by Jeff Sims
The enemy would attack straight ahead with one row, then have the top row loop up and back down and the bottom row loop down and back up. Both looping rows would catch the Alliance fighters in a pinch between them and easily kill them. The trailing row would then make its pass and destroy any stragglers.
The Alliance fighters had been flying in the standard box formation of two rows of 10 fighters – one row on top of the other. This formation was thought to be the best defensive formation against the double loop because it seemingly cancelled the enemy’s ability to loop the bottom set of fighters and gave the Alliance fighters a better chance of surviving.
Jim Donovan had seen this enemy formation in simulations many times. In the simulation, every time the two lines approached, the Hiriculan fighters would make a sudden, last minute formation change. They would have the back row of 10 fighters accelerate hard and become the new bottom row. Now, the enemy alignment consisted of four rows of 10 fighters. Then, the bottom row would now be free to perform the bottom loop.
Jim’s (and all of the other humans) enhanced awareness allowed him to feel the whisper of the enemy formation change almost before it happened. Jim spoke over the fighter to fighter channel and said, “Line up, pattern tailgate, you know the drill. Execute now.”
The Alliance fighters had been flying in a standard formation, but had flying much closer to each other than Alliance Navy regulation suggested was appropriate. However, the tighter formation allowed them to make their formation change at literally the last available moment.
Jim took a deep breath. He was utterly calm and relaxed and completely focused in the moment. The fighter was feeding him information at a lightning pace and he was easily processing it. He instinctively knew it was time. The Hiriculans had started their loops and were committed. He also knew that every other human pilot knew. There was no need to even announce the Hiriculan formation change.
At that millisecond the 10 fighters in the bottom row decelerated momentarily and swung up and behind the first row of fighters. Now, these trailing fighters were out of position; the bottom loop of Hiriculan fighters would pass right in front of them.
The 10 fighters in the top row accelerated and swung down. Now they were out of position; the top loop of Hiriculan fighters also would fly right behind them. Unfortunately for the Hiriculan fighters, this means that they too would pass directly in front of the trailing row of Alliance fighters. The leading fighters had initially been facing the second row of Hiriculan fighters. However, when they swung down, they were now facing the third row.
The leading Alliance fighters fired three missiles each. The first was a dummy missile aimed at the straight ahead location of the second (now top) row of Hiriculan fighters. This row of fighters was normally confused in the simulation because they were not looping and were no longer face to face with Alliance fighters. Their behavior was predicable; they normally flew straight ahead and tried to target any Alliance fighter they could find.
These first ten dummy missiles were fired in a crisscross pattern to make it appear more random and less likely to attract the enemy’s attention. In the simulation, sometimes it worked and the enemy fighters ran headlong into the missile and sometimes they made a maneuver. The interesting point is that their ability maneuver was limited. They couldn’t go down or they would risk hitting the fighter below them. They could go left or right to a limited degree, but again they would risk hitting a fighter. The only direction readily available was up.
The trailing Alliance fighters also fired 10 dummy missiles in the same crisscross pattern and targeted at the same row of enemy fighters. However, these missiles were aimed at a point just above the second (now upper) row. Now, if the enemy stayed straight, they would get hit and if they went up, they also would get hit.
The leading row then fired their second missile with the computer guidance enabled. It was aimed at the third (now bottom) row of Hriculan fighters. This was the row directly in front of them. The enemy fighter would immediately react to the guided missile. This row had much more available space to make a course change. They could go left, right, or down. However, the maneuver was still predictable once the direction of the initial course change was identified.
When the enemy fighters made their defensive maneuvers, the leading row identified the direction (down, left, or right). They then fired their third, dummy missile at that location. If the enemy’s move was predictable, the result was even more so. The dummy missile would strike and then the guided missile would inevitably follow.
The trailing row of Alliance fighters then waited another 17 seconds and fired two guided missiles at point blank range, one at the corresponding fighter looping in from the bottom and one at the fighter in from the top.
The Alliance fighters then made individual defensive maneuvers to avoid the on-coming missiles. There were defensive fighter-to-fighter missiles, but there was not enough time or distance for them to be effective. Only the enemy pilots in the in the third row had fired a missile, so there were only a total of 10 missiles targeting the Alliance fighters.
Ella had put the fighter battle on the main viewer. At this distance the images were only delayed a few seconds. All five officers silently watched the formation changes and the battle. There was little else they could or wanted to do at the moment. The camera angle was fair and they were able to get a decent picture until the missiles exploded.
Arean yelled, “What happened. Are any of ours still alive?”
Ella yelled back, “Scanning. Unclear, a debris cloud has formed where the missiles exploded. There is far too much debris to provide exact numbers or really any reliable counts.”
Arean said, “The computer will have to reconstruct the battle by relating scans of each fighter before and after the pass. It may take up to 30 minutes to get an accurate picture.
Solear said, “What do we know?”
Ella said, “Some of our fighters did make it through the initial pass. A small group of them have broken off and are proceeding directly to the destroyers.”
Solear said, “Arean, why would some break off the battle and head for the destroyers?”
Arean said, “I would theorize that they intend to force the Hiriculans to choose whether to defend their destroyers or continue on their initial path and attack us.”
Solear said, “Perhaps, but your order was specifically to defend the ship at all costs. This seems like a huge gamble on their part.”
Arean said, “I hate to say this out loud, but perhaps the humans believe we are all dead and just want to attack the destroyer for glory before being killed.”
Ella said, “We will know the answer soon enough. I have a partial scan showing some of the fighters are indeed flying toward the destroyers.”
Jim easily dodged the missile aimed at him and then destroyed it with a defensive missile. The enemy had targeted his squadron on a one for one basis, so each fighter only had one return missile to dodge. Jim reformed his leading row and headed for the two destroyers. He calmly scanned the entire area. There were 8 fighters defending the ship that would have to be destroyed first, but that shouldn’t be a problem.
They reached the destroyers and targeted the 8 Hiriculan fighters. They repeated the firing maneuver. They fired a guided missile and watched for the enemy’s initial reaction, then fired a dummy missile at that location. Jim didn’t bother to verify if he had a scored a hit. He already knew the answer. These enemy fighters hadn’t fired a missile single missile in response.
He opened the fighter only channel and said, “The road is clear. Ace, Blaze, you’re up. Execute operation pancake.” It was time to flatten the enemy.
Jim and the other fighters in the attacking squadron peeled off and completed a loop. They slowed down and headed back toward the cruiser.
Ace and Blaze continued to the Hiriculan destroyers. Ace was the best pilot in the squadron and Blaze was number two. They would attack the destroyers alone. The simulations, and for that matter the
final examination, had shown that only one fighter was required. There was little need to send more; they would either get in the way or create magnificent overkill.
Ace smiled. He directed his shields to the front because no one was chasing him this time. The destroyer’s defensive lasers started firing at him. He noted that they were already firing offensive missiles. Good, he thought, one less thing to worry about.
Ace dodged left, then right, then back to the left, and left again. The destroyer’s defensive lasers didn’t touch him. He simply reacted too quickly for them to lock on to him. He fired three shield buster missiles at the shield deflector directly over the destroyer’s power plant. He scored three direct hits and succeeded in lowering that section of shields. He then fired his homing beacon at the unshielded portion of the destroyer and began his loop around the doomed destroyer.
Lexxi announced each missile volley from the enemy destroyers as it was fired. She tried to think of creative names to call them. She had named the first volley ‘hello’. She said, “The enemy destroyers have fired 24 missiles at time mark 17 minutes. Time to impact is 4 minutes. What a fine way to say hello.”
When the second volley was launched three minutes later, Lexxi again announced it. She named this one ‘downer’. She said, “I have to report a real downer, the second volley has launched. Time to impact is 4 minutes.
She also launched the 10 defensive missiles at the same time. The defensive missiles set up a perimeter and tried to stop the 24 on-coming missiles. One Hiriculan missile died, then two, then four, and finally eight. Lexxi announced, “Defensive missiles launched and activated. They were only 80% effective.”
Solear thought, only 80% effective. His nightmare had come true. The Hiriculans had drastically improved their offensive missile technology. They had only stopped 8 of the 24 in the first volley. They may be able to withstand the first 16 hits, but they would not live through the second one.
Clowy had been monitoring the missile pattern. She said, “Captain, the 16 remaining missiles are all targeting different parts of the ship. The pattern seems evenly dispersed.”
Solear knew what that meant. They would receive hits all over the ship. The shields would more than likely go down and a lucky strike may also cripple the power generator. He was certain the Hiriculan commander had intentionally fired the missiles in this pattern. The ship would take a terrible beating. More than likely, one or more of the hits would penetrate the hull and expose the ship to space.
Several crew members would probably die and many more would be injured, but the ship should be relatively intact. The key issue was that once they lost hull integrity, they would no longer be able to jump to hyperspace.
The doubled walled and independently shielded bridge would survive intact, so the bridge crew should be okay. Solear was guessing that the Hiriculan commander would give them another final warning and a chance to surrender after the first volley of missiles struck.
Solear would have to make a decision he really didn’t want to have to make. He knew there were at least a few fighters still active. They hadn’t been able to get an accurate count yet due to the dust cloud from the initial pass and the fact that the fighters were operating independently.
Solear briefly thought about the kill switch on his com pad. It was set to trigger a bomb in a particular Alliance fighter and completely destroy the human inside. It was virtually the same bomb configuration that had been used by the Hiriculans in Sunflower’s previous battle. The Hiriculans had blown up the damaged fighters to try to keep the Alliance from discovering their pilots’ were Netos.
Now here he was with a similar decision to make. He would more than likely be given the 3 minutes between the first missile volley and the second to surrender. That is how civilized beings conducted warfare. With one exception, every conflict in the history of the Alliance Navy had ended with one side given the opportunity to surrender and being allowed to do so.
Three minutes did not seem enough time to make the horrific decision required of him – let everyone on his ship die in a pointless battle or save himself and most of his crew by pressing a button and eradicating all human pilots still living. It was one thing to kill the lone pilot whose ship was blown up and was probably already dying from exposure, it was quite another to commit genocide.
Arean pushed the button for ship-wide communication and said, “All hands, brace for impact in 40 seconds.”
Ella said, “Captain, some of the fighters that did not proceed to the destroyer are flying back toward the ship. They are traveling at .23 light and are directly behind the missiles. The scan just detected them when they cleared the dust cloud.”
Lexxi said, “Well, they should have a great view of us getting pounded by missiles.”
Ella said, “Captain, an enemy missile just disappeared. A moment ago there were 32 remaining missiles from the two volleys and now there are only 31.”
Solear responded, “Maybe it got confused by the electronic warfare package.”
Ella said, “There goes another one, and another and another.”
They looked at the incoming plot. Ella was correct. There were only 24 missiles left – now 23, now 22. One by one the missiles winked out of existence. The ones in the second volley disappeared first and the ones in the first volley now started disappearing.
There were only 4 missiles left, all from the first volley. They were going to impact in 5 seconds. Ella closed her eyes and slowly counted to five. Nothing happened. She was concerned that she had counted too quickly, so she counted to seven just in case.
Nothing happened. She quickly opened her eyes again and checked the board. She said, “Captain, we have a clear board. All of the missiles have exploded short of the Sunflower.
Solear shouted, “How?”
Ella responded, “Our fighters. It appears that our fighters shot down all of the incoming missiles.” She smiled and clapped her hands, clearly overjoyed.
Clowy asked, “We’re still alive?”
Solear asked, “Commander is it possible for a fighter to shoot down an in-coming missile?”
Arean said, “No, the missiles are too small to hit, even with the advanced electronics on all of our missiles. That is also why we use chaff and false electronic signatures on our ship’s defensive missiles. It is simply too difficult to hit a tiny missile moving at an incredible speed.”
Solear said, “And yet the humans apparently just shot down 32 missiles without issue. Computer, please perform an analysis.”
…Analysis complete. 79.8%. The exterior camera’s view was distorted by the debris and high speed, but it appears that the Alliance fighters fired 32 times and destroyed 32 missiles…
Lexxi said, “Not only did they hit missiles that can’t be hit, but they hit them every time they shot at them. Is that more or less impossible?”
At this exact moment the third volley of missiles was launched from the two Hiriculan destroyers. This time though, the destroyers fired only offensive missiles. Lexxi had run out of clever names and asked Clowy for one. Lexxi announced, “The enemy just fired 32 more missiles, to what end I do not know.”
Too many things were happening at once. Information was coming in at a frenetic pace and most of it was scrambled or unclear. Arean was having a nearly impossible time tracking the fighters. However, he did note that two fighters’ homing beacons collided with the enemy destroyers. He reported, “The two fighters that were attacking the destroyers have been destroyed. It is quite possible that they rammed into the destroyers.”
Solear said, “Did the destroyers sustain any damage?”
Ella reported, “Negligible damage. The only thing I can see is that a small portion of both destroyers’ shields are fluctuating.”
What a waste, thought Solear. Ramming into the enemy ships had had no effect. Despite this incident, he was impressed by the humans’ performance. They had temporarily saved the ship (and themselves he amended). The Hiriculans could only fire 3 more volleys unt
il the Sunflower could jump. If the humans could somehow stop these next three waves, they could survive.
However, this raised a new issue. It took just over 8 minutes for the fighters to safely land back on the cruiser. Further, the fighters would have to match speed with the cruiser before they could attempt to dock. This was much more complicated than it sounds. The cruiser is moving forward at a current speed of .12 light and increasing.
To dock, the fighter would have to first catch the cruiser, make a high speed turn either left or right, align their fighter perfectly perpendicular to the ship, and finally fly through a narrow docking bay. The maneuver is similar to a motorcycle trying to chase a train and then jumping between boxcars at a railroad crossing.
Lexxi then looked at her board. Something confusing was happening. She had learned quite a bit about the weapons systems over the past couple of weeks, but this message was completely new to her. She looked over at Arean, but he seemed busy trying to track the fighters’ progress.
It looked too important to ignore, so she interrupted him. She said, “Arean, I need your help. I have a strange malfunction or something. It doesn’t make sense.”
Arean looked up, saw the particular warning and also looked perplexed. He said, “Someone is stealing our missiles. Computer, analysis.
…The 15 missiles that were launched earlier have been hacked. They are being reprogrammed…
Solear also looked up. He said, “By whom, for what?”
Lexxi couldn’t answer either question. However, she was now receiving more information. She said, “The missiles are active and moving under their own power again. They are turning and splitting formation. Seven are headed for one destroyer and seven at the other. Both are getting 5 shield buster missiles and 2 ship busters.”
Solear asked, “What about the fifth ship buster missile?”
