by Dietmar Wehr
“We don’t know for certain since all of them were destroyed before they hit Earth’s atmosphere but analysis of the radar data suggests that the warheads were very small. Very low yield tactical nuclear devices might be small enough to fit into that volume but it’s the opinion of our Strategic Planning Group that these projectiles carried biological weapons.” Kelly heard someone on the Committee say ‘My God!’ Howard took advantage of the shocked responses to continue. “I fully endorse Iceman’s decision to target all of our available lasers weapons on those projectiles. I’ve reviewed the playback several times and the last few projectiles were destroyed at literally the last possible moment. A human Field Commander would not have been able to evaluate the situation correctly AND issue the necessary orders in time to prevent at least some of the projectiles from hitting the ground. Unfortunately for our ships, while we were targeting their projectiles, their ships were firing on our ships. When I resume the playback at 1/4 speed, you’ll see green icons representing our ships, change to yellow and orange. Yellow means our ships have taken damage. Orange means the damage is either critical or the ship has stopped maneuvering or both. If the icon disappears altogether, that means the ship…or fighter has been shot to pieces.” He activated the remote and the room fell dead quiet. Howard lowered his head when Defiant’s icon went to yellow and then almost immediately to orange. He looked up again and froze the playback.
“As you can see now, all of our ships have taken at least some damage. Almost half are critically damaged or unable to maneuver. I’ll now resume playback for 5 more seconds of elapsed time….At this point 6 of our ships have been destroyed, almost all the rest are seriously damaged and the enemy now switched from firing at our ships to firing at our CFPs. I’ll now resume playback again.” Kelly made herself watch as fighters started disappearing in rapid succession. Without any warning, the enemy ships jumped away. Howard’s voice made her jump in surprise.
“When Beta2 and 3 emerged from jumpspace, they were heading on vectors that would have brought them into our gravity zone. After launching the projectiles, they veered away and as soon as their ships were no longer pointed at any part of the gravity zone, they took advantage of the ability to jump away and did so. They did so even though many of the projectiles were still heading toward Earth and our fighters were still firing at them. The length of time from the second they launched their projectiles, until they jumped away, lasted all of 54 seconds.” The dead silence now ended as members of the Committee leaned over to talk to each other and the Space Force personnel in the audience began to whisper to each other too. Howard waited. Finally the Chair said,
“I think I can speak for the Committee as a whole when I say I had no idea that we came so close to disaster. What did this victory cost us, Admiral?” Howard nodded, put down the display remote and picked up a data tablet.
“6 Sentinel class frigates were destroyed outright. 3 more are so badly damaged that they’re not worth repairing. Every other ship is seriously damaged including both cruisers but is repairable. We still don’t have a final count of killed and injured but at this point, we know of 1,876 killed, 749 injured. We also lost 47 CFPs plus their A.I. pilots as well as 8 other A.I.s, who were killed while piloting ships. In addition to that, one of the two Deep Space radars was destroyed and our base on the moon was hit by several laser blasts. We were lucky there. No one was killed, only 9 wounded and none seriously.”
“Terrible…just terrible.” said the Chair. “And how many enemy ships did we destroy or damage?”
“Our jump-capable CFPs were able to get close enough to kill 34 enemy ships using our Mark 1B attack drones armed with our new fusion warheads. We believe that was the reason why the enemy disengaged when they did. If they had stayed longer, a lot more of our CFPS would have gotten close enough to hit them. We estimate that with another 10 seconds, we could have destroyed up to 75% of them.”
“So they decided to call it quits so that they could fight another day, is that your assessment, Admiral?”
“That would be one way of describing it, yes Sir.” It was obvious to Kelly that the Admiral was uncomfortable answering that question and she knew why. The Chair must have picked up on that too. He leaned forward and said,
“I’m almost afraid to ask this, Admiral. Do you have any idea where those two enemy fleets may have gone?” Howard cleared his throat. All talking in the room stopped.
“Beta3 was lined up on the star system, which would be the logical refueling stop if its destination were the Bradley Base star system. Beta2…was lined up on the obvious refueling stop if they intended to go to the Avalon system.” The room erupted with anguished and in some cases, angry shouts. The Committee members were also in an uproar. The Chair had to bang his gavel half a dozen times to get the room back into some kind of order.
“Admiral Howard, please tell us that the Avalon Colony has some Space Force units to defend it!”
“All of the ships assigned there and the CFPs assigned there, were recalled for the defense of Earth, Sir.” The anger in the Chair’s voice was barely restrained.
“So in other words you just wrote off the 54,000 Avalon colonists just like that?” he snapped his fingers to accentuate his point. Howard reminded himself to stay calm.
“I’ll answer your question this way. When our Strategic Planning Group came to me with their assessment that there was a high probability of an attack on Earth, I had to decide on how to deploy our forces. The SPG also pointed out, and I agree with their opinion, that if we had split our forces, we’d be inviting defeat both at Avalon AND here. Given that Earth’s population is in excess of 12 billion souls, I made the decision that if I was going to be too cautious anywhere, it would be here. I regret not having enough mobile forces to protect both worlds. I don’t regret making the decision that Earth’s billions take priority over Avalon’s thousands. Did I make the wrong decision, Mr. Chair?” When the Chair didn’t say yes, his silence was clearly the same thing as no.
“Is there anything else that we should know about, that hasn’t already been brought to light, Admiral?”
“No, Sir.”
“I’m relieved to hear it. Does any member have any questions for Admiral Howard?” To everyone’s surprise, no one did.
“Very well then. I think I’d like to hear from Commander Kelly at this point. Commander, I see you sitting in the second row. Please move up and sit beside Admiral Howard so that we can see you.” When Kelly had sat down, he continued.
“Commander, as the Head of the Strategic Planning Group, did you inform Admiral Howard of a high probability attack on Earth and did you also recommend concentrating our mobile defenses here?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Is there anything we could have done differently that would have resulted in a better outcome in our opinion?”
“No, Sir. I can’t think of anything that would have made a material difference.”
“Not even keeping the light carrier Valiant here instead of sending her off to escort some freighters to Site B, Commander?” Kelly was shocked by the question. Not everyone in the room was cleared to even know that the Site B project existed. The members of the Committee knew and they also knew it was supposed to remain a highly secret project. Mentioning it now in a public forum like this was a serious breach of security. She didn’t know if she should answer that question or not. She looked at Howard. He nodded and said,
“If I may answer that question, Mr. Chair?”
“No, Admiral, you may NOT. I want Cmdr. Kelly to answer it. Well?”
“Valiant was not carrying any fi…CFPs. If she had stayed here, her lasers would have marginally shortened the time required to destroy all of the enemy projectiles but I’m as certain as I can be, that the final result would not have been any more favorable to our side and in fact, we’d have one less operational carrier than we do now. Even if she was only damaged, she’d still be out of action for weeks, perhaps even months, Sir.”
“Well that all sounds plausible but I have to ask why the Space Force’s pre-eminent combat tactician was sent off on a long mission when all of you were expecting an attack at any moment? Why wasn’t Vice-Admiral Shiloh kept here?” There’s no way to answer that truthfully without blowing our best chance of winning this war. She thought fast and came up with an answer.
“In order to answer your question, Sir, I’d have to get into classified operations that should not be discussed in public forums. I’d be happy to address the question if the Committee moves to a closed session, Sir.”
“I see. Well we may do exactly that later but for now, I’d like to speak with Iceman. Is he on the line now, Admiral?” Howard looked at one of his aides who nodded, and said,
“Yes, I believe he is, Mr. Chair. Iceman, can you hear me?”
“Yes, Admiral, I can hear you and the Committee.” Howard gestured to the Committee to proceed.
“Very good. Iceman, what is your assessment of Admiral Howard’s decision to concentrate all mobile forces, except for Valiant, here as well as his decision to make you his Field Commander?” asked the Chair.
“I think the results of the battle demonstrate quite conclusively that we needed this concentration of force in order to avoid a military disaster here on Earth. Given the nature of this war, it is, in my humble opinion, unrealistic to expect that none of our colonies will suffer any casualties. The war can be won OR lost right here in this star system. It’s imperative that it be protected at all costs. All other considerations have to be put aside. As for my assumption of the responsibilities as Commander-in-Chief, Earth Defenses, there are several other A.I.s who are marginally better tacticians than I am but no human could have reacted as fast as an A.I. and that includes Vice-Admiral Shiloh. While I have the greatest respect for the CAG, even he wouldn’t have been fast enough.”
“When you say CAG, you’re referring to Vice-Admiral Shiloh?”
“Ah, roger that. CAG is a military acronym that stands for Commander, Autonomous Group and is the senior officer on board a carrier or base in charge of fighters, which is the term we use for CFPs. Vice-Admiral Shiloh was our first CAG and we continue to refer to him that way as a call sign similar to my call sign of Iceman.”
“How touching. How do A.I.s feel about the prospect that the A.I. production facility in Epsilon Eridani is likely to be destroyed by enemy ships?”
“We’re not thrilled with that possibility but we all realize that the facility can be rebuilt but only if Humanity is not destroyed in the meantime. We are Mankind’s children and don’t want to see our parents vanish from the Universe.” The Chair looked annoyed. This line of questioning wasn’t going where he wanted it to.
“I have no more questions for Iceman now. Does anyone else...in that case, I think we should adjourn. I would ask that Admiral Howard and his senior staff remain here until we return.” With that he banged the gavel and the members filed out of the room. Howard turned to look at Kelly.
“Am I considered senior staff, Admiral?” she asked. Howard nodded, smiled and turned to look at Admiral Dietrich, who approached him from the other side. While Howard was busy with Dietrich, Kelly stepped over to the side of the room and picked up a handset which she used to put herself in contact with Iceman via the Ops Center comm. station.
“Iceman, can you hear me?”
“I hear you, Commander.”
“I have a feeling that the Committee is going to come down hard on the Old Man.”
“Ah, roger that. It’ll be race to see who comes back first, the Committee or the CAG.”
“You expect Valiant to show up any time now? Why?”
“Because in my vision, I was still aboard Undaunted. The SAR teams have recovered all of the seriously injured from all the ships and are now prioritizing recovery of the remaining personnel and A.I.s based on how damaged their ships are. I expect to be taken off Undaunted within the hour.”
“I can’t give you orders because you still outrank me, Iceman, but I think the Old Man would appreciate knowing about Valiant’s arrival as soon as possible and if the Committee’s back in session when that happens, I’d recommend getting word to him without the Committee knowing about it. Can you do that?”
“Ah, roger that. I’ll take your suggestion, Commander. I can send a text message to the Old Man’s data tablet. By the way, the Old Man asked me to monitor SAR frequencies for word about the fate of Commander Tanaka. I heard the team working on Defiant report that they’ve finally accessed what’s left of the Bridge and everyone on it, including Tanaka are dead. You can pass that on to him.”
“I’ll do that. I guess it’s a good thing that Shiloh wasn’t on Defiant during the battle.”
“Ah, roger that. This point in time seems to be a nexus of some kind. Many of us suspect that the future of Mankind will be decided over the next several hours, if it hasn’t already.” Kelly nodded.
“I agree. The A.I.s on my team suggested that something like this might develop. Any idea of what the best course of action might be?”
“Unfortunately, no. There are simply too many variables.”
“Understood. The Old Man is finished chatting and I think I’ll take this opportunity to tell him about Tanaka. Kelly clear.” When she got back to the table where Howard was sitting, she lightly touched his arm. When he turned to look at her, she leaned closer and said in a low voice.
“Iceman has told me that Tanaka and the rest of Defiant’s Bridge crew are dead. Also that he expects Valiant to arrive at any moment and when it does, he’ll notify you via your data tablet, Sir.” Howard closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He quickly opened them again and nodded.
“Thank you, Amanda.”
Nothing happened for almost half an hour. When Howard’s data tablet began to vibrate, Kelly jumped with surprised. That’s the second time I’ve been surprised today. Why am I so jumpy? Howard picked up the tablet in such as way that Kelly could also read what was on it.
[Iceman to CSO. Valiant has returned. Message from Shiloh as follows. Shiloh to Howard. I’ve had another vision which has confirmed the following. Avalon Colony will be the target of a deadly biological weapon. The entire system has to be quarantined immediately, repeat immediately. In addition, the SPG, RTC team and advanced weapons teams need to be relocated off Earth as soon as can be arranged. Humanity’s survival depends on development of the raider strategy. End of message.]
Just as Howard put the tablet down, the doors opened and the Committee started to file in. Howard looked around, saw the comm. station used earlier by Kelly and quickly walked over to it. Within a second, he was in contact with the Ops Center. With his back to the Committee he said in a low voice.
“This is Admiral Howard. As of right now and until further notice, all outgoing ships to either the Avalon Colony or the Nimitz Base are cancelled. Incoming ships and their passengers are to be held in parking orbit until I authorize other arrangements. Is all that clear...good. Howard clear.” As he put the handset down, he heard the Chair’s voice.
“You can join us any time, Admiral Howard.” When he sat back down, the Chair said.
“Glad you could find the time to join us again.” The remark was dripping with sarcasm. “This Committee is once again in session and this time it will be a closed session. I see several people, who don’t need to be here and I’m asking them to leave now. Yes, you two…thank you.” When they had left the room, he leaned forward and looked at Howard with a serious expression.
“It may interest you to know, Admiral, that the media is already touting you as the Hero of the Hour for stopping the attack cold. Just as an aside, I find it interesting that Iceman is not getting nearly as much recognition as would be the case if a human had been in charge of the defense. Given that the alien attempt to strike Earth was indeed stopped, this Committee is prepared to acknowledge that, given the circumstances, you, Iceman and the rest of Space Force did about as well as could be expected in this battle. What we are NOT ha
ppy about, is how we got to this point. As it now seems likely that we’ll suffer losses of materiel, manpower, facilities AND colonists from the follow on aspects of this latest attack, the overall impression that we have, of the course of this war so far, is that we’re LOSING, Admiral! We have given you everything that you’ve asked for and WE’RE LOSING! Can you understand why we’re unhappy about that, sir?” Howard nodded.
