Stars & Empire: 10 Galactic Tales

by Jay Allan

  Three minutes later, three more recon drones had been ‘hit’ but each target still had at least two recon drones scanning it. Firefox was the first to fire. Two attack drones streaked away on an intercept vector to its target. Shiloh checked the vector and was pleased to see that Firefox had done the correct thing. Attack drones didn’t use radar to see their targets because that would have made the drones themselves vulnerable to enemy laser fire. The drones used a low-powered laser to reflect off the target’s hull, thereby creating the same effect as reflected sunlight. Because the low-powered laser was a very narrow beam, it was unlikely to hit any kind of optical sensor on the target’s hull, which would have enabled the target to pinpoint the attack drone’s location. The attack drone then relayed the target’s bearing and distance back to the fighter that launched it, via another low-powered laser, so that the fighter A.I. could keep track of both the attack drone and the target. In order not to give away the fighter’s position in case the attack drone was detected, its intercept vector created a shallow detour slightly off to one side. If the target assumed that the drone’s launch platform was directly behind it and fired at that point, they’d miss the fighter by a wide margin.

  When a second fighter launched one attack drone at its target, Shiloh wondered how much longer the frigates would hold off from active scanning themselves. He didn’t have long to wait before finding out. All five of the closer frigates went to active scanning in an attempt to get accurate bearings on the remaining recon drones. It almost worked. The fighter A.I.s realized what was happening and were able to react fast enough to prevent most of the recon drones from being ‘hit’ by return fire, by shutting down the recon drones’ active scanning. With only their own radars to aim their lasers, the frigates still had a tough time hitting the much smaller recon drones. As soon as the recon drones stopped actively scanning, the frigates attempted to maneuver to a new vector. The position and vectors of two frigates were still known because they hadn’t been able to shake off the low-powered lasers from the attack drones. That left three more frigates, aside from the one at long range. Shiloh knew immediately what Iceman was attempting to do. The A.I.s could easily compute the expanding circle that represented each frigate’s furthest possible position over time. The three fighters that hadn’t fired yet continued to close the range to the general vicinity of their targets. As soon as they got close enough to ensure that the attack drones would reach their targets no matter what the frigates tried to do, they ordered their remaining recon drones to go back to active scanning just long enough to enable their attack drones to acquire the targets and launch towards them.

  As soon as all five of the nearer frigates were being tracked by low-powered laser light, Iceman played his Ace-in-the-Hole. Each fighter launched two more attack drones. These drones could also have fired their low-powered lasers at their targets, but that wasn’t necessary. They could see the reflected laser light from the other attack drones and homed in on that. It didn’t take long for the Acting Squadron Leader of the aggressor force to figure out that his frigates had to resume active scanning, even though their positions would be clearly visible, if they wanted any chance at all of surviving the drone attack. The problem was that attack drones were designed to be as difficult to detect by radar as possible, with many flat surfaces that bounced radar signals away from the radar source. They weren’t completely invisible to radar, but the reflections were so small that the frigates’ lasers had difficulty hitting them.

  In a real battle, the attack drones would have rammed their targets, and the kiloton fission warheads would have exploded on contact. In the simulated exercise, each attack drone that made it through the defending laser fire deliberately missed the target by a kilometer and transmitted a signal on the monitored frequency to indicate a successful intercept. Four of the five frigates were successfully ‘intercepted’. The fifth was not. Under the criteria of the exercise, it was deemed to have penetrated the defending force. The sixth frigate attempted to get through, but with all five fighters gunning for it, it didn’t stand a chance. With the simulation over, all of the recon and attack drones shut down their engines and activated their homing beacons to be recovered by the fighters that had fired them.

  “Five of six bogeys intercepted. Sorry we let one get through, CAG,” said Iceman.

  Shiloh waited a few seconds before responding. “What did you learn from this simulation, Iceman?”

  “The fifth bogey could have been intercepted if Hunter and Maverick had maneuvered close enough for converging fire,” said Iceman immediately.

  Shiloh had to stop to analyze that answer. My God, he’s right, he thought. With attack drones coming from two completely different directions, the frigate’s counter-fire would have been far less effective. There was no way that a human pilot could reach that conclusion without the assistance of some kind of computer.

  “Since the objective of these simulated battles is to learn from our mistakes, I would say that this exercise was a success from that point of view. Your team has performed well, Iceman. Were there any equipment issues that I should be aware of?”

  “No, CAG. These birds performed perfectly. What are your orders after we recover our drones?”

  Shiloh grinned. He had the answer to that already figured out. “After all drones have been recovered, I want your flight to re-assemble and take up station behind Vanguard, in a V formation. Maintain the V formation as precisely as you can. Let’s show the Squadron Leader and the other COs what you fighters can do.”

  “Ah, roger that, CAG. We’ll put on a good show for you.”

  Shiloh couldn’t help chuckling. Iceman was sounding more and more human by the minute. “Very good, Iceman. Unless you have something else to convey, you’re free to carry out your orders.”

  “Iceman clear.”

  With the lengthy recovery process now underway, Shiloh felt free to get up from his Command Station and walk over to Johansen’s station.

  She looked at him as he came close and said, “My frigates came out on top.”

  Shiloh gave her a small smile and said, “One out of six frigates got through the outer layer of defense. That’s true. But are you going to congratulate your frigate COs when you debrief them, considering that they lost 83% of their combined strength, or are you going to berate them?”

  Johansen took a deep breath and said in a somewhat chastised voice, “I’ll be honest. I’m inclined to chew them out. I really thought more of them would get through. Then again, they are only exploration frigates, after all.”

  Shiloh said nothing.

  When it became clear that he wasn’t going to say anything more, Johansen said, “How long will it take your CFPs to recover their drones?”

  Shiloh knew the answer to that. Iceman had already figured it out and had transmitted the information digitally to Shiloh’s consol.

  “Eleven hours and thirty-five minutes is the estimate from Iceman.”

  Johansen raised her eyebrows. “Iceman?”

  Shiloh forgot that she hadn’t been listening to his com channel chatter.

  “CFP0001’s call sign. He picked it himself.”

  “He? You’re referring to an A.I. as a male? Why not she? We refer to our ships as ‘she’ don’t we?”

  “Well, if the picked call sign had been IceWOMAN, then I’d probably refer to it as a she. It’s hard to think of IceMAN as a she.”

  Johansen didn’t have a snappy comeback for that one.

  CHAPTER 14: Stepping Over The Line In The Sand

  The squadron remained near Jupiter for several more days. Two more exercises showed that the five fighter A.I.s were getting better as time went along. As a result, Johansen was getting more and more irritated with her frigate COs, which Shiloh thought was unfair. Their combat training was minimal, and their ships weren’t really designed for multiple ship combat. With the exercises finally over, the squadron received orders to return to lunar orbit to pick up the rest of the Task Force that Johan
sen would take to Bradley Base. When the eight ships and five fighters slipped into lunar orbit, Shiloh saw that Admiral Howard wasn’t wasting any time. Two tankers were ready to take the five fighters onboard and ferry them to their destination star system.

  Until the new carriers were ready, fighters had to be transported by tankers in place of some of the fuel shuttles that they usually carried. Shiloh suspected that as the fleet gradually transitioned to ships that could refuel themselves, tankers would eventually be used primarily as fighter transports. In addition to the two tankers, there was also a supply ship carrying new equipment, plus lots of recon and attack drones. After all ships were topped up with fuel, Johansen gave the order for the Task Force to head out for the trip to Bradley Base. The trip seemed long to Shiloh, even though he’d made it multiple times. He wondered how the A.I.s were handling the wait. To the lightning fast minds of Artificial Intelligences, days of doing nothing must seem like eternities. Shiloh had briefed Iceman, Hunter and the others before they boarded the tankers, and they knew what to expect.

  Upon their arrival at the star system containing Bradley Base, Shiloh was relieved to learn that no sign of alien ships had been detected, although the base didn’t have any of the new jump detection gear prior to the Task Force’s arrival. If the aliens had carried out reconnaissance here, they had done it very carefully. By prior arrangement, all five fighters had their unarmed practice attack drones replaced with the real thing. As soon as the Task Force emerged from Jumpspace, the tankers deployed the fighters, which then accelerated at 400Gs to take up their assigned patrol stations. Bradley Base was under a steel dome built on a moon orbiting the system’s only gas giant. Johansen’s squadron joined the two squadrons composed solely of exploration frigates, and Senior Commander Korolev assumed command of the combined force as the designated Task Force Leader. That opened up some interesting possibilities now that Johansen and Shiloh were equals in both rank AND position, but Shiloh wasn’t sure if Johansen had any interest in something other than a professional relationship. She had never given even a hint that she might be receptive to something more. Shiloh decided to wait and see. He suspected that, whatever else, Johansen probably would not want to risk having rumors spread among her crew, even though a more intimate relationship wouldn’t be breaking any regulations. Off duty between missions might be okay, but not while a mission was in progress.

  After a few days, Shiloh settled down into a routine. Korolev insisted on some kind of tactical exercise every 24 hours, which kept the fighters happy but made everyone else grumble. Shiloh was pleased when the duplicate autonomous units control station was assembled in the Base itself. That meant that the drones and fighters would not be left hanging if something happened to Vanguard. The Lt. Cmdr. assigned as Shiloh’s Deputy CAG was one of the test pilots he had worked with at the Alpha Base. What Sejanus lacked in tactical skills was more than made up for by his easy and natural interaction with the fighter A.I.s. He recognized them as more than just soulless machines.

  When almost two months had passed without any signs of the aliens, Shiloh allowed himself to be less anxious. With additional frigates, supplies, drones, and—more importantly to Shiloh—more fighters arriving on a regular basis, his worry about the Line in the Sand not being sufficiently defended started to abate. When the second batch of fighters arrived, Shiloh and Sejanus discovered something very interesting about the fighter A.I.s. The new CFPs were controlled by A.I.s far less developed in terms of their own identities. He had queried Iceman about that, and the A.I. explained that the ‘rookies’ just needed time to develop new neural pathways that would be unique to them. At Iceman’s suggestion, each rookie fighter was ‘paired’ up with one of what Shiloh was starting to think of as ‘the veterans’. Even though they weren’t operating physically close together, low-powered laser communication meant they could communicate with each other far faster than with a human mentor. Within several days of the arrival of the rookies, all five of them had chosen their own call signs and were beginning to display their own unique speech patterns, much to the obvious delight of Iceman, Hunter and the others.

  The days turned into weeks, and the weeks started to turn into months. With absolutely no sign of any alien incursion or even a quick recon mission, Korolev was beginning to wonder out loud if the whole Line-in-the-Sand strategy was a failure. Maybe the aliens had reconsidered their aggressive posture and were holding back, or maybe they were flanking the Base system altogether to bypass its defenses.

  It was on the 55th day that the aliens made their presence felt. Shiloh happened to be on the Base itself when word arrived by messenger drone that a convoy of supply ships and tankers had come under laser fire from a dozen alien ships. The convoy was too deep into the gravity zone of a gas giant to be able to microjump away. With Vanguard orbiting the Base, Shiloh decided to assume control of the fighters from the ground in order to save time. As he arrived at the Base’s Control Center he heard Korolev speaking.

  “Commander Johansen will take her squadron and the 88th to search the ambush system for survivors, and to engage any enemy ships that might still be lurking there. Any questions?”

  He was speaking to all five squadron leaders whose video images were on the main display. Shiloh could see that Johansen wasn’t happy with those orders, and he thought he knew why. Sending two of five squadrons away from this system would weaken it considerably and was in contravention of the stated goal of beefing up Bradley’s defenses. When it became clear that Johansen wasn’t going to say anything, Shiloh decided that he would.

  “If this attack is a diversion meant to pull some of our forces away from Bradley, then we’d be doing the wrong thing.”

  Korolev was clearly surprised by Shiloh’s presence and challenge.

  “What would you suggest instead, Commander? Should I just ignore the fate of hundreds of our fellow comrades who may be injured, and who may die if they don’t get assistance?”

  “No, Sir. I suggest sending a much smaller contingent. Specifically, a combat frigate carrying one fi—CFP, accompanied by a support ship, to emerge at the edge of that system where the CFP can be used to recon the ambush site. If there are survivors and no signs of the enemy, then the frigate and support ship can move in to render assistance.”

  Korolev didn’t blink an eye.

  “And what if the recon shows that there are enemy ships still in the vicinity, using the survivors as bait for another ambush the way they did in your first encounter, Commander? The relief force will then be outnumbered, and more time will be wasted while they send a drone back asking for reinforcements. No! With two squadrons deployed, we’ll still have 24 frigates plus your 20 CFPs to defend this Base. I’ll take the risk of an attack here. I think the aliens know we’re too strong here, and they’ve decided to bypass the base altogether. My order stands, Commander.”

  Turning to look at Johansen’s image, she said, “Do you wish to object to my order for the record, Commander Johansen?”

  Shiloh’s heart sank when she said, “No, Sir. I’ll take the 88th and my squadron to search for survivors immediately, Sir.”

  “Very good, Commander. Carry on. Task Force Leader clear.”

  Korolev turned to Shiloh and said, “With Vanguard no longer available for you to use to control your drones, you’ll no doubt want to take your station on the ground here, Commander.”

  The statement was so self-evident, that Shiloh could only interpret it as a command for him to attend to his duties and to leave the strategizing to wiser heads. He nodded his assent to Korolev and turned to relieve Sejanus at the autonomous units control station.

  “I’ll take over, Marcus,” said Shiloh.

  As his deputy got up, he said in a quiet voice that Korolev wouldn’t hear. “For what it’s worth, Boss, I agree with you.”

  Shiloh nodded, but he said nothing.

  When he was settled in, Shiloh reviewed the status of his 20 fighters. Four of them were in the Base hanger bay gettin
g refueled plus a quick maintenance check. As Sejanus was about to leave, Shiloh turned to him.

  “I want you to go down to the hanger bay and get those fighters ready to launch as soon as possible. Light a fire under the maintenance crews if you have too.”

  “You got it, Boss,” said Sejanus.

  When he was gone, Shiloh looked at his Tactical display. The 15 fighters currently on patrol were slowly orbiting the gas giant at a distance of a million kilometers so that their jump detection gear would overlap as much as possible. This would allow for triangulation of the exact position of any ships emerging from Jumpspace. Johansen’s 007 squadron and the 88th squadron were accelerating while coming to a new heading for their eventual entry into Jumpspace. Shiloh was surprised to see that the projected course would be exactly parallel to a line that ran from this system’s sun, through the gas giant that Bradley’s moon was orbiting, to the ambush star system. The alignment was so precise that Shiloh couldn’t help thinking it wasn’t a coincidence, although he couldn’t come up with any reason for it.

  A quick check of the Tactical display showed that it would take almost an hour and a half for Johansen’s squadrons to get far enough away from the gas giant’s gravity zone to be able to enter Jumpspace safely. With an acceleration of 133Gs, their velocity would be over 7,220 kilometers per second by the time they reached that point. Shiloh opened a com channel to Vanguard and spoke in a voice low enough that Korolev wouldn’t hear him.