The Complete Thunder Series (Thunder In The Heavens)

by Dietmar Wehr

  Mirakova took her time responding. The Psych Division’s evaluation of the psychology of the Tyrell was a little hard to believe, but it made perfect sense once one considered that the Tyrell gave their KE weapon technology to target races with enough time to exploit that technology before attacking them. The size of the Tyrell Empire was clear evidence that they had perfected the tactics that were most effective in using KE missiles. The question that she was now pondering was how would the Tyrell respond if their super-ships started dying in droves?

  “Let’s assume that the Tyrell like to fight and prefer longer battles to quick victories. That implies that war is almost a game to them, and as long as they keep winning, they have no incentive to change weapons. But what if they start losing badly? If we can build a test warhead in 21 days, I have to assume that they could build one relatively quickly too. How do we stop them from realizing how vulnerable their super-ships would become if we used large numbers of fission warheads, and then responding in kind? We don’t have hundreds of carriers to soak up their potential fission warhead production capacity. Once they switch to fission warheads, we could lose the war in a matter of weeks. And they don’t even have to use anti-matter beams, because our carriers aren’t armored nearly as much as their super-ships.”

  The sound level in the room dropped to nothing as the implications of introducing fission warhead technology was absorbed by everyone at the table. Holden looked over to some of his staff who shook their heads, signifying that they didn’t have an answer. After a few seconds, he cleared his throat and responded.

  “I admit that my staff and I hadn’t gotten that far in our thinking. My initial response to your question, Admiral, would be that if the Tyrell don’t know how their ships are being destroyed, they might not consider developing fission warheads at all or maybe not right away. If we were careful to use fission warhead missiles only in circumstances where the entire opposing enemy force could be wiped out completely, with no survivors to report what happened, and hoard most of our warheads until we can launch a massive multi-system attack simultaneously that would cripple their entire empire, then the risk of them using fission warheads against us would be minimized, I believe.”

  Mirakova nodded. She had begun thinking along those same lines while waiting for Holden’s response. There was no question at all that fission warheads needed to be tested and developed. Better to have it and maybe not need it, than risk needing it and not having it.

  “That may be the way to go; however, I want you and your staff to brainstorm other strategies and not just for our side. Game out potential Tyrell strategies too. I’ll expect a preliminary report a week from today, with a final report a week after that. In the meantime, send what you’ve got on the fission warhead to my computer as soon as this meeting is over. We’ll be pursuing the ability to field fission warheads as soon as possible. Whether we actually use them against the enemy or not will depend on risks versus potential gains, and that’s what I want to see in your follow-up reports. Is there more to cover in your briefing, Commander?”

  “No, Admiral.”

  “Fine. In that case, you are all dismissed.”

  Tyrell Home World:

  Torq left the meeting with the High Command with a profound sense of relief. High Command’s initial reaction to the results of the Battle of Metrone was negative. He had heard whispered rumors that he’d be charged with cowardice in the face of the enemy when those senior offices met for the formal review session, but after hearing his Deputy Fleet-of-Fleets Master’s account of the initial ambush attack that appeared out of nowhere with no warning at all, plus the details of the second attack, the formal review had ended with a majority voting for the neutral verdict that the battle results would be accepted without further action. That was about as good a verdict as he could have hoped for under the circumstances. But that hearing did not look at what the Tyrell Empire should do next, and that was what this session that had just finished was all about. He had explained his conviction that the entire battle had been a carefully prepared trap set up by bogus messages that were meant to be intercepted by the Tyrell. This implied that the enemy, who Torq believed was not the Metrone or more probably not just the Metrone, had learned that their own attempts at intercepting Tyrell messages had been discovered. If there were now at least two races and possibly more co-operating with each other, then the Tyrell strategy of dealing with races singly needed to be rethought. He had proposed an expanded message interception effort that didn’t rely only on the message contents, which now could not be assumed to be reliable, but also on where those messages were coming from. If the Tyrell could identify the star systems where the other co-operating races lived, then the Empire could seriously consider massive, simultaneous attacks on all enemy systems. He also requested, almost demanded, that carrier construction be expanded.

  The response, while not dismissive, was not enthusiastic. High Command had decided that more carriers would be started, although not as many as he thought should be built, and the program to retrofit standard Ships-of-Battle with at least a few short range particle beam turrets as defensive weapons would be speeded up. A follow-up attack on the Metrone system would be made with 120 Ships-of-Battle plus the carrier fleet, which would include a third carrier by the time the rest of the attack force was gathered. And while Torq would still be in command of the carriers, overall command of the entire force would be given to someone else. He had expected the loss of overall Fleet command. Given the results of the first battle of Metrone, High Command really had no choice but to take the Fleet away from him. To do otherwise would have been seen as rewarding poor performance, and he knew that could not be allowed. His pilots would have to achieve a major victory in order for him to regain the credibility that was needed to be the overall Fleet Master. While he would not want to admit it to High Command, in his own mind, wiping out the enemy carriers was now more important to the war effort than conquering the Metrone or the other conspiring races. When his pilots proved once and for all that carriers were the more effective ship type, then the Tyrell Empire would build hundreds of them and overrun whatever collection of inferior races dared to resist them.

  Chapter Seven:

  Third Fleet Flagship (Kursk):

  Harrow put down the data tablet with the last report she needed to read before calling it a night. Getting up from her desk, she walked over to her favorite comfortable chair where a cold drink was already waiting for her. It had now been almost six weeks since the Battle of Metrone, and there was still no sign of the Tyrell. Third Fleet was not only back up to full strength in terms of stingers, it now had the Saratoga with its complement of stingers and drones. And this time, Harrow had more RD2 drones as well. Intelligence reports from HQ had confirmed that the Tyrell had changed their FTL code, and that implied they were aware that someone was trying to intercept their internal communications. So now both sides knew that the other was attempting to listen in. That advantage was gone, and even though Mirakova’s planning staff were submitting proposals for new ambush scenarios, Harrow doubted that the Tyrell would fall for anything like that again. Their carrier commander was good, likely just as good as she was if she was honest with herself, although maybe not as good as Gort. If it was up to her, Gort would be Third Fleet Commander. These kinds of battles were battles of tactics, which Gort was better at, while her strength lay in strategy and grand strategy. So she would rely heavily on his advice when the Tyrell came back, and she was sure they would at some point.

  It was the middle of her night cycle when she woke up to the sound of a call from the Flag Bridge.

  “I’m awake. What’s happening,” she said.

  “One of our deep space drones has reported an intermittent reflected sunlight contact, Admiral.”

  That brought her wide awake. “Have we checked with the Metrone to see if it’s one of theirs?”

  “We’ve just sent the query but haven’t received a reply yet. The contact bearing passes through
a section of this system that isn’t used by commercial traffic either outbound or incoming.”

  Harrow nodded even though the connection was audio only and the Flag Bridge officer couldn’t see her. Third Fleet had some stingers out on defense patrols all the time. Most of the rest of the pilots would be asleep. If she ordered them woken up now and nothing came of this sighting, they would be very pissed, but if she did nothing and a second contact bearing confirmed at least one unidentified ship, then mobilizing all her stingers at that point risked letting the Tyrell commander take the initiative. Better to be safe than sorry.

  “Understood. Here’s what I want done. Wake up the Cag if he’s not already awake, and pass on my orders that all stinger pilots are to be placed on alert, and the squadrons that would normally take over the defense patrols are to man their stingers as soon as possible in case we need to launch them asap. All carriers are to go to alert status too. I also want an RD2 programmed to scan that contact bearing. The Cag can launch it as soon as it’s ready. I’ll be there shortly. Harrow out.”

  When Harrow entered the Flag Bridge, she saw that Gort was already there, standing in front of the main display with his hands on his hips in what she thought of as his gunslinger pose.

  When the FAO noticed her entrance and said, ‘Admiral’s on the Flag’, Gort turned around to face her.

  “The D2 has been launched and is already heading up the contact bearing, Admiral. Third Fleet is on alert status. I have four squadrons ready to launch at a moment’s notice, with all other pilots on alert too.” He then waited to see if she wanted to reply. When she merely nodded and stood next to him while she took a close look at the display, he waited a few seconds and then said in a lower voice, “I have a plan to suggest.”

  She allowed a small smile to cross her face. “I thought you might. Let’s hear it.”

  “If the Tyrell follow their normal pattern of behaviour, this fleet will be bigger than the last one, maybe even a lot bigger considering how long it took them to get it ready. That being the case, if my pilots divide their missiles evenly among all possible targets, we probably won’t cripple very many super-ships in the first attack unless we try something different. Last time around, we fired at them from what to them would more or less be either above or below their ships. That gave us the largest silhouette to aim at, but the missile warheads were trying to penetrate the ships at their narrowest point. With their armor weakened by our particle beams, a lot of our missiles passed right through the ships and out the other side. But if we fire at them from their rear, where most of their power plants, maneuvering engines and maybe even jump drives are located, then we’ll stand a much better chance of crippling the ships with a few hits because the KE rounds will have lots of internal space to rip through.”

  Before he could continue, she interjected. “But what about the fact that firing at them from their rear will mean a much smaller silhouette to aim at? Won’t we end up getting a lot of misses?”

  “I don’t believe so. The smaller silhouette will still emit a lot of heat energy and radiation when it’s hit by anti-tachyons. Let’s say we fire three missiles per target. Based on the test data I reviewed, we can expect to get two hits, and since the rear of those super-ships isn’t armored as much as their tops, bottoms and sides, those two hits should have even more kinetic energy left over after armor penetration and will rip deep into the target causing a lot more damage per hit than in the last battle. So even if we get less hits, we’ll still end up doing more damage.”

  Harrow’s initial impulse was to reject the idea as too risky, but then she remembered her mental note to self to take maximum advantage of Gort’s tactical insights. How could she expect to do that if she was going to filter his tactical ideas through her less competent tactical judgement?

  “Okay, I’m willing to consider that tactical approach depending on what the drone finds. Any other ideas?”

  “Not right now, Admiral. Will you excuse me while I check on my alert squadrons?”

  Harrow nodded and Eagleton left.

  Tyrell Carrier Fleet Flagship Natron:

  Torq looked at the tactical display and nodded his approval. By pushing the engineering teams to accomplish miracles, he had three carriers this time, although Sortron still wasn’t completely repaired. Her ability to carry attack craft was limited, but she could carry additional sensor drones to make up for that deficiency. All three carriers were at their designated formation positions that formed a triangle, with the rest of the fleet in the center of the triangle. The triangle itself was skewed so that one carrier was ahead and below the fleet, another was above, to the rear and off to one side, while the third was level with and off to the other side of the Fleet. That way, regardless of which direction an enemy attack might come from, only one carrier would be in the line of fire. Naturally he hoped it wouldn’t be his own flagship, but that was the risk any Fleet Master had to be prepared to take.

  As he watched the display, a shell of sensor drones moved outward in all directions. It was only the first wave of such drones that would be launched. With 123 ships each able to carry dozens of drones, this Fleet would have far better sensor coverage over a much larger volume of space than any previous Fleet, and the first wave would continue to move outward. Its mission was actually offensive rather than defensive in that it was expected to find the enemy fleet, while the other waves would maintain specific distances from the Fleet and look for incoming threats.

  “Switch to long range tactical,” ordered Torq. He wanted to see the big picture even though he could not give orders to the other 120 Ships-of-Battle. But at least the new Fleet-of-Fleets Master wasn’t a total idiot. He had listened to Torq’s ideas on carrier tactics and had actually asked several intelligent questions. He did not, however, accept Torq’s recommended tactical approach after emergence from hyper-space. The main force of ships was moving towards the Metrone planet at a moderate speed from the initial position that was further out from the Metrone sun. Torq suspected that the enemy had detected his Fleet the last time around by reflected sunlight, which meant that they might be able to do so again. If he had been in overall command, the Fleet would have emerged from hyper-space somewhere between the planet and its sun. To minimize the risk of his carriers being detected by reflected light, he had ordered them to orient themselves in such a way as to present the smallest possible reflective surface area to the sun. Now, if he were the enemy Fleet Master, where would he position his carriers? After pondering that question for a while, he used a handheld device to designate two locations on the display. Both were behind the planet in terms of its orbit. One was above this system’s ecliptic, while the other was below. Both were approximately 100 light cyclets away from the planet, close enough to send defensive forces to the planet if it was attacked but still far enough away to be able to look for reflected sunlight without the planet getting too much in the way. If he was right, the outward shell of sensor drones would be dispersed so widely by the time they got that far that there would be huge gaps in sensor coverage that an enemy fleet might slip through. He ordered another flight of sensor drones to be sent to both suspected locations. It was a long shot, but right now he had the drones to spare, so why not use them?

  Harrow’s drone found its target first. Eagleton was chatting with some of his pilots in one of the Ready Rooms when he heard the siren announcing Battle Stations.

  “Cag to Fleet Commander.”

  Cate must have been expecting his call because she answered immediately.

  “Our D2s found them, Cag, and you were right. There’s a lot more of them than last time. A hundred twenty-three to be exact. They’re heading for the planet but don’t seem to be in a hurry to get there quickly. Launch the alert squadrons and get the rest out there, Cag! Your attack from the rear plan is approved.”

  His pilots didn’t need to be ordered to man their stingers. They were already out the door before Harrow had even finished speaking. Eagleton hurried to Flight Ops wh
ere he could communicate the new tactical plan directly with all squadron leaders.

  It was just over 13 minutes later when a Tyrell sensor drone detected four large ships almost exactly where Torq guessed they might be. Within a matter of seconds, the three Tyrell carriers were spitting out waves of attack craft.

  Strike Leader Eriko Tanaga checked her stinger’s passive sensors as her force of 360 stingers swung around to match the heading of the enemy fleet from a distance of eight light-seconds behind them. With all the power that was used by maneuvering engines at the rear of those super-ships, the heat radiated from the back end was enough to be differentiated from the background. Tanaga saw 120 well-defined targets, with three ships on the edges that were less well-defined either because of a different hull configuration or internal design. Her TacComp calculated significantly reduced probability of getting missile hits on those three because of their flatter profiles. That left 120 targets with better hit probabilities, and that meant each one could be targeted by three missiles. She told TacComp to disseminate that attack plan to the rest of the squadrons. She very quickly got the ready-to-fire confirmation from all stingers and executed the fire order.