The Solarian Celebration: Book 3 of the Alliance Conflict

by Jeff Sims

  …………………….

  The electro barrier behind him activated and flung his fighter out of the hangar. He turned up and away from the hangar in a casual loop of the Sunflower. He waited for the next 4 fighters to launch. The remaining 14 fighters launched over the course of the next two minutes.

  Paul scanned the immediate area. There were no remaining missiles from the 4 cruisers. However, there were inbound missiles from the two destroyers. The computer showed that the two destroyers had launched a combined 48 missiles.

  Fortunately, the last two groups of fighters from Alpha and First Squadrons realized that they weren’t needed for the attack on their respective cruiser and stayed close to the Sunflower. Paul realized that he was now technically in charge of a full squadron – 8 First, 8 Alpha, and 4 from Third Squadron.

  He opened a channel to these fighters and said, “FAT Squadron, form up in a flat-one formation and begin targeting on-coming missiles. Everyone choose two targets and verify that no one is double targeting before firing. Maneuver freely.”

  Flat-one was a basic formation. The formation consisted of 20 fighters in a single row. The new squadron quickly got into formation and raced ahead until they reached the optimum firing position.

  Paul targeted an on-coming missile and fired. Hit. He targeted a second one and fired. Hit. The squadron was now past the missiles. Paul did a quick calculation to determine whether they squadron could loop and reacquire the remaining missiles before they struck the Sunflower. He grimaced. They could not.

  Paul sent a mental signal to the fighter requesting an updated scan. He could have simply looked at the monitor, but it was faster to communicate directly. The fighter whispered that there were only 4 remaining missiles.

  He did a quick mental calculation – four of the pilots had targeted and destroyed three missiles each. Darned impressive, he thought.

  The next four fighters launched from the Sunflower. They targeted the remaining 4 missiles and easily destroyed them. Paul double checked. They had a clear board for the moment. Paul was about to give another command, but both Gus and Kip ordered their squadrons to regroup.

  Paul ordered his partial squadron to perform a wide 360 degree loop and wait for the remainder of their squadron to launch.

  …………………….

  Kolvak wanted answers. However, before he could get answers he really needed some coherent questions. At the moment, the only question that he could formulate in his brain was ‘What just happened’. He tried to think of a better way to phrase the question.

  He finally gave up and said, “Captain, what just happened?”

  Jim interpreted the question literally and replied, “One of the cruisers just exploded and we are focusing on the other three.”

  “I see explosions on the other three. One has lost the containment of its reactor core,” Shole updated.

  Jim replied, “Thank you. One down, three to go.”

  Shole retorted, “Two.”

  Jim replied, “Two down, two to ….” Everyone watched the main monitor as the last two cruisers blew up almost simultaneously. Jim said, “Correction, all cruisers have been destroyed. It is now time to focus on the destroyers.”

  “We will be there in 3 minutes,” Russ added helpfully.

  Kolvak said, “Yes, I can see that we destroyed them. How did we do that?”

  Jim said, “We launched 40 fighters and fired 30 missiles in 1 ½ minutes. Our fighters attacked their cruisers unopposed. And as you probably already know, a cruiser cannot defend itself from a squadron of fighters.”

  Kolvak did in fact know that a cruiser was overmatched by a squadron of fighters. However, the knowledge had always been on some abstract level. He now realized that this particular fact had just moved from abstract to abundantly, glaringly real. Further, he had just received stunning confirmation of this fact 4 times over.

  Either way, Kolvak’s brain finally started functioning again and said, “I did know that, but I never imagined the battle would be so one-sided.”

  Russ chimed in and said, “It’s better to give than to receive.”

  Kolvak said, “But we didn’t even give them time to properly state why they were in this part of system or what they were doing here. They may have had a perfectly legitimate reason for being here.” Kolvak restated the word ‘give’ with special emphasis as a rebuttal to Russ’ proclamation.

  As if on cue, Shole said, “I have a communique from the battleship. The message was sent in the Hiriculan language, but I had the computer translate it to Alliance basic.”

  Jim replied, “Play it.”

  …Captain Solear, you and the entire crew of the Sunflower are in violation of the treaty and are under arrest for gross misconduct during the battle of Influenla. Please surrender immediately or you will be destroyed…

  “Shall I send a response?” Shole asked.

  Jim replied, “No, they seem boorish.”

  As soon as the fourth cruiser was destroyed, Jim refocused all 10 missile launchers on one of the destroyers. Specifically, he targeted the one on the right. This was the same destroyer that were going to ram in about 3 minutes. The computer monitor designated it EnDes80.

  He briefly considered changing the firing pattern, but decided against it. He had already changed it once, he doubted the crew would appreciate another change. He left the pattern as S4P2. It was as good as anything right now and the crew was more than likely already in the process of loading the next missile.

  Jim opened a channel to the entire crew and announced, “The 4 enemy cruisers have been destroyed. We are now targeting one of the destroyers. Continue firing with pattern S4P2.”

  The enemy fleet had initially been parked exactly 4.5 million kilometers away. The distance had not been random - 4.5 million kilometers was the maximum powered range of offensive missiles.

  In other words, if a ship were directly facing its enemy, any missile fired would exit the side of the ship and fly straight for a second to ensure that it had cleared the ship. Then the missile would turn in a wide 90 degree arc until it was facing the correct attack vector. This effectively reduced the missile’s range from 5.4 million kilometers to 4.5 million kilometers and increased its travel time by 8 seconds.

  The Sunflower had traveled 1.8 million kilometers since entering the Opron system, so they were only 2.7 million kilometers from the enemy destroyers. Even though they were facing their enemy, they still had a cushion of 1.8 million kilometers before their missiles went ballistic.

  Shole had also been monitoring the battle, or more precisely monitoring the sensors. However, the expanding dust cloud from the 4 explosions was beginning to block the sensors.

  Shole said, “Sensors confirm that all 4 cruisers were destroyed. However, the dust is now clouding the sensors. We will have significantly reduced visibility until we exit the dust cloud.”

  Jim replied, “Okay. Were you able to obtain an update on the fighters?”

  Shole continued, “The sensors can no longer detect our fighters with any degree of accuracy. However, the last clear scan showed that all fighters were still intact and active.”

  Kolvak heard the word missile and had a sudden revelation. He said, “Captain, the enemy must have launched a torrent of missiles by now. We should already be dead.”

  Kolvak realized that he could have simply minimized the engineering screen on his monitor and opened the navigation application. Or, he could have just looked at it on the main monitor. He decided that wasn’t his job. Then he changed his mind and looked at the main monitor.

  Kolvak saw a completely clear board. There were no in-coming missiles. He said, “How is it possible that all of the missiles exploded before impact? That is simply not possible.”

  Jim replied, “The missiles are not a problem.”

  Kolvak was frustrated. The humans just didn’t seem to realize what he was trying to tell them. He basically repeated his earlier statement, “It still won’t matter. This ship cannot s
top 32 missiles from the two destroyers, let alone the 72 that have already been launched.”

  Jim replied, “Watch playback, section 90.12.14 at time zero (Opron entry) mark 140 seconds.”

  Kolvak watched as the fighters systematically destroyed the missiles. He hadn’t dreamed that a fighter could target a missile, let alone get a kill every time. Now he realized why the captain didn’t seem scared about the enemy’s missiles. For that matter, he also understood why they were not firing defensive missiles. There was no reason to bother if the fighters could shoot the missiles out of space before they arrived.

  Kolvak knew that the captain had expected another response of incredulity or a compliment of the humans’ flying ability. Instead, he decided to stop wondering about things he didn’t understand at the moment and focus on the battle.

  Kolvak replied, “It is fortunate that the sensors are still working properly in the quadrant of space in front of us.”

  Shole said, “Yes. I have an update. Both destroyers are now in motion. They have reversed their direction and are now moving at a speed of .02 light and increasing.

  Jim replied, “Smart. They saw what unopposed fighters can do to a capital ship and they are increasing the range to allow their fighters to launch.”

  Russ commented, “It also increases the length of the missile engagement. I bet they still think they have an advantage. The reality is that over the next three minutes we can fire 70 missiles to their combined 32.”

  Kolvak said, “Possibly more important, by moving away from us they are also moving out of the gravity field. I will perform some more calculations, but it appears that four minutes from now they will exit the gravity field and will be able to jump to hyperspace.”

  Russ asked, “Should we increase speed to prevent them from escaping?”

  Jim replied, “Go up to .07 light. We will allow them to gain a little distance.”

  Shole reported, “Enemy fighters are launching.”

  Kolvak desperately wanted to yell that it was suicide for 40 Alliance fighters to attack 48 enemy fighters. However, this time he didn’t speak. He changed his mind and said, “Captain…”

  Jim replied, “Yes.”

  Kolvak changed his mind again. He decided not to discuss the fighter disparity. Instead, he quickly thought of something else and said, “The debris cloud has intensified behind us. If the battleship moves, we may not be able to detect it.”

  With the debris cloud now behind them, Jim realized that he could once again communicate with his fighters.

  Jim opened a channel to all of the fighters and said, “Alpha, First, and Third Squadrons, report status.”

  “First Squadron, 20 able to fly.”

  “Alpha Squadron, 20 able to fly.”

  “Third Squadron, 18 able to fly.”

  Jim continued, “Alpha squadron, regroup and attack Destroyer designated EnDes100. First squadron, attack EnDes80. Third Squadron regroup and maintain missile over-watch. The destroyers should fire again in about 90 seconds.”

  …………………….

  Paul checked his chronometer. They had been in the system now for exactly 4 minutes. Paul said, “Look alive. The next wave of enemy missiles will be here in 20 seconds.”

  Paul then checked his scanner. The fighter whispered the location of each participant. Both enemy destroyers were at .05 light and steadily retreating. The Sunflower had increased its speed to .07 light and would reach the destroyers in 3 minutes.

  Both destroyers had also launched a full complement of 24 fighters each. The fighters were accelerating independently toward First and Alpha Squadrons. Their paths would intercept momentarily.

  Paul wanted to participate in the looming fighter battle, but wasn’t allowed. Third Squadron’s sole role in this battle was to keep the cruiser safe from enemy missiles. If they were to abandon it, the Sunflower could be destroyed by enemy fire.

  Besides, the other two squadrons had roared ahead to intercept the enemy fighters. At this point they were approximately 2.4 million kilometers from the other two squadrons. At full blast of .18 light it would take 40 seconds to reach them. The fighter battle would more than likely be over by then.

  Paul positioned the squadron 400,000 kilometers (242,000 miles) in front of their cruiser. This would give the Sunflower’s defensive lasers 7 seconds to target and hopefully kill any missiles that Paul’s squadron missed.

  They were in luck; one of the two destroyers had panicked and fired 8 defensive missiles. Therefore, they were only being targeted by 24 in-coming missiles. Easy peasy, Paul thought. That is less than two apiece.

  Paul said, “Third Squadron, advance target the missiles. I want to make sure that every missile is targeted at least once. Fire when ready. Good luck everyone.”

  Each fighter fired a quick directional laser at the two missiles they were planning on shooting. Paul noted that every missile was targeted by someone. Time seemed to slow down as the few remaining seconds ticked down. Finally, it was time. Paul targeted the first missile and fired. He hit it. He targeted the second, fired, and registered a second hit.

  Paul scanned the area for remaining missiles. Not that it mattered, though. If there were any left his squadron could not catch them. He smiled as he received the final count. His squadron had fired 24 times and scored 24 hits.

  Paul did a quick calculation. Those missiles had been fired 53 seconds ago. There was another 117 seconds until the enemy destroyers could fire again. The Sunflower would reach the enemy ships in another 162 seconds.

  Paul opened a channel to his squadron and said, “Nice work men. Get back in formation and stay alert. The enemy may be able to fire another time before we reach them.

  …………………….

  Russ said, “We are now close enough to get a very accurate scan of the enemy destroyers. He continued, “Computer, analyze the two destroyers.”

  …The enemy destroyers are both newer model D161’s. It is assumed that they have 8 missile launchers per side, 24 fighters each, and have smaller sized ion cannons...

  The Sunflower was now moving at .07 light. After an intentional delay of two minutes to let the two fighter wings regroup, Russ matched the acceleration of the enemy ships. The enemy couldn’t get away unless they got free of the gravity field and jumped to hyperspace.

  And according to Kolvak’s updated calculations, the additional time would not be an issue – the enemy would still be stuck in the gravity field. So, the only change was that the time to impact had increased from 5 minutes to 7 minutes; or 3 minutes from now.

  However, the delay meant that Jim had to recalculate the vector for the ion cannon shot. It was a relatively simple math problem for anyone that enjoyed solving complex math problems. Jim double checked his calculations, but he knew they were right. He had solved this particular equation many, many times in simulations and the answer just felt right.

  Russ said, “Two trains leave the station heading toward each other different speeds. How long does it take until they smash into each other?”

  Jim laughed. However, Russ had a point. Calculating the distance for firing an ion cannon between two moving space ships was essentially the same as calculating the distance to impact for two trains. Jim had to factor in the relative speed of the two ships and compute an intercept vector.

  Therefore, they had to be close enough to ensure that the beam would strike the enemy ship before it could take evasive action. Obviously, point blank was preferred. An enemy ship moving at a steady pace and on a steady course was also helpful.

  However, the confusing part about the entire calculation was light itself. Light travels at the speed of light, or roughly 300,000 kilometers per second. An ion cannon beam travels at the speed of light. Lasers, or active scanners, also travel at the speed of light.

  An active scanner functions by sending a laser beam of light toward an object. The scan rate is typically every 0.1second, but is generally can be increased to 0.01 second during combat. The beam of l
ight hits an object and bounces back.

  The system works wonderfully for detecting an object moving slower than the speed of light. It doesn’t work very well for something traveling at the speed of light. Therefore, one could theoretically fire an ion cannon across an entire solar system and the intended target would not be able to detect it using active scanners.

  So, the most reliable way that ships had to detect whether someone fired an ion cannon at them was to wait and see if the blast hits them. Slightly less reliable, but certainly preferable, was to detect a fluctuation in an enemy ship’s power signature before it fired.

  Just before an ion cannon fires, stored electricity flows into a reaction chamber where the atoms are superheated and bombarded with radioactive polonium to strip the positive electrons from the atoms and create negatively charged, or ionized, atoms. This process takes at least 20 seconds to complete and the time is dependent on the size of the ion cannon.

  Therefore, the only way to hit a moving enemy ship with an ion cannon was to accurately anticipate exactly where it would be 20 seconds from the time one prepared to fire. Alternatively, one could arm the ion cannon and then get so close to the enemy that they didn’t have time to dodge.

  Jim’s initial ion cannon firing pattern was now incorrect. He sent an updated one to Russ so that he could update the cruiser’s course to accommodate. Russ responded, “Course correction has been inputted. Time to target is now mark 157 seconds.”

  That completed, Jim checked the status of the Sunflower’s offensive missiles. Their ship had maintained a steady rate of fire during the headlong chase. The first 4 volleys had been aimed at the enemy cruisers and were fired at time 0 mark 38, 63, 88, and 113 seconds respectively.

  Over the course of the next two minutes, the Sunflower fired another 5 times – at 138, 163, 188, 213, and 238 seconds. These volleys were directed at the enemy destroyer designated EnDes80. The first missiles fired at the destroyer had a flight time of 53 seconds and each successive shot was taking less time to reach the target.

  The first four volleys should already have hit the destroyer; at time 191, 209, 229, and 248 seconds respectively. The fifth volley was scheduled to impact the destroyer at 269 seconds – or 7 seconds from now.