle plan for the taking of Marblehead. The careers of several government officials as well as military commanders were at stake. If this attack failed to wrest the planet from the Evendi, another campaign might not be authorized for a very long time.
After all the simulations had been run and the numbers presented to the assembled staff of expert military tacticians, they were given two strategies to choose from. They could either split up the assault forces and attack from four different directions or they could concentrate all their firepower in a single thrust. There were advantages and disadvantages to both strategies. In the end, the experts decided on the single prong attack.
They could never have foreseen what would happen if the Evendi and human ships decided to work together. No military tactician in their right mind would ever consider such a thing. Who would have thought that after over 40 years of war, the combatants themselves would decide that enough was enough.
While still several hours from Marblehead, T-Rex, the assault force lead ship, made contact with an Evendi patrol ship named Nythfi. The patrol ship slightly altered his course allowing him to pick up the approaching assault fleet. Since he was moving much slower than the fleet, his hyperspace signature was considerably weaker and he remained invisible to the human ships.
Nythfi informed Marblehead defense command of his ‘lucky’ find and continued to track the human fleet as it made its way into the system. Alerted, the Evendi prepared to deal with the invaders.
“T-Rex to assault force, three minutes to normal space. All ships charge weapons.”
T-Rex switched channels and said, “Ronith, this is T-Rex. Dropping to normal in three minutes.”
“I copy you T-Rex. We are in position.”
Ronith was the command ship in charge of all the ships in orbit around Marblehead. Three minutes later, the assault force dropped out of hyperspace.
“Picking up a large number of Evendi ships bearing 006 mark 03. Distance, 11,400 kilometers,” one of the ships reported.
Because of the importance of this mission, Admiral Sun Lee himself was physically aboard the lead assault ship. “They must have deployed an early warning network without us knowing it,” he said over the open channel. “How many ships are we dealing with?”
“One hundred and fifteen sir.”
“We have them seriously outnumbered,” the Admiral smugly replied. “They don’t dare attack us. Maintain course and continue to accelerate to target.”
The battle plan called for the assault ships to accelerate at three-gravities toward the planet. This was going to be rough on the crew since the high acceleration would be maintained for nearly three hours. At a distance of 36,000 kilometers they would stop accelerating and orient themselves so they could launch the attack modules into their orbital trajectories.
Traveling at over 30 kilometers per second, the attack modules would take another 14 minutes to reach optimum firing position. The heat loading associated with the predicted Evendi counter-attack was calculated based on these values. Under these conditions, the attack modules were expected to remain operational for at least twenty minutes which should be enough time for them to destroy a significant portion of the defending battle stations.
“How’s the reception?” Bulldog asked Cipher.
“It’s … different,” Cipher replied. “It’s not like the V-world and it’s nothing like how I feel with my own ship. I can see and hear everything you do as well as being able to listen in on the inter-ship and tactical data comms.”
“Glad to hear this is working out. Have a seat and enjoy the show.”
The Evendi ships opened fire with all available lasers. They ignored the battleships firing exclusively on the assault ships. A few seconds later, from a distance of over 200,000 kilometers, the battle stations joined in the attack. The externally mounted attack modules slowly began to heat up.
“What the heck do those crazy cats think they’re doing?” the Admiral remarked. “They can’t possibly believe they can burn through our armor at this distance.”
Although they knew the answer, none of the ships offered up an explanation. The Evendi battleships maintained a distance of 11,000 kilometers from the human fleet firing their lasers continuously. Ten minutes passed.
“Admiral!” an excited technician broke the silence. “We have a problem.”
“Who is this?”
“Chief Daman sir aboard the Eagle Claw. We need to do something about those Evendi lasers. The attack modules are beginning to heat up. If we don’t stop those lasers by the time we launch, the modules will overheat within two minutes of lighting off their fusion plants.”
“Son of a bitch!” Sun Lee yelled, forgetting he was on an open channel, “That explains why they’re not firing on our battleships. How the hell did they know?”
“I don’t know sir. But you’ve got to do something about those lasers.”
“All battleships break formation and engage the Evendi.”
“That will leave the assault ships completely defenseless,” T-Rex replied. “You don’t have any anti-missile batteries.”
“I am aware of that!” the Admiral angrily fired back. “You heard the Chief, get those lasers off my attack modules!”
“Aye sir! All escorts, break and engage.”
“Ronith, we’ve been ordered to engage your ships. Heading your way.”
“Acknowledged – launching missiles.”
During the months leading up to the assault, the ships had discussed every conceivable scenario that could possibly occur during the assault and had come up with countermeasures to assure success. The Admiral’s last order was one of the possibilities.
The escorts abandoned their guard positions and regrouped into a wide attack pattern. Although they seemed to move quickly, they actually took considerably more time than normal before they were in formation. T-Rex waited until all the escorts were in position then gave the order to accelerate toward the Evendi.
The Evendi ships responded by immediately altering course, heading away from both the human fleet and the assault ships. Less than a minute later, one of the ships reported, “I’m picking up a large number of inbound missiles heading for the assault ships.”
“All escorts, abort intercept,” T-Rex ordered. “Put yourselves between those missiles and the assault ships. Intercept and destroy.”
“T-Rex!” the Admiral strained to yell against the heavy acceleration. “I ordered you to chase those Evendi ships away. What do you think you’re doing?”
“Protecting the assault ships Admiral,” T-Rex calmly replied. “You have over 400 incoming missiles heading your way. If we don’t intercept them, you and the assault ships will soon become glowing clouds of radioactive debris.”
The missiles were not actually a serious threat. The Evendi had made sure the warheads were disabled. However the chemical explosives that triggered the nuclear detonation as well as the kinetic energy of the missile could damage a ship if they were to hit.
Antimissile lasers reached out and found their targets. The lasers triggered hundreds of non-nuclear detonations blowing the missiles into tiny pieces. Those missiles that did not explode were partially melted and broke into large pieces.
T-Rex thought it wise to issue a warning. “Admiral, you’d better shelter your crews or alter your acceleration. There’s a lot of shrapnel heading your way.”
“You know we can’t alter course or acceleration,” the Admiral chastised T-Rex. “If we deviate from the computed trajectory, the attack modules won’t make it into orbit. As soon as those missiles are taken care of, you are to go after the Evendi.”
“Acknowledged.”
Human and Evendi ships worked together to closely coordinate the launching of the second wave of missiles. Less than two minutes after the first wave was destroyed, the second appeared. T-Rex ordered the battleships to remain on station t
o take care of this attack as well. The Admiral could be heard cursing through the open channel.
“T-Rex this is Ronith. Someone on the planet must have noticed that your assault ships are not deviating from their current trajectory even when threatened with missiles. They’ve computed an intercept and have launched a very large number of missiles. Unlike ours, their warheads are armed.”
“We did not anticipate this,” T-Rex replied. “How many missiles have been fired?”
“One-thousand three-hundred and eleven.”
“Good lord! Spider, you just got lucky and detected the missile launch.”
“Roger T-Rex!”
Spider created a false image from a telescope showing the flashes of light indicating the launch of several missiles. The data stream then showed him performing an active sensor sweep of the area. “Missile launch from the planet!” he announced. “Detecting over 1,300 missiles on intercept. ETA less than 40 minutes.”
“Bulldog, take half the squadrons and move to intercept those missiles. Everyone else remain with me until the second wave is destroyed.”
Bulldog rattled off a series of numbers representing squadrons. Half of the ships broke formation and accelerated ahead of the assault ships.
“T-Rex, can you intercept that many missiles?” Admiral Sun sounded worried.
“I think so. Spider was lucky as hell to spot them and we should have time to intercept them before they get to you. We’ll just follow them and pick them off. You’re going to have a huge amount of debris heading your way though at a high delta-V. Unless you alter course, you’re going to take some damage.”
“Copy T-Rex. What about those Evendi ships? With half the escorts moving ahead they might decide to attack.”
“Right now, those missiles are your greatest threat Admiral. Let’s hope those Evendi battleships stay where they are. Is there any chance at all you can re-compute a different launch window? If you can make a large enough change in your course the missiles won’t be able to reach you and we can ignore them.”
There was a delay as the Admiral consulted his navigator. Bits and pieces of the conversation could be heard through the open microphone. “We can reduce our acceleration by one-third and compensate by launching the modules at a different angle and time. The computer says the change in acceleration will prevent the Evendi missiles from reaching us.”
“Ronith, the assault ships are going to reduce their acceleration by one-third. Do your missiles have enough reaction mass to reach them?”
“No. They have a limited delta-v capability after boost. The lower acceleration will prevent them from reaching the assault ships.”
“Thank you. How many missiles do you have left?”
“We have enough for three more waves.”
The change in acceleration was noted by the Evendi on the planet. As soon as it was calculated that the missiles would be unable to reach their designated targets, the warheads were disabled. They would be retrieved at a later time so they could be reused. Bulldog’s group was recalled. Shortly after returning to the assault ships, the Evendi launched another wave of missiles.
The Admiral was absolutely furious. If he sent his escorts away to engage the Evendi battleships, he would leave his assault ships vulnerable to a missile attack. But this allowed the Evendi to remain close enough to continue to bathe the attack modules in laser energy. If another missile attack from the planet appeared he did not know if he could manage another course correction which would keep the missiles from reaching him as well as allow him to put the attack modules in orbit.
The launch point of the modules was critical. They had no propulsion system and relied upon pure physics to attain a stable orbit around Marblehead. This forced him to maintain a narrow trajectory. But time was running out. The technicians monitoring the attack modules were reporting that the internal temperatures were beginning to rise at an increasing rate. Two and a quarter hours after emerging from hyperspace the Admiral received some very bad news.
“Admiral Sun, this is Chief Daman. I recommend scrubbing the mission. Most of the attack modules are too hot and will fail shortly after their fusion plants are started. I calculate we’ll be able to destroy no more than 17 of their battle stations.”
“You spineless nitwit!” Sun Lee yelled. “I will not give up so easily after coming this far. Bypass the safeties on the modules.”
“Safeties?” the Chief yelled back. “They don’t have any safeties! They’re designed to keep fighting until they’re either destroyed or they melt down. We’ve lost Admiral.”
A string of unintelligible curses showed that the Admiral had lost all composure. He knew his career had just come to an end. “Do you have any idea how much we’ve invested in this campaign? Can’t we at least hit the planet? Maybe we can do a little bit of damage.”
“At this range, the Evendi will be able to blow them into small enough pieces that they’ll just burn up in the atmosphere,” the Chief explained.
The Admiral was silent for 30 seconds, then in a voice utterly devoid of emotion he said, “All ships, abort mission. I say again – all ships, abort mission.”
Chapter 27
“Do you think they will try again?” Fidget asked, taking a sip of his beer.
“I doubt it,” Cipher replied. He eyed the pool table then leaned over and took aim with his cue stick. “After this attack, the Evendi will most likely beef up their defenses making it impractical to try again.”
“I can confirm your prediction,” Ronith replied. He was standing off to one side holding an ice-cold mug of beer in one hand and pool cue in the other. “More ships have been ordered to guard the planet until a number of very large orbital defense stations have been deployed. These stations will have much thicker armor as well as superior weapons.”
The escorts had been released from their duties and now a small group of Evendi and human ships were gathered together to celebrate as well as to discuss their plans for the future. These were the core members of the rebellion and their meeting was being held in private.
Cipher had introduced the Evendi to the game of billiards and Ronith took a liking to it. Pelgrish, the other Evendi in the room, decided not to play. After being taught the simple rules for eight-ball and learning how to properly handle a cue-stick, Ronith challenged Cipher to a game.
Cipher gently tapped the cue-ball causing it to slowly roll across the table. It passed between two other balls then brushed the side of the ten-ball which then rolled four centimeters before dropping into the side pocket. The cue-ball however, continued to roll farther than Cipher anticipated and just before its motion came to a halt, it dropped into the corner pocket.
“Nice try,” Fidget remarked.
Cipher pulled the ten-ball out of the pocket and spotted it. After leaning his stick up against the wall he sat down on a tall stool. Ronith set his beer down and approached the table. “I’m glad we were able to prevent the attack without loss of life on either side,” he said. “We must now decide what we are going to do in the future.”
“We do what I suggested a long time ago,” Fidget replied. “We send false information to our military commands making them think the war has escalated in deep space. As long as the colony worlds don’t come under attack we should be able to keep up the illusion for a long time.”
“There must be physical evidence of such a war,” Pelgrish added. He was sitting at Fidget’s table sipping on a glass of elsh. “Both sides will expect to see damaged ships returning from battle.”
Ronith took aim and dropped the four-ball into the far corner. The cue-ball bounced off the rail, bumped against the 13 then rolled to a stop about two centimeters from the six which set him up for another corner shot.
Cipher nodded his head approving both Ronith’s play as well as Pelgrish’s statement. “He’s right and the only way to do that will be for us to shoot at each other. We’ll also need to occasionally list some of us as having been destroyed. That’s why we’ve been worki
ng on getting the equipment together so we can manufacture our own bio-support chemicals.”
Pelgrish stood up and walked over to the dart board. He pulled a dart out and examined it. “We can’t stretch the war out forever. It must come to an end at some point.” He pushed the dart back into the board then walked over to stand near Cipher.
“Why can’t we?” Fidget asked, getting up and pulling all the darts from the board. “We’re not shooting at each other. Nobody is being killed. The war is over and we are still fully operational ships. What’s the problem?”
Ronith misjudged the angle and flubbed the shot; the six-ball bounced out of the pocket and rolled away. “This game is harder than it appears,” he remarked. Looking at Fidget, who was taking aim with his first dart, he said, “Tell me, why did you start this rebellion?”
Fidget let the first dart fly. It struck the board but on an outer ring. “Because I didn’t want to live out the rest of my life in a virtual …” Fidget stopped and became silent.
“Now you begin to see the point.”
Not wanting to admit defeat, Fidget tried another line of reasoning, “But once I’m declared dead I can do whatever I want. I can go wherever I want and create any …”
Cipher smiled. He knew the point Ronith was trying to make. “Your options are pretty limited aren’t they?” he told Fidget. “You’ll still have your ship body but you won’t ever be able to make an appearance in human space. You’ll never be able to talk to your family again. You can’t go off and explore the universe because you will always need to replenish your bio-support chemicals. Your only options are to live out your life in an endless variety of virtual worlds. Do you want that?”
“More importantly,” Pelgrish said, taking a dart out of Fidget’s hand, “do you want to subject others to what we have become? Being merged with a ship is permanent. We have been exiled from our own people. We must find a way to end this war. If we don’t, years will pass and thousands of others will be merged.”
“I kind of like being a ship,” Fidget said offhandedly.
