Plank studied the number of ships to be employed, and their proposed dispersion. He knew Lord Dankel would be doing the same.
The attack was to be made in an arrowhead formation. Two ships at its tip, another six ships down each of the arrowhead’s sides. Making fourteen ships in all.
Then a second, identical wave of ships would follow, three light minutes behind.
This meant, that not counting Lord Dankel’s ships, he would have to use twenty-eight of the combat-ready ships available to him, out of his original forty-three.
Unfortunately, he had already lost three vessels to another group of aliens. And, rightly or wrongly, he’d sent another eleven Star Destroyers to hunt them down.
Encouragingly, Captain Prudick had reported, via their hyperlink, that his ships had already had some success.
However, something else was bothering him. Plank had a nagging feeling of unease as to the whereabouts of his Star Destroyer, Z231.
As he continued studying the proposed Battle Plan, Plank noted that Lord Dankel’s five ships were to remain in situ. And mentally cursed Dankel for choosing to stay well back for the coming battle.
‘So, Dankel and his ships will be able to watch the battle unfold while staying safely out of harm's way,’ he thought to himself.
Then Plank, on realizing his mental error, was thankful not to have use of a companion brain anymore. Otherwise, his companion would have been obliged to pass his thoughts directly to Lord Dankel’s own Companion brain, with dire consequences, no doubt.
And, relieved that he hadn’t committed a fatal error, Plank went on reading to the end of the plan.
“All Ships, execute my AI’s attack formation, now,” Plank finally instructed.
On hearing this, Captain Tisk, Science officer Lieutenant Isko, and Weapons Officer Lieutenant Ecoric sprung into action, sending instructions out to crew members and marines alike.
Excellency Plank felt his ship’s movement, and looking at his screen saw the other ships, also moving into their allocated attack positions, under the direction of their AIs.
Plank was still feeling nervous about these alien creatures’ mental abilities. Nevertheless, Lord Dankel had forced him to commit to action. Unfortunately, Plank also knew that, if all went wrong, Lord Dankel would pass the blame straight onto him.
Three minutes passed before Plank’s attack fleet was in position, and ready to Jump.
Two hundred kilometers out, a small flash occurred. Five seconds later, another, but larger.
Both went unnoticed.
Chapter 7
Despair
Lieutenant Gort, Jefferson’s Weapons officer, sounded jubilant as data and images came to life on his display.
“Probe’s in, Admiral.”
“Share it with all ships, Lieutenant,” Winton ordered.
The probe’s five seconds worth of images and data on the Garoden fleet were then recorded as they scrolled across all the ships displays.
“Fantastic,” Captain Garret exclaimed, as he studied the information.
The images showed the Garoden fleet in two separate arrowhead-shaped attack formations. A label overlaid on each ship on the screen showed its size and the ship-to-ship separation distances.
“Well, I reckon our goose has been well and truly cooked,” Lieutenant Farrow glumly said. Not having been able to resist uttering the pun, as the last image froze on the main screen.
“Not a very helpful conclusion for a science officer to make,” Lieutenant Gort grumbled as he carefully studied the footage.
“In my opinion, if our ships Jump straight to the rendezvous point from here, that wouldn’t leave enough time for us to disrupt our wormhole threads before the Garodens could get a lock on us,” Farrow explained.
“I agree,” Anna confirmed.
Then Captain Ted Garret noticed that Lieutenant Gort was itching to add something to the mix.
“Lieutenant?” He prompted.
“Can Anna make overlays, indicating the missile launch areas on the two Garoden ships at the tip of the first arrowhead. And, for the rest of the Garoden ships on the inside of the first formation.”
“Yes… please wait one moment…Right. My initial analysis puts the first two vessels just six kilometers apart,” the AI stated, as the requested red overlays appeared on each Garoden ship in the formation.
“Are you thinking of going straight down, and through the middle of the Garoden ship’s formation, Lieutenant?”
“Possibly, Anna. Doing that would provide the Garodens with a smaller target. And, it would maximize our weapons capability as we pass through the formation’s center.
Then, as we move the rest of our ships through we should encounter less of their firepower. Plus, the Garodens will have to be careful not to hit their own ships on the other side of the arrow head.”
“That’s my conclusion as well, Lieutenant,” the AI stated.
“Admiral?” His AI queried.
Winton didn’t reply straight away. As, even though, all ships AI’s would have already revised their interpretation to correspond with the strategy of Jefferson’s AI. Nevertheless, Fleet Admiral Winton still needed to weigh up the options for himself.
‘Yes, Lieutenant Gort was absolutely correct,’ he thought to himself. ‘And, the Garodens are bound to have seen how few ships are guarding our supposed homeworld.'
He’d already seen, courtesy of the probe, that the Garoden ships had moved into their formation. This meant a full-scale attack was imminent.
Better still, Winton could see that the probe’s read-out indicated just where the Garoden fleet was almost sure to exit. He was confident everything would work out. Then, having made up his mind, Winton issued the order.
“All ships. Scan for any Garoden nosey-parkers, and obliterate them immediately. And, eliminate any new probes that may pop up from here on.”
Winton was pleasantly surprised at how fast the Battleship Revenge responded. Just two flashes from its Particle-beam weapons and a Garoden spy-probe was no more.
“All clear Admiral,” Revenge’s Captain Bridger confirmed.
“We need to take up position now, Admiral,” Captain Sota urged.
“We can shift alignment when we detect their exit point, Admiral,” Anna advised.
“Agreed. Argonaut, Illustrious, are you ready?”
The AI’s of both Captain Serrell and Captain Patterson then confirmed their strategy uploads and sync verifications.
“Captain Bridger?”
“Yes, Admiral. The two WEPs are being released as per the Flag AI’s strategy plan.”
At which statement, Winton felt the need to ask Captain Bridger a question. “Do the WEPs know there’s no hope of survival?”
“WEPs have no notion of death Admiral.”
That was a relief to Winton. He didn’t like the idea of sending anything with intelligence to certain death. Be it human, or machines with an intelligent brain.
“Captain Bridger. As your ship’s sensors seem more efficient, than ours. Tell me, are we still clear of enemy probes?”
“Yes Admiral,” the Revenge’s Captain replied.
“Excellent… Captain Garret. Execute formation sequence,” Winton ordered, glancing at Captain Garret as he spoke.
Garret nodded acceptance.
“Anna?” Winton then prompted.
The Flag AI didn’t reply. But Admiral Winton felt his ship’s Skipper drive come online. Then, looking at the main screen, saw his ships executing the line-of-stern formation maneuver.
Within seconds, all ships were in their new positions, and battle-ready.
“Give me a plan view of the local area, including Sol 2,” Winton ordered. At which command, the display changed to show his ships.
First in line was the Jefferson, then the Revenge, closely followed by the Argonaut and Illustrious, with the Harbin taking up the rear.
Further back, towards Sol 2, he saw blue dots on the screen, indicating the position of the tw
o powered weapons attack drones.
These were more commonly called WEP’s and were being left behind to fight the Garodens. Then even if, as expected, they were destroyed, they would have at least given Winton’s ships a chance to escape.
Winton knew that the chances of losing one or two of his ships were very high.
‘But, if we can destroy their missiles as they leave their launch bays. Then our Battleships stand a better than even chance,’ he thought to himself.
‘Even so, why is that separate group of Garoden ships holding back?’ He wondered.
Garoden fleet commander, Excellency Plank, was still nervous about these aliens’ mental capabilities, and furious that his father, Lord Dankel, had forced him to commit to action. He couldn’t help thinking about it again.
It seemed wrong to Plank that Lord Dankel would sacrifice his own son if he thought the situation warranted it. But then, deep down, Plank suspected that his father was a coward.
Recognizing how deeply he felt about the situation, Plank was once again thankful that he had lost his companion brain so his father would be oblivious to his true feelings.
Just then, Plank’s Tactical AI confirmed that his fleet was ready for battle, and waiting to jump on Plank’s command.
“Captain Tisk. I don’t see any transmissions from our surveillance probe. Why?”
Tisk nudged Lieutenant Isko, who carried out a check.
“We haven’t received anything from the probe for the last few minutes, sir,” Tisk then informed Plank.
“So, I suppose we’ll have to assume that the aliens still only have five ships to guard their world,” Plank muttered, more to himself than his crew.
Lord Dankel’s voice suddenly rattled out of the comms, startling Plank.
“Get on with it, Plank,” he ordered.
‘Damn him,’ Plank swore to himself.
“Jump,” Plank ordered, with misgivings.
Stars seemed to blink as the Garoden fleet warped space to generate their own wormholes. Then were gone.
Chapter 8
Through the wringer
“They must have jumped by now Admiral,” Anna said, even though the rest of the ships crews probably thought the same.
Admiral Winton was getting more and more irritated at Captain Garret’s incessant tapping of his finger on the command chair’s armrests, so didn’t answer his AI.
“Come on, come on,” Garret impatiently kept voicing aloud.
“Don’t worry. The Garoden’s will come, Garret,” Winton couldn’t help snapping at him.
Winton wished they’d all been able to just warp out, instead of plowing straight through the Garoden fleet. However, he knew that the turmoil of the upcoming engagement would mask their actual destination when the Jefferson battle group finally Jumped.
Yes, he thought, it had indeed been the correct action by his tactical AI.
Winton also knew that the AIs’ combat plan relied on the five or six seconds between the Garoden’s wormholes forming, and the ships exiting their wormholes.
These five seconds would provide just enough time to correct Jefferson group’s position, angle, and trajectory through the Garoden ships expected formation.
Even so, he and the captains of his ships knew that the Garoden’s might just as easily change their jump configuration at the last minute.
“Wormholes forming,” Lieutenant Farrow announced, almost yelling.
“Twenty light minutes out. Off-set, 325 kilometers down, reference the galactic plain.”
Winton felt the Jefferson swing into action as his tactical AI auto-engaged the Skipper drive. Violently jerking the massive ship into a new position, directly in front of the forming wormholes.
Even though all of them could see, and feel, that Jefferson’s fleet had moved into position, Anna still informed the crews as if no-one had noticed their move.
Three hundred and sixty million kilometers out from the Jefferson group, the first two of the fourteen Garoden Star Destroyers emerged from their wormholes. With the rest of the ships following behind, then settling into their arrowhead formation.
“Yo-yo,” Captain Sota’s voice rattled over the comms.
“Enough, Harbin,” Winton growled. Anna, does their configuration match tactical AI’s?”
“Yes. Authorization to commit, Admiral?”
“Admiral. There are less of their ships in the formation than our probe initially detected,” Garret cautioned.
This surprised Winton. He wondered why Anna hadn’t picked that up.
“Well, Anna?”
“Yes, there are fewer Garoden ships here than our probe’s scan indicated, Admiral. Nevertheless, our plan is still viable.”
Just then, Battleship Revenge’s Captain Bridger interrupted them.
“Admiral. Our sensors indicate that this group of ships is in the formation that we anticipated,” he advised.
Then, “Uh-oh. The ships have moved three light-minutes closer to us,” Bridger warned.
“Now they’ve stopped,” he added.
Lieutenant Farrow looked up from his display. “I can confirm that, Admiral.”
Admiral Winton, thought about this for a moment, before deciding that he understood the reason for the Garoden’s three light-minute-move.
“Anna, if I am right. There will be a second wave of Garoden warships arriving three light-minutes further out than these, yes?”
“Agreed. So, to have any chance of surviving, we need to Jump out, within that three-minute separation window,” Anna stated.
“Bang on, Anna. Hopefully, the second wave of Garodens will be disoriented as they exit. So, when we arrive at our Rendezvous point, we should have enough time to disrupt our wormhole threads in the resultant confusion.
His AI remained silent for a few seconds, then said, “All ships AI’s are synced to the new strategy, Admiral. Authorization to engage, please.”
“Execute, now,” Winton ordered while hoping that his assumptions were sound.
Excellency Plank was waiting for the arrival of his second wave of ships that were three light-minutes behind his group.
Plank was no fool. He’d made sure that his Star Destroyer was situated two places back from the arrowhead’s tip. Making certain that he wasn’t going to be the first to engage these creatures. Even though he was confident that these aliens couldn’t influence his own companionless mind.
He turned his attention back to watching the alien’s ships, and the planet behind them, that were showing on his main tactical screen.
“Captain Tisk. Systems check. Now,” Plank ordered.
Tisk didn’t reply. He was busy thinking. He couldn’t sense Fleet Commander Plank’s real feelings. But, knowing Plank as he did, it seemed strange to him, that Lord Dankel trusted Plank with so many ships of the line.
Excellency Plank scowled, then called Captain Tisk, again.
Tisk then ordered Lieutenant Isko to check his Science station.
“All Ships combat AI’s are synced and ready, Captain.”
“Weapons?”
Lieutenant Ecoric, was quick to confirm the readiness handshake between all the Garoden ships weapon’s controllers.
“Board’s clear, Captain.”
“Comms?”
Comms Officer, Ensign Palvric hesitated a moment. Then. “Battle comms active…, Captain,” he advised.
“And?” Captain Tisk queried, noting Palvric’s hesitation.
“There’s a direct link still open to Lord Dankel’s flagship.”
At which, Captain Tisk then turned to look questioningly at Plank.
“A necessary evil, Captain,” Plank assured him. “Let's get on with destroying these aliens.”
“What the….?” Lieutenant Isko, gasped.
Fleet Admiral Christopher Winton suddenly felt Jefferson’s skipper drive activate, then start to warp space in a continuous series of energy pulses that emanated directly in front of his battleship.
Then, with their tacti
cal and weapons AI’s having already taken over the engagement from the slower reacting human controllers. The Revenge, Argonaut, and Illustrious followed the Jefferson, with Harbin bringing up the rear. Each ship eleven kilometers apart from each other, so as not to be affected by the ship in front as it warped space.
Further back towards Sol 2, the WEPs moved forward. Both WEP’s were programmed to engage the enemy, and, if needed, to be destroyed. To give Admiral Winton’s ships a chance to escape.
All Winton’s ships captains knew that if their ship were to be damaged, no other ship would be able to help them. As to stop would mean the destruction of the fleet. And that must be avoided, at any cost.
“Formation holding… Shields at max,” Lieutenant Farrow called out as the Earth ships surged forward, in line, and straight towards the six-kilometre gap between the first two Garoden warships.
“Three seconds to engagement,” Anna called.
Suddenly, the view screens flared white then went blank for a second as the Jefferson plunged straight between the two leading Garoden ship’s force fields.
Both Winton and Garret winced as a torrent of particle beams, from the two forward Garoden warships, lit up Jefferson’s defense screen, and sent sheets of raw energy swirling like a giant mushroom around Jefferson’s bow.
“Forward Shields, eighty-seven percent and stable, Captain,” Lieutenant Farrow reported, signs of relief sounding in his voice.
The Garoden War. (SpaceFed StarShips Series) Book 7. An exciting, action-packed SpaceFed Series finale that also concludes the Garoden War.: ‘Military Gamble.’ Page 5
