by Don Foxe
Then she yelled, “Elie, space-fold NOW! NOW!” she repeated urgently.
Elie did not argue. She engaged space-fold immediately, taking them out of the orbit of Fell and pushing fast in the direction of the system’s rim.
“Angel 7, is everything okay?” Mag’s voice came over the cockpit speakers.
“We’re good, Magpie. Storm, why did you order space-fold?”
The pilot kept the communication channel open for the entire wing, including the Star Gazer and cargo ship currently in a giant space-fold loop circling the Fell system.
“The battlecruiser and two of the Primary’s fired plasma accelerated projectiles at us,” Storm said.
“Storm, we’ve been hit by plasma loads before. It’s rough, but we’re strapped in. The shields would deflect the force,” Elie said.
“They were embedded in white-noise,” Storm said, obviously shaken up.
“Sorry, but I don’t understand,” said Mags. “You ran because of noise?”
“I have to try and explain this,” Storm said. “I’m a communications specialist. Sound is what I spend most of my time studying. In signal processing, white noise is a random signal with a constant power spectral density. White noise is used as the basis of many random number generators. It also cancels out other sounds, reducing their clarity, or their power.”
“Can you tell us why any of this matters?” asked Rachelle Paré from Angel 4. The STORM-HATCH system made conversations in space-fold as easy as talking at a dinner table.
“Most of the vessels in the known galaxy operate with electro-magnetic force fields generated by a dynamo. We have been able to defeat those force fields by targeting a specific area with an EMP, and following that shot with a laser or projectile. The second load penetrates the ship’s hull before the dynamo can regenerate the EMP-damaged shield,” Storm said.
“Somehow they created an encapsulated generator that produces white noise. They used the generator as a plasma load.” She then reminded them, “Our fighters use sonic force fields.”
“Holy crap,” Elie said. “Are you saying the white noise in the projectile would dampen or destroy the sonic force field?”
“Because of the random nature of white noise, it would interact with the sonic force field, regardless of its current pitch, and then reduce its power,” Storm said. “I don’t know how they came up with a system to generate noise that could remain steady, and use it as a projectile moving at the speeds a plasma cannon can produce, but they did.”
“How were you able to recognize what was happening and warn us before it hit?” Elie asked.
“Like I said, sound is what I study. I recognized the signature for white noise. The only reason to trap it in a projectile for a plasma load would be to disrupt another sound,” Storm replied.
“They’ve studied after action reports,” Elie said. “They’ve seen us destroy their ships by circumventing the force fields with EMP’s. They recognized we employ sonic force fields. Someone, somewhere created a solution for our defenses. While we retrofitted ships for the attack on Fell, they’ve been retrofitting ships with weapons that overcome sonic force fields.”
“The front of the projectile is the white noise portion,” Storm added. “The remaining section could be anything from plain metal to nuclear material. The load makes contact, the white noise dampens our shields, the remaining load reaches the hull. It either creates a breach or explodes.”
“So what’s the plan?” Paré asked.
“I can’t order you to risk your ships and crew based on this new information,” Casalobos said. “We have other intel to analyze. Continue to circle, and discuss this among yourselves. When we have everything sent out to everyone, we’ll talk it out. But we can’t sit out here in space-fold forever considering every option. Read the intel. Consider the change. Be prepared to make a choice. We either continue the mission knowing we are at a greater risk, or we head home. Lobo, out.”
“I have the message replies from the surface,” Storm said. “We received answers from three tribes. Glad we’re here. Over matched and out-gunned. Thousands captured or killed. The southern lab is still intact. It is currently undiscovered by the invaders. There is another on the super continent and one on the island nation of SCoslene in the southern hemisphere. Those two have been located by the Zenge, but neither has fallen.
“Tribes have combined resources where they could. They’re using jammer shields to keep the Mischene scans from locating them.”
“Jammer shields?” Noa Tal, from Demon 2, asked.
“Fellen tech,” Storm answered. “We have a shield generator that we place on an extension pole. We then raise it up above an area we want to appear uninhabited, or without energy sources. It takes readings of the surrounding uninhabited area, and projects a matching source reading for the area being hidden. The larger the area, the more shields required.”
“The Zenge will be using low-flying shuttles, hover craft, and ground troops to locate Fell encampments,” Elie said. “After we clear space of support ships, we will need to sweep the surface of spotter and supply ships. Remember that you do not have a sonic force field inside a planet’s atmosphere. The resonance only works in space. Now it only works against weapons that don’t contain a white noise component.”
“This is Magpie,” came an open channel communication from Demon. “I don’t see any point in flying around out here in circles. We know where their ships are located, and we know about their armaments. The longer we hesitate, the more likely they are to redeploy. We have to hit them and not get hit. How is this any different from any other fight? I say we go now.”
“Saber. Demon 2 agrees.”
“Rain. Angel 4, we agree with Magpie.”
“Fitz, Angel 5 says go.”
“Baker, Angel 6 is a go.”
“All right, we go,” Elie said. “Commander Sonoritsch and Captain Hollisvey, do you copy?”
“Star Gazer is monitoring all communications, Captain Casalobos,” Sonoritsch responded.
“Cargo Ship Morgan here, Captain,” Hollisvey, the Pagoran former-captive who was qualified to fly the cargo ship, replied.
“The two of you continue to circle in space-fold,” Elie ordered. “Monitor all communications and data. I will tell you when to begin phase 2, or it will be pretty obvious that there isn’t going to be a phase 2. If we cannot clear Fellen space, the two of you return to EMS2. Make sure they get all action data and updates of Mischene/Zenge weapon systems. Clear?”
Both captains replied affirmative.
“Magpie, Sabre, and Baker. Your initial target is the battlecruiser at the southern pole. Magpie has lead. Fitz and Rain with me. Our target is the battlecruiser near the moon.”
“If a squad completes mission, engage the closest Primary as your secondary target. Watch your backs for fire coming from the planet and non-engaged ships. Do not forget that mothership can hurt you, too. After we clear the upper atmosphere, we go after the mothership. If anyone completes targets, offer assistance. We do not go after the mothership until everything higher is down. Copy?”
After the fifth affirmative, Elie keyed her mike and ordered, “Drop into natural space, engage the enemy. We’ll meet at the mothership. Loba, out.”
Angels 4, and 5, and Demon entered natural space and turned to confront the battlecruiser, now mid-way between the single moon and the planet. When they appeared the battlecruiser’s opening salvo combined lasers and their new plasma-noise loads.
“Rain, Fitz, get their attention by lighting them up at the front,” Elie ordered. “I’m going to see about blowing the back doors off that thing. We’ll take out the dynamo through the open hangar.”
This was the tactic developed by Coop in the initial fight to save the Star Gazer. The Mischene dropped their force field generator down an elevator from its normal position on top of the ship. It relocated from behind the com-tower to a safer location amidships. Coop had determined the new location placed it in front of the hanger/storage a
rea of the ship. Elie planned on using the same ploy. By firing projectiles through that open space, Demon could destroy the dynamo and, thus, the force field protecting the cruiser.
In an attempt to juke the ship’s commander, Demon turned down toward the planet. Elie pretending to have another target, leaving Angels 4 and 5 to engage the battlecruiser. The two Earth ships came head on, firing a combination of railgun kinetic rounds to weaken the force field and laser rounds to create hull breaches.
The Mischene responded by maintaining weapons on the two attacking fighters and laying down a barrage of fire.
“Sparks, I need a deep scan of that hanger,” Elie said to her com-tac.
“Hanger appears filled. They definitely have scanning dampeners on board to disrupt readings. I believe the storage bay is full of cargo containers and other equipment. The dynamo is located behind the forward wall. If you blow the hanger doors, you may have to use a couple of torpedoes to clear the hanger before you get a clear shot at the generator.”
“Rain . . . Fitz, I’m making an initial run at the aft hanger doors,” Elie told her wingmen. “Keep ‘em busy and try not to shoot us.”
Demon rose from the planet at extreme speed, but met no resistance from the cruiser currently more interested in the two ships punching holes in its double hull. Elie came to a stop three-thousand feet from the rear of the cruiser. Folly fired an explosive tipped torpedo followed by a speedier railgun kinetic round. The kinetic load passed the torpedo to impact the hanger doors before the torpedo arrived. The force field was disrupted long enough for the explosion that followed to blow the hanger doors apart.
“Energy signal,” Sparks cried out, but too late.
The Mischene expected the tactic. A plasma-noise cannon sat in the hanger, protected behind heavy cargo containers double strapped to the deck and hulls. The cannon fired at the nearly stationary Earth fighter.
Elie had a breath of time to push down on her left collective and drop Demon like a rock from a skyscraper. The action quick enough to save the ship and crew, but not to avoid damage.
The white noise bubble wiped the sonic force field. The plasma round did not hit her dead center, but raked the top of the ship, damaging the cockpit, destroying the tachyon cannon, and scorching the hull from nose to tail.
“This is Sparks,” came a call across all channels. “Loba and Folly are out of the cockpit and we have closed it off. Flight control is from com-tac. Demon is compromised. We cannot stay in space. We’re headed for the planet.”
Mags broke off from the attack on the battlecruiser at the southern pole. She was about to complete a similar maneuver when Demon took the hit.
“Rain, keep the battlecruiser busy,” Mags told Angel 4. “Fitz, escort Demon to the surface. Clear a path. Storm, where should they go?”
“I’m sending coordinates,” Storm said. “There’s a resistance camp on the super continent, northern hemisphere, 1,000 miles inland. It’s the nearest, safest spot. I’m putting Demon one-hundred miles south of their location. Resistance team is heading out now. Crew will be picked up within the hour.”
“We’re ejecting all nuclear torpedoes into space,” Elie announced. “Once we are down and out, Demon has to be destroyed. Sparks is setting the destruct to give us time to get at least a good five miles away before it goes. Copy?”
“Copy,” returned five times.
Elie called, “Nukes out the tubes. Fitz, you need to destroy anything left of Demon. I’m sorry, Squad.”
“You saved my ass,” Mags told her. “I was less than a minute from doing the same move. Now we know what they know. Stay safe, Demon. Fitz, keep them clean going in and stay until Demon is blown. Finish the job. We cannot let the bad guys get anything from that ship.”
Mags returned to her mission. “Sabre . . . Baker, new plan. Since we can’t get to the dynamo through the back door, we go top down. I’m going to blow the housing on top of the cruiser that normally contains the dynamo. Baker, follow with a nymph and a tachyon burst. Make a hole in the double hull that will reveal the elevator shaft. Sabre, you have the hard part. You need to put a couple of mini-missiles into that hole, and straight down to the force field generator. Can do?”
“Will do,” the former Israeli fighter pilot replied. She took her fighter up and away from the enemy ship, looking for a better angle of attack.
“Commencing run,” Mags said.
She flew Angel 7 toward the rear of the battlecruiser, hoping they would assume she was making a run at the rear hanger. They would allow her to continue into the trap. At the last moment she changed the flight pattern to take them over the top of the ship, from aft to forward. Sky let loose a nymph followed by a tachyon-plasma burst. The dynamo housing, situated behind the raised bridge, disintegrated under the burst, leaving jagged walls and no roof. The outer section of the double-hull construction buckled.
Baker followed with Angel 6, using the same firing sequence. His secondary burst ripped a gaping hole in the top of the cruiser.
Within seconds, Noa brought Demon 2 in from a steep angle. Fox let loose two mini-missiles via the torpedo tubes. Lt. Jim Huard, her com-tac guided the missiles through the hole and into the belly of the ship. Ten-seconds later the two missiles exploded deep within the cruiser, destroying the force field dynamo and several midship decks.
“Forcefield is down,” Storm called out, and all three fighters swarmed the injured vessel, firing tachyon-plasma rounds. The cruiser, dead in space and venting atmosphere from a dozen hits, disintegrated when Demon 2 finished it with three tactical nuclear torpedoes. The reinforced tips breached the hull and exploded inside the vessel. The concussive forces blew outward, burst the bubble. The three fighters outran the shock wave that followed.
“On Rain,” Mags called. “Give her a break and let’s use the same tactic on the other battlecruisers before they have time to figure out what happened. Storm, report on Demon.”
“She’s on the surface. Angel 5 has taken out an enemy shuttle and a low-flying hover craft attempting to reach the LZ. Fitz is looping to make sure no one else is trying to get to her. Resistance team on the way.”
“Self-destruct?” she asked.
“Not yet, but they haven’t had time to get five miles,” Storm replied.
“Rain is making the initial run on the cruiser,” Storm said, bringing Mags’ attention back to the problem at hand.
Angel 7 watched as Angels 4 and 6 opened the door and Demon 2 dropped in two mini-missiles to destroy the force field dynamo. The four ships took little time in finishing the battlecruiser. They had to dodge a barrage of lasers, plasma fire and every missile the cruiser carried as it attempted to save itself. Sabre completed the job with three nuclear fish. The four ships had to clean up by chasing down and eliminating twenty-four Mischene missiles fired in desperation. They were headed for the planet, and needed to be removed before potentially causing collateral damage among the Fell hidden below.
While they were busy shooting the warheads out of space, Demon self-destructed on the planet’s surface. The explosion left nothing bigger than a fist while creating a crater fifty-feet deep and one-hundred feet wide.
It may well have been overly pre-cautious, but Fitz raked the crater and surrounding landscape with laser cannon rounds.
The other four fighters regrouped above the southern pole. Before they could begin the next part of Phase 1, targeting the Primary ships orbiting Fell, a new problem greeted them. Plasma-Noise bursts coming from cannon emplacements on the planet’s surface.
In a concerted move, the four Zenge Primary ships adjusted orbits so they flew together across the same face of the globe. They opened fire on the quad of Angel Wing fighters.
“Evade and avoid,” Mags called. With Loba out of the fight, she had command. “Meet on the other side of the double moons,” she ordered. Angel 7 led the other three spacecraft out of harm’s way to the relative safety of the far side of the two sister moons. The natural satellites currently in an
orbit bringing them close to the southern pole of Fell.
Once all four ships were behind the moons, maintaining sufficient speed to keep their force fields up, Mags opened communications. “Com-tacs, please keep an eye out for missiles and smart torpedoes. Even with shields up, those can come around the moons and find us.
“We have four major bogies and the surface defense systems to worry about. So far, other than the upgrade to their plasma cannon with the white noise, the Primaries are the same as we faced in the solar system. They have electro-magnetic generated force fields, they fight in two dimensions, and they are relatively slow. Storm, where are the Primaries?”
“In a broken line from south to north over the western hemisphere. They appear more interested in protecting themselves with over-lapping fire zones than worrying about presenting an offense,” she replied.
“Baker, take Angel 6 and join Angel 5 on the surface. The two of you target surface emplacements, but be careful. We don’t know what other surprises may be on the planet. At the very least, try to get them to think about you and not us. Keep in mind that you do not have a force field within the atmosphere.
“Numbering the Primary ships One to Four, from north to south, Angel 7 has One, Angel 4 on Two, Demon 2 on Three and we save Four for last. We’re going in without wingmen, so com-tacs must stay focused. Use nymphs to open holes, then hit them with rods. Sabre, save missiles and torpedoes in case we need them later, but not at the expense of a kill.”
“Roger that,” Noa replied.
“If anyone gets a kill early, help closest to you. If anyone gets hit hard, don’t play hero, get out of the fight. Play smart and play to win. Deploy in five, Magpie out.”
Five minutes later the four Earth ships came around the sister moons from four different directions. Sam Washington aimed Angel 6 at the surface and headed for the cannon situated in the northern Crown Mountains.
Fitz and Angel 5, having cleared the area for Demon’s crew to escape and waited until they join the resistance team, flew across the continent to engage a cannon emplacement located near the Western coast.
