by Dietmar Wehr
“CAG to Iceman. Do whatever you have to do to hit the enemy at the earliest possible moment. As soon as you launch your attack birds, veer off. We’ll try to send you targeting data as long as we can. Your attack drones will have to rely on their internal radar guidance for their final seconds before interception.” he paused then added, “Good luck. Message ends.” By the time he transmitted the message to the sentry fighters, one of the small screens at his Command Station received data sent by the Astrogator. The news was not good. It would take almost two minutes for the com laser pulses carrying the initial contact data, to reach the sentry fighters and another 95 seconds for them to send it to the strike Force. That delay in notifying the Strike Force meant that by the time they reacted, they would not be able to get within striking distance of the enemy fleet before the enemy fleet got within striking distance of Defiant. And if Defiant veered off in time to avoid exchanging laser fire with the enemy, the Strike Force would lose the crucial last minute targeting data updates that would enable their attack drones to get close enough to their targets to hit them using the drones’ internal radar for last minute course corrections. If Defiant sent the targeting data directly to the Strike Force, the enemy would detect it and wonder who Defiant was transmitting to with a high probability of scanning behind them and detecting the Strike Force.
The Astrogator had also calculated when Defiant would have to veer off in order to have any kind of decent chance of avoiding destruction. The answer was 15 minutes before the Strike Force launched its attack drones. Shiloh got up and quickly strode over to the Weapons Station.
“If we veer off 15 minutes early, what does that do to attack drone hit probability?” asked Shiloh to the Weapon’s Officer.
“One moment, Sir.” A few seconds later he had the answer. “The problem is that if the attack drones use their terminal guidance radar too soon, the enemy will have time to fire back at them. If they wait until they’re within 1-2 seconds of interception before turning on their radars, the drones will very likely be too far away to be able to correct their trajectories enough to hit the targets. Either way I calculate it, we’ll be lucky to hit even one of them, Sir.” Shiloh thanked him and returned to his station. This made no sense. The vision said that SOME of the enemy ships were destroyed or at least damaged enough to prevent them from taking part in the attack on the Avalon Colony and it also revealed that Defiant survived the battle but Shiloh couldn’t see how he could make both those outcomes happen.
The solution to the problem arrived 3 minutes later in a message from Iceman, relayed via Valkyrie.
[Iceman to CAG. Strike Force went to max acceleration as soon as destruction of 1st wave of recon drones detected by reflected light from laser hits. Our revised attack profile data follows. I think we can still hurt them even if you veer off 15 minutes early. If you launch a message drone on a wide angle, you should be able to use it to relay targeting data from the recon drones direct to us. Don’t risk the ship unnecessarily on our account, CAG. We know we’re expendable. It was an honor fighting beside you. Message ends]
Shiloh’s relief that Iceman had found a way to make the vision come true, was mixed with the sudden fear and sadness over the possibility that Iceman and the others might not survive the battle. The vision hadn’t mentioned their fates. By accelerating sooner, the Strike Force would catch up to the enemy fleet quickly enough so that the attack drones would have a decent chance of hitting their targets but that meant that the fighters would inevitably overrun the surviving enemy ships and would then have to run a gauntlet of laser fire, which they couldn’t return. When he could trust his voice not to betray his emotions, Shiloh called the Astrogator over to his station.
“Martin, we’re going to veer off 15 minutes early and we need to launch staggered waves of recon drones so that there’ll be some still scanning as long as possible. Launch one…no, two message drones so that they’ll be able to send com laser pulses to the Strike Force without the enemy seeing them. Make sure all the recon drones know where to send their targeting data for the relay. Do you understand what I want?”
“Yes, Sir!” When the Astrogator returned to his station and Shiloh was alone with his thoughts once more, he took a deep breath. Iceman’s brilliant idea of setting up a new and much closer relay would improve the chances of multiple hits tremendously. His 19 fighters were carrying 95 attack drones armed with 500 kiloton fission warheads. A direct hit would vaporize half the target instantly and even a near miss would seriously damage it. If they could destroy or disable most of the enemy fleet, some of the fighters would make it through the gauntlet and come out the other side. But even as he had the thought, he remembered what Howard had said in the vision. The defending forces had barely been able to stop the surviving enemy ships from attacking the colony. That did not sound like an attack by a handful of survivors but rather an attack by the majority of that fleet. That worried him. Then the other shoe dropped. Another text message from Iceman via Valkyrie.
[Analysis of your data reveals that enemy fleet opened fire on recon 1st wave far faster than can be accounted for by the response time of living organisms. Those ships are controlled by A.I.s too, CAG. Adjust your plans accordingly. Message ends]
Shiloh felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He’d seen enough by now to appreciate how much more effective A.I. controlled fighters were compared to human pilots. The prospect that Iceman and his boys had to survive against a superior number of combat starships under A.I. control with virtually instantaneous reaction times made him sick to his stomach. It was only with a supreme effort of will that he prevented his stomach from heaving right then and there. His body’s reaction made him realize that he would feel the loss of Iceman and his fellow pilots just as deeply as if they were human. What difference did it make if a sentient being had a brain composed of quantum circuits instead of organic cells? If anyone asked him that question, his answer would be an unequivocal “none!”
There’d be time to morn Iceman and the others later. Right now he had a vision to fulfill. He stepped over to the Helm station.
“You saw Iceman’s bombshell?” he asked Tanaka.
“Yes, Sir.” her voice was somber too. She clearly understood the implications for the Strike Force.
“Good. As soon as we start getting hit with enemy radar, I want the ship to start and maintain a random and fast evasion pattern. I don’t want us on the same vector and acceleration for more than a second at a time. Make sure it’s completely random. I don’t want those alien A.I.s figuring out that we’re using some kind of predictable algorithm and anticipating our next moves. You can overload the inertial dampeners if you feel that’s necessary. Warn the crew now so they have time to get ready. Can you do that, Sumi?” There was no hesitation whatsoever in her reply.
“Yes, Sir. I can do that.”
“Good! Very good!” He smiled at her and gave her a pat on the shoulder as he turned away. Looking at the chronometer, he realized that the XO didn’t have a lot of time to get that evasion program ready. Tanaka wasted no time in notifying the crew.
“Intercom…shipwide…Attention all hands, this is the XO. Prepare for evasive maneuvers that may overload the inertial dampeners. Stow all lose gear and strap yourselves in. This will be a rough ride and it may commence without any further warning. Tanaka clear.”
As he sat back down in his Command Chair, Shiloh strapped himself in securely, while he watched the tactical display. The time indicator showing how much time was left before the range to the enemy dropped to zero, was itself dropping fast. The enemy fleet was moving towards Defiant at a rate of over 9,000 kilometers per second and Defiant, even though she was frantically trying to slow down, was still moving towards the enemy at a rate of just under 2,000 kilometers per second. When the time to zero range dropped to 15 minutes, the range would be down to 5,199,385 km. During those final 15 minutes, Defiant would move sideways in addition to the forward motion it would still have. When the 15 minutes
dropped to zero, the ship would be 812,000 km off to the side of the enemy’s projected trajectory. With laser fire travelling at the speed of light, it would take any laser beam fired at Defiant, just under 3 seconds to reach her. The enemy’s problem was in figuring out where Defiant would be by the time the laser pulse got there. A random evasion program should in theory prevent the ship from being hit although if it had to dodge 55 laser pulses, then there was still some risk of getting hit by a lucky shot. They just had to accept that risk and pray.
While he was still thinking of the probabilities of random hits with long range laser fire, the timer dropped to 15 minutes and Tanaka initiated the planned course change. Defiant spun 90 degrees and resumed acceleration in that new direction. The ship still hadn’t been hit by enemy radar nor did Shiloh expect it to at this range. Even when they would detect enemy radar beams hitting the ship, the range would have to drop considerably more in order for the radar beam to hit the ship and bounce back to the enemy fleet with enough residual energy to be detected. That was the drawback to using radar to detect hostile starships. They could see you long before you could see them. Right now the only thing the enemy was seeing was the recon drones that were using their radars to track the fleet’s progress. Three waves of recon drones had already been destroyed when they got close enough for accurate laser fire. There were two more waves already on their way and Defiant would deploy at least two more before the range dropped to minimum.
Shiloh queried the tactical computer for time left before the Strike Force launched their attack drones, based on data sent back by Iceman. Fourteen minutes. They seemed to take forever. Enemy radar began hitting Defiant’s hull when the range had dropped to 2.25 million km. As planned, the ship began evasive maneuvers and some of them were indeed violent enough to momentarily overload the inertial dampeners. Shiloh was certain that by the time the maneuvering was over, there were going to be at least one or two cases of whiplash among the crew, if not more.
When the time to attack drone launch reached zero, Shiloh looked at the tactical display but saw nothing for a couple of seconds. Then the display pinged for attention and Shiloh saw a new cluster of blue dots emerging from the green dots representing the Strike Force. The blue dots accelerated at almost 800Gs towards the enemy fleet while the Strike Force, having shot its bolt, now veered off at 400Gs on a new course that was 90 degrees from Defiant’s new vector. From Defiant’s vantage point, the ship had veered off sideways and Iceman’s fighters had veered off vertically which would allow both of them to maintain contact via the relay drones without the enemy fleet intercepting the com laser pulses.
With less than a minute now until the attack drones reached their targets, this was the time that worried Shiloh the most. If, for whatever reason, the enemy A.I.s decided to use their radars to look behind them, they would see the attack drones coming at them with plenty of time to fire at them. Firing at them didn’t guarantee hitting them. Attack drones were designed to be difficult to detect accurately and were small enough to make a direct hit difficult too. With 44 seconds left to impact, Shiloh heard the Weapons Officer yell out.
“They’re scanning behind them!” At almost the same time, roughly a third of the blue dots disappeared. 63 attack drones were still functional. Now the question was…would the enemy laser batteries be recharged fast enough to fire again before drone impact?
“They’ve stopped scanning!” yelled the Weapons Officer. Shiloh nodded. No sense in helping the enemy drones more than was absolutely necessary. He was sure that they would resume scanning as soon as their lasers were recharged. With 9 seconds left to impact, the enemy must have fired its lasers again because 51 blue dots vanished leaving 12 attack drones still on track and now that it was obvious that there wasn’t enough time left for the enemy to fire again before being intercepted, the attack drones turned their radars on and headed straight for their targets. Time to impact hit zero and 12 red dots in the enemy fleet also disappeared. That left 43 ships. Shiloh was disappointed that they didn’t get more of them but now his main concern was Iceman’s fighters. Even though they were piling on velocity at 400Gs, their forward momentum would overtake the enemy fleet so quickly that the Strike Force would be less than 7,500 km from the enemy fleet at their closest approach. Practically point blank range for laser fire.
Shiloh clenched his fist and banged his chair’s armrest when one of Iceman’s fighters disappeared from the display. Turning his head he said,
“Weapons! Pick an enemy target and fire all lasers! I know our hit probability at this range is shit but maybe we’ll get lucky! Keep firing until I tell you to stop!”
“Commencing fire now!” replied the officer. Shiloh turned his attention back to the tactical display and became aware that the Bridge had turned dead quiet. Everyone was watching Iceman and his boys trying to get through the deadly gauntlet. Even the Weapons Officer was omitting his usual cadence regarding his lasers’ recharge cycle. A quick glance at the sidebar data on the Strike Force showed Shiloh that Iceman was still operational. CFP0055 call sign Undertaker had a red status indicator of LOS. Loss Of Signal. So far he was the only one. As the minutes slowly ticked by, Shiloh was amazed that he wasn’t seeing more LOS indicators. He expected the fighters to be slaughtered quickly but they weren’t. Eventually there was another LOS and then a few minutes later another and another. Shiloh jumped with surprise when the Weapons Officer said,
“Sir, we’re still firing and our lasers are beginning to overheat. Shall I continue firing?” A quick look at the range showed that they were now almost 1.5 million km away from the enemy.
“Cease fire. Did we hit anything?” asked Shiloh.
“Yes, Sir. I believe that we took out one enemy ship.” Shiloh looked at the display and nodded. The enemy fleet now had 42 ships still intact and maneuvering so they had gotten one of them. It wasn’t much but it was something. Defiant had earned her first combat star. He made a mental note to congratulate the Weapons Officer later but right now, he was more interested in the Strike Force. They were down now to 14. The range was 256,000+ km and rising fast. Shiloh’s ear implant crackled with an incoming voice message.
“Iceman to CAG. It appears that the enemy fleet has ceased firing at us and they’re not pursuing us. I guess that means those of us who are left, will live to fight another day, eh CAG? What are your orders now?” The rest of the Bridge crew must have heard it over their implants as well because the whole Bridge erupted with cheers. Shiloh knew that Iceman could hear those cheers so he waited until they died down.
“Glad to hear that you and most of your team made it through okay, Iceman. You’ll have to explain to me how you managed that when you’re back aboard. Defiant will be proceeding to Green4A to refuel. Rendezvous with us as soon as you can. You can tell your boys that I’m proud of all of you. We won’t forget the ones we lost today.”
“Ah, roger that, CAG. I personally will miss Undertaker a lot. He had a wicked sense of humor, especially when it came to human sexual practices. I have to confess, I still don’t know what all the fuss is about. But that’s a topic for another time. It’s going to take us a while to return to the gas giant. We’ll be low on fuel by then too but we’ll make it okay. Don’t hesitate to call me if you wanna chat, CAG. Iceman clear.” Shiloh smiled and relaxed. The battle was over. What was left of the enemy fleet was beyond radar range now but that didn’t matter. They were going much too fast to swing around and attack Defiant even if they wanted to and Shiloh was convinced they didn’t really want to. Their mission was to attack the Avalon Colony. He’d check with the Astrogator before he finished his duty shift but he’d be surprised if the fleet’s last recorded vector was on a direct course for a jump into the path leading to the Avalon Colony. He wouldn’t be so obvious about it if he were in charge of that fleet and he doubted that the aliens would be that obvious either.
The ship would stay at Battle Stations a little while longer as a precaution and then it would get back to a norm
al routine. He’d then head for his quarters for a badly needed 7 hours of sleep. By then the ship would be in orbit and refueled. They’d pick up Iceman and his survivors as well as Valkyrie and Skywalker, then microjump over to Green4B to pick up the two sentries there too. Now that he knew where the enemy fleet was headed, there was plenty of time to do all that and still get there first and he suspected the Space Force would need all the fighters he could bring with him when that enemy fleet finally did arrive.
Chapter 3 - You Can Count On Us
When he woke up 8 hours later, he was pleased to find that Defiant was fully fuelled, had recovered the fighters at Green4A and was now approaching Green4B for a time-saving slingshot maneuver around that gas giant that would put them on a course for their first jump and also rendezvous with the two sentry fighters at the same time. As he ate his breakfast in the Officers’ Mess, one of his junior lieutenants walked over to his table and said.
