They decided to stay and wait for the Schweitzer. They deployed the three functional P I ships and the destroyer to patrol near the edge of the system. The rest of the people remained on the moon and monitored the sensors.
The Swordsmen duly expressed their appreciation of the Federation force’s involvement in the defense of their settlement and frequently invited them to come to the surface and help the medical staff. Captain Darwin graciously declined the offers and insisted that for all their safety, the best place for them to be was on patrol.
DEPLOYMENT - CHAPTER THIRTY NINE
FEDERATION SPACE FORCE HOSPITAL SHIP 28 Albert Schweitzer and a civilian cargo ship with a checkered past affectionately known as “Peter” dropped out of hyper drive well outside the Brainerd’s Folly system limits. Their arrival was observed as immediately as the speed of light and the inverse square law would allow. Federation protocol required a ship entering a system desiring safe passage to announce its presence in advance of the defense system demanding identification. The two ships announced their presence and cheers arose in the ships that had been waiting for them. Rescue was at hand.
The Schweitzer settled into orbit around the moon and the ships that had been parked on the surface rose to meet it. The ships that had been patrolling linked together to the big ship as it orbited in space.
Part of the Schweitzer’s mandate was to aid civilians in need of assistance regardless of their political or religious affiliations. Once the conditions on the planet’s surface became apparent, controlled chaos broke out on the hospital ship. The medical teams and treatment facilities were transferred to the surface. Civilian Federation medical teams stepped in to relieve the overwhelmed Swordsman personnel.
A military contingent descended to the surface to meet with Colonel Harlingen and discuss with him the possible defense of the planet. The presence of the entire Solomon family who had done so much damage to Swordsman aspirations and Ambassador Kirkland who had negotiated the Swordsman secession caused considerable commotion on the planet. It was all Colonel Harlingen could do to keep his personnel under control. The fact that they now depended on known enemies for their safety was more than some of the surviving Swordsmen could abide.
Rachel sent a courier to the nearest Sisters of Mercy installation requesting assistance. There was something to be said for not staying any longer than necessary where one was not wanted.
After returning from their meeting with Colonel Harlingen, the military personnel gathered in the battleship’s conference room. Rachel quickly turned the meeting over to her father.
Greg stood as he addressed the group. “We have to assume that Lt. Mancini’s concern about an impending attack is real. Right now the safest place for our civilians is with the Swordsmen on the surface. I am sure you all understand the sensitivity of the issues we are dealing with here. Fortunately, the terms of the secession treaty, in fact of the Federation Charter itself, are very clear on this issue. The concern was that even though the Federation and the seceding entity were enjoined from attacking each other, either one could contract with a third party to do the work. In order to avoid this scenario, both sides are locked into mutual defense pacts for a period of five years from the date of ratification. Much of the rhetoric we are hearing from the Conservatives these days has to do with voiding that provision although they have not yet succeeded.
“Assuming that Lt. Mancini’s estimate of the strength of the advancing force is even close to accurate, we have a fight on our hands. We are facing a force that is much larger than we are. Several people in this room have done this with me before. We have prevailed in the past and we will again. As in the past, we intend to rely on new technology and a companion strategy. In the battle at Homestead, we relied on the short hyper jump. We had what was generally believed to be the only ships capable of the short jump. In fact, we were the only ones in a position to take advantage of this technology who knew the short jump was possible. Even with that advantage, we suffered horrendous losses. The ground battle was fought the hard way.
“In the short battle that followed at the Swordsman base, the short jump allowed us to deactivate the only ship that posed a threat. In the battle at Eretz, we used the short jump again aided by good old fashioned proper placement of firepower. Our newest addition in that battle was the Disruptor which allowed us to disable enemy ships without destroying them.
“Sabrina Mahoney discovered the value of the short jump independently of the rest of us. She has refined the techniques and some of her ideas are incorporated in our new strategies. One of the techniques introduced at Homestead and refined since then that made the short jump so effective was the ability to place several small ships in formation around the enemy and coordinate the fire. These techniques were first implemented at Homestead and were responsible for enabling us to acquire most of the fleet we later used against the Swordsmen. Communicating verbally worked when we were facing a dozen or fewer ships. Communicating verbally will no longer work. It’s not fast enough. Ladies and Gentlemen what we are about to do has never been done before. We are going to take the merger of person and machine one step further than ever. Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce our secret weapon.”
Abraham and Sarah Abrams entered the room. Rashi and Mimi were surprised to see their parents on the ship, let alone have them referred to as a secret weapon. Reuben and Suwanee had been working with the elder members of the family since they transferred to the cargo ship. They chuckled at the others’ confusion.
“Dr. Abrams, please.”
Sarah Abrams spoke. “First, let me correct one thing Greg said. Do not refer to your ships as machines. They will be insulted. They think they are people. Therein lies their and your strength. They have the computing power of the ships they are and personalities to match the people that fly with them. We have psychological data on all of our potential flight crews. The ships will anticipate your next move and provide the data necessary to support it. You will command the ships by a combination of voice, tactile and pointer commands. Your combat display is actually built into the face of your helmet. It mimics the old display in that if you move your head, it tracks what you should be seeing and gives it to you.”
She became excited as she said, “What this means is that you go into combat in your E V A suit protected from hull breaches without loss of mobility or combat effectiveness! We are looking at a new day in combat technology!”
Sara smiled as she realized she was getting carried away. She reached into the fabric bag she had brought with her. “Folks! This is your new helmet!”
The one she displayed had “Captain Alina Darwin” hand lettered in script above the face shield. “Captain, it would be my honor if you would allow me to place your helmet on your head.”
Alina stood and walked toward Sarah. Sarah placed the helmet on Alina ‘s head. There was a brief gasp, a moment of silence then a randy laugh. “Oh My God! Well! Hello, there!”
Dr. Abraham Abrams said, “Captain Darwin is getting acquainted with her new ship.”
Rachel said, “I felt that since Captain Darwin and Lt. Mahoney were our two best pilots, they should get two of the new ships. Lt. Mahoney, I believe your helmet should be here shortly.”
A moment later Lt. Mahoney’s fire control officer showed up with their two helmets. Captain Darwin’s fire control officer was right behind her carrying her helmet.
Avi spoke next. “I will fly Daisy with Sarah in my back seat.”
Greg said, “I will be with Buddy and Abraham will fly with me. Which brings me to a question. Reuben, now that you have had a chance to assess Daisy’s damage, what is the prognosis?”
“We will need to replace the entire drive unit including the standard drive.” Reuben replied.
“How long will that take?” Greg asked.
“With four of us working on it, a couple of hours. It’s only a dozen bolts, two electrical multi connectors and a duplex fiber link.”
“We have two spare
drive units in the hold. Do you think you could replace Buddy’s as well?”
“Is that a good idea? It will take you out of action for training.”
“I’m sure you can find engineers around here who can make the swap while we sleep.”
“Swapping out a hot reactor is asking for trouble. Daisy’s is cold because she shut it down when she was hit. Buddy’s reactor is running.” Reuben cautioned.
“Then you’ll need to do it before it gets too hot to handle.” Greg grinned. “Buddy is already shutting down.”
Reuben groaned. “Yes, sir, I’ll take care of it.”
“Actually that’s probably not a good idea.” Rachel said. Everyone turned to look at her. “We have twelve P I ships. So far we have six flight crews. Reuben, I agreed with command staff that you and Suwanee should take one of the new ships. You will be working too hard to do the repairs yourself. You will need to delegate the responsibilities. Rashi, you and Esther should take one ship and I don’t care who sits in front. You figure it out. Mimi, with your gimpy foot and all take J T on one ship. Faye Anne, take Lt. Hammersmith with you. That leaves one.”
Rachel looked at David. He met her gaze then looked away. “I can’t. It’s been too long. I let my skills get rusty.”
Avi looked at Natasha. “I understand how this happened and it’s nobody’s fault, but Natasha, I trust you will see that he gets his wings back in shape. At the same time, I think he should teach you to fly. Be good for the both of you. We’ll let you off the hook this time, but not again.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Rachel looked at Wendy. “I had intended for you to be the back up and stay here with me, but it looks like you’re it.”
“Aye, Captain.”
Greg stood to regain the floor. “Now that we’re all settled, I would like to suggest that all the flight engineers still on this ship transfer to the cargo ship and start the drive swaps. Flight and command crews stay here.”
Lt. Rivera raised his hand. “Where do you want me and my crew?”
Rachel replied, “You get to play defense this time. The cargo ship is equipped with so many lasers that it almost qualifies as a Q ship. However, it and we share the same vulnerability in an attack on the drive units. We are going to form up this ship and the cargo ship in a straight line with the drive units facing each other. Once we know which direction the attack is coming from we will rotate to put the battleship’s armor toward the enemy. The cargo ship will face away to guard against surprises and you will protect the space between the two ships where we are in the greatest danger.”
“Aye, Captain.”
“One other thing, before the battle starts, we will send all non-combatants and the med ships to the surface. Engineers please take the P I ships across to the cargo ship and report in over there. Munitions personnel, please join them and make sure that all ships have maximum loads of ordinance. Flight crews and bridge crew stay here. Everyone else is dismissed.”
When the room had cleared to flight crews and bridge personnel only, Greg spoke. “The point of the need for rapid communications has to do with target selection. Back when we were ambushing wandering ships in the early days at Homestead, we developed a technique called ‘around the clock’. Properly used it can be extremely effective in that it instantly swamps a ship’s defensive sensors and gives us time to get the shot off before the enemy has time to react. This tactic requires that the ships be precisely positioned when they drop out of hyper drive at the end of a short jump. As I mentioned before we don’t have time to sing out coordinates for enough ships to successfully attack a formation the size of the one we expect. We have twelve ships. At the beginning of the engagement we will have all twelve ships operate as one tactical unit. We will later break into two tactical units, then three, then six. Eventually we will split up and operate as singles.”
Greg paused. “We humans do not have the time to communicate properly. The ships do. We can’t communicate in hyper, but the ships can transfer a lot of data in the short time we will be in normal space. Each ship will have a programmed position it will take around an enemy ship. This position will be calculated based on the heading of the target and the bearing of the lead ship calling the target. All ships will have displays showing all potential targets and their ID codes. The lead pilot will select a target and relay the choice to the rest of their unit. The computers will calculate the flight times to position and coordinate the optimum timing of the attack.”
Greg looked around the room. “Here’s the tough part. We’re not going after the hard targets first. We’re not attacking the battleships or cruisers first. We are jumping beyond them to the cargo ships and the tenders. We will attack the support fleet with Disruptor missiles. The Disruptor missiles have been modified since you last used them. They were susceptible to spoofing before. A ship could shut down and the Disruptor would deactivate. Once deactivated the missile could not come back up even if the ship did. The modified version now expects to be spoofed and will restart as many times as it takes until the ship lies dead or their batteries fail. This also means that any ship approaching to rescue the occupants of the dead ship will be immobilized by the Disruptor. It is very much like setting a fire and shooting the first responders. You will carry these missiles on your outboard launchers.
“The goal is to force the enemy to break ranks and turn to defend their payloads. Once we have broken the main assault line, we will pick off the ships individually. We know that no plan survives contact with the enemy, so our plan will not be a complex strategy, but rather a series of plays that will be called as needed.”
When it was apparent that the information had been assimilated, Rachel said, “Let’s give the engineers and munitions folks time to do their jobs. Flight crews meet at the cargo hold at 0900. Get some sleep. It may be the last sleep we get for some time.”
Training began immediately. There were no simulators so they worked with the real ships in real maneuvers. The destroyer played target for the exercises. The few Swordsmen ships that were left watched the display in amazement. A training regimen this intense would have been met with mutiny in their ranks. Even as regimented as the Swordsmen religion was, the military was surprisingly undisciplined in spite of its strong “top down” hierarchy. Until the point of exhaustion, the Federation crews and the ships backed up with the processing power of their computers hammered away at the maneuvers until they all performed at the level Greg expected of them.
Once the teams had reached the level Greg demanded, he let off the intensity and let the crews get some rest while they waited.
DEPLOYMENT - CHAPTER FORTY
LT. MANCINI DID NOT OVERESTIMATE the force that they would be facing. The instant it became clear that this force was P A F and not Federation or Swordsman, the twelve P I ships attacked. Twelve puny P I ships attacked a force that included two of the super battleships that had been at Everest, eight cruisers, a few dozen destroyers and more small ships than the sensors could sort out. Behind them were four mammoth transports. The entire fleet was in a ballistic trajectory apparently trying to avoid detection with minimum emissions.
A quick analysis of the formation showed what Captain Darwin had observed in the previous battle against the Swordsmen. The strategists who had developed this battle formation did not fully understand the difference between warfare on a two dimensional surface and in three dimensional space. The small first strike ships were strung out in a single line much like the armies of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Even the bombers of World War II had flown in three dimensional formations. These people were clearly a throw back to ancient history. Captain Darwin had also previously observed that they did not completely grasp the concept of persistence of motion. The Swordsmen had not fully grasped these concepts either. These concepts were not taught in the Academy, but were among the first characteristics of doing battle in space a pilot learned once they were on their own.
“Round the clock, walk the line!”
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br /> With those words, the battle was joined. Twelve small ships disappeared from view. In three dimensions their trajectories described the curve of an upside down spade from a deck of playing cards. Flanking the P A F formation at the widest point of the curve, the twelve little ships curled around and came at the formation from behind. The twelve P I ships suddenly materialized in a three dimensional array around the lead transport. The precision with which their paths had been calculated given the relative motion of all the elements would not have been possible without the integration of the ships and their human pilots. Each of the twelve little ships fired a single Disruptor missile in response to a digital command. In response to a single finger touch to a single display the twelve small ships disappeared. They reappeared around the second transport. They held for a second and fired.
In previous battles, Greg had encouraged the crews to talk to each other. This one was moving too fast for that. They would need to do exactly the right amount of damage and move quickly to strike as many ships as they could before they retreated and to defend their own ships from the onslaught of P A F pawns who led the formation. Where before the ether was full of the chatter of crews furthering the progress of the battle, this time the ether was silent except for the brief squirts of data that initiated each move. Two more monster cargo ships fell under the assault from the twelve little ships.
As was his habit, once he had fired on the last of the four mammoth cargo ships, Greg checked back on the status of the first ship he had attacked. All of the Disruptor missiles were still emitting their electronics destroying signals. None of them had engaged their targets. The targets were not emitting electronic radiation or radio signals. Forty-eight Disruptor missiles raced through space in search of nothing. This made no sense. Greg stared at his display trying to understand what had gone wrong. As he stared, the entire P A F front line flipped and reversed direction headed back towards them. What had seemed like a mistake now appeared to be a deliberate ploy to deceive them. Had the ships been arrayed in a typical three dimensional formation, the reversal would have been much more difficult.
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