by Jeff Sims
Solear said, “We need the fighters to launch in about two hours. You should probably head down there and give them a speech.”
Getting the fighters to launch was an arduous task. The automated fire control systems of the enemy fighters were so good, that if a battle ensued, very few of his fighters would return. Of course, their automated fire systems were also very good, so the enemy fighters would take heavy casualties as well.
This fact had made all previous battles save one consist only of posturing, fleet maneuvers, and angry communications. Neither side really wanted to lose a large contingent of fighters or worse yet a cruiser. If one side was outmatched, they would simply jump into hyperspace before the other could engage. A ship that got trapped inside the hyper limit generally surrendered before getting destroyed.
Since Carank, the weapons officer, was currently off of the bridge, the pilot was responsible to watch both stations. Captain Solear started to talk to her, but Ella seemed to be consumed by her duties.
Ella was a Solarian, the third species in the Alliance. Like all other Solarians, Ella had beautiful, light blue skin, a slight frame, and was a centimeter shorter than the other two species. She was often the butt of well- intended jokes because of her species’ physical resemblance to humans. The standing joke when she messed up was, “Don’t worry; after all, you’re only human.”
Ella (or any Solarian) could pass for a human if she wore make-up or had her skin bleached. She would appear shorter and thinner than most, around 15 centimeters (6”) shorter than the average human female.
Solarians were generally the exception to the pronunciation rule because their names were pronounceable by both the Altians and the Advranki. Therefore, Ella was her actual name, not a combination of letters.
Since she looked busy, Captain Solear decided not to bother her. He then reconsidered and said, “Ella, can you tell me the weapons status?”
After a moment’s hesitation, Ella replied, “The ion cannon is fully charged and all 10 missile bays report ready to fire. All 20 fighters are fueled and ready for launch.”
The ion cannon is the ship’s primary offensive weapon. The weapon is huge – the muzzle runs from the stern to the stem of the ship. It fires a concentrated beam of light so powerful that one blast will destroy an enemy’s shields and knock out main power. A fully shielded ship would be rendered unprotected and unable to move. A partially shielded ship would be disintegrated.
The main drawback to the cannon is that it requires a tremendous amount of energy to fire. Sunflower will only get one shot during this engagement because it takes four hours for the batteries to recharge. Further, the ion cannon shares energy reserves with the hyperspace drive. If the ion cannon is fired, Sunflower will be stranded in this system; unable to jump to hyperspace until the energy reserves are recharged.
The information about the fighters should have come from the commander, but he had already exited the bridge. Solear was pleased that Ella had realized this and commented, “Thanks Ella, nice job including an update on the fighters. How are the shields?”
The shields were at full strength. The Captain could easily see the status from his command chair. However, it was the most subtle way he could find to remind Ella that a shield status should be included in the weapon status.
Ella replied, “98.8%.” The percentage was announced and understood as measure of strength; but it was also technically a measure of efficiency and an inverse measure of volume. The higher the percent of shield strength meant that the coverage envelope around the ship was smaller. A smaller envelope provided a better barrier against missile attack.
The enemy reply came back in exactly 15 minutes and was not helpful. The enemy had stated that the Opron system was recently annexed by the Hiriculans and that the Hiriculan ambassador at Advranki Prime had filed all necessary paperwork. Therefore, this was Hiriculan space until the binding arbitration panel reviewed and ruled on the application. The fact that the paperwork violated the treaty and would be summarily rejected by the panel was omitted from the response.
“The enemy is changing speed and bearing,” exclaimed Clowy.
The Captain barked, “Computer, analysis.”
…The enemy fleet is increasing to a speed of .05 light and is adjusting course. The ships will curve toward and then away from us on an elliptical plane. Time to intercept is 18 minutes…
“The enemy has outmaneuvered us,” said Arean.
“True,” said Captain Solear. “Options anyone?”
The enemy’s curved flight path meant that they will shrink the missile engagement envelope to only a few seconds and will stay completely out of ion cannon range. Each group will only get one missile volley before the ships are out of effective, powered missile range. However, the Alliance fleet has to fire its missiles in the next few moments to hit the enemy ships while the enemy could wait another 4 minutes before firing. The log will show that the Alliance fired first and the Hiriculan fleet had no choice but to defend itself.
Solear could order his fleet to begin chasing the enemy to increase the weapons engagement window and bring the ion cannons back into range. However, the enemy could simply increase speed as well. With the enemy’s initial velocity advantage, his fleet would not catch them. He decided not to fire the missiles. He would not be the one to initiate the conflict.
It was at this point that Ella did something, by all accounts, dumb.
She had seen a hail that appeared to be from another ship, answered it without thinking, and was greeted by Lorano leering at her through the screen.
“Hello human,” said Lorano.
“I am not a human,” Ella responded.
“Well, you look like a human” responded Lorano.
“Do not,” Ella retorted. At this point though she knew she had lost the argument.
Lorano responded, “Humans have white, black, brown, and yellow skin. Some are as short as you. Who’s to say there aren’t blue ones we haven’t observed yet.” He was smiling broadly and clearly enjoying the exchange.
“I was born on Solaria, not, not … Human world,” Ella responded. She felt silly for having forgotten the name of humanity’s planet. “Have you even ever met a human?”
“Yes, I am looking at one now,” Lorano sneered.
Ella became visibly upset and shouted, “Well, you look like an Altian, but you are clearly an ass!”
The upcoming battle momentarily forgotten, Captain ordered Ella off the bridge to compose herself. Clowy graciously volunteered to accompany her. He mentally counted to twenty while they exited. Arean walked over and stood next to the Captain, who then addressed Lorano. “What can I do for you?”
Lorano responded, “I command that you move Sunflower behind the other two ships.”
“Why?” asked the Captain; though he already knew the answer. He just wanted the personal victory of hearing Lorano say it.
Lorano made no point to hide his intentions. He simply stated, “Because I’m aboard.” He must have realized when the words were spoken aloud that they sounded insensitive, so he added, “Really, it’s simple Captain. I am worth more than the lives of everyone else aboard either the Justice or the Protector.”
Captain Solear ran his green fingers through his hair. Per current Advranki fashion, he was growing it long – just above his ears. He knew that if he outright rejected the request that Lorano would file a complaint with fleet headquarters. He answered, “It is too late to change formation. If only you had told me 15 minutes earlier we could have changed our attack pattern to accommodate your request.”
“Well, what I am to do now?” questioned Lorano.
The Captain responded, “Come to Sunflower’s bridge. It will be sealed for battle. You will be safe here even if Sunflower is struck by the destroyer’s ion cannon.”
Solear thought it was odd that Lorano wouldn’t have thought of that since he had basically designed the ship. Sunflower may not fly after a direct hit from the destroyer’s ion cannon, b
ut the bridge would certainly be intact and functional.
“Thank you Captain,” Lorano responded. “However, I want you to know that I did in fact try to signal you earlier.”
“The message was garbled and we didn’t receive it. Something may be wrong with our communications gear. You can diagnose it yourself when you reach the bridge. No time for further discussion,” said Solear. “Go now!”
Fortunately, the communications equipment was located in the lowest section of the bridge, keeping Lorano away from the main section and the bridge crew. Hopefully, the task of reviewing the communications gear would keep Lorano busy for quite a while.
The cruiser is the second smallest designation of ship in the fleet. There are three other classes: corvette, destroyer, and battleship. In relative terms, a battleship is twice as big as a destroyer which is twice as big as a cruiser. A corvette is tiny in comparison and is used primarily to shuttle officers or important communications.
Fighters are technically the smallest vessel, but they are considered fighters, not ships. The final category of fleet vessel is a transport. A transport is just bigger than a fighter and can dock in a cruiser. It is considered a boat.
In literal terms though, a cruiser is really big. It is 100 meters long, 10 meters wide, and separated into five main areas. The bridge, located is in the center of the ship, is separately armored and has its own power generator. It is almost a ship within a ship. This generator serves as the backup power supply for the ship.
The back of the cruiser contains the main power generator, the hyper-drive unit, engineering, and crew quarters. There is also a small infirmary here. The front of the ship houses the fighter bay, maintenance area, missile storage, and the crew exercise / entertainment area. The ion cannon fills the entire lower section of the ship and the 5 missile launchers are spread evenly along each side of the hull, just above the cannon.
Each cruiser was manned by 50 people; 5 officers in the bridge, 5 people in engineering, 20 fighter pilots, and 20 for all other duties. During battle though, the 20 would split into 10 teams of two and man the missile launchers.
By this point the enemy had reached the engagement window and had launched all 60 fighters. They had changed course again and were now going in a large circle that would bring them back to weapons range in 25 minutes.
Fighters were a real problem for a capital ship. Because of their small size, they were difficult to target with either point defense lasers or missiles. Further, a fighter will fire a missile from a very short range, almost ensuring a hit. A direct hit on a shield generator node could destroy it and make a portion of the ship unshielded. Several fighters could then follow and target the unshielded area. The fear was that a coordinated fighter attack could damage the ship enough that it would not be able to jump into hyperspace.
Arean had signaled for the two females to return, verified Lorano was safely inside, sealed the bridge, and ordered the crew to battle stations. He then looked at the Captain and asked, “Shall we launch?”
The Captain nodded. Arean ordered the fighters to launch. Captain Solear contacted the other ships and ordered their fighters to launch as well.
“Proximity alert,” announced Clowy. “There is an object just off our port bow.”
Wait for it, thought the Captain. Calmly now! Just wait. No reason to respond.
“I have identified the bogey. It’s our fighter!” exclaimed Clowy.
A cheer went up through the bridge. It had only taken 5 minutes from the time the launch order was given until the first fighter was launched. One really never knew when or if the fighters would launch. He did notice though that the Protector had beaten the Sunflower’s launch by 20 seconds.
The enemy fighters had moved into their favorite configuration, the rectangle formation. There were three even rows of 20 fighters, with the top and bottom rows just slightly behind the middle row. The enemy fighters were the same shape, size, and configuration as the Alliance fighters. There were several minor cosmetic changes though. The atmospheric wings were swept back a little more, the coloring was different, and the fighter boasted a slightly different weapons package.
The original Alliance had included the Advranki, the Altians, and the Hiriculans. All was fine initially, but the Hiriculans became unhappy with the nearly everything. They argued about the best method to build ships, fleet training, Alliance space versus territorial space, breeding rights, and especially how the Alliance should be governed. After several years, they left the Alliance. After several more, they decided that they wanted to re-organize the Alliance with themselves as the ruling race and all others as “equal” (translation slightly lower class) partner races. The Solarians joined the Alliance shortly after the Hiriculans left.
All 60 Alliance fighters had launched and had set course for the enemy. They aligned into a straight rectangle formation of three rows of 20 fighters. This formation would limit the effectiveness of the enemy formation and basically create a situation of every fighter for himself. There hadn’t been an actual dogfight in the 38 years since the Hiriculans left the Alliance and Captain Solear doubted there would be one today.
He was wrong.
The enemy fighters in the lead group launched attack missiles. The two trailing wings launched counter attack missiles and prepared to loop. The loop was a classic maneuver. The upper fighters swoop up and then down and the lower fighters swoop down and then up. This aligns the nose of the fighter with the body of the opposing fighter and gives the pilot a devastating shot.
Commander Arean couldn’t believe the enemy had actually launched missiles. He was stunned, and for a moment couldn’t move. Fortunately, he remembered his training and said, “All fighters you are free to engage the enemy. Attack at will.”
The Alliance fighters launched an initial barrage of missiles and split formation to avoid the on-coming loop. Counter missiles sought missiles, missiles sought fighters and fighters tried to establish a lock on enemy fighters. The enemy fighters had broken past the initial engagement. Since both sets of fighters were facing each other during the initial pass, they were for the most part, now tail to tail. As the Alliance wing was turning for another pass, the enemy fighters had a choice – turn back toward the Alliance fighters or continue toward the Alliance cruisers.
Captain Solear tried to influence the enemy’s decision by ordering a full round of anti-fighter missiles to be fired. The enemy fighters turned away from the Alliance cruisers and up and away from the remaining Alliance fighters. It was clear the Hiriculan fighters were leaving.
The Alliance fighters easily had the range and speed to catch the enemy fighters before they rendezvoused with their ships. He considered ordering his fighters to pursue, but paused a moment. He said, “Computer, analysis.”
…The enemy fighters are retreating, but retain full combat capability. The Alliance fighters can engage them, but will be unable to do so until they are in range of the enemy’s capital ships. There is an 85% probability that our fighters will suffer nearly 50% casualties in a second pass…
That decided it. “Clowy, signal all fighters to return. Launch the recovery shuttle.”
“Should I directly signal the fighters to return?” she asked.
“Yes,” he responded, then said, “Carank, do you have a count on the fighters.”
Carank said, “Not yet. We are still receiving telemetry. I can confirm though that there are several life pods that need to be retrieved.”
As the fighters neared the cruisers and prepared to dock, Carank had finished the tally from the battle. The pass had literally decimated the Alliance fighters - six planes had been destroyed; their pilots dead. Eight more fighters had been destroyed, but their pilots had ejected in time. Eight others had been damaged to varying degrees, but were still flyable.
The enemy had fared much worse. Eighteen of their fighters had been destroyed, with no surviving pilots. Three others had been lightly damaged and were able to return to their fleet. The destroyer
and the two cruisers picked up the remaining fighters and headed back toward the hyperspace lane that led toward Hiricula.
It was a tradition for the weapons officer to give a formal account of the battle when all surviving fighters were aboard. Carank stood and the other four crew members on the bridge joined him. He broadcast throughout the ship, “Today we launched 20 brave and noble fighters. They fought valiantly, scoring a total of 7 hits and 6 kills. Fourteen fighters returned and three additional pilots were recovered in life pods. Three were killed in the battle.”
After a moment of silent reflection by the bridge crew, Clowy announced, “We are receiving a hail from the Justice.”
“You’re welcome,” answered Lorano as he strode onto the bridge. “I have fixed the communications system. It was the secondary by-pass router.”
“Wait,” asked Clowy, “Why would we ever need to by-pass the secondary system?”
Lorano laughed and answered, “It doesn’t do that. The secondary by-pass router is technically the button you push to use the emergency back-up system. It had created a small feedback loop that was causing the issue. I had never seen one fail like that, it took me quite a while to diagnose it.”
Captain Solear looked over at Carank, who simply smiled back and winked knowingly. The Captain mouthed a thank you to Carank and said, “Clowy, please answer the hail.”
“Captain Solear,” said Captain Dalan, the captain of the Justice, “I had some of the debris from the enemy fighter brought on board. We found something unusual in the wreckage and really don’t know what it means. We need help analyzing it.”
Captain Solear was angry at himself for not thinking of inspecting the debris. The enemy had certainly acted strangely and there may be clues in the wreckage. From the sound of the message, the answer may be in the debris. He answered, “What is it, a new metal or type of weapon?”
